It's intriguing that you bring Chess up at this point Sam. I hadn't played Chess in over 11 years, until about 3 weeks ago when my neighbour's young sons (the Dutch ones) bugged me into playing them. Apparently they were doing quite well in Chess club at school and were looking to scorch new territory (i.e. humiliate their handy next-door neighbour who was completely rusty on the game -- namely, me.) Anyway to make a long story short, 2½ hours later I won both games, but not before the younger one tried to trash me using Queen's Gambit on the 4th move (caught that one just in time, heh).


> > Sigh... Chess is one game I do wish I was better at. . . . I basically play with maybe one or two moves ahead in my mind, which I realize is not too great. . . .

Same here. I doubt I rate even 1500. My mid-game has next to non-existent strategy and my end-game is even worse.


> every Chess book I've tried to read quickly lost my interest and thus it's unlikely that I'll improve in the near future.

There was this amazing illustrated color-photo book called The World of Chess, or something, that covered the game from its beginnings in Persia, as well as famous openings and gambits and notable players. I remember being utterly fascinated by that book back in high school.


> I think you have to have an obsession with the game to really improve beyond a certain point. You pretty much have to be pathetic.

I understand you pretty much have to dedicate your life to the game for a while. Some players have been known to tape a chessboard pattern to the ceiling over their beds so that "the game" is the last thing they consider at night and the first thing imagined in the morn.

If I was going to obsess to *that* extent, I'd take up the "surrounding stones" game of Go (or Wei-chi in Chinese).


> I'll admit it -- two nights ago, I researched some opening moves on the web, found a great one, and I couldn't get to sleep that night for the longest time, because I was going through the moves, defenses, and variations, and so forth in my mind, anxious to try it in the next day's lunchtime game. I did, won a free pawn, then didn't recover from it as I should have and lost my knight -- but then forked his rook from him. So it worked out, and now I know how to avoid losing the knight.
>
> It's not yet clear whether my sudden excitement about the game will turn out to be a genuine life interest or just a personal fad. But I'm not really given to personal fads -- those who know me I think would pretty much all agree that I take my time deciding what to pursue with my life, but once I make a decision, stick with it to the end. Plus I've always thought chess was a game I would love and eventually be good at (I *love* analytical/combinatorial stuff like this) if I let myself -- but never did, preferring to keep that time open for my other pursuits. Oh well.

Getting better at Chess is a matter of mastering pattern-recognition, I think, then coming up with the appropriate reponse for a given situation. Are you thinking of dedicating some part of Rinkworks to the game somehow?


> I've got a long way to go, but it's the journey that counts.

We can all mutually deplore our lack of prowess in this particular "sport". :-)

Wolfspirit