From looking at some other blogs it looks like I'm not the only one who has taken a break for the holidays. But just wanted to give a quick update on my trip... It's been pretty fun, London's a great town. My only internet access is my sister's computer in the hotel next to ours however which kind of sucks. One of the highlights of my trip so far has definitely been the London Chess Centre, it has the best selection of books I have ever seen. Even better than tournament bookstores, if you are ever in London check it out. Fortunately it's walking distance from my hotel.

I've even had some time to study, waking up an hour early here and there to get some rook endings in. And I also picked up Rocking the Ramparts by Larry C and I have been reading that a little bit. It is a very strong book.

The real topic that spurred this post is the concept of chess visualization contrasted with the visualization of a map and learning a city. Since I have been here I have become acquainted with where things are in relation to each other and it didn't take long to be able to 'see' myself on the map and find my way on that virtual map relatively easily. I'm wondering if anyone else has thought about this concept of learning the relationship between real places in relation to chess. I think that my chess visualization skills can easily be translated into location visualization and that this allows me to locate things and keep in mind where things are in relation to each other. Any thoughts?