You know at first I was a bit shy to wear a mask but when I saw that everybody is doing it I started to look at it like at an accessory. I am living in my Bavaria real estate here and the situation in my area wasn't that bad plus Germany is starting to come back to a normal life gradually.

When it's for my health, I find it easy to wear a mask.

For about a year I worked in a lab and had to wear a mask every day. It's easy to get used to. I was a little surprised that the experienced person in the lab sometimes wouldn't. But then when I always did (very concerned about the powders getting in my lungs), she started wearing one all the time as well.

Another example. A couple of years ago I developed neuropathy in my hands. Below 50 degrees F (10 C) if I am outside for any length of time, I need to wear gloves, otherwise my fingers turn white and I can't use them. I know some other people with similar neuropathy who are too embarrassed to wear gloves in such mild weather. After just a few times of not being able to bend my fingers, I quickly got over that.

I feel I wouldn't need a mask at the supermarket, if it weren't for the annoying customers who won't keep a safe distance, and the even more annoying employees who won't keep a safe distance. My sister made me three cloth masks -- best gift ever. They are in a less conspicuous dark color. I wear them once before washing.

Tony, as a GM I'm sure you have some little GM-rituals at tournaments because you know what you need to do to play well. Do you worry about looking ridiculous? Recently Carlsen was photographed playing football against a wall between rounds - in bare feet, with his dress clothes on. Ridiculous, maybe, but he won his next game.

It doesn't have to be a disposable paper mask to be effective. Maybe you could fashion a bandana or something?

an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 04/21/20 at 00:14:56:

No, but there was lots of looting and burglary, queues for food, and there was also someone claiming (falsely) that a certain drug cured the disease and making lots of money from it.

I have two gun anecdotes.

(1) My grandmother lived by herself in Revere, Massachusetts. As happens there from time to time, a hurricane struck, and most of the neighborhood evacuated, but she stayed put. After the worst of the storm passed, she could hear the looters coming down the street, methodically breaking into one house after another. So she got her handgun from the bedroom, went out on the porch, and said, "You better just keep on going to the next house." And they did.

(2) I took a handgun safety course once. It was a requirement for getting a concealed carry permit, and everybody else in the class was planning on getting a handgun. (Interesting that one of the attendees was the math teacher who, 14 years earlier, organized my first USCF-rated tournament.) I was there because the other class I paid for was cancelled at the last minute, and I picked something interesting from the catalog. What a strange and lucky accident that led me to that class! In those 18 hours (plus homework) I learned so much: self-defense, including non-lethal weapons, psychology of criminal encounters, practicality of police encounters, defense against a murder charge. And most importantly, the tremendous responsibility of gun ownership. Among other considerations, if you show a gun in self-defense and you're not willing to use it, it will be taken from you. So you have to be willing to use it, and that's a pretty big thing.

I don't need a gun for self-defense, so I've never owned one. But if I were an 80-year-old grandmother living by myself in Revere, I would. And when I heard that people were buying guns ahead of the pandemic, I briefly wondered if I would come to regret not owning one. A little mental arithmetic told me it wasn't going to be that bad, and so far I'm not worried.

GMTonyKosten wrote on 04/20/20 at 13:06:52:

In the USA there was also a run on guns. Was this also one of the plot points of Contagion?

GMTonyKosten wrote on 04/20/20 at 13:06:52:


I'm glad you appreciated the film Tony, what struck me about it was how remarkably predictable people seem to be in a crisis and how quickly they devolve to their basest instincts. By the way I too like the TV to be on when staying at hotels during tournaments, somehow it helps to relieve stress.

TopNotch wrote on 04/19/20 at 19:03:51:

Yes, thanks, I just watched it and now I understand why everyone was going crazy in the supermarkets before the confinement - they must have seen this film before!
Incidentally, I got rid of my TV 15 years ago, I figured I was wasting too much of my time watching rubbish, and I wanted to do more reading. One curious thing I've noticed is that when I'm playing club matches, say, and staying in a hotel room, I like to have the TV on all the time!

an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 04/19/20 at 21:14:06:


A. That's unusual, care to elaborate.
B. What you said, prescient and more than a bit eerie.