Chase Bank and the Final Fraudulent Straw
I am beginning this tale at the end. Before I am done it will have several chapters to tell this sad and confusing story of the big banking systems here in America, and one family's journey through it.
Those chapters are:
Chase Bank and the Half Percent Return
Chase Bank and the You're-not-credit -worthy Judgement
Chase Bank and the Missing Data
Chase Bank and the Locked-Out Safety Deposit Box
I'm relating this epic tale because I have some real concerns about what it means, and I've found that our strange experiences are not unique to us. Often these types of things happen and continue to happen because we the people simply don't compare notes.
There are aspects of this story that will be hard to relate without "too much information", but I'll dance around that as best I can.
As I said, we start with the final chapter of this saga, wherein we have finally had enough and are actively ending our relationship with Chase - no small feat these days, as our daily financial lives become quite intertwined with the financial institutions we do business with over time.
This story begins as these stories often do simply enough on Wednesday last when Anne noticed a couple of strange transactions in her daily inspection of our online banking. The transactions appeared to be payments of our Chase credit cards - but there were three of them in a row, on consecutive days. She probably had not noticed the first one (as it looked normal). In spotting three such "account transfers" to credit cards in a row, averaging about $1000 each, she also noticed the last four digits of the credit card number did not actually match any of our credit cards.
We contacted our bank, who sent us along to their fraud department. We are "private clients" with Chase, which frankly does not mean much - but in this particular case, it did mean a higher level of service.
The fraud representative was clearly new on the job, which manifested itself in his communication with us. We made our way through this. He was not there to explain how this happened, he was just there to get a claim filed and an investigation started, which he did. He also told us we needed to close our account immediately and start a new one.
What?
Yes, that was his advice. As a first step, he recommended that we freeze our current checking account (the one with the fake transfers), so that money could go in but nothing could go out. We did so.
The next day, we went to our local branch. In researching all of this, we had first assumed that our account id and passwords had been hacked. In looking closer, we had come to believe that we ourselves could not have created the transactions we were seeing - you can't pay a credit card that isn't in your profile. Our local bankers validated this point. They agreed that neither we NOR they as tellers and bankers could have created the transactions we were seeing on our account.
This confirmed my suspicion - WE were not hacked; Chase was hacked. The transactions we were seeing, 3 of them totaling over $3,000, were not created through online banking as they indicated. There were no records of logins at those times; and no way to create them. That means they were created by back-end processes or in the banks databases themselves, either through a hack or a gross error in their systems. I know something about complex computerized transaction systems, and this was obvious to me.
After everything we'd experienced with Chase over the years, this was indeed the last straw. we started moving our account immediately. To be fair, Chase refunded the money to our account within 12 hours, and our local branch provided the finest service we'd every had (our Woodinville branch was awful). Still, we could not escape the feeling that our money was not safe.
The next day, I talked with a family member and found our that on the exact same days, they also had fraudulent transactions on their account. They were of a different type (they were told that someone had obtained "pictures of their checks", but a greater amount - $6,000. Unfortunately they were not private clients and their money could take up to 60 days to be refunded. Is this a coincidence? Or did Chase get hit hard last week?
It is a
The reader may feel this is an overreaction; and taken by itself it may be. It is a HUGE amount of work to close accounts and inform all of your trading partners that you have new accounts to deposit into, and re-set your bill-pay profiles. It has taken us days so far and is not complete yet.
I'd like to end with some good advice for avoiding this yourself, but what would that be?
- Check your account EVERY SINGLE DAY.
- Have good password management - DO'T use the same ID's and passwords for different accounts (I know how tough this is).
- Have cash on hand. Something like this could clean out your account and it can take months to get your money back.
- Do your best to have a secure home network. If you use contractors to install your network, don't leave the passwords in their hands. This includes the audio video guys you hired to set up your new home media system that you gave those passwords to.
The overall pattern of banking behavior that i'll relate in the rest of this Chase tale has me very concerned. You be the judge; more to come.
Happy State of the Union Day!
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Friday, January 19, 2018
Gigi's Fried Pies
Growing up, Christmas meant one really important thing to me: Going to Gigi's for Christmas.
Gigi (pronounced with a hard "G" in both cases) was our name for my maternal grandmother. From where I sit, she was the best grandmother in the history of grandmothers. Her house smelled like great food and pure love, with a fine undercurrent of great coffee made on the stove with a percolating coffee pot.
