Jonas Martinsson's Blog jonasmartinsson.blogspot.comMar 30, 2009 - Apr 12, 2010

HOWTO: Play Chess Onlinebyjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 15:21 Mar 31, 2009

The most efficient way to improveyour chess is to play lots of games. The online chess community makesit easy to find opponents of any skilllevel. This is the reason why thenumber of great young chess playersis much greater today; anybody cangain experience on the Internet, 24/7.In the old days, players had to travelto tournaments to gain the sameexperience that can now be gained inan online equivalent overnight. So, you ask, how do I best takeadvantage of the online chessofferings to gain experience andimprove my chess? First, select a server that is dedicatedto chess. More generic game serversthat offer a multitude of board gamesinvariably offer a worse experienceand a weaker community for thechess fan. Second, choose a server that has adecent amount of players logged in atany given time, so that you alwayscan find an opponent that wants toplay at your preferred time control.

Third, go for an intuitive interfacethat fits your requirements. Fou r th , depend ing on you rpreferences, you will want a serverwhere tournaments are organized andwhere there is a vivid and wellmanaged community. The three chess servers I wouldshor t l i s t a r e F ICS , ICC andchess.com. I do not want to rankthem, because they offer slightlydifferent experiences and it is apersonal choice which server willbest fit you. All of them hosts a largenumber of players at any time, andthey regularly organize leagues andtournaments for both individuals andteams. There are also organizationslike Chess Matches HQ and STCBunch that welcome players frommultiple servers. Below, I give asummary of the pros and cons of eachchess server. FICS (freechess.org) Pros: Free, Many interfaces areavailable. ICC (chessclub.com) Pros: Many strong players Cons: Not free ($59.95/year) chess.com Pros: Free, strong communityfeatures, no download required Cons: Not very strong players, bare-

bones browser-based client I play on FICS myself, mainlybecause it is free and I love theinterface. For quick blitz games Iprefer the free BabasChess client,which can be a bit intimidating atfirst, but is very powerful. Fore x a m p l e , i t s u p p o r t s m o v eannouncements and third-party plug-ins. But I prefer to play longer games,say an hour per game and player. Theproblem with online chess is that youare using a computer interface, whilea part of the chess experience that Ilove is to play on a standard woodenboard with real pieces. The mostcommon solution is to use a DGTboard, a standard chess board thatconnects to a computer via USB(wireless connections are in theworks) and allows you to play onlinechess. This solution is used in allmajor real-l ife tournaments tobroadcast games l ive over theInternet . The problem is thatinvesting in a DGT board will requiretough financial negotiations with yoursignificant other, the price tag for astandard setup is€479,00. Isn't there a cheaper solution outthere? Yes, there is! I'd like to share with

you the environment I have beenusing lately. It is a setup that I amvery satisfied with. I use a standardfull-size wooden chess board, to playmy games far away from a buzzingcomputer fan and a glaring computermonitor. I log in to the chess serverus ing the Pocke tGrandmas te rsoftware (version 4 supports bothFICS and ICC) on my Pocket PC.The Pocket PC connects to theInternet via a USB cable to my silentmedia center that sits in the livingroom - but a Wi-Fi connection couldwork even better. When I play agame, PocketGrandmaster says myopponent's moves out loud, so that Idon't need to take my eyes off theboard. To submit a move, I first movethe piece on the real board and thenuse the Pocket PC’s touch screen tosubmit the same move to the server.The difference from the DGT board isnot huge and the only pain is that Ineed to make my own moves twice,while the DGT board automaticallydetects the moves made on the board.But, I can definitely live with thislimitation, considering the pricedifference.

