For The Love Of It

I was fortunate enough to pick up a copy of Chess for the Love of It by ARB Thomas in a second hand bookshop. Thomas was an amateur player, but a good quality amateur. He beat Rubinstein in 1924, Guimard and Najdorf in 1937, Tartakower in 1951 as well as draws with Reti, Unzicker and Euwe!

These games are all in the book, but there is much more. Thomas writes of the chess world fondly. It is not just the moves and games that have meaning for him. For instance, he had 2 outstanding memories from his first Hastings Premier in 1937. One of those was watching his idol, Keres, playing blitz. The other was Alekhine's appearance at the event as a spectator. Alekhine had just regained his World title and brought with him a cake that he'd been given after the World Championship. Thomas fondly remembers Alekhine dividing the cake and sharing it among the competitors at the 1937 Hastings Premier.

The only issue with this beautiful little read is that the games are published in the old descriptive notation. Of course, I started playing using the old descriptive notation so it isn't too hard for me, but the younger generation might find it harder. Then again, working through these older books will do great things for your chess if you have to go through things slowly.

Anyway, in the introduction Thomas gives a nice little game from the 1971 British Counties Correspondence Championship. The 20 move game is nice, but Thomas leaves the reader to work out the 'mate in, at most, 9 moves' for themselves. So I'll leave it for you and give the answer in my next blog post.

White to play and mate in 9 at most. Answers in descriptive notation please!

Wednesday on the Go

If this blog post comes out somewhat broken up today, it's because I'm writing as and when I can. A typical day for me involves going to a school at 8.00 am and running a class until 9.00 am. I then have a break till lunch time, but have to drive somewhere else, and then drive somewhere else for later classes, and then drive to our centre for evening classes. Wednesday is particularly mobile. The good thing is that I get the chance to see lots of Melbourne, and lots of cafes.

I'm currently sat in the Armstrong Street Foodstore where my first coffee of the day has been brought to me. I'm trying to cut down on the coffee I have, but I'll still have one or two a day. My preference is for a long black, which is like an Americano for those of you not in Australia, but I'll occasionally have an espresso. I like to spend 20-30 minutes of the day in a cafe, leaving the real world and getting lost in a book. I'm currently reading the Booker Prize longlisted "Hystopia" by David Means. I have to say that I struggled to get into the novel to begin with, but I'm so glad I did. It has become absolutely electrifying, with beautiful writing describing both the brutality and beauty that runs through the book. So that's where I'm off to now. I'll write more later....

...from the seafront near St Kilda and Middle Park, my next job takes me inland to Camberwell. Much like St Kilda, Camberwell has no shortage of places to grab a coffee. I'm currently sitting in Cattivo, which has a great range of food including plenty of vegetarian options. In fact, it's a shame I'm not hungry, because all the food looks delicious, especially the eggplant parmigiana. The coffee is smooth and mild flavoured with a slightly chocolate after taste. It is not as thick as I like, but it is still a good coffee.

There is just a week and a half left before I travel to Singapore with Caroline for a week holiday, and my thoughts are beginning to go there. I'm even following Singapore's fortunes at the Chess Olympiad (and Hong Kong for that matter!). Like many, my only experience of Singapore has been Changi airport, which is quite amazing in itself. Coming form the UK, short breaks to south east Asia are a luxury I'd never have dreamed of before moving to Australia. Now it seems like a short hop! I really don't know what to expect from Singapore, and am excited to be staying there. It seems a hotch-potch of cultures, Chinese, Indian, colonial British, Malay etc. The next week and a half I'll be open to suggestions as to what to do in Singapore from anyone that's been there.

I've moved east again and picked up a roll from my favourite bakery in Mitcham. The ladies in the bakery struggle with spoken English, so it's always fun trying to order something with misunderstandings going both ways. The best was when i asked for an egg and salad roll, and was made a hot pork roll. We all had a laugh about my funny way of speaking!

Of course misunderstandings are a daily hazard to most adults in first world countries. As someone who has to drive a lot for work I can certainly testify to that. The one thing I've noticed is how misleading car stickers can be. But I've learned to interpret their true meanings:

You might think this is a witticism for "I've got a crap car", but it in fact means "Stay clear of me because I'm a maniac driver behind the wheel"

You might think this means "Please keep your distance for the safety of my child", but it in fact means "Stay clear because I'm a maniac driver behind the wheel".

You might think this means "Respect braking distance" but it in fact means "Stay a fuck of a long way clear because I'm a maniac driver behind the wheel of a huge fucking truck".

I'm back home safely now and ready to settle down to read (no chess at the Olympiad tonight). I've always got more than one book on the go. I'm reading a thriller by Australian author Matthew Reilly which is an easy, page turning, romp. I kind of think of books like most people think of TV series. I can change books like changing TV channels, and then go back a bit later to catch up on the other book. It also means that I can read different types of books and have something to read dependent on my mood. Anyway, that's all from me today, it'll probably be back to chess again tomorrow.

Compulsive Reading

I must admit to being an avid reader. I primarily read fiction of all genre, and I read about chess, my main hobby and passion (and work). I prefer paper books to kindle or other e-readers but I'll also read online. I belong to the group that like to read more than one book at a time. I am currently reading "The Cuckoo's Calling" by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) and rereading "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro. I also have a number of chess books open, but I won't bore you with them, or remind my wife to nag me to clear some of them away.

The online coverage of the Brexit referendum in the UK has been compulsive reading for me over the past week. I've tried to stick to news sites, but have sometimes been waylaid by opinion pieces, and non expert analysis. To be honest, I haven't been gripped by anything such as this since the 9/11 World Trade Centre destruction dominated the news on TV's. And once again, reading about it has been just as depressing from an outsider's point of view. For living in Australia now, though still a UK citizen, that is what I am, an outsider. An outsider with a distinct perspective.

