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I was playing a quick online chess game this morning, against a random opponent. In fairness, I was not playing well, just passing time and having one of those dense, uninspired days. My opponent was playing better and was on top for most of the game. My not particularly strong moves and meek attempts at combinations were met, through the app’s chat, with several ‘Lol’, ‘Easy’ and finally the absolutely right, but downright rude, ‘Moving pieces randomly is not chess’. Turns out, in the end, I did develop a game winning combination, to which he smarted ‘Just luck’. I normally don’t engage, but, being dense this morning, I told him what I thought of him, risking banning from the app in these days of political correctness. He answered he did not mean to offend me. I was left nearly speechless, but managed to ask him what he meant to do. ‘Just having fun’, he said. Do some people lose their manners and empathy online, or do I just meet idiots online I have been lucky not to meet elsewhere?...

  Chess is an ancient pastime, which has perdured for many generations. It is a great means to entertain oneself whilst developing cognitive and reasoning capacities. Excellent to exercise memory and calculation. And it is a beautiful game. A well constructed, game winning combination has a rhythm which you can almost hear, it is irrepressible, deterministic and beautiful, a crescendo of energy perfectly fitting of a Beethoven or Wagner symphony. In fact, when I am fortunate enough to execute such a combination in a game, I literally hear that music, as the pieces sweep energetically across the board, putting my opponent to the figurative sword. As we witness the development of the first generation to grow with digital devices, I wonder what will become of chess. Will the wide availability of entertainment on consoles and mobile devices leave room for old pastimes like chess in human schedules? If not, we will lose not only a great tool to educate and shape the mind, but a thing of...