Wednesday 28 February 2024

8x12 Symmetric Magic Knight Tour

 Guenter Stertenbrink reports that after a computer search 

there are no symmetric magic knight tours on the 8x10 rectangle.

 8x10 magic knight tours - ChessProblem.net


He provides this example of a rotationally symmetric magic tour 8x12.




First half numbered 1 to 48 (instead of 0 to 47).


Rank sum 582 (6x97). File sum 388 (4x97).


Tuesday 2 January 2024

New Years Moan

The Christmas to New Year period is my least favourite time of the year. 

Over Christmas all the radio stations I normally listen to are taken over by Christian propaganda in the form of carols, which being a secular humanist unbeliever I find annoying. I tend to go into hibernation and put on my own CD music collection. I'm also not keen on the consumerist advertising, since I like a simple life of plain food without alcohol. 

The other main annoyance is that everything closes down every few days, not excluding strikes by doctors and train drivers. This morning I was thinking of changing my method of payment of my energy supply from pay-as-you-go to direct debit, since finding a functioning Pay Point anywhere near is increasingly difficult. However I couldn't find any way of doing this online. I suppose I will have to phone tomorrow, if it is possible to get through. 

I also checked my bank account online, but found I was not allowed access until they had phoned me and I had given them a four-digit code (this was after signing in with my ID, Password and four letters of my Special information). I tried opening a saver account that was on offer, but got a message that something went wrong and I should try visiting the bank! I clicked on a message that was indicated, but it resulted in signing me out. So I couldn't make the transfer of money from my current account to my ISA that I intended. So it was all a waste of time and effort. 

It seems that BT is threatening to close down land lines. Since I don't have  a mobile phone this would leave me incommunicado. I rely on it for communication with the medical profession. Now it seems it would also cut me off from my bank account.

Happy New Year?


Friday 7 July 2023

Multi-storey car park

 It seems the new building by the bus station is to be a multi-storey car park! I would have thought that another car park is the last thing Crewe needs. Or does it mean all the other car parks on the other side of Delamere street will be closed - and maybe built on or landscaped into gardens? I doubt it. 

Friday 19 May 2023

More Road Works in Crewe

 Here are some more recent photos of the works in Barnard Street, and at the end of Delamere Street where it meets Flag Lane and in the town centre.





I'm not sure what the building is by the crane in the town centre but hope it is just a temporary structure and not an example of the new architecture to be built there!

Wednesday 5 April 2023

Solutions to Tour Puzzles

I've published a set of tour puzzles on the Knight and Leaper Tours subforum. Moves at the top of the 6x7 board (Diagonal, Lateral or Right angles) are given and the puzzle in each case is to complete a symmetric closed tour. 

Knight and Leaper Tours - ChessProblem.net

To avoid having the solutions on the same page I thought it might be better to publish them here and provide a link to this page, to allow time for people to solve the puzzles.


The solutions can all be reasoned out step by step. For instance the paths through the corner cells are fixed, and in most cases this is true of other cells. Another factor to watch for is where putting in a pair of opposite moves (to satisfy the symmetry condition) results in a short circuit (i.e. not a complete tour).

Tuesday 4 April 2023

Chess at Great Yarmouth

 On Friday 31 March I took to the trains to Great Yarmouth, travelling via Nottingham and Norwich, to take part in the chess congress. This was probably a bit too far to travel in one day and left me quite tired. The bed and breakfast accommodation I had booked was comfortable however.

The weather on Saturday was wet and windy and cold, and getting to the Conference Centre venue, at the race course, was a long walk. Nevertheless I began with a good win against a 1500 rated opponent. This was followed by a draw. I was unable to find a place nearby for a decent meal and had to settle for a take-away coffee and pasty. 

By the time of the third round that evening I was quite tired and found I had to play a strong Junior. Unfortunately she kept coughing at every move, which I complained about to the organisers, and questioned the state of her health, but they said she only had a cold, not Covid. It was a long game and in the end I ran out of time.

On Sunday morning the weather was much better, sunny but still with a strong wind. I lost my morning game by playing all the wrong opening moves. Fortunately this gave me time to catch a No.8 bus into the town centre where I was able to get some cod and chips at the Fish O'Licious by the bus station. Surprisingly for a seaside town there didn't seem to be many fish and chip shops, but maybe it was out of season. Most places along the front were closed up.

I caught the bus back to the venue, arriving in good time, and in a good mood, to win the final game, also against a 1500 rated player, though I think he was very tired at the end. 

So my score was 2.5 out of 5, which I consider my standard result. The chess results website rates my performance at the 1460 level, well above my current rating of 1311. 

The journey home was uneventful but I needed a good sleep that night. I will have to look at the chess calendar to see whether there is another event I could enter before the Crewe congress at the end of June. Maybe I should try some rapid play. 


Sunday 5 March 2023

Crewe Town Centre

 Here is a photo I took of the latest works in the town centre where the bus station used to be. 


It is beginning to be possible to see across the whole area, were it not for the piles of rubble in between.