Which, as Asimov explained in Jokester, is the proper accolade for puns and feghoots.

Who was it that at some point said: you don't *get* it ?

I've been ferociously convinced and dedicated to prove that that person was wrong, but now doubts do creep in.

I Don't think La Pogo and PZ are up to anything dodgy or unethical, as I've said. His *tone* can sound appalling, but I'll be generous and attribute that to translation issues. 'Adequate' might mean 'efficient' in his lingo. Maybe.

But I also agree with those who say the perception alone is too much. It's like being an embedded reporter in a war zone - identifying with one side while chatting to the other. Hardly a surprise to be taken for a spy.

And then again, given the 24-hour turnaround, I'm unlikely to be heavily involved when this game goes ahead, which it probably will. So I don't really have the right to wreck it for others, do I?

There's a bunch of new players on the world team, and I reckon they should be allowed to make their own mistakes.

It's just turned into a fiasco, and the rights or wrongs of it have become irrelevant, as the team has been completely disrupted by the dispute.

I hope the team votes to limit the damage and stop the game, as no good can come from it now.

http://www.anand-topalov.com/upload...

Actually - from the tone of his comments and my own experience of the media - I suspect that PZ was planning to write something that would make the team look ridiculous, as in puffed-up patzers with engines and an exaggerated sense of importance.

The first thing I managed to accomplish in this the early afternoon (after two fine cups of coffee and one very delicious glazed chocolate donut) was to fire-up the computer and log on to <CG.com> being curious to witness and view the current status of the <World vs Natalia Pogonina> Chess game now in progress. Your posting today (Sept 3rd) highlighted in a golden yellow hue (my 'favorites list' color preference of choice) which immediately stood tall and called out to me. Two choice quotes are given now from your opening and closing paragraphs:

<Domdaniel: OK, I'm going to try to introduce a little sanity. Though, as many of you know, it's hardly my strong point.>

and...

<*Try* not to abuse one another too much, folks - particularly with insinuations of chess weakness. It's counter-productive.>

You've always stood out as one of the mightiest and tallest trees standing in the <CG.com> forest. A voice of reason using only words as your blazing swords handily swashbuckling the truth out from the chaos.

I only have only a dilemma of interest to solve for today... o_O

I'm holding in my hand my cherished 5,000 posting here on <CG.com> (I've been a member since July 13, 2004). Trying madly to decide the question: where is a place that is indeed true, honest and worthy of this posting that I so do treasure to post and find a good home for?

The answer is surprising simple there can be no other place to possibly consider but to now post it right here. :)

With one quick 'click of the mouse' I've now posted my 5,000 post to be officially recorded here on <CG.com>

[Inserting: colorful balloons and party favors now handed out to everyone with a deluxe bakery cake, home made ice cream and a variety of soothing refreshments to now be served ASAP!]

Thanks <Dom> for being there and always standing tall. :^)

Sincerely, - Mal

PS: <"The protest is effectively defused. I don't much want to play, after all this. I'll check back around move 10, unless events take some other turn in the meantime.">

I hope the Pogo game gets back on track after this beginning. There seem to be quite a few players - including many new ones - eager to participate, and I don't want to hinder them. I just don't feel like joining in - yet.

Um, *now* (sorry) :p would be a good time for that - to counter Zhdanov's pending "masterpiece".

Many thanks <Dom> :) If my previous stats indicate that <'next 5000'> then using that as my current rate of posting speed here on <CG.com> it would put me around 70 years of age if my life expectancy extends out that far. ;)

<I hope the Pogo game gets back on track after this beginning. There seem to be quite a few players - including many new ones - eager to participate, and I don't want to hinder them. I just don't feel like joining in - yet.>

Ah yes <"including many new ones - eager to participate"> the ones with the wide grins glued upon their faces and stars shinning in their eyes... ~lol~ I too will only be there, not as an active participant, but just as an observer to simply enjoy the game as it progresses. :)

<I'll be interested to see how the 24-hour rate of play turns out. The whole rhythm of play will be different from previous games, which is a challenge in itself.>

Yes <the quick 24-hour turnaround> no longer 3 long days over the course of a weekend with multiple assignments already assigned on stickeys with many strong players and computer teams fully ready to carry out their assignments. A far cry from our day when ICCF (Postal Chess) was only made possible via snail-mail (depending on the destination or country our move was sent to it took 3-7 days or several weeks in the process of just arriving and only then the reply to be sent back).