Let's get something straight. If I'd have voted, I'd have voted to remain in Europe. Does this bias my opinion? Probably, but I guess everyone has a bias, and some certainly have more of an agenda to push than others.

So my justifications for remaining in Europe:

- I prefer Internationalism to Nationalism, and have started to appreciate Federal systems, while I am certainly against Monarchy as a form of rule in any sense, even as a rubber stamp.

- I was concerned about the elite economic community warning about the likelihood of recession in local and probably global terms.

- I was wary of the leave campaign's emphasis on immigration which struck me as close to racist incitement when it was being presented.


I must admit, I did have some sympathy for some leave policies, but overall I was in the remain camp. From what I've been reading, the majority of people are like me. There were 2 or 3 issues that swung the situation for them, and they voted on that, one way or another.

The aftermath has been absolutely gruesome.

The nation is divided and seems to be going through some sort of crisis. News media outlets are swinging between leave to remain support on an almost daily basis, and even individual writers and journalists are changing tune depending on situations.

The Parliamentary parties are really struggling at the moment. PM David Cameron made possibly the biggest blunder in recent UK political history by agreeing to a referendum that in his arrogance, he thought he'd win. When the vote came against him, he resigned within 24 hours, leaving the country and the Conservative party without anyone to fulfil the task of seeing the Brexit decision through to it's logical conclusion. The Labour party are equally divided with an all out coup from the centre of the party currently trying to put pressure on leader Jeremy Corbyn to step down. Opinion polls I've seen have shown the parties running about equal at the moment, but with leadership changes coming from both sides who knows how that will affect the way the country votes at a next General Election.

Financially, the UK and Europe (and the world) face an unsettled time. I've read about stock market crashes happening around the globe, wealth destroyed in the UK, pensions threatened for the future, and worries over trade agreements. If the news has it right, then it would appear that the EU do not want to treat kindly with the UK on its exit.

Socially, it is just as concerning. Racially motivated hate crimes are up by nearly 60% since the Brexit referendum according to police. Social media has been very strong about this issue, and to an outsider like myself, it appears very worrying. However, taking that aside, the news sites have shown enough worrying material to be concerned. The vote to leave seems to have galvanised those groups and individuals with racially motivated agenda as if they feel they have now a right to peddle their trade.

And linked to this, there have been accusations and generalisations which have polarised the public. People calling the race card are offending leave voters without racially motivated intentions. Older voters have been accused of swelling the ranks of leave voters, but again this is a generalisation. My 88 year old Mum and Caroline's 87 year old Mum both voted remain. Basically, generalisations about every group have not helped with the unity of the country. Regionally, Scotland won the Remain vote by the biggest majority but that still left nearly 40% voting to leave or in real terms, still a little over a million people. Meanwhile, many leave voters seem to be accusing remain voters of being bad losers, and telling them to just accept the situation. While there are always going to be loud advocates for both sides, being told that your opinions are unwanted when you are worried about racial harassment and how it might affect your family is somewhat intolerant. Calls by members of both leave and remain camps to show unity at this difficult time are a farce. The country is clearly not decided, with leave voters openly admitting they made a mistake.

It's sometimes said the worst thing is not knowing, and that seems to be the situation in the UK at the moment. Which way will things go? Will a Government invoke Article 50 and leave the EU or won't they? Will there be an economic crisis in the UK? Will the right wing grow in strength? Will the Tory and Labour parties suffer losses? Will the member countries of the UK leave? Until there is some resolution of these fundamental issues, I don't see that the UK will be sorting anything out, and the longer it takes to decide these issues, the worse things are likely to get.

Back to Chess

I have a week off and I don't intend to spend it dwelling on the lunacy that is the situation in my birth country, England (I did enough of that over the weekend!). Melbourne was bad enough today. After racist vs anti racist incidents in Carlton Gardens at the weekend, the city seemed particularly grim today. I was walking up Swanston Street today with a damp, grim, grey feel to the day. There were homeless sleeping in doorways while families passed ignorantly past them on this school holiday Monday.

I went to the State Library of Victoria to look at some chess materials in the Anderson Room. An ever growing resource, the Anderson room, is one of the largest collections of chess books in the world. There are many books and periodicals on display and a vast collection held off site that can bee asked for. I just went in to browse at a couple of things today. I looked at some recent New in Chess Yearbooks for a view of some opening ideas. I also read some interviews in the British Chess Magazine and New in Chess Magazines.

I was there for a good few hours and leisurely whiled the time reading about my favourite chess subjects, endings, history and player biographies. After his recent death, it was Korchnoi that I was interested in, and there were plenty of books on him or by him. I also had a brief look at the books on my pet opening, the Philidor (yes, I only have 1 pet opening!), but soon realised that my knowledge of the Antoshin Variation exceeds that outlined by Christian Bauer in his 2007 book "The Philidor Files", or any other book that was on the shelf. There was an interesting article in a New in Chess Yearbook, but that just confirmed ideas that I'd already come up with. Hmmm, maybe I should become an opening theorist?

Of all the books I looked at today, my best recommendation would be "Mastering Endgame Strategy" by Johan Hellsten. This book goes through a load of strategic concepts based around material considerations. Then the second part of the book has over 200 test positions. As I'm nearly hitting 50 year's of age, here's the 49th position from Hellsten's book.

White to play and win

Old Books and Forgotten Games

I'm just wondering how many people choose their chess books based on how recently they were published. I guess it can't be many as the there will always be a place for the classics. There are classic chess primers by players like Lasker or Capablanca, or even Purdy or Golombek. There are fantastic biographies of players from the past, and autobiographical games collections must still be very popular. I have collections of games by Steinitz, Lasker, Rubinstein, Tal, Karpov to name a few. Great tournament books are my favourite read, especially if they are by one of the participants.

