Meta Review: Chess.com's Everything You Need to Know About Chess (2011)

I wanted to give a shout out to the best and most concise review of Chess that I've ever seen, Everything You Need to Know About Chess.  Created and narrated by International Master Daniel Rensch for Chess.com, this video series does the seemingly impossible: pare the essential knowledge about the Game of Kings down to less than an hour!  That the series also pulls off this herculean task in a clear, fun and engaging manner is the cherry on top.

Considered by many to be the finest and most respected strategy game of all time, the modern version of Chess is believed to have originated in 6th century India.  In the millennia since, the Game of Kings has been played, debated and dissected by leaders of all stripes, scholars and enthusiasts.  As you might expect, the game has a rich history filled with colorful figures, such as Paul Morphy and Bobby Fischer, and moments of true genius.

Aimed at 90 percent of players, Everything You Need to Know About Chess does assume that you have the bare minimum knowledge to play (i.e., you know how each piece moves, you know the relative value of each piece, you know how to castle, etc.), but then it provides a staggering amount of strategy, tactics, guiding principles and background information in a short period of time that lets you approach the game in a more systematic and enlightened manner.  Produced by the fine folks at Chess.com, the world's most frequently visited chess website, Everything You Need to Know About Chess is broken up into several parts: The Opening, Tactics & Strategy, The Endgame, as well a couple of summary and supplemental videos.  This meta review highlights the first three videos:

• The Opening

This video stresses the importance of development, center control and other principles that are key to strong openings.

• Tactics & Strategy

This video covers the most fundamental tactical patterns: forks, pins and skewers.  It also covers pawn structures and key types of checkmates.

• The Endgame

This video highlights king activity and pawn play.


In terms of return on time invested, I don't know that you'll find a better deal than Everything You Need to Know About Chess.  If you can absorb and effectively utilize the information in just the three videos above, for most people, your game should improve by at least a level.  In addition, the series also provides a great springboard for further study of chess theory.

Game on!

SC's Parting Shot: 10 of 10

Session VIII, Part I

For the last session, I credit the PCs with experience for one major achievement:

• stopping the execution of Brock Samson.

This brings Zakalwe up to 3rd level!  Unfortunately, K is unable to attend Session VIII because he went to Vegas with some buddies.

However, after a long absence, D is finally able to rejoin the group!  He'd been busy buying a house and spending time with his fiancée.

Clearly, one of these two has got his priorities all wrong.

Anyways, now that the Nameless Thief is 2nd level, D decides to give his PC the sobriquet of Lorenzo!

In addition, K's absence means that the party lacks a dedicated frontline warrior, which presents an issue for the squishy Thief and Magic-User.

[OOC] S asks, "What about Lieutenant Trần?  He's a Fighter, right?"

[As DM] I say, "Lieutenant Trần is also the Gouverneur's son.  If he dies, that would probably be… bad."

[OOC] S says, "Oh yeah."


I tell the PCs that their best move is to hire a mercenary for the mission.  When they agree, I tell them that there are three mercenaries available who can plug the gap:

* Brock Samson:

Since Samson is locked up in the Psych Ward, he would be have to be released into the PCs' custody.  If thereafter he murders any more civilians, the PCs will be charged with Negligent Homicide.

[As DM] I say, "On the other hand, he is the World's Greatest Murder Machine."

[OOC] D says, "That's not true: he's only the World's Greatest *HUMAN* Murder Machine."

[As DM] I say, "Yes, quite right."

* Evil Ryu:

Evil Ryu has a reputation for being a nefarious backstabber.    He denies this.


* Pennywise the Dancing Clown:

It's not entirely clear whether Pennywise is, in fact, a Fighter or even a human.  During combat, a red mist surrounds the clown and his opponents.  After the mist dissipates,  Pennywise is drenched in blood and his enemies are horrifically dismembered.

Pennywise claims is simply anti-clown discrimination.

[OOC] D says, "I can see that."

Eventually, the PCs decide their safest bet is the guy who might flip out and kill the rest of the party (as opposed to intentionally killing the rest of the party), so they spring Brock Samson from the insane asylum.

Also, since Lorenzo is with the party again, I ask the PCs if they want to also keep Subotai.  They choose to go with only one Thief, so Subotai stays at the spa for more foot massages, while Aleena glumly packs her mace.

