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05 April 2007

You Win Some, You Lose Some

In Collecting on a bet, DG of the Boylston Chess Club Weblog picked up a challenge to find five new blogs in less than two hours. He discovered 26 blogs in a little less than an hour. Checking these against my own list, I found 23 new names.

How could I have overlooked so many? Looking at the date of the first post on those blogs, all but 10 were created since the beginning of March; and all but two were from 2007. The oldest started in March 2006, featured a few posts every month until June, then went to sleep until last month, when it was restarted. Getting back to the original premise, what this little bet has shown is not that there is a large number of blogs missing from everyone's blogroll, but that the chess blogosphere is healthy and growing by the day.

Excuses for losing aside, a bet is a bet. DG asks, 'Let me know what I've won'. This is the first time I've lost a bet without knowing in advance what the stakes are, but I'm a fair person. I propose this valuable souvenir from the 1972 Fischer - Spassky World Championship match:


As they say over on eBay, the actual item looks better than the scan. I have dozens of the things stacked in a corner of my sock drawer and if I can't get rid of one on a lost bet, then they'll sit there forever. I'll leave it to DG to collect by forwarding a postal address (to chess.guide@about.com) to let me know where I can send his new treasure.

Oh, and in case DG is wondering, the drawer is for clean socks. Mostly.

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4 comments:

  1. David Glickman05 April, 2007 20:39

    I gladly accept (though your post recognizing that I won the challenge is more than adequate).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Petros Karagianis06 April, 2007 11:02

    Sad to hear you lost your bet... but I followed DG's posts with interest. Do you have any more 1972 memorabilia? I must confess to an avid interest in that match. It was the book on that match that actually got me interested in chess way long ago in 1988.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Blue Devil Knight06 April, 2007 19:48

    A generous gift!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mark Weeks07 April, 2007 12:41

    DG: Re 'your post recognizing that I won the challenge is more than adequate', I knew I should have haggled over terms. As I mentioned in a private note, I was unable to post a comment to your blog, so I would like to say publicly, 'Nice work!', which was the essence of my comment.

    NM Petros Karagianis: Sad? No, not at all. It would have been sad if DG hadn't found any new blogs. Re 'Do you have any more 1972 memorabilia?', no, I bought the covers in bulk wondering what to do with them. It turns out that they're useful for settling public wagers. Have you discovered Chess Collectors International (CCI)? I'm sure you'll find specialists in 1972 WCC memorabilia there.

    Blue Devil Knight: Re 'A generous gift!' Umm, if you say so!

    ReplyDelete