Periodicals are somewhat different. A book covers a subject, but a periodical covers a moment in time. We generally buy periodicals to keep up to date with whatever subject they cover, whether it be news, or a specific technical issue, like for instance the opening in chess where New in Chess comes to mind. But that doesn't mean that old periodicals are of no value. In fact, they can be very interesting, and provide good background reading. There are often forgotten snippets hidden in their pages.

I've been looking at a random British Chess Magazine from August 1979. Bizarrely, the first article is a theory piece on the Berlin variation of the Spanish, the opening that is plaguing the top level of chess at the moment. I have to say that Jimmy Adams presents it in a much more exciting light, then the post Kasparov-Kramnik era shows it. Ray Keene gives an interesting comparison between the 1979 Montreal GM event won by Tal and Karpov, and some of the great tournaments of the past. And there are some well annotated games by Bill Hartson.

In amongst the home news section I found a game that might be of interest to some of my Australian friends. In May 1979 roaming Aussie IM Max Fuller won a tournament in Jersey with the imposing score of 8/9. One of his wins was published in the BCM, a game that isn't in Chessbase's Bigbase 2015 or Ozbase, so I thought I'd put it on here. I never met Fuller, but I know a lot of people who did so this is for you all. Fuller exploits a space advantage and his opponent's lack of development to force a win of material.

Steinitz

When I was in England, I met up with a chess friend of mine, James Pratt. James, for his sins, is currently editor of the British Chess Magazine and mine of chess information. He showed me around his extensive chess book collection, and we talked briefly about the typical chess subject of who your favourite is. I remember James mentioning Morphy, and possibly Alekhine of the past masters, while I said Steinitz and Rubinstein. As soon as said Steinitz, James got a book for me to take home, "Steinitz move by move" by IM Craig Pritchett.

IM Craig Pritchett's "Steinitz Move By Move, Everyman Chess

I didn't really take much of a look at the book until later when I noticed a couple if things that annoyed me. First there is an index of Steinitz' opponents in the complete games, but there is no mention of any of the part games mentioned in the text. Now this wouldn't normally be too much bother, except that arguably Steinitz most famous game, versus von Bardeleben from Hastings 1895, isn't one of the complete games. To be honest I couldn't believe this, but I found the game as a note to a later Steinitz-Schlechter encounter from 1898. Pritchett says about Steinitz-von Bardeleben:

"The moves...often complete with fulsome annotations, can be sourced in innumerable books and websites and...needn't be repeated here."

I'm sorry, but that is just absolute tosh! If you are going to write a book, essentially as a tool for club level players, about the "extraordinary life and games of one of the greatest players in history" then it seems a bit of a cop out to mention his most famous game, en passant.

I suppose I should really be happy that the game gets a mention at all. The game which probably brought Steinitz to the world's attention was his brilliancy prize winning effort against Mongredien from London 1862. This one I can;t even find in the notes of any other games. This is the first game mentioned by Kasparov in the section on Steinitz from "My Great Predecessors: Part 1". Apparently, none other than Adolf Anderssen called it "the most bold and brilliant game" while Chigorn, in 1890 stated that "Games that were deemed brilliant in recent international tournaments were no match for this one."

So why leave out a such a seminal example from a collection of a player's games? To be honest, a lot of what I've looked in the book I've liked, though "move by move" isn't quite accurate, and should probably be amended to "move by move, when something interesting comes up". It's a shame because what on the whole is a pretty good effort by Pritchett to show Steinitz' chess development through his career, and to educate his readers through challenging questions about the games at various times and good tips and ideas, is spoilt for Steinitz fans because of the omissions.

So here is the moment when a young Austrian player became a name on the world stage. Steinitz as white played 16.Rxh7!? winning brilliantly after Mongredien didn't find the best defence of 18..Qe8! (Kasparov still proves that even the best defence wouldn't have held out for Mongredian, though Steinitz would have had to find some difficult moves!).

Here's the game, and you can judge for yourself whether it deserves to be in a section of games from his early years, or a book about Steinitz' life and games.

Online books

The other day I was looking for a chess book and I googled it. This was unusual for me, as I usually go straight to a chess retailer and search for the books there. Google produced a result which was unexpected to me and that was it's own google books site. I'd never really looked at Google books before but I was rather amazed at the amount of books they have. Apparently Google Books has scanned over 30 million books and put them online.

There have been problems with this service, the most notable being copyright infringement. I have to admit, that I'm unsure of the issues here. We have public libraries which freely lend copyrighted material to members of the library, and in some respects, services like Google Books appears as an online version of a library. But digitizing books and making them freely available online can only damage the livelihood of authors. Authors who will hardly bother to waste their time and effort just to see their material freely distributed with no recompense.

There are resources online which seek to digitize non copyrighted material, works that are old or in the public domain. Project Gutenberg is one such resource with nearly 50.000 titles to download.

However, the mother of all online resources is the Internet Archive. I looked at it earlier today and was astounded by the amount of material they have. There are nearly 5 million books, nearly 4000 films, , over 100,000 concert recordings and many other services such as collections of NASA images, web archives with approaching 50 billion pages, educational resources including lectures and supplementary materials, and a mass of historical software.

I downloaded an interesting little book by the chess player Hugh Kennedy from 1876. "Waifs and Strays" has some personal reminiscences by Kennedy of some players of the day and is an amusing portrait of chess players. In the first couple of pages, Kennedy talks about snobbishness in chess, wondering,

"...how is it that we constantly see persons of upright character, faultless manners, and whose tempers are proof against every common trial, the moment they set themselves behind a chess board, undergoing a kind of metempsychosis, and becoming the reverse of their normal selves - unjust, rude and quarrelsome - in a word, unmitigated snobs?"

