One northern California chess player has been conspicuously missing in action this year: Michael Aigner. He has continued to be active in chess via his blog, which was the best place on the Internet to keep track of the progress of Steven Zierk towards his world championship.
However, it has been far too long since we have heard his cackling laughter, seen the gaggle of students and former students and friends of former students that typically surrounds him between rounds of a tournament, and had to step out of the way as his whirring wheelchair races by at breakneck speed. Not to mention the fact that readers of this blog have been deprived of the chance to read any more Sylvester versus Tweety Bird posts!
Well, some news came yesterday via an e-mail from the man himself. Michael explains that he has experienced some neurological symptoms since April 20 that have kept him away from tournaments, and have gotten progressively worse. After six specialists failed to figure out what was wrong, he finally found one who was able to diagnose the problem. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he needs surgery immediately, and he will probably “go under the bright lights,” as he puts it, before Thanksgiving. He adds:
Time is of the essence when treating neurological cases. The bad news is that there’s absolutely no guarantee that I’ll ever return to 100% again. 🙁 Yes, this is serious stuff. A lot of time already passed, and the longer I wait, the worse my odds become.
Later, he writes:
Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I need as much positive energy as I can right now. I shall try my best to return as my old self sometime next year. I’m quite depressed some days, but I remind myself that I have no choice but to struggle on ahead. 🙂
I’m sure that the entire chess blogosphere will join me in wishing Michael a successful operation and a speedy, and full, recovery! On the chessboard Michael has always been a resourceful player with great fighting spirit, who is able to take a little bit of luck and make it go a long way. That’s what I would like to wish for him right now, a little bit of luck.
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