Wednesday, January 17, 2007

The Lighter Side of Chess

I received an intriguing email from Argentina recently, headlined Tourist Chess in Buenos Aires. While I'm sure they are well-intentioned, the tour organizers should perhaps hire someone who speaks English to communicate with the Anglo world, instead of using an web translation program...to wit:

PLAY THE CHESS AND ENJOY OF BUENOS AIRES, THE PARIS OF SOUTH AMERICA, CAPITAL WORLD-WIDE OF THE TANGO.

LAND OF MARADONA, GARDEL, FANGIO, VILAS, GINOBILI, BATISTUTA, NAJDORF, AVOIDS, PERĂ“N, “CHE ” GUEVARA, ETC.

COSMOPOLITAN CITY IN WHERE MANY EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS HAVE SETTLED DOWN THEMSELVES, IN ITS MAJORITY SPANISH AND ITALIAN.

CAPITAL OF ARGENTINA, WELL-KNOWN WORLD-WIDE BY THE TANGO, SOCCER, THE MATE, MILK CANDY, THE BEST ONE ROASTED OF MEAT OF COW AND GORGEOUS WOMEN.

I've always wanted to visit Buenos Aires, "The Paris of South America," especially for the Tango and the best one roasted meat of cow and gorgeous women. I don't know who "Avoids" is, though. And should they really be boasting about Peron and "Che"Guevara?

If I ever do get to the Buenos Aires Chess Club, I'll make sure to have some milk candy while I apply THE MATE.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Robert! I don't know who 'Avoids' is, but I have heard of 'Vilas' as in Guillermo Vilas, the famous Tennis star from about 20 years ago. He was good, but if I recollect correctly, he was also one of many that couldn't get by Ivan Lendl who was #1 for a long time. Of course, we're all familiar with Misha 'Miguel' Najdorf. Eric

Unknown said...

Hi Robert, sorry about that. Wrong era. Jimmy Connors was #1 and I was right about 'Vilas' never getting to that top spot. He was, however, #2 for a short space of time. Ilie Nastase was one of his contemporaries. David and I play Tennis, he might know more. Besides Martial Arts, Tennis was my game after Baseball. Eric

Robert Pearson said...

Sure Eric, I remember Vilas. I don't know who 'Batistuta' is either!