It's All About Fun and New Ideas

As I have mentioned previously I initially started blogging about a very narrow topic of Correspondence Chess. As I found that I could "speak" on topics easily, and get heard, I wandered into other areas such as football, politics, chess governance, etc... As I wandered between topics I wondered about keeping things in categories. Categories are important to me. I once worked as a library clerk and the value of keeping things in their place was imprinted from that on my psyche despite my scatter shot nature. In fact, working in libraries was so enjoyable and fulfilling that I have had a long held the dream of one day being a reference librarian. Some day I may even realize that dream...

Back to the topic. In trying to create venues to voice opinions, and in some cases make a difference, I started creating blogs by the bushel. Part of the concern was that many of my chess playing friends and Redskins fan friends do not hold my views on politics and current events. That, at times, created some strife. Out of those desires and concerns came ChessUSA in September 2007 and Pax Parabellum in September 2008 along with other blogs focused on the Redskins and Correspondence Chess. While Pax and CUSA thrived, lost in the diversification were writings on my beloved Washington Redskins and on Correspondence Chess.

So, I'm consolidating back a bit. I posted recently about closing ChessUSA (here and here). To be honest, I'm not all broken up over closing it. I've grown very jaded about chess governance over the past couple of years and have lost the passion to write on and advocate for change in that arena. As I wrote a friend, I do feel some gratitude for the persons who brought home the point to me (though I think this was not their motivation) that the events surrounding the USCF and chess governance had diminished the enjoyment I had derived from playing and observing the game.

Chess is a game. It is supposed to be enjoyable.

In that email to a friend, I stated, "The USCF can sink or swim. Beyond interacting at the forum, it can do it without me. I'll make use of the $29 option and if the USCF makes it, fine. If it doesn't I have other avenues to enjoy chess. :D"

Sánchez Carmona - Owens
ICCF WS/O/120
Black to move after 29. Rdd1.


White's Game is OVER after 29...Nd4.

I can't tell you how liberating the recent events have been. I have a recently completed Caro Kann - Gurgenidze game as Black that I have just begun to look at. The 29th move is a real gem and something that a player of my level should have pride in. It's something I would have blogged about soon after completion a couple years ago. I have two ICCF WebServer Open Class FIRST PLACE finishes (WS/O/172 and WS/O/215). In 215 I finished undefeated and untied for a full SIX points.

It's time for blogging to be fun again. I'm going to blog at Pax and here. Pax will have my comments about politics and current events. Everything else will go here.

To that end I've deleted most of the political and current event content from this blog. Everything is still over at Pax. I'm going to move the few Redskins items I posted at Zorn Again over here. The correspondence chess blog I started never received any content other than what had already been posted (and remains) here.