Whatever was happening in our world, the touchstone, at least once a year, was traveling to Gigi's for a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration.
One thing that Christmas Eve at Gig's also meant: Gigl's homemade fried pies. We couldn't get enough of these amazing treats, but usually got into plenty of trouble trying our best to do so. This was only a minor problem, since Gigi could crank them out an an unbelievable rate, and always made plenty and to spare. This I did not learn until later; she cooked them before we all arrived, and her labors went unseen. She poured her love for her family into such things, and the comfort and hospitality of her home. She was never more happy when we were all there and together. Even without the lens of childhood adoration, I can see her as an incredibly giving person.
My grandmother and her fried pies were very symbolic of family and holidays to me. As she got on in life, I realized that she and her pies were one of the most important of our traditions (of which there were not enough). I made up my mind to learn from her how to make her friend pies.
She came over one day just before Christmas around 1996 or so, toting the ingredients and her special, broken-in-for-fifty-years electric frying pan. I (thankfully) recorded her teaching me the trade. It's a good thing - because she'd been doing it so long that there was no recipe. The ingredients were "About this much flour" and "A pinch of salt" and "a dash of vanilla", and "sugar to taste".
One thing that must be done the day before the fry fest is the fruit compote - traditionally, apple and apricot. These are made from dried fruit. (An interesting not - it used to be no problem to find dried apples in any store - now it's very difficult to find them. I had to buy the last four packages from Amazon this year.)
I turned the video into a DVD, which is one of my most prized heirlooms. Every year, we pull it out and watch her teach us again how to bring her back to us for an evening, to feel her surround us and help us make her famous fried pies. My sons got into the act when they were young, and they pitch right in every year - in fact, they're really in charge of the production now, and better at it than I ever was. Gary and his fiancee Haley ran the show this year, with Greg in London.
We don't come close to the quality and consistency (or production level) of Th eMaster, but everyone enjoys the pies just the same. We don't think overlong on the ingredients - Lard, buttermilk, etc...for one night a year, damn the torpedoes. It feels good to watch the family enjoying her pies and thinking of her.
It will do until I see her again.
Growing up, Christmas meant one really important thing to me: Going to Gigi's for Christmas.
Gigi (pronounced with a hard "G" in both cases) was our name for my maternal grandmother. From where I sit, she was the best grandmother in the history of grandmothers. Her house smelled like great food and pure love, with a fine undercurrent of great coffee made on the stove with a percolating coffee pot.
Whatever was happening in our world, the touchstone, at least once a year, was traveling to Gigi's for a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration.
One thing that Christmas Eve at Gig's also meant: Gigl's homemade fried pies. We couldn't get enough of these amazing treats, but usually got into plenty of trouble trying our best to do so. This was only a minor problem, since Gigi could crank them out an an unbelievable rate, and always made plenty and to spare. This I did not learn until later; she cooked them before we all arrived, and her labors went unseen. She poured her love for her family into such things, and the comfort and hospitality of her home. She was never more happy when we were all there and together. Even without the lens of childhood adoration, I can see her as an incredibly giving person.
My grandmother and her fried pies were very symbolic of family and holidays to me. As she got on in life, I realized that she and her pies were one of the most important of our traditions (of which there were not enough). I made up my mind to learn from her how to make her friend pies.
She came over one day just before Christmas around 1996 or so, toting the ingredients and her special, broken-in-for-fifty-years electric frying pan. I (thankfully) recorded her teaching me the trade. It's a good thing - because she'd been doing it so long that there was no recipe. The ingredients were "About this much flour" and "A pinch of salt" and "a dash of vanilla", and "sugar to taste".
One thing that must be done the day before the fry fest is the fruit compote - traditionally, apple and apricot. These are made from dried fruit. (An interesting not - it used to be no problem to find dried apples in any store - now it's very difficult to find them. I had to buy the last four packages from Amazon this year.)
I turned the video into a DVD, which is one of my most prized heirlooms. Every year, we pull it out and watch her teach us again how to bring her back to us for an evening, to feel her surround us and help us make her famous fried pies. My sons got into the act when they were young, and they pitch right in every year - in fact, they're really in charge of the production now, and better at it than I ever was. Gary and his fiancee Haley ran the show this year, with Greg in London.
We don't come close to the quality and consistency (or production level) of Th eMaster, but everyone enjoys the pies just the same. We don't think overlong on the ingredients - Lard, buttermilk, etc...for one night a year, damn the torpedoes. It feels good to watch the family enjoying her pies and thinking of her.
