Prolegema, or Kant Help it: Wahrheit, Grand Patzer, Part II

Robert Pearson, Wahrheit, The Humanist: Essay Six Point One
Thursday 28 June, 2007

Robert and I have the kind of overlapping common ground between us which for me makes communication with him delightful if not effortless and of secure integrity.

Truly, that so many touchstones were already in place between us, before we ever got to exchange a single comment us here (from years of mutual and separate study in self improvement, self actualization, human potential, and business communication), or before we became neighbors in comments at the posts of other excellent bloggers, that so much relatedness and preexistent content was already established seemed to preordain this sense of kinship with him.















Robert certainly deserves an essay here every bit as involved or elaborated as our last four essays here, but time is not unlimited, and so I can only note in expedited form that I really think of he and Grandpatzer as of similar class, that is to say, deserving of regular and careful reading, as his thought and expression are of the very best quality, his chess pedigree beyond question (relative to the average here), and is a great asset to our chess blogging arena. Thank you Robert.














In addition to being a fine chess player and a blogger of evenhanded charm, Robert has an outstanding side blog called Illumination, which I actaully read and, not unlike Blunderprone, one of our leading bloggers (who???), I am fairly certain, had a political blog but I cannot find again without a truly embaressing amount of effort but, just stumbled upon his science blog (anyone care to tell me I fail to discover stuff??) at the most recent temoschlucker post, as well as yours truly (dieting in the prior under Sir Belly Jeans and humanism or cultural criticism with the latter under Inner Work or the Wildmen), Robert has so much finely reasoned and well expressed outside chess there that I cannot recommend enough that you all--if so inclinded--be sure to peruse his ample writing there. He will not disappoint, I promise.

Robert is what I like to call a truly educated human being, and for me to call someone a human being is my highest compliment. My long time Guru Joy once stood before me, in front of sixty fellow students at one of our many meditation retreats in Sedona and said, looking right at me, and nodding her head: "Look at David, he is almost a human being", but I duly note that it would take at least another eight years before that was to occur, or down one million dollars and a few meritless but humiliating investment securities law suites latter. You try finding a lawyer to sue Microsoft or Boeing or Starbux or Amazon in Seattle! They've hired ALL the lawyers. So you go find a specialist in defending yourself against The Investment firms either Migrain Stintley, Smithy Barnicle, Goldmon Socks, or Meritless Lynchpin who says: "they are without a doubt the worst %&^**&*" Yes, they are good at what they do! My Street MBA thus.



















Education is not college, but the absorption of many facets of life, and Robert has read the totally marvelously clear Robert Ringer, and the better half of Anthony Robbins, who, despite teeth almost too clean and bright, has much good to say... if you can get past the too quick California sun tan and motivation snap crackle. I prefer Napolian Hill, who's classic book Think and Grow Rich is not about money, but manefestation, but that is mere detail.

A humanist, in my definitition, is not necessarily more humane, or literate, or one who delves into the humanities, but those attributes, if one persues the humanist angle far enough and deep enough will surely develop and flurish, but "a humanist is one who believes in the betterment of man through self knowledge" (my definition, quoted from my letter of application, required for a college teaching position at The University of Charlotte, NC) and, Robert Pearson, aka as Warhrheit, fits that bill perfectly, and is not the least of the reasons that I greatly enjoy reading him, and hope that you will too.















dk Side Notes, Transformation:
Getting the Rust Off: Part Six Point Two
Thursday 28 June 2007

Quickly, and to benchmark for the remainder of this series: it feels somehow not correct to digress in a short essay about Robert and embark on a parenthetical thought on my own chess, but from the last series, many might have assumed that future essays could sustain the time and effort spent there similarly here?

But in the last few days I understood that I needed to starting playing live chess again, bullet chess, with necessarily enormous time expenditure, less to establish something "stand alone" there so much as to fortify myself with a few hundred vicious beatings as preparation for my next big push (*groan* only 28.3% of games as wins means sustaining strenuous challenges game after game to those well above oneself in elo).










My next big push in blitz in lieu of bullet thus necessitates a bit of heavy warm up, for as I have said again and again, I don’t play chess that often in the year, instead spending the bulk of time and effort in chess study, not chess play. While in coming back there is this definite sense of greater strength, board vision, and faster and deeper calculation ability, still much rust must be "pressure washed" off.

No matter how great our study and exertion, study IS NOT play. All is a round about way of saying that while I don’t play year round (instead using extended live chess inactivity for enormous amounts of tactical practice, study, and analysis), WHEN I do start playing--as I am now daily--I tend to play for HOURS A DAY, and also won’t stop for months to come till I attain my clear goal, ceaseless in exertion till then. So first I must attain a 1500 bullet rating--informing me that I am ready, then I will set out to attain a 1600 blitz rating and not resting till then, please. And chess play is not just chess play, but--for me--involves an hour or ninety minutes of tactical warm up BEFORE. Crazy in scope? Yes. But works for me...













Friday 29 June 2007

I was accused by no less than two seperate chess players over two seperate days of using software after blitz wins--a great sign of form coming on strong. How did I respond? I said "Go run them on Fritz, and you will find ALL the errors!" Smiles.

Bed time now. I must get up early, and if the Nasdaq stock market is at all positive (up) or flat (not down!), I will short (buy the right to sell!) the Nasdaq 100 or NDX with QQQQ puts for July expiration. A real blood bath coming on the heals of the whole sub-prime mess of deteriorating credit, revaluation of corporate, conusmer, and U.S. Dollar denominated credit risk, and wringing out of major physical, psychic, and energetic excess generally!



Grand Patzer, The General Electric of Chess: Essay Five
Sunday 24 June, 2007

I think the world of Like Forests (whom was to be our next essay here), but chess is a game, and I am hungering to write about chess, chess, chess, and ONLY chess here, and Grand Patzer is stirring the deepest parts of my hunger for chess, and it is to him, that I MUST now turn next... .. . Thanks again to the Mighty tempo for, as always, knowing in a flash how to immediatley email me minutes ago in reply to a simple offline question, providing the greatest simple clue in my next step forward... more latter! Chess!

Since General Electric is a business property already commandered by them, we will hereafter refer to him as Eclectic Chess...










