What's up with me?

Hello again, friends. I haven't posted anything in a number of months. It had been my plan to teach a chess course at the local community centre in Duncan but, alas, not enough interest was shown and the course was cancelled.

My bad luck, however, was in contrast to the good work of Arnie Nermo from Abbotsford, B.C., who has helped towards creating a Canadian first ... the first Board of Education Approved Chess Course in a public school in Canada! Well done, guys! Arnie also provided a short history on How to Start a High School Chess Course.

I was down in Victoria this past weekend to check out the 2009 Victoria Chess Festival, aka the Grand Pacific Open, and to finally meet Jonathan Berry who was giving a chess lecture during the weekend. I was only able to attend the lecture. If I am able I will share my notes from Berry's lecture. He spoke on "A Few Endgames" and I also took the opportunity to purchase the first volume of "Chess on the Edge" from the Chess and Math booktable. Now I have another chess book that I haven't read. Heh.

P.S. to Chess and Math. Next time, guys, how about being organized enough to provide your customers with a receipt? I very nearly walked away from the amateurism of it all.

Gwyddbwyll is wood sense.

I've been wanting to start a chess blog called "Wood Sense" and, now that I have moved from Winnipeg to Vancouver Island, what could be a more appropriate title for a chess blog in this very wooded region of the country? Aren't the best chess pieces still made of wood?

Gwyddbwyll was the ancient Celtic chess-like game, mostly lost in time now, which translates as "wood sense". You can read a previous article about gwyddbwyll over at my Manitoba chess blog called Exclam! online .