It will do until I see her again.
Monday, January 15, 2018
Movie Review - "The Post"
Anne and I ventured to our small theater here in Edmonds this weekend to see a very timely and relevant film for our times, "The Post".
Without being political (hopefully instead being constitutional), it is easy to feel these days that the foundations of our democracy are under a lot of negative pressure. Our institutions seem at risk. While those foundations are historically strong, they are also delicate and balanced. Nowhere is this more evident today than in the seemingly every-present assault on the media, or "the press" as it was called by our founding fathers and in the context of this movie, which takes place in the early 1970's.
The right to free speech and a free press, guaranteed by our Constitution and its amendments, are right up there with the right to worship freely, bear arms, and our pursuit of happiness. It's all a package.
It is somewhat reassuring to remember through The Post that the press has been under attack before, many times. The comparisons to today's climate are no accident, given the filmmaker (Steven Spielberg) and some of the key actors (Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep). There's no doubt they wanted to serve up a good helping of history to help us remember how incredibly necessary our free press is, and what a significant part of the checks and balances our system needs today.
The movie tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg and th Pentagon Papers, a study commissioned basically by the military (Robert MacNamara) on the conduct and prospects of the Vietnam War. The real story of the movie, however, is the attack the New York Times was under from the White House, which was essentially attempting to quash news stories they didn't like. The issues were before the courts up to and including the Supreme Court.
While the attacks were not as blatant and frequent and there was no Twitter at the time, the press was under serious and fundamental threat of being controlled by the presidency and the courts. Today's attacks of "fake news" (just this morning the president tweeted that the reports on the accidental missile launch threat in Hawaii was "fake news", but underneath it all is the same fundamental desire to discredit the media in order to be able to stop it and control it - and we Americans can't allow that to happen.
Admittedly, today's media is somehow harder to defend than the stalwarts of our constitutional rights The Post portrays. Ben Bradlee, the legendary editor of the Washington Post in those days, cuts quite a different figure than the average cable news anchor of today.
Our media, in its incredible diversity and in-your-face presence, can be difficult for anyone to take. Anne and I really never watched cable news until the 2016 election cycle - and it has been a shock to see how "news" has evolved into 24/7 repetition of the two or three stories of the moment - and the degree to which key outlets are either gleefully attacking or blindly defending the white house. Water cooler gossip is treated as "Fact" from "anonymous sources"; barely verified "facts" from questionable-at-best but at least identified sources are treated as gospel. As musch as the decorum and integrity of the Presidency itself, Journalistic integrity has taken many torpedoes broadside and is taking on water.
Todays "news" has also broken some of the fundamental tenets of journalism, especially in making themselves a part of the story. Today's "panels" team-analyzing a given situation are usually journalists being interviewed by like-minded journalists. On CNN today, one journalist whose show is about the media actually said that the anchors that were themselves speaking their opinions were being the "leaders", and one of this fellow journalists "guests" went further to say that they were doing the work of God. To me, that's just as dicey as "fake news".
For all its warts, the press of 2018 needs protection just as much as the press of 1971 did. When our elected officials are unable or refuse to hold our leaders accountable, it is often the press that must fulfill this role. Today's technology has created new and fundamentally impactful vehicles for direct communication to the masses, and these foundational institutions have not figured it out yet. We must hope that they will, and more than that we must actively participate in the process by supporting responsible journalists as well as responsible leadership.
How do we actively participate? We let our President know when his behavior is unacceptable (Tweet him! Telegram! VOTE!). We do the same thing when the media's behavior is unacceptable (Tweet it! Send email to them! DON't WATCH). We communicate with our elected officials. The time for standing with our hands in our pockets has to end.
If you're noticed this "review" is a thinly disguised civics statement, I'm afraid you are right.
The Post is well worth seeing with great performances and a story worth revisiting. I actually did not recognize Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee. This is probably due to my eyesight, but I think he did a terrific job. At the end of the movie, the entire audience gave an extended ovation - I think we were all touched by this timely and relevant lesson.
The performance of Bob Odenkirk can't be overlooked. While a bit of a Jimmy transplant from Better Call Saul, it is gritty and real and very enjoyable.
My friends, it is a great time to recall those values that have made us special fo our 250+ years, and for us to be Americans first.
