Knight Shift

It's been fun being the Secretary King of the Knights Errant. I appreciate that you entrusted me with the sacred duty. Now that I'm done with the Circles, it's time to pass the scepter on to someone else, and Samurai Knight has accepted the responsibility. I leave him the keys to the new Knights Errant FAQ, to tweak and modify as he sees fit. Please take good care of the Knights, Samurai.

It will be very interesting to see what happens as the fourth generation self-organizes with fresh blood. I was the third generation listkeeper (first was Man de la Maza, then Temposchlucker, and then me). With each new generation there comes a change in the style and focus of the Knights. I look forward to watching things evolve.

And if you'll permit an old Knight to wax nostalgic...

In the past two years, the chess blogosphere has progressed from a close-knit hamlet to a medium-sized city. Being a Knight has added some stability to the ever changing and crazy city, kind of like a university or other venue that people with similar interests will congregate.

Even the Knights Errant subculture has changed quite a bit since I joined. The first Knights were hard-core purists in that they did the Circles, Seven of 'em, using CT-Art just like de la Maza. They were badasses. Then King of the Spill used another program (TASC chess tutor). I used CTB, Tempo used Chess Tactics Server. People started doing 'mini-circles': rather than work through all 1300 problems per circle, they hacked away at a smaller subset of problems multiple times before moving on (Celtic Death, J'adoube, and Sancho Pawnza started this trend, and I just copied their lead). Then PCT came on the scene (a program which no Knight has yet successfully finished the Circles on: who will be the first?).

As the chess-sphere has expanded there has been a trend toward less discussion of the Circles and tactics amongst the Knights. For one, back then there just weren't many non Knights out there to stir the pot, so discussion gravitated toward their tactical training. Plus, in those purist days, the Circles were just harder. It was like being in boot camp together, and they talked about the nuts and bolts of Circles training a lot more. Doing all 1300 CT-Art problems in one day was a time for celebration and awe. Now, when we finish, it is often doing 300 problems in a day or something do-able by mere mortals (indeed, this was what I did).

That said, it is clearly a Good Thing that the blogosphere has ballooned: a broader perspective on chess has emerged and there is more great content to choose from. Chess is not only tactics (unless you are Glenn Wilson), and you guys won't let the Knights forget it! Near the end, I found the non-Knights out there to be as much of a source of support and encouragement as the Knights themselves. That's pretty cool.

Anyhoo, before this becomes a dissertation, I just want to again thank Tempo and the Knights for entrusting me with the job of keeper of the lists, and thanks to Samurai Knight for taking over. I'll keep on blogging as my focus shifts to integrating this new knowledge into games.