Shakespearean Knight Tour

I read this over at Futulity Closet.


The knight's tour is a recreation familiar to chessplayers: Move a knight about an empty chessboard so as to visit each square exactly once.

On this board, each square contains a syllable. Collect them in the right order and you'll compose a six-line quotation from Shakespeare.

What is it? (hint ... start at e4)

With a little help from Google, I was able to complete the task.

CTS Update

I bottomed out a few days ago, but I've rebounded nicely. I don't know if CTS is throwing easy problems at me or if I'm getting better, but I've been very consistent and accurate. My accuracy is up at 71.1% as of today. I'd like to continue my streak, but I have to go to bed in order to get up at 4:30am tomorrow.

Extreme Knockdown Chess via n8ux

Found this video over at Out of the Ether (which is a great blog by the way).

CTS Update

I've been fairly consistent at working on tactics on CTS. In the last week, I've only dropped below 1400 once. Before, I would continually drop below 1400 and then gradually climb back up only to drop back below 1400 again. It was a roller coaster.

But this past week, I've stuck to it pretty religiously and I've been able to maintain some consistency. The last backslide I had pushed me to just above 1400. But I've recovered nicely and am now keeping it pretty steady around 1420-1430. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep my rating at this level.



I'm a pretty average tactician in the CTS community.

Think, but don't Think

There is something about this article that bugs me.

Each “Chess Tuesdays” in the park begins with a rap session to get the participating kids fired up because not only are they going to play chess, they will play fast, making decisions in seconds. Organizer Orrin Hudson says it causes the kids to think and react quickly and realize they have to live with the results of their decisions.

I've underlined the parts that, to me, seem incongruent. I can see what the organizer is trying to do, but I don't agree with the tactics, I guess. How can you truly think when you're playing fast? I guess it'll make it easier for him to point out the kids' errors so he can then make the metaphor "you have to live with that conseqence." If I were one of those kids, I'd probably respond to his metaphor with something along the lines of, "If I need to think before I make a decision, then I need some time and some quiet. Why the hell are you forcing me to rap and make split-second decisions?!"

Well, I'm sure the organizer has good intentions. I'm sure he's having some positive influence on some kids' lives.