Anne and I ventured to our small theater here in Edmonds this weekend to see a very timely and relevant film for our times, "The Post".
Without being political (hopefully instead being constitutional), it is easy to feel these days that the foundations of our democracy are under a lot of negative pressure. Our institutions seem at risk. While those foundations are historically strong, they are also delicate and balanced. Nowhere is this more evident today than in the seemingly every-present assault on the media, or "the press" as it was called by our founding fathers and in the context of this movie, which takes place in the early 1970's.
The right to free speech and a free press, guaranteed by our Constitution and its amendments, are right up there with the right to worship freely, bear arms, and our pursuit of happiness. It's all a package.
It is somewhat reassuring to remember through The Post that the press has been under attack before, many times. The comparisons to today's climate are no accident, given the filmmaker (Steven Spielberg) and some of the key actors (Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep). There's no doubt they wanted to serve up a good helping of history to help us remember how incredibly necessary our free press is, and what a significant part of the checks and balances our system needs today.
The movie tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg and th Pentagon Papers, a study commissioned basically by the military (Robert MacNamara) on the conduct and prospects of the Vietnam War. The real story of the movie, however, is the attack the New York Times was under from the White House, which was essentially attempting to quash news stories they didn't like. The issues were before the courts up to and including the Supreme Court.
While the attacks were not as blatant and frequent and there was no Twitter at the time, the press was under serious and fundamental threat of being controlled by the presidency and the courts. Today's attacks of "fake news" (just this morning the president tweeted that the reports on the accidental missile launch threat in Hawaii was "fake news", but underneath it all is the same fundamental desire to discredit the media in order to be able to stop it and control it - and we Americans can't allow that to happen.
Admittedly, today's media is somehow harder to defend than the stalwarts of our constitutional rights The Post portrays. Ben Bradlee, the legendary editor of the Washington Post in those days, cuts quite a different figure than the average cable news anchor of today.
Our media, in its incredible diversity and in-your-face presence, can be difficult for anyone to take. Anne and I really never watched cable news until the 2016 election cycle - and it has been a shock to see how "news" has evolved into 24/7 repetition of the two or three stories of the moment - and the degree to which key outlets are either gleefully attacking or blindly defending the white house. Water cooler gossip is treated as "Fact" from "anonymous sources"; barely verified "facts" from questionable-at-best but at least identified sources are treated as gospel. As musch as the decorum and integrity of the Presidency itself, Journalistic integrity has taken many torpedoes broadside and is taking on water.
Todays "news" has also broken some of the fundamental tenets of journalism, especially in making themselves a part of the story. Today's "panels" team-analyzing a given situation are usually journalists being interviewed by like-minded journalists. On CNN today, one journalist whose show is about the media actually said that the anchors that were themselves speaking their opinions were being the "leaders", and one of this fellow journalists "guests" went further to say that they were doing the work of God. To me, that's just as dicey as "fake news".
For all its warts, the press of 2018 needs protection just as much as the press of 1971 did. When our elected officials are unable or refuse to hold our leaders accountable, it is often the press that must fulfill this role. Today's technology has created new and fundamentally impactful vehicles for direct communication to the masses, and these foundational institutions have not figured it out yet. We must hope that they will, and more than that we must actively participate in the process by supporting responsible journalists as well as responsible leadership.
How do we actively participate? We let our President know when his behavior is unacceptable (Tweet him! Telegram! VOTE!). We do the same thing when the media's behavior is unacceptable (Tweet it! Send email to them! DON't WATCH). We communicate with our elected officials. The time for standing with our hands in our pockets has to end.
If you're noticed this "review" is a thinly disguised civics statement, I'm afraid you are right.
The Post is well worth seeing with great performances and a story worth revisiting. I actually did not recognize Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee. This is probably due to my eyesight, but I think he did a terrific job. At the end of the movie, the entire audience gave an extended ovation - I think we were all touched by this timely and relevant lesson.
The performance of Bob Odenkirk can't be overlooked. While a bit of a Jimmy transplant from Better Call Saul, it is gritty and real and very enjoyable.
My friends, it is a great time to recall those values that have made us special fo our 250+ years, and for us to be Americans first.
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Serving the IT Underbelly of Alaska, Part 1
By the time I started working at Computerland of Anchorage in 1982, Alaska had begun to transform from the wild days of the Pipeline boom - but there were still some interesting things that went on in our biggest state, and I had some eye opening interactions in my first few months and years selling and installing computer systems across the state.
