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 :)