I'll be reading through this gem and looking for more timeless truisms in its pages.

Incorrigible Optimists

Anyone that knows me will have no problems imagining me sat at a cafe, drinking a long black coffee (Americano for my non Aussie readers) and reading a book. While the coffee is always long black, the book could be anything. I almost always read fiction, but occasionally I'll read about history, or very occasionally, chess! Even the vast amount of novels I read can be about almost anything, and I usually have 2 or 3 books on the go at a given time. I find I can switch between novels depending on my mood, much like someone watching TV and switching channels until they find something they want to watch.

For example, I have recently finished a fantasy novel by Australian author Garth Nix. Clariel is a prequel to a series he wrote years ago which I really enjoyed. This new novel was no less enjoyable, in my opinion. While I was reading this, I was also reading an historical fiction novel set in Tudor times called Sovereign by C. J. Samson. Again, this is part of a series of books bringing mystery and detective genres into historical perspective, much like the Cadfael books did. I have yet to finish this one, and it is beginning to develop into a thick plot.

The book that I'm struggling to put down at the moment is called "The Incorrigible Optimists Club" by Jean-Michel Guenassia. Translated from the original French, the book is set in Paris during the early 1960's when France was embroiled in the Algerian crisis, and Europe was caught up in the Cold War. The book therefore has political issues weaving through it, but essentially it is about people, their relationships, their actions, and their stories. The main hub of the book is a teenager called Michel, somewhat of a rebel, around whom a series of fascinating characters revolve. One group of characters, and perhaps the inspiration for the novel's title (though I guess I won't really know this until I've finished the book), are a bunch of expats mainly from Eastern Europe, though there is a German in the group. This group meet at a typical Parisian cafe/restaurant where they socialise and play chess. They argue about almost every subject they can talk about, but it doesn't spoil their cameraderie (at least not yet).

While I can lose myself in novels like Clariel set in an imaginary world, or Sovereign looking into the distant past, it is novels such as The Incorrigible Optimists Club which resonate to me. I can't help imagining chess players or immigrants, or chess playing immigrants finding people of similar backgrounds, or who like similar interests, to make their new life in a new country happier. Here in multicultural Melbourne we have suburbs which may have a predominant ethnic background, while chess clubs such as the Melbourne Chess Club have a distinctly immigrant flavour running through its history even to the present day.

It is rare that I feel such an affinity for so many themes in a novel, from chess to cafe culture, time spent in Paris, immigration, and all the everyday feelings that a person goes through on a daily basis. Amazing! I could even be accused of having my fair share of incorrigible optimism.

Chess The Hard Way

I know I only just posted about there being too much chess, but then we have 2 Grand Prix tournaments back to back. And as this event finishes, we'll barely have time to breathe before the World Championship match starts, although it's almost possible for another super-GM event to be thrown in, with the Petrosian Memorial overlapping the first few days of the World Championship match. It's just too much to take in!

So I've decided that besides playing, and keeping half an eye on the chess world, I'm going to step back in time to when chess tournaments were somewhat less frequent. I have borrowed a copy of a book by Canadian legend Yanofsky.

Hard Cover copy of Chess the Hard Way

"Chess the Hard Way" is a short book full of game fragments, games and anecdotes from before the start of World War 2 and Yanofsky's early life, through to 1952. The book was published in 1953 after Yanofsky became British Champion.

The author clearly promoting his newly won title.

The book shows chess at a much slower pace than today. In 1939 Yanofsky was selected to represent Canada at the Buenos Aires Olympiad. He went to New York to catch a ship to Argentina and then "realizing the United States Open Championship was being played in New York...I went ahead of the team to try to enter or, if not accepted, to watch". I find it amazing that Yanofsky should thnk that he might not be accepted into a tournament, but then again, in 1939 he was an unknown. In fact, 1939 was really a breakthrough year for him. In his first game at New York he drew with Reuben Fine who had recently come equal first with Keres at AVRO.

Then in the Buenos Aires Olympiad Yanofsky relates how he won a game against Dulanto of Peru which "created a minor sensation and resulted in Alekhine taking a great interest in me to the extent of watching all of my remaining games in the tournament and analyzing them with me after they were over".

This brilliant attacking game is indicative of Yanofsky's attacking style. Funnily enough, he loved playing the French as black so this game would have been a win against his own favourite opening.

Chess the Hard Way is a short book, being just 149 pages, but it is packed full of information about chess in the post second World War era. Yanofsky was one of only 2 players to beat Botvinnik at the Staunton Memorial tournament in Groningen 1946 (the other was Najdorf). Yanofsky stayed in Europe after Groningen, and his book brings alive just how difficult life must have been in the post war years. Things that we take for granted, such as ease of travel and crossing of borders were not so easy in 1946. For instance, Yanofsky travelled to Barcelona where he finished second to Najdorf in a tournament. Yanofsky received his entry to Barcelona 3 days before the tournament started which to him didn't seem like much time to get there from where he was in Holland. (Nowadays 3 hours may be sufficient) Due to bad weather flights were cancelled in Holland. In the end Yanofsky took a train to Paris, then on to the Spanish border. From the train he had to stay the night in France because the border was closed! Next morning he got a taxi to the border "which presented itself in the form of a chain across the road". He had to wait at the border for about half an hour until the Spanish taxis arrived to take travellers to the Spanish town of Port Bou.

The book is packed full of stories like this, games with analysis like that above, and Yanofsky's insights into the players he met and the times that he lived in. The last line of the book is worth noting.