The Maturity of Agile Developmentbyjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 17:01 Sep 16, 2009

Recent discussions about thecoexis tence of the Capabi l i tyMaturity Model (CMM) and agiledevelopment has prompted me torevisit my master's thesis on thesubject. Ten years ago, I was one of the firstp r a c t i t i o n e r s o f e X t r e m eProgramming (XP), a softwaredevelopment method that belongs tothe agile development movement.The big stumbling block of thesemethods has always been how to

introduce it in an organization.Mentioning the words "extremeprogramming" makes you fight anuphill battle from the start. Agile isdefinitely a better word whenpresenting it. But still, the adoption ofagile development requires a shift inthe organizational culture, whichhistorically has been more formal. After having participated in andcoached a few pilot projects, I startedto think about how to best introducet h e m e t h o d i n a s o f t w a r eorganization. This thinking causedme to return to university to researchthe topic - the result was a master'sthesis on the subject. During my research, I considered theexisting and accepted certification

levels in the software industry andcompared it with the agile way ofdeveloping software. The CapabilityMaturity Model(CMM) is the mostwidely accepted definit ion formeasuring process and organizationalmaturity. I t was developed byacademics and industry experts and isused by the largest governmentalorganizations in the world. If I couldfind that XP was compatible with theCMM, it would be so much easier tointroduce in software developmentorganizations. Wha t I found wen t beyondcompatibility between the CMM andXP - I actually found that XP is ane x c e l l e n t s p r i n g b o a r d f o rorganizations that want to reach

greater levels of CMM maturity! Ipresented my findings at the XP2003conference and these results are stillused by many organizations toconvince risk-averse managers of thetraits of agile development. MaturingExtreme Programming Through TheCMM It is interesting to see that today, themembers of the agile community arestill fighting the same battle. ScottAmbler, IBM's agile expert andevangelist, is working on an AgileProcess Maturity Model(APMM), forthe same reasons: to ease thatadopt ion of agi le methods intraditional software organizations.

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UN's Stagnating Initiatives AgainstBioterrorismbyjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 23:23 Jul 15, 2009

With UN's failure to implement thestrategy laid out by the formerSecretary-General, who will protecthumani ty f rom one the mos tdangerous threats, bioterrorism? With great foresight, former UnitedNations Secretary-General KofiAnnan b rough t the th rea t o fbioterrorism to the UN agenda in2006. In his recommendations for aglobal counter-terrorism strategy hewrites: " The most important under-addressed threat relating to terrorism,and one which acutely requires newt h i n k i n g o n t h e p a r t o f t h einternational community, is that ofterrorists using a biological weapon.[...] They can [...] bring incalculableharm if put to destructive use bythose who seek to develop designerdiseases and pathogens. The answerto biotechnology’s dual-use dilemmawill look very different [than that ofnuclear weapons]. But the approachto developing it must be equally

ambitious.[...] What we need now is aforum that will bring together thev a r i o u s s t a k e h o l d e r s —Governments, industry, science,public health, security, the public writlarge — into a common programme,built from the bottom up [...].TheUnited Nations is well placed tocoordinate and facilitate such aforum, and to bring to the table awide range of relevant actors." Later that same year, the UnitedNations adopted its Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy ( resolution60/288). In regard to biologicalthreats it calls for: " To invite theUnited Nations system to develop,together with Member States, a singlecomprehensive database on biologicalinc idents , ensur ing tha t i t i scomplementary to the InternationalCriminal Police Organization'scontemplated Biocrimes Database.We also encourage the Secretary-General to update the roster ofexperts and laboratories, as well asthe t echn ica l gu ide l ines andprocedures, available to him for thetimely and efficient investigation ofalleged use. In addition, we note theimportance of the proposal of the

Secretary-General to bring together,within the framework of the UnitedNations, the major biotechnologystakeholders, including industry,scientific community, civil societyand governments, into a commonprogramme aimed at ensuring thatbiotechnology's advances are notused for terrorist or other criminalpurposes but for the public good, withdue respect to the basic internationalnorms on intellectual property rights." With the new UN Secretary General,Ban Ki-moon, who took office in2 0 0 7 , t h e i n i t i a t i v e s h a v eunfortunately stagnated. A worryingUN fact sheet dated March 2009outlines the implementation of thestrategy so far. Firstly, The UN Counter-TerrorismImplementation Task Force(CTITF)does not include any entity orinitiative dedicated to combatingbioterror. Ban Ki-moon also admitsthat " there is no such thing as abioterrorism unit within the UNsystem". Other important terroristthreats, such as the IAEA for nuclearmatters and OPCW for chemicalweapons, all have dedicated taskforces, except for bioterrorism.