Lieutenant Trần returns with more information about the disappearance of his sister.  The Baroness and her party were on the main trade route between the Borderlands and Buôn Ma Thuột.  Due to Baroness Trần's complaints, her party ended up camping beside the road instead of an inn.  The bodyguards, all elite adventurers, set up magical wards to protect them from a revenant that was stalking the noblewoman.  However, someone damaged the magical wards and the camp was overrun.

The patrol found no survivors, but there were horse tracks leading north.  Lieutenant Trần says that there are no known settlements to the north, but there are the ruins of Hatha, the last stronghold of the Cham that stubbornly held until the Việt destroyed the place using dark sorcery.  Nowadays, the Việt give the ruins a wide berth, since they are supposedly infested with undead.

Movie Review: Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010)

春節快樂！

In honor of Chinese New Year (aka Spring Festival), I wanted to give some props to my favorite Chinese action mystery film, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame:

Set in Tang Dynasty China, at the beginning of the reign of Wu Zetian (武則天), the first and only Chinese empress to rule in her own name, the country is rife with plots and intrigue against the throne.  After a couple of officials spontaneously combust (the titular flame), the Empress releases her old foe, former imperial magistrate and rebel Di Renjie (狄仁傑, the titular character), from prison and orders him to get to the bottom of this baffling mystery.  This, of course, is easier said than done, not only because of the tangled schemes of the Empress and other political factions, but also because Di's own assistants, Officer Shangguan Jing'er and Officer Pei Donglai, have interests that are not entirely aligned with the good detective's.  The result is an excellent series of twists and turns where you're not sure who's playing whom.

Like Guy Ritchie's excellent Sherlock Holmes films, to which it is often favorably compared, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is a multi-genre reimagining of a classic character, who in turn is based on the actual Di Renjie, a celebrated Chinese official.

Directed by the acclaimed Tsui Hark and with a large (by Hong Kong standards) budget, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is a lavish historical thriller that works as both a detective movie and a martial arts flick.  The set and costume design are gorgeous, while the story is breezy fun with just the right amounts of suspense, spookiness and mysticism.  And with the legendary Sammo Hung as action director, you know the fight choreography will be top notch.

Leading a stellar cast, the great Andy Lau plays the titular detective with intelligence, wit, and aplomb.  Furthermore, to prepare for his role in the film, Lau studied criminal psychology, which adds to the verisimilitude as Detective Dee conducts his investigation.  In addition, giving the detective a strong cast of characters to play against elevates the work: Detective Dee's verbal jousts with the Empress, played by Carina Lau, Andy's wife, in her first film role in four years, are some of the best scenes in the movie.

All in all, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is an excellent film.  If you would like to watch a Chinese martial arts film or historical drama with unexpected depth and superb execution, you could do a lot worse than this gem.

恭喜發財！

SC's Parting Shot: 9 of 10

Session VII, Part IV

To settle things peacefully with Papa Midnite, Mlle Farahani helps the PCs arrange a meeting in a public place to avoid getting assassinated, a posh bar.  Midnite shows up with his business partner, Black Dynamite:

While Black Dynamite quietly "smiles" at the PCs, they nervously work out a deal with Papa Midnite: the Aksumite agrees to not murder them IF they can help him win Gouverneur Trần's approval to build a coliseum in Buôn Ma Thuột.  Midnite already has all the major details set up (e.g., contractors, land rights, financing, etc.) and just needs government approval, but Trần keeps blocking the project for no apparent reason.

Later, the party visits Mlle Farahani and ask why the Gouverneur hasn't approved the coliseum.  The ever smiling Persian replies that Gouverneur Trần is focused solely on border security vis-à-vis the Khmer Empire.

[As Nausicaä] S asks, "Have there been any problems along the border?"

[As Mlle Farahani] I say, "Officially, no.  Unofficially, the Khmer have been testing the defenses with a series of low-level incursions."

Farahani continues, explaining that Gouverneur Trần's hardline policies regarding the Cham people are a show of strength to cover up her belief the Central Highlands are now too thinly defended, with most of the province's legions redeployed north to support the invasion of China.  Additionally, building a coliseum will shift the balance of power among the local noble houses and the Gouverneur has little desire or need to heed the likely resulting petty squabbling since she's directly appointed by the Emperor.

Next, the PCs visit House Builder, who are gracious to the folks who saved the world and offer them drinks.  The party does notice that the members of this noble family are sad, since, right when their fortunes seemed to be turning around, someone has just stolen the gold from their successful mine on the Borderlands.


