David, How Are You?

A kind reader asked me how I was doing.  Mostly very good, but you know how I am and how it goes with me, mixed is always in the mix. Report:

Moved to Tacoma successfully in mid-January. My expectations for here was of a grim, soulless place. How little do we know!  How little indeed do I know.  This proves the fundamental ignorance of life.  Not only did I have this view for many years, but vocalized it, but as recently as the fall with great force, having no idea that I would be here.  Rather Tacoma is beautiful, calm, and remarkably--just as my benefactors told me--it IS COMPLETELY AND UNEXPECTEDLY DIFFERENT than Seattle. People ARE SO NICE!

I started another cycle of CT-Art 3.0, but my otherwise svelte, swift, super fast Acer finally gave up the ghost. Once it started, it was great. It had severe power problems, start up problems from day one, minute one. Word to the wise: if you buy something that is brand new, not cheap, and is defective as you drive it the first time, use it the first time, meet him or her the first time, sleep there the first time, work there the first week or month, eat it the first time, get rid of it. Send it back.  I have tried so hard to be an accepting person, but this one I no longer wish to accept, and have learned to keep this way of seeing.  No.  As Nietzsche said in his Beyond Good and Evil:  'The wisest of all ages have all agreed:  "It is no good"'.

So I got rid of it, and started over, so am back at zero there. All, all my ChessBase files were backed up, except my TWIK's 885 to 919, which I cannot buy or download, reloading MegaBase 2011 (really a 2010, with a patch which they allow you to download off their server.  A real total mess), adding the subscriptions for 2011, added Corr 2011. 5.899M games. Today I downloaded (new) TWIK's 920-940, but alas, the old Week In Chess removed them. As is fair. Mark Crowther must eat. He will sell access in the next few weeks, $20.00 per year, not bad for ten years of free data, on my end...

I am gluten and dairy free again.



My host needs help dressing up their organic garden, organic and yard work, and no amount of hours can repay the support they gave me the in the last year++ and for the furnished and pantry filled condo for this year, and more, so I run there whenever I can. Let me know when to get there!  That is my position.  So this however squelches my ultr-marathon training.  Glad to help Robert and DJ, but bittersweet, when I wonder how my now being down about 12 lbs with an even more refined diet would allow me to run 30 miles instead of 19 or 20, or run 12 more vigorously?  Gratitude matters far more.  Running 'will be there when I come back'.

I am now the chess coach at a very highly regarded High School here, on a volunteer basis.  And in a most beautiful setting, in a near castle overlooking the Puget Sound.  Easy to figure out that one!  Alas, Grandmaster Seirawan, who went to school in our state, even wrote a letter of recommendation to the High School Principal. If that were not enough, the best MAN AT HIS WEDDING went to this same school, some forty miles from Seattle.  Small world. Yaz is of course number one in the state, never mind top ten USA. Eric Tangborne also graduated there, who is yet another close friend of Yassers, who is number two in state. So the stars lined up. I am serious. I am committed.  My dream is high.  I am at the zero line.  The same usual mix of great confidence, and need for great humility.

I cannot and will not erase my social media of the last eight years, but not only at the high school, but at the middle school four blocks, five minutes walk from my house similarly volunteer, also on a serious basis. So my wild man days or preternatural inclination to acerbity writing on the web are over. I am in the public. No cursing, no special images, no wild videos. I can say that, can I not? I am not kidding. I have first and foremost, to make sure kids are safe, so this blog is hereby in the lines.  This goes for any teacher, or anyone else part of a school.



My new PC arrived two days ago, a quad, 12 GB of RAM. Fast.  The Fritz 11 SE which comes with ChessBase 11 is fast. Yes. Why of course, do I own Rybka. Before there was a Houdini or it was as yet seen as best, the latter was an is more than strong enough for any club player.  But this time I did not load it. Too darn slow. Its evals are unique, and I am eager to try it with all this extra ram, but it can wait.

