Games that I Love

I despair of my blitz chess capability. I just can't seem to pull moves out my hat fast enough to win. Even when I achieve a winning game in the opening, which happens enough times for my satisfaction, I still lose, either on time or due to oversight. I wonder if I may be in a downward spiral due to the aging process. I've never been very good at blitz, but I seem to be getting worse.

Perhaps I should stay with correspondence chess, in which time is not a factor at all. That has been my preference. Another format I like is the long game, at least 15 | 10 (15 minutes and 10 bonus seconds per move) or more. I need time to work out all the obvious things. My mind is simply not gifted in the way that a grandmaster's certainly is. I know very well that some individuals can glance at a game and work out the best move in mere seconds. I have a slower algorithm.

I've been pleased with Wesnoth multiplayer since I learned all of its many quirks, social and technical. It is impossible to have a good game on an average Internet connection. One needs wide pipes. I can only play it at some locations. I would like to inspect Wesnoth's source code one day and fix a number of rough edges, but if it is in written in C, that is a deterrent. I've never liked C. I do not think C is human-friendly. I like human-friendly languages that are verbose and easy to use. I always associate "C" with "Cryptic." I know that it is half as efficient as assembler, and for that reason preferred by some, but I think modern processors can handle a bit of inefficiency in the source code. Besides, human-friendly languages continue to improve their efficiency, and their payoff is that source code that is easy to understand is also easy to maintain and enhance.

I have given Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup a rest, but intend to come back to it some day. I'm irritated that Ubuntu never has the latest version. I always have to add the Stone Soup repository. I find Ubuntu extremely conservative where new versions of games are concerned.