Training quote of the day #4: Euclid
Proclus (410-485) tells us that Ptolemy Soter, the first King of Egypt and the founder of the Alexandrian Museum, patronized the Museum by studying geometry there under Euclid. He found the subject difficult and one day asked his teacher if there weren't some easier way to learn the material. To this Euclid replied, "Oh King, in the real world there are two kinds of roads, roads for the common people to travel upon and roads reserved for the King to travel upon. In geometry there is no royal road."
(Source: library.thinkquest.org)
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog on a Google search of chess thinking systems. I found your early posts to mimic my own thinking. We have several things in common. I'm a 1614 USCF fish and getting back into it. I use to play the Slav, CK and Q pawn openings, and I sucked at beating players I should have won against. At Swiss System tournaments I always seemed to be at the top of the lower half cutoff, thus having to play up a couple rounds, even if I lost. Anyway, I'm looking for a comeback now that I have more time, and I've been reading your archives. I thought I'd skip to the front and offer this token of encouragement. Thank you! John
Glad that you've found some use for the blog! Also interesting that you have a similar openings background, as I've found very few players (if any) who do in my OTB tournament experience.
DeleteSince you mentioned the pairings, I'll mention that I actually like being at the top of the bottom half of the pairings in Swiss tournaments, but then again I prefer playing up within my section.
Please share your thoughts if you run across something that's particularly useful (or the opposite) for you. Thanks.
I have never played a K pawn opening in OTB, closest thing was KIA. CK and Slav also fit my personality. I also always admired Karpov while everyone else worshiped Kasparov. Another thing we have in common are several of the books you mentioned. Near the beginning of your blog, you mentioned the classic Move By Move and 1953 Tourney books. I have both in early edition hardcovers. When algebraic notation came out, I thought oh great now all my books are trash. lol. Half my library of chess books you can find free downloads now. The first chess book I bought in years was Silman's 4th Edition Reassess Your Chess. Reading it now. As I mentioned I've been retired from OTB for years, but "the bug" still lingers. I'll keep notes while catching up your blog and report back to you observations. Again, thank you for your efforts. Recently I've been searching out chess sources (zillions) and your blog has quality. Best, J.
ReplyDeleteOh, en passant, for entertainment search blitz chess at YouTube. There you'll find a few great bullet speedsters. Jerry, named ChessNetwork. A NM. There's an IM, named Danny over at Chess.com. A couple more. They talk through their games as they move. Unreal talents to watch and listen to as they mow down class players and other titled talents. All the best, J
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