The Importance of Human Affection and Love

Our general condition in human society is that we all depend upon each other. We are social animals, and we must live and interact with one another. Yet it seems that we have lost any feeling of basic human affection or a sense of relatedness and closeness to others. Our society does not place any value on the idea of love or indeed show much interest in it. With material things being prized above all else, nothing is said, is it, about the importance of love for our fellow human beings? Lacking any such feeling of love, instead we put all our energy into making yet more money. And if we are concerned solely with exploiting others whenever possible, exerting control over them whenever we can, forever hoarding and competing, we will end up using any kind of situation whatsoever to further our own ends. In such an eventuality, the principle of loving our fellow human beings will have no currency whatsoever. Yet without this ideal of human affection, there is no happiness in the family, no happiness between couples, and no happiness between parents and children. However many millions of us there are all living here together, in our hearts each one of us will feel lonely and isolated.

What about the feeling of joy in one another's company? What about caring for other people and feeling they are our friends? What about trust and confidence in our dealings with others? They all seem to be cooling off. They seem to be lacking, don't they?

The reality is that we all have to live together on this one small planet of ours, and, in this day and age especially, we have to depend on one another to an enormous degree. Circumstances dictate that we have to think of the good of the whole planet and of all humanity. Yet we stay stuck in our limited personal views, dominated by ideas of "me" and "us." In the worst of cases, this leads to open conflict. What is missing, or never occurs to us, is a sense of cooperation or pulling together, and this is a recipe for all kinds of disaster. With the world population being what it is, it means we are facing real problems.

-- The Dalai Lama (Mind In Comfort and Ease)

There's something about chess

There's something about chess that helps me think through the issues of life. Not the where-do-i-go-after-i-die kind of issue, but the where-should-i-go-for-dinner-with-whom kind. Strange eh?

Welcome to me treating my blog like twitter (except with longer posts!). I'm wondering, will twitterphiliacs learn how to express complex thoughts succintly till we're surrounded by twitterites akin to haiku poets, or will they get twitterot and think only bite-sized thoughts?

Strange eh??

Insanely confused about 'formative assessment' / informal prose whee!

So, I'm part of this team that's writing a paper about formative assessment right? And I've read a shitload about it right? But not enough, so I'm still confused as hell, and I need to submit a draft of part of my section soon. It's not a lot of writing, but it's forcing me to confront the assumptions and gaps in knowledge that inevitably are exposed when one tries to define something carefully and thoughtfully.

But anyway.

It's really important to keep the mind fresh, and I actually haven't been writing informal prose (as this is, I hope), so this is my keep-mind-fresh activity of the day! I'm actually thinking about Don Goewey's work over at http://www.mysticcool.com/. He's got a whole book devoted to how continuous stress and fear contributes towards an unhealthy brain, and how the lack of fear and PRESENCE of positive emotions can contribute towards optimal brain function.

So let's think about happy things:
- cute little dog who's licking my foot as I type
- fantastic music (listening to Arch Enemy's "Wages of Sin")
- 7 original songs that I'm pretty proud of!
- loving girlfriend who's on her way over to my place :)
Plus, I'm employed on my own terms (which is a huge deal, given the state of the world/local economy).

Wow, rambling post. Ok, toodles, back to work!

I was wondering

I would still like to play chess on the streets. Matches that are quick and fun, matches that are more about -fun- than winning with the latest opening trick. At the same time, I'm wondering: if I set up at Clarke Quay, will I get chased away? Maybe I should just set up and see what happens.

"Chess neva die!!" / Jim Wallis / The Daily Show

Started playing again yesterday, after a layoff of months. There's something just more rewarding about chess than any other goof-off I could do on/offline. That being said, I realized it's quite impossible for me to blog about chess ALL the bloody time. So. I'm probably gonna expand this blog to include other non-chess stuff.

Like how awesome Jim Wallis was on The Daily Show. Go look it up. That guy's something else. Social justice!!

Take care of your pawns, because that's gonna ensure a really easy-to-win game.

the importance of losing well

I'm sick with the flu. It could have been the pig flu. Only god knows. I say it could have been pig flu (aka the H1N1 virus), because for all we know, the pig flu may be as harmless (or harmful) as the normal, seasonal flu.

So here I am, sitting with a fever, feeling like a pig, since all I've been doing is eating and sleeping. Pig flu indeed.