An interesting part of the city of Anchorage was an area around Spenard Road. Interestingly, the first law firm my father worked for was located in the heart of Spenard, in a small office right next to a large Chinese restaurant which was a fixture of the area. Another well known and highly visible type of business in Spenard were the...ahem....brothels, still doing (so I heard) a brisk business as Anchorage moved into the new era.
One day in my first few weeks at the store, a very nice lady came in looking for a system to help run her business. Still sopping wet behind the ears, I sat down with her to find out what her needs were.
"I want to track information about our customers," she said.
I asked her what type of information.
"Basic things like name, phone number address," she stated. "Amount of bilings and what dates the customer makes purchases."
"That's easy," I informed her confidently. I was already visualizing accounting software or a small custom database.
"And you know, preferences," she added with a sidelong glance.
"Preferences"? I asked. In reality, much of this conversation is about the cornerstones of modern customer profiling and segmentation, but I was hearing some of these requirements for the first time.
"Yes you know...what a customer likes, which...er...reps they like to work with," she stated, warming up. "It's really important for us to match customer needs with our service representatives."
"Sure", I said, taking notes as we talked.
"We have more requirement that is really important," she stated flatly. I asked her what that was.
"we have to be able to destroy the information on a moment's notice," she said.
"Destroy....?"
"Yes, instantly."
Now, i had not been in the business long but this was certainly the first time such a requirement had been a part of a conversation. While still new, I was not oblivious. The storage medium of the day was 5.25" floppy disks, and it was frankly hard to keep the data from NOT being erased a good deal of the time. I opened my mouth to inquire further on this driving requirement, but I took another look at her business card. While the name of her...firm....did not stand out obviously, the address made the conversation click.
Spenard Road.
Through my career, I feel I can say that I have not and would not do anything immoral or illegal. I would also say I'm not judgmental. The feeling that I had at that moment was a feeling I would get many hundreds of times in the years to come. Warm and fuzzy and confident, because I knew I had a good solution for her business and that I had a sales a-comin.
I recommended a pot-belly stove to go a long with her new IBM PC, with secondary solutions including a shredder and a big magnet.
In this case I did not offer on-site delivery services.
As often happened over the years, this happy customer sent many more businesses from Spenard my way - certainly not hundreds, but quite a few.
All in a day's work.
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Retirement Status on "Official" Day 1
While I've been talking about retirement over the last month, it did not officially start until today - January 2nd, 2018.
The first question asked by anyone when you tell them you're retiring is: "What are you going to do with your time?" - usually followed by dire warnings related to Sudden Retiree Dirt Nap Syndrome, Sudden Underfoot Dependency Syndrome (SUDS) and other such too-much-free-time related maladies.
This is a more than fair question for workaholics that know nothing other than their hard-driving careers and believe me something I've thought a lot about.
Going in, I've had four major pillars of act brain-stimulating activities planned for retired live.
1) Time with my wife and family, including travel. Grandkids (no pressure boys).
2) Health and exercise (a major priority).
3) Music and my home studio.
4) A return to tournament chess (after 11+ years of not playing), and support of chess i our state.
I'll add a fifth pillar, which does not mean lowest priority: My continued involvement as a member of the Board of Directors of Connectwise. This is not really a retirement-oriented activity, but is also not a day to day position.
These are certain.y not the only activities I intent to partake in, just the "founding lineup" if you will.
I've had the last few weeks to tee these up and get into position. . So here's the status so far.
1) Family, time with Anne, travel - A+
Launching in December is obviously a great time on the family front, and we kicked off with some travel. Anne and I are learning this new lifestyle dance, and so far so good. We started off with nice travel to Mexico and plan a first quarter trip as well. had some GREAT time with youngest son Gary and his fiancee Haley. The fiancee part happened somewhat recently as well - some progress toward grandkids. Greg is working in Europe so we miss him a lot, the only dark cloud on this front.
2) Health and Exercise - B+
I'm pretty happy on this front. Have been swimming 3-4 times per week for the last 3 weeks. This involves walking to the gym (20 minutes there, 20 minutes back). Overall, a solid 1.25 hours of exercise per day. I'd already reported getting my blood sugar under control - and I lan to keep it there. Need to augment the exercise, and it's almost impossible not to backslide on the carbs during the holidays.
