Rapid PLay Chess

 Our waste bins were not collected on Monday. I reported this to the Cheshire East council on the Wednesday but the bins have still not been emptied. They replied, giving me a code number to cite if nothing happens, but it is unclear how this is to be used. 

I took part in the Crewe Chess Club rapid play tournament which concluded with two rounds on Tuesday. I was placed in the lowest section but only managed to score 3 out of 6. A couple of photos I took of the event turned out to be too fuzzy to use. 

I'm not playing in the main Crewe Chess Tournament beginning today at the Mornflake stadium, since I haven't been feeling fit enough for three days play. 

I'm not looking forward to the weekend, if it s going to be really hot. The heat seems to be attracting a lot of little flies into my flat. It is necessary to keep the windows open at times to allow air to move through.

What Storm?

 No sign of the thunder storm we were supposed to get at 5pm today. It's been sunny for most of the day so far.  My front room gets hot in the afternoon. I've had to put up an extra blind. The house next door has been playing jungle drum music at the back, so I had to close the window. 

My GPs or their "assistant practitioner" has refused to allow ne any more antibiotic for UTI, so I've had to resort to paracetamol to control the pain. I hope this isn't a permanent decision. They don't seem to understand that a urine sample given through a catheter doesn't show the state of the urinary tract 

 

In the Alley

 I've been taking a walk along the alley at the back of my flat. 

There is extensive clearance going on at the back of several houses 

in Delamere Street, from the old Nunnery to No.59. 

It looks as though they may be planning to build something there. 

I took the photo through a gap in the high fence. 

The other photo is of a street light that is on at irregular times. 

At night it shines directly into my bedroom window. 

I did try a few years ago to get it moved but nothing happened. 

First Signs of Spring in the Park

I took a walk via Flag Lane and the Valley brook to Queens Park this sunny morning and took a few photos to cheer me up.

 

Circulating Chess Tours

I seem to have forgotten about this diary page for a while. Probably I've been too distracted with hospital check-ups and appointments. 

It was my 85th birthday early in February. It may be noted that 85 is a sum of two squares in two ways. It also has an interesting pattern in binary notation.

I've had one of the infrequent exchanges of messages with Prof Donald Knuth. He was interested in the E. W. Bennett problem of a circulating knight tour, which I solved with four symmetric tours, back in 1995. The tours are shown on the Knight's Tour Notes PDF #6 page 32.

Thanks to research by Arnaud Lefebvre (Rouen) it was possible to establish some biographical details: The original author was Edward William Bennett (1899 - 1979) who was President of the Otago Chess Club (New Zealand) in 1938 and champion there 1941, moving to Australia in 1945. 

I've been trying to convert material on my website into books of some kind, possibly a series of "Guides" on various subjects. The problem with making a Guide to Knight Tours is editing down the material to a manageable form. It would be necessary to keep referring to the website for more extensive details.