Darjeelink - Alexis Perrier

Bring back the chess in the International Herald Tribune

Picking up today’s edition of the International Herald Tribune in my mailbox as I do everyday before starting on an hour long journey in the Parisian metro, I noticed on the front page a “To our readers” article on the bottom of the page.
The Herald Tribune has changed its layout and some of its content. A classic move in this endangered industry. Newspapers have to evolve to survive as they struggle with the online and free newspaper competition.
But why on earth did the IHT suppress the daily chess puzzle ?!
Why did they replace it with a Sudoku … thing ?
A similar move was made some time ago by the French daily Le Monde. They also replaced the Chess puzzle by a soduko thing. A disastrous move. Already unhappy with the tone of the newspaper I did unsubscribe and joined the daily readers of the IHT.
Solving the chess puzzle is a personnal daily rendez vous which serves two purposes.
First it gives me an indication of my mental agility. Failing to solve the puzzle or even to get into it is a sure sign of intellectual fatigue. I can organize some of my activities around this morning test deciding for instance to leave the tasks that require more focusing and creativity to some other day and to dedicate the day to more administrative and social endeavours.
It also allows me to shorten my daily commute. Once I have read all the articles of interest I always have a few stations left to go and solving the chess puzzle allows me to jump out of my surroundings for a few more minutes.
I have tried Sudoku for a while. I even looked out for puzzle solution and creation algorithms and softwares, read a few technics and in the end always felt that Sudoku left little room for creativity.
Whereas chess, specially solving a chess puzzle, almost always requires the player to think out of the box, to imagine the inthinkable such as sacrifice one’s queen to ensure victory.
Sudoku is about classifying and ordering things by strictly following established thought processes over and over again.
Chess is about getting the most out of one’s brain capacities and creative processes.

Dear IHT,
Please bring back the daily chess puzzle.
There is plenty of room still in the pages. For instance you could reduce the font in the left column of the opinion page or reduce the size of the subscription form.
The daily chess puzzle doesn’t take much space. It is a vital part of the International Herald Tribune.
Your faithful and loyal reader
Alexis Perrier

Tags: chess, Herald Tribune, IHT, metro, Sudoku