Instead, the UN is handing over thetask to existing bodies, such as theWHO and INTERPOL. The WHO'smeager page on bioterrorism is notassuring in any way. INTERPOL'sbioterror landing page is even moreworrying, where an "upcoming"conference planned for March2005(!) is highlighted. The worldshould tremble. Secondly, the UN implementationhaphazardly bundles biologicalthreats with other types of terroristthreats. It is important to understandthat biological threats pose a new setof problems that has not beenpreviously encountered, and thatstrategies for fighting chemical andnuclear threats are not efficient whencombating bioterrorism. Biologicalagents are relatively easy andinexpensive to obtain or produce;they can be easily disseminated; andthey can cause widespread panicbeyond any actual physical damage. Thirdly, where is the promised UN-moderated forum/programme set outin the strategy document? In contrast to the UN, the US

UN'S page 3

3Jonas Martinsson's Blog

Looking Back at My Match vs.RealChosenOnebyjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 16:57 Apr 28, 2009

My first match on Chess MatchesHQ, was versus RealChosenOne. Tome, chess matches are the ultimateform of chess; I especially enjoy thepreparations between games. Slated for 12 games, the match wasunfortunately interrupted after only 7,as my opponent without explanationdisappeared from all online chesscommunities. I still don’t know thereason behind this, but I hope thatRealChosenOne is OK. A s I ’ v e a l w a y s s p e n t adisproportional amount of study onopenings, I’d like to present ag l impse of what was p layed ,including one strong novelty. AsW h i t e , I f a c e d t h e S i c i l i a nSveshnikov [B33] and as Black Id e f e n d e d w i t h t h e 2 . . N f 6S c a n d i n a v i a n . A s W h i t e As White, I met the Sicil ianSveshnikov in games 2, 4, 6 and 7.All four games started with 1. e4 c52. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3b5 9. Bxf6 gxf6 10. Nd5. This is the main line Sveshnikov.From here, Black usually continues10..f5. My opponent opted for thismove only once in our match, whilehe chose the Novosibirsk variationwith 10..Bg7 in the other three. When he played the main 10..f5move, the game continued 11. Bd3

Be6 12. O-O Bxd5 13. exd5 Ne7 14.Nxb5 Bg7 15. Nc3 e4 16. Bc4 Ng617. Qh5 Bxc3 18. bxc3 Qf6 19. Qh6Qxc3 20. Bb3 Ke7 Here, I had prepared a theoreticaln o v e l t y , 2 1 . R a e 1 ! ? N . S o o nafterwards, I went astray and lost thegame. In the end, I don’t think thenovelty gives White anything, so thiswas a failed preparation. I felt hardpressed to find an improvement here,and was very relieved when myopponent didn’t repeat 10..f5 in thenext game! The Novosibirsk games wereinteresting. From the position in thetopmost d iagram al l 3 gamescontinued with the standard moves10..Bg7 11. Bd3 Ne7 12. Nxe7 Qxe7.The first time this position came up, Iwent for the unambitious 13. c3 andquickly found myself in trouble. Nexttime, I improved and found thesharper 13. O-O O-O 14. c4 f5 15.Qf3 Re8 16. Rfe1 b4 17. Nc2 f4 18.Nxb4 Rb8 19. Nd5 Qg5 20. Be2Rxb2.

