'The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life.'

I hate to lose. Really. Hate. Losing.

Particularly in chess.

Years ago, I was a decent chess player. Good enough to hustle a little cash on occasion and hold off prison-trained masters. A rating of around 1700.

I havent played competitively in over 12 years.

Also, Ive noticed Im becoming increasingly absentminded (Fred and Daiv voted for 'senile'), so I loaded Chessmaster 6000 (Oooooooooohhhhh) on der Mac to see if I couldnt help matters a bit.

A few days later, Ive raised my chess ranking from the dirt of 250 to 900. Woohoo.

Chessmaster 6000 disses this level as "... knows how to play, however, is roadkill to REAL players".

Im paraphrasing here.

Thats fine. I WILL get better.

Anyway, I can feel my mind getting... errr...whats the word? ...errr....ahhmmm... damn, the word is on the tip of my brain...