I’m getting pessimistic about this game. Paul Mangone of Seal Beach, moving for Black (the community’s side of the board) captured one of my Bishops. I’m vulnerable to multiple attacks. I considered a move that would save one piece from attack and capture an enemy pawn, but that move would do nothing to advance or alter the game. I decided instead to move my surviving White Bishop in a series of moves that I believe could hurt Black’s side of the game. I’m also planning potential evasions in case my King is attacked—which I expect will happen quickly. So my remaining White Bishop stands at c1, waiting for orders.

As it stands, the enemy is deep in my territory and I haven’t launched an attack. Last game, I started attacking but lost the initiative. This game, I never had it.

Meanwhile, my co-workers in Orange County Neighborhood Newspapers (of Community Media Corporation) have begun giving me advice on how to play. They haven’t been suggesting specific moves, that’s up to me, but they are clearly concerned with the company’s pride. Part of me says, it is only a game. Part of me says, people will lose interest if this isn’t a serious contest. For now, all I can do is play the rest of this game as best I can. For the future … it may be time to check out chess books from my local library.

I wonder if “Chess Openings for Dummies” is still on the shelves at the Rossmoor/Los Alamitos Library branch (which for some strange reason is located in Seal Beach). Never mind. Maybe I’ll pick up “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chess” at the Mary Wilson Branch of the library in Old Town.

I think I’m in trouble. Here’s what happened. Monday afternoon, Feb. 14, Paul Mangone of Seal Beach came in and made a series of moves that devastated White’s side of the board. Good for him, good for the Sun Region, but as I’m playing White that doesn’t work out too well for me. Here’s what happened.

Black pawn captured the White pawn at d4. White moved a pawn to b4. Black Bishop moved to b4, placing White’s King in check. White pawn moved to c3, blocking check. Black pawn captured White’s pawn, taking control of c3.

White pawn then moved to a3. Black pawn moved from c3 to c2, once again placing the White King in check from Black’s Bishop at b4. White Queen moved to d2. Black Bishop captured the White Queen. Of course the White Bishop took the Black Bishop. (In chess terms, this was not a good trade for White.) Black pawn then captured the White Knight and became a Queen—placing the White Queen in check. White Rook captured the promoted Queen at b1.

Black pawn moved to d5. White pawn moved to d5. Black Queen moved to d5. White Bishop moved to 32. The black Bishop moved to f5. White’s latest move was to castle.  It’s Black’s turn to move. White is in a defensive mode and mired in the first three rows of the board.  Black commands the center of the board and holds most of the territory. It isn’t over by a long shot, but I better get very smart very quickly or I’m going to lose this game.

The woman we couldn’t identify last week returned to make another move for Black and the Sun Region. Seal Beach resident Jean Parks moved the Black Knight to c6, a move that protects the Black pawn from my White Knight. If my Knight takes that pawn, Black’s Knight takes my Knight. No, thank you. Instead, I moved my White Queen’s pawn to d4. This moves threatens Black’s pawn, but doesn’t accomplish much else—and seeing as it is now Black’s turn, the move could cost me a pawn. Never mind. The important thing is that now I can move a lot of strong pieces. I still want to castle as soon as possible—I always do—but my next move ill be influenced by Black’s next move. One drawback to my last move: my King is exposed. The Black Bishop could be moved into a position to attack the King. If that happens, it will be an easy attack to block. However, the attack would force me to delay castling my King and would force me to make moves based on my adversary’s agenda.

Thinking on it, Black’s move was actually a pretty good one. There are not many moves my Knight can safely make just now unless I move away from the center of the board. You want to command the center as much as possible. However, it is early yet.

An Unidentified Woman came into the office while I was out and made the first move for Black. The move was pawn to e5. I responded for White by playing Knight to f3.

I don’t know what the woman was up to, but her move was a good one. It blocked any further advance of my pawn while creating opportunities for either the Queen or the Bishop to get into the game. My move threatens Black’s pawn, but would it really profit me to take that chessman? It’s really too early to tell and as I recall, one of the reasons I lost the first was that I became too confident of victory too soon.

It’s anyone’s game.  Your turn, Sun Region.

Previously:

I lost. I deserved to lose. Defeated but undaunted, humbled yet not humiliated, I’m challenging the Sun Region once again to a chess match. This is my first move.

So come to the Sun office at 216 Main St., Seal Beach. If I’m there, we’ll trade a few moves before I update. If I’m not there, you’ll only get one move. I play White, the Sun Region plays Black. Leave your full name at the front desk and I’ll report your name with your move when I update. The winner’s name and photograph will appear in the Sun when the final results are known.

