George Duke wrote on Fri, Nov 21, 2008 05:21 PM UTC:
''We are the destructive meteorite. We never fully give up our individual
interests; that is why we are not a superorganism like ants.'' -- Edward
O. Wilson // You remember those experiments where one drop more changes
the colour of the solution, tripping the reaction. Chess is at such
trigger point. It's obvious, Chess history so far is all pre-history,
done, fini. Anand at ChessBase 1.October.2008: ''Ten years ago I said
that 2010 would be the end, Chess would be exhausted.'' What holds it
back are super-performers financial interests: Anand, Kasparov, Kramnik
and 100 others only. What is in store is not hundreds of Internet Presets, but a dozen or two for deep theory, as 8x8 OrthoChess is dumped, progressively. That is because, as Rich Hutnik teaches, people want a set
challenge to try to solve, a logical pattern to prove their competence,
even if it takes the experts decades to master. Chess has been big part of culture at times on four continents, such as mediaevally and during Ben
Franklin's and Philidor's 18th Century. Today Larry Evans calls Chess a
minor art. People ask me, ''What good is it?'' What CVers do, under
proliferation, is even more minor, a minor, minor practice of a minor art. Not
wholly honest in attribution of sources, not notable for courteous
dialogue, defending their turf unlike the quote above suggesting common
good. Turf that chess-savvy outsiders value not a whit anyway. But CVers' craft or art (nomenclature, orthogonal basketweaving, the
whole ball of wax) may yet find its groove, as Chess itself revolutionizes, but
not by fiat. Or CVs as proliferating artwork may die out and Chess herself be none the worse. ''We have assumed that all systems require leadership, that we always need an internal, centralized command, and that's not true. And many systems would work better if we allowed them to organize themselves.'' -- Steven Strogatz