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.

Echoes

I had another nosebleed on Friday, this time it occurred at an awkward moment as I was checking out at a small supermarket. Holding my nose and putting things in my bags at the same time was a bit awkward. A few drops fell onto my newly washed nylon bag, so it's going to need another wash! When I saw the doctor last year they concluded it was due to a weak vessel in my nose, but why it should recur at this time I don't know.

This morning I took another longish walk, this time up to the West Hill where the Castle is, and back through the Old Town via Croft Road. This will be the new route for the Jack-in-the-Green ceremony on Monday, so I thought I'd check it out since I missed it last year. There was a group of male-voice folk-singers outside the Jenny Lind pub, and a group of Morris Dancers at the entrance to Rock-a-Nore Road, but I couldn't see much since they were surrounded by a crowd. I ended with a walk along the beach. There was quite a strong wind coming off the sea.

During the week I've spent a lot of time typing up a collection of Exact Echo chess problems that I made about 25 years ago, with the help of various correspondents. It was intended to publish a booklet of them as a follow-up to the Exact Echoes tourney that I held in my little magazine Chessics. It was abandoned at the time because of competition from Eugene Albert's Encyclopedia of Ideal Mate Chess Problems, that would have contained many problems of this type. I presume that appeared, though I never followed it up, my interests having moved elsewhere.