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Maybe train another few weeks and do another half that is easier to get into? Or just run the Provo River Half course or some other that you can follow without having to fight traffic?  Maybe even bring a group of friends that can pace her (depending on how fast she is, if she can do 1:10 it might be hard to find a group, but I imagine a 1:10 girl would not be too bummed about not getting into AF half)?

James:

I want to make sure you really understand the position as it was not clear from your comment about the mate with the queen and a knight. Can you post more specifics? So White plays 1 d5 - what does black do? 1 ... ?  Assuming black responds correctly the next move is forced. 2 ? 3 ? Then what? Did you realize what role the queen is playing in the mate assuming white defends correctly after the 1 d5 blunder?

Once you get those details figured out, explain the job that the pawn was doing on d4 that made the above punishment impossible.

Ironically, I was using chrome. Then I tried internet explorer and it worked! Yes, I see sacrificing the pawn would lead to a check mate on the next turn with the knight and the queen.

I accept that, if this were a more complicated example, then I would require advice. I also accept that, in such a situation someone who listened to a grand master would beat me. But what if the chess player ONLY ever did what the grand master said? Would they really be a good chess player? For one thing, they would never be able to beat the grand master? In this way, listening to the grand master serves as a crutch in place of real skill.

Now in this analogy if 'the grand master'=God, then this is not really a problem. If someone lives their life getting advice directly from God and following it perfectly then, assuming that God really is omnibenevolent, that's the best you can possibly do.

In most religions the source of advice isn't just God. There are books, priests, etc. Not only that their are so many of them from different religions. Maybe their advice is really, really good. But in some cases it seems to be just wrong, it seems like the prejudices or the flaws of the individual have corrupted it. Consider what Brigham Young said about Africans. It took until 1978 for this policy to change, because, apparently people were more interested following what the church had always done rather than what God told them to do. I'm quite sure that the vast majority of Mormon's at that time were NOT racist...so perhaps they would have been better of following their conscience.

James:

What browser are you using? This is a GIF file. Try Firefox or Chrome. I feel my point is not complete without that position.

Now we are not talking about losing a pawn here - just moving it onto a square that appears very attractive, and, unless your rating is 1500 or higher, you will struggle somewhat understanding how to punish such a move.

In chess we can ask grandmasters for advice. In matters of morality we can ask the Lord. And there are winners and losers. Except you have to die to know "scientifically" who won and who lost. Just like in a chess game - if you  make a bad move, you might not find out it was bad for a long time. But you can know by faith, and that is the whole point of living here. This is why the Bible and the Book of Mormon come to us in a simple book form and not delivered to everybody in some spectacular manner. Are we able to read those books and recognize their origin through the Holy Ghost?

Assuming your rating is significantly below 1500 (if not replace the position I created with something harder that is appropriate for your level). Look at the diagram. Now suppose you have a grandmaster advising you on your moves, but you do not know who he is. You are about to play d4-d5. He is screaming at you. He is hysterical.  You do not understand what's wrong with him. You think he is nuts. This looks like a great move - you are going to win a piece. You dismiss him as some crazy guy and make the move. Now it is your opponent's turn. He listens to his grandmaster adviser. What does he do?

I am posting this for a friend who is running a half for the first time. She was supposed to have an entry transferred to her but it didn't work out and she is a little bummed about training and not doing it! Let me know if anyone needs to get rid of an entry.

I can't get that link to open, but I'll take your word for it.

My point is that losing pawns is sometimes necessary even if it is sometimes catastrophic. Really though, it's at this point that the chess analogy becomes weak. In chess, there exist better players that can be asked for advice. These players are easily identifiable thanks to the chess rating system. The rating system relies on the fact that in each game there is a clear winner and loser. Moreover, both players agree on who won as everyone agrees on the rules and the objectives. This is not the case with life, which is why we like to spend so much of our time/energy playing games.

Here are a couple of thought experiments:

Suppose you become busy with work and you don't have time to teach your younger children how to play chess. You trust their ability to learn on their own, but you want to give them some good advice. You decide to write up a set of guidelines (similar to your advice on running a sub 2:30 marathon). Would you write this up as a set of 'guidelines' or a set of 'rules'? I would think that you would right it up as a set of guidelines. You would hope that your children would start by following your advice, but then they would come to learn situations where 'rules' could be bent or even broken and they would be better players for it.

Another way to think about it. Suppose you set out to prove me wrong and right out a set of 'rules that will never be broken even by a grandmaster'. I imagine this set of rules would be extremely long. It would be incredibly difficult to write and almost impossible to read. But let's suppose that your child is smart enough and patient enough to use it correctly. You give this super book to Stephen and tell him to always follow it no matter what. You give the a simpler set of guidelines to Matthew. To begin with Stephen always wins swiftly. Matthew learns much simpler from studying Stephen moves as well as your own guidelines but can never win. But who is really the better chess player in this scenario? Who would win if you took away their aides. And given that the number of possible chess games far exceeds the number of atoms in the universe, what happens when the limit of Stephen's super book is reached? I would argue that Matthew wins in the end and ends up the better player.

Many years later Stephen and Matthew are the two greatest chess players on Earth. Someone shows up from another planet and challenges our planet to a battle of wits, similar to the movie Space Jam but with chess instead of basketball. However, this space chess has weird rules. For example, the starting position of the knights and bishops might be mixed, the pawns move diagonally except when capturing, the board is a giant sphere, etc. These rules subtly change the game to the point that the super book is now useless or close to useless.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lm36k4fh6nt21tn/%2B%2BSoftware%2520Engineer%2520Glasses%2520posting.docx

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nf44o6e310ztnwp/Software%2520Engineer%2520Team%2520Lead%2520External%2520Posting.docx

We want to ensure associate referrals take priority over other candidates applying. Here’s what  you need to do in order to earn the bonus:
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James:

Here is the promised position, sort of. It is not quite of the level of difficulty as I promised - I did not have the time to search for one, so I just made it up. With me being only a class B player myself in a matter of minutes I could only come up with something of a limited level of difficulty. In this particular position, I would expect class C player to see the punishment for white moving the pawn from d4 to d5 in 10 seconds. I tested in on Benjamin who is also a class B player (maybe in reality class A based on a few of his recent games, but he still has to prove it and earn it officially) - he saw the punishment instantly.

So take a look at this:

http://asksasha.com/chess1.gif

White to move. It is tempting to play d4-d5 forking the knight and the rook. But it is a game losing blunder. Can you tell me why?

Chad:

Can you post more details? I have somebody in mind that is looking for a job.

Michelle:

I have found a strong suspect for my bowel problem. It is one of the things you frequently get with spina bifida occulta, and a year ago an X-ray showed I have it in L4 (a lot) and L5 (a little). I do not think you have that - if you did you'd have a very ugly form and 80 miles a week would give you the quads of a football player, but there may be some irritation or signal interference in the spine in the regions that are responsible for bowel control. In fact, it may be related to your AS problem.