Crewe Chess Congress

I forgot to post that I entered the Crewe Chess Congress on 27-29 September and won a grading prize for a 3.5 score in the Minor section. Since then I've only played in the Club and in a few team matches, away to other local clubs at Newcastle and Cheddleton and Meir. I was thinking of going in for other tournaments but the cost of travel and accommodation is getting prohibitive. I'm not sure if I will get to one of the Hastings tournaments after Christmas or in the New Year.

Knight's Tours Notes in 12 PDFs

On 26 September I published this version of my "Knights Tour Notes" in the form of 12 PDF monographs that can be downloaded from my publications page. I am really pleased, and indeed relieved, that I have been able to get this finished. Though new historical information has since come to light that makes part of it out of date already!

http://www.mayhematics.com/p/p.htm


Knight's Tour Notes by G. P. Jelliss

1 — Theory of Moves

2 — Walker Tours

3 — Shaped & Holey Boards

4 — Oblong Boards

5 — Odd & Oddly Even Boards

6 — Geometry of Chessboard Knight Tours

7 — Symmetry in Chessboard Knight Tours

8 — Octonary & Quaternary Pseudotours

9 — Magic Knight Tours

10 — Augmented Knight & Leaper Tours

11 — Alternative Worlds

12 — Chronology & Bibliography

This series of 12 monographs, contain much of the material from my Knight's Tour Notes web-pages. It was orignally proposed to publish it in book form but has proved too much to reproduce that way. It may be possible to produce a shorter book, in a more popular style, if a publisher can be found.

Magic Knight Tour 12x10

This is formed by simply adding a braid to one of Awani Kumar's recently found 12x6 magic tours.

The file and rank sums are 605 and 726.

Non-Crossing Knight Tour

I've been doing some more work on knight tours.
This is the best I've found for a closed non-crossing knight tour on 32x32 board.
820 moves which is 80% coverage.

Update for June and July

I seem to have missed a month again.

On 26 June I played in a 5-round Blitz tournament at the Crewe Chess Club. Forget result.

On 27 June my computer website sub was due. It is just under £60 on a standing order, so OK.

On 30 June I reinstalled the scanner on my computer and began to scan material on knight's tours, beginning with a paper by Eggleton & Eid and the Retrograde Analysis of Dawson and Hundsdorfer that I have been meaning to copy for some time. It has now been uploaded to my website. I also gave it a mention on Alexander George's chessproblemnet pages.

On 10 July I renewed my ECF membership.

On 23 July as a member of a Crewe team I was taken by car to play in a special Rapid Play match at the Town Crier in Chester. I was on the bottom board (12) but fortunately managed to win both my games (as Black and White against the same opponent).

My ECF grade for rapid play is now up to 92 though my normal grade has dropped drastically to 66.

Addendum: I seem to have forgotten that I played in a local Rapid Play Tournament organised by the Crewe Chess Club and held at the Ibis Hotel on 19 May. In that I won a grading prize. The results are reported here: https://crewechessclub.co.uk/congress-results-2017/ The key to rapid play I find is to keep to openings you know quite well, but the opponent may not be familiar with. This enables one to build up a time advantage early on.

Eye Operation

Early this morning (Tuesday) I went to Leighton Hospital for an operation on my left eye to remove a cataract. This seems to have been successful so far, though it will probably take a month to get used to it. The operation itself was not a very pleasant experience. The eye itself was anaesthetised and the rest of my face covered by a cloth. Although I can now see with the left eye the image does not align with the right eye, but I suppose this will right itself eventually.

Last Wednesday (5th June) I had to call in a Locksmith since I've had increasing difficulty in getting back into the flat and was afraid of getting locked out. Replacing the lock cost me £136.80, but it does now open very smoothly. Leaders, the estate agents seem to think I should have called them first, but they haven't responded on other problems.

Back on 23 April I complained about the light in the wash room flickering, and they said they would contact the Landlords about it, but nothing has happened. I can't fix it myself as it is not clear how it is held up or comes apart to reveal the type of light, which may be a fluorescent tube type.

