Weekends are almost always normal work days for me, despite this, every weekend I find time to force myself to do something different, something that distracts me and at the same time makes me a better and more prepared individual at a general level.
Today I played chess
As part of the relaxation that I was telling you about, this Saturday I decided to play chess; To do this, I put my giant chess board on the dining room table of my house and set out to analyze a couple of games. I analyzed one of Bobby Fischer against Boris Spassky; the opening used was the accepted King's gambit; a game that Fischer lost against Spassky, years before the American dethroned the Russian.
Also, I analyzed a game that I myself played and won against a friend (a good level amateur) some years ago. In that game I also used the King's Gambit as an opening, and it ended up being the King's Gambit Accepted, Gambit Muzio. I certainly enjoyed analyzing this game as much as I enjoyed playing it on its moment.
The truth is that I wish I had more time to play chess, since it is one of my passions. A few years ago I played chess regularly and maintained a high level, as a result of which I was left with a large collection of books by Grand Masters and World Champions, which I put together at the time. In fact, I have books written by Lasker (2nd world champion), Capablanca (3rd world champion), Alekhine (4th world champion), Petrosian (9th world champion), Fischer (11th world champion), Karpov (12th world champion) and Kasparov (13th world champion). I also have books written by Grand Master Keres, Pachmann, Chernev, and many others.
As you can see, my collection of chess books is quite extensive, but due to my work and daily activities, there is little or no time that I currently find to relax by playing chess, plus I hardly find any friends to play lately, therefore when I play, I have to play against the chess program on my computer or against the chess app on my cell phone. And a third option is the one I used today, which is to start analyzing Grandmaster chess games and also some other good games played by me some years ago against amateurs like me.
To those who wonder
For those wondering why my board and chess pieces are giant and not normal sized, the answer is that I used to have a normal sized chess board and this one that is giant, but a few years ago (in 2018) it I gave it my normal sized chessboard to the daughter of a cousin of mine, who liked the game. So that's the explanation.
What i could notice
What I could notice in my level of play with these games that I analyzed, is that I have lost calculation speed, something quite normal when you spend so much time without playing, that is why I want to resume my constant practice of chess, and not because I think that I can join in playing it at the level of sports competitions (as I used to do in the past), but as an exercise in mental health and distraction.
Did you know that playing chess is good for fighting Alzheimer's? Well, it's another reason I have to play it again, don't you think? Until next time!