Archive for the ‘Life beyond the chess board’ Category

There’s an awful lot of things I cannot do in this world, and come to think of it, there’s not much I can do either…oh this is not a good start to the post, oh dear. Well anyway, I’ll be here all day if I start thinking about all that so let’s wrap it up by admitting I can’t dance (among many other things!). If I listen to A Flock of Seagulls whilst alone, I kinda can…well there’s this jive I’ve got with the headphones in. But honestly, I can’t dance on the dance floor and I know that, it’s always been like that. But I can tell when others can and cannot dance and so I must tell you that the link below has evidence that some chess players can dance and some cannot. I don’t want to say some of the video is embarrassing because it’s great to see people expressing their happiness but with regards to the stage being set on fire, erm, that’s not the phrase I would use. It’s more likely that the person who wrote that was on drugs at the time of writing. There’s nothing like that going on, in fact there’s not really much at all going on except people dancing. Well anyway, have a look and decide yourself but if you ask me, the person who wrote that was on something…well its either that or since it’s from Chessbase India, and there’s an Indian song playing, its bias in play. In addition, fashion police must have been busy that night methinks!

Dead can Dance -well you couldn’t to their music as it was too chilled for such a thing.

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Facing the mighty Mauritius, Laos have secured a 2-2 draw. Even on board one there was a rating difference of over 700 points, and that was with the only rated player they had. It’s a very good result as they were huge underdogs. Laos: the dogs that don’t go down are climbing up the table. It might just be that they won’t finish bottom now, as was feared a few days ago. What’s next for these dogs I wonder? More dogged performances we could do with, maybe I might just give them an electronic bone for their performances. Those in their hill tribes scattered across the land might just be suitably impressed whilst they are breaking up stones or making sticks or squatting near bushes with smiley faces for reasons which cannot be ascertained, especially when belting by on your bike.

Are they interested in the Laotian chess team’s exploits?
Giving the dog a bone albeit an electronic one!

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There is a rule of thumb in play, do you know what it is? Most likely not so I shall tell you. It is: I do not write when there’s daylight, I only write when it’s dark and everyone is asleep. I have said in a previous post that neglecting parental duties isn’t acceptable and so here we are at 6am. The sun isn’t up yet and yesterday was relatively chess free.

Somehow I want to say I am suffering but I’m not neither am I in pain. Somehow I want to reflect on misadventure in Laos but I can’t let myself do that. It’s undignifying for a start, and didn’t we have enough of that last night and haven’t we heard enough about Laos of late? This morning my mood is clearer, I’m not sombre or saddened by anything at all and it just so happens that I put a little masterpiece on here before this post.

Admittedly, I have said something is slightly wrong and here we are again. I am talking to someone but I don’t know who and I cannot tell if they listen or not. Is this just loneliness I wonder? I’m not feeling it or anything else right now except contentment but I am a loner and maybe I do it more than I realise. It’s strange to say the least because I do not write to be read.

I think I shall lie down and just look into the gloom. My child is beside me. I am so attached to her woe betide any fool who tries harming her. I will lie down and remain alert in the gloom. It’s unclear to me what my purpose is here. Yes I love to write and of late I have conflated my abilities. I was doing this last month and once more, with intense scrutiny I do sense loneliness, and with it the loss of interlocutors.

I will lie down and remain clear-minded. All is okay.

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Today’s play is facing a delay. In the city of Chennai, an escaped giant tortoise has been seen entering the playing hall. Big operation there. Once they’ve caught up with it, however long that takes, how are they gonna lift it out of there? Could be a tough one this.

They once had an escaped parrot in the Soviet Championships but I’m guessing the olympiad guys would opt for a giant tortoise over a parrot if it were put to the vote, so maybe the arbiters will just leave it be, unworried about concentration levels being disturbed by squawking, and blunders being made because of it. If we did have an escaped parrot this time, or any other noisy bird disturbing games and making players lose what we most likely will get is, if they couldn’t catch it, Grand masters going on the rampage and trying to burn the place down to get rid of it. And we don’t want a scenario where Grand masters are colluding and committing arson, aided and abetted by IM’s and FM’s in the middle of an event -that’s just unacceptable, so since tortoises are quiet and move slowly, they are easily managed and the arbiters will probably just leave it be, well that’s my take on it.

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You are playing blitz down your local club but as you play the moves aren’t coming into your head. Instead you get lottery numbers then these urges to go out and place bets come.

Would you resign your game and go home or would you leave the club and get some lottery tickets OR would you quit chess altogether, change your identity, buy a plane ticket and start a new life somewhere else. OR would you get a pint of cider at the bar and forget all about it?

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July 20th is International Chess Day, and so here is a take on why that is significant.

https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-chess-day

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Click on the following link and see if you can make sense of it. I couldn’t.

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Technically, I am on my summer vacation break, which means I sit around doing nothing a lot. Well too much actually because now I am going to bed bored and not tired at all, and so for the 5th time in about 10 days, I have lost a night’s sleep.

It’s 06.29am. I just played three or four games against players around the 2000 mark on Lichess and won at least one of them. How do I do it? Shouldn’t I be sleeping? Well yes but it seems as though my sleep pattern has shifted to one more irregular. I shall stop here and play another game. Not time for bed yet. When that time will come -that I don’t know so on we go… .

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