RANKS on a chess board are the horizontal rows, and FILES are the vertical columns. Nothing special, just terms used to help players orient themselves to a POSITION on the board. I never really gave it much thought and was surprised that the eight rows and eight columns had a name. The terms RANK and FILE come from the military,…
The term CRAMPED in chess describes the quality of a player’s POSITION. A CRAMPED POSITION means there is a lack of SPACE with no freedom to move. To further refract on my previous blog, it is important to note that in TOPS, we must work at maintaining the SPACE we need and be careful of missteps. While change can be…
In the game of chess, SPACE is particularly important. This allows the player better freedom to move across the board. This also plays very well for a TOPS member. When I joined TOPS, I had a preconceived notion that I was going to be handed a specific plan to follow. Now, at that time, it would have made me feel…
As I struggled with my weight imbalance during my pre-TOPS POSITION, I often felt that words like exercise and diet were harsh. I was not willing to give something up or make changes. My refractions on 64 years on this marble (I am 69, but I do not remember much of my first five years) have changed as much as…
When I saw this chess term, I was not sure how it would fit in this blog series. FORCED in a chess game refers to a move or several moves that are needed to avoid a bad result. Reading recent letters received at TOPS and further refraction on my journey, it all fell into place. When I turned 45 years…
During my TOPS-now POSITION, I have made several bad moves that have caused me to stray away from my KOPS status six times. I am still in an ATTACK mode, though, to get back there for the seventh time. I have often referred to these bad moves as a blunder, failure, glitch, lapse, miscue, misstep, flaw…well, you get the idea.…
The game of chess has many terms that describe various moves of the game. Soon, I will be using the names of actual pieces used on the board. However, there are still a few more terms for me to refract on. I believe this next term will motivate your spirit. In terms of chess, EXCHANGE refers to trading pieces of…