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Recently I settled down to watch a full-length film, The Big Four, based on an Agatha Christie novel. An added attraction, it starred David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, a role in which he consistently excels.

To my disappointment, and then dismay, the film seemed distinctly unconvincing, as if it were some kind of inferior imitation of a work by Agatha Christie. The setting had moved from little English villages or exotic locations to a drab London facing the threat of a war  which would bring devastating attacks by the so-called Axis powers before ultimate victory.

A little research, and an interesting back story emerged.

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The Great Chess Battle of Cheadle’s Drift
The gallant forces of East Cheadle’s Special Forces brigade engage the fearsome Wilmslow Warriors in their first battle of the new year.

A report from the front line of the now deserted battlefield.

Only an empty water bottle, and a crumpled score sheet abandoned at the field of battle, reveal the intense fighting that took place earlier here today. 

The battle was lost, but not in vain. The names of the warriors will be remembered in future editions of Chronicles  of Leadership, Woodford Press, discounts for paid-up members of CIFW, (the Chess Federation of Warriors).

The battle lines were drawn up for the encounter at Cheadle’s Drift arranged for 7.30pm, January 3rd 2024. The special forces of East Cheadle were positioned backs to the wall of their fortified headquarters, awaiting their opponents, separated by the array of chess boards, the sets loaded for action, with primed chess bombs ready to be triggered at each board.

A few supporters, including myself, watched from a safe distance. The hush was pregnant with anticipation. They the click of the gates swinging open at the only entry into the East Cheadle fortress.

A swaggering gang of Wilmslow Warriors entered. Their captain flung down the parchment bearing the challenge to the tourney, with the names of his force of crack fighters. 

Big Steve, mighty captain of East Cheadle, glanced down at the list. No expression 
crossed his noble features, but as he feared, the murderous record of each of the Wilmslow Warriors was well known to him and his own fighters ...

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I think so. My prediction is for a year in which at least the world begins to take the doomsday scenarios seriously enough to take belated efforts to avoid them. In short, there will be troubles ahead.

But as the paean of hope by Irvin Berlin goes

Before the fiddlers have fled
Before they ask us to pay the bill
And while we still have the chance
Let's face the music and dance

Yes, the troubles remain. Here’s my personal list of the five most serious possibilities of global catastrophes ...

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Almost spoiler alert

Although I tried to avoid reviewing sin of revealing too much, I touch on aspects of the story which might spoil the enjoyment for some people: 

Reading the ‘do I buy’ decision.
Cover pink as a rom com. 
Turn to back cover, as, like many others do. The marketing is intended to capture a 
punter’s  interest in a few sentences or plugs.  In this case both


‘Deliciously dark’
‘Compulsive’
‘Chilling, but also laugh-out-loud funny’
‘Hilarious’. 

Meet Grace Bernard. 
Daughter, sister, serial killer ..,
Grace has lost everything.
And she will stop at nothing to get revenge.

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My attempt to create briefer podcasts in keeping with the acceleration pace of modern life.

I would like to acknowledge the new year message from master minimalism William .Thompson for the concept that often ‘less is more’ in communication theory.

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End of Year Humour Pick-me-updated 

Title should have been Pick-me-up, not  Pick-me-updated. Prescriptive text humour strikes again.

@ChessVanDoom
2024 Chess Goals
1. Limit Rapid games to 2 per week, 15+10 only.
2. Analyze every Rapid game
3. 25,000 tactics solved
4. Complete 4 chessable courses (I start a bunch, but don't finish)
5. 50 coaching sessions
6. Play 4 OTB events
7. No negative self talk after a tilt or loss
Me:
You are a credit to the Punk Chess community 

@EvLenz
Two Spanish  detectives were investigating the murder of Juan Gonzalez .
 'How was he killed?' asked one detective.
 'With a golf gun,' the other detective replied.
'A golf  gun?
What is a golf gun?' 
‘I don't know. But it sure made a hole in Juan.'

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Chess player jokes tend to focus on clever but obsessed individuals, ignoring everyday matters, social conventions, etc. There is overlap with jokes about absent-minded professors. I’ve complied and invented a few, as a tribute to both these overlapping categories of person.

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My Books on this list do not exist - but might in the future. The idea of the list  was inspired by a Twitter exchange with @GirlGiada. Giada seems to be a rather mysterious young lady with declared interests in music, animals, politics and strategy. I have subsequently discovered that Giada hails from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, famous for its spaghetti bolognese, and Bologna, the oldest university in the world which claims to have discovered the ancient recipe for authentic Spag BoI.

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I have talked and written in other places about my pleasure in reading Melville’s classic Moby Dick. How the work at the time was a critical failure, mocked by the critics of the age (the 1850s). 
For me, it is an astonishing work. It has left as great an impression on me as any book, ancient or modern, with which I can compare it.
Although published in 1951, its imaginative prose is accessible from its famous first three words from the narrator ‘call me Ismael’ 
If you you read on, you will find  not just about a man who chases a whale, but an epic also described as a symbolic book dealing with the existential human issues of obsession, morality and redemption.
Melville plays with the reader, sometimes with prose concealing near pure Shakespearean blank verse. Sometimes with gentle irony in the brief piece I have chosen to illustrate the point.
It is chapter 83, occupying no more than the pages 351-2 in my dog-eared edition.
It is titled ‘Jonah historically regarded’.
 In it, Melville, in the voice of Ismael, describes how the famed whaling community of Nantucket, and the little village of Sag-Harbour, treated the Jonah myth. The spokesman, himself named after the village, expresses doubts as to the veracity of the story of Jonah. Ismael appears to refute Sag-Harbour’s claims, but his words instead reveal the unconvincing nature of the arguments. They also indicate why the book was regarded as being anti-Christian, and too sympathetic to views of some of the ‘savages’ he eulogies...

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In what follows, I describe myself as having a rare experience which led me to connect with the thinking processes of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, arguably the greatest musical composer of all time. (In a future note I will discuss the nature of modesty).

I was later able to connect what happened to with much that has been written about with the moment of self awareness, often associated with the Eureka moment in the myth of Archimedes, or the aha moment as it was described by Arthur Koestler.

Like others interested in creativity, I have written and even given lectures about it. But this is the first time it has happened to me in such a powerful way. Other related thoughts crowded into my head which I will come to later. But, first  the details of my Mozart moment.

It started on a routine short drive on a quiet road. 
 I was mostly on autopilot, listening to the background music of Classic FM, and aware of the familiar road midday conditions. The music ended and the commentator confirmed that I had been listening to one of the most loved of Mozart’s compositions.
Suddenly, I could see vividly the infant Mozart playing the music. 

And other non-verbal thoughts were on stage competing with the powerful mental image. These were the related thoughts jostling for my attention.  The great chess champion Capablanca, as an infant who learned watching his father play. He went on to become one of the greatest chess players of all time!
Almost off-stage was someone who wanted to remind me of his story, which I could only faintly remember as a French mathematical genius Henri Poincaré who dreamed a solution to a big problem when getting on a bus, then forgetting it, only later rediscovering it, in full detail.

Still in the moment, I knew what the stories were telling me. I was sharing the way a bundle of sensations become arranged into a new understanding for Mozart. Also how his insights went from a rich bundle of possibilities to a great musical construction. 
Also how the process was shared by the infant genius of Capablanca, and as described by Archimedes then refined by Poincaré among others ...

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