88CHESS.COM

“Chess is my world,” said the former Soviet world champion Mikhail Tal. “Not a house, not a fortress where I hide myself from life’s hardship, but indeed the world. The world in which I live a full life, in which I prove myself.” It is a place of beauty, challenge, fierce competition, endless calculation, a unique blend of art and science. So bravo to Armenia for making it a compulsory part of the primary school curriculum. Educationists in that former Soviet republic argue that playing chess will breed a sense of responsibility in young children and be character-building. Well maybe, though in my experience the most likely result is that you go to bed at 2am having roundly abused someone in Minnesota who has just beaten you in an online … Read entire article »