All the lights in the flat and in the hallway are very old and really need replacing. On Saturday the last of the old bulbs in the front room lighting failed. They are tiny incandescent bulbs no longer made. I replaced two in the other fitting a while ago with LEDs which don't really line up with the reflector plates. Another light just inside the door has never worked, and the light in the bedroom lacks the ring that is needed to hold up a lamp shade.

All these little irritations add up, but generally I am happy with the flat.

Update: 26 August 2019

The Estate Agents, acting for the Landlord, arranged for Sykes Electrical to come and fix all the lights on 18 June, which was done very quickly. They also seem to have reimbursed me for the cost of the lock repair.

Also I was signed off at the Eye Clinic on 29 June, and had the lenses replaced in my glasses by Vision Express on 22 August. So things are looking better.

Town Centre Renovation

Here are before and after pictures of the area at the back of Crewe bus station. This is as far as the proposed renovation of this area has gone. The wooden structure was used for the Citizens Advice Bureau which has moved to Delamere House, shown in the left background of the first photo.

The area has just been levelled. The second photo also looks better since the trees are now in leaf. There have been no indications of when the work will continue.

Keeping Active

On 11th April I got my bicycle out for the first time since moving to Crewe to travel down to the Wistaston Memorial Hall to play chess in one of the U3A (University of the Third Age) groups. But I didn't get the energy to try it again on the 18th or 25th, partly because of rain and partly other attractions (e.g. World Snooker Championship).

Today 30th April I was due to go to the Leighton Hospital for a scan on my eye, but had a phone call yesterday cancelling it due to the doctor being unwell. Since it was a fine day I made a sudden decision to use my Senior train card for the first time this year for a visit to Chester, which is one stop away, a journey of about 20 minutes.

Chester is an immaculately maintained city, and clearly sign-posted. Having looked at a map before setting out which gave an idea of the layout, I had a good walk around, across the Canal, through the Grosvenor Park, down to the River Dee where I sat to watch the boats and ducks for a while. Then back through the town to see the Roman Amphitheatre and the Roman Gardens, which is a modern reconstruction, and a walk along part of the Roman City Walls. Steep steps up and down and a narrow walkway. Then after a meal a walk back along the river and through the Park.

I feel better for the exercise. So should also get back to swimming some time soon.

Contents of the Knight's Tour Notes Book

The following is a reproduction of the contents list of the 800-page Knight's Tours Notes book that I am still working on and hope to publish soon. The 'z' represents a Knot symbol. The page numbers preceding each section should be in bold type.

