Playing against Garry Kasparov
I was thinking about the 2022 Camino de Santiago and how easy it was (okay, there have been bad days). The light backpack, the route a well-trodden path just outside an urban center, the shower always available at the end of the day, a hot – and often very tasty – meal chosen from an extensive menu. Sometimes we slept in big rooms that not even at the shabbiest oratory youth camp you would get. Overall, it was like playing a chess game against a beginner (like me).
It’s only been three days that I’ve been walking this trail, one of the three most celebrated in the entire United States, and it’s just a whole other league: other distances, other difficulties, truly pristine environment where you can walk miles without encountering something that belongs to humans. And it’s like playing a game against Kasparov.
