Smoke and Drinkers
Great minds rarely conform. The golden age of chess produced champions whose brilliance was matched only by their colourful eccentricities.
chess history
Brave New Game
Every generation believes it has discovered a better way to improve humanity. Inevitably, it begins by rewriting the rules.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, German intellectuals and the First World War
Conan Doyle's attitude to war seems, from the tenor of this passage, to be one of stoic acceptance, rather than enthusiastic celebration.