In this position I had prepared thestrong novelty 21. Qa3!N. Previously,21. Reb1 has been played ( Zhigalko-Saric 1-0, Pardubice, 2006) withequal play, but after the text moveWhite has a clear advantage as heputs pressure on the Black pawnswhile keeping an eye on the 3rd rank.For example 21..Rb7 22. Rab1 Re6?23. Qa6! and White is alreadywinning. As Black As Black, I faced three differentsetups against my Nf6 Scandinavian.I equalized early in all three games,and subsequently won them all. Therewere no major theoretical battles;mainly because White kept changingvariations. The following interestingtactical position arose in Game 5 after17. Kh4. After spending more than half anhour on this position I played17..g5?? which leads to equality afterthe prosaic 18.Bxg5. Unfortunately, Imissed the beautiful mate in 7 moves,after 17..Nxe3!! 18.Qxe3 h5! 19.h3Bf4 20.Qe6+ fxe6 21.Nf3 Qf6+22.Ng5 Qxg5# I am already well underway withmatch number 2, this time againsttseltzer. I can already now say that hehas succeeded in putting my openingrepertoire under heavy fire, and Ihave had strong reason to evaluatemy opening choices more than once. And, on June 1, the inaugural OnlineChess Match Championships willstart, and it is poised to be great! Ifyou are a chess fan, don’t miss out onthis free tournament cycle that I amorganizing. Sign up here!

Interview with Henrik Blomgrenbyjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 14:50 Jun 22, 2009

For years, I've unsuccessfully tried toget many friends to start blogging.One of them is Henrik Blomgren,software consultant and smallbusiness owner. Henrik and I go way back. At theturn of the millennium, we were bothleading software teams at SwedishFramfab. As the IT bubble burst, andour hopes with it, Henrik built hisown software firm and his journeyhas now taken him all the way toZurich, Switzerland. Below is a shortinterview I did with him a while back. Me: What motivated you to jump offthe corporate bandwagon and startyour own business? Henrik: Two factors, the first notbeing in a position to influence orchange things at Framfab, the secondwas a number of ideas I had backthen that was not possible to realizeas an employee. Me: As a business owner, youcurrently focus on providing services

over products. Was that a consciousdecision and which do you think isthe smarter strategy? Henrik: Initially, my focus (this was2002) was on creat ing nichedsoftware products, but before I gotstarted I was offered a few short-termcontract offers which I accepted -primarily in order to build up somecapital. After a year, the marketconditions got better and there were alot of interesting contract jobs outthere so I continued, with longercontracts and better rates. I would not call it a smarter strategy,but much less risky and a much morepredictable way to earn a monthlyincome. Me: After running your owncompany for a couple of years youmoved everything to Switzerland.How come? Henrik: Again, multiple reasons.Compared to Sweden, Switzerland isa much more business-orientedcountry and offers considerably lowertax rates on both personal andcorporate levels. This combined withproviding equal or higher quality ofliving was an important factor. Beingcentrally located in Europe was

another, both for business purposesand if you like to travel around.However, being close to the Alps hasturned out to be the greatest bonus,especially during the winter. Me: You introduced me to the bookthe 4-Hour Workweek. Are you thereyet? Henrik: No, I work considerably lesshours now, and travel more, but I'mnot sure that can be accredited toTimothy Ferriss. Me: What is important to you?Where do you see yourself and yourbusiness ten years ahead? Henrik: I have no idea. It's going tobe interesting to see how the currentcrisis plays out; my guess is that thenext ten years will be much tougherthan the previous ten. Businessopportunities will be fewer andconsumers will be able to spend less,especially on technology. Thisprediction is based on the view thatcredit has been cheap and easilyobtainable, and consumption (bothprivate and business) has been drivenby debt to a large extent.