I can't seem to concentrate on anything for long, so I've ended up watching A LOT of CSI:NY's season 5. Earlier in the day, I seemed to be getting better, so I decided to play a little bit of chess on chess.com. 20min game.

Early in the game, I made a horrible oversight that left me with doubled pawns in the center. Trying to maintain material parity left me overstretched, and I quickly collapsed to a well-coordinated king-side attack from my opponent.

Arrrgh, a loss. Losing sucks.

But I realised, losing a chess game left me feeling irritated, but much more energetic than I had been all day. Or at least more motivated to get my chess mojo back, since I was still coughing my lungs out onto the keyboard.

Losing chess games suck. It really sucks. It's painful.

But what allows me to continue playing and enjoying chess is the ability to learn from my losses, and keep on trying. I'm now learning that very early on in the opening, tactical opportunities can open up, especially when your opponent makes a move that looks 'strange'. Even from as early on as the 3rd move.

I also blame my loss on my circumstances. I'm sick, and not fully alert. I wouldn't have made the mistakes I made if I had been well and awake.

I don't blame myself. With every loss, I don't think of myself as a 'lousy' chess player. I see every loss as an opportunity to become a better player. If I can spot the moves that put me in a bad position and my opponent in a better position, then I can learn from it.

Losing well. That is what has allowed me to become a better player. Even though I have a loooong way to go.

Chess VS Bejeweled Blitz

It hasn't been completely smooth sailing for Mr.Popchess in recent times, and he has resorted to playing Bejeweled Blitz on facebook to distract himself. Oh gasp, talking about another game on a blog devoted to chess. It's a nice game, but it's not nearly as awesome as chess.

Bejeweled is a little bit of a one-dimensional game. Align the jewels, in rows of three, hopefully four, and joy!, rows of five. At one minute per game, it's easy to fool yourself that you're actually spending just a little bit of your life playing this simple game. Well. I probably just spent 4 hours on it in the past two days. (Therefore this Blogpost-of-Shame.) Playing Bejweled is hypnotic. It lulls you into a frame of mind that's probably more akin to a mouse than an ape; it also stops you from thinking. Cue cliché: "And when I say 'you', I really mean me."

After hours of mind numbing, I decided to pull myself out of my funk by indulging in some chess training. Naturally, I did miserably at first, but the feeling of stupidity (I was missing moves I usually spot in seconds) kicked my brain into a more active mode. So I tried harder, and I started to spot better moves in less time.

About 20 minutes into the chess thing, I started to realize that I really hadn't been thinking clearly about the challenges facing me. Thinking clearly about chess brought a semblance of clear thought back.

You think effectively and act effectively, good things happen.

You play bejeweled all day... Your mind starts to rot. (And when I say you, I really mean...)

In other news, photo of the moment:

Online vs Offline Chess

I've been playing much more on chess.com recently, long games that take about 20 to 40 minutes per game to finish. It's been a really fun experience (especially when I win :D), chess-wise. But I really miss the 'human' element that disappears when I play online.

I guess it's like the difference between facebook-ing with a whole bunch of people, and actually interacting with a big group. And yes, I'm using the word 'facebook' as a verb. I've tried being friendly with my opponents on chess.com, but it's really not the same as playing chess with strangers face-to-face.

When opponents smile at each other over the chess board, it can mean any number of things. Holy sh*t, great move. Haha, dumb move. Oh god, the game's finished, isn't it? You're cute. You have a booger hanging from your nose. And so on.

Online, there's only so much to be said...

But ah, I have to admit, it's such a great feeling to be able to be matched with opponents who are just at my playing level. I can play chess games with people from Macedonia (a country I'll probably never visit), and feel like they're living inside my head, just because they're anticipating my tactical manuveurs every step of the way. It's a very interesting, addictive feeling.

Now if we could replicate that in offline life..

I have an SCF rating!!! (of 1230 =P)

Check out the latest SCF rating list at http://www.singaporechess.org.sg/april2009rtg.xls and look for my name (those who know my full name... I'm listed by my surname). I've got a rating of 1230!! Wheee!!

In other news, the National Arts Council hasn't replied to my email. Once I'm done with all this essay writing and exam taking (school school school school), I'm probably gonna go straight to the police and ask about the legality of playing chess on the streets. NAC is just taking wayyyy too long.