"If this book serves as a guide and inspiration to the young chess 'hopefuls' of today, it will have well achieved its purpose. Let my example be their encouragement"

Yanofsky did not have it easy, but made the best of what he had which is all any of us can aim for.Perhaps like Purdy here in Australia, he was an inspiration for generations of Canadian chess players. His fighting spirit was not seen better han in his epic win against Golembek at the 1951/2 Hastings tournament. It's not often you see a win in an ending with queen and knight versus queen.

Both sides have just promoted and although the game should probably end in a draw, Yanofsky saw some chances and played on for a few more moves. 96.Qf5+ Kg3 97.Ne4+ Kg2 98.Qg4+

So where should the king go? Although it looks scary, Kf1 is the best move with no clear way that Yanofsky could see to win (Nalimov Tablebase claim 98..Kf1 is a drawn position). However Golembek played 98..Kh2?? and lost after 99.Qh4+ Kg2 100.Qg3+ Kh1 101.Qh3+ Qh2 102.Ng3+ where Golembek resigned.

Black is mated after 102..Kg1 103.Qf1.

Of the many qualities that a successful chess player needs, it is this will to continue fighting. Yanofsky fought on the board, and even fought just to get to the board! To me, his story is inspirational, and I'm going to forget about the Grand Prix series for a while and enjoy some games written in descriptive notation!

Things That Passed Through My Mind Today

The first thing was waking up with a song going round my head. This morning I woke and immediately started humming "I Feel Fine" by the Beatles. A bit of a random song seeing I can't remember the last time I heard it on the radio and I don't have it on any music in my collections. Apparently the term for this is an "earworm" and there are hypothesis for why this occurs. Here's a nice article about the subject at the Daily Mail, which explains in terms that even I understand what the issues are. For me, it is always the morning when I get that tune stuck in my head, so I guess it is something subconscious. So now all I have to do is start remembering my dreams. Which brings me to my next question

Why do only some people remember dreams? I have virtually no recollection of my dreams. I have often woken in fits of laughter and had no recollection of what I was dreaming about. It's a bit frustrating, while my wife, Caroline often remembers her dreams in vivid detail. To be fair, if my dreams are anything like hers, then I'm glad I can't remember them :D

This article has some pretty good explanations, and in the case of Caroline and I, she definitely wakes more during the night, whereas I tend to sleep solidly through so that part of the theory is borne out by our behaviour. I also like the part about dream recallers being more responsive to outside stimuli during wakefulness, like when their name is being called. It seems therefore only natural to me that husbands like me, who rarely respond to their name being spoken during wakefulness should not recall dreams much!

Maybe to recall dreams I need to drink more coffee, and drink it later in the day?

I have limited myself to coffee early in the day, and 2 coffee's a day (usually!). I was toying with the idea of buying a coffee machine, an espresso maker or cafetiere or something, but I realised that what I really like is having coffee at a cafe. I enjoy the Melbourne cafe culture (I enjoyed European cafe culture when I was living there) and sitting at a cafe, people watching, and reading a good book....actually, I don't mind whether the book is that good or not. I've recently started reading more than one book at a time and I very much enjoy this. It's a bit like following your favourite TV series week after week, and I dip into books as and when I feel like it. Besides books about chess, I'm currently reading a set of fantasy novels by Markus Heitz, "Perfect" by Rachel Joyce, the follow up to the magnificent "Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry", and "Narrow Road to the Deep North" by Richard Flanagan which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize a few days ago. They are very different books, which place different demands on their readers and I enjoy being able to pick a book up, or put one down as I fancy. I do find that at some stage in a novel there is a point where the book has to be finished to the end, while the others are left for a while. But this is ok, and I have no trouble picking up the books that have been left. Next on my reading list is the book with one of the best names I've seen for a long time:

I've just found a really nice blog which has a post on exactly the subject of reading more than one novel at a time. Check it out.

I wonder if reading before sleep will deter people from dreaming? I guess not, because Caroline also reads before sleep. The only other external factor that we don't share is a love of whiskey. Actually, Caroline does like single malts, but she doesn't drink much, whereas I....Well, I don't drink much, perhaps a shot or 2 a couple of times a week and I tend to drink more in the winter than in the summer. As I drink so little over the course of the year, I tend to treat myself to whiskey's that are quite expensive and that I enjoy. I have a copy of Ian Buxton's "100 Whiskey's to try Before You Die" on my bookshelf, and I'm surprised by how many I've already tasted. Today I went to look for a whiskey, and came away with one I'd never heard of, let alone tried before. According to Whiskey Exchange, Glen Moray 16 Year Old is "Sweet, full and exceptionally well rounded. The flavour is initially of toffee, progressing to mint humbugs and barley sugar and followed by a hint of smoke and peat flavours." I have to admit that I love the blurb on whiskey bottles, and can be tempted into buying a whiskey just based on the story and descriptions of their products. Try it. Go to any whiskey site and you'll find  no end of descriptive prose about their products and their history. One of my favourites is Laphroiag!

Glen Moray 16 Year Old with it's attractive case. 

It's getting a bit late here now, so I'd better try a shot to help me sleep! Now that I think about it, does alcohol help you sleep or not? I'll go find out and report back on whether this whiskey should be one of the 100 to try before dying in a later blog post.

Jet Lag

It's that feeling you get when you've traveled a long way, especially across time zones. Jet lag is a condition which many people suffer from after long flights and it's basically to do with our internal body clocks and biorhythms. Since I returned from the USA 4 days ago, I've felt tiredness, a bit groggy at times, occasionally disoriented and lethargic. Apparently it takes about 1 day for every time zone crossed to readjust. How this works with going across the International Date Line I'm not sure. All being well, I hope to bumble my way through this week and then be ready to start life properly again next week. Luckily I have had a staggered start back to work, so things haven't been that hectic for me, though from next week things look full on. Apparently scientists in Japan are working on a pill to remedy the effects of jet lag, though I'll believe it when I see it.

