Running ALL The Horses, Literally!
Far be it for me to say I have not been blogging due to any lack of interest, quite the contrary, I have actually NOT been blogging due to intensely ardous work on chess daily and for hours and hours for many weeks now.
I did finish compiling the big, or what I now like to call the gigantic database, comprised of about 3,000 classic GM games, or 3,274 games with necessary duplicates.
I did finish reading Euwe-Kramer's Middlegame in Chess volume II, topped 88.0% at CTS, and even have been entering by hand the Informant endings selected in chessCafe, or The Pearl in Endings by Zdenko Krnic parts one and two, into cbv files, including all the annotations. This is not all of it. There is more.
I have resumed live internet play again, as distinct from study only, and have moved up from 0 4 lightning at FICS to 3 8 blitz there, not to mention analysing most of the game in Fritz 8 for variations. This is an interum step towards soon playing 2 12, but need a little rapid brush up first between this faster chess and somewhat slower time control (relative to my recent history, at least).
Actress Lake Bell: perfect mouth, perfect eyes, perfect everything!
I watched all the start of the games at the Dutch classic Corus or Wijk aan Zee. Also, I have deeply organized or structured all my chessBase 9 files in the new year, classifying things according to games to add to my classic GM game database or what I call GM candidates 2008 (adding more to my Gigantic game file just makes things too unstable, so instead segregate new content, thus); I have a file below that, that I call interesting recent games that don't quite warrent classic, since so many great games exist which, if I made them all classics would greatly diminish the significance of the latter game file; and finally, I have a classic file for historic (not recent) games mentioned in chess journalism but somehow--in rare cases--not in my Big GM Game File already.
I also have an endgame file now, that for example the Pearl of Endings would go in, but any other endgames mentioned in the press are included. So that is four new files now.
And if this were not enough, I have been very, very carefully reading and implimenting the Mig article on GarryBase or on how to build a repertoire in chessBase, and further in the three related articles by Steve Lopez at chessBase.com, and finally the two fantastic articles by Grandpatzer regarding similar. Just try this, little alone comprehending it and what it all means and on how it all goes together! Not a simple, mindless matter, but this is clearly among my next steps in chess along with ending study.
For Polly (Castling Queenside) et al. Old model from ten years ago, then improved version, with more design and expense! $$$.
Very, very lastly, I have resumed my work at Reinfeld's 1001 Sacrifices and Combinations, and am also reading Alekine's 107 Great Chess Battles 1935-1942 is, the title, in bed, jumping from diagram to diagram and reading his acerbic text. Alekhine is not what you exactly call a 'nice guy', believe you me!
On a personal note, work is very, very challenging now, what, with all the downsizing going on in the housing industry, and the precarious position of being a high performer at my big retailer but, at the same time, also being the highest paid person in the store who is not a manager, and more than many of the department managers, so they don't take much of an interest in any of my complaints of which there are many since I am neither a docile person nor quiet in the face of injustice, stupidity, and systemic or copious disregard for humanity. :). Honest.
GM Seirawan is comming back to Seattle in early spring, and promises to meet me again. Last years lunch with his wife while quiet pleasant had to be uncharacteristically rushed. What do I say? Do I not see the man or just take such a special opportunity as it comes? Of course, the latter very kindly was able to squeeze me in, treating me to a capacious lunch as part of a thank you for a valuable investment strategy which paid them handily--eaten at my favorite Korean monk friends Teriyaki resturant which is now sorrowfully closed.
Epic heros Sir Edmond Hillary (right) and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa (left). Hillary is aptly remembered in Nepal for his kindness to the locals more than his record first summet of Mount Everest.
I turn fifty in October. I have been very, very, very, very sad. Where did it all go? My life???
I am on the short list for a Police Department 9-1-1 Dispatcher position in a large nearby city, and out of several hundred candidates, managed to be among the thirty or so who qualified for the first round. Nevertheless, the requirements and steps are daunting, but reassure mysef--with unabashed candor--that I am one of the best persons that I have ever met on the phone...
...and rather like the idea of gettting paid with secure employment for tending inevitable progressive societal instability to come in the years ahead, what with global warming, certain flight of capital exiting the U.S. ensuing from Dollar disintermediation and stock market devolution if not collapse, fiscal and monetary crazed policies only posponing the day of reaconing, further purchases of U.S. assets by China, power interuptions, global disturbance, food shortages following distribution, transport, and delivery system problems, etc, etc, etc. And so on....
I do not wish for these tensions, but see them all coming--for sure--to our as yet unruffled shores amid vast worker workcamps in the guise of corporate participation, milking the poor and overworked so a few rich persons can ride in Hummers or get priviledged spa vacations and other luxurious perks of vast entitlement.
As Voltaire's Candid said: "Let us tend our gardens". Or, let us tend our chessBase as I would say.
posted by transformation at 2:38 AM
9 Comments:
Now that you've completed Euwe and Kramer's books on the middlegame, how would you compare them to other books on strategy such as How to Reassess Your Chess, My System, Moder Chess Strategy, or Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy (whichever you've read)?
