World chess

One of the best thing about writing Chess Tales is the feedback I recieve in emails and comments. It's allowed me to correspond and build friendships with an amazing number (and diversity) of people. Chess is a much stronger (and friendlier) bond than I'd appreciated when I began the blog, and as you can see from the graph of recent readers, it stretches right around the world.

About 60% of the readers come from the UK and US / Canada, but Germany and France are growing quickly, and there's always been a strong base in the Netherlands. I'm always excited though when I get a reader from a far flung or unexpected corner of the World.

My day job sees me advising companies about the Internet, web2.0 and how to market effectively. I find myself giving ever increasing references to the chess world! I've also written some international snippets of code for the blog, so, for example you should now see adverts at the top and bottom that are relevant to your country (well if you live in the US, Canada, France or Germany you should).

I've got some interesting posts planned for the next few days including another trip to the 'chess attic', a favourite game, and a great position for Friday's chess puzzle. There's also the story of a Botvinnik autograph that nearly got away.