Chess in Israel

The best venue for playing Blitz chess on the phone is not at one's desk in the office, not on the couch in the living room, not on a park bench, and not on the bus. It is on the toilet. Without going into excessive graphic detail, there is a quality to one's sitting posture, the hands' grip on the phone and the bathroom's peaceful isolation that maximizes board vision, motor response and mental focus at fast time controls. The most recent demonstration of this reality was furnished earlier today during an extended bathroom visit. In a five-minute Blitz game against a 1487-rated player, I was able to play just well enough to flag my opponent despite his having obtained a winning position. orhun20 's sloppy play in the opening resulted in my going up three pawns already on move 11. On move 24 he started to turn the game around, but by then he was down to ten seconds on the clock while I still had two minutes. The win elevated my rating from 1489 to 1505.