About

I am a Canadian, a Computer Scientist and, you guessed it, an ardent lover of chess. This association may be quite natural, seeing the research being done by computer scientists over so many years to make a computer who could win a Grandmaster title! I am also a strong player who has won several tournaments, though as yet I don’t know if I have been featured in some book or syndicated magazine column on chess!

My passion for chess made me create this blog where I want to share my thoughts about different aspects of chess, and chess games are only a part of it. Take for example how our mind works to find out the sequence of moves in a chessboard position, when no two chess games are ever identical!

The interest of computer scientists to improve the chess software owes its origin to that eternal question of how human mind (read brain) works and if it is nothing but a very elevated logical process, sometimes without conscious thinking on our part. If it is so, computers (or rather the software inside) can perform at equal level with a GM because one thing computers can do well is to follow logical steps; and the progressively improving hardware can go through millions of these logical steps in one second which no human brain can do! As computers are yet far from achieving GM norm, does it mean that our chess thoughts aren’t strictly logical?

A chess related blog will of course deal with chess games. But my ideas are to go beyond the plays and to find links to our intuition, the way chess games interact with our mind and the beneficial effect that we can derive out of it. The gradual decline of our mind powers at old age is a matter of concern to doctors and psychiatrists; with increasing life expectancy everywhere, we want the old generation to remain mentally active and not mired in senility. That is how the mental alertness that can come from regular chess play acquires importance.

No chess player worth his salt, whatever his/her rating may be, will say that they are not serious about their games. But beyond the urge to play better, chess players know that the world of chess abounds with fun, facts, trivia, gossip (yes, like the story that Alekhine used to break his hotel’s furniture after losing important games!) and many other gems. The sheer beauty of a totally unexpected move that upsets all normal calculations continues to give enjoyment and evoke wonder for players from different generations!

A blog is a place for sharing of thoughts and while I’m putting up my ideas before the world, I expect my visitors to share theirs with all others.

There is nobody sitting in judgment over what you say, but healthy arguments can always be there and it only broadens our horizon, don’t you agree? Moreover, I believe that we learn more when we are wrong than when we are right. Only restriction in a blog is to follow the norms of decency (not abusing, not berating others, no offensive language etc.). Keep the windows of your mind open.

Chess is one of the most well-documented games and even now you will see discussions on players of eighteenth century! And unlike most other games, you can physically play through the moves to feel firsthand not only what was happening but also what could happen. But the reservoir is so large and deep that no one possibly has explored every corner of it. Each person has his/her own preferred area and trying to share will surely be of interest to all others who did not know about it earlier. So share your thoughts and share in others’ thoughts – that makes for a better world and a better blog!

My ideas are to make this site livelier and more interesting, and make it a source of enjoyment to all the visitors. Greater participation from you will be the incentive to me to keep finding and writing about more topics of interest. If this blog can help to improve your chess even by a few points, it will be a great reward for all my efforts. And if a tyro tells me that he/she has taken up chess through the help received here, it will make my day!

I hope to add articles every day, so keep visiting to find out what is new. Your commments on the articles will help me to improve on the subsequent articles and bring focus to areas of preference.

If you have any question or feedback, please contact me.


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