Musings on chess, and lesser things
There was a time when chess only made an appearance in the movies if the director felt the need to add some intellect and cunning to his evil villain’s persona. The recent Bond baddie in Casino Royals is a typical example, and the John Travolta/Jonathan Rhys-Meyers action flick From Paris With Love doesn’t do much …
I got a rare chance during my Australian return to visit my old chess club, Club Bullwinkle. Perhaps better described as a creatively Bohemian community than a chess club, Bullwinkle is known for its energy, spontaneity and perhaps above all else, its often completely chess-free club meetings. Started by a bunch of students from the …
Dear Karma, Thank you for your recent visit – it was a pleasure, as always. It had been a while between meetings; if I recall correctly, the last time we spent some quality time together was in Buenos Aires, where you kindly brought round a pickpocketing, attempted mugging and flight-cancelling volcanic ash cloud all …
I’ve been offline for a while, thanks largely to: (a) The deaths of both of my computers (well, one remains in Computer Hospital); and (b) Concerted efforts to survive the coldest Dutch winter in twenty years. To be honest, the time away from my number one vice (Facebook) and indeed internet distractions in general has …
I’m not really in the habit of plugging chess books, nor authors. But I’m going to make an exception for Victor Moskalenko, well-known author of The Flexible French and most recently Revolutionise Your Chess. With no time to study chess (and even less time to remember my old theory), it was time for me to …
Ah, the New Year. That magical time of the year when, amazingly, every man and his dog, filled with hope and promise, resolves to change, revamp and improve every aspect of life over the next twelve months. And then promptly gives up by the first weekend. In recent years, however, I’ve started taking this whole …
I was completely shocked yesterday by the news of the passing of one of my oldest friends. Kieron and I met at our high school (‘Churchie’) back when we were 14, playing chess together not just in the interschool competitions, but nationally and internationally as well. His death is untimely and truly tragic. Kieron was …
Recently, I was lucky enough to get a brief excursion out of Amsterdam for a weekend, as the Utrecht team and I trekked to the most northern part of the country for our monthly league match. We were to face Groningen, a small student town that once boasted one of the most feared chess teams …
Ah, now this is the way chess should be. On Saturday I was recruited to play in the annual regional blitz championships, playing board one for Utrecht. The event is basically a grudge match among the best of the Netherlands league teams from the union, and the day contains plenty of well-meaning ribbing and a …
After a usual day of class at Tinbergen, I’m exhausted. Not physically, of course, but that part of my brain that calculates anything is completely spent. This means that I basically haven’t picked up a chess book in a couple of months. So you can imagine that after the exam week just passed, I was …