New Look (Work in Progress)

Sorry about my two-week absence! I have been very busy with my “real” job, which is writing about mathematics and science, and haven’t had time for blog updates.

People who have been here before will notice a big change in the appearance of the site. It’s likely to change again quite a few times before I settle on a new format. I’m using a new WordPress theme called “Thesis” that is incredibly flexible, but I still need to learn how it works. In particular, I need to work on the header. I really like my old photo of the chess pieces, but when I placed it in the header it covered up the name of the blog. That’s no good!

So for a little while the blog will go header-less, but I promise that the chess pieces will be back very soon.

In general, my goal is to make visiting the blog a more pleasurable visual experience. During the recent world championship match a couple of visitors commented that the look of my blog was less than inviting. I had to agree with them. I think the design was a little bit like Ted Yudacufski’s old chess emporium that I wrote about in this post; it may have looked good in its day but it was time for a breath of fresh air.

It’s especially bothered me for a long time that the old theme had a very narrow text column, and there was nothing I could do to change it. That meant I couldn’t put in large photos, and for readers I’m sure it meant they had to do much more scrolling than they’d like. So I’m delighted that the new theme gives me much more horizontal space. I can also change the number of sidebars, etc.

Please let me know if you think I’m on the right track, and feel free to suggest further ideas for improvement. Thanks!