Chess. Grandpazter is a very important blogger for me, not so much that I read his every word, but what is meaningful to me is that I can count on his work always being of the very best quality, focused completely and perfectly not only on chess improvement, but upon chess itself as distinct from study of it or practice of it alone—real chess as iconographic Heisman of chessCafe.com aptly calls it at his regularly updated and most stellar Novice Nook column.

Segments of human knowledge or human activity tend to segment. This is of course with good reason. Lawyers don’t short order cook in restaurants, kindergarten teachers don’t do hazardous material abatement, aboriginal shamans don’t install Firefox browser updates, and Bedouin chieftains don’t book Aeroflot flight plans, and children are not expected to undergo complex written lease negotiations (although as we know, children can be the strongest of persons in getting their needs met!).






















Nevertheless, these many types of cultural patterns tend to segment into some clear and distinct areas of discrimination, and the major ones that I tend to classify are relational, operational, and financial. There are another two or three (such as spiritual, historical, etc) but this is not the time or place to elaborate this.

Temoschlucker and Blue Devil Knight and even Wormwood are all persons that I have relationships with--albeit cyber relations of all shapes and sizes however convoluted or straightforward as the case may be--but all the same thus. So it is with great pleasure that we now shift to the operational mode in chess improvement blogging for today. While Blue Devil Knight is the raucous local saloon where I can always count on meeting everybody in the neighborhood that night, Grandpatzer’s blog is the Swiss Train Station where I can dependably go to catch a train to Berlin or Frankfurt, and the floors are always clean and no deranged homeless are sleeping near the entrance.

Since his work is so solid and correct and smarter than smart in all ways, there really is not much that needs saying about it, since he says it so much better than me or that I possibly can say. Why General Electric, you might ask? Because GE operates stable businesses in thirteen distinct global business segments, and has the goal of being number one or two in each and every operating segment. So goes GE, so goes the American stock market, since it is what is called a bell weather company--what with its being at once in areas so distinctly different as consumer, finance, media, power systems, energy, water, etc--and if it cannot dominate each area or be a co-leader, its sells or spins of its businesses with an unrelenting drive for stable investment returns. It has AAA credit, only rivaled by U.S. government debt in hegemony. If it goes down, the whole shebang will go down. And so goes the behemoth U.S stock market (for better or worse!), so goes the world.















We all have our peers here chesswise, and however much we have this democratization where everybody gets to comment how, where, and when they wish to do so within limits of reasonable courtesy, without rank or power or status, we naturally gravitate to those we can learn the most from, however much the distraction of pure entertainment might pull us. Attentive readers will notice a slow but inexorable constant change in my links, their order, and groupings within a long string of associations, according to my own strict conceptual order. I just moved Grandpatzer now, the first move to this spot in nine months here...

While temposchlucker is the grand puba, as I have said to start, no matter how much work I do, for the foreseeable future he is one or two steps ahead of me; however much I might admire loomis’s pure chess brilliance and consummately sensible comments all over our area, he is one or two chess steps ahead of me. I can weigh in at their blogs and at times as a fresh set of eyes try to say what is not being said or see what they don’t seem to be seeing IN THEIR CHESS PROGRESS (and not in their play, of course!), but whereas I deeply need to read Secrets of Pawn Endings by Muller and Lamprecht, tempo already studied or read this book. He already assimilated this work. If I write him, he doesn’t need to think about his answer, he already has it as is proper.

Conversely, if Blue Devil writes on blitz, no matter how much affinity I have for him, there are limits to how much I can tell him—now. I can say, as I did yesterday, ‘Hey BDK, 5 of 7 of your blitz games shown at ICC history show lots of time left on the clock--you need to learn to get comfortable allowing your clock to run down near the bottom in 2/12 AND learn to be able move on demand and not panic”, but I cannot stay there with him. We can look up at our seniors but we cannot tell them how to play chess; and we can lead those coming up in the ranks with hopeful humility, but those persons must do their own work, too.












Grand Patzer and I have done very similar work. I spent 2.6 years carefully going through 941 Grand Master games. Assuredly not (yet!) the two thousand games Fischer teacher Jack Collins iconographically but good enough (I cannot debate this idea here, but speaking for myself, decided it was better to chew on 1000 that I would repeat on, instead of getting another 1000: Old business management dicta: Don’t bake more loafs of bread but learn to bake those loafs better!).

I have my stop watch running (literally, and now it is 0:49 minutes) and am feeling that I need to study and play chess, not write of it for not a second more (Wew, after those last three posts, and I do not drink or do drugs!), so, to must now conclude: I am fully confident that I can learn from Grandpatzer chess, and find some things that I have missed notionally, or take things that I have done and see how he sees them better than me, and I am also pretty sure he might learn by reading of my chess study progress and struggles, by checking in and comparing his findings. But just as he has his work to do and wont be reading me to find out his plan, so I wont read him to find a plan and already have my own, but really delight in looking out across the ocean of chess, and knowing that I am not alone, and deeply honor his practical, sound, neverending solid Ph.D cultivated intelligence, and hope that you do to.

SIDE NOTE FIVE POINT TWO:
Please forgive me if I have missed any major facets, but each post must have a timer now, and we are, after all, a timed sport. :) 0:55 now.

1:23 elapsed after select and format photos (from large file of ready pre-selected photos for blogger!)

1:34 all edits, photos, the whole nine yards. Now it is time to eat organic fruit, then steel cut oats adn while eating: record weekly global financial trade price data such as 'west Texas intermediate light sweet' crude oil, gold, the yen, copper, the Russel 2000 for 'small stocks', long and short term interest rates, 'the dollar', Japan, etc in updating my own ongoing permanent records for my own use... my day hasn't even started... then a bath, a nap with Mr. Reinfeld ('s book!), some blitz live chess, then CTS... smiles.

Prolegema to Any Future Chess Blogger Community, or Kant Help it

What follows is part One of a four part Essay:



Peter Norvig, The Renaissance Man, Director of Research, Google: Essay Four
Friday 22 June, 2007
For every fourth entry, we start with our wildcard feature.

We have transitioned from the enormous physical organization of Pax Roma of ancient times towards a more dematerialized power, as exemplified by one of the most powerful, innovative, and mighty companies in technology today. It is often said that ‘content is king’, and while capital markets have the largest impact on global outcomes today, control of access to information in a world of near instant mobility of capital in distributing risk and monetizing opportunities is most controlled by those who distribute content. And who better exemplifies this drive to win than Google’s Director of Research, [if you must view one single link on this entire page, then this is the one, please:] Peter Norvig?

