Monday, May 28, 2007

60.º aniversario del club de ajedrez "Casino-Jaque"

I should mention that it's the sixtieth anniversary of the foundation of the club I play for in Huesca. The Jaque ("check") club was founded in 1947 and - if I am reading the programme correctly - in 1977 finally established itself in its current premises in the Casino, hence the name Casino-Jaque. (The Casino, by the way, rather than being a gambling den owned by the friends of Tessa Jowell, is a large establishment where functions are held and where old men come to play the popular card game, Guiñote.)

Unfortunately I won't be able to play in the match arranged to mark the occasion (against the Gros Xake Taldea team from San Sebastian) and I have already avoided the commemorative dinner on the grounds that I don't like social occasions, but I hope to make some of the other events that have been arranged. These include exhibitions of chess-related stamps and of photographs from the club's history, as well as showings of various films: the cartoons Geri's Game and Chess Nuts as well as Searching For Bobby Fischer, The Luzhin Defence and the ubiquitous Chess Fever.

Then on for another sixty years, by which time I shall be older than Alec Holden is now. Congratulations, Casino-Jaque.

2 comments:

Chris Morgan said...

Has anyone seen that film the 'Luzhin Defence'? I like the actor John Turturro who I think plays the lead, so I would be interested to see it.

ejh said...

I've not seen it, but as they'll almost certainly be showing a dubbed version (subtitles are rare here) I won't be bothering - my Spanish is still very far from being up to it.

I am distressed to see (I went last night) that the photographic exhibition, in the section on "current players", there's a genuinely bad photo of me, even worse than this one.