The following texts are excerpts from Sun Tzu’s classic, “the art of war”.

“Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:
(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.

Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

(GM’s!) - All self explanatory.

There has been a common thread throughout the recorded existence of mankind (probably be the end of ‘im anyway) and this is Warfare. War plain and simple in whatever different form it has manifested itself, struggle for survival, food, land, equality, domination, liberation, marriage etc etc.

Let’s look at strategy and tactics in actual real life situations from one or two historical greats and try and classify their moves as either GM! or HM!

Marechal Foch (1851-1929) - “Mon centre cede, ma droite recule, situation excellente. J’attaque! (HM!)

Honour; no retreat no surrender. Easy to say, difficult to do.

Ok, let’s start the trip into the wonderful world of the two guides. From now on, The ‘Good Move Guide’ will be referred to simply as GMG and likewise the other will be HMG. Moves will be suffixed with an !, very good moves will earn a double - !!, etc.

I have to start with the obvious disclaimer blah blah…, the material contained in these guides are simply my thoughts and perspectives on life and should not be taken as a literal guide to resolving various issues etc etc etc. (GM!)

Strap on your seatbelts and get ready for the two most important guide books you’ll ever need from now onwards; “today will be the first day of the rest of your lives”!

Guide one: The ‘Good Move Guide’ (GMG), filled with ‘Good Moves!’ (GM!).

Guide two: The ‘Hard Move Guide’ (HMG), yep, that’s right, ‘Hard Moves!’ (HM!).

As the days go by, stay tuned and I’ll let you guys into the sacred pages of the greatest guides ever.   

I love quoting all sorts of stuff, rambling and rumbling. Ok, for real this is a serious view - we all know that famous whatever from Shakespeare’s Hamlet; “to be or not to be, ……blah blah blah” right?

I have seized this statement and declared it to be the fundamental question at the root of all life (well most aspects anyway). But consider the real beauty of that simple question; to do or not to do, to commit or not to commit, turn right or left (chess: b2 or not b2 - heh heh), etc. Well u get the drift I guess.

Answer that question and you’ve got life figured out. Nuff said.

Best wishes for the year ahead to all, hope you all got well and truly smashed over the xmas. Remember, ”don’t drink and drive - you might spill it”. 

“penance I have done and penance I am doing, but who is my mariner? when and where did I murder my albatross? 

So, where do we humble chess players fit in the grand scheme of life? Is chess a game or a sport? Are we ‘idiot savants’ or just plain weirdos? Hmmmm… 

“this then is the curse of a man, to perpetually lust after that which seems unattainable to him, even at great peril to his continued good health”