11.06.2003

The philosophical "paint-myself-into-a-corner" problem shows up in chess games all the time. The critic-polemicist enters the game as White Knight. Of course the ultimate checkmate is to tip over the board itself : but this is another form of one-upmanship. . . Ultimate Pacheesi. Prof. Hinkel, by by the way way, has written extensively (extenenenenensively. . .) about the cheese/chess oscillation conundrum. See his article in Amazing A-Mazes, "Cheddar Man in Petersburg : Prehistoric White Night?"

The player, too, is captive of caprice
(the sentence is Omar's) on another ground
crisscrossed with black nights and white days.


God moves the player, he, in turn, the piece.
But what god beyond God begins the round
of dust and time and dream and agonies?


- JL Borges, "Chess"

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