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How to speak chess. Beginners course, session 1

Chess has a language of its own. if you want to be a good chess player you will have to learn to read chess as it is described in chess books. Next, you need not just to read chess but speak it in a way that is understood by other chess players.

In this course, you will learn a simple version of chess which will allow you to write record your moves of a chess game while playing. You can then study the game afterwards, of even feed the moves into a computer with a chess calculation programme or chess engine.

The version will help you go on to modified versions just as you learn more sophisticated versions of languages at school. 

I’m assuming you have already learned when the pieces go at the start of a game and you know or have been told how to play a game by moving the pieces correctly, taking
piece, check mate, and so on. 

You should carry out this exercise with a chess set and board with pieces ready to start 

You will also need to record your moves. To practice what you have to do in over-the-board chess, write your answers down so that you can check your work...

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Our Chess Club Social Event won by Tom Jones … It’s not unusual.

The East  Cheshire Chess Club held its season-opening social event on Wednesday 27 September.
As ever, the event was to produce some unexpected surprises.  The carefully planned six round rapid play tournament included a rehearsal for the new technology being used to arrange the draws for each round using on the much loved Swiss system (winners play winners, losers play losers).  
The new technology system was introduced by Steve Kelly our guardian of finances. When in use, players are able to check their opponent and seat location on the wide screen or on their phones, thus reducing the crush around the officials’ table as the next round is announced. 
Then luck, (or Caissa, goddess of chess) intervened. Steve fell a victim of COVID and had to withdraw at the last minute. Club President David Taylor had lost his trusty assistant as tournament administration team.

We were back to the ancient pen and paper system for working out the draws of each round. I stepped nobly into the breach to support David as he shuffled the slips of paper and carried out complex mathematical equations in his head. I found my role mainly involved  shouting out the pairings at the start of rounds. Inevitably, the process curtailed the tournament to five rounds ...

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Twitter (now known as X) wit and wisdom, late September, 2023

@Tudortweet
BBC Chat show presenter not known for his false modesty
“Question for our listeners. Which part of my anatomy did I graze so seriously I had to go to hospital for treatment?”
Answer from a listener. “Your Super Ego?”

@aled-job
It's comedians who often tell you the truth in life. Here's Groucho Marx summing up life in Wales and UK right now. Many years in advance.
'Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere.. diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies'.
Although he could have added:
'and not listening to the public'

From the incomparable 
@deelomas
Have I ever mentioned that I had a hen who could count her own eggs? She was a mathmachicken…
@PaulEkblom1
That's nothing - mine can work out the rate of change of her egg production. She can do differential cluckulus.

@simonharris_mbd
So it’s now highly likely that Rishi Sunak will scrap the Manchester part of HS2. We’re going to be left with a high-speed rail link between somewhere near QPR’s stadium and almost but not quite Birmingham City Centre. If it’s never been about ‘journey times’ then why build a faster railway. Utter, utter expletive deleted.

@RpsAgainstTrump
Marine biologist Trump claims that "Windmills are causing whales to die in numbers never seen before. Nobody does anything about that” ...

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Bridge over troubled buttocks. A ten minute programme for combating advanced muscular aches and pains. 

A public health podcast by TudoRama.

Hello. I’m Tudor Rickards. I want to talk to you today about a way to maintain agility to combat the advance of the aging process. It is based on three deceptively simple exercises which can be done in the time it takes to order a Uber for a pizza delivery.

First, a health warning. The simple steps I describe are no more than that, and should be tested only with professional guidance, as part of a more general approach to a healthier life-style. 
In what follows, I have used my own everyday language to help explain more technical terms.

I began testing the system as I was approaching my 75th birthday. Now, six years later, I can confirm the basic elements. Furthermore,  it comes with recommendations from top chartered and state registered physiotherapists.

Where to start? Somewhere comfortable for your first few simple muscle exercises. At first, I found easiest to start the day with the exercises conducted before I got out of bed. This will require absence on any other occupant of the bed, including children or family pets. 

I also found satisfactory results from my bath tub. Again, I recommend one occupant at a time, if only for what might be called elbow room. 

I will now explain the three basic exercises as I conduct them. For these,  I suggest neither bed nor bath. I recommend a comfortable carpeted floor, maybe the living room. I have noted the possibility of special floor mats of assorted scale and comfort for  the more serious student, readily available from £14.99 to a mighty £124.99 according to the thickness of the mat and your wallet.

More all furniture well away from your exercise area. There is one exception - your recovery apparatus. This could be a carefully positioned chair,  or sofa which will have a vital part to play as the session comes to an end ...

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The Mill.  An example of everyday creativity in action

A few years ago, a young journalist founded a creative initiative in regional journalism. He named it The Manchester Mill, capturing the history of Manchester’s contribution to the Industrial Revolution, as well as indicating an appropriate location for its founding premises. 

A recent article in a regional business newsletter captured the success of the idea:

https://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/news/manchester-mill-eyes-expansion-following-350k-funding-from-major-media-names/

‘Disruptive local news platform The Manchester Mill is eyeing expansion to Northern cities including Leeds and Newcastle after receiving £350,000 seed funding.
The Mill, which focuses on in depth hyper-local news and a mixed free/subscription-based model over clickable headlines and breaking stories, was founded as a self-funded project in 2020’s lockdown by journalist Joshi Herrmann. It has already expanded to include editions in Sheffield (The Tribune) and Liverpool (The Post), and Herrmann has also suggested Glasgow and Birmingham as potential locations for future expansion’.