Coffee

I'm drinking a lot of coffee nowadays. Here's the most awesome cup of coffee I know how to put together:

1 teaspoon of instant coffee
2 teaspoons honey
hot water
milk

PURE AWESOMENESS.

Internet chess is fun and depressing

Internet opponents tend to run away without any conversation.



If you've ever played a game with a human being, face to face, you'll know that there will inevitably be some kind of conversation. Not just chess. Any game.



Internet chess is depressing. Human beings just run away, no conversation, except maybe an acronym: GG.



GG = good game.



Yeah, right.



But 1 minute lightning games are just so awesome =D

A test of mouse skills, not of chess skills.

Look at me, typing at speed!!



Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Wishing on a chess game

I wish I could turn my love for chess into something profitable. Now to turn that into some kind of concrete goal..

Well I've actually been thinking about it for awhile. Let's hope my thoughts are connected to some kind of verifiable reality.

Chess is a game. Games are fun. Chess should be fun. My Chess Story!

Did I forget to be explicit about it? Here goes, in the spirit of introductory Philosophy of Logic classes:

Premise 1: Chess is a game.
Premise 2: Games are generally fun.
Conclusion: Chess is fun.

Of course this is not always true. If you play chess, and you think you suck at chess, you've probably dropped the game of chess in favour of, say, xbox. I used to be like you (you!) once, except that I dropped chess in favour of rock 'n' roll and alcohol. But that's another story.


The Story of How I Went From Awesome to Total Suckage

When I was in primary school (that's elementary school to the 'mericans), I was good enough to be consistently in my school team. It was a time when my parents would refuse to play with me, because I would consistently beat them (you have to give it to them for being my first teachers though). I beat almost all of the nice boys at my school's chess club, except for the nice boys on the school team with me, all of us being of similar skill levels. Alright, there was a particular pair of boys I kept losing to, but I like to repress that.

Truth be told, I was pretty damn good, at my age. At the ripe old age of 12, I won my first trophy that meant something: 4th place at some under-12 chess competition. Well, I threw the trophy away a few years later (not one for keepsakes) but I'll never forget the $50 that came along with the trophy.

I turned 13, then 14, and I slowly started to realize that I was losing way more than I was winning. in tournament situations. The reason? Damn kids were starting to practice chess tactics, read up on chess openings, and generally treat chess seriously. While people were being serious about chess, there I was, learning how to play the drums and guitar. End result: total suckage at chess.

I never stopped playing though, on a casual level. I realized that playing chess was always more rewarding for me on a visceral level. I felt it in my bones. Where video games left me drained and exhausted, chess left me feeling balanced, even with the awareness that I still retained my unique blend of strong awareness of the board, and total suckage.


Rediscovering the Fun Side

About a year ago, I discovered this website that contains one of the most beautiful pieces of chess-related art things I've ever seen in my entire life. Click on it. The hyperbole is deserved. I would play games on it just to see the pretty lines move, even though I kept losing to the engine again, and again, and again, and again.

Then one day, I won. Crazy, innit? Try, try again.

I got on to yahoo's chess portal for awhile, but the drama of winning and losing to human opponents was a little bit too much for me, especially when I couldn't see their faces. Now, it's a pleasure to lose to a 10-year-old kid in person, but losing (and winning) to a string of faceless strangers was just a little bit too depressing.

If I am to lose to faceless opponents, they'd better be slick, well-marketed, soul-less computer engines.


Jumping Back Into The Fire (of tournament chess)

In December last year, I played my first tournament in more than a decade, coming in 49th in a field of 82 players, and just this month I played my second tournament, coming in 64th in a field of 277 players. It's the strangest feeling in the world, playing a game that's centuries older than I am, against opponents half my age.

Ok, I play the adults too, I don't fake my age, but I'm not really good enough to get to the front of the pack (where all the old people are). Some of these people have been playing chess seriously for as long as I have been playing with my, umm, monkey.


Change of Seasons (NAC!!!)

Where am I now? Waiting for NAC to give me my license so that I can play chess on the streets. There's a rush I get from playing chess with human beings face-to-face that I wish to share with humanity at large.

Plus, I'm considering making this sign, for when I get to the streets to play:

PET ALIEN HOMESICK.

NEED US$6.2 BILLION TO BUILD SPACESHIP.

