London Calling

After years of playing 1 c4, I finally traveled to the birthplace of the English Opening.

In the Tower of London (where the Beefeater guide at one point joked that we'd be heading off in such-and-such a direction), I happened upon the following image on an interior wall:

The artist rendered the board properly, all the way down to White's horrendous position with a blockaded pawn on a6 and multiple Black forces descending upon his king on g1. Ah, if only the folks who installed the immovable stone chess tables and chairs in front of the Somerville Library's Highland Avenue location had had such an eye for detail, they wouldn't have put a dark square at h1.


I made it to the London Chess Centre's well-stocked physical store, where I picked up a few items:

Dave Vigorito's new book on the Sicilian Dragon was displayed prominently:

I also caught up with our club's former President and First Lady, shown here standing next to the Lewis Chessmen in the British Museum.

Again the board is set up correctly. Here, White is up a pawn (okay, okay, it's the only pawn on the board).

£ for £, a pleasant trip across the pawned!