Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, -- I hope that you are having a wonderful holiday season, and hope that you play wonderful chess in 2013! 

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Here is a Christmas chess poem that Bill Chandler of Denver wrote, and sent to me:

Twas the Day before Christmas; and all thrugh this chessplayer's house
Not a tactic was stirring, his board quiet as a mouse
The library in the hi-boy all arranged with care
Righteous combinations to be played with flare

... The pawns were all there arranged in a row
Mates and promotions coming from high and low
Bishops with their miters, Kings with their crosses
Queens with their knobs, for they are the bosses

When in my sleeping mind there arose such a clatter
I awoke from my slumber to see what was the matter
Away to my desk lamp I flipped on the light
I opened my Polgar and Brennan books to set my thoughts right

The original prose is long and elegant, while my verse is not quite so
So to cut this short, to the next tournament I will go
For one day my rating will start with a 2 and my title GM
Ah yes I can dream can't I, the same as all of them

So to my opponents I say enjoy the season
The Next we meet, tis my neurons you'll be pleasin'.
For you never know when our contest will be day or night
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good chess fight.