chess

"Think of chess," in his early days around the capital, looking for a comparison that Russians might take to, chess, "an extravagant game of chess." Going on to show, if his audience was receptive (he had salesman reflexes, knew to steer automatically along lines of least indifference) how each molecule had so many possibilities open to it, possibilities for bonding, bonds of different strengths, from carbon the most versatile, the queen, "the Great Catherine of the periodic table," down to the little hydrogens numerous and single-moving as pawns . . . . and the brute opposition of the chessboard yielding, in this chemical game, to dance-figures in three dimensions, "four, if you like," and a radically different idea of what winning and losing meant. . . . Schwärmerei, his colleagues back home had muttered, finding excuses to drift away into other conversations. But Tchitcherine would have stayed. Foolish and romantic, he would have kept listenin

I play 5 minute blitz games mostly, on my phone. I play the occasional 10 minutes rapid game on my computer. Just to change it up. I've been doing the daily puzzle more often, and I've been playing 7 day games, to think more about my moves. I'm trying to challenge myself. I lose more when I get out of my comfort zone.  I realized that I play to push off complications onto my opponent, and that doesn’t work with longer games. I like the lack of contemplation in speed games. There are too much complexity in the middle game. It did lead me to new openings and new awards. Some awards are participation awards.

There's that pause when my opponent realizes I took their queen. It really is a good strategy not to get the queen out early, least of all that if you make a mistake the, the cost is less. You put the least valuable players out first. You put pawns to try and get bishops and knights. Development is an important idea, getting locked in is really dangerous. I've had a lot of good checkmates, against me, where I was bottled in out of defensiveness.  There's also balance between being defensive and offensive. I've had some spectacular fun wins being really aggressive. That's a fun game, but a good player can defend themselves well enough to take advantage of aggressive play. Same with defense. Just clearing the back line so you can castle isn't a bad goal, but there's a hierarchy of goals. Sometimes there is no good move, so you make the least bad one. Notice when you're in a loop. You have to value every move, the more efficient player usually wins.   If yo

So on Chess.com you can do leagues, where you just get points for every win (9 for 5 minute games (Blitz), 15 points for Rapid (10 Min). 3 minute Bullet were always too fast for me (you get 3 points).  It's a fairly crude tournament, you can just grind yourself to a win. But it makes you play a lot of chess, and focus on winning because you don't get points when you lose. I don't like to quit when I get behind but I'm more and more inclined to give up, despite spectacular comebacks. Sometimes it's too dire. Sometimes it's sweet relief to get checkmated, to play someone who has that quick killer instinct.  Sometimes in games I imagine both of us have our hands around each other's necks, choking each other, who's going to pass out first?  Playing a lot has improved my ranking, I got it up to 800, which is nothing, I know, but it's something to me because I live in the 700's. I think my highest ranking is 908 when I won my first game. You start out

  Copyright 1956 and 1957. I skimmed the Wikipedia profile of Fred Reinfeld . He wrote 118 books! Not all on chess, but still.  I've filched a few books from my father, but every time I open this one, I don't like the first opening and I close it. I've laid a lot of books in for the long cold winter, but that habit has me getting rid of a lot of books I'll never read. My chess book library is pretty weak, this might be it. I used to buy a lot of books, but now I get them from the library. The notation is difficult, they don't do the A-H, 1-8, they have the comberson QB4 instead of C4. Honestly that really put me off.  In a way, I like it that this book is so old and falling apart. I never really understood why paperbacks were not as permanent, but they're really quite poor books over a lifespan. I love it that the book is $1.50 new.  This book is sold used at $18.99 on Amazon. Only one option.  Links: Ding sets world title landmark and is ‘ready to take on Carls

My best friend and I played 5 minute speed chess for hours and hours. I love playing chess.  My father taught me. I remember copying his every move, and then when he took my queen he said, "stupid." That stung, but it was stupid, I'm less afraid of that word now at my age. I'm going to be 56 soon, and I've enjoyed chess my whole life.  Played chess when I did a year abroad at a university chess club, and got excited when I won a game. I had some glorious comeback wins, down two pieces to come back and win. I like my fight.  Got my friend a book that explained why premature queen development wasn't good. I was looking for it on my bookshelf, he gave it back to me when he konmaried his books. I can't find it at the moment, maybe I konmaried it or gave it to my son. I have 3 children and only one likes to play chess.  As a chess tutored, I just play and think aloud with kids. I taught chess at a Yeshiva after school program to kids. Forgot about that, that w