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Steve Jaffa Brown gives a reading of his Poem 
Love Is...

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Top five June tweets.

I selected five top tweets published in the first weeks of June, 
Hope you enjoy them as much as I did. 

In no particular order

@TollytB

@deelomas

@MirandaKeeling

@JoJoFromJerz

@JonathanLevitt7 

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Improving your chess by benchmarking.

These training instructions were provided for members of East Cheshire Chess Club. I hope they will also be of use to anyone interested in leaning about chess.

This year we have been offering training sessions to beginners and club members interested in improving their skills.

We have settled for a mix of short lecture sessions on club nights, and informal meetings with smaller groups of players. 

I want to suggest the benefits of taking practice very seriously. OK, that’s what just about every teacher says about just about any sport or pastime. However gifted you are, you are likely to underperform on your capabilities without practice. 

If you want to have fun, that’s fine, but anyone who says ‘I’m only doing this for fun’ I have to echo the words of John McEnroe, ‘you can’t be serious’.

Skills needed to improve your chess using benchmarking:

Stage 1 Understanding the rules of the game.

Stage 2 Playing without making illegal moves. 

Stage 3 Playing against a computer.

Stage 4 Understanding and being able to write down the moves of a game.

Stage 5 Setting up your benchmarking and training plan.

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Thursday 15 June 2023

The political news of the day is the report of the enquiry finding the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson guilty of misleading Parliament, misleading the enquiry, and compounding his errors by vigorous denial of the legitimacy of the enquiry.

In earlier podcasts, I noted the difficulties that politicians have in changing their minds. 
Maybe they persist irrationally in a belief when the evidence builds up against it. Politicians hate admitting they have changed their mind for fear of being accused of flip-flopping.
To deal with such an accusation may lead the politician to produce even less convincing arguments.
Both Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have resorted to this. 
Since losing the presidential election Trump has insisted he has been victim of the big lie, effectively robbing him of his rightful reelection.
This week, Boris Johnson echoed the victim cry of ‘we was robbed’, blaming a conspiracy including the inquiry into his unparliamentary behaviour. The enquiry had with a majority of members from his own party. furthermore, it  was appointed by Parliament with an even higher proportion  of MPs in his own party at a time when he was leader.

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A day is a long time in politics. The resignation of Boris Johnson

Friday 9 June 2023

There is an often repeated saying that a week is a long time in politics. Today, it seems as if the saying has to be speeded up to meet the pace of everyday life. 

I have just posted my weekly newsletter which began:

As I write, news is emerging of charges against former President Trump and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. There seems to be a mysterious symmetry at work. Both suffered a serious career setback politically. Both face political disgrace and criminal charges. Both retain hopes of a political comeback.

The early news is outpacing these overnight headlines. Many of us rely on social media to catch up. Even the BBC news bulletins are being conducted with reporters reading from their phones what is  appearing on Twitter ...

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As I removed the washing from the tumbler drier, a faded dishcloth was retrieved. I read what was written with increasing admiration.
The dishcloth had been made in Ireland.  It seems to have been acquired long ago. It captured a gently humorous tourist prayer.
I have spared you the Irish accept ...

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Gentlemen. I note there are no ladies present. One immediate example of how my efforts as your publicity officer have failed miserably in at least in that one aspect.

This is the seventh year in which I have held the honorary post of publicity officer of our Chess club. It is the first year I have been asked to provide a report of progress at our AGM. That is possibly because I would have had little progress to report in previous years. Perhaps I should start by making a brief summary of how the post was created, and why so little was achieved for so long.

My responsibilities began with an informal meeting of myself with our current chairman, David, and his predecessor Geoff, now sadly no longer with us. We agreed that the club needed more members and as a possible solution I agreed to become publicity officer. I actually volunteered, believing I already had a plan in mind that would fix the problem ...

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Some familiar tweeters in these recent gems from Twitter.

@deelomas
Thought for the day:
What if that spider you just killed in your house had spent his entire life thinking that you were his roommate? 
Ever think about that? 
No. You only think about yourself…

@gerriisalsoGigi
There’s a really good yoga trick for headaches, it’s all about breathing in through one nostril then the other. Too difficult to explain here but I’m sure you could google it, really relaxing too.
@Tudortweet
Can you cheat by blocking one nostril then the other in turn?
@gerriisalsoGigi
That’s the whole premise, you block one nostril with a finger, breath in and out with the other, then swap.

@MirandaKeeling
Woman in Walthamstow: I put my phone down halfway through a work WhatsApp thread, and by the time I look at it again my 4-year-old has sent everyone a photo from my phone of her putting her head into a life-sized model dinosaur and a random photo that she has just taken of our corridor...

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Setting up the board with the chequers in their correct position.

Backgammon is played in competition between two people (other versions are possible, but let’s keep it simple. Also keeping it simple, I’m calling one ‘white’ and another ‘black’).

I’m going to use the terms ‘bits’ as an alternative to chequers and meaning the same thing. I’m using the principle of symmetry to simply where the bits go on the board.

All the bits move the same way. First you have to set up the bits in their starting position.

There’s a symmetry to the starting arrangement of black and white bits. If you can visualise it, it will also be helpful for thinking ahead as you play.

The fifteen bits of each colour go on to one of four of the places identified by by the long triangles of the board. 

Each triangle on top and bottom segment has the same number of bits of opposing colours. 

Start with the extreme triangle. Place  black bits placed on. So on the bottom left triangle place  five white bits. That’s the first example of the symmetry I mentioned. 

Moving just across the centre of the board (called the bar) place five white bits on the  top triangle of the board See the symmetry left and right. Now add five black bits immediately below. Now the top and bottom symmetry is shown. 

There are four more triangles to receive bits. Again using symmetry, two black ones go on the top right triangle and two white ones below them. 

It is where that the symmetry of black and white  positions is easiest to see. 

Unfortunately, the positions of the bits on last two triangles does not fit with perfect symmetry. Place the last three white ones above the last three black ones to the left of the bar, (leaving one pair of triangles empty to their right, and three to their left. 

There are reasons explained in more advanced descriptions of backgammon. 

In Lesson 3 we will learn how to move the pieces into play using the two dice. 

PS

It’s a good idea to remind your self about lesson 2 before starting lesson 3.

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