A quick glance at his webpage reveals a paramount example of tremendously compressed but clear information and a career that, it would seem, can do no wrong. Also note his most amusing PowerPoint rendition of American President Abraham Lincolns famous Gettysburg address. He is of course not a chess player that we know, but can do much towards showing us another way of smartly integrating massive information on one page, perfect for colossal endeavors such as he touches! Take a look at this bio! Or this vitae! He says specifically that he is not looking for a job:

"Note to recruiters: Please don't offer me a job. I already have the best job in the world at the best company in the world. Note to engineers and researchers: see why you should apply to help."
















We will return to our chess bloggers tomorrow but, for now, note the progressive raise of Microsoft, Intel, then Cisco Systems, supplanted by Apple and Google as major influences in content parallels the shift in our world in the last ten years. Whether this will last is not our discussion, but note it as typifying the cross currents in our world today.

Temposchlucker and Wormwood are definitely Europeans, and to Blue Devil Knight, we add another American touchstone. Out of all this ‘creative destruction’ that is the modus operendae of my country comes--along with loss, failure, and bullying--the occasional major innovator and change agent.

Evolve or perish as they say. How can chess bloggers change, we might ask?



Wormwood The Mysterious Janus: Essay Three
Thursday 21 June, 2007, Summer Solstice

Preamble:

Wormwood is perhaps our single most preturnaturally major talent and, since we seem to know the least about him, while he has notes and comments all over the web all the while proclaiming—and I believe sincerely by him—that he only blogs for himself, amidst the wide and deep tentacles broadcast amply by temposchlucker, blue devil knight, and even yours truly, this makes him a particularly querulously if not most intractably difficult subject for our discussion here!





















Even so simple a thing as his user name is fraught with complications, overtones: nuances. The Greek word “absinthos” means “wormwood,” and the Ukranian word for wormwood is “chernobyl:”

"Artemisia absinthium (Absinthe Wormwood...) is a species of wormwood, native to temperate regions of Europe, Asia and northern Africa...It is a herbaceous perennial plant, with a hard, woody rhizome... It grows naturally on uncultivated, arid ground, on rocky slopes, and at the edge of footpaths and fields." To continue (it keeps getting more interesting):

"Therapeutic uses: The leaves and flowering tops are gathered when the plant is in full bloom, and dried naturally or with artificial heat. Its active substances include silica, two bitter elements (absinthine and anabsinthine), thujone, tannic and resinous substances, malic acid, and succinic acid. Its use has been claimed to remedy indigestion and gastric pain, it acts as an antiseptic, and as a febrifuge. For medicinal use, the herb is used to make a tea for helping pregnant women during pain of labor. A wine can also be made by macerating the herb. It is also available in powder form and as a tincture. The oil of the plant can be used as a cardiac stimulant to improve blood circulation. Pure wormwood oil is very poisonous, but with proper dosage poses little or no danger. Wormwood is mostly a stomach medicine." My goodness, and we have only just started!

The word Wormwood is also connected to deep and uncanny mysteries:

"In Revelation 8:10-11, it states 'When the third angel blew his trumpet, a large star burning like a torch fell from the sky. It fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The star was called "'Wormwood" and a third of all the water turned to Wormwood. Many people died from this water, because it was made bitter.'

"These verses talk about something named Wormwood destroying one third of the worlds drinking water during the tribulation. Wormwood is a bitter plant found in Israel, and is often mentioned in the scriptures to denote something offensive and nauseous. Now you wonder how does Wormwood poison drinking water that will kill many people.

"While watching Jack Van Impe one night on TV, he read the above two verses from a Russian Bible. When the verse came to the word Wormwood, it was spelt CHERNOBYL. It seems the Russian word for Wormwood is Chernobyl. Do you remember the nuclear power plant in Russia that had a meltdown a few years ago, was called Chernobyl? Do you think this is a coincidence?

"Now why would any one in Russia name a power plant, or anything else for that matter, after a bitter plant found in Israel, and named in the Bible as something connected to poisonous water? (see Jeremiah 9:15 and Jeremiah 23:15). They could have named the plant after a famous scientist, a famous general, an inventor, a politician etc. But they gave it the most unlikely name for a power plant 'Wormwood'. "In Revelation 8:10-11, it states:

"Well my opinion is, they had no choice, they were inspired by God Himself, as He knew what was coming in the future with the meltdown. People evacuating the area around Chernobyl, because the area is unlivable with the radiation poisoning everything. I believe He is warning all of us, that when the third angel blows his trumpet, one third of the worlds drinking water will be destroyed by radiation from nuclear bombs, nuclear power plants, or nuclear waste."

We have not even gotten to Homer, or Dante or correspondence chess, and I have only just begun...















Introduction:

Since we are speaking of major talent, it is only fair that we not fail to quickly mention so close to our blogger Wormwood juggernaut Ludwig Wittgenstein, secretive Leonardo Da Vinci, and mythopoetic HDSG (short for quad-partite Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe et. al.).

If I were to have a dinner party, I would surely invite Da Vinci, Wittgenstein, and two of the greatest of the greats among HDSG (probably Dante and Homer). I don’t even know if I LIKE Wittgenstein, but he sure seems to think he has it all figured out, cum Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus which I read assiduously line by line in my photographic mind days... but since neither the likes of Dante or Homer seem to be available right now, I would invite temposchlucker and Blue Devil Knight, that part is easy enough. But you know what?

When I make this Knights and Friends of the Knights wish list for a Hunter S. Thompson like dinner party, for a dinner of such august significance as this,














wormwood is ALWAYS THE ONE THAT EASILY COMES TO MY MIND'S EYE FIRST! Can you imagine it? And, yes, if it must be four, then I leave it to the kind readers imagination who the forth is here. And things being what they are now, it would be most remiss for chessDog not to be included as a most necessary fifth to represent all sides of the spices of the human bandwidth of human dimensionality.

