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This may be the weirdest post any of you have ever seen on ChessTalk. It does have something to do with chess at least....
Over the past 10 or 11 years, I have been posting on ChessTalk regularly if intermittently... I've been very critical of organized chess because
of its narrow-mindedness, constrained by FIDE. When Jean Hebert attacked organizers of the Canadian Closed (the year when Hal Bond organized it
at the last moment, maybe 2009, 2010, 2011?), I defended tournament organizers in general with great passion. I pushed back hard against Hebert
and his elitist attitude. No one had ever pushed back against Hebert the way I did.
When Vlad Drkulec and Paul Beckwith had a vitriolic debate over climate change here on ChessTalk, I tried to be an intermediary, a middle voice,
trying to reason that things were still not clear, that neither total denial nor total agreement with anthropomorphic (man-caused) climate change
were yet proven to be correct. Since then, I've come to join the side that says it is happening, based on preponderance of evidence.
When Vlad Drkulec had an even more vitriolic debate with Ben Daswani in which Drkulec made statements that violate Canada's hate laws, prompting
Larry Bevand to remove Drkulec's rant, I was there to document the details.
But this post has nothing to do with any of that.
This post is about a person I consider an angel, which is my wife. Why would I post here about that? I'll explain at the end of this post.
My wife was born with a genetic defect. She has a form of muscular dystrophy. She grew up in a wheelchair, and as a result of that she put on a
lot of weight even in childhood and persisting into adulthood. But when she turned 30, she took on a rigorous diet and exercise regime which was
very successful.
I met her right around the time she got "skinny" by her previous standards. We were chatting online for 6 months before we ever physically met. I
really liked her... and when I finally did physically meet her, it was love right away. We became a couple forever. Her being in a wheelchair
didn't restrain my feelings for her at all. I just simply knew (in my belief system, it was all arranged before we were ever born on Earth) that
she was the one for me. At the time, I was a dedicated bachelor, totally enjoying being single and making good money. She changed all that in a
breathtaking instant. And guess what, this October we've been married 19 years and I'm MORE IN LOVE WITH HER THAN EVER BEFORE.
Ok, so why am I bothering to post all of this?
Muscular Dystrophy is a progressive disease. You don't "catch" it, you are born with it (or you aren't.) My wife was born with it.
For her, it is now progressing to the point where her life is on the line. This beautiful angelic being, with a heart of gold, who loves everyone
unconditionally no matter race nor creed nor religion nor interest in chess and who especially loves innocent children, who has a laugh that
would warm anyone's heart even Vlad Drkulec's (I hope), is now suffering the progression of her disease to the point that basic breathing is
becoming difficult. We are coming up against the possible early termination of her life, although there are some potential remedies all of which
involve heavy costs.
Long-term readers of ChessTalk may recall that over the years I've mentioned a few chess variants of my invention, including one that I
particularly have insisted will go big-time. In my enthusiasm for this one particular variant, I made it seem even several years ago that I was
ready to launch things within a year or two. It never happened, and the reason is that increasing amounts of my professional earnings have gone
towards keeping my wife as healthy as possible. So every time it seemed I was on the verge of making serious investment in my most prized
variant, to get it out there and available, I suddenly found that I needed instead to divert my resources to my wife's well being. And since I am
totally in love with her, she comes before everything.
So to those long-term readers who have wondered why my promised variant hasn't made the scene, I hope this explains that question. Vlad Drkulec
has been particularly onerous on this point. He believes as does FIDE that only standard chess deserves to exist and variants can't be successful
simply because they aren't standard chess! This is called "brainwashing" and is the main reason why over the years I've called organized chess at
the top levels a "cult". A cult in which the moneys of the huge chess pyramid base are constantly channeled into feeding the very few elite,
because standard chess is a pure skill game so that only the very few elite can prosper.
Whether or not it is a cult is of very miniscule consequence compared to my angelic wife. I'd rather look into her beautiful eyes and know that
she's still here and somewhat healthy because of me than to know that she isn't any of that BUT there's a new chess variant out there and doing well.
Even the fact that this new chess variant would make life a lot better for the base of the chess pyramid (i.e. would present more opportunity for
mediocre chess players to occassionally make money playing a form of chess, not standard chess but close enough for rock 'n roll) isn't enough to
change my priorities.
This post is purely to let you all know why my promised variant hasn't appeared in the past several years and may not appear at all. I have to
save a life, a beautiful angelic life. None of you will likely ever understand that. Nonetheless, I DO understand why all of you mediocre chess
players continue to support standard chess. You simply love the game, just as I love my wife. Except.... if that is your definition of love, you
are eminently deprived of the true meaning of love. I once loved chess, and it doesn't come within a parsec of loving a beautiful human being who
has no bad wishes towards anyone. Can you love both? Not really, because standard chess being a pure skill game is so demanding of one's time.
