New moves

Hannah and I had a good chat today. We decided to join forces to cook Sunday lunch but it descended into farce and we ended up having jacket potatoes, and quorn from the freezer. Hannah’s on a real downer at the moment. She’s missing Nathan – big surprise there – but is also having trouble with one of the girls at work, which I didn’t know about. Personality clash, Hannah called it, which probably means she’s taller, prettier or more successful with men than Hannah is. My sister is, after all, an emotional creature who is normally dominated by her jealousy. She is, however, still wanting to change herself for the better, she says, and has been looking at info from some colleges with a view to starting a course in September. She says her ultimate aim at the moment is to train up and become a teacher. I’m not sure what she could teach beyond sluttishness and make-up, but maybe even that will change.
After our chat she went off to mope in her room and listen to Kate Nash songs, so I ventured over to Ted and Beryl’s for my ritual Sunday afternoon humiliation on the chess board. I had been trying to get better and beat him but I’ve lost interest now. I’ve suggested we try playing something else for a while so it’s more competitive, but Ted says he wants the practise as there’s a chess competition at his next Army reunion and he wants to “stuff Sergeant-Major Palmer into oblivion.” He beat me today using something he called ‘the Barnes Opening.’ I thought he was making it up, but when I looked in my book of chess references there is indeed a move called ‘the Barnes opening.’ There are also moves called ‘the Breyer Variation of the Ruy Lopez’ and ‘the Arkell-Khenkin Variation of the Caro-Kann Defense.’
The more I look into this game, the stupider it gets.

RC 28-3-10