I know. I know. I know. I’m a few days late for my inaugural post here at the new and improved thinklings.org. I’m glad the other guys have picked up the slack in my absence (not that that’s much slack to pick up).

The truth is, I’ve been swamped, and I don’t have a lot to add to the discussions going on here. I did, however, want to throw in my two cents about the death of the legendary Bobby Fischer.

Fischer, by all accounts, was a chess genius. He liked to consider himself a genius who focused his brilliance on one subject: chess. He was obsessed with the game, spending all of his free time studying, improving, and subsequently slaughtering his opponents in tournament play.

Unfortunately, after taking the World Championship from the Russians in 1972, he promptly faded away, disappearing to a life of paranoia, hatred, and self-destruction.

Since he’s the only Chess World Champion that America has ever produced, the chess community in the United States has always had a love-hate relationship with him; but, the reality is, most chess players in America honor him despite his dishonorable actions.

So, to the eccentric Bobby Fischer: thanks for leaving chess fans a catalog of brilliance over the board. I know you were a tortured soul.

For you chess fans out there, head on down to chessgames.com and check out Fischer’s 1956 match, Byrne vs. Fischer. That game -- won by a young Fischer -- is absolutely brilliant. Fischer’s queen sacrifice is something to behold.

Goodbye, Bobby.

Eric, our resident chess stud, is MIA, or he would have posted this, no doubt with some expert commentary.

American chess master Bobby Fischer dead at 64.

Since I'm in a chess mood, and since I thought you guys might enjoy a chuckle ...



(The video's only about 45 seconds long. So go ahead and watch it.)

Thinklings Chess is awesome. I've got a killer game going right now with Isaiah543. I'm white, and Isaiah is black.

Here's our position:



It's black to move, and the last move that was made was dxe6+.

By the way, I'm just posting this for fun. Since we're in the middle of a game, please don't offer any move suggestions. Thanks!

[A nod to chessvideos.tv for the diagram generator.]

We've got about 15 active members in our humble, correspondence-style chess club here at Thinklings.

I'm proud to say that one of our chess club members, Robofriven, has an excellent interview on chessvideos.tv with International Master and chess author, Jeremy Silman.

Here's a taste:

Q: What was your training schedule like when you were competing the most?

JS: If I played in an international tournament, I would live, eat, and breathe chess. In Hungary, I would prepare for 4 hours in the evening for the next day's game, then another 4 hours in the morning before the game. Then I would repeat that over and over for each game. There were, of course, distractions (women, insane directors or players, money issues, sub-par accommodations, lack of edible food, etc.), but such things are also part of the whole experience of competitive chess. I have to admit that I really miss the intensity of those years!

Check out the whole interview here.

As some of you may recall, in June I posted a Thinklings interview with author and chess historian, J.C. Hallman.

Hallman is the author of two books: The Chess Artist and The Devil is a Gentleman.

If you'd like to learn more about Hallman's writings, visit his website -- jchallman.com.

Incidentally, if you go to his site, you can see that he linked back to his Thinklings interview. Here's a piece of that interview:

Both of your published books -- The Chess Artist and The Devil Is a Gentleman -- have a religious theme to them. What's your concept of religion in the world? Did you grow up in a religious environment?

Hallman: I started out Catholic but rejected it very early. Like when I was ten. As to my conception of religion in the world, it's something I articulated more in the second book, in which I explored a variety of religious movements, taking along with me the thinking of William James as a kind of guiding spirit. What I came up with, in terms of the big picture of religion, is that consciousness, human consciousness, comes with a significant attendant cosmological curiosity. That is, when we become conscious as people, we begin to get curious about big questions: why am I here, what is the nature of the universe, and so forth. All this is another way of saying that the side effect of sentience is a god-shaped hole in our psyches. Now that's Sartre (I think), but what James might add to it is that failing to satisfy that curiosity can result in a kind of profound sadness, even the tendency to reject life. So people are hardwired to find some set of answers that satisfies that cosmological curiosity. Fills the god-shaped hole. Very often that set of answers is God, but it can just as well be science's version of creation, the Big Bang (which some string theorists describe as quaint, it's so out of date), or organized Atheism, or Christianity, or Satanism, or chess, or literature, or whatever else satisfies you in terms of your personal quandary about the basic questions and mysteries of life. This is basically what we mean when we turn religion into an adverb and note that someone pursues whatever they pursue "religiously."

