Words – Page 7 – Paul Motwani

Blog Post #115: Happy Birthday Surprises for Timothée 😊

Dear Readers,

This is the perfect day to post nice surprises for Timothée (a brilliant young pianist at Musica Mundi School) because it’s his birthday, he’s a keen chess fan, and today marks the start of the World Chess Championship between Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, the reigning champion, and his Russian challenger, Ian Nepomniachtchi. I can confirm that the first game (in progress right now) is already very exciting!

Where is the championship being held? I’ll answer that in the form of a wee puzzle/joke ! 😊

_ _ _ _ _ YOUR TICKETS TO _ _ _ _ _ !

The five ‘blanks’ at the end are for the name of the place, while the two + three ‘blanks’ at the start together sound practically the same as the place name, and we’ll get a proper six-word sentence!

Knowing where the Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi really is being held, my answer is: DO BUY YOUR TICKETS TO DUBAI ! 😊

Timothée and I always enjoy discussing a good game of chess 😊

Blog Post #114: For My Friend M.E. and for Mandy 😊

Dear Readers,

What name can you think of involving just M and Y? This was a fun, quick, wee warm-up puzzle because M AND Y makes MANDY, in honour of a lovely friend of mine 😊.

Now get ready to solve for X !

Lots of Math problems say ‘Find X.’ Here, you can’t miss it!! 😊

Punny thoughts for a sunny day: Learn your trig. facts ‘n formulas at the beach!!
It’s all for a good cos., you’ll get a free tan…
and soon the teacher smiling at your work will be a bright sine! 😊
P.S. Congratulations for figuring out that the island is approximately 17.1 metres from the beach.

Blog Post #113: Nice puzzles for 11.11 tomorrow

Dear Readers,

Alice, a young student who knows about the special significance of Armistice Day, 11.11, has the following conversation with Armand, her great-great-grandfather…

Alice: “Great-great-grandfather, my mum told me that you were born not very long after the end of World War I.”

Armand: “That’s right, Alice! As I know that you like Maths, I will tell you this: If you multiply my age now by my favourite whole number and then divide by the age I was last year, the final result should be 11.11.”

Alice: “Wow, that’s cool! I think I can figure out your age and your favourite number!!”

Armand: “Here’s a bonus puzzle: Make a proper 11-letter word using all the letters of CAN REMEMBER.”

Your fun challenge is to join Alice in cracking her great-great-grandfather’s puzzles!

Wander, ponder and wonder with Alice! 😊😊😊

I intend to publish solutions in a few days’ time.

With kindest wishes as always,

Paul Motwani 😊😊😊 xxx

P.S. Here are the puzzle solutions, being posted now on 12 November 2021:-

Armand is 101 years old and his favourite number is 11.

101 x 11 ÷ 100 = 11.11

CAN REMEMBER makes REMEMBRANCE.

Blog Post #112: Happy Holy Days 😊

Dear Readers,

The word ‘Holidays’ originally comes from an Old English word meaning ‘Holy Days’. So, it’s very fitting that many countries recognise today, All Saints’ Day, as a holiday to be celebrated.

A desire to become more holy is a great and happy goal to be honoured and respected. It is possible for you, for me, and for all people who will turn to God and, with the free will that He still grants us now, ask Him to guide us ever closer to Heaven.

Shared on Facebook today by Father Jim Walls, a wonderful Scottish priest

Though we all still stumble on, or sometimes stray away from, the path meant for us, it’s really comforting to know that God forgives our faults if we ask Him sincerely and believe in Him faithfully. Today is a perfect day to ‘turn over a new leaf’ and, through prayer, seek God’s help to live a more holy life.

It’s the perfect time to ‘turn over a new leaf’ in our lives

Blog Post #111: Lovely To Meet You

Dear Readers,

One of the most precious gifts that we have received is time. Recognising that well, I endeavour to do good things now in the present, rather than waiting (unless ‘now’ might sometimes be too soon). So, I want to say a most sincere “THANK YOU” for yet another truly wonderful concert at Musica Mundi School last night. The beautiful concert can be enjoyed again via this link: https://youtu.be/Wr9bQi-6kjg

Just like myself, my wife, Jenny, loved every moment, and afterwards she thoroughly enjoyed meeting the school’s musical accompanist, Li Xie, who is also Chinese. While Jenny and Li chatted in Mandarin, I followed quite a lot of their conversation (really honestly, though Maths or Chess would still be considerably easier for me!!), and then suddenly I saw another lovely lady to whom I had been introduced quickly, at the start of the evening, just before the concert. Then, Rita had told me that she is German, and that she came to Belgium 65 years ago, in 1956.