When the PCs visit House Planter, they are again offered more free drinks.

[OOC] K says, "I like how everyone here has an open bar."

[OOC] S says, "That's life in the big city!"

During casual conversation, the nobles of House Planter mention some strange disappearances and other occurrences at some of their plantations.  The PCs ask some questions, but House Planter has few details available.

The next day, the entire country starts to gear up for Tết, the Vietnamese variation of the Chinese celebration of the Lunar New Year.  Tết is the most important holiday for the Việt:

Conversely, the Lunar New Year holds no particular significance for the Cham people but, in a deliberate display of Việt cultural hegemony, it is for many Cham their only chance for the whole year to return to their home villages from their employers in the cities and plantations.

The party receives invitations to the annual Gouverneur's Lunar New Year soirée, the society event of the season. As they wander around town beforehand, the PCs see that the roads out of the city are clogged as the majority of the population heads back home for Tết.  However, the party notices a heavily armed party riding into the city, led by a Roman noblewoman:

Their new friend Mlle Farahani says it is the Marquise de Courcy, the Roman ambassador to Vietnam.  She's met by the Marquis de Picard.

[As Nausicaä] S asks, "Are they lovers?"

[As Mlle Farahani] I say, "I don't think so.  Officially, Picard is the head of the Adventurers Guild.  Unofficially, he is a spy for the Roman Empire."

As they head toward the Gouverneur's mansion, the PCs see some famous Korean bards:

The PCs are given places of honor at the front table with Gouverneur Trần and the other dignitaries.  While surreptitiously listening in, they overhear Ambassador de Courcy whisper "The Fire of Asshurbanipal" to the Marquis de Picard.

However before the PCs can follow up, the Gouverneur quietly berates a young officer, who stands up and storms out of the room on the verge of tears.  Investigating, the party finds out that the officer is the Gouverneur's son.  Lieutenant Trần always tries his best but is only an average soldier and has failed to live up to his mother's expectations again.  The PCs try to be supportive and then notice that the Baroness, the lieutenant's sister, hasn't arrived at the party yet.

Asking about, Lieutenant Trần returns and says that his sister and her bodyguards were waylaid and she is missing!


They start to organize a search party when the fort's alert sirens go off: the Khmer have sent an army across the border!

As Gouverneur Trần scrambles to mobilize a force to meet the Khmer, the party agrees to rescue the Baroness in exchange for the Gouverneur's approval for Papa Midnite's coliseum.

Movie Review: The Last Unicorn (1982)

I wanted to give some love to a wonderful but somewhat forgotten classic animated film, The Last Unicorn:

Adapted from the novel with a screenplay by the original author, The Last Unicorn follows the title character as she leaves the safety of her forest to discover what happened to her people.  Through various twists and turns, the Unicorn learns more about herself and the wider world than she thought possible or that she bargained for, and the ending is both bittersweet and something of a surprise.

Although ostensibly a children's film, The Last Unicorn is, in fact, a far more mature and richly layered narrative that is, by turns, a coming of age story, a mystery, a romance and a stirring tale of heroism.  This movie is a fairy tale, but it's more in the mold of the Brothers Grimm.  For example, there are moments filled with sorrow and bitterness that you'll never see in a Disney film, such as Molly Grue's lament upon meeting the Unicorn:

Molly: No, it can't be! Can it be? Where have you been? Where have you been? Damn you! Where have you been? 

Schmendrick: Don't you talk to her that way! 

Unicorn: I'm here now. 

Molly: And where were you twenty years ago? Ten years ago? Where were you when I was new? When I was one of those innocent young maidens you always come to? How dare you! How dare you come to me now, when I am THIS?! [Weeps]

Moving stuff.

The film also isn't afraid to bring the dark, such as when the Harpy kills Mommy Fortuna by ripping off the latter's face:

You'll never see THAT in a Disney film, either.

From top to bottom, this is a fantastic film.  Produced by Rankin/Bass, the guys that made the iconic animated versions of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Return of the King, the animation in The Last Unicorn is stylistically similar but qualitatively superior to those other films, which is unsurprising since it was done by Topcraft, a company that was bought out of bankruptcy by its top flight talent and turned into Studio Ghibli.

