How To Think
I am pleased to welcome our newest quester Pale Morning Dun. I look forward to reading his posts. I thought his comments about Silman's review of "Rapid Chess Improvement" were right on target. Don't worry about the initiation ritual. It is only illegal in 9 states (reminds me Sancho -- we're due in court at the end of the month), and the hair grow back quickly. Please remember to bring your own goat.
I only did 5 exercises last night instead of the 15 I was scheduled for. I know, I know. I am a bad man. Very bad. BUT whatever IT is, I didn't have IT yesterday. I played a couple of G/30's at chess club last night with bad results. When I came home to do problems, I gave up after 5 (44% solve rate). Probably just having on off day. It is also possible that I am a moron. You know, come to think of it, some guys came by my house last week. Maybe I misheard them, and they were actually asking me to join the Moron church.
I am really dreading that this is directing me to part 3 of De la Maza's program "How to Think". This is the part of the book that I never liked and always ignored. First, I am always mistrustful of anyone who tells me how to think. It always sounds good, but before you know it, you are selling flowers at traffic lights dressed in a peach robe singing Kumbya. As such, I always stick to doing my own thinking in a manner that comes naturally. Second, his method seemed so geared to winning the game rather than exploring the position. Chess games, at the class level, are almost always won on tactics, but playing chess should be more than playing tactics until your opponent screws up. This points to one of the areas where I did agree with Silman's review. He said De la Maza "offers a philosophically bankrupt vision of what chess is". Much as I admire De la Maza's program, I have to agree that I did not like his approach to the game.
So it seems I may need to think about how to think before this is through because losing sucks. More on this later.
68 days down, 87 to go
948 probs down, 261 to go in Circle One
PS If you didn't see it in yesterday's comments, check out the Boylston Chess Club Weblog. A little write up of the Knights Errant De La Maza using the precise picture I wanted to use here. Liked the blog too. Got to figure out how to get pictures and what "trackbacking" is.
I only did 5 exercises last night instead of the 15 I was scheduled for. I know, I know. I am a bad man. Very bad. BUT whatever IT is, I didn't have IT yesterday. I played a couple of G/30's at chess club last night with bad results. When I came home to do problems, I gave up after 5 (44% solve rate). Probably just having on off day. It is also possible that I am a moron. You know, come to think of it, some guys came by my house last week. Maybe I misheard them, and they were actually asking me to join the Moron church.
I am really dreading that this is directing me to part 3 of De la Maza's program "How to Think". This is the part of the book that I never liked and always ignored. First, I am always mistrustful of anyone who tells me how to think. It always sounds good, but before you know it, you are selling flowers at traffic lights dressed in a peach robe singing Kumbya. As such, I always stick to doing my own thinking in a manner that comes naturally. Second, his method seemed so geared to winning the game rather than exploring the position. Chess games, at the class level, are almost always won on tactics, but playing chess should be more than playing tactics until your opponent screws up. This points to one of the areas where I did agree with Silman's review. He said De la Maza "offers a philosophically bankrupt vision of what chess is". Much as I admire De la Maza's program, I have to agree that I did not like his approach to the game.
So it seems I may need to think about how to think before this is through because losing sucks. More on this later.
68 days down, 87 to go
948 probs down, 261 to go in Circle One
PS If you didn't see it in yesterday's comments, check out the Boylston Chess Club Weblog. A little write up of the Knights Errant De La Maza using the precise picture I wanted to use here. Liked the blog too. Got to figure out how to get pictures and what "trackbacking" is.
posted by Don Q.
4 Comments:
Your link to Boylston Chess Club Weblog has "http://" twice in the address, so it doesn't work properly.
Re: Trackback - check out Haloscan.com
Re: images - This took me a while to figure out also. You need to learn about the "img" html tag. Blogger knowlege has a section on posting pictures which should help.
By
David Glickman, at 8:56 AM
Thanks. Fixed the link.
I need to bite the bullet and buy some space on a webserver so I can store the images. One of those things I haven't quite gotten around to.
By
Don Q., at 11:59 AM
I use a free geocities account through my yahoo ID. 15MB free should last a little awhile anyway.
By
David Glickman, at 1:33 PM
I found your blog using the mighty power of google and it inspired me to start up one of my own: http://orangeknight.blogspot.com/ if you ever feel like visiting (though I don't promise much). I wish you all the best on your quest.
By
Jay, at 12:57 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home