If any readers of this blog are into mathematics as well as chess, you might be interested in my latest book, which has just been published by the American Mathematical Society. What’s Happening in the Mathematical Sciences (WHIMS for short) is a regular series of books about … well, exactly what the title says. Recent events and progress in mathematics. The nine topics in volume eleven are:
- The mathematics of gerrymandering
- Mathematical models of dieting, and why it’s so hard to keep the weight off
- The detection of gravitational waves, and how math made it possible
- Topological data analysis, a step beyond simple clustering
- The Cap Set Conjecture, or how the game of Set met its match
- Mathematical models of bike-sharing and ride-sharing networks
- Expander graphs and their applications
- Quantum computers, and specifically the search for “golden gates”
- The simplest equation in math (x + y = 1) and how it has led to new progress on the asymptotic Fermat’s Last Theorem
WHIMS volume 11 does not appear to be available on Amazon yet, but it can be ordered through the AMS website, at https://bookstore.ams.org/happening-11/. It’s $25, or $20 if you are an AMS Member.
I also want to make a smaller and more chess-related announcement, which is that I’m finally returning to tournament play soon! The last tournament I played in was in January, and it’s always a little bit hard to keep this blog fresh and interesting when I have no games of my own to report on. I’ve signed up to play in the Kolty Club Championship. The Kolty Chess Club meets once a week in San Jose (actually, Campbell to be precise), and it’s where several of the people I’ve mentioned in my blog regularly play. For example: Mike Splane, Juande Perea, Paulo Santanna, Jim Bennett, and the list could go on for a fairly long time.
I’ve never played at the Kolty Club because I’ve been reluctant to commit to making the 45-minute drive once a week for several weeks in a row. But last year I played in a once-a-week tournament at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco and enjoyed it (until a disastrous last round, anyway). So I figure that it’s time to try out a much closer club, which is in fact the closest club to me where one can play rated games.
The club championship starts this Thursday, but I have to take a half-point bye because I will be out of town this week. (I’m going to a math conference in Rhode Island.) Then there will be a week off for Halloween, so my first game, in round two of the tournament, will be on November 7.
Finally, just for fun, here’s another picture of my book. As I wrote on Facebook, all my books have to pass the sniff test!