My oldest friend Tom, otherwise known as ThinFins, is from Finland and is the single most creative human I have ever known on earth (I've known many!), as is Kanza of ICC (HAD had one of the most cleverly funny single set of finger notes among GM's there; ok, Estonian, sorry), and with Wormwood as the third, am absolutely convinced that all Fins are brilliant. Bahus (aka as Patzers Mind) at blogger is the most copiously assiduous in measuring his chess improvement , and he is smarter than smart, so from a data set of four, it is a certainty. The Finish language is an offshoot of an Indo-Aryan proto archaic structure (subject-object-verb languages: or SOV) only found vestigially in Hungary, Tibet, Korean, and Japan. Go figure.

Body Text:
Wormwood is 'easily' (if this can at all be said!) the hardest working person here, and in addition to 86,824 tries at CTS (chess tactical server), whereby the brute force method has bootstrapped himself as far as 1659 elo through massive and unrelenting iteration, fashioned from aparent raw beginner to two years of correspondence chess at RHP (redhotpawn.com) into 252 games, sporting a 1900+ elo rating. He comments widely at CTS, RHP, and is prolix in wide repartees as distinct from his much more reticent post here, at blogger.

As is plain to see, of course, he writes English better than I ever will and absolutely spells it better than me, while indicating English is ONLY, maybe, his forth best language. He is accomplished in graphic design, an able beer drinker, and despite my previous leadership in employing such words as "complex adaptive systems", "narcissist introjections", has completely gone beyond my pedigree in recently referring to "Gaussian Noise", signaling who is boss, to my complete fluxsome.



The probability of making friends who return or routinely acknowledge our emails or messages is like one in ten or twenty. And the probability of making friends with those who are of similar vein is the same. But the probability of such a two meeting is more like one in one hundred (and fits tempo and BDK and GM Seirawan alike on many occasions, thanks to all), and this really touches wormwood...

...who, if I can make one gentle comment, is fully capable of asking me in public to expound, or as he in characteristic blunt form says: "I know you're the kind of guy who thinks about these things, so spill", yet despite my writing a prompt, ample and characteristically considered robust DK-esque response, and had not heard a single word of acknowledgement except in mention, ten days latter, the most cryptic reference to "the method DK suggested" at his blog for one breathing second?!

It is telling that while (and as he has reiterated to me many times) he and I can contact one another at no less than four external locales at RHP, ICC messages, CTS message board, and even write each other notes at blogger, he tells me, that "sorry, but as a matter of principle I never give anyone my email on the web", nor, as I also chide him, can obtain so simple a thing as even a name or initial to a first name! Yet we have even instant messaged at ICC, so we find this Janus faced god of being very available, and not being available at all. Fascinating!

He admits to being headstrong, and being half German myself can relate. :) We both also share, *ahem* how shall we say, an eye for beauty, and chatted many a time about the physical properties of various objects. Since Blue and tempo, likeforests and chess pawnography are all seem to be quite married, I am glad I am not the only one around who can admit to having a wandering eye here?





















Closure:
No one gets off scott free here. So in the one instance, I need to jibe him gently, and despite all his explanations to the contrary, it makes no sense to me at all how an unaided individual can be 1900 elo at correspondence (35 games in progress), yet be 1051 blitz and 1091 5/0 at ICC. Of course, this is most topical here right now, and many will rush to defend this, but somewhere the truth must be between? Yes, a 1600 at CTS, but so many learned by brute memorization, so what does this fast timed CTS rating say to so fast a live chess, a "real chess"? Is this one person or two? A Janus indeed! I feel a need to write this more diplomatically, but it is late and I am done... for today...

If I may say, it is just like The Blind Watch Maker, by, is it evolutionist Richard Dawkins?--we cannot see others, just ourselves, just as Einstein said we were looking up at heaven like a watch cover, hiding the innards from our view or even understanding. We cannot judge what we do not know, and it is a mystery, this thing called another person.

Wormwood rounds out our big three, and as--again--our most gifted member is one of the ones I really watch for, and I hope you do too.


Blue Devil Knight, the Patrone: Essay Two
Wednesday 20 June, 2007













Blue Devil Knight is to evenhandedness what water is to fish. He is one of the most efficient persons here, and, if not, sure looks like one!

As briefly intimated above, Blue was very quick to become fully engaged in a back and forth email discussion with me on diverse subjects including but limited to Buddhism, Taoism, cognitive sciences, and rich personal biographic exchange. I think the very first really juicy question I asked him seemed to ‘hit the nail on the head’, and was more or less along the lines of: ‘Question: you seem to have a lot of anecdotal knowledge of chess, yet seem to say that you are new to the game. How is that?’ So I had by then found temposchlucker, who of course exhibited his broad and deep and most passionately engaged intellect, but then there is this GUY WHO IS NEW TO CHESS, and already has the lingo down. Himmm? Thereby I become hooked at blogger, and started to post my own stuff. I was wowed by how rich and smart this community of knowledge was….
















Of course, it is not appropriate for me to be specific in the known details, but I think it is more than fair to say that if most of you knew the impeccable advanced academic credentials of Blue, in navigating a formidable command of scientific and education accomplishments, with deft access to the nuances of both philosophy, pure and natural science and higher mathematics alike, both in teaching, research, in undergoing rigorous standards of self expression in publishing and peer review along the way, you would all fall over in your chairs. I saw all these before, but today, in preparing to finish what I wrote here, went back to review and found it to be even more impressive. I am starting to think that I aught never again to say one word about philosophy or psychology again and hereafter sit way in the back row behind him now out of public view.

That he has done so much beyond our view and barely ever speaking of it bespeaks of profoundly modesty, far beyond what I can imagine sustaining.

