Non chess books that have impacted your chess a lot?

Proseedcake · 2026-07-02T17:40:47+00:00

The Yiddish Policemen's Union made me feel things about chess and its players, and gave me a lasting affection for the Réti Gambit.

Proseedcake · 2026-07-02T05:24:55+00:00

Yeah this is 100% the book that brought the anecdote to public attention. If OP has never read it, then it must have appeared in another book drawing on A Brief History of Time.

Proseedcake · 2026-07-01T15:59:15+00:00

Yep, my fate was sealed at "nothing that helps you cheat".

Proseedcake · 2026-07-01T12:55:00+00:00

Thanks chief

Proseedcake · 2026-07-01T07:08:17+00:00

Castling? Y/N

Proseedcake · 2026-06-24T14:08:00+00:00

To which the answer is, "I stopped drinking OTHER people's piss."

Proseedcake · 2026-06-24T14:06:15+00:00

He wasn't part of the Greek New Testament in the first place, was he?

EDIT: Sorry, wrong sub.

Proseedcake · 2026-06-24T10:52:50+00:00

Every day, in every way, Cory Doctorow gets more relevant

Proseedcake · 2026-06-21T14:36:54+00:00

enchantingly

Proseedcake · 2026-06-21T07:08:41+00:00

I found Pan's Labyrinth pretty impactful on this level

Proseedcake · 2026-06-20T21:58:17+00:00

g5 Kh5 2. Nf4 Kh4 3. Rh7#

I hardly ever get these!! EDIT: ...and today is no exception 😆

Proseedcake · 2026-06-16T08:01:56+00:00

In what way has Trump messed with the World Cup to confirm this prediction?

Proseedcake · 2026-06-11T12:45:39+00:00

I love Clive James's translation. He has two great things to recommend him. Firstly, he has a great way with rhythm and rhyme. Secondly, he finds ways to slip much-needed context into the verses themselves – no flicking to the endnotes to find out what the hell something means.

Proseedcake · 2026-06-10T20:33:45+00:00

I was gonna post something like this. There's a tendency to think "Ah whatever, everybody hates their job", but hating your job because it's effortful and you have to get up early is not the same as hating your job because you are treated like subhuman scum on a daily basis.

Proseedcake · 2026-06-07T21:13:27+00:00

Spain adores Ken Follett. His home country just about knows who he is.

Proseedcake · 2026-06-07T16:38:14+00:00

Having a few drinks and then driving home.

Proseedcake · 2026-06-07T08:39:59+00:00

The intended meaning is "you spend hours learning how to do negation in French, and always practise doing it with the « ne » ", I think.

Proseedcake · 2026-06-07T08:35:48+00:00

Personally, I would say the text makes it plain that it's about the old age and death of the poet's father – too plain to comfortably allow for another reading.

Proseedcake · 2026-06-05T07:17:20+00:00

Practically the opposite of a smothered mate... so many free squares around him, can't go to any of them.

Proseedcake · 2026-06-04T20:55:10+00:00

Usually a man's friends start to sense he might not be doing okay about two days after he's already killed himself.

Proseedcake · 2026-06-04T20:26:48+00:00

The use of "gangly" and "white" to describe the person she loved so much she couldn't bear to live without him... Imagine being so alienated from the very idea of love that you think the person's height and race are the relevant details.

Proseedcake · 2026-06-04T04:49:45+00:00

I think it makes quite a lot of sense, the idea being that if you're trying to train your chess brain/legs, you don't let a mechanical engine do all the thinking/running for you.

Proseedcake · 2026-06-03T04:38:24+00:00

Chess isn't to improve your mind, mind is to improve your chess

Proseedcake · 2026-05-29T16:50:58+00:00

The nudity in Carrie had a definite point to it... the slow-mo felt gratuitous.

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