I am presently using the tried and tested method of "grin and bear it" to make it through the week. Meanwhile my running program has been put on hold, but will be renewed this weekend as I become inspired by the Melbourne Marathon which is on Sunday. I have no great desire to run a full marathon, but I would love to give a half marathon a go. Maybe I need to set myself the target of 2014 Melbourne Half Marathon? Meanwhile I have friends who are cycling the week after in the Round the Bay in a Day event. Caroline is putting me to shame by riding in a women's group that are taking on a 50 km ride, while David is going for the full thing I think which is well over 200 km. I'll be a cheerleader for them, before sneaking off for a coffee in a non bay suburb!

Engrossing reading, detective novel, Navajo style

What I have been able to do is read a lot. While gradually wading through a 1000 page fantasy novel, I am breaking things up by reading other books at the same time. I just finished a book called Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman. I bought the book in a second hand bookstore in Flagstaff. We had just passed through the Navajo nation on our roadtrip and a detective novel set in modern day America but based around the Navajo culture appealed to me. This novel also touches on the religion and culture of the Zuni and coincidentally, I bought another book from that shop on Zuni Fetishes.

Flagstaff, Arizona's cool second hand bookstore (image from yelp)

As for chess? I'll be posting about that next, but I was interested to see Kasparov throw his hat in the ring for the 2014 FIDE leadership campaign. If you're not into chess, then FIDE is the world governing body of chess, and our president is a crazy guy who claims to have been abducted by aliens, and who chummed up to General Gadaffi so as to hold a chess tournament in Libya (among other things). Suffice to say there is a lot of discontent with the current leadership of the chess world, much as in the real world of politics. Will Kasparov make a difference? No doubt he will, though since retiring from chess the ex world champion has been trying his hand at politics in his native Russia. However, he has found that Putin doesn't play fair, and Kasparov is now one of his biggest critics. If the last election campaigns was anything to go by, these will be great fun to follow over the next year. :)

Chess Story - Stefan Zweig

Coffee and a good book

There is nothing I like better than sitting at a cafe, drinking long black (or Espresso), reading a good book and watching people walk past. The quality of the coffee helps, as does the quality of the book, and I suppose the interest level of the people walking past. Yesterday I finished my last class before my break, and shortly after went for a coffee with a good book. I'm currently reading a strange novel called The Rook by Daniel O' Malley. I picked it up because of the chess connotation, and the write up on the back looked intriguing. It has been a great read up to now (I'm about half way through) and I'm hoping for a strong finish.

I have to admit, that I'm going through a phase of reading novels with a chess theme. Before The Rook I read Stefan Zweig's "The Royal Game" which is also known as "Chess Story", or just "Chess". As a chess player it was a fascinating little book portraying 2 extreme types of chess player. Zweig painted a bleak portrait of a professional World Champion, a man with no intellect outside of chess, and no imagination. Being a professional entails that the result and the prize is more important than the game itself. Challenging this is the talented amateur, driven to the extremes of sanity through constant thoughts about chess. This player imagines games in his head, splits his mind in two to play games against himself without a board and shows his emotions openly during the games. This small novel, or novella, is a lightweight read, but thought provoking. The major themes that run through the book deal with mental characteristics and the different outlooks of amateurism vs professionalism which are also portrayed in the different intellectual qualities of the 2 players. The background stories of the 2 main chess players allow us to sympathise with only one.

Stefan Zweig's "Chess Story"

The other factor which is addressed in this novel is the atrocities conducted by the Nazi's during the second World War. Zweig was an exile from this regime, leaving his native Austria in the mid 1930's to avoid persecution which would inevitably come from his Jewish parentage. Sadly, the novel was published posthumously after Zweig and his wife committed suicide in 1942. Apparently, Zweig despaired of the situation in Europe leaving a farewell note including the words "I think it is better to leave on time, with head held high, an existence in which intellectual work has always been the purest joy, and personal freedom the highest good of this world." It is no accident that the hero of "The Royal Game" is an intellectual who is then starved of interaction with his fellow man, and with anything to stimulate his mind. The chess games that he learns from a stolen book add a welcome distraction to his empty life, but eventually the mental fatigue caused by playing imaginary chess games in between Gestapo interrogations drive his mind over the edge. I sense that Zweig felt an affinity to this character in some ways, starved of his ability to publish novels in his homeland and driven to explore new ways of life in emigre fashion. I thoroughly recommend this short novel to both lovers of chess and lovers of literature.

Superstition

It amazes me how caught up we are with superstition and belief in the weird and supernatural. Of course, I'm an atheist, a rationalist, a republican. I hold no truck with superstitions or the supernatural. Saying that, I love to read novels with a tinge of fantasy, with a hint of the supernatural. Besides genuine fantasy literature, many of the novels I've read this year have had a twist of the unreal in them. I've read ghost stories (though I don't believe in ghosts), stories with characters with supernatural powers, or witches (though I prefer to think that incidences of these powers come from other people's slander rather than innate ability), and novels where fate or predetermination plays a role in the plot (though I believe we determine our own fate).

