Musings on chess, and lesser things
Posts on chess
My hearty congratulations on a fantastic effort by you all in the quiz. Some very good answer sheets, some very humourous guesses, and some very bizarre Haikus. Well done to you all. The deadline has passed, submissions have closed, and I’ll get marking as soon as possible. It would appear that my attempts to produce a …
There’s been a cracking interest in the Quiz, which is surprising. From most of the reports I’ve gotten, it seems my questions were unfortunately very much ‘Google-able’. A shame. However, some of the questions at least (such as the herb on my balcony) seem to have been particularly tricky. I have no regrets. Kudos to …
Addendum: It turns out that Question 30 was based on a popular Pulp Fiction myth. There are, in fact, at least three different times recorded on clocks in the movie. Bugger. So, here’s a replacement question for you: Question 30: For what purpose did the Roman Emperor Nero’s wife allegedly keep 500 donkeys?
Ok guys, here it is: the IMPOSSIBLE CHRISTMAS QUIZ. Thirty-two questions of pure, unadulterated festive joy. You’ve got just over two weeks to get your answers in – email your solutions to by midnight, Sunday 19th December, and I’ll give out the solutions (and prizes!) the following week. Use the comments section below to discuss, …
People say that Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ birth. But most scholars believe that the story that Jesus was born on December 25 is pretty much impossible. In the true spirit of the season, then, I will unleash tomorrow the “Impossible Christmas Quiz”. The questions are going to be, quite frankly, ridiculous. The quiz itself is …
So I have to once again apologise for a delay in posting. I’ve been flat out over the past fortnight (well, last couple of months really), putting in the hard yards and late nights in search of postgraduate scholarships. My plan to take behavioural economics to infinity and beyond is slowly coming to fruition, and …
So I managed to survive my first commentary experience, which probably contained far more koala references than the chessFM listeners are used to. It was a bit of a test of endurance, coming home from work to commentate for seven hours straight, but quite frankly it felt more like a party than a job. And …
It’s 6am, but the guy on the other end of Skype is even more tired than I am – the voice I’m hearing for the first time belongs to a man coming to the end of a 14-hour shift in Italy. He’s a technician for the Internet Chess Club, and I’m doing a quick training …
It’s taken me a while to get to this final Olympiad wrap – readjusting to work, GMT+10 and general life outside of the tournament hall has been difficult. But don’t think I’ve forgotten to report back about the Olympiad’s “Tournament B”. ‘Tournament B’, like ‘Queenside-castling’, is another of those unofficial slang chess phrases. It’s used to …
Now that the 39th World Chess Olympiad has finally come to a close, it’s time to take stock and give a bit of a review of the tournament, the performances, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Necessarily, and conveniently for this website’s readership demographic, this will be divided into both chess and non-chess components. …