Comments on: Chess and the Spiritual World http://paulhoffman.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/chess-and-the-spiritual-world/ Paul Hoffman on words, chess, food, science, and everything else that's big fun. An exploration of ideas in my book King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game. Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:13:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: Deadest Draw But Knights Finally Rally « thepHtest http://paulhoffman.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/chess-and-the-spiritual-world/#comment-436 Deadest Draw But Knights Finally Rally « thepHtest Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:40:59 +0000 http://paulhoffman.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/chess-and-the-spiritual-world/#comment-436 [...] their first match in the U.S. Chess League. They whupped Seattle 3-0, with international masters Irina Krush and Jay Bonin scoring easy wins and Irina Zenyuk joining Hikaru in [...] [...] their first match in the U.S. Chess League. They whupped Seattle 3-0, with international masters Irina Krush and Jay Bonin scoring easy wins and Irina Zenyuk joining Hikaru in [...]

]]> By: Dagobert Peterson http://paulhoffman.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/chess-and-the-spiritual-world/#comment-277 Dagobert Peterson Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:38:48 +0000 http://paulhoffman.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/chess-and-the-spiritual-world/#comment-277 Below is an interesting work that you might like (called Maps of Meaning): http://www.amazon.com/Maps-Meaning-Architecture-Jordan-Peterson/dp/0415922216/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0634776-0352050?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188142364&sr=8-1 Below is an interesting work that you might like (called Maps of Meaning):

http://www.amazon.com/Maps-Meaning-Architecture-Jordan-Peterson/dp/0415922216/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0634776-0352050?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188142364&sr=8-1

]]> By: paulhoffman http://paulhoffman.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/chess-and-the-spiritual-world/#comment-190 paulhoffman Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:49:37 +0000 http://paulhoffman.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/chess-and-the-spiritual-world/#comment-190 Amen! I could not agree with you more, Tom. It's a great point. Amen! I could not agree with you more, Tom. It’s a great point.

]]> By: Tom Panelas http://paulhoffman.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/chess-and-the-spiritual-world/#comment-183 Tom Panelas Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:55:18 +0000 http://paulhoffman.wordpress.com/2007/08/10/chess-and-the-spiritual-world/#comment-183 I think I know what Irina is talking about. The beauty of chess at its best does evoke something transcendent. Though I’m about as secular as you can be and more of a chess fan than a player, I’ve come closest to suspecting the existence of a guiding intelligence in the world not when contemplating the biological complexity of species (which, it seems to me, is explained well by evolutionary theory) but when looking at some astonishing tactical combination—a queen sacrifice, let’s say, that is so brilliant and recondite it had to have been divinely inspired because no mere human could have discovered it him or herself. Doesn’t Irina’s remark remind you of Paul Erdös’ statement that elegant mathematical proofs are “right out of the [God’s] book”? Was Morphy’s game at the opera house any less divinely co-authored than Erdös’ work on the Prime Number Theorem? Could it be, paradoxically, that the secular arts—in which, I suspect, anyone reading this blog would include chess—are the path to transcendence? I think I know what Irina is talking about. The beauty of chess at its best does evoke something transcendent. Though I’m about as secular as you can be and more of a chess fan than a player, I’ve come closest to suspecting the existence of a guiding intelligence in the world not when contemplating the biological complexity of species (which, it seems to me, is explained well by evolutionary theory) but when looking at some astonishing tactical combination—a queen sacrifice, let’s say, that is so brilliant and recondite it had to have been divinely inspired because no mere human could have discovered it him or herself.

Doesn’t Irina’s remark remind you of Paul Erdös’ statement that elegant mathematical proofs are “right out of the [God’s] book”? Was Morphy’s game at the opera house any less divinely co-authored than Erdös’ work on the Prime Number Theorem? Could it be, paradoxically, that the secular arts—in which, I suspect, anyone reading this blog would include chess—are the path to transcendence?

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