Yes- but my entire point about this "chess improvement" issue (I pronounce it ISSSSEW, not Ishew) is that it's highly personal and will vary from person to person.

Person A might be happy as a clam to be plateaued forever at 1100, and thoroughly enjoy her chess life.

Person X might be bitterly resentful that she can't get that last rating point after 1999 and openly whine about it at every opportunity until her friends want to have her put down.

Person B might improve with little effort, while pursuing a University education, Sports stardom on the football field, and a really hot girlfriend (Robert Hess)

Person B-prime might improve only by studying/playing chess 30 hours a day for 300 years

I think you *can* make general statements about chess improvement-- but at the end of the day, it's a kind of tautologous thingie.

What works for person A? Well, whatever works for person A, gusting up to nothing will help ever.

All that said, here is a general statement that I think is on "terra firma"

A person who played chess regularly against a person around 50 points higher would be more likely to improve than a Crack Ho who played one 5/0 Blitz game every six months on Yahoo.

Where do I enter my moves?

What is /0/?

I guess you weren't around during the Universal Admin Rights Incident of '09.

Oh God not that again- the game that is too difficult for my pea brain...

<domdaniel> and <switching owls for thugs> always do well.

I challenge you to beat <Switching Owls> score this year.

Do you accept the challenge of Mr. Sparkle? Mr. Sparkle is disrespectful to dirt!

No don't worry I'm just compiling evidence for an FBI sting.

viz

one that takes 25 minutes to load, and won't let you log out without enabling third party cookies, because it's FULL OF ENOUGH SPYWARE CODE TO CHOKE AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MULE

I've had it with those "hey here are 700 flash ads", low-rent hucksters.

The only real difference now between the <MSN.com> homepage and an Asian one is that the <MSN.com> flash ads don't have naked women on them- yet.

CHINA- or, what happens when you let Communism go to the dogs.

Yes, popular Chinese websites, including <tudou.com>, the most visited video site on the planet- by far- allow the most pornographic webvertising of any country in the world.

Be proud, China!

heh there you go again using a <4chan> meme- I tell you it has infected the planet already- it's probably already "too late," whatever that might mean.

<NSFW> well, technically all of this should be- and actually is- banned by the school servers of the Korean Government Office of Education.

However, I simply use an open source proxy at work.

Nobody even knows I downloaded it, as well as <java> (so I can play against the "Little Chess Partner" at work)

The computers at work are so stricken with malware that nobody ever actually inspects them- ever, and it can take upwards of an hour to navigate from one site to the next.

Or so it seems.

In addition, I share an office with just one other teacher, who sits across from me, and there is no door or window behind me.

I long ago discovered that I could crack a tough <Eugene T Maleska> crossword, but could not solve the simplest "cryptic crossword" for the life of me.

Since the CG.COM PUZLE COMPTROLLER uses the "cryptic clue" style, I haven't a ghost of a chance and as always I refuse outright to learn anything that doesn't come easily to me.

I will, however, root from the sidelines.

You should drop your idea in <domdaniels'ss's> forum.

To quote the senile film producer on <Entourage>

"Is that something you might be interested in?"

Anyways I think <technical draw> is also good at those puzzles- maybe <howard> too.

I can't remember really.

On second thought, I prefer going solo.

You know the thing that always amazed me about <Doctor Maleska>- and so many of his generation- is that they had a vast knowledge of American popular culture from 1776 to the present day.

And remember that these titans did their composing before the "internet age of cheating on everything and pretending you already knew."

Thanks to the fine people at DELL, who have been reprinting the work of the Classic American Composers for decades, I had the chance to be introduced to <Doctor Maleska> and his contemporaries whilst in my youth.

DELL CROSSWORD MAGAZINE

Did you know <Doctor Maleska> was a doctor?

He is.

I don't know what the subject of his doctoral thesis was, if that's what you mean. Wikipedia leaves it at a vague "education" (oddly uncapitalized).

I have a bunch of travel-size booklets in the series published by St. Martin's Griffin, and also their 1001 Ultimate Crossword Omnibus.

I come here regularly (though not as frequently as I used to): http://www.crossword-puzzles.co.uk/

Crucial point, I agree. I once downloaded a tool that let you build a database of clue-answer pairs, which, once sufficiently large, would allow the program to design a complete gird for you, with little or no intervention, American-style symmetrical or British (meh).

His "work" is every bit as puerile as the Vampire crud that is currently infecting every nation on the planet- that crap makes <JK Bowlderizing> look like Shakespeare.

<Mikhail Baryshnikov> is a decent writer but he writes way too much.

QUESTION: Why isn't he dead yet?

FACT: He has written <over 9000> books, including "The Andromeda Strain" and "Jurassic Park."