No MoreAttachments?byjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 18:01 Apr 10, 2010

The last couple of months haveproven hectic, as Mainsoft pushed outHarmony for both Google Docs andSharePoint. Harmony is a freeproduct that lets you access youronline documents from an Outlooksidebar. As Harmony’s productmanager it’s been one hell of a ridedefining and seeing the productthrough to launch. You can see (hear)me presenting a video for eachproduct on the respective productp a g e s f o r G o o g l e D o c s a n dSharePoint. After all the hard work itis great to read the write-ups inTechCrunch, Lifehacker, and othersites. So what is Harmony in a nutshell? Having your shared documentsavailable in Outlook enables somecool new features which changes thegame for how you think about e-mailand attachments. You can dragattachments from incoming messagesto the Google Docs or SharePoint,where they are easily shared withanyone. And when you send a message,linked documents are automaticallyshared with recipients, regardless ifthey have a Google account or not.And when you send an attachment,Harmony suggests that you replace itwith a link to a shared documentinstead. Hence, Harmony’s tagline:“No Attachments”.

UN'Scontinued from page 2

government spends over $2B a yearto prevent bio-attacks. A unilateral approach is not enoughto combat bioterrorism. We need aUN-led international forum today forgoing forward as a civilization andpreventing biological terror attacks. Itis critical that global policies andaction plans are put in place to dealwith " the most important under-a d d r e s s e d t h r e a t r e l a t i n g t oterrorism". The global communitycannot afford a late and disunitedarrival - we might not get a secondchance to learn from our mistakes. Follow-up posts will address whybioterrorism is becoming rapidlymore dangerous and what I believethat the global community should doto counter it.

4 Jonas Martinsson's Blog

GCR Ch 2: Long-TermAstrophysical Processesbyjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 16:26 Jun 9, 2009

I read Global Catastrophic Risks notonly to deepen my understanding ofglobal risks, but also to find ways topractically do something about it.Hopefully, blogging about thechapters as I digest them will assiston both accounts. The book begins with discussinglong-term astrophysical processeswith a focus on the lifespans of ourplanet, solar system, galaxy and theUniverse. These are the leastimmediate, but at the same time themost difficult risks to avoid. As such,there are not much we can do aboutthem, right now. Hopefully, if wesucceed to manage the other riskswe're facing now and will face in thefuture, we will reach a point in timewhere we will have to deal the timely

demise of the Earth, and later, theUniverse. 3.5 billion years from now, the Sunwill have exhausted its storage ofh y d r o g e n a n d i n c r e a s e d i t stemperature enough for Earth'sbiosphere to be unable to sustainbiological life. But even beforeEarth's temperature reaches that level,already 1 billion years from now itwill be hot enough to disqualify allcomplex life. 7 billion years fromnow, the Sun, expanding as a redgiant, will engulf Earth's orbit anddevour it. A long-term goal for ourspecies must be to find anotherhabitable planet by the time that theseevents play out. A rescue plan for theEarth would be if we, or a passingstar system, could eject it from itsorbit before the Sun swallows theplanet. In such a scenario we wouldhave to rely on Earth's internal energysource. This is actually the onlyhuman intervention that is beingaddressed in this chapter of the book.

Our current model of the Universetells us that it will continue to expandindefinitely, or at least long enoughfor all its major bodies to die a timelydeath. Perhaps this is the ultimaterisk, a process which neither we noranybody else can do anything to stop.It goes without saying that the currentunderstanding of the Universe is notcomplete. There are still much to belearned, and with new discoveries ourmodel of the Universe will change aswell. The smallest stars in theuniverse will shine the longest, buteven they expire after some trillionyears. Their expiry, in combinationwith the consumption of hydrogengas used in star formation, sets thetime for the last stars to stop shiningat about 100 trillion years ahead. Thisnumber should be compared to thecurrent age of the young Universe,which is 14 billion years. This is the end as we know it today.Let’s see how far we can get…

OnSurvivalbyjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 15:54 May 20, 2009