Zuni Badger fetish (New Mexico)

A lot of people have lucky objects with them: charms, stones, toys, mascots, books, pens, coins...in fact almost any object can be perceived to bring a measure of good fortune into a person's life. I'll tell you an interesting story (though, of course, I don't believe it had anything to do with fate or luck). In 2003 Caroline and I traveled to the USA and drove through New England in the fall. We landed in New York City and drove along the coast to Boston. We then drove through the White Mountains up to Canada and spent a very wet time in Montreal. We drove back down to New York City through New York State which truly was beautiful when we were there. Funnily enough, rather than Woodstock or Sleepy Hollow we really liked an industrial town on the Hudson called Nyack. Don't know why, but we did. We had a pleasant lunch, and went into a typical tourist type shop which had a lot of native American items for sale. Caroline decided to buy a Zuni Fetish. In fact, she usually loves Native American silver jewelry, but she was drawn almost straight to the small stone carvings. One in particular caught her eye, a badger which we ended up buying and taking away back to England. Almost from that point in time, it was our desired goal to emigrate from the UK. Initially we wanted to go to Italy, but the language barrier would probably have been too hard to overcome, so we looked at the English speaking world and settled on Australia. Within 2 years of arriving back from our New England road trip we were in Australia with permanent residency. The badger fetish in Zuni culture represents "perseverance and the ability to reach a desired goal". Within 2 years our goal had been reached. However, as soon as we left the shores of England, the fetish disappeared, almost as if it were no longer needed by us, and had done its job.

Spooky? Lucky I don't believe in that sort of thing. In fact, luck has nothing to do with it, as I don't believe in that either! Ok, I admit I carry a jade turtle around with me, but that is more to do with OCD rather than superstition. It has absolutely nothing to do with the symbolism of longevity and strength that the turtle represents in Chinese culture. That's the same as the pen that I have to use to write the moves down in my games of chess. It's nothing to do with luck, I just like using my fountain pen to write the moves down. And of course if I don't have my pen with me, I have to use a pencil rather than a different pen. Superstition? Bah humbug, I'm just a bit quirky!

My chess pen, and jade turtle

Virtually everyone has these little quirks, and some things that they feel are special to them in some way. It isn't necessarily a superstition, though habits can become so strong that they feel like a superstition, like breaking the habit will lead to catastrophic results. Anyone who has tried to give up smoking will know what I'm talking about, though there are things we do every day that can be habitual turned superstitious. The order we put our clothes on, where we park, what we eat, (or the way we eat it), where we go, and how we get there to name just a few. Habits are hard to break, but that's what they are. Just habits, and there is nothing fateful which will happen if we don't do these things. Nothing bad will happen if we don't have enough milk for our Corn Flakes on a Thursday morning at 6.54 am.

I have decided to take a break from blogging about chess today as it is good practice for my upcoming roadtrip to the USA with Caroline next week, when chess will be totally on hold. I hold very firm rational views and treat superstition with the scepticism it deserves. I'll be back to writing about chess on Saturday. Tomorrow is Friday 13th so I won't tempt the gremlins to enter this blog.

Goodreads

I spend so much of my time working through technical chess books, sifting through the vast quantity of data, analysing ideas, and storing both technical and anecdotal material for work and personal use. I've reviewed chess books for magazines, and recommended certain books for players of certain strengths. It is no surprise that in my spare time, I like to lose myself in a novel. I can hardly bring myself to read non fiction (I still look at some historical articles, and I have a year's subscription to National Geographic Magazine thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law) but much prefer entering the fantasy world created by the imagination of a creative mind. I must admit I read a fair amount of novels, probably 4-6 a month depending on how much spare time I have, and how big the novels are.

I enjoy almost all genre of fiction, though I don't really go for horror. I read a lot of fantasy novels at one time, but became a little bored of them, especially the series of books that seem to have no end. Earlier this year, though, I felt I needed to explore different types of books, and I wasn't sure where to start. So I joined the online book community, Goodreads. It took me a little while to get to grips with how to use the site in the best way for me. I wanted to find ideas of things to read, but I don't really enjoying reading reviews of books before I read a book, as I feel it clouds my judgement of what I felt about the novel. So when I read a book, I usually have few expectations of hat the book will offer, other than the blurb that is written on the back of the book.

Pointing pinky, but there's still black coffee in that cup of mine. Look at my eyes!

The thing that really expanded my horizons was joining a group on Goodreads. There are literally thousands of groups and I joined a fairly general book club group, Coffee and Books It is a lively little club, with monthly reads that can generate some interesting discussion. There are over 1000 members so there are lots of ideas coming in of what to read, and challenges issued so as to get members to try things perhaps out of their comfort zone. In fact, much of my reading over the past 3 months has been because of this group, and I have read books that I have loved, and some that I really didn't like at all. But I haven't regretted reading any of the books as they are novels that I would never have thought of before joining Coffee and Books, and I understand that I am broadening my reading tastes.

Coffee and Books, what could be better?

Basically, my experience on Goodreads has been totally positive, and I've reviewed a number of books irrespective of whether I've liked them or not. But like all good things, it can be misused by some people. One of my favourite authors is Joanne Harris, who I follow on Twitter (her twitter feed is always entertaining!) and earlier today she posted about an article from an author about bullying on Goodreads. This article tackles a disturbing trend among some people to trash authors. It's a fairly disturbing thing if some idiots on the internet can create trouble for aspiring authors, and are doing so on purpose merely for the fun of it. Cyber bullying is to be deplored in all forms, and that it could affect the livelihood of individuals is disgusting. The article by Nathan Bransford came in for sharp comments (please read the comments which may not be as insightful as the article, but are more entertaining), and has even caused Joanne Harris to post on her blog.

So will this stop me using Goodreads? Certainly not! But I will be careful about what I consider on the site, and I will probably not become involved in mud throwing threads about novels. I'll keep on with honestly writing what I think about the books I read, and I'll continue in the Coffee and Books group which I've found friendly, inclusive and helpful. This is what a community should be about.

A Good Book

It's 20 days before we go on holiday. That means tomorrow it's down to the teens, and that means extra excitement. And I thought it couldn't get any more exciting when a parcel from New in Chess arrived yesterday. Ok, perhaps I'm exaggerating, but it's still quite exciting to get mail that isn't requiring you pay something. Mail, like books, is in jeopardy of being taken over by its electronic sidekick, and I for one will be sad if that happens. I admit, that email, smart phones and mobile internet access has made my life easier, and that I would now be lost without my chess database, but I still carry books around with me, and a notebook and pencil.

