Reading, 乱, and Rostropovich
Winning Chess Tactics (revised) is a good introduction to Chess tactics, though a few diagrams have mistakes, which makes learning difficult.
- Play Stronger Chess by Examining Chess960: Usable Strategies of Fischer Random Chess Discovered covers Chess960 in great detail. Includes easy (and unbiased!) methods for board setup, rules for notation, castling, and methods to reduce the advantage of White starting. Most interesting is the discussion of various layouts with regard to 2nd rank pawn support (or lack thereof), 4th rank pawn support, how the Knights interact, and other considerations Chess960 requires.
乱 [Ran] sets King Lear (more or less) in Feudal Japan: incredibly well done. Been working through works by Akira Kurosawa via Netflix. Netflix very handy, with the nearest movie store being of limited selection, and the rest a fair ways away (and uphill) from me.
Mstislav Rostropovich: Cello Concertos collects concerto and encore recordings from the 1950s. Some tracks suffer from a slight background hiss, though nonetheless excellent and enjoyable music throughout.
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