We all know folks like this in our personal lives. Folks who get a masters degree while coaching girls softball all the while building their own treated lumber decks off the side of their house or re-sanding their classic hardwood floors on holidays and weekends, entirely free of neurosis, rancor, hurry, or anxiety. Is this you Blue Devil Knight or am I idealizing you too much? We all know people like this, but some are more amazing and interesting than others. For example, if I can divert for the briefest moment because this is directly germane to my perception of Blue Devil Knight:





















Devil in a Blue Dress

My older brother earned two engineering degrees--an BE, and ME--then went on to earn a third degree (an MBA in finance from Stamford), managed to consult along the way to Citigroup in mortgages, daily preparing many gourmet meals, wrote articles for craft brewing trade magazines, always seemed to be able to run a MAC at home, next to an IBM compatible at home also, a work desktop, never confusing his files with everything in its place and a place for everything, reading ten magazines a month, latter joined the board of a financial application software company, then ran a campaign to join a school board with a $300M dollar budget then got re-elected pushing for higher wages for teachers!, speak at Oracle conferences in Orlando Florida, raised two daughters, and, of course married, and always had a database with everyone’s correct address, containing appropriate anniversary dates, birthdates, and belt and shoes sizes of all beloveds for future retrieval? The Fieldmarshal type is conveniently explicated in the well known and most usefully cogent Please Understand Me, by Keirsey and Bates, using the now classic Meyers-Briggs psychological indicator test, according to tags such as ENTJ, or ISFP according to extroversion-introversion, intuition-sensation, thinking-feeling, and judging perceiving.

I suspect and say without the slightest hint of malice, but as simple intuition, that I am not sure that if Blue and I ever met in person that we would necessarily really like each other that much, more at my fault, perhaps resorting to interpersonal combat were we forced to work on the same floor, or amid the natural clustering of social factions that occurs physically whereby inevitably the folks who don’t like you always seem to become best friends with your other nemesis? How many alpha males can every group contain? At the same time, I think that there is genuine healthy respect between us here, with healthy mutual admiration and, at times, necessary distance. I am absolutely sure that I need to become more the unflappable Apollonian [see note here, at link to his post, about half way down:], and perhaps he instead seeks the completion of the cosmic yearning if not troubling doubts of the Dionysian [cf. Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy]?





















"That extra life sure is tempting, but heaven forfend the next animal unleashed be a rabid Tasmanian devil!"

I once saw a native Japanese shichi-dan or 7th Degree black belt try to break a seriously round igneous rock in two at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in New York. He had one of those unflinching impassive roundish faces Japanese men sported by no nonsense Yakuza (Japanese Gangsters) and Japanese mountain truck drivers. He tried and failed. Without revealing any pain, he sat in Seiza (or martial arts pre-battle or courtly meditation posture) motionless and expressionless in front of a thousand watchers for what seemed like ten minutes, then, focusing his chi, brought his hand to prevail upon the rock, and with one mindful sweep, split it cleanly in two. Clearly he must have felt terrible pain. But his On (his honor) required it. I saw him after and shock his hand. And you know what? His handshake was soft like a girls. I never forgot that moment and it make an impression on me that has lasted for 25 years now like it was just yesterday.

When temposchlucker handed over the scepter to Blue Devil, he was not only serving himself, but serving the knights, and knew full and well what he was doing. Blue Devil, I am willing to bet good money on--if he wanted--could kick all our asses on paper or with words or elsewhere. For this, I have the greatest empathy for him, if not affinity. That he has this edge yet chooses not to push it on anyone is the unmistakable mark of him as a true gentleman, and indicates his great strength and capacity for which, I have the greatest respect and hope you do too
















Temposclucker The Mighty: Essay One
Tuesday 19 June, 2007

Temposchlucker, aka Tempo, is as close to being the “grand puba” at blogger chess improvement. A real father figure and major talent!

Many of us are highly ambitious, unusually motivated, hard working, canny in exhausting all means and provisions for getting better, and (at least for some of us!) at times self involved, but he is by far the most poignant example of what it is to be a chess improvement blogger. He makes this a great place, and never ceases to entertain and to educate and, yes, endlessly poke fun at us windmill chasers.

When I first showed up here almost 12 months ago, it was after my first real trip east to see my father in sixteen years, having long ago said (and truly meaning it: ) “You’ll never see me again!” That trip had been recently preceded by proud completion of my first 10,000 problems at chess tactical server--and so then naturally all the more motivated to “chomp on the bit” there--only to find a complete outage for, was it, eight entire days, and had nowhere and no one to turn to!

I went to Google needing to know if it was me alone or system wide (my at the time notebook was old!), and there he was, in all his glory, temposchlucker! I simply typed in chess blog, and there he was--this same mighty 50,000 tries CTS user, whose obviously unmistakable name I recognized immediately. The joy! He quickly confirmed this outage, and when the system came back on, I immediately alerted him, as he was not yet aware (eight days of log-ins had failed, but yes, I was resolute!) then he forthwith sent me a warm thank you note. Most interesting of all—for me—early on I had my email posted, and we quickly exchanged warm emails, which I also did with Blue Devil Knight, but to establish this same type of trust with other ANY other subsequent and secondary contacts would take another half year before I started to get more direct—and trusted access—to anyone else but these two, enduring to this day and greatly treasured by me.

Temposchlucker is someone that I trust. He is the most helpful of persons, which can be attested to by many, BDK not least among them I am sure. He is someone that I can write almost any time and will hear back--often promptly despite his doubtless many many cares. I don't always hear back from every email from these fellows but, I honestly know that if I let him (or them) know that it is important to me, surely will. Outstanding persons all the way.





















In America, we have this deep sense of (well deserved!) nascent inferiority to Europeans, and like wormwood (our 'big three'), exhibits this persistent practical intelligence on all matters, and we in America who always seem to be in such a breathless hurry like Former President Reagan or President Bush (ready to stand at a podium to deliver a missive to reform the world on a moments notice), what, with running from the many bulldozers behind our homes chased in turn by mortgage bankers, realtors, gangsta rappers, and cognitive therapists on relationship, family, addiction, and workplace issues, never seem to construct much of value, and have our far more sensible European ancestors to look at.

The Dutch, whom GM Seirawan tells me are “the most imperialist of all nations in this world”, that is to say, the ability to own, control, and make the most practical measures such as holding back no less a body as the North Sea, coordinating massive foreign trade, or conducting efficient railways using the greatest engineering know how ever known to man, are the smartest of societies, like the Japanese or Germans without the toxic patriarchal rigidity!--and tempo exemplifies this.



So Tempo as such, has this inherency as part of this cleaver society, but also has this preternatural yearning to plan in spades. And if I were to suggest any one thing, it would be that at a certain point we cannot make any more plans, and need to work with what we have, hunkered down in singularity or primacy, as it were, and eat our own cooking. We cannot breathlessly, every day, like Nietzsche proclaim a new transvaluation of all values, supplanting all previous efforts, in revisionist form. I cannot disclose my informant, but HE said to me (hint, the smartest blogger!): “tempo has a problem with planning’. I am not sure what this means, but it instantly seemed brilliantly right—not meanspirited, but rings too cleanly not to have more than a grain of truth?

