Chess for Hunger

I was doing a search for Thanksgiving and chess and found this link. The page has a registration link on it, but the said tournament is closed for new registrations. But it looks like there is a new one available.

The Real Story of Thanksgiving

I heard this story several years ago and it amazes me that it isn't touted and taught more in school.

Bradford realized that the communal system encouraged and rewarded waste and laziness and inefficiency, and destroyed individual initiative. Desperate, he abolished it. He distributed private plots of land among the surviving Pilgrims, encouraging them to plant early and farm as individuals, not collectively. The results: a bountiful early harvest that saved the colonies. After the harvest, the Pilgrims celebrated with a day of Thanksgiving -- on August 9th.

"And now you know the rest of the story"

Neatorama

So this post doesn't have much to do with chess, but it does have to do with a quest.

Some people read books for pleasure. I like to read blogs. The only blog I've read from post one to the final post was Don de la Maza's (our beloved founder of the Knights Errant).

Perhaps my all-time favorite blog is Neatorama. I'm on day two of reading every single post. I am leaving a comment on every post I read. The blog started in September 2005 and is still going strong today.

If you've never visited Neatorama, click on over there.

Brain Power

This is absolutely amazing. It is not unbelievable, but I didn't think I'd see these advances so early in my lifetime. My grandkids might not ever need to type! Wow. This technology is really mind-blowing.


Watch CBS Videos Online

Religion and Chess by Bill Wall

This is a fitting read considering the day of the week.

My favorite one - "Chess had picked up in Europe and pretty soon many of the clergy was spending more time playing chess than saving souls. In 1061 Cardinal Damiani of Ostin forbad the clergy from playing chess. He died in 1072 and chess was resumed in his domain."

This one is brutal - "In 1495 the Inquisition saw victims of persecutions stand in as figures in a game of living chess. The game was played by two blind players. Each time the captured piece was taken, the person representing that piece was put to death."

Getting Chess Skill

If you haven't visited Chess Vibes (or if you don't subscribe to their blog) you might want to saunter over there to read of some preliminary results they have on their recent study of chess skills.

Nothing too surprising about the results, but the glimmer of hope is found in once sentence: "Some believe that almost everyone can get to FIDE master with enough practice and study."

"So you're telling me there's a chance."

Additional Reading:
Susan Polgar picked this up too

I liked this graph which is displayed on Susan's blog