Yesterday I played the first game of chess against myself that I have played in a while. When I first wrote about this, some argued that you can’t meaningfully play chess against yourself. I’ve never argued that it’s the *same* as having an opponent, but I still stand by its usefulness as an exercise. It trains you to look at the total board, to evaluate the best possible moves and counter-moves for each player at every instant. I think yesterday I must have achieved some kind of new high/low with the whole thing. I played myself to a draw, a complete stand-still. The only time this has ever happened in regular chess matches was in a game I played against someone who my girlfriend at the time said looked like me.