It's OK, you didn't try and defend the indefensible.

Maths. The more I think about it the more the whole concept of the physical world being so extensively described in maths boggles my tiny.

There are all these neat and elegant equations (forget the others for now)...but how? just how? and why??

<Russel's attempt to embrace "everything" with mathematics was cruelly shot down by Goedel's neat little logical argument.>

How does it go? BTW, I'm not sure Russell tried any such thing, but I haven't read enough of him to feel sure about this.

<At last count, I think 11 dimensions are needed to make superstrings work. But that is more philosophy than science.>

String theory and the use of 11 or 12 dimensions to try and make it make sense was constructed, if I'm not mistaken, to reconcile <relativity> (at least as conceived by <Einstein>) and Quantum Mechanics.

The problem is that both are generally considered be experimentally validated, in one case both at the same time (mentioned in schroedingers cat chessforum), but they are fundamentally incompatible theories.

String theory, M-theory, and the ilk is physics's attempt to find the holy grail of the GUT (Grand Unified Theory), that finds the missing links between the two theories.

How does it go?>

As I understand it, which is not well and asks for a real logician to help, Godel showed that no mathematical system can be complete. There will always be some truths outside the system. A math system is made up of axioms, which are logical building blocks. Godel's incompleteness theory showed that there will always be truths outside such a system which cannot be proved by these axioms.

Naturally every chess player has fallen into a stalemate at some point.

My favorite story involves a game I played at the Alabama State Championships back in the early 1970's.

I was not a master back then, in fact I was only a <Class "C"> player. (This was also well before the advent of the really fast time controls ... or sudden death.)

I was Black in the last round, and I was playing a player several hundred points better than me. And - for most of the game - he was killing me. First, I was a Pawn down, then two, and it slowly got worse. However, he never played THE CRUSHER. (At one point, I was thinking to myself, "Well, if he plays that move, I guess I shall resign." But! He never played it!!! So I played on.)

Anyway, somehow by luck (or even a miracle) I managed to drag the game into the second time control. I remember one time going to the restroom. I actually had guys telling me to resign. (One guy was very emphatic. He told me he had about a five hour drive and that I was inconveniencing him and that I should resign so he could collect his prize and go home. I asked the TD about it, and he told me to play my game and not to worry about it.)

Anyway, things were slowly getting worse. I lost a piece, and I knew that the end should soon come. In fact, at one point, my opponent actually told me something like: "You should resign now!" And he held out his hand. (Once more I consulted the TD. Once more the TD said that I was entitled to play on as long as I wanted, and that no one should tell me otherwise.)

Its kind of funny, because I was near tears (I was about 14 or 15), and I was definitely considering resignation. However, after my opponent's outburst, I decided I would play it out all the way to mate.

Anyway, the game was turning into a marathon of sorts, we were past move 70, and my opponent had even stopped writing down the moves. Anyway, I suddenly looked around and realized that my King was in a box, and it occurred to me that I needed to get rid of all my pawns. So I pushed or fixed or exchanged them all off. Then I sacked a Knight, and my opponent blithely took it. (This was a mistake.) The suddenly I had this crazy Rook, and it began chasing my opponent's King all over. He gave back a ton of material, but (in the end) he was unable to avoid the stalemate.

As a result of this draw, I won the "Class C" prize and the trophy.

Thanks for that, I can find the rest myself. But I think axioms <are the building blocks of logic>, not logical in themselves (something like that).

Thanks for that, I can find the rest myself. But I think axioms <are the building blocks of logic>, not logical in themselves (something like that).>

Exactly. Axioms are assumptions which are "self-evident". Every system has to start somewhere.

Here's a brief Wikipoop quote about the Russell work I was referring.

"Russell continued to defend logicism, the view that mathematics is in some important sense reducible to logic, and along with his former teacher, Alfred North Whitehead, wrote the monumental Principia Mathematica, an axiomatic system on which all of mathematics can be built."

http://www.angelfire.com/games4/lif... (The Fischer-Taimanov game.)

http://www.angelfire.com/games4/lif... (The Fischer-Portisch game.)

http://www.ajschess.com/lifemastera... (The correct link for the Fischer-Panno game, GeoCities will be <permanently> closed before too much longer.)

Anyway, I think <zanshin> expressed himself well. And <Sugar> was correct in pointing out that there's no leader in the Barangay. I also agree with you that the "tone" of the posts had to do with the escalation. The perception of being attacked was all it took to aggravate the situation, and some people felt the need to defend themselves and counter the perceived attack. And so it dragged on, beating the original intent of the initial post(s) (more English, inclusivity, etc.).

I feel that this is all behind us now, which is why I was feeling like a gravedigger bringing it all up again. I'm showering after I type this so please don't hesitate to wash this off your page after you read it. :D

BTW the banner album is in <aspic> not <aspect>.

So it's just to make sure and be as clear as possible.

??

Big showdown today where the two will meet in the 7th round; Old vs New

Here's the Timman PiG file, in case you have time to go through it:

[Event "Dutch Open"]
[Site "Dieren"]
[Date "2009.07.27"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Timman, Jan H"]
[Black "Ikonnikov, Vyacheslav"]
[Result "1-0"]

<I know there are a bunch of <actual mathemeticians> at this website but I think only <DomDaniel> knows who they are.>

... was what the preceding post was an answer to.

They have the Polish and Danish or whatever the heck it is Tourneys on the front page but not the Dutch tourney?

????

And you'd think there'd be more interest in <Amish Guru>, seeing as how he is in fact the youngest GM in the world and he finished second in <Corus C> last year.

And he is still only six years old!!

So plenty of room for improvement obviously.

<Niels> can you give the link where you are getting the PIGs for this tournament?

Shouldn't we mention this to CG.com?

<Howard>- They are calling you out to help teach us about Maths, over at <Doggimus House>.

Luckily, <Ohio Chess Fan> has chimed in to tell us about the <ONE TRUE RELIGION as revealed by "the" Bible>, if that's any help.

If you're thinking of a good wine to go with educating a bunch of chess players, I'd recommend <Pepperidge Farm Bad Elderberry>, along with some relaxing methamphetamine.

I don't think anyone would blame you for passing on this one though.