Features
How a mediaeval thinker out of the box: Stupor Mundi, helped me to solve a Chinese puzzle
Inspiration often comes from unlikely sources.
Author
Ray Keene OBE
History
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, German intellectuals and the First World War
Conan Doyle's attitude to war seems, from the tenor of this passage, to be one of stoic acceptance, rather than enthusiastic celebration.
Strategy
Draughts, also known as Checkers
Before computers conquered chess, one extraordinary mathematician proved that human intuition could still outthink silicon.
Strategy
Go and the Atomic Bomb
As Hiroshima vanished in the first atomic explosion of war, two Go masters calmly reset their scattered stones and continued their game.
History
On the Shoulders of Dwarves
The greatest discoveries are often made not by choosing between science and the humanities, but by refusing to recognise the divide.
Strategy
Survival of the Fattest
From Darwin to Nietzsche, from giraffes to grandmasters, the battle for survival has shaped far more than the natural world.
History
Virgil’s wrong door - this way to the egress
The greatest literary mysteries are not always hidden in forgotten manuscripts. Sometimes they have been lying in plain sight for two thousand years.
History
The Obliteration of Memory
Empires are conquered twice: first by armies, and then by the erasure of memory.
Strategy
The Art of the Draw
Not every deadlock is a stalemate, and not every defeat is a checkmate. Chess teaches us the difference.
Opinion
Brave New Game
Every generation believes it has discovered a better way to improve humanity. Inevitably, it begins by rewriting the rules.
Review
Milton’s Cosmic Game of Chess
Some games determine kingdoms. Milton imagined one that determined the destiny of mankind.
Features
Smoke and Drinkers
Great minds rarely conform. The golden age of chess produced champions whose brilliance was matched only by their colourful eccentricities.
Strategy
Tony's and Ray's Mind Maps
Tony Buzan’s prime invention was the Mind Map.