Kevin L. Bachler wrote in
message ...
R.S. Haas wrote:
If there is such a thing as an infinitely powerful supreme being,
why would it demand to be worshipped?

Kevin Bachler wrote:
Why do parents care if children brush their teeth?

Drahmiel wrote:
Well, for one thing, parents, unlike the God fantasy, are human.

I see the belief as personal. Given current knowledge, to label it either
as a clear reality or a clear fantasy exhibits poor thought.
Personally, I have my reasons for belief.
Even if I didn't, I'd at least buy Pascal's wager.

Mr. Bachler,

In his review of "The System" by Hans Berliner, Jeremy Silman wrote:
"...his writings make it clear that (as far as chess goes) he's either
poorly informed, deluded, or the greatest genius chess has ever seen."

Given your acceptance of Pascal's Wager, would you also personally
recommend the purchase of "The System" by Hans Berliner? :-)

'The only coin current is the image of God.'
--Edward Bellamy (Looking Backward)

--Nick

..
In his review of "The System" by Hans Berliner, Jeremy Silman wrote:
"...his writings make it clear that (as far as chess goes) he's either
poorly informed, deluded, or the greatest genius chess has ever seen."

Given your acceptance of Pascal's Wager, would you also personally
recommend the purchase of "The System" by Hans Berliner? :-)


While the risk of missing out on the musings of "the greatest genius chess
has ever seen" may appear to be substantive, the fact remains that there is no
good reason to blindly trust Silman's judgement on this matter.

In all likelihood, he was just taking a pot-shot at Berliner in response to
the latter's pretentious, know-it-all attitude in that book.
I think it is safe to assume that Silman did not believe Berliner was the
greatest genius chess has ever seen, but was undecided as to the other two
possibilities he mentioned.








"Greatest genius" ever seen...my arse.


Er, ...Q-g3!!! [box] Zugzwang! (Now, if only I could find moves like that
against Lasker....)

illspam (NoMoreChess) wrote in message
...
Nick Bourbaki wrote to Kevin Bachler:
In his review of "The System" by Hans Berliner, Jeremy Silman wrote:
"...his writings make it clear that (as far as chess goes) he's either
poorly informed, deluded, or the greatest genius chess has ever seen."

Given your acceptance of Pascal's Wager, would you also personally
recommend the purchase of "The System" by Hans Berliner? :-)

While the risk of missing out on the musings of "the greatest genius chess
has ever seen" may appear to be substantive, the fact remains that there is
no good reason to blindly trust Silman's judgement on this matter.

In all likelihood, he was just taking a pot-shot at Berliner in response to
the latter's pretentious, know-it-all attitude in that book.
I think it is safe to assume that Silman did not believe Berliner was the
greatest genius chess has ever seen, but was undecided as to the other two
possibilities he mentioned.

I concur with NoMoreChess's opinion of Jeremy Silman's probable view of
Hans Berliner. (My post was intended to make a joke toward Kevin Bachler.)

'Men of great genius easily discover one another.'
--Henry Fielding (Jonathan Wild)

--Nick

From: (Nick)
Date: 02/10/03 23:53 GMT Daylight Time
Message-id:

(NoMoreChess) wrote in message
...
Nick Bourbaki wrote to Kevin Bachler:
In his review of "The System" by Hans Berliner, Jeremy Silman wrote:
"...his writings make it clear that (as far as chess goes) he's either
poorly informed, deluded, or the greatest genius chess has ever seen."

Given your acceptance of Pascal's Wager, would you also personally
recommend the purchase of "The System" by Hans Berliner? :-)

While the risk of missing out on the musings of "the greatest genius chess
has ever seen" may appear to be substantive, the fact remains that there is
no good reason to blindly trust Silman's judgement on this matter.

In all likelihood, he was just taking a pot-shot at Berliner in response to
the latter's pretentious, know-it-all attitude in that book.
I think it is safe to assume that Silman did not believe Berliner was the
greatest genius chess has ever seen, but was undecided as to the other two
possibilities he mentioned.

