Meeting other bloggers.

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Internet promotes definitively the contact between people.
It was fun to meet two of my fellow bloggers in real lately, Polly and CMOB. Polly conformed remarkably well to the stereotype I had in mind of American women who in my prejudice always carry around a camera and taking pictures all the time while speaking with a slow nasal accent. CMOB is a silent guy who has some nervous energy hanging around him. As I already expected on basis of our blogs, we all three had clearly very little in common besides chess. Nevertheless it was quite enjoyable and we had enough to talk about. We met at hotel Krasnapolsky in Amsterdam where a tournament was going on. We looked at the games and we talked about chess. After some time we decided to go to "chesscafe" Batavia and play a few games.
I played a Polar Bear against Polly. What can I say about her playing style? She blundered alot during her games. I wondered why. I guess it is a habit of her to don't evaluate the moves of her opponent. I sensed some mental laziness behind that (sorry, Polly). She probably would do much better if she strives to overcome that. CMOB has clearly improved alot over the past years and impressed me with a good feel for tactical opportunities. If he can force himself to absorb some positional knowledge he will have a bright future in chess.
For some reason CMOB insisted to buy all the drinks. Since I always hate it to bargain over such things I accepted without much resistance. Usually that's the fastest way to inspire reconsideration of irrational behaviour:)
CMOB, if I can ever buy you a drink. . .

CMOB remembered an appointment and Polly and I went for a dinner in some Indian restaurant. She is very nice and it was a relaxed evening.
Until we decided to fetch the underground in order to visit another chesscafe, that is. The metro in Amsterdam had just adopted a new ticketsystem which was clearly still in its infancy. Most vending machines were out of order. By talking to the officials I could get Polly into the metro but since there weren't any officials when we arrived we had to fool the gate by staying close together while walking out.

The problems with the underground took so much time that it was too late to go to the next chesscafe and I brought her home through heavy weather.
All in all a quite enjoyable experience.