The purpose of chess is checkmate. Everything else – the number of pieces taken, the clarity of the strategy, the finesse of the tactics – is just the stuff you do to get to checkmate.

Of course, for some, the game also evokes beauty and fascination for its own sake. So it’

The human eye is constructed in such a way that we have an inevitable ‘blind spot’. We cope with this by scanning our visual field with both eyes and by deducing what we should be seeing. We make an educated guess.

This is fine. The mistake is to assume that because we see some

Anton Chekhov is reckoned to be the master of the classical short story. In his letters he sets out the basis for good writing: objectivity, honesty, brevity, daring and compassion. Hallelujah. Brief writers please take note.

What we mean by a colour depends on who we are – our references, our culture, our past, our life.

A single sliver of colour can transform how we view a space: what we think it stands for, and the boundaries we place on its potential.