GG Mayer

Thomas Mayer has taught mathematics at a Salzburg gymnasium for twenty years and run a cube-theory study group out of its classrooms for nearly as long. Former pupils now play on the national team he used to coach. He writes a patient, well-