Click here to read the entire interview.

For the two of you who may be interested, they're currently playing the World Chess Championship Tournament in Mexico. Check it out.

There are eight players participating, and, so far, Round 1 has ended with a draw for all four games. Now that's World Championship Chess right there! (Seriously, those Grandmasters are always drawing each other.)

Nf3!

I'm looking to recruit new members for our little chess community here at Thinklings. If you're a friend of the Thinklings -- or, heck, even a troll -- and you know how to move the pieces, and you'd like to play correspondence style chess, then leave a comment and I'll tell you all about the initiation process.

Oh, one more thing. For all of you former Thinklings Chess players who have petered out over the past few months, consider this your altar call.

Quaid, where are you? It's been your turn in our chess game since May 2nd.

It took him more than 80 moves, but Bird finally prevailed over Blo in their epic match to win the victor's crown in the Thinklings Spring 2007 Chess Tournament!

The match also was, bar none, the best smack-fest I've ever witnessed in Thinklings chess. I hope to be able to publish the game, with commentary and in-game smackage, here on the blog one day (that poses some technical challenges but is doable). For those of you in the Thinklings Chess Club, you should be able to see the archive with player commentary this weekend.

Well done Bird!

(excellent Chess picture by Rob G. Atlas)

In move 15 of their semi-final game, Blo landed an uppercut to Quaid's jaw, and that uppercut landed Quaid down on his back, down for the count.

The victory propelled Blo into the Thinklings Chess Championship Game against yours truly. It ought to be a good game.

For those who may be interested, Blo and I have got history. We've got bad blood between us. We're true chess enemies.

We usually go back-and-forth: Blo whacking me, then me whacking Blo. This time, it's for keeps.

Recent facts regarding me and Blo's chess rivalry:

- Blo just beat Bird viciously, three times in a row, on Yahoo chess two nights ago.
- Blo usually wins games against Bird when he has unlimited thinking time.
- On the other hand, Bird has beaten Blo the past two times they played over the phone, with unlimited thinking time.
- Bird's beaten Blo five times in a row in the past five family tournament championship games dating back to 2003.

This one's going to be brutal!

Quaid, my hat's off to you, brother. You took me out in 71 moves. My jaw still feels numb.



Good thing that was only an exhibition game. I'll see you in the Tournament Championship, sucka'!

It's midnight. I'm presently playing an over-the-board (OTB) chess game with Blo. To be truthful, it's sort of OTB, we're playing on the phone, calling out our moves in the funky dialect known as chess notation.

The drawback of playing this way is that it gives the turtle-esque Blo plenty of time to make his moves. The dude will, literally, take 30 to 45 minutes just to make one move. Consequently, he wears me down ... I begin to yawn ... I begin to get sleeeeeeeepy ... and then BANG, Blo checkmates me. Yes, he usually wins these late-night battles.

My theory with these games is that it's as much about chess skill as it is endurance. Right now I'm feeling pretty good, and he's been thinking about his next move for about 10 minutes now. (We're on move 13, by the way.)

Blo's about to move! I'll be right back ...

The great chess Grandmaster, Russia's Gary Kasparov, has been retired from chess for a couple of years now. He's picked up a new game, leading the opposition political party in his motherland.



It appears that his new endeavors are, to say the least, dangerous. I certainly wish him the best of luck as he tries to change Russia from within. Sadly, his political life will apparently keep him away from competitive chess forever.

As U2's Bono is "the last of the rock stars," so Kasparov is the last of the chess stars: a world dominating powerhouse with the highest chess rating in history.

About 15 to 20 years ago, the chess world longed for a dream match, Kasparov vs. Fischer. Alas, the fantasy match never materialized, mainly because Fischer had, by that time, become a complete recluse with a host of social issues, to put it mildly.

Still, Fischer is without doubt the best American chess player to push a pawn. Depending on who you talk to, the greatest chessman of all time is either Fischer or Kasparov. These guys were giants among mortals in the chess worlds that they played in.

For my money I'd have to give that race to Fischer, by a nose. But Kasparov is, hands down, my champion.

He's a gentleman and a gamer, a true one-of-a-kind.

We're planning on starting the chess tournament soon. If you'd still like to get in, but haven't expressed interest yet, let us know so we can set you up on the email list for updates and information.

