Thursday, January 24, 2008

Bobby Fischer

In the last week since Bobby Fischer's death, I realized that I probably would not have gotten into chess if not for him. My dad was enthusiastic about chess in 1972, and in either that year or the next, he taught me the royal game.

"The Bobby" as I like to refer to him was probably the greatest chess player ever, and it is sad that he went into obscurity and mental illness. In my chess lessons this morning, some of the students asked about chess, but two asked about "bad things he said about the United States." I explained to them that Bobby suffered from mental illness later in his life.

On a very positive note, I used the Game of the Century to demonstrate the two key goals in the opening--1) develop your minor pieces and a few pawns to control the center and 2) protect your King by castling. In the game, both Donald Byrne and Fischer followed the first rule, but Bobby punished Byrne for not castling! Bobby was 12 at the time, just a few years older than the students I teach.

I am thankful for chess for Bobby's countless contributions to it! Thank you and rest in peace!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Happy New Year

It has been one month since I wrote anything here. I had such a busy month I did not have time!

In addition to my chess teaching, I started working for Kelly Services doing temporary work at an area foundation to help them get through their year-end gift processing. It has been gratifying to see how generous people can be!

Our friends Jeff and Tiffany held the annual holiday party in mid-December that was great! As many of our group are busy with little children, we seldom get much time to get together as a group. I always look forward to the good times and cheer with this group of friends!

We had a good family vacation visiting Melissa's family in Alabama. I haven't been to her mom's home before, so it was good to finally visit there. On the tail end of the trip, we spent a couple of wonderful days of eating, drinking, listening to music, and generally absorbing the good energy of the great folks of New Orleans! I loved visiting there, and I would love to go back.

I am making forward progress on my Master's degree with my recent visit with my advisor. I am looking forward to completing this.

I wish all the reader's of my blog a happy new year! Cheers and good blessings to you!