The movie also boasts an all-star vocal cast, including Mia Farrow, Jeff Bridges, Alan Arkin and, Saruman himself, Christopher Lee, who are all excellent, bringing depth and distinct personalities to their roles.  Furthermore, the mellow but melancholy soundtrack, performed by America, fits perfectly.

Like all the best "Young Adult" fiction, The Last Unicorn always treats its audience with intelligence and respect.  It is unafraid to ask tough questions and demand tough answers.  For example, the Unicorn learns that the world can be hard and unfair, even if or, indeed, because you've done the right thing.

I recommend this movie not only to speculative fiction fans but anyone who likes challenging, engaging and though provoking media.

SC's Parting Shot: 10 of 10

Session VII, Part III

After a few days ride, the party sees Buôn Ma Thuột  in the distance.  The provincial capital started off as a purely military and administrative base to monitor the Việt/Khmer border rather than for economic reasons, for which a capital on the Serepôk river would have made more sense.  Nevertheless, a city grew around the garrison over the years.  Successive gouverneurs have ignored the city, which is why there's no city wall.

As they enter the city, the PCs are greeted by the Marquis de Picard, head of the Adventurers Guild, who has an even more apologetic face than usual.  The Marquis is quite uncomfortable when he asks for the party's help to get clemency from Gouverneur Trần for Brock Samson:

Samson, the Suione Murder Machine, recently had ANOTHER psychotic break and mass murdered 50 more civilians, mainly women and children.  Consequently, Samson was sentenced to death by the Gouverneur despite attempted bribes and political pressure because of the insistence of the local Inquisitor, Father Nicholas D. Wolfwood:

Picard says grimly that dark times are coming and the world needs Samson's fearsome skills.  The party speaks with Father Wolfwood and gets him to settle for committing Samson to an insane asylum after Nausicaä points out that his religion says to forgive and turn the other cheek.

The PCs decide to get to know the locals and start with the leader of House Merchant, Countess Chei:

The Countess thanks them for stopping the Chryssalid outbreak and offers them as many free drinks and foot massages as they desire.

[OOC] S says, "This is great!"

[As DM] I say, "Well, you guys did just save the world.  Give it a few weeks and they'll wonder what you've done for them lately."

Leaving Subotai and Sister Aleena in the spa, the PCs continue exploring the city when they are approached by a mysterious woman:

Mlle Farahani is keen to become the PCs' friend and gives them 5000gp in jewels, "no strings attached."  The enigmatic Persian also shares that Papa Midnite is in town on a business trip, after the PCs screwed up his would-be mega deal in the Mekong Delta province by blatantly lying about "taking care of" Reverend Mother Guinan.  Midnite has heard that the party is also in Buôn Ma Thuột and is looking for them quite aggressively.

Later, the PCs ask the Marquis de Picard about Farahani, who says she's officially a businesswoman and unofficially a spy for the Persian Empire.

The PCs brief consider murdering Papa Midnite but ultimately decide against it.

[OOC] K says, "The problem with druids is, even if you manage to kill them, you'll probably end up assassinated by fifty pissed off alligators or something."

History: Battle of the Allia (390 BC (traditional), 387 BC (probable))

"Vae victis"

Rome's rise to power and greatness had more than a few missteps.  Nearly two centuries before Hannibal Barca's epic victory at Cannae, the Roman Army suffered a shocking defeat at the Allia that had monumental consequences.  And, like the Seattle Seahawks' horrific decision to throw a quick slant from the 1 yard line on 2nd and Goal with 0:28 left in Super Bowl XLIX, it was entirely the Romans' own fault:

Leading up to the conflict, a wandering Gallic tribe, the Senones, who may have been mercenaries, sought to settle near the Etruscan city of Clusium, understandably alarming the locals.  Lacking any major allies, the Clusians turned to Rome for help and the Romans, eager to expand their sphere of influence, sent a delegation of three ambassadors, the Fabii brothers, to negotiate a peaceful solution.

However, the brothers ended up instead enflaming the situation when, after negotiations broke down, they took up arms and killed one of the Gaulish leaders!

Then, after the Senones sent ambassadors to express their outrage, the Romans went all in and, in the words of Livy, "those who ought to have been punished were instead appointed for the coming year military tribunes with consular powers (the highest that could be granted).... The Celtic (Gallic) envoys were naturally - and rightly - indignant!"