Contents in 24 Knots
z 1- Theory 5 Boards 6 Moves, Pieces 8 Freedom and Multiplicity 9 Mobility, Nets 11 Journeys 14 Shortest Path Problem 17 Two-move Journeys: Angles 18 Schuh's Theorem, 3-Move, 4- 6- and 8-Move Circuits 22 Tours and Pseudotours 23 Touring Tests 24 Simple Linking 26 Symmetry 29 Symmetry in Paths 31 Magic Tours 37 Natural Magic 38 Some History of Magic Squares.
z 2- Lateral Movers 41 Labyrinths 42 The Wazir 2×n  44 3×n, 4×n, 5×n  50 6×6  8×8, 10×10 and larger 53 Non-crossing Rook Tours 54 Figured Wazir Tours 55 Rook around the Rocks 57 Rooks, One-Rank Tours 58 Two-Move 59 Three-Move 60 Four-Move Magic, More-Move Rooks.
z 3- Diagonal Movers 62 Knots 64 King, 2×n, 69 3×n 70 4×n 72 5×n 6×n 73 7×n 8×8 74 Alternating, Figured 75 Magic 76 Diamagic, Biaxial 79 Axial 80 Larger 81 Two-Move Queens 82 Three-Move 84 Four-Move 85 More-Move Queens.
z 4- Knight-Move Geometry 87 Nets, Borders, Coding, Generic Moves 91 Central Angles, Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Polygons, Intersections, Formations 96 Slants, Eccentrics, Radials 98 Symmetry in Rectangles 100 Mixed Quaternary Symmetry 102 Existence Theorems.
z 5- Shaped Boards 103 Octonary 107 Birotary 124 Biaxial 132 Rotary 154 Axial 166 Unary.
z 6- Oblong Boards 191 3×n 194 3×4 196 3×8 199 3×9 204 3×10 207 3×12 209 3×14 211 3×16 213 4×n 221 4×8 Medieval 231 4×9, 4×10, 4×11 238 5×n 242 6×n 246 7×n 248 8×n 251 Larger
z 7- Odd Square Boards 254 5×5 258 7×7 260 9×9 261 11×11 262 13×13, 15×15.
z 8- Oddly Even Squares 263 The 6×6 Board, Quaternary, Binary, Centre angles, Slants, 3-slant open tours, Semimagic, Figured 311 The 10×10 Board 320 14×14 322 18×18 etc.
z 9- The 8×8 Board: History 324 The Earliest Full-Board Tours 326 Rediscovery 1725-1823 337 Squares and Diamonds 1823-48 345 The First Magic Knight Tours 1848-76 351 The Age of Magic Tours 1876-86 363 Taking Stock 1886-1986 368 Completing the Task 1986-2003.
z 10- The 8×8 Board: Magic Methods 371 Quartes 374 Contraparallel chains, X and N notation 377 Murray's Test Procedure  378 Catalogues: Historical 381 Geometric 388 Arithmetic
z 11- The 8×8 Board: Lettered Tours  403 Alphabetical 406 Cryptotours, Crossword Tours
z 12- The 8×8 Board: Figured Tours 414 History 416 Dawsonian 427 My Own Work.
z 13- The 8×8 Board: Graphic Tours 429 Angles Min and Max, Directions, Triangles, Polygons, Stars, Intersections, Slants, Eccentrics, 446 Pictorial, Monograms. 451 Enumerations
z 14- The  8×8 Board: Asymmetry 452 Synthetic Tours 454 Irregularity 455 Approx Symmetry 456 Octonary, Biaxial 459 Axial 463 Birotary 464 Bergholtian 465 Diagonal.
z 15- The 8×8 Board: Exact Symmetry 466  Historical Examples 474 Construction, Conversion of Pseudotours 478 Symmetrisation 479 A Complete Central Angle Collection
z 16- The 8×8 Board: Mixed Symmetry 489 Types h-j-k. Mixed Quaternary Tours with h = 1 493 MQ Tours with k = 3 511 MQ Tours with h >1 and k >3 515 Summary, Max Octonary.
z 17- The 8×8 Board: Compartmental 516 Enumeration of Double Halfboard Tours 518 Crosspatch Patterns and Tours 524 Enumeration of Rhombic Double Halfboard Tours.
z 18- The 8×8 Board: Octonary Pseudotours  530 Catalogue 532 Collinian Tours 535 Tours from Other Octonary Pseudotours 538 Catalogue of Symmetric Rhombic Fullboard Tours.
z 19- The 8×8 Board: Quaternary Pseudotours  550 Enumeration, Vandermondian, Jaenischian 553 Aladdin's Conundrum, Non-Crossing 555 Catalogue 608 Other Quaternary.
z 20- Larger Evenly Even Squares 612 Braids 613 12×12 628 16×16 635 Even Larger
z 21- Augmented Knights 642 Two-Move Knighted Pieces, Emperor, Empress, Templar, Prince, Hospitaller, Lancelot, Nightrider 653 Three-move Knights 663 Four-move Knights
z 22- The Big Beasts 666 Camel {1,3} 669 Shaped boards 671 C+ 672 Gnu 675 Giraffe {1,4} 677 G+ 680 {1,5} 681 {1,6} 682 {1,7} 683 Root 50 {1,8} Zebra {2,3} 686 Z-rider, Z+ 689 {2,5} 690{2,7} 691 Antelope {3,4} 692 Fiveleaper 698 A+ 699 {3,5}, {4,5} 700 {6,7}, Chimaeras 703 Root 65, Root 85 704 Triple Beasts 707 Multimovers, 7×9 Rectangle 708 Wizard.
z 23- Alternative Worlds 709 Non-Crossing Paths 716 Rider and Hopper tours 720 Bent Boards 723 Space Chess 732 Honeycomb Boards
z 24- End Pages 738 Puzzle Solutions 742 Bibliography 798 Name Index