Of course, at that time we had no comps and therefore no databases, only specialty opening books and theoretical Chess magazines to rely upon. All this not counting the toll we put in with the many long nights spent working the magic of our 'midnight oil' and playing that to the bloody hilt! ~lol~

That was indeed a grand time when this quote...

<"Chess is the art of analysis.">

- Mikhail Botvinnik

Proved to be the one thing that we could all count on 110%! ~lol~ :P

All the Best, - Mal

PS: <Annie K.: <Mal> congrats! :)>

Thanks Annie! :))

PPS: Speaking of which I've just spent the last 3 days organizing my ICCF games (WC/51 1971-1973 & WT/M/GT/31 1973-1976) from the multiple postcards and letters received. :) Only two games left to go one which is a fragment (a puzzle yet to be solved) and the other my only loss ever in ICCF or any other type of CC play against Pyotr Kischik of Russia.

Hold on. Ambiguity overload, at least from my POV. Some glosses required.

By 'right' I mean the opposite of wrong, not the opposite of left. You may be dextrous, but you're neither gauche nor sinister. And certainly not Bibiesque, Dubya'oid (that's a glottal stop, to make it easier for his pal "Yo!" Blair to pronounce).

By 'AI' I mean artificial intelligence (as seen in SF, cognitive science etc), not *accelerated insemination* or whatever the name of that agricultural activity might be.

By 'angel' I mean a mythic being, described by scholastics as being very small (you'd fit quite a few, maybe billions, on a pinhead) and very intelligent (said to occupy the evolutionary niche between humans and deities). These theories have led me to speculate that if you could somehow link up a few trillion cherubim in military formation you'd have yourself an *angelchip*. All kinds of uses suggest themselves, such as programming it to write chess books.

And by *SF* I mean science fiction (or perhaps *speculative fiction*) and not 'Sinn Fein', (an atavistic and irredentist political party with a tribal following in Northern Ireland, and an inflated sense of its own significance thanks to calls from 'world leaders' requesting normal sane stuff like peace and tranquillity).

No, I hadn't known that *world leaders* existed either. Well, not overtly ... there's the Bilderberg Gang and the Dealey Lama (a Bond-villain type thought to reside *beneath* Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas, with air vents leading to grassy knolls - he is said to take the Hassan i Sabbah approach to political rivals, to wit, assassination).

And the Lamed Wufniks, of course. But they have no inkling of their own significance in the wider scheme of things. Thirteen of us rule the world in secret from ourselves ...

But. I. Digress. As that highly fictional Russian-Italian-American mafioso, Ivan Di Gresso, tends to say ...

My excuses, btw, are the usual ones. Laziness, inertia, fear of failure (the same forces inhibiting everything from a novel to an email). The desire to produce a masterpiece rather than a merely 'good' text. Never mind something that P. Zhdanov might characterize as 'adequate'.

Well, almost. I *prefer* underpromotion - as an aesthetic principle - but I wouldn't make it *mandatory*.

Anyhow, I think that coalition government in the UK has changed the language for every tory. Things aren't mandatory any more ... perhaps *manda-ConDem* ...?

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<and party favors now handed out to everyone with a deluxe bakery cake,>

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<home made ice cream>

http://ymib.com/files/ymib/june-08-...

<and a variety of soothing refreshments to now be served ASAP!] >

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