<Alien Math> thanks. :)

<Dom> one.

Escher puzzles can't possibly fail to look good. :) The repetition-shading-into-gradual-transformation sort, or the cool visual trick mindbenders such as Bellevue, Waterfall, Relativity, etc.?

<You sure it isn't Stendhal Syndrome?>

Why not? I'll take two. :D There is a certain disoriented sensation, though other symptoms fail to match.

I don't suffer from these syndromes, however; I usually enjoy them. :p

<Burroughs woulda written you a dirty version but I run a clean ship.>

That's one of the things I like about you. ;)

Yes, the actual reason for the antics of those, err, playful, little cherubs may well be as you suspect, I was thinking more of what the "official justification" that allowed Maestro Buonarroti to get away with such depictions at the very heart of Xtian prudery's #1 stronghold may have been. :)

G'luck with your tournament!

<Memethecat: < Hello.. I raised the pitch on the o & elongated it. I'm starting to get a family vibe from this lovely lovely site, it definitely ticks the dysfunctional box [...]>>

Don't they all? :s

Hello - no need to try so hard with the self-intro. I generally read much of what's posted around the site, and don't rely on just what is addressed to me to familiarize myself with a person. In fact, my regular MO tends to be to observe people interact with others for several years before ever speaking to them, though exceptions are made on occasion. ;)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...

I just tap in 0-0, but i get the 'Bad game request' message!

Iv'e asked the admins, and they have tried to explain, but i still don't understand and cant do it, and it kind of ruins that feature for me and its one of my favourite things on this site... I keep having to just 'think' the move and press 'next move' whenever it comes to castling!!

Heh - your English must be getting better then! :)

Hi Mark. :)

Hmm, interesting issue with the 0-0 typing. What the admins were saying is that if you get stuck with a "bad game request" page or some other problem, and you can't continue the game, you can simply leave the "bad page" and return to cg.com (through your bookmarks for example) - then look up this page: Guess-the-Move: Clear Partially-Finished Games. The page title may be scary, ;) but this is where you will find all your "interrupted" games, so you can finish playing them.

And i must have played nearly 25 GTM games in the lasr 4 or 5 days, mostly with "average" or "good" score's, but Iv'e had 3 "outstandings" too so far, so I'm definately Improving.

I hope you're well anyway love, i haven't noticed you around too much lately..

I'm OK, and pretty much always around, just don't always feel like posting. :)

<I've gained over 50 rating points in a week!>

I have 2 accounts over there, one I just use for playing when I'm in a really positive chess mood and my rating's now 1800 and a bit lol, and the other I'm not too fussed about, although iv'e only let it drop below 1600 once this year, I just don't like being under 1600 even when I'm messing around! It's a phsycological thing i guess?

But my blitz is a pathetic 1350, but I'm not too bothered about that as I hardly ever play it.. I've played a couple of people from this site, and even though they can't possibly know Its me I still get kinda nervous!

And I notice you've beaten Kingcrusher? That's pretty Impressive Annie, he's a very strong player, so well done :)

And we should play each other one day, I'll use my Lennonfan handle though because I really don't want anyone here knowing my other.. Well I'll get nervous and lose 100 points in no time lol.

I really want to get my rating to 2000 by this time next year, but I don't think It's possible what with all the problems I have with the black pieces, and I'd only be cheating myself If i did It using just the white pieces..

I'll keep on plugging away though..

<Mark> I expect the FICS rating system is some variant of the usual formula. (BTW, the Glicko rating system that Emrald uses is some approximation of realistic chess ratings based on both success rate and time taken to solve puzzles, I think.) The thing about FICS is though, that the blitz ratings are much lower than the "standard" ratings, probably because the player pool is stronger. My blitz rating tends to hang around 1500, give or take 50 or so any day. :)

But I don't like to play people I know from here either... ;)

<And I notice you've beaten Kingcrusher? That's pretty Impressive Annie, he's a very strong player, so well done :)>

Thanks, that's a correspondence game, but I've beaten him OTB once or twice too, although not as many times as I drew or lost, heh. Just friendly unrated games - we have played many, a few years ago, when I was in London for a week.

