Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Chess

  • The Consolation of Caissa

    Chess is an oasis of sanity in an insane world. I just now lost a three-minute ICC game to a Ukrainian player whose 3-min rating is 1378. He calls himself IM Serg2008.  I am happy to play the patzer for someone so beleaguered.  (Actually, I am not merely playing the patzer; I am one.) Well,…

  • Above the Urinal at the Chess Tournament

    Urine check! I didn't make that up. It was at some cheesy Knight's Inn or similar venue in Phoenix in the early-to-mid 'nineties, when Myron Lieberman presided in his inimitable manner over well-attended tournaments and Ed Yetman, bandanna around his neck and sidearm strapped to his hip, manned the book concession. Say what you want…

  • The Game of Life

    The game of life is 'sudden death' with the time control unknown.

  • The Double Bongcloud

    Don't try this at home!

  • The Philosopher as Luftmensch

    Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Penguin, 2002), p. 11: Philosophy today gets no respect. Many scientists use the term as a synonym for effete speculation. When my colleague Ned Block told his father that he would major in the subject, his father's reply was "Luft!" — Yiddish for "air." And then there's…

  • Chess and Philosophy

    In a chess game as in a philosophical debate, the outcome remains uncertain until the end is reached. What distinguishes the philosophical debate  is that the outcome remains uncertain even when the end is reached.

  • Alinsky, Tartakower, and Nimzowitsch: “The Threat is Stronger than the Execution”

    Kai Frederik Lorentzen writes, In your latest blog entry you refer to Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. Being aware that you are a chess player, I want to ask: Do you know that his rule number nine had earlier been formulated by grandmaster Tartakower? Alinsky: "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself." Tartakower:…

  • The Last Chess Shop in New York City

    A moving little video.

  • Charles Krauthammer (1950 – 2018)

    I cited him often over the years and disagreed with him only once. I admired his penetrating intellect, but more importantly his good judgment. In his personal life he was a profile in courage. He was a major contributor to the high quality of Fox commentary. On the debit side, he was perhaps too much…

  • Black Privilege

    “The story at Starbucks isn’t racism but entitlement. The two men felt entitled to loiter on private property without buying anything. They decided that the rules didn’t apply to them. And apparently they were correct.” —Matt Walsh I love hanging out in coffee houses, reading, talking, and most of all, playing chess. I fancy myself a strong…

  • Questioning Bobby Fischer

    Good writing, paragraph one: There is no place on earth more (less?) ideal than Jerusalem for pondering the mysteries of existence, and for a not-insignificant number of people mysteries don’t get more engrossing than the self-exile of chess prodigy Bobby Fischer. The all-time great retreated into obscurity—and, later, derangement—at the age of 32, shortly after…

  • Chess Players Commiserate on their Failed Marriages

    A: "We were bishops of opposite color."  B:  "Sorry to hear that.  In our case the union ended when she discovered I had insufficient mating material." C:  "We just couldn't get it together.  Whenever she wanted to make love, I was busy making Luft." D: "She blew her stack when I gingerly brought up the topic…

  • I’m a Racist Because I Like Chess

    I left the house at 5:15 this morning, hiked 45 minutes over the local hills to arrive at 6:00 sharp at Gecko Espresso where I met up with Lowell S. a local chess aficionado.  We played under the influence of caffeine for a solid two hours, one game, recorded, to be analyzed when next we…

  • Chess is Racist!

    Not only is chess racist, it is also sexist and patriarchal. The fact that the Queen is the most powerful piece on the board proves nothing to the contrary. The powers allowed to the Queen are in truth nothing more than so many sops thrown to the feminists to keep them quiet. The sexism and…

  • Maverick Philosopher Chess Images

    And others besides.