Chess, "Football" & Spanish
Soccer for a more American audience
It has been a while since I have written anything. Over the last couple months, I had to learn the hard way that seeking jobs through open postings on LinkedIn is largely a dead end. I started with the laziest tactic of all, “Easy Apply” which is the equivalent of putting your resume in a stack of 2,000. This was clearly not going to work, so I moved onto writing cover letters and looking for jobs on various job posting sites other than LinkedIn. I had a couple interviews that didn’t end up resulting in jobs, the interviewers may have smelled the desperation on me like a spiky-haired, cologne-scented dude drinking his fourth Jack and Coke. The steady stream of rejections that I keep receiving from the 100+ jobs which I have applied to has worn on my self-esteem. I have since learned that there are other ways to get a job that should be less detrimental to my sanity that I will explore in the weeks to come. I let these rejections get to me which has been a huge part of the reason why I haven’t been writing. Only very recently have I realized that I have made improvements in several parts of my life and becoming more successful as a tutor throughout the whole process has allowed me to elude the financial stress that could have come with a period of underemployment.
Chess and football (soccer) have been constants in my life during my time as a job-seeking tutor. I am part of a regular game of football on Saturdays with a group of 10-20 guys from diverse backgrounds. Most of our group is Venezuelan or British with a few Americans, Ecuadorians and Argentinians sprinkled in. We speak “Spanglish” and play games of 10 minutes or the first to two goals on a fenced-in field on a rooftop. When I joined the group, I felt shy and like the worst player on the field at all times. After playing regularly and fighting a desire to give up due to my incompetence, I am proudly no longer the worst player (or at least I have started to not feel like the worst player). I thank the group for being encouraging and forgiving even when I make mistakes allowing me to feel more confident in myself.This game has become something to look forward to each week as I am growing closer with the other players and improving as a player.
Chess started as an object of envy. When I was living in Santa Cruz, one of my favorite activities was to walk to the plaza where the cathedral was located. Everytime I went, I wished that I had the competency to play chess with an old “camba” (term for someone from the eastern part of Bolivia). The 10+ stone chess tables encircling the central plaza are often occupied by men in their 60’s or 70’s betting a one Boliviano coffee on the game. I was jealous of my friends who knew enough chess and Spanish to challenge one of these guys. Sitting down to play in the park was a constant dream of mine while living in Santa Cruz. Having a vehicle to connect with someone that I seemingly shared very little in common with was and is very appealing to me.
About a year ago, I stopped wishing that I knew how to play and started playing regularly on my phone. I spent a whole lot of time convinced that I was involved in a better activity than scrolling through social media, but I was really just mindlessly moving pieces around under the guise of learning a skill. After making some friends in Buenos Aires that also had this shared “interest”, I became motivated to get better and to beat my friends in person. Around the same time, William was visiting and suggested that I start watching a YouTube series created by Daniel Naroditsky (Chess Grandmaster) that explains his moves and how to play openings. I am still watching his videos and making a concerted effort to play games less often and with far more thought. As I move up the rankings, it now feels like I am developing a skill and, like football, not an embarrassment to play with.
Another skill I am investing time in is Spanish. I have been living in Latin America now for almost two years, but, in classic American fashion, I am still not fluent in Spanish. I got fed up with my ability (or lack thereof) and decided to start an intensive 20 hour a week course for four weeks. I am in my second week and enjoying the added social time and structure that it has provided to my day. I also have noticed that I spend far more time thinking about Spanish and listening to conversations of others to try to pick up words or phrases. I still have a long road to fluency, but, as long as I am a little better at speaking to Luciana’s mom each time I see her, I am on the right track. During my first week of class, almost all of us expressed our own interest in playing chess and one of my classmates joined our Saturday football game, a microcosm of the ability for chess and football to be near universal connectors.
As I try to learn a second language and access the ability to communicate with nearly half a billion people, I realized that football and chess were also giving me the ability to communicate with the world. In Morocco, Bolivia, and, now, Argentina, for stretches of time I have played football weekly and found fast friends from all over. It is easy to share a laugh, frustration, or celebration on the field even with those that I can’t communicate with through language. My teammates and opponents all started as strangers and now we have some shared part of life together. We give each other something by being able to be present and agree to play for a little while each week. With chess, I hope to connect with more people in the same way. I am playing with some regularity with a couple of close friends and have used it as an excuse to get together as men for an afternoon hang out in the park.
I think I may have to write more about how sports exist in America. It was quite the disappointment that, after I graduated high school, there was no real way to continue playing American football unless I became a collegiate athlete which could have only lasted an additional 4 years (probably neither something that I wanted nor a possibility r). Many of my classmates cried as we finished our last game because they knew we would never be able to play our sport again. The difference in the number of people who start playing American football as children vs those still playing with regularity in their 20’s, 30’s or 40’s is massive. Whereas the difference between those playing football as kids vs adults globally is far smaller. In fact, some of the same septuagenarians playing chess in the plaza in Santa Cruz are likely still playing football with childhood friends. Not only do we have to give up something that many of us grow to love at such a young age, we lose the opportunity to develop ourselves in the game and to share time together while playing it.
Disclaimer: I don’t know what name to use when talking about what is called “soccer” in the US. I am only ever talking to non-Americans about my Saturday games, so I have started to use the term “football.” However, this causes some confusion as a listener may think I am referring to “American football.” Calling it soccer also elicits comments about the naming discrepancy with a similar frequency to the aforementioned confusion… Plagued by my American-ness yet again.
Real men play chess. Danya is a good source. Let me know when you've surpassed three digit chess.