I'm pretty sure the dough will roll in ;)

Pablo, the (fake) Jamaican Speed Chess Champion

A huge push for my entry back into chess was this guy. If one were to take Pablo at his word, he has led a very sad life. Stranded in a foreign country without enough money to make a quick return home, his mother contracts breast cancer, leaving him so desperate for money that the champion of Jamaica has to get on the streets to play members of the public, in return for donations from well-wishers.

I played five games with Pablo when he came to Singapore, losing all five times . Ughh. But I had such a fabulous time. Suspending my doubt about the veracity of his story (come on, can't a chess champion borrow some money?), I imagined I was doing a good deed by playing with him, since crowds only gathered when there was a game in progress (and crowds mean more generous people and more ca$h). The charm of playing chess (indoor, boring game) in the street, with a curious audience, and loud music (yay!) was just such a blast. The next day, I signed up for my first chess tournament in more than a decade.

I found out not long after (thanks be to google) that Pablo was a fraud. I admit that I was foolish/generous/stupid/kind (MCQ, no particularly correct answer) enough to give him some money, but after a moment of indignation, I realized that I held no resentment against the fake chess champion. I admired him for his chess playing abilities, his creativity, daring... and I admired his wallet :P

After Pablo appeared in Singapore, I tried to follow his movements, with some difficulty. I've only just found The Closet Grandmaster reporting on Pablo being seen in Sydney (Australia) at the end of 2008, but nothing in 2009. Perhaps he's taking a holiday?

Here I am playing with Pablo.. Look at the crowd! Look at the players!

And when you see a picture, always remember that there is an unseen element.. The photographer!

Thanks to Diana (the girlfriend) :)

Pablo if you read this leave me a comment.

New news: Waiting on Singapore's National Arts Council (NAC) to give me my busking license

I want to do this street chess thing, but when you're in a country like Singapore which has strict guidelines for street performances, you'd better err on the side of caution. Those of you who have clicked on the link will notice that chess is not exactly included in their list of approved activities. The NAC has every right to tell me "no" right off the bat, since chess isn't in their list of approved activities. But being the little pro-active bundle of activeness that I am (note: intended irony) I gave the nice people at NAC a call, and a nice lady named Christie told me that she would try to see what they could do, after I sent them an email explaining what my act was all about. So I did, on the 4th of February, 2009.

Eleven days later, I still have no reply, and this blog is languishing in the internet's backlanes while I await my fate at the hands of the bureaucracy created to administer art. (Before you scoff at government and art, think about the impact the CIA had on art during the Cold War era.)

So I thought, no reason why this blog should go to waste even as my efforts for toeing the legal line get stuck in the cogs of bureaucracy right? Therefore! Look forward to more regular posts from yours truly :)

What about the casual, non-elite player?

The world of chess is dominated by the tournament player. This type of player thinks more or less systematically about his/her strategies, tactics, endgame, middlegame, openings, psychological tricks, etc. Chess to him/her is an intense competitive sport. Chess publications capitalize on the desires of this player--there are tons and tons of books about how one can improve one's chess abilities.

On the other side of the coin, there is the casual player. The one who logs in occasionally to online portals to play (and generally lose) to other players just for the fun of it.

Most chess players generally fall in between those two extremes of serious and casual types of player. But for the casual player, there is almost nothing that caters to his/her desires for fun. Bringing the game of chess to the streets is my effort to cater to this casual player. You can simply show up, play with me, win/lose/draw and laugh about it, and go home happy. No need to worry about whether you achieved your chess goals, or if you're becoming a better player.

Of course, winning is always better than losing. But I open to you (my reader [who are you? ;)]) the possibility of winning in the stakes of fun. Play, have fun, and win even if you lose the game on the board. Win in the game of life, because you've learnt how to have fun without spending a huge load of cash, or doing something horrible to your liver.

Most of you will probably lose though.

MUAHAHAHAHAHA.

First post!

Hi, I'm the self-proclaimed champion of popchess.blogspot.com. What did I do to deserve the title? Why, I set up this blog! *applause*

I really am just another guy who plays decent chess. I don't have an FIDE rating yet (I hope to change this soon), and I still haven't beaten my favourite computer opponent, Chessmaster 10.

You might see me on the streets playing chess soon, and you may come to this blog to see what I'm all about.. And when it comes to that I promise I'll have some kind of explanation as to why I consider what I do as performance art.

Till then, toodles!