Went to The Albatross with Kev & Haile. The place was pretty cool. I liked the ambiance. They had a live band ($3 cover), $1 popcorn bowls w/ unlimited refills (the popcorn maker was inside a telephone booth!), and a bunch of beers on tap that I'd never heard of before. They also had pool, darts, and a bunch of different board games.

The place was sorta packed, so the pickings were slim for multi-player games (3+ players), so we picked up Connect 4. And made it extreme. How extreme? Three players alternating between the two colors every turn (one turn I'm playing black, then the next turn, I'm red. And repeat). It made us think 2-3 turns ahead instead of just the next turn. It sounds weird, but it was hella fun, like way more fun than we could've ever thought.

3-player Connect 4 was great success (Borat voice). So we tried to apply the same level of awesomeness to chess. Well, that didn't work out too well. It literally made Haile yak (well, mostly due to the drinking, but the brain power required to play 3-player chess didn't help). Regular 2-player chess already requires a lot of strategy & planning your next move carefully & anticipating your opponents next move. Well, when you throw in the 3rd player and the switching of the colors every turn, all that planning & strategy gets thrown out the window. It's almost impossible to plan and strategize. On top of that, Kev was a complete random wild-card: could not predict any of his moves. Simply put, 3-player chess is a complete mind f@#k. It will literally hurt your brain.

Anywho, The Albatross is awesome. It's not too far from Vallejo, and it's just a cool place to chill and drink. They're cash only, so no open tabs, but I guess that's a good thing.