What if humanity were extinguishedright now? Have you ever considered thatscenario? No one can provide an accurateprobabi l i ty of such an eventhappening, but the fact that it couldhappen is indisputable. Whilepersonal survival is a major force forthe individual, humankind's survivalis the ultimate goal for us as aspecies. Individuals do almostanything in their power to preventtheir own destruction, but what arewe doing as a species to ensure ourown survival? I would argue that we're spendingmore effort protecting specificzoological and botanical species thanourselves. Although humanity is notan extinguished species, there areseveral kinds of events which couldwipe us all out in a matter of hours.We cannot continue to neglect theimportance of protecting the survivalof humankind. Threats are manifold and I plan todiscuss these in future posts as Idigest the book Global CatastrophicRisks, which deals with theseimportant issues. Chapters I read: Chapter 2: Long-Term AstrophysicalProcesses Chapter 3: Evolution Theory and theFuture of Humanity

Google DocsTemplates ForProduct Managersbyjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 14:02 Jul 30, 2009

I created two new Google Docsdocument templates for ProductManagement work: a ProductRequirements Document (PRD) and aFunctional Specifications Document(FSD). These are two centrald o c u m e n t s i n t h e p r o d u c td e v e l o p m e n t l i f e c y c l e . T h erequirements document is used for aproduct's business and marketingrequirements, while the specificationdocument further details how thoserequirements will be implemented inthe product. I'll start to dogfood these templatesright away and will make updatesalong the way as needed. Please letme know if you find them useful orwould like to see any changes!

5Jonas Martinsson's Blog

GCR Ch 3: Evolution Theory andthe Future of Humanitybyjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 2:35 Oct 1, 2009

I read Global Catastrophic Risks notonly to deepen my understanding ofglobal risks, but also to find ways topractically do something about it.Hopefully, blogging about thechapters as I digest them will assiston both accounts. The book’s chapter 3 discusses ourunderstanding of evolution, given thelong perspective. Evolution is not unique and hasoccurred several times in our history.Too l -mak ing homino ids wi thcommunication skills have evolvedindependent ly in Afr ica (ourancestors), Europe (the ancestors ofthe Neanderthal) and south-east Asia(“hobbits”). Environmental change is the majorcatalyst to drive evolution. Oncespecies have filled their niches in the

wake of an environmental change,adaption of organisms is only fine-tuned. It has also been shown that in the last40,000 years evolution has beendriving our species forward, 100times faster than before. Why this isso, is still unclear. Today, psychological pressures andnew environmental factors decidewho among us reproduce. When considering evolution, it iseasy to focus on the physical adaptionof organisms, but as humans evolve,it becomes increasingly important toconsider intellectual evolution. Weare still struggling to understand howto measure intelligence well. IQ is

o n l y o n e a s p e c t o f h u m a nintelligence, and has a low degree ofinheritance. We still need to figureout if and how evolution can helphumankind grow smarter over time.Although, in the near future, technicalprogress and the singularity are likelyto supersede the process of evolutionwhen it comes to improving thehuman race . So how is evolution relevant toexistential risks? It all comes down tohow capable we will be in adapting toa changing environment. History hasgiven us many examples of culturesgoing under because of their failure tosurvive a new environment. Forexample , the medieval Norsecolonists in Greenland died out asthey failed to change their eatinghabits, in a changing climate. But, if climate change gives usenough time, our behavioral andsocietal models will have time toadapt.