3) Music and the Studio - A+
Have been having a great time here with friends and at least one singing group I'm recording. Have discovered an awesome program called RockSmith Remastered that is a great learning and performance tool. My level of interest and enthusiasm is very high on this front.
4) Chess - C+
I've had a very interesting time with this one. I've played in two tournaments so far, and my skill level is not what it was to put it mildly. There have been a lot of changes in competitive chess over the years. I can best summarize these changes by stating that tournament chess has been everrun by twelve year old girls named Sophie, who are preternaturally good for their age and height. I've struggled to maintain an even record against them. The good folks here in Washinton that run the chess play indicate that well over 80% of the players are very young (under 13) so one must simply deal with this startling change. To be sure, it is nothing but positive to see these young people - and especially the young females - having interest in prowess in the game of kings. It is simply a little difficulty for a Fischer-era middle aged individual to have his arse kicked by the Sophies.
And, the skill deterioration is no fun either. Working on it.
IT's also been a busy few weeks for the board.
Ok, you are rightly thinking: "Sure, it's easy to stay busy for your first few weeks". You're right. But at this point, I feel good about being able to keep the energy on these pillars and to expand them. But I'll blog honest on it.
The State of the Retirement is Strong.
Happy 2018 to you!
While I've been talking about retirement over the last month, it did not officially start until today - January 2nd, 2018.
The first question asked by anyone when you tell them you're retiring is: "What are you going to do with your time?" - usually followed by dire warnings related to Sudden Retiree Dirt Nap Syndrome, Sudden Underfoot Dependency Syndrome (SUDS) and other such too-much-free-time related maladies.
This is a more than fair question for workaholics that know nothing other than their hard-driving careers and believe me something I've thought a lot about.
Going in, I've had four major pillars of act brain-stimulating activities planned for retired live.
1) Time with my wife and family, including travel. Grandkids (no pressure boys).
2) Health and exercise (a major priority).
3) Music and my home studio.
4) A return to tournament chess (after 11+ years of not playing), and support of chess i our state.
I'll add a fifth pillar, which does not mean lowest priority: My continued involvement as a member of the Board of Directors of Connectwise. This is not really a retirement-oriented activity, but is also not a day to day position.
These are certain.y not the only activities I intent to partake in, just the "founding lineup" if you will.
I've had the last few weeks to tee these up and get into position. . So here's the status so far.
1) Family, time with Anne, travel - A+
Launching in December is obviously a great time on the family front, and we kicked off with some travel. Anne and I are learning this new lifestyle dance, and so far so good. We started off with nice travel to Mexico and plan a first quarter trip as well. had some GREAT time with youngest son Gary and his fiancee Haley. The fiancee part happened somewhat recently as well - some progress toward grandkids. Greg is working in Europe so we miss him a lot, the only dark cloud on this front.
2) Health and Exercise - B+
I'm pretty happy on this front. Have been swimming 3-4 times per week for the last 3 weeks. This involves walking to the gym (20 minutes there, 20 minutes back). Overall, a solid 1.25 hours of exercise per day. I'd already reported getting my blood sugar under control - and I lan to keep it there. Need to augment the exercise, and it's almost impossible not to backslide on the carbs during the holidays.
3) Music and the Studio - A+
Have been having a great time here with friends and at least one singing group I'm recording. Have discovered an awesome program called RockSmith Remastered that is a great learning and performance tool. My level of interest and enthusiasm is very high on this front.
4) Chess - C+
I've had a very interesting time with this one. I've played in two tournaments so far, and my skill level is not what it was to put it mildly. There have been a lot of changes in competitive chess over the years. I can best summarize these changes by stating that tournament chess has been everrun by twelve year old girls named Sophie, who are preternaturally good for their age and height. I've struggled to maintain an even record against them. The good folks here in Washinton that run the chess play indicate that well over 80% of the players are very young (under 13) so one must simply deal with this startling change. To be sure, it is nothing but positive to see these young people - and especially the young females - having interest in prowess in the game of kings. It is simply a little difficulty for a Fischer-era middle aged individual to have his arse kicked by the Sophies.
And, the skill deterioration is no fun either. Working on it.
IT's also been a busy few weeks for the board.
Ok, you are rightly thinking: "Sure, it's easy to stay busy for your first few weeks". You're right. But at this point, I feel good about being able to keep the energy on these pillars and to expand them. But I'll blog honest on it.
The State of the Retirement is Strong.
Happy 2018 to you!
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