Mind Games

I like this one by Tony Lurie, but how much of a game has already been determined without even moving the first pawn? My current opinion is that a lot of it.

Dublin: Chess at the Point

This morning I walked to the Point, where there is an interesting street market at the weekends. You can find it at the end of the Luas line, between the O2 Point Theatre and the new Hotel Gibson. There are stalls with different products on offer and a few other things to entertain the passers by. One of those is a chess set that I would not call a giant chess set. Two girls were playing with the pieces. Not exactly playing chess.

Kiev ; Playing chess in the park

I saw this group of citizens of Kiev (or Kyiv) playing chess in a park close to the university.
They were using the old soviet Yantaz clocks. A nice way to spend the morning.

Chess pressure

Comic strip by Mordillo, in which he plays with the idea of chess sides and races. Today Anand and Topalov are playing in Sofia. It is the second game of their match for the World Championship. Indeed, the audience favours the Bulgarian, and there will not be quite half of them supporting Anand. It may be that playing at home turns a disadvantage due to an excess of pressure, but the unequal situation reminded me of this vignette.

Evolution in Modern Ideas in Chess

I see the book by Richard Réti has been published in a new edition. I kind of like the motif in the cover of the book. It is maybe not very polished, but it is a nice idea anyway. In the end, I supposed the Darwinian idea of evolution can apply to chess ideas, as the fittest of them survive while the unfit are discarded and pass to the bin of the history.

Fox Playing Hen

I cannot see much of the chessboard. It is so dark in the burrow. It is a 6x6 chessboard. The fox is playing as White and the hen moves the Black pieces. The fox reminds me of Firefox.
I saw the image in this nice Fox tale posted at Poemas del Río Wang.

Chess club in Wrocław

Last month I spent a weekend in the Lower Silesian capital, the Polish city of Wrocław In the past, it used to belong to Germany and its name was Breslau. This fact is relevant for chess players, as Breslau was the birthplace in 1818, of Adolf Anderssen. Anderssen was one of the most importan players of the 19th century and will always be remembered by his Immortal Game. His tomb can still be visited in the cemetery of Osobowicki, to where I did not have time to go.

Walking past the Market Square (Rynek) by a street named Wita Stwosza I came across this chess club. I liked their logo a lot (if the mouth biting a pawn is the logo) and the pictures with which they covered the shop windows. The design is youthful and fresh and spins around the idea that chess is good fun. Well done, guys.