I'm signing off now, possibly for good.... Drkulec eat your heart out, you poisonous snake.
Over the past 10 or 11 years, I have been posting on ChessTalk regularly if intermittently... I've been very critical of organized chess because
of its narrow-mindedness, constrained by FIDE. When Jean Hebert attacked organizers of the Canadian Closed (the year when Hal Bond organized it
at the last moment, maybe 2009, 2010, 2011?), I defended tournament organizers in general with great passion. I pushed back hard against Hebert
and his elitist attitude. No one had ever pushed back against Hebert the way I did.
When Vlad Drkulec and Paul Beckwith had a vitriolic debate over climate change here on ChessTalk, I tried to be an intermediary, a middle voice,
trying to reason that things were still not clear, that neither total denial nor total agreement with anthropomorphic (man-caused) climate change
were yet proven to be correct. Since then, I've come to join the side that says it is happening, based on preponderance of evidence.
When Vlad Drkulec had an even more vitriolic debate with Ben Daswani in which Drkulec made statements that violate Canada's hate laws, prompting
Larry Bevand to remove Drkulec's rant, I was there to document the details.
But this post has nothing to do with any of that.
This post is about a person I consider an angel, which is my wife. Why would I post here about that? I'll explain at the end of this post.
My wife was born with a genetic defect. She has a form of muscular dystrophy. She grew up in a wheelchair, and as a result of that she put on a
lot of weight even in childhood and persisting into adulthood. But when she turned 30, she took on a rigorous diet and exercise regime which was
very successful.
I met her right around the time she got "skinny" by her previous standards. We were chatting online for 6 months before we ever physically met. I
really liked her... and when I finally did physically meet her, it was love right away. We became a couple forever. Her being in a wheelchair
didn't restrain my feelings for her at all. I just simply knew (in my belief system, it was all arranged before we were ever born on Earth) that
she was the one for me. At the time, I was a dedicated bachelor, totally enjoying being single and making good money. She changed all that in a
breathtaking instant. And guess what, this October we've been married 19 years and I'm MORE IN LOVE WITH HER THAN EVER BEFORE.
Ok, so why am I bothering to post all of this?
Muscular Dystrophy is a progressive disease. You don't "catch" it, you are born with it (or you aren't.) My wife was born with it.
For her, it is now progressing to the point where her life is on the line. This beautiful angelic being, with a heart of gold, who loves everyone
unconditionally no matter race nor creed nor religion nor interest in chess and who especially loves innocent children, who has a laugh that
would warm anyone's heart even Vlad Drkulec's (I hope), is now suffering the progression of her disease to the point that basic breathing is
becoming difficult. We are coming up against the possible early termination of her life, although there are some potential remedies all of which
involve heavy costs.
Long-term readers of ChessTalk may recall that over the years I've mentioned a few chess variants of my invention, including one that I
particularly have insisted will go big-time. In my enthusiasm for this one particular variant, I made it seem even several years ago that I was
ready to launch things within a year or two. It never happened, and the reason is that increasing amounts of my professional earnings have gone
towards keeping my wife as healthy as possible. So every time it seemed I was on the verge of making serious investment in my most prized
variant, to get it out there and available, I suddenly found that I needed instead to divert my resources to my wife's well being. And since I am
totally in love with her, she comes before everything.
So to those long-term readers who have wondered why my promised variant hasn't made the scene, I hope this explains that question. Vlad Drkulec
has been particularly onerous on this point. He believes as does FIDE that only standard chess deserves to exist and variants can't be successful
simply because they aren't standard chess! This is called "brainwashing" and is the main reason why over the years I've called organized chess at
the top levels a "cult". A cult in which the moneys of the huge chess pyramid base are constantly channeled into feeding the very few elite,
because standard chess is a pure skill game so that only the very few elite can prosper.
Whether or not it is a cult is of very miniscule consequence compared to my angelic wife. I'd rather look into her beautiful eyes and know that
she's still here and somewhat healthy because of me than to know that she isn't any of that BUT there's a new chess variant out there and doing well.
Even the fact that this new chess variant would make life a lot better for the base of the chess pyramid (i.e. would present more opportunity for
mediocre chess players to occassionally make money playing a form of chess, not standard chess but close enough for rock 'n roll) isn't enough to
change my priorities.
This post is purely to let you all know why my promised variant hasn't appeared in the past several years and may not appear at all. I have to
save a life, a beautiful angelic life. None of you will likely ever understand that. Nonetheless, I DO understand why all of you mediocre chess
players continue to support standard chess. You simply love the game, just as I love my wife. Except.... if that is your definition of love, you
are eminently deprived of the true meaning of love. I once loved chess, and it doesn't come within a parsec of loving a beautiful human being who
has no bad wishes towards anyone. Can you love both? Not really, because standard chess being a pure skill game is so demanding of one's time.
I'm signing off now, possibly for good.... Drkulec eat your heart out, you poisonous snake.
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