Lastly, I remind the kind reader, that I more or less said the same thing in my October post, "Saying What is NOT being said: simple, middle, or complex" more or less the same thing already, that is to say more ideas, more plans, more schemes does not necessarily get us more, but can add noise, overhead, or distraction.

But let us not fall too far, and recall, that for someone so intelligent, and truly gifted, that to be so brilliant while having a heart of gold is a very dear thing. What I treasure most of all, after he poked fun at me, and upset me, is that now we can joke with each other, and he DOES have this Dutch sense of humor as he explains it. There are many brilliant bloggers, so many—yes--that he is ‘just one of them’, but a great leader and participant among us for sure nevertheless. He was here if not first, near the start, and carried the Knights Errants forward unselfishly, but was bigger, more frequent, deeper.

I can assure you, nearly any plan you can conceive or execute, he has either tried it or thought of. Temposchlucker is if not our most erudite chess scholar then among our smallest handfull since there is virtually no chess opening or tactical or strategy book he either has not read or heard of or thought of doing something with.

Very lastly, and I hope that he is not offended, and while he may not agree, I feel more like him than anyone here, not the same, but there is this affinity, perhaps exemplified by not only his raw emotions, and boxing background (Karate here), but readings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, whom I of course read assiduously through my mid thirties, and led to my first true spiritual teachers, that is to say, those who will kick your ass. To me, the single most attractive thing in a friend, or in a woman, or a coworker is vulnerability--the ability to report or say it like it is authentically. And among such inteligent persons is a great rarety. Tempo has this childlike ever lasting self renewing quality, that I truly love and hope you do too, and he is naturally enough our first essay.

Rybka-Shredder, WCCC Round 11 and Magnus versus Nakamura, ICC: Battle of Blitz Giants tonight

I stayed up last night, watching the last round of the WCCC, Round 11. It turned out, that Rybka and Shredder embarked upon the latest wrinkle of the most theoretically advanced line of the Najdorf Poisened Pawn variation. Of course, I do not play this but erudite in main lines even if I don't play them, instantly recognizing the same topical line employed variously by Anand as black versus Moytlev at Wijk aan Zee, then as white versus Van Wely also at Wijk aan Zee (winning on both sides of the table), and variously by Shirov, Shabalov versus Ehlvest at the recent U.S. Chess Championship, and seen, I think it was in one of the armageddon games at Elista, was it with Grishchuk versus Rublevsky?

At a certain point, having seen the line, and however intricate, more often than not resulting in a draw, I said with [silly!] confidence 'draw', in my kibitz at ICC. I don't usually talk that way, but how many times had I seen it?

postion after 19. ...0-0, 20. Bd6!

I also don't often run a prog watching chess, in fact, I'd say almost never, but I was curious to see how Rybka would deviate versus my Fritz8. The most advanced? No. Usually good enough! I just knew this would patently demonstrate a higher order of chess innovation, at the highest level, and was all ears!

At move 24. ...after Qc3, I thought for sure it was a quick draw, along several lines from before and after, but no, Rybka played 25. Bg4. It was not even among the Fritz candidate moves, and, again, my software not the most advanced, but my desktop is quite fast.

As an experiment, even now, I am running this position again, and Fritz at depth of 14, at 827 nodes per second shows this as move two or choice two, indicating 25. Bg4 as another drawing line! But it wins.

This is why Rybka is the Mozart of chess programs. It plays as a super GM at great depth, and 'sees' better than what other programs can barely 'see'.

--------------------------

It is my Saturday today, this week, and much needed rest. After my obligatory early evening nap (I live for naps! Ten, fifteen minutes is all I need, more often than not), I got on ICC, and, wolla, there was Magnus Carlsen playing Nakamura. I almost did a double take. Magnus? Which one? But it was the real thing.

They played like 50 games, and I watched more than half of them.

What did Magnus do?

Time to time, when Naka played (as white) 2.Qh5 after 1.e4... e5, Magnus LET him mate him. And what did Naka do, he took it. Magnus was saying, "don't give me this crap", but then turn round and beat him. I must say, Naka was swift, if not most inpertinant in offering patent disrespecting draws in a lost postion. Ba Humbug.

"my little morning oyster"

Naka seemed to be slightly + in the score, but with five or six 'gimmies' on 2. Qh5, Magnus seemed to rule by a bit. When did Naka quit or log-off? When he won two in a row. Battle royal. Naka is not a nice kid, but he can play blitz. Did anyone else see this impromptu match?

-------------

1550 tonight, 91.78% last 815 tries at CTS, chess tactical server. Not bad:

Big Fishes and Little Fish Prologue

MEETING OF THE MINDS, CHESS:

Blue Devil (links: left), looks onto Wormwood (center), as Temposchlucker (right) asks them: "How can we stop this planned series of essays by dk-transform? What if he mentions us? What if he goes to print as soon as Tuesday?"

While I round out the second essay on bloggers, and prepare to write the third, so that, as it were I can get a head start on all readers, and in so doing as I publish essay one, write the fourth essay, then publish essay two the next day or two days latter, then write the fifth as I publish the second, etc, and so stay 'ahead of everyone'. Fifteen essays, fifteen bloggers.


I have been thinking about Rybka a lot lately. Do I really need it? No. But so cool!

Opening ICC tonight and, to amazement, finding the results from round 8 for The World Computor Chess Championship (WCCC), Amsterdam, Netherlands June 11-18, 2007, only flamed my sense of enchantment all the more... sporting a sharp game between Deep Sjeng and our subject program. Talk about brilliance and creativity! [other (bad) link provided by ICC and citations at Google alike inoperable at 17:45 EST, 22:45 BST Sat, so directly thus: http://amsterdam2007.icga.org/ ]






I am inches from buying Rybka Version UCI for multiprocessor, I assume, 32 bit 2.3 for dual core processors. Without further ado, one of the many articles linked at their handsome site, this one from chessvibes.com:


Rybka’s immortal game
Sunday 10 December 2006, 14.20 CET, by peter

Kramnik’s 4-2 loss of last week against the computer program Deep Fritz was a big blow. Not as big of course as Kasparov’s defeat in 1997 against Deep Blue, which is universally considered as the end of the human supremacy over chess engines, but the international media did mention it, for example the BBC and CBS. The news even inspired a computer programmer to try and make a program that will be the best in the poker world as well! Especially for the company Chessbase the victory of their darling pet Fritz was nice of course, and they did not dread in calling it the world’s leading chess computer program, already during the match. However, Deep Fritz is not the best. Not at all.