<I really want to get my rating to 2000 by this time next year, but I don't think It's possible what with all the problems I have with the black pieces, and I'd only be cheating myself If i did It using just the white pieces..>

[Event "FICS rated blitz game"]
[Date "2012.04.26"]
[White "AnnieK"]
[Black "NN"]
[WhiteElo "1535"]
[BlackElo "1497"]
[TimeControl "600+0"]
[Mode "ICS"]
[Result "1-0"]

I'll have a look at that game you posted above and give you my thoughts on It, if you like though?

The games I post here are just blitz games I had fun playing, not necessarily deeply calculated, or even sound, but of course you are welcome to look at them and comment if you feel like it!

I actually have a PGN player in the games section of a few of my phones that i downloaded off the Internet, so all i do now is download say a page of Kasparov games from here (or any other sites actually), don't open the file once finished downloading (which takes only 10 seconds at the most), and then once i want to go through the games I just go to the PGN player, select "files received", and they're all there to just flick through :)

I must have 10 thousand games, and they dont take up much memory on a phone at all..

And Iv'e really thought about just buying a laptop strictly for chess, in fact i very nearly bought one last weekend, but i spent a night at my girlfriends and was using her computer and realised how bored (and really tired!) i got really, really quickly spending a *full night* just trying to play chess !! On a phone i can just skip from site to site, game to game, whether im in bed or in a car, its all so much easier for me that way.... Plus, as *everybody* i know keeps telling me..... "You + chess + computer = No sleep and an addiction problem...again"!! Lol.. It's true Annie though, I have a really addictive personality... When i do stay at my girlfriends, or visit my Dad, friends, etc..etc.. and i get on that computer for chess, time just flies, and i become really anti-social and boring, so i think for the time being I'll keep all my chess in a phone!! I'm not deluded like some, I know I'll never reach a certain level, computer or no computer, they won't turn me into Kasparov!

I do need my own computer soon though for other purposes, so I'll have to cool down with the chess for a while when i do buy one.. And I'm not a big fan of analysing games with engines either, I really, really love playing them, but i kinda think they kill the fun in some ways.. I've been recently watching the Aronian v Kramnik games here, and i really hate it when someone posts "Stockfish says at 20 ply deep, whites better off by +0.03 blah blah blah"!!!!! I don't need, nor want a chess engine telling me whats best during a live game, i prefer to just give my brain some excerise as opposed to a computer!

Anyway I'm waffling on a bit now, when i should be down the pub getting drunk and waffling on a Friday lol..

Geneticists analysing DNA from Neolithic burial sites in Sweden have made a surprising discovery. The genetic make-up of one individual — a female farmer known as Gök4 — bears a startling similarity to that of modern-day Mediterraneans. And the woman's genome provides clues as to how agriculture spread across Europe.

But Wolfgang Haak, a human palaeobiologist at the University of Adelaide in Australia and a co-author of some of the mitochondrial studies, says that “one farmer from Scandinavia is certainly not enough to explain the spread of farming in places like Spain or Bulgaria and we definitely need more farmers from other parts of Europe”.

The Google translation of the first link (http://translate.google.com/transla...) is fairly tolerable, though this paragraph is funny:

<In 1949, her sister, Joanne began to learn the basic knowledge of chess. An early age his talent stood out: the first major játszmáját January 1951, at the age of eight playing a chess master, it lost another 15 minutes.>

"it lost another 15 minutes", heh. The actual translation should be:

"In 1949, he began to learn the basics of chess, with his sister Joanne. His talent stood out at an early age: he played his first major game against a chess master in January 1951, at the age of eight, (though) he lost in 15 minutes."

Still, that one is mostly understandable. The second translation (http://translate.google.com/transla...), on the other hand, is awful to the point of complete incomprehensibility... and beyond. :s

It might be interesting to re-translate the whole thing, but this seems to be just one segment of a longer memoir by Kubát János, the rest of which I neither know where to find, nor do I much want to get into something that could turn out to be a really big job.

However, this mistranslation is downright hilarious:

<What a job we have all the waiters végigkínáltak fine aroma with apricot brandy.>

The translation should be:

"By the time we took our seats, the waiters have already offered everybody drinks of apricot brandy with a fine aroma."