Billy Joe's Random Web Ramblings
8 Comments Published by Billy Joe Mills on Saturday, February 9 at 8:56 PM.
Here is a sweet site that lets you play through all of the Spassky-Fischer 1972 Championship games. Game 5 is of particular interest with 27. Qc2!Dick Cavett has a blog entry that gives insight and commentary on the dark, swirling mind and world of Fischer...along with an interesting video.
I've developed an affection for Anton Chekhov, who is supposedly the second most performed playwright behind Shakespeare. His wiki article is interesting, well-researched, and well-written. Here is a link to "The Lady with the Dog," a short story that Nabokov called, "one of the greatest stories ever written."
Steven Pinker is probably a top three public intellectual at the moment. Anything he writes is worth reading. I once saw him debate former Chancellor Nancy Cantor. He made her look as
though she belonged in the kiddie game being held down the street. It's a a few weeks old now, but he wrote a lengthy article for the NYTimes called, "The Moral Instinct." It will force you to reconsider how you evaluate your daily interactions with other human beings.NEW: Lastly, a great NYT op-ed that clarifies why the American lower classes are not actually doing as poorly as we tend to assume given the spin of statistics that are most often quoted in the media. No matter what people purport to know, economics and finance are subjects that few people understand, myself included.
Labels: Billy Joe Mills, Chess, literature, Random Ramblings
For some time I have intended to write a post on the chess scene in Dupont Circle, a park in the Northwest section of Washington, DC. Unfortunately, I don't have time to do it justice this afternoon, but I want to direct the collective attention of the Agora to a piece in today's Washington Post Magazine on Tom Murphy, arguably the King of Dupont Circle. Cash from both my wallet and Billy Joe's wallet has found its way into Tom's. He is a hustler, but above that he is a teacher. The story from the Washington Post Magazine is also about the intoxicating way that chess, like art and music, can capture a man's soul.I know Tom Murphy, and consider him a friend. This article is relatively fair, but it does not fully do justice to his sparkling brilliance, his civility, his character, or his abiding integrity. Also, the author makes it a story about "what could have been", but if you really know Tom Murphy, it's hard to escape the notion that it's not quite too late, that his story is really one of "what could be."
Click here for the Washington Post Magazine write up. There is also a short video interview with Tom that will give you a glimpse into the special world of Dupont Circle's Chess University. Also, check out the coverage (and other content) at The Chess Drum.
I hope you'll take the time to read Tom's story. Tom is a colorful genius, and rather than post at length about him here and now, I'm going to selfishly make the 2 block walk to the circle, tell Tom I liked the article, play a few games with him, and more likely than not, lose ten dollars.
