Musings on chess, and lesser things
Check out this new YouTube channel by a mate of mine, “The Best Chess Puzzles”. Each one is quick and pretty, and uses subtitled commentary instead of audio so that you can sneakily watch them at work. Recently, he posted a vid of one of my favourite chess puzzles ever:
Worth a cheeky look!
I’ve had a reasonable start to my German chess league (“Schachbundesliga”), although not as impressive as my team as a whole. Werder Bremen (the mighty Green-and-White) currently sits equal first on the ladder with the behemoth Baden-Baden on 100%. For some reason, perhaps because of the novelty of being Australian, I got a small write-up in the …
The build-up for the world championship rematch is reaching fever point. Magnus Carlsen, the undisputed world number one, and reigning classical (as well as blitz and rapid, by the way) world champion. Vishy Anand, the three-times champion, coming off the back of his best six months of tournament chess in several years. Magnus, the young, hip, …
When you’re a kid playing chess in Australia, you hear these stories about this magical, mystical place called ‘Europe’. A place where some people’s houses are older than the first Australian colonies, where soccer is actually considered a real sport, and where chess players can frolic freely from country to country, from tournament to tournament, …
My friend recently showed me the latest edition of the New in Chess magazine. The Olympiad edition. In it is several articles that are highly critical of the Norwegian organisation of the event, and particularly the ‘horrific’ playing venue and ‘appalling’ accommodation conditions. This echoes a couple of other high-profile Olympiad reports that have been floating …
A reader asked me about my first attempt at a juice fast, which I mentioned in relation to an upcoming repeat as part of my anti-midlife-crisis. I dug up a Facebook post I wrote about it in 2007, after the second day of the fast. Unfortunately, the fast, which I did with Manuel Weeks, only lasted …
As I rapidly approach – *gasp!* – thirty, it appears I’ve been going through some sort of premature midlife crisis. I’ve been aggressively travelling to new countries (three this Summer), flirting with various new hobbies and pursuits, will soon embark to improve on my shameful attempt at a juice fast…and, recently, I got contact lenses. “What?!”, …
The following is more of a diary entry of my thoughts about the Australian team’s performance. If you have no interest in Australia’s performance at the Olympiad, or the Olympiad, or chess, or my writing in general…Well, there are some photos at the bottom. Australian Olympiad Debrief Well, another Olympiad done and dusted. But this time, Australia …
A lot’s happened, and I’ve been neglecting my updates. I guess that just means plenty of post-Tromsoø updates. For now, here are the cliff notes: Australia is having an awesome Olympiad. Unfortunately, in tomorrow’s final round we have a very tough pairing: Germany. On the other hand, an upset win would I believe give us …