During board game night a discussion broke out about how is art defined? While we delivered in the Wasteland Express the software developer opined that his job was artistic but that of an engineer was not. This being true because the medium in which the engineer worked was more greatly constrained. Needless to say, strong […]
In the chess world, which I enjoy although about which I’m aware my loyal fans are somewhat less enthusiastic, there is an interesting dichotomy in the behavior of two former world champions, Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand. Anand is still playing top level chess while Kramnik decided to give up competitive chess. Whose decision is […]
Today was an interesting day in the chess world when Wesley So decided on a pragmatic course of action when he had an opportunity for glorious victory. It was a complicated decision with a number of factors but I thought it was the correct choice; I am interested in what other people think. Let me […]
Back in July of 2018 a woman with the stage name of Stormy Daniels was arrested for non-sexual touching in a strip club in Columbus, Ohio. I wrote an article at the time expressing my Libertarian outrage at the event and now the entire vice unit that ran the operation has been disbanded because of […]
The death of nationalism is on display for the next few weeks at the World Chess Championship being held in London at the College in Holburn between reigning champion Magnus Carlsen from Norway and challenger Fabiano Caruana from the United States, by way of Italy. In past eras I, and most other people from the […]
I was watching one of my favorite poker streamers the other day when someone posted in chat a question about Polish Poker players. What did Tonkaaap think about them? He replied, without much thought, that he supposed they were poker players. This seems like a small thing but it struck my Objectivist ideology with an […]
I’m lucky enough to live in the Central West End where the St. Louis Chess club is currently hosting the Sinquefield Cup and recently former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov visited the studio and joined Yasser Seirawan and Jennifer Shahade. During his chat, he essentially completely ignored Shahade both in spoken words and body language. […]
Katy Perry just became the first Twitter user to have 100 million followers and this is a wonderful thing. It gives me hope for humanity. You’ll laugh, I’m sure. That Tom Liberman has finally lost his marbles. Katy Perry? A quick perusal of the top personalities on Twitter reveals entertainers dominate. Aside from corporate entities […]
The march of Artificial Intelligence continues on as was demonstrated when a computer defeated champion Ke Jei in two matches of the game Go. Go has a staggeringly large amount of moves and it was long thought it would take decades for computers to become as dominant in Go as they have become in chess. […]
We’ve been warned about foreign entanglements but no one is listening and we haven’t been for a long time. Recep Erdogan is the President of Turkey and one of the key players in the Middle East. On April 16, 2017, the nation voted Erdogan broad executive powers as the leader of Turkey and replaced the […]
Shortly after the United States became an independent nation a fellow named Alexander Hamilton was put in charge of the treasury. The debt accrued from the Revolutionary War was a large issue and Hamilton wrote something called The First Report on the Public Credit that promoted the plan of Assumption. Yipee, Tom, you might say. What […]
Ah, the familiar refrain of politicians explaining why they want to take away our freedom. It’s so the children will be safe. It’s all for the children. Chirp, chirp, chirp. The city of Los Angeles is considering banning adults without children from playgrounds. Ok, first the real reason for the ban. They want an excuse […]
I wrote a blog post about a chess player named Hikaru Nakamura who was penalized for breaking a rule in chess a few weeks back and something happened yesterday that painfully illustrates the old adage that life just ain’t fair. In that case Nakamura moved his piece, took his hand off of it, and then […]
Nazi Paikidze, that is. The annual United States Chess Championships, both men’s and women’s divisions, are being held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center in St. Louis for the next few days and the aforementioned woman is a leading contender for the title. Let’s all admit it, when we see the word Nazi certain things […]
There was an absolutely fascinating incident at the 2016 Candidates Chess Tournament being held in Moscow, Russia. The top U.S. player in the world, Hikaru Nakamura, touched his king but decided against moving it. There is a rule in chess that if you touch a particular piece you must then move that piece to another […]
Has anyone else noticed the romanticizing of an apocalypse? Be it a Zombie Apocalypse, a Nuclear Apocalypse, a Government Meltdown Apocalypse, or any other sort of disaster, there are those who romanticize this state affairs. Why is this? I say with absolute confidence that modern society with all its amenities is far better than any […]
There’s an interesting story in the world of chess that I think illustrates one of the problems with so called Ethical Codes. Former chess champion Gary Kasparov has been forbidden to hold office in the chess federation, FIDE, for two years because of an accusation of attempted bribery during his recent campaign to become president of that organization. Ethical […]
I’m sure a great number of people are not aware that something called Competitive Gaming, or eSports, is becoming a major sporting industry. In a recent interview an ESPN commentator named Colin Cowherd said some fairly nasty things about people who participate in eSports, and by association those who watch them. The rise of eSports […]
Over the last few years a very wealthy fellow by the name of Rex Sinquefeld has been making St. Louis the chess capital of the United States and his progress in that regard continued when he convinced the third highest rated player in the world, Fabiano Caruana to come play here at the St. Louis […]
I have several friends who run marathons and specifically St. Louis area marathons so when I saw a story about how a woman cheated to win this year’s GO! St. Louis Marathon I was intrigued. The story gets even worse because the woman, Kendall Schler, apparently successfully cheated to finish third in last year’s race. […]