2000-06-30 - 00:03:52

I know it seems that I just got back from a vacation (In fact I DID, really) but now I am off again. This time I am going away for a major chess tournament, something that I planned months ago. And even though I planned it months ago, the timing seems awkward. My enthusiasm for playing chess seems to have dimmed in the last couple of months. The payoff I get from playing seems rather pallid compared to other things I have discovered, like writing in this journal.

As before, I am going to try to have some fill-in Uberhamster episodes for my regular readers to keep you all occupied until I get back.

Since I have hardly mentioned chess at all in this journal, the four entries for the days I am away will all have chess themes. The challenge for me is to make them interesting to non-chess players, which is what I assume most of you are. I think I can do this, after all I've had enough practice.

Although chess is commonly called a game, it really could be called a lot of things. It definitely is a sport, with all the tension and drama that name implies. This means that the game, like any sport, is also a test of character.

It also might be said to be an art, and often chess games and problems will show a kind of rare beauty to those that take the time to study them.

All that being said, I am looking forward to this tournament with a sort of quiet dread. I am out of practice and will probably get knocked around like a crash test dummy. Is this a premonition, or simply pre-tournament jitters?

I'm treating this as an experiment. Does my new mental clarity translate into better vision over the chessboard? That might be so. However, it could also be that various recent distractions, most notably the beauteous Pandora, might have ruined me for such dry concentration.

Well, we shall see.