Romance and Chess

We Filipinos are a romantic lot. One can say, very hopelessly. Just take a look at the movie list in RP. You can bet that more than half are about some kind of love story. And I remember very well some of the old love songs from my chilhood - particularly those in my dialect, bisaya.

Forgive me dear readers but I cannot resist. This one is exclusively for my Pinoy fans. Here's a little something for you - sang by Max Surban in my collection.

Igo na day, igo na day
Basin ako ug mamatay
Igo nang pag-paantus mo
Gisakitan ki'ng dughan ko
Pagka hapdus, pagka hapdus
Dili ko na maantos

Now, for the rough translation:

Enough my dear, enough my dear
Maybe I will die
I beg you - stop torturing me
My heart is in pain
Oh the pain, the pain
I cannot endure it

Alright, that's enough. There is a point to this, in fact. Frank “Boy” Pestaño, writing for Sun Star Cebu ("Cebu" is a central province where I grew up), reminds one and all of chessers who've fallen in love. Take the story of Gufeld.

Eduard was in love with a beautiful girl and tried everything to win her heart – chocolates, flowers, letters – but nothing worked. Then one day he found out that she played chess. So, in his next letter to her, he used a few metaphors to describe his love for her.

He wrote: “You are for me the Queen on d8 and I am the pawn on d7!”

His chess metaphors won her heart and they lived happily ever after.

My God - if only it was that easy. Then maybe it is. It's like what IM Alex Wohl said: one move at a time! You just have to make sure, it's not a blunder. More from the Sun Star.