08/24/2008: "The news of the hour"

So I've begun to play chess again. I've joined an online community called gameknot and have completed four games. What I have found is that chess sharpens my thinking skills and that this sharpening helps in other areas as well: for example in cosmology and religion.

The other thing that I have found is that my confidence in my thinking is much less than I thought it would be. I have been playing three games at once, and at times find that overwhelming. Three seems to be the right number- currently I have two games going on and things seem boring. Part of this may be that my particular opponents are not moving very frequently.

The previous cosmological ideas posted on this blog were not very coherent and mainly the outcome of a manic attack. My medication must be working, because, first of all, I recognized the attack as such and, secondly, the attack did not appear to be as severe as previous attacks.

Most interesting game so far:

1. d4 Nf6 2. g3 c5 3. dxc5 e6 4. Bg2 Bxc5 5. Nf3 d5
6. O-O O-O 7. Bg5 h6 8. Bxf6 Qxf6 9. c3 Nc6 10. e3?!

(10. Nbd2 e5 11. e4 d4 12. Nb3 works better)

11. Nbd2 e5 12. Qb1 Be6 13. Rd1 e4 14. Ne1 Ne5 15. Nb3 Bb6
16. Nc2 h5 17. Ncd4 h4 18. Nxe6 fxe6 19. Nd2 Ng4 20. Rf1 hxg3
21. fxg3 Qh6 22. h4 Qxe3+ 23. Kh1 Qxg3 24. Rf8+ Rdxf8 0-1



Prettier would have been:

22. h3 Qxe3+ 23. Kh1 Qxg3! 24. h3Xg4 Qh4+ 25. Bh3 Qxh3#