Chess and Weather

     To paraphrase writer and musician Daniel Handler, what a bad day it was, the clouds were low and the rain no fun, and the dark as it hit the late afternoon, was thick like someone who stops by your place and just won't leave. The day was canceled, almost, on account of the rain spilling itself over everything. 

     Weather has an effect on chess activities, both physically and mentally. Back on December 6, 2013, the USCF issued a warning that in light of the severe weather conditions and forecasts in many parts of the country players should check on a tournament's status and the road conditions before attending events over the weekend. The announcement was necessary because in December of 2013, it was very snowy and cold across the northern US and a large winter storms brought heavy snows in some states. 

     Actual hurricanes don't reach where I live, however some strong ones are capable of reaching the state with residual high winds and heavy rain. Back in 2008, the effects of Hurricane Ike caused widespread damage, not including Louisiana and Texas where it made landfall, but across Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia and into parts of Ontario, Canada. 

     I live some 1,300 miles from where Ike made landfall and some parts of my state had wind gusts of over 75 mph which is equivalent to sustained wind levels found in a Category 1 hurricane. Power outages, some lasting two weeks, were widespread in the southern part of the state and one fifth of the state's corn crop was lost. In my city a young boy was killed when he was hit by a falling tree limb and in the park around the corner from us quite a few diseased oak trees were blown down. 

     Hurricane Zeta made landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana on Wednesday afternoon as a Category 2 storm with 110 mph winds. I live 1,160 miles from there and yesterday (Thursday) was an unproductive day...it was cold, dark and miserable as the northern edge of Zeta was passing through and brought 16 hours of rain and cold with temperatures hovering around the upper 40s. 

 

     As you can see on the map, the rain stretched from Amarillo, Texas to New York City, a distance of 1,550 miles and it was cutting a swath over 600 miles wide with a tail extending hundreds of miles more down into the Gulf of Mexico.

     According to a paper about the effects that weather anomalies have on intellectual performance, weather influences human biorhythms that can affect chess players. Read more... 

     Another paper examined the effects of indoor air quality and temperature and how they affect the performance of tournament players. Read more...  

     In spite of everything, to quote actress Jane Lynch, "You can't make a cloudy day a sunny day, but you can embrace it and decide it's going to be a good day after all." Like many things, it's easier said than done. Most people don't look forward to Mondays, but at least the promise is for warmer weather (low 60's) and sunshine.