Blog Post #110: Colors of Love with U

Dear Readers,

It doesn’t really matter whether ‘colors’ includes a ‘u’ or not, but the unique colors and all the love that you personally can add to the world by being you, yes, that always matters to someone; you can be happy and sure about that.

The caption with a photo that I saw a few days ago was ‘Everyone smiles in the same language’, and so let’s add some more lovely smiles in our lives to further brighten them for others, too.

Smiles add joy and color to anything black and white!
Sincere special thanks to Paul Fitzpatrick
for many gems of advice about chess, teaching, love and life.

**‘*Use your smile to change the world; don’t let the world change your smile.*‘**–Chinese Proverb

Blog Post #108: Thinking of You

Dear Readers,

On every day when I’m at Musica Mundi School, I get to see dozens of lovely people there and, whether everyone knows it or not, God is always thinking about all of them, and indeed about you, me and every person whom He created.

Today, I would like to wish a really happy birthday to Anthony, the son of Tim who was one of my closest chess friends. I think of Tim very often, and yet I got a surprising memory of Tim a few days ago when, in a game of chess at lunchtime, Wout Callens (one of the youngest students at Musica Mundi School) played the rare Ponziani Opening 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 c3, which was a great favourite with Tim throughout most of his life.

A couple of nice photos follow here:-

Timothée, Steven and Wout, three young and super-keen chess enthusiasts!

Wout and Paul during one of their fun chess games!

Blog Post #107: Always a Teacher and a Student too

Dear Readers,

Around 35 years ago, I had the great honour and pleasure of doing some chess with Ally, a daughter of Mrs. Mo Brodie who was then a very dear Mathematics teacher colleague of mine in Scotland. Mo was surprised when I said to her one day that I learned from the chess games with her young daughter; but I really meant it! I am a teacher, yet a life-long student too.

Grandmaster Glenn Flear expressed it well, for he said that he had the feeling that, because I don’t actually play many games of chess, each game that I do play becomes like a ‘Cup Final’, a special event to remember and to learn from, as much as possible.

At the wonderful Musica Mundi School where I work as the Maths Teacher in Waterloo, Belgium, I sometimes get the chance to enjoy a ‘friendly game’ with colleagues and students during our lunch break. Yesterday, it was a lovely treat for me to play 12-year-old Wout Callens, who is extremely gifted in Music and Mathematics as well as having a passionate interest in the royal game of Chess.

Big thanks to Christophe Gillain for the following photos.

Wout and Paul enjoying their first game of chess together on Thursday 16 September 2021

Blog Post #106: Forever with my King

Dear Readers,

I am writing to you now tonight from Frankfurt, where I am delighted to have won the Adolf Anderssen Seniors Memorial Chess Tournament with 6.5 points from 7 games. I am also really happy and grateful for having made many new friends here in Germany.

1st Prize on 6.5/7 at the 2021 Adolf Anderssen Seniors Memorial Chess Tournament in Frankfurt, Germany.

Blog Post #105: Great Chess in Geraardsbergen!

Dear Readers,

A superb team of dedicated, hardworking organizers led by Dirk Flamée really did extremely well to run the 36th International Open Chess Tournament of Geraardsbergen across five locations from August 8-12 to cater for 214 players who were happy and grateful for getting to take part in a wonderful over-the-board, in-person competition, overcoming the many extra challenges of managing this in these difficult Corona times.

For very many people, this highly memorable event was their first return to chess after a necessarily long time-gap due to the global situation.

Lots of keen and talented young players performed magnificently, and special congratulations must go to Dutch FIDE Master Onno Elgersma who, though still only a teenager, won the tournament impressively with 6 wins, 3 draws and no losses, thereby amassing a score of 7.5/9.

Among the older players (like myself!), Dutch International Master Herman Grooten did particularly well to equal Onno’s score of 7.5 points and finish 2nd on tie-break. (Though I don’t personally know Herman’s son, Tommy Grooten, I would still like to add sincere congratulations to young Tommy on scoring five points and winning a prize for being a high-achieving youth-player.)