I played a ton of Chess960 when I got here. An opponent was so unsportsmanlike, I ranted to the staff, sent five emails to the President, Ruy Mura, told them this man needs to apologize to me, or I am probably going to ask to terminate my account immediately, and a refund for balance. They wrote me back. You know how it goes. You don't read what you are not ready for, so save it, for when you have emotional energy for it. I have not read it, but will. Sad. I have standards, and I am not done talking about this. Trust me on this. * * * Big companies always talk about conduct, and zero tolerance, but we all know it is a myth.

Its like someone said recently, CEO's all talk about standards, as along as it is for someone else.  I am not mad at Ruy, who is always good to me, but the way this is, is poor.  I am not done talking about this.  Chess.com does not allow it.  Why should ICC.  I once heard Yermolinsky say something, comparing Magnus to well known behavior of Tiger Woods, worse than you can say.  I copied it, reported it.  Nothing done.  Yermo?  Great comentator?  YES!!!  Among the best.  So they instrumentalize it, turning a blind eye to decency, in the name of revenue.  This is already way too great an insert, in my new modus operandi of 'clean', but I do plan to stay me.  Right message, less upset, more calm.

My otherwise nice condo has water, mold damage. The carefully orchestrated plan was to remediate in just a few days, is now planned for weeks, so I am again staying at ExtendedStay, paid by my beloved host.

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More of video, hard to find best full version, so here is another anchor:



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Weather here remarkably uniform.  We surrounded on three side by a arm of the ocean.  Seattle has this same weather, the Puget Sound has this, its one of the major reasons we are here, along with access to cultural diversity, alpine, marine, and tucked as far in a corner of the USA as can be, as far from LA, and New York, and Miami as can be and not be in another country.  But Tacoma as far as weather goes exaggurates that.  We are in a heat sink.  Indeed, high and low tides here, can change from -3.0 to +13.5', or 5.2 meters!  Or about -1 to +11 or 12' in a normal cycle, or 3.7 meters.  This is not the Bay of Fundy, but plenty of it.

Currently still trying to finish TASC 2 or Steppenmethodde, Fifth part. I am almost done. Plan to be back to CTS.  This is a good program.

No USCF rated games. Richard at ChessTempo kindly gifted me a premium membership to CT, but have not as yet dug into it as deeply as I can, and plan to. One things I know, from my 800 tries in the last year, standard, is there is no single place on the web in chess which is smarter. ChessBomb is pretty good too. Thank you Richard.  BTW, CT can be called CT-Art to-go.  Can I get that to-do?  In a box.  A 'doggie bag'.  Whatever that is.

The sum of Chess.com, ICC, Playchess, ChessCube now = 25k games at a time, on weekends. Try adding Russia, Turkey, Germany, Spain, India, China, places out of view. Not quite the reputed 600 players, cited by Agon, but plenty.

Magnus. I am sad for Vlad. He is a most respectable player. But chess moves on. Chess will derive a gigantic benefit from Carlsen-Anand Nov 2013, such as not seen since Reykavik with Fischer-Spassky 1973. I really need to instead say Vlad's loss is tragic, since the word for Lev is also sad, and don't want to say it twice. I am glad for Carlsen. He will be ready.



Click lower R to expand image, views well at YouTube directly.

Attitude. Magnus was raised by his dad Heinrich to be modest, affable, humble, soft spoken. We see a new Magnus now, a bit of attitude, or a lot of it. I do not begrudge it, he must grow. I had tons of attitude at age 32, and at 55 am totally, 100% different, he earned a chance to explore the dipole.

But one thing is for sure. He is re-balancing, probably overcompensating, but gosh, he must fight not most of them, not just the best, but the entire world. Lets watch.  Try fighting the entire world, taking it on.  Just try it some time.  You, too, might have to have attitude, or if you didn't have one, grow one.

More latter. I am here. I am very active. I am very creative. I need however, to marshal my energy.

Warmly, dk