I concur with NoMoreChess's opinion of Jeremy Silman's probable view of
Hans Berliner. (My post was intended to make a joke toward Kevin Bachler.)

'Men of great genius easily discover one another.'
--Henry Fielding (Jonathan Wild)


'Great minds think alike - and so do our minds.'
--Anonymous

Mark

Kevin L. Bachler wrote in
message ...
In article , Nick says...
In his review of "The System" by Hans Berliner, Jeremy Silman wrote:
"...his writings make it clear that (as far as chess goes) he's either
poorly informed, deluded, or the greatest genius chess has ever seen."

Given your acceptance of Pascal's Wager, would you also personally
recommend the purchase of "The System" by Hans Berliner? :-)

Well, I know Jeremy, and while I greatly respect his ability to instruct, I
wouldn't necessarily take his word for something without double-checking it--
mainly because in some ways Jeremy just has a distinctly unique perspective.

'I never quarrel with actions. My one quarrel is with words.'
--Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

Mr. Bachler,

Is not the expression, "distinctly unique", redundant? :-)

"I tend to use language exactly."
--Kevin Bachler (31 August 2003)

Frankly, I don't see how Pascal's wager applies to the Berliner situation.
The payoffs are much different, and Berliner is more easily testable.

My comparison was a joke. :-)
I am not too impressed by Pascal's Wager or by Hans Berliner's "The System".

"There's nothing upon earth I hate like a joke, unless it's against another
person."
--Fanny Burney (Camilla)

--Nick

..
'Men of great genius easily discover one another.'
--Henry Fielding (Jonathan Wild)


'Great minds think alike - and so do our minds.'
--Anonymous


"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your
life."
--Brooke Shields, during an interview to become Spokesperson for federal
anti-smoking campaign.

would you also personally recommend the purchase of "The System" by Hans
Berliner?

"The System" is excellent and extremely useful as a kind of modern "Ideas
Behind the Chess Openings". Berliner gives the best systemization of logical
principles underlying opening play that I know of, which are extremely useful
for opening play. I use it for those principles, rather than necessarily
following the variations given (I like to experiment with different opening
systems).

Whether or not 1.d2-d4 wins by force is beyond my competence to judge, though I
kinda doubt it :-)

Anyway, using the principles Berliner outlines for opening play is extremely
useful in practical play. The correctness of the variations he gives is beyond
my capacity to judge, but the principles are useful in all opening systems.

Silman is also extremely excellent as a chess instructor, I recommend anything
produced by either of the above authors.

Convekta (Chess Assistant) also has some excellent instructional CDs, one is
"The Encyclopedia of the Middlegame". Curiously enough, what I find it most
useful for is getting a better idea of "The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings",
in the opening systems discussed on the CD (the CD is structured according to
several opening systems, and the middlegame ideas which arise from that opening
are discussed.)

What I would like to see, would be some CDs where the ideas behind various
opening systems are discussed in greater depth, so for example the coverage of
the Sicilian Defense or Benko gambit given in "Encyclopedia of the Middlegame"
could be expanded into a whole CD covering just one particular opening system,
but giving detailed, clear and explicit explanations of the ideas behind that
opening, hopefully in "Move by Move" style, where each move is explained. Then
give lots of practice and test examples, at an easy level, so players below
master level can understand the CD by going through a lot of examples, with
written explanations included in the examples, not just variations, which only
masters can understand anyways. The Convekta CDs are written practically at
grandmaster level, but for American players there needs to be coverage of the
material in a more elementary way, if there is any hope for us to understand it
:-)

I think American players would really like CDs such as "Ideas behind the
Sicilian Defense" and other popular openings, as we are addicted to opening
books.

Also it would be nice if one could right click and call up Chess Tiger or other
CA7 engines, when going through the instructional CD positions, if the user
already purchased CA7 it would be nice to be able to apply its power to the
instructional CDs.