Here's a rare photo from our last tournament. I think this was the classic Blo vs. Blest match:



Develop your pieces.

***UPDATE 4/1/07 - 10:51 A.M. Central Time***

If you think you're on the roster to play, and you didn't receive an email from me yesterday, you're not on the roster! Leave a message here asap to be included.

Thanks to De reintroducing Thinklings Chess a couple of weeks ago, several of us Thinklings (and many of you guys out there) have been enjoying some friendly games together, while talking a little trash. ;-)

For those who don't know, here's De's brief explanation of how Thinklings Chess works:

This is a private chess-club for the Thinklings. It is like correspondence chess, in that a player ponders the board, makes his or her move, and then their opponent is informed via email that a move has been made and they can then log on and make their own move.

With that all said, it's time to turn Trash Mouth into Smash Mouth. We'll soon be introducing a Thinklings Invitational Tournament to those who may be interested. It's going to be single game elimination, bracket-style tournament much like the NFL playoffs and NCAA basketball.

If you're interested in playing, let us know so we can get you into the system.

All skill levels are welcome! (Except for, maybe, Grandmasters.)

Remember, develop your pieces.

I've been so busy with Thinklings Chess, I haven't even kept up with what's going on here above ground at the main blog.

Moves his head around, eyeing the terrain.

Everything looks good, carry on.

For those of you who can remember the early days, we're bringing back a blast from the past: Thinklings Chess!.

This is a private chess-club for the Thinklings. It is like correspondence chess, in that a player ponders the board, makes his or her move, and then their opponent is informed via email that a move has been made and they can then log on and make their own move.

As I said, it's private, but if you want to play (and if we know you as a friend of the Thinklings) we can set you up with an account on Thinklings, which gets you an account in the club. Your Thinklings privileges will be pretty limited, but upcoming versions of Bloo will bring some coolness to non-posting members of this blog.

So, if you're interested, you can email me at hi@hi.com, except that instead of the first "hi" use the word "bill", and instead of the second "hi", use the word "outofthebloo" (I hate email harvesting spambots, can you tell?). I'll let you know when and if you're setup.

I'm currently playing the inaugural game against Bird (while I sit here doing my taxes). He's going to crush me, but it's worth it. It's good to have Thinklings Chess back up and running.

I was glad to see Locke throw a checkmate smackdown on that Commodore 64. But all that chess action got me jonesin' for some action on the board. De's got to hook a brutha' up with some Thinklings Chess!

I've been doing a bit of web research over the last couple of days for Bird (who is sans Internet), because he is trying to sell a rare book he was fortunate enough to find at a used bookstore last year.
It is a copy of Bobby Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games, one of the most cherished and sought-after out of print books on chess in the world, and it is from the first printing of the first Simon & Schuster edition.

I have discovered the book is very special because:
a) Apparently Fischer will only sign the S&S first edition, believing that the later editions (like the Faber & Faber) have been altered in unacceptable ways. In addition, Fischer is not an eager autographer anyways.
b) The book is signed to the American watercolor artist James Boren, a friend of Fischer's. (In fact, I discovered that some of Fischer's personal effects brought up to auction recently included a book of Boren's art signed by Boren to Fischer.) So it is not as if Boren was just some stranger who approached Fischer for an autograph. Fischer's inscription reads:
"To Mr. James Boren, From Bobby Fischer with Best Wishes."
c) I can't find a listing anywhere for a signed copy of this particular book. It is hard enough finding copies of the first printing of this particular book in good condition. Most of these sell anywhere between $85 and $250.

I can only deduce that Bird has something fairly valuable in his hands. I have seen a signed first edition of Fischer's Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess for $1,274.95.
Of course, one good rule of collecting is that an item is really only worth what someone will pay for it. Bird already has an offer from an interested buyer willing to pay $500 for his book. I can't tell for sure, but I'm thinking that if he listed it in the appropriate places, he could get quite a bit more than that.

If you know someone or of someone (or if you are someone) who can either help us price this book or would like to make an offer on this book, please leave a comment. To sum up the book's specs:

Bobby Fischer, My 60 Memorable Games
1969, first printing, Simon & Schuster
Dust jacket in fair condition -- some minor tears, yellowing, small pen marking.
Book itself in good condition -- no dog ears, no water damage, no scuffs.
Inscription: "To Mr. James Boren, from Bobby Fischer with best wishes."