Chess Gladiator - those who are about to die, salute you!

Dear England, after a long wait the World Chess Championship began on October 14th between chess titans Viswanathan Anand of India and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. Even to non-believers, chess never got so exciting! And that's saying something. The website is http://www.uep-chess.com/cms_english where previously played games are free to watch, and you can pay to watch the games live - if you have time!

In the meantime, check out the above image which allows you to play chess for real money against other competitors, and you can decide your own level of ability and risk. See http://www.chessgladiator.com/ or click on the above gladiator pic!

Let the best Paul Morphy win!

F. Scott Fitzgerald's briefcase!

Dear England, I'm a big F. Scott Fitzgerald fan, and here is...his briefcase! Funny the things you can find on the internet (internetS - ed). The monogram reads: "Scott Fitzgerald 597 - 5th Ave.New York" and the address is of Fitzgerald's publisher, Charles Scribner's Sons.

I'm amazed that Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe all had the same editor - Maxwell Perkins. A great biography of how Perkins juggled, guided and encouraged these three temperamental writers is A. Scott Berg's Max Perkins: Editor of Genius. While Fitzgerald was always broke and Hemingway always getting into scrapes, Wolfe quietly wrote one endless manuscript (on the top of the fridge, standing up!) that Perkins would have to cut down into publishable novels!

Who was the most troublesome, it's hard to say?

Check it out!