Hows your butt feel?

Thats the title of a new tv show Im pitching. Kind of like Anthony Bourdains No Reservations but all you eat is bacon. All kinds of delicious bacon from countries around the world with travel and culture mixed in. Mmm.

Did you know their is a chess game on international flights. That little screen that you cant quite see, ya you can use it to play against the binary brains of the aircraft. The controls are either awful or a well planned design to stall for as much time as possible so you dont have a cabin fever freak out. Thats the good news. The bad news is that it hangs pieces on medium and hard cant possibly be over 1200. What does that mean for aircraft technology? Well, I landed safely.

Also, facebook has a chess application now. Its move within three days stuff. Ive been playing a game with my brother on it and so far so good. Havent had time to explore it thoroughly though. Just wanted to give a heads up for you electronic hipsters.

Open Your Mind

Preparation for the upcoming match against the brohim.

Deal with all personal psychological issues before play. A swamping brain always makes for poor decision making.

Eliminate the ego. Once the ego is in play commitments get squirrely. Ownership of moves is bad, moves are, the game is. Keep emotions free and think of the game.

When five minutes is left on the clock keep the moves to approximately five seconds. I like to mull. And mulling doesn't do a lot of good when the clock is spiraling through time at an awaiting flag.

When we have less than fifteen seconds left the position of the board greatly decreases as it will be irrelevant if the flag falls. We must now move at a rate of no more than one second per move.

Keep your vision. Don't let your mind stray and pay attention to knight jumps and sniping bishops. Play book openings as far out as possible and save time so the endgame can contain good strategy.

Seize, retain and exploit the initiative. Through offensive action, a commander preserves his freedom of action and imposes his will on the enemy.

If you blunder, don't give up fighting. After getting the advantage, your opponent may relax and let you escape.

The ability to produce duos is the most important measure of the value of a pawn formation.

Remember the Windmill.