My work involves long hours, but with gaps between the schools and classes I have to visit. There is however, usually not time to drop back home, so I'm often driving around Melbourne all day. It can be pretty boring at times so I'm filling my time reading and working through chess books. I'm currently reading Peaches for Monsieur le Cure by the wonderful Joanne Harris.

I first read "Chocolat" probably 10 years ago and have read other novels by Joanne Harris (who by the way is excellent to follow on Twitter @Joannechocolat). Food and mystical themes pervade her writing and she has the ability to bring emotions to life through words. Try "Blackberry Wine", a novel narrated by a bottle of wine! I have a massive list of books to read as well, which is great except that the list is continually expanding and I don't have time to keep up. I have joined the social network "Goodreads" and have found interesting discussion about books, some reviews that I sometimes agree with, and sometimes take issue with, and recommendations for books which I would otherwise never have thought to read. It's even made me think about my reading habits, and I have decided it's time to read authors from more varied backgrounds. I've set myself the challenge of reading 80 novels before I die by authors from different countries. I would be glad to hear of any novelists from non English speaking countries that you could recommend, though I'd have to have it translated to English!

Chess books won't count towards the 80 (I'm going for fiction) which is a shame as I have chess authors from Bosnia, USA and Norway. I couldn't help but get Simen Agdestein's reissued work on the young Magnus Carlsen, and I've started reading this already. The story of the prodigious talent that is Magnus Carlsen from his first steps in chess until he became a Grand Master at just 13 is amazing and as it's written by someone who was right there to witness it and help in making it happen, this book was a must for me. A chess author that I really like is Ivan Sokolov, mainly because he loves to attack and talk about agressive systems. His new book is about the Initiative and Sacrifice, and though I've yet to really get going with it, it looks great. The American author I've purchased is a young player Daniel Naroditsky. He was only 14 when he wrote Mastering Positional Chess, and I want to see how a 14 year old comes across as a communicator. Of course there is no dounbting how strong Naroditsky is, but even the very strongest of players have not been able to convey their messages well. Anyway, the examples look good and there is a lot of commentary which is a good thing, but that is on a first glance.

So you can call me conservative, a Luddite or whatever, but I just prefer books to kindles, ebooks etc. And I'll be writing another blog post in the future about my love of bookshops compared to buying online....

Getting On With It

There's nothing else to do really, is there? Today was a beautiful autumn day in Melbourne, about 22C high with clear blue skies for most of the day. What a glorious day for me to have a day off...but an awful day for a very sore back. I'm not sure what I've done, but it is quite painful to walk, let alone run so my exercise program is out the window for the moment. Still, I couldn't stay at home all day while the sun basked outside. I headed off for a coffee and the healing power of the sunshine. I have to admit, I'm a creature of habit when it comes down to coffee. I like certain cafes and keep going back to them. Don't get me wrong, I like to try new places once in a while, but they have to have the right feel, the right look, the right name even!

Do you have to be 18 to catch a Dose at this cafe?

I must be getting old, or getting soft. The death of Margaret Thatcher didn't really bring out any emotion in me. I have been vehemently anti-Thatcherite and anti-Conservative throughout my adult life, but rather than jumping on the bandwagon praising her death, the most I can bring myself to do is not think too much about it. Much like anyone that I didn't personally know, I feel nothing regarding her death. The only thought I really have about the legacy of a post Thatcher UK is that I'm glad I now live in Melbourne, Australia!

Bob Hope making wisdom funny

"No one party can fool all of the people all of the time; that's why we have two parties" - Bob Hope

I don't often review books on this blog, (and never chess books) and I don't intend to start now, but I have to say that I've read some amazing novels recently. I'm currently reading Cloud Atlas which I've only just started, but it is absolutely intriguing. I have absolutely no idea where this book is going! I love that in a novel. Predictability is so tedious.

Perks of Being a Wallflower - a great film

I have always enjoyed reading Booker Man nominated literature. At least I enjoy reading them in between the vast quantites of fantasy, crime fiction and chess literature that I get through. Actually, someone once asked me why I read so much banal fiction and hardly any non-fiction. I told them that I usually read a number of books and articles about history regularly, and chess is hardly non-fiction in most of it's presentations. I read, like most people, to escape. I watch very little TV or film (although The Perks of Being A Wallflower, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel are both beautiful films) so I lose myself in written fiction. Anyway, going back to the Man Booker nominees, my favourite novel is probably "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro. I have to say that "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" was certainly a close call for me. In fact Rachel Joyce's novel was in my opinion so good that I decided to read the novel that beat it to the Booker Prize, Hilary Mantel's "Bring Up The Bodies".

My current reading

I'm also trying to downsize my library. I don't think that I need to keep more than 20 books, so they will be my absolute favourites, books that I could read again and again. It's pretty tricky picking your favourite novels, and it should be something totally personal to you. So far, my shelf has the following:

Remains of the Day - Ishiguro

Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Joyce

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - de Bernieres

The Alchemist - Coelho

Birdsong -Faulks

The Magus - Fowles

The Bonfire of the Vanities - Wolfe

Lord of the Rings - Tolkien

So there's room for some more, but I will only keep 20. Thankfully I own a Kindle now!

One last thing today. This is for both chess and non chess friends. There is an excellent remembrance of an English chess player, Adrian Hollis, at chesscafe. Tim Harding's article is among his best (and I've been reading his column for I can't remember how long), including at the end some information about Hollis's father who was accused of espionage during the 1970's and 1980's, when the spycatcher furore was at its peak.