Ajedrez

It was a gamble. A casual inquiry of the waiter in the yuppie café where I ordered chilaquiles for breakfast informed me that yes, the chess board in the bookcase was used, but infrequently and that he was the only one he knew of in town that played. OK, how about a game sometime then? Sure! My day off is Tuesday when the café is closed. The central plaza? Fine I say, I’ll check the plaza Tuesday. So I arrive at the plaza with no fixed time for our encounter but figure 10 am might fit the bill. I have time to eat pan fresco and jugo de mango and even then an hour later no sign yet of my prospective opponent. 4 pm when the heat of the day is dissipating? I go to Barra de Navidad for a swim in the surf and come back to Melaque and its plaza by way of the beach. It is a 70 minute walk, made longer by the sinking feeling in the sand with each step. I find an appropriate exit to town from the beach and pass a wag-a-tail Lab and its owner intent on some electronic device. At the plaza an hour long wait is no more productive than the morning so without giving up I reckon lets eat, and maybe when the town is out wandering around at dusk Luis might show. But as I am leaving I hear a salutation and run into the fellow and his dog from the beach. Luis! I had passed within metres of him but not recognized him. He has to drop his dog off and collect the board and pieces. Back in an hour and a half. We face off. So my record of playing chess in Latin America (Cuba, Morelia and Melaque) in pick up games is now 6-0. Not bad, a good streak. What is most interesting this time was getting to know Luis. He is from Guadalajara, had married then divorced and so came to the coast where he bought a house. Two years later his property was expropriated by the federal government and he lost everything – without compensation! Even in Mexico. There is a court case but it probably will gain little. Now a brand new resort is going up on the prime beach front, all be it in a rural area, he had once called his own.