Glen Miller's Music at the Lyceum

I went to the concert at the Lyceum Theatre in Crewe put on by the Glen Miller Orchestra this afternoon. The smallish theatre was quite packed, at least in the stalls where I could see, with a mainly elderly audience. The performance was very good, though I found it too loud in places, especially the trumpets. The programme covered a wide selection of favourites and some lesser known pieces. These included arrangements based on Tchaikovsky's piano concerto No.1 and the 1812 overture. The singers with the band were also very professional, though the Sinatra tribute by the crooner seemed unnecessary. The female trio, channeling the Andrews Sisters, were entertaining, but the solo female singer was outstanding. A very pleasant afternoon.

Queens Park Crewe and other Scenes

Here are some photos taken on 27 January when I took a walk in the cold wind to take a look round the Queens Park to the West of Crewe. I've decided to post photos here rather than on Flickr in future.

Tree on Wistaston Road

Views in Queens Park

. Unusually these photos all came out clear and neatly framed. Probably because I was not in any hurry, just taking a stroll.

Hot Water

It has taken me a month since I moved to my new flat to work out how to activate the boiler that supplies hot water to the taps. The name on the boiler is 'Zip Aquapoint III'. Here is a photo I took, using a torch for illumination, since it is installed in an inaccessible place at the back of the cupboard under the sink.This is a type I have never encountered before.

I looked up the make on the Web to find instructions, but they mostly covered installation. There was mention of an 'economy' setting, which appeared to be by moving the circular panel round to the first white dot, but that didn't seem to have any effect. It has taken me a couple of weeks to find a small white switch, right at the back of another cupboard, which switches it on!

There are other more prominent red switches, one of which activates the electric hob. What the other does I have yet to find out. Possibly it is to do with the shower. Meanwhile I have managed to boil up hot water using the electric kettle. Previously I've always used a gas hob for cooking, so an electric hob is unfamiliar and will take some time to get used to. It doesn't help that it is totally black, including the knobs, and not illuminated by the ceiling lights.

First Snow of Winter

We had a little snow here on Wednesday, but since then it has held off and stayed in the south of the country. Here is a photo I took from the front porch of the house. There is a massive church on the corner opposite.

Fortunately the forecast heavier snow didn't reach this far north so I didn't need to put on my snow boots for my first appointment with a GP at the local Medical Centre on the Thursday morning. In the afternoon I took a long walk through Wistaston, returning by bus.

My Move to Crewe

I completed a move to Crewe on 4 January 2019, but it has taken until 21 January to reestablish my internet link, mostly due to my own incompetence with electronic devices probably. A mobile phone that I bought to assist my move, but struggled to operate, appears to have gone kaput.

The flat I  have rented is nicely placed for walking access to the pedestrianised town centre, and midway between big supermarkets, Asda and Morrisons, though it is a pity that M&S has moved out to a ghastly car park called Grand Junction, and there are many closed up shops like BHS.

I've joined the local public Library which is just beyond the end of the road, and is part of the "Lifestyle Centre" which includes a swimming pool. I've also begun visiting the Crewe Chess Club which meets nearby on Wednesday evenings.

I've obtained a new local bus pass, signed up to the electoral register, and registered with a GP at the Grosvenor Medical Centre which is a longish walk along West Street, or past Morrisons, and I've walked most of the nearby roads to get familiar with the district.

Generally I am rather happy with the move, and look on it as a new adventure, though probably the last in my regular moves every ten or eleven years, since I will be 79 next month.

Delamere Street from the Flag Lane end.

61 Delamere Street

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Flat 1 is behind the bay windows.

The photo of the flat was taken on 3 January, and the photo of the street on 27 January, and added to this post on 7 February.