Chess connoisseurs (like the readers of this site) know already that between the chess programs we have to speak of an absolute monarch that listens to the name Rybka. But how strong is Rybka? And then, how strong is (Deep) Fritz? A lot of chess players are asking such questions these days and therefore today we pay attention to computer chess.

The strength of human beings is represented quite clearly in the FIDE rating list, but the situation in the world of chess engines is a bit more complicated since several lists are beging used there. There are different lists for 32-bit or 64-bit engines that run on one or more processors. But there’s also the difference between the 40/20 and 40/120 lists: based on 40 moves in 20 minutes or 40 moves in 120 minutes. We’re talking about test games, because computer engines rating lists are (because of a lack of enough man vs machine tournaments) based on test games against each other.












If the above made you dazzle, what follows will bring both of your feet back onto the ground: Rybka tops every computer rating list there is. In the next list, by Computer Schach und Spiele, only 32-bit versions of engines for one processor appear. In other words: programs that can be bought and used by you and I for playing or analysing.CSS Rankings:

1. Rybka 2.2 2972
2. Loop 10.32 2853
3. Shredder 10 UCI 2838
4. Toga II 2835
5. Fritz 10 2832
6. Fruit 2.2.1 2820
7. Hiarcs X54 UCI 2810
8. Spike 1.2 Turin 2782
9. Junior 10 2772
10. Ktulu 8 2752

There’s a huge hole between the number 1 (the latest version of Rybka, just released) and the rest. Compared to version 2.1, Rybka’s programmer, Vasik Rajlich, managed to make his engine stronger especially in tactics. The list does show this. Version 10 of the world famous engine Fritz was released very recently as well. Compared to predecessor Fritz 9 this program got stronger about 30 to 50 points but between the computer engines it occupies a modest fifth place.



So what about Deep Fritz, the program that beat Kramnik? According to Jeroen Noomen, a journalist for Computerschaak and responsible for Rybka’s opening repertoire, Deep Fritz should be compared to Rybka 2.2 mp, the multi-processor version: “Both play on two or more processors. At the moment it’s clear that Fritz 10 is about a hundred rating points weaker than Rybka 2.2, and the situation will probably be about the same for Deep Fritz 10 and Rybka 2.2 mp. So far I ran about 650 test games between Rybka 2.2 and Fritz 10 and the score is 65% for 2.2. Fritz 10 will probably fight for the second place with Loop, Shredder 10 and Hiarcs 11. The distance to Rybka 2.2 is quite big.” And this is quite unique, also in the world of chess engines. Noomen: “Never before in the history of computer chess there was such a big difference between the number 1 and 2!”

What is it that makes Rybka so strong? The answer is: her (the programmer considers Rybka to be female) evaluation. It’s far better than with other programs. One of the reasons must be that programmer Rajlich is an IM. Jeroen Noomen is a member of the Rybka team and cannot be really objective here, but still, I’ll let him speak once more. In the September issue of Computerschaak he writes: “The big news must be brought now. Despite their sky-high ratings, the evalution of most of the engines I’ve seen, is crap! This sounds harsh, but it is what I’m observing.”

In May this year, at the Turin Olympiad, I spoke to Vasik Rajlich myself. Then I already asked him what makes Rybka so strong The programmer also mentioned her evalution first. As an example he gave this position:



And to explain how engines can differ in evaluating positions, he added this list:

Rybka 1.2 0.57
Fritz9 0.86
Rybka 1.0 1.30
Fritz 5.32 1.00

An early version of Fritz only sees the extra pawn. Endings was Rybka 1.0’s weak spot and so here she’s far too optimistic. But this can also be said for Fritz 9, because naturally White’s winning chances are not bigger than, say, half a pawn.
Rajlich told me he doesn’t really believe in brute force, but considers selective search more important. Intelligence that is. “My motivation is to create a chess program that understands chess.”

Vasik Rajlich at the Turin Olympiad, May 2006 [photo, dk]
In Chess Today’s edition of last Friday, I ran into the next, fantastic game by Rybka. If you thought that games between computers are never interesting, forget about that. Chess Today’s annotator, IM Andrei Deviatkin, is right when he compares the game with Anderssen-Dufresne and Anderssen-Kieseritzky. This is Rybka’s immortal game.

Shredder 10 - Rybka 2.1WBEC13 Premier Division, 2006
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nf6 3. d3 Nc6 4. Nf3 Bc5 5. O-O d6 6. c3 O-O 7. Nbd2 a6 8. Re1 Ba7 9. Bb3 Ng4! 10. Re2 Kh8 11. h3 Nh6 12. g4?Better is 12. Nf1 f5 13. d4 Qf6 like in Kosteniuk-Mamedyarov, Lausanne 2003. Then Black is doing fine as well.



12… Nxg4!The start of a beautiful attack on the king, in the style of the old masters.13. hxg4 Bxg4 14. Nh2 Qh4! 15. Nxg4 Qxg4+ 16. Kf1 f5 17. Rb1 (17. exf5 Rxf5 18. Ne4 Rh5! (18… Raf8 19. Ke1 Bxf2+ 20. Kd2 Rf3 21. Kc2 ended in a draw in Izmukhambetov-Aronian, Moscow 1996) 19. Ng3 Rh2 and Black wins (Deviatkin).17… Rad8 18. Qc2 f4! 19. Ke1 f3 20. Nxf3 Rxf3 21. Be3 Rdf8 22. Kd2



“Black’s position is obviously won. But, instead of winning technically, Black preferred to play very… romantic and impressive chess! It may seem that Black’s pieces belonged, for example, to Paul Morphy or Alexander Alekhine. However, in reality Black is only a computer program, which chose these “romantic” moves only for the reason of the better evaluation after it!” - Deviatkin.

