That truth is ultimtely the kindest cut of all. That my early hard-nosed mentor, E.M. Reubens, was on his game when
he kept pounding simple concepts and principles into my green head (knowing full well, that although politeness ruled,
his repetition was boring me to tears). An example was his insistence that the primary objective in chess is not to lose.
Emil would smile this morning, all these decades later, to learn my often homely rhp draws exceed my loses by 20%.