Sign-Up Closes ForOnline Chess MatchChampionshipsbyjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 17:08 May 26, 2009

The sign-up period for the inauguralOnline Chess Match Championshipsis now over. The list of registeredplayers for the two divisions are:Open Div is ion P layer Rat ingZwaartePaard 1942 Valiantangel1866 leomalagar 1864 Acho 1861tseltzer 1850 jonasil 1840 Tensaigg1759 castleden 1745 SklavinLydia(tentative) 1737 surGeonGG 1660TonyPrice- jumong (tentative)- Under 1600 Division Player Ratingofftherook 1595 ranban 1576 farbror

1561 jerichob 1530 AHappyLearner1484 caleblaziken 1456 edwaxx 1413KasparovsDog 1385 Avie 1021 So, the Open Division will host 10-12 players and the U1600 Division 9. I was considering different pairingsystems for setting up the single-elimination cup brackets, includingadopting the system used in the tennisATP tour. After consulting with FICSuser tseltzer, I am instead opting for aSwiss-like cup system where the topseed is not meeting the bottom seed,but instead the top seed from thebottom half. Pairings will be posted in a couple ofdays on the Online Chess MatchChampionships site.

Off the Back Burner?byjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 14:52 May 19, 2009

How mundane it is to blog. I've putthis blog on the back burner for manym o n t h s n o w , a s I ' v e l a c k e dinspiration for posting. Lately, I havebeen blogging exclusively aboutchess, which most likely doesn’tinterest most of you. While it is apassion and I intend to keep postingoccasionally on the subject, I don'twant this blog (nor more life, for thatmatter) to focus on a board game. It is

good to see that the small number ofsubscribers hasn't dwindled despitethe chess focus of late, though. Why blog? In the end, I want to usethis space to improve my writing anda l s o t o s e r v e a s a t w o - w a ycommunication platform with anyoneelse out there in the depths ofcyberspace. Since I enjoy the creative process ofwriting, I will try to produce morestuff here, and perhaps from a morepersonal angle. I can't guarantee thatit will work. But one thing's for sure:I will not promise to write more here;those are classical final words of thelast post on dead blogs! But I will try.

Game 1 in Match Against tseltzerbyjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 17:07 Mar 30, 2009

Yesterday, the opening game of anew 12-point chess match againsttseltzer was played on FICS. I amhaving great hopes and expectationsthat it will turn out to be a close and

exciting series of games. The fact thatboth our ratings are identical (1825)at the start of game 1 bodes well. During my preparations as White Ilearned that my opponent uses aclever move order as Black againstmy king’s gambit to avoid thebishop’s gambit lines: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 d53.exd5 exf4!?. After this, White doesbest in transposing into the moderndefense lines of the king’s gambit,

which I also did in game 1. Black wasnot properly prepared for the line Iplayed (4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bc4), and aftersome inaccuracies I early gained aclear advantage, and delivered matein move 21. It will be very interesting to see howmy opponent will deviate in his nextgame as Black. Game 1 can be viewed here.

The OnlineChess MatchChampionshipsbyjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 9:47 May 1, 2009

T h e O n l i n e C h e s s M a t c hChampionships is scheduled to takeoff on June 1. It is your chance toplay in a chess tournament cycles imi lar to the of f ic ia l WorldChampionships. The main reason thatI organize this tournament is to makethe excitement of chess matchesavailable to everyone on the Internet.The games will be played on the freeFICS chess server. You can sign up right away!

The LostSymbolbyjonas.martinsson@gmail.com(Jonas Martinsson) (JonasMartinsson)

Submitted at 3:28 Jan 1, 2010

I just finished Dan Brown’s latestbook, The Lost Symbol. I enjoyed itto a great extent, especially beingintroduced to curious new subjectssuch as Noetic theory. As with mostcommercial successes, The LostSymbol did not go down well withcritics. But of course, the culture elitecan’t stay elitist if their taste blendswith the populace. Good for them. Just as with Brown’s previous book,The Da Vinci Code, it sparked myi n t e r e s t i n c o d e b r e a k i n g .Researching cryptography, I stumbled

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upon the tweleve discussion forum,dedicated to solving puzzles andtreasure hunts. There, I discoveredtwo intriguing unsolved puzzles:Maranatha and Quest for the GoldenEagle. It doesn’t hurt that there is amillion dollar prize in each puzzle.Wish me luck.