Exact Echoes

After a 25 year lapse of time I have at last completed this 50-page A4 PDF booklet which derives from the successful ‘Exact Echoes Tourney’ which was announced in Chessics issue 15 in 1983, entries being published in issues 17 to 21 and the award in issue 23 in 1985. Composers were asked to send in not only their original compositions but also outstanding examples of their previous work, or the work of others that they considered should not be missed, with a view to publishing a booklet on the subject. I have not so far attempted to bring the collection up to date to cover work done in the intervening years, but may yet make a few minor improvements. It is available on my publications page.

I've just noticed that in Safari, the browser I am now using, the box of text runs off the righthand side of the screen. This must be due to a different interpretation of the CSS instructions as compared with Internet Explorer. I must try to correct it.

I went to the Hastings Chess Club AGM on Sunday, but didn't find it a very encouraging experience. Perhaps I've had a glut of AGMs this past week. I was at the BHA AGM in London on Saturday, as reported on the Hastings Humanists blog, and the Arts Forum AGM on Tuesday. Fortunately I postponed the Hastings Humanists AGM to November. In July it is too hot to think.

My Website Reorganised

This Sunday I've spent most of my time at the computer rearranging the material on my mayhematics.com website. Most of the content is unchanged, it is just the way the pages are classified that has changed. The Index page now leads to three sitemaps, one covering Chessics and the others Reality and Fantasy. It took much more work than I expected, and several FTP sessions, to get all the links, forward and backward, to work correctly.

I've more or less given up on CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) methods, finding them more trouble than they are worth, particularly if you want to change anything. I've reverted to simple HTML. All necessary styling, which I keep to the minimum, is all on the page itself.

There is one new item, namely a version of the missing Issue 45 of the Games and Puzzles Journal, which was lost but now is partially found. It comprises only three articles, the others needing further work.

The website got confused when NTL closed down my old Home pages and I was forced to squeeze them into the mayhematics site. The different sets of material are now much more spaciously arranged, which should allow for ease of development.

Newton Day

I spent most of 25 December, Newton Day, appropriately doing some mathematics.

I've put together all my pages of notes on knight's tours to see if I can fit them into a reasonably sized book of around 250 pages. At present it is at around 350 pages, but further selection and editing should get it down to the right size. The pages are formatted to standard A4 size with inch margins, which allows four chessboard diagrams across the page.

The main problem I've had with the whole idea is to get the right balance between History and Theory. I now start with a chapter headed Chessics which introduces the theory, follow this with a chapter on lateral and diagonal movers, i.e. wazir and king tours, and then get to the knight, with more theory and tours by longer leapers and other pieces coming after. I'm not sure I like splitting the Theory section like this, but I do feel I'm making progress.

I had some items on knight's tours back in the first issue of Chessics published in 1976, which is now 33 years ago. I'm rather a slow worker.

Friends and "Friends"

I've been getting a lot of requests on Facebook for people to be Friends, although many of them I've never met. However I recognise many of their names, mostly from the chess and puzzle world, and some I've corresponded with in the past when I was producing my magazines like Chessics and Games and Puzzles Journal. Other names I don't recognise, but usually they are Friends of Friends. After some hesitation I've now decided to accept most of these requests. To keep things in order I've classified most of them as "Chessic Friends" to avoid getting them mixed up with Friends I've actually met from Hastings or Leicester.

Another Friend who has contacted me is an old school friend who was at St Olaves Grammar School in the 1950s. That is Russ Stanfield. He is the only person from that period that I have encountered. I joined the Old Olavians a few years ago and went to one of their reunions, held at the new school buildings in Orpington, but there was no-one there from the same time. They would all now be approaching 70, if they have survived.

I intended to go to Hastings Pier on Saturday to join the demonstration for the Council to do something about renovating it, but when I looked at the clock it was past twelve, and when I arrived there was no-one about. I did manage to go out in the evening to see the bonfire and fireworks display on the beach. It was rather noisy, and I'm not sure what it was celebrating, but it was colourful.