Starting to slog

Slogged through exercises today. Am starting to see the patterns, particualrly with the rook. Takes me an hour to do two full circuits of rook, bishop, knight, and queen. Not the most exciting activity in the world. Much less intersting than the chess study I was doing last week before I became the Man de la Maza. I was going through David Bronstein's tournament book for 1953 Zurich International. Thump, thump,thump, Ahhhhh! Splat. Thump, thump,thump, Ahhhhh! Splat. -- (Sound of chess intructors Jeremy Silman and Bruce Pandolfini hurtling out of windows to their deaths).

Actually, reading Bronstein kinda pushed me towards a tactical regimen. His tournament book is fantastic (well the first 11 games are), but I found that I had a hard time following some of the parenthetical tactical sequences. I should like to be able to "see" these more clearly to focus on the game. It's almost like I have learned to read, but I still have to sound out the words.

Other chess tidbits:

• I learned how to pronounce the name of current Fide Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov.
• I am looking forward to game 3 of Leko/Kramnik. I hope Leko can win one and make this back into a match. All the same, I would be sad to see Kramnik knocked off as World Champ. He's kind of growing on me.

6 Days down, 149 to go.