I hold it true, whate’er I befall;
I feel it when, I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
Tennyson, In Memorium 27
Old Heraclitus once said ‘You can never step into the same river twice for it’s not the same river and it’s not the same man’. When I bought and read IM Littlewood’s publication ‘Chess Tactics’, I did so voraciously at school; therefore, I was a mere teen and not a man. That book was one of many my small school bag was stuffed with, often read in T. D. (Technical Drawing), on the bus too, and wherever else whilst uniformed. How would it read upon rediscovery some 37 years on?
The cover was green, now it’s orange. The song does not remain the same. It’s a book for beginners and I don’t recall any of the puzzles, just that I found it challenging… .
Why does the song not remain the same? The reasons are multifarious, primarily however, reading it is of no benefit anymore thus of no interest: it retains a certain sentimental value, perhaps, but no more really… except that it may be helpful if teaching chess… .
Type O’ Negative have a song called ‘Everything Dies’. In death I will now become known as one who once read Littlewood’s ‘Chess Tactics’…what else have I got to hope for?
O heart, how fares it with thee now,
That thou should’st fail from thy desire,
Who scarcely darest to inquire,
‘What is it makes me beat so low?’
Something it is which thou hast lost,
Some pleasure from thine early years.
Break, thou deep vase of chilling tears,
That grief hath shaken into frost!
Tennyson, In Memorium 3
M J M
McCreadyandChess 
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