Wow! I got exhausted just reading about everything you've been doing! When I catch my breath I'll have to click on the links. :-)
Nice bike porn. Thanks for keeping me in mind.
by far, superior to all of them. i have read them all and own them all.
buy it, sleep on it, absorb it, and, if you really want to go crazy, load them into cbv!
there were instances, in the overlap of viewing my GM game collection, the next day or hours latter would see the same position in Euwes delectable book, and say, 'yes, didnt i JUST see this'.
euwe has it all, and my respect knows no bounds.
cf. comment by Silman in the bibliography, in the back of HTRYC where he says as much, 'long out of print, beg it, buy it, steal it' etc.
in print now.
warmest dk
last note for: likeForests
polly:
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while i am inclinded to write you a more elaborated response, perhaps my next post can say more about this generally.
i have a police exam tuesday morning, and must practice a lot of typing, before then, so will post more instead...
those of us below 1700 if not 1600 need to work a lot harder than you do, at this time, just not to sink amidst so much uncertainty.
for now, i can only encourage you by saying that these are superior links for all aspiring serious chessBase users, and beg upon you not to cast them aside. much gold exists there!
thank you.
How appropriate, On groundhog day he comes out of his hole and lets us witness what he sees! Thanks for informing us of 6 more weeks before Sierrawan comes to Seattle in the Spring :)
I couldn't resist, I wish you the best in your transition to a new career path. I know people who work at the local Big Box here and it is a soul sucking place.
Insightful on the societal instabilities. My prognostications tend to be a bit more hopeful with the impending regime change. Medical markets will be strong. New energy markets will emerge once the stronghold over oil slackens.
I turn fifty in October. I have been very, very, very, very sad. Where did it all go? My life???
Unfortunately, it is hard for me to understand what you are thinking, because I haven't experienced turning 50 (while 30 is approaching soon, it's not quite the same thing)
This is actually one of the reasons I am keeping a blog...so I can remember that life is LONG, a LOT has happened, and be able to read back over it and say "wow, look at this huge history; it would take me forever to read it".
We can't remember a lot of the things we did...but it doesn't mean they didn't happen.
Of late, it seems you have had some more focus on fullness of life, and in a few years you will have a different, more optimistic perspective!
Thanks for the comparison and good luck on the interview process. My wife and I are rooting for you! Between your sometimes voluminous posts and your extensive work adding chess games to your database move by move you should pass the typing test!
Good luck in the job hunt. It sounds like a great job, perfect fit for your personality. Tell us their email we will flood them with recommendations. I'm sure they wouldn't be put off at all by a bunch of chess bloggers telling them who to hire. :)
very kind, thank you. while i have practiced very, very hard, i didnt get it (i am just up from my night's sleep (2:15 pm to 43:50 pm, just now!).
i only had a nap from 2;15 am to 4:45 am last night since they wanted to see me early this morning at the main police headquarters, for three+ hours this morning, right when I should be asleep.
i wasnt tired, and i was very alert. how can a man not be UP for his moment??? you cannot because it was yours.
actually, they were very, very, most professional, organized, and most courteous.
in the end, i scored high to perfect in MANY categories, but yo need to be able to bang in 2,700 key strokes per hour WHILE hearing messages:
"I am Sandy Jones. I live at 2645 Broadacres, and a red truck is in my neighbors driveway, and he is away, I don't know them, and they are taking furniture away. The Licence plate is xyz".
while you are doing this, pop ups come at you from the corner of the screen, and you have fifteen seconds to select: fire, EMT, police, or utility company on another incident. as you reach to hit THAT button, the caller is giving you a vin number on a car or HER detailed drivers license.
i am just not that perfect a typest, despite an alert if not quick mind.
i had 1970 and 2150 characters per hour in two key categories, but all else sufficient. this is the essence of the job.
take your hats off to the folks who can do this. me? i dont have calm nerves, my hands start to shake. that is why i was never a track star, or top wrestler, or even keeps me from maybe getting to class A-/B+. i am not wired that way.
now, put me infront of 1,000 people to give a talk ('talk'), and i can do it.
but control my hands, my body?? in that way? give me a sedative, and no problem. or here now at home typing to you. bang, bang, bang. no problem.
so i dont think that i will reapply. the girl next to me was, in comparison to a Morgan Stanley former broker, a ER phone operator in a hospital. we were two out of thirty out of several hundred applicants. they had a right to expect i could do it. but SHE had 6,000 keystrokes per hour.
when your heart stops, better she than me when you describe the hard to describe alley of your resturant kitchen or basement, if such happens, as is common sense.
standing next to my boss (god strike me dead if i lie, his name is Stalin), two days ago:
"Stalin, what do we have 3280 items in tools?"
"lets see [goes to our legacy system]. It is 3315"
"and we didnt scan, what, 3% of them?"
"David, its 98"
i cannot see the datapoint, but quickly calculate it [previous are made up but close to the real number:
"that should be about 91.5?"
he is pointing to the screen, and it says 91.74 and smiles.
"David, this is because you are good at math!"
"sorry. no. its more than that, but PATTERNS".
OH WELL.... despite being sober, and good on the phone, and a perfect driving record, i didnt get it, nor wish to spend 60 days in a typing program. god must have another plan, and so be it!
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thank you for asking!
warmest, dk
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