HaikuChess

In these tight times the US Chess Federation http://www.uschess.org is seeking to economize. As part of the belt-tightening its flagship magazine (Chess Life) is shrinking, with fewer and shorter feature articles. How to do that and still have fun, reach out to new audiences, and re-energize a graying population of caissic aficionados?

I suggest Poetic Annotations --- explanatory game comments in the form of ultra-short verse. It doesn't have to be 17-syllables, but let's start with that. Consider the classic game between de la Bourdonnais and McDonnell (1834, from Tartakower & du Mont, 500 Master Games of Chess, 1952):

 1 e4     e5
     //The peasants butt heads//
     //Quarreling over nothing ---//
     //Not unlike their kings.//
 2 Nf3    Nc6
 3 Bc4    Bc5
 4 c3     d6
     //Chrysanthemum buds//
     //Tantalize a dreamer's nose//
     //Until the bee stings.//
    (4 ... Nc6 would have been more active)
 5 d4     exd4
 6 cxd4   Bb6
     //Sunlight through raindrops,//
     //Chill breezes, open windows://
     //Prepare for the night.//
    (not 6 ... Bb4+)

and so forth ....

(see ChessChow for other ideas on adding levity to the Queen of Games)

TopicPoetry - TopicHumor - TopicRecreation - Datetag20020104

(correlates: ChessCrisis, HowDoYouDo, GraffitiZone, ...)