22…Rxe3!
22… Bxe3+ 23. fxe3 Rxe3! 24. Qd1 Qxe2+ Deviatkin.
23. fxe3 Bxe3+! 24. Rxe3 Nd4! 25. cxd4 Rf2+ 26. Kc3
26. Kc1 Qf4 27. Qxf2 Qxf2 28. dxe5 Qxe3+ Deviatkin.
26… exd4+ 27. Kxd4



27… Qg5!!
“A fantastic move! Instead of taking the queen (which would win too), Black leaves his own rook under the queen’s threat. But actually, White is helpless.” - Deviatkin.

28. e5
28. Qxf2 Qc5#; 28. Qxc7 Qe5+ 29. Kc4 d5+ 30. Kb4 Qxc7; 28. Rf3 c5+ 29. Kc4 b5+ 30. Kc3 Qe5+ 31. d4 Qxd4#; 28. Qc4 Qe5#; 28. Qc3 c5+ 29. Kc4 b5# Deviatkin.

28… Rxc2 29. Bxc2 c5+ 30. Kd5 Qxe3 31. Kxd6 Qd4+ 32. Kc7 Qxe5+ 33. Kxb7 g5 34. Bb3 g4 35. Kxa6 g3 36. Kb5 g2 37. Kc6 Qd4 38. Bd5 g1D 39. Rxg1 Qxg1 40. a4 h5 41. Be4 0-1

Journey To Elista, part 2

important chess improvment blogger announcement at end of text concerning everyone here:










The Chess City, the Kalmykian steppe

Heartily we recommend that kind readers be certain to not miss the most amusing chessBase photo essay from the end of Elista, with many endearing photos. I reproduce the article leading summary paragraph and three photos, without further ado:















Material for a month of adversarial dinner-time debates: FIDE deputy president Georgios Makropoulos

14.06.2007- The Candidates Finals have ended, most of the players are alreay on their journey home. We are spending a last day in this chess capital of the world, where an entire chess city has been stamped out of the steppes of the lower Volga region. It is unusually quiet and there are no games scheduled for the afternoon. A good opportunity to present you part two of our narrative: a journey to Elista.

A Journey to Elista – Part two
Report by Frederic Friedel: photo essay, continued at link.















Our absolutely favourite dinner companion in Elista: former world champion Boris Spassky

One tiny note or two briefly: despite every intent to never go back to architecture while having a secure (but limited occuation I have been hunkered down in, for YEARS while I work on my BEING--I get to wear shorts, a t-shirt even in winter, and have only a wee little six minute commute to work, even coming home for lunch daily [what is THAT worth in America?], it seems that not only do I have an interview Monday, but this firm asking to see me is not only very good, but very selective, and is one of the top residential firms in Seattle.

Unlike eighteen years ago, I am now a mature seasoned man, without an ego as being THE architect, the consumate talent, :) but rather simply will show up and ask if and how I can be of assistance? You want an office manager, ok. You want sales and marketing, ok! I am all ears. Teamwork; needs analysis. Humility. Service. Regard. I am sure they already have a lot of other major talent, and what I do best is keep track of big pictures.

















God, Creation, whatever you care to call it sent me this lead without effort, in the classic way boy meets girl without trying, and I do not aim to doubt it or cling to outcomes. Thy will be done. Enchala. Cast your bread upon the waters and you will find it in many days.

Busy at CTS (chess tactical server) daily again, and CT-Art 3.0 to begin level five, 2137 elo, 72% overall.

warmest, dk

[It's hard to stay away. So here is what I plan: daily in the next week or few days, the more puriently vain of each of can come back here and read a small essay about you. Yes, that's right: I have already begun.

Once I start, like the fifteen days before Christmas, I am going to write a (not always!) short piece each day about each of our more popular bloggers, and/or among those I know here who read me whom I read, and a few who I read who don't seem to read me...

Promise not to disappoint. Who is going to the prom? My aim will be pithy, well characterized portraits of what I know and love about each of you... himmmm?

Stay tuned!]

Quiet Time

I am going to be taking some quiet time--but am not leaving here, or closing down for good or for long... But I am just putting the final touches on finishing the 30,000 unit at CTS (chess tactical server) after a monster run of 107 in a row correct, here at 1480-1545 recently.

Moreover, along with that, I am again pushing hard on CT-Art 3.0, and now find myself really grabbing hold of it with intense ardor. 2132 elo end of level four @ 72% overall, and ready to soon start level five.

Following a focused week on CTA3, my CTS rating quickly soared from 1500 to 1546 elo or so, and after the rarest bum session Sunday (true exhaustion from work, when once a month I am obligated to work 10 out of 11 days--standing for eight hours) when I got 16.9% wrong (I very rarely get 2 wrong out of 10 in bunches, but had many 3 of 10 trances Sunday, and one 5 out of 10--now THAT is tired! I am not that bad--with 'proof of the pudding' being Monday, when I did virtually the same thing for a brief space, when home briefly for lunch--over chess).














So thereafter, I put my head down and put the lazer back on, and just did 1f/122s= 123 tries. With CTA3 in hand in next week, I will zoom back to 1500+ and again, now that I recovered that shortest sub 90% annualized rate! My goodness! 1482 elo for a moment is far better than 1545 for me and a regressing percentile however slight on the margin! NO, NO, NO!

With the next 340 tries at CTS at 90.0%, I will be at 86.0507% for 30,000 tries and so prepare for the next push to 1600 at 90% equal or greater all sessions as my mandate, and see how far I can go at that accuracy level now. 1550 elo was inches away, and at 90 to 95% sessions at CTS paired with CTA, am confident in time I can do that... A bit of CT-Art 3.0 with a little CTS is a lot better than a lot of CTS with little or no CTA3.

Bye for now. Break from blogging. I will be changing some things, and nobody wishes to remain the same or repeat their 'one man act' day after day. How or where I do not know, but surely...















There is a new breed of 2400 elo women in chess who are hip, attractive, and worldly, to the delight of many a chess fan...

Focus, focus, focus, and roar the boiling water under CT-Art 3.0, then get back to live chess, and push back on 1600 ICC blitz (lot of games thereof on Vicadin in December and November, hardly a good measure of "real chess"). Lots of work to do.

Lastly, I am pushing on five per day of One Thousand and One Winning Sacrifices and Combinations by Reinfeld, and enjoying it immensely.

Warmly, dk