Consequently, the Senones decided to march on Rome to express their frustration in a more direct (and pointy) way.  To try to prevent this, the Roman Army intercepted them at the Allia, a brook about 18 kilometers north of the city that feeds into the Tiber river.  The Romans' plan to avoid being outflanked, by committing their reserves to extend their line from the Tiber to a hill, spectacularly backfired when Brennus, commander of  the Senones, assaulted and seized the hill.

Next, the Gauls successfully double enveloped the Roman Army, shattering the latter's flanks, consisting of the lower-class citizens armed as skirmishers and light infantry.  Then the richer Roman citizens in the center, arrayed as Greek-style hoplites in phalanx, were encircled and slaughtered.

Thereafter, the Senones captured and sacked Rome, holding the city for months and extorting an indemnity of 1000 pounds of gold.  In the meantime, Marcus Furius Camillus, recalled from exile and appointed dictator, managed to reconstitute the Roman Army and drive off the Gauls.

Of course, that was cold comfort for the devastation and humiliation wreaked by a single Gallic tribe on (supposedly) mighty Rome.  The Romans spent the next century rebuilding their city and power in central Italy and the Day of the Allia (July 18) was considered unlucky for hundreds of years.

Like the old proverb says, "As you sow, so shall you reap."

Session VII, Part II

Subotai tells the PCs that he's worked with one of the adventurers that came into the tavern with the imposing noblewoman.  After a quick tête-à-tête with his former comrade, the thief returns and says that the noblewoman is Baroness Trần.  Apparently there was some kind of dust up in the provincial capital and the Baroness decided to visit the Borderlands.  The PCs decide to meet the itinerant noblewoman.

[As the Baroness] I say, "It's so nice that you people saved the world.  Good help is hard to find these days, you know."

[As Nausicaä] S says, "Of course."

[As the Baroness] I say, "It's too bad, though, that you've got that disability, common blood.  It's incurable, unfortunately."

[OOC] S says, "Okay, that's all I need to hear."

The PCs goto meet Capitaine Đào to brainstorm an honorable and face saving way to remove Colonel Thứ năm from the Borderlands.  The Capitaine suggests that they try to arrange a sideways promotion for the Colonel to the War Ministry's Department of Strategic Planning.  Since Gouverneur Trần of the Central Highlands province, also the mother of the Baroness, is the immediately former War Minister, they could probably arrange the transfer if the Gouverneur approved it.

Countess Trần was formerly War Minister until the Emperor decided to invade China.  She thought the plan was ludicrous and resigned in protest.  However, after the problems that the Countess predicted started to occur, the Emperor ordered her out of retirement to take command of the strategically critical Central Highlands.

Thus, the PCs ride off for Buôn Ma Thuột, the provincial capital.

This brings us to our next classic Olde School Dungeons & Dragons adventure, B6: The Veiled Society:

From a design point of view, The Veiled Society is a mixed bag: On one hand, the module is quite railroady, probably due to the fact that much of the module's page count is taken up by cardstock cutouts which you could fold together to form various city locations.  The cutouts were a neat idea, but took away pages that could have been used to flesh out the adventure.  On the other hand, B6 was the first basic D&D module set in a city, and might be the first urban adventure for any type of Dungeons & Dragons.  It also had a Player v. Player scenario, which probably wouldn't work with many, if not most, groups without a lot of railroading.  So, overall, the module was ambitious but flawed.

Of course, for my homebrew Olde School D&D campaign, I mined The Veiled Society for interesting ideas and kept the basic setting (frontier provincial capital that supports the Keep on the Borderlands) and set pieces (the three squabbling noble families), but also reskinned it into an urban sandbox.

The three major noble families of the Central Highlands, simplified for convenience, are:

* House Builder

Oldest of the noble families and originally from the imperial capital of Huế, House Builder's fortunes were declining until they invested in a very successful gold mine on the Borderlands.  However, someone has just stolen their gold.  They are supported by the Romans.

* House Planter

The richest and most powerful of the noble families, House Planter owns most of the coffee and sugar plantations in the province.  They are supported by the Persians.

* House Merchant

This family are Cham collaborators, who've made it big in hospitality, retail and entertainment.  They are supported by the Aksumites and the Việt (who need collaborators to justify their occupation).

[OOC] K says, "That's a pretty interesting symbol."

[As DM] I say, "Yeah, it's an actual real-life Cham religious symbol.  I like it also because its stylistically so different from the Chinese-inspired Vietnamese art that I used for the Việt noble families' house sigils."