TudoRama is pleased to share the following message from The Mill in its search for creative talent be it from Manchester or Mumbai.

From Joshi Herrmann
Founder, Mill Media Co

If you know anyone who graduated in recent years and might enjoy the challenge of joining an early-stage media startup that is revolutionising London media in the UK, there's a great job that closes on Sunday. It’s for Head of Commercial at Mill Media Co, which started in Manchester three years ago and has since grown to having  ten staff (and counting). It publishes really high quality journalism in three cities and has just received funding from Sir Mark Thompson, the CEO of CNN and ex-boss of the BBC and New York Times. 

[I’m assuming anyone interested will be able to contact The Mill directly to learn more about them. Perhaps I should also mention that TudoRama is a not for profit operation without sponsorship from outside individuals or organisations.
TR]

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Conversations at a crossing

The worse traffic signals at a road crossing I know can be found in the suburban village of Bramhall, close to the TudoRama headquarters in Woodford. The signals are cruelly in favour of cars over pedestrians. Green crossing lights are as rare as Liverpool football supporters. 
Throughout the day, the queues of citizens wait for the red light to change to green at the curb side. The anger often morphs into mindless acceptance of the delays as motor traffic sweeps past unhindered. 
if there was a Guinness record for delayed road crossings, the Bramhall entry would win against all-comers.  
Picture the scene. As I approach along Bramhall Road South today, i join the end of a queue hurrying across on a rare green light at the infamous pedestrian crossing. Part of the malevolence of the system is its tendency to leave insufficient time for the entire queue to crossInevitably, the lights change to red just as I am about to step forward.
There is frantic rush against the lights past me led by a lady in an invalid car, and a mother pushing a pram at a dangerous speed.
I stop behind these understandably frustrated lawbreakers, resisting their understandable natural urge to cross against the lights. Often someone attempting this, ends up  not safely across at the fresh fruit shop,  but in Stepping Hill A&E department ...

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The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tay. Who really killed the Princes in the Tower?

Richard the third, according to our history books, backed up by William Shakespeare. But not according to the Richard 111 Society founded in 1924. Nor according to crime writer Josephine Tey, in her crime novel originally published in 1951.

Tay never received the fame of Christie or Sayers, but her writing is of the highest quality of readability and storyline.

The Daughter of time in the title refers to Truth, according to a proverb I had never come across.  The story is of Detective Inspector Alan Grant who when recovering from a broken leg, develops a theory that the popular view of the villainous Richard might be incorrect. With the help of assorted contacts he sets out on the trail of uncovering a four hundred year murder case.

I will say no more, but leave you with an example of the author’s skill at capturing a character in a few paragraphs.

My podcast is from Chapter 2, and  starts with the arrival at his hospital bed of West End theatre star Marta Hallard, closely followed by the expensive aroma of L'Enlos Cinq ...

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Message to Mark Brown. ‘How are the dolphins?’

Dear Mark,

It was great to get your recent email after so long since our last meeting.  How long? I retrieve a date from my unreliable memory Filofax as it being sometime in the eighties. Let’s say forty years, give or take a decade.

Yes, we planned to meet, from time to time.  But perhaps inevitably, our good intentions were not enough to make that conversation happen. 

So, here’s my plan B.

I send you my half of the discussion leaving you to fill in the dots. Thus, we have the beginning of a conversation.

So…let’s see. Mark Brown. Who is Mark Brown? Dolphins.  Yes, dolphins are a part of the story. That’s it.  You were big on dolphins. But I get ahead of myself.

When we first met, well before the dolphins, you were a member of a creative thinking organisation set up by Tony Buzan. Tony was to gain fame for the development of mind mapping which remains a powerful example of a creative thinking technique, and still recognisable in computerised versions.
He assembled a group of bright young stars including yourself. Still nor sign of dolphins. You seemed to be exploring various aspects of brain function and ways of improving thinking power. One of our shared interests was the theories of brain functioning and overcoming mental blocks or mindsets. 
Tony was heading for celebrity status through the group and his own BBC series ‘Use your Head’ ...

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September 2023

@amrakunj
My 11 year old just said to me, Mum, your shirt is very diaphanous.
I don’t know whether to be impressed that he know what diaphanous means or change my shirt. 😳

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Ignoble Prize winners of the year. A TudoRama report on unusual research findings.

Every year, The Nobel Prize ceremonies are preceded by awards for unusual or even crazy research projects in the IgNobel prize awards.

These awards were created in 1991 by Mark Abrahams, editor of the annals of improbable research. He has been the master of ceremonies at all award ceremonies since the awards are presented for discoveries that cannot or should not be reproduced. 

However, the event has created its own mock-serious Ceremony. The prizes are presented by real Nobel laureate at Harvard University, followed by public lectures from the winners at the Massachusetts Institute of technology.

 This year, the IgNobel Mechanical engineering prize was awarded to work on reanimating dead spiders for use as mechanical, gripping tools. The team included Te Faye Yap and Daniel Preston from Rice University, Texas.

“ while setting up our lab, we noticed a dead curled up spider at the edge of the hallway, “ said Yap. “ our ‘Aha moment’ occurred when we found that spiders only have flexor muscles to contract the legs inward and rely on hydraulic pressure to extend their legs outward… we set out to determine whether we could re-purpose spiders after they had died of course as robotic components which we achieved by tapping into this hydraulic actuation mechanism” ...

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