In chess tournaments, a winning game results in a point. So far, the score is Sun Region 1, Charles 0. Let’s see how this game plays out.

Paul Mangone of Seal Beach won the chess game on Monday, Jan. 30. He made smart moves and I held onto a plan that I took far too long to execute in the first place. Here’s what happened.

Mangone moved the Black pawn to c6. I moved the White pawn to e5, capturing Black’s pawn. Mongone moved the Black Knight to e4, capturing White’s pawn. I moved the White pawn to d7, capturing Black’s pawn. I should have moved my King closer to the Knight. I didn’t. Magone  moved the Black Bishop to f5. I moved the White pawn to c7.  I should have moved my Bishop in a counter move. I didn’t. Magone moved the Black Knight to c5. Now White’s King was in check by Black’s Bishop and White’s Queen was under threat of capture by Black’s Knight. The rules required me to protect my King, so I moved White King to b2.

Magone moved the Black Queen to h2, checking White’s King again. I moved the White Queen to c2, blocking the check. But I knew the game was over.

Magone moved the Black Queen to c2, capturing White’s Queen and placing White’s King in Checkmate.

A new challenge will appear on this blog as soon as the winner is announced in the pages of our Thursday print edition.

Always a pleasure,

Charles

Sometimes the simple moves are the most devastating. Seal Beach resident Paul Mongoni and another (man whose name none of my co-workers bothered to get) made the next three moves for Black.Result: I haven’t been able to launch the attack I’ve had planned for about two weeks.

On Thursday, Jan. 26, Mongone moved the Black Queen to h1, placing White’s King in check. I moved my King to escape check. Mongone moved the Black Knight to f2 and, once again, placed White King in check. I moved my King to c2, once again escaping check. Unfortunately, the game had to stop there because my duties required me to leave the Sun office for the rest of the day.

Today, Friday, Jan. 27, the Unknown Adversary came into the Sun office while I was out and moved the Black Queen from h1 to h5. At first, I didn’t see the point—until I realized that Black’s Queen is now in a position to disrupt my main attack. A new plan is in order. First, though, I have to set up my attack. I’ve moved my White pawn from d2 to d4. You can see where the game now stands in the illustration above. It doesn’t seem like much of a move, does it? My White pawn is threatening a Black pawn,  but so what? Well, I’ve set up two—count ‘em, two—traps for Black. More important—Black might not take the bait—I’ve created an opportunity to move my Knight into the action. That will eventually allow me to move my Rook into the action, too.

And I already have a new attack plan in mind. Can you see it? Come into the Sun office and make a move. If I’m there and not on deadline, we’ll make a couple moves against each other. If I’m out, you’ll get one move. I’ll move when I return. Until then—it’s the entire Sun Region’s move. Take your best shot.

As you can see, things have changed again.

Seal Beach resident Dr. Robert Goldberg, presently representing the entire community by himself, returned Monday, Jan. 23, to launch an effective attack on the White side of the Chess with Charles match.

As you can see by the last illustration I put up, I was positioned to prevent the Black King and the Black Rook from castling, a maneuver that allows two pieces to be moved in one turn.

However, Goldberg moved the night from c6 to d4. (Imaging the letters a to h running from left to right on White’s side of the board. Now imagine the numbers 1 to eight running from the bottom to the top of the board—the top being held by the Black chessmen.)

The move surprised me, because I had expected Black to move the Knight to protect the King and allow a castle.

Foolishly, I ignored the unexpected development and went ahead with my original plan. I move the White pawn from c2 to C3. The one-space move cleared a path so I could eventually position my Queen to attack the far side of the board.

Goldberg then moved the Black Knight to f3, capturing one of White’s Knights.

Irked, but undaunted, I moved my Queen from d1 to b3.

Goldberg moved the night to h2, capturing one of my pawns.

I moved my White Bishop from the White square at d3 to the White square at c4. This set me up to attack the Black King with the Bishop while the Queen offered my Bishop her protection.

However, Goldberg had other plans. He moved the Black Queen from d8 to h4, placing my King in “check.”

That move forced me to delay my attack plans. I moved one of my pawns from g2 to g3, blocking the check on my King and threatening Black’s Queen.

Goldberg moved the Knight from h2 to f3, a move that placed my King in check a second time. This attack forced me to once again postpone my planned attack on Black’s King—and also to pass by my plan to attack Black’s Queen. I moved my King from f2 to e2. My King is safe for the moment, but very vulnerable. Goldberg has two strong pieces deep inside my territory. I am on the defensive.

Meanwhile, Goldberg and I are both looking for other players to enter the game on the Black side.

Seal Beach Planning Commissioner and Bridgeport neighborhood resident Robert Goldberg made the second move—and drew first blood.

He was able to do this because we both made quick decisions about what we wanted to do. About eight or 10 moves later, the game had changed. Upshot: he captured my Rook and one of my pawns for Black. I captured one of his Knights (rendered with an N in chess notation) and one of his Bishops for White. As things stand now, I have a Bishop at a3—a position that places the empty squares nearest Black’s King under attack. The King can’t move, despite all that lovely empty space between the King and the Rook. Meanwhile, I have a pawn positioned to capture Black’s Knight unless Black moves the night. I’ve got an idea of what I want to do next, but it will take me four or five moves to launch my attack.  (I want to take that Black Knight. Those Knights are the only pieces that can jump other pieces and that makes them a threat to be removed.) Even then, there’s no guarantee my plan will work. In fact, I have to move a powerful piece deep into enemy territory to make my plan work.

I challenge you—every single individual in the Sun Region—to a chess game. The stakes: a point for the winner and nothing for the loser. So if you live or work in Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Los Alamitos, Sunset Beach, Huntington Harbor, Belmont Shore, College Park Estates or Naples Island—the game is on.

Here’s how it works: We’ve set up a chessboard in the Sun Newspaper office at 216 Main St., Seal Beach. Since white goes first, I’ll play white. Come in any weekday except Tuesday and move a black chessman. When you move, flip over the card that says “White’s move.” When I move, I’ll flip the card that says “Black’s move.” The rules of the game are based on the rules of chess recognized by the US Chess Federation, an authority I arbitrarily pick because those rules should be available to anyone with Internet or library access. I’m not a member of the federation and I’ve never played in a chess tournament.

One of the rules I like needs to be mentioned early, because it may be part of my strategy: pawn promotion. Pawns can only move forward. If a pawn gets to the other side of the board, it may be promoted to any piece, including the queen. In theory, you could have nine queens against my queen.

As the game progresses, I’ll update this blog. I’ll include a graphic illustration to depict the game in progress. I’ll also need to use a simplified version of chess notations so novices and dabblers can join any avid players who want to join the game.

The vertical rows of a chessboard are identified by the letters A to H, starting with A on the left hand side of White. The horizontal rows are identified by numbers starting with 1 on White’s side of the board and ending with 8 on Black’s side.

I’ve planned my first five moves. I intend to “castle” as early as possible. Castling is the only time in the chess game when you can move two pieces in a single turn. I plan to move my king to the right when the time comes. First I have to get the bishop and the knight out of the way and I need to make sure my king hasn’t moved until it is time to castle. If you place one of the squares between my king and the nearest rook in “check,” I won’t be able to castle until I thwart your attack.

That said, here’s my first move: White King’s pawn moves from E2 to E4. I’ve moved the pawn two spaces forward of the king. Both the pawn and the king are exposed. That’s quite deliberate on my part. Your move.

Always a pleasure,
Charles

The longest and shortest sentences I ever read appeared in the sane book: “Watership Down.” The longest sentence went on for the better part of two or three pages, leaving me limp and exhausted by the time I had slogged my way to the period.

Yet it was a perfectly crafted sentence. It was punctuated correctly and it was grammatically correct. I even remember fragments of it decades later. Still, I prefer the shortest sentence in the book. It was the first sentence: “The primroses were over.”

Which brings me to the theme of this Sunday’s writing blog: the shorter your sentences, the better.

One of the goals of this blog is to help people write better columns, press releases and letters to the editor. Another goal is to simplify the work the editor and I do in assembling the Sun Newspaper and sunnews.org.

Encouraging people to write short sentences serves both those goals. It is easier for readers to read and remember information in short sentences. It is easier to write short sentences. You are less likely to run into complicated punctuation questions if you write short sentences.

How short? Ah, that’s a good question. Sadly, there’s no good answer. My personal rule of writing says that any sentence longer than 50 words should be reconsidered. Journalism writing style sometimes requires me to pack more information into a single sentence than I would like. Sometimes I bend the rules of journalism writing style in pursuit of clarity.

I also try to keep the first sentence in every article to 25 words or less. That doesn’t always work, but that’s the goal I set. I respectfully suggest you try something similar.

One of the nice things about the computer age is that you don’t need to waste paper re-writing whole sentences or paragraphs.

Another good rule is one I mentioned in my blog on bad press releases: Read your copy out loud. If a sentence sounds awkward to your ears, cut it down. If you have to pause for breath while reading the sentence, convert the information to two sentences.

Warning: snobs hate short sentences. Snobs maintain that only children write short sentences. Snobs like to criticize writers both professional and amateur for writing short sentences. Ignore them. Most snobs have never been published. Few published snobs have ever earned a living from writing.

The real test of good writing is this: did anyone read your article, poem or short story all the way to the end? Seriously. Back in journalism school, I was taught that 75 percent of my readers would only read the headline and then move on. Of the remaining 25 percent, only 75 percent would read beyond the first paragraph.

So keep your sentences short.

Always a pleasure,
Charles

It’s that time of year when Cub Scouts ask to take tours of the Sun Newspapers.

Tours are free. They are presently held only on the first three Fridays of each month, between 3 and 5 p.m. A prior appointment is required. No toddlers or infants, please. Also remind your scouts that this is a place of business. My co-workers have to do their jobs while I’m speaking to our guests.

There are no printing presses at this office.

To schedule an appointment, phone Assistant Editor Charles M. Kelly at (562) 430-7555.

Our office is located at 216 Main St., Seal Beach.

I used to make New Year’s resolutions. I can’t recall keeping one of them. So, some years ago, I resolved to stop making New Year’s resolutions.

Surprise, surprise—I kept that one.

I make a lot of promises to myself each year, most of them revolving around doing my job a little better each week than I did the week before. I fail more often than I’d like, but since I get to do this work each week there’s always another chance to do it better—a chance I will get as long as I’m both alive and privileged to be employed as a journalist.

But I no longer make New Year’s resolutions. I seem to accomplish more self-improvement by tackling issues as they arise.

So, until 2012—which has got to be a better year for Seal Beach than 2011—I’ll wish you all a Happy New Year and much success with your own resolutions.

Sunday being Christmas Day, there will be no blog this Sunday.

Of all the idiotic debates I’ve heard of in my half-century of life, the “Merry Christmas” versus “Happy Holidays” dispute has to be the most shamefully stupid of all.

First of all, anyone who would take offense at “Merry Christmas” needs to get over him or herself. In America, Christmas is celebrated by non-Christians and Christians alike. My Jewish stepmother celebrates (well, acknowledges) Christmas.

Why shouldn’t we all enjoy a holiday that advocates good will to all? If you take offense at that, you’re meaner than Scrooge and I don’t want to know you.

That said, I don’t want to slight anyone for whom Christmas is not a part of their tradition. So let me say:

Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Holidays, Happy Chanukah, Happy Festivus for the Rest of Us, happy whatever holiday brings a smile to your face and warmth to your heart.

And if anyone takes offense—well, I wish you a happy season anyway.

Once upon a time, the Sun received a press release about a very important conference on the subject of domestic violence. I know it was important because the word important was repeated many times throughout the press release.

Unfortunately, the very nice author of the press release was so preoccupied with telling the reader how important domestic violence is that she neglected to mention where the conference was taking place. The press release mentioned the date and the time. The press release was perfectly grammatical, properly punctuated and to the point. It required little editing—but there was no address.

Happily, the author of the press release included a contact number so I was able to get the location and add that information to the article that went into the Sun.

That doesn’t even come close to the worst press release I ever got.

That dubious honor belongs to a press release that came out of Los Alamitos. At first reading, there appeared to be a discrepancy between the date and the day of the week of the event. I phoned the woman who was identified as the contact person.

She said that both the day of the week and the date were wrong. The address was also wrong, as were the title and the subject of the event.

“I’m never going to ask my husband to write a press release for me again,” she said.

Call me cynical, but I immediately suspected that the husband was off somewhere, smiling at his triumph.

Then, of course, there’s the press release that is followed an hour later with corrections to errors in the previous press release.

These are problems easily solved. If you solve them for us, your Sun editors will appreciate it.

1) Keep it short. If the story is important enough, we’ll call with more questions.

2) Read it out loud before you send it. If a sentence sounds awkward to your ears, rewrite the sentence.

3) Run the spell check program in your word processor. If you don’t have a word processor, paste your information into your e-mail. Many e-mail programs include automatic spelling checks. (Confession: I’m forever forgetting my own advice here. I always regret it. )

4) Include a telephone number for the public to ask questions and include a different phone number for the press to ask questions. Mistakes will happen no matter how hard you try to avoid them or detect them. Providing contact information allows everyone to solve the problem as quickly as possible.

You wouldn’t want your audience to show up at the wrong place at the wrong time on the wrong day, only to learn the program they had expected to attend did not exist.

I’ll see you next week.

Always a pleasure,
Charles

On Nov. 4, I wrote “The Ghost Town Syndrome,” a blog in which I said I was worried about the empty spaces on Main Street.

Former Chamber President Seth Eaker and Sun Publisher Vince Bodiford said they disagreed with my concerns. Where I saw a problem, they saw a vital community.

There are still some empty spaces on Main Street, but maybe I voice my concerns too soon. One of the empty spaces now has a new fitness-related business and another will soon by home to a Macintosh repair service.

As a rule, I dislike being wrong. But I can’t say I’m sorry to be wrong about Main Street Seal Beach. For good or ill, it is the “face” of Seal Beach. I’m glad to see more businesses here. Failure profits no one.

Have a good Friday. I’ll be blogging again on Sunday.

The sentence was so bad, I remember every syllable about a quarter century later. I don’t remember the name of the young woman who wrote the sentence, but I remember the sentence.

“The church has helped her facilitate with the homeless for years.”

Facilitate means “to make easier.” So the church helped this woman help with the homeless. Help do what? Help the homeless? Help the homeless helpthemselves? How?

I was a student editor at one of my university’s newspapers. The author was a pretty little public relations student. She had submitted a brief, superficial profile of a public relations woman to our newspaper. Never mind the fact that the subject of the profile was of no earthly interest to the readers of our newspaper. I read the submission. We were always looking for volunteers and if the girl wrote well, we could assign her to something our audience would care about.

About two thirds of the way through the profile, the journalism student–yes, public relations is a kind of journalism– informed her readers that the public relations woman in the profile had fed the homeless at her church once a month for the past decade. So far, so good. Then came the clunker:

“The church has helped her facilitate with the homeless for years.”

I asked her what the sentence meant.

“She feeds the homeless at her church.”

Looking back, I wish I’d said something tactful. I was honest instead: “You already said that in the previous sentence. All this sentence does is show you know how to spell ‘facilitate.’”

If you think that was harsh, I’ve got news for you: I’ve been on the receiving end of harsher words and I’ll receive harsh criticisms from time to time until fate or death forces me out of the writing business. Part of being a writer is taking sometimes scathing criticism. The trick is to distinguish between legitimate complaints and illegitmate complaints. The legitmate complaints offer you an opportunity to learn and to grow. The illegitimate compaints need to be ignored.

I give the young woman credit: she took the criticism without flinching, without whining. She behaved like a professional when I behaved like a tyrant. I don’t know if she graduated journalism school or not. I don’t know if she found a career in public relations or not. I know she succeeded at something.

I offered other criticisms of her work. I don’t remember if we published her story or not. I know I never saw her again. Still, her sentence has stayed in my head. Why? It was a classic example of something I see all the time: inexperienced writers trying to impress people with their vocabularies. Not knowing what she wanted to say, the student writer repeated what she had said and added a word that sounded impressive to her. That was a mistake.

Most of the time, the best rule is to keep your words and your sentences simple. A few years ago I edited some copy by a writer for another publication owned by our company. The “author” loved to impress readers with how many fancy words he knew. It sometimes took several minutes for me to understand what he was talking about. I invariably re-wrote his copy and he invariably took offense at what he considered bad editing.

Since then, he has found his writing niche. He writes better opinion pieces than news stories. More importantly, he writes the way he speaks. He tries to impress people with his arguments, not his vocabulary.

Remember the Professor on “Gilligan’s Island?” I recall one episode in which Gilligan said that the Professor was so smart, he didn’t understand what the Professor was saying.

A teacher who can’t communicate with his students is called an incompetent. What good are smart ideas if no one understands them? What good is telling the truth if you speak a different language than your audience does?

Words are useful tools, but you are supposed to use them to build sentences and paragraphs that convey information. You aren’t supposed to use words to show off the fact that you know more words than most people have. Frankly, it is rude as well as ineffective. Odds are, an editor will cut your article–and you–down to size.

You can build a house with saws, wood, hammers and nails. You can’t build a house by randomly pounding nails in random boards and hoping that somehow a building will rise from your efforts. That isn’t construction, that’s disturbing the peace.

The same goes with writing. Keep it simple. You aren’t trying to impress your middle school English teacher here. You want people to attend a fundraiser or you want people to rethink their position on an issue. Get to the point. Choose the simplest words and use the simplest sentences. Most of the time, that approach works best.

So if you submit something to the Sun Newspapers, just tell us what happened or will happen, the time it happened, the day of the week it happened, the date and the location. And include a phone number or e-mail address so we can ask for more information if we need it.

By all means, use a dictionary or a thesaurus while you write. But if you have to stop in the middle of every sentence to look up the word you want to use, there’s a good chance you’re trying to hard. Stop. Take a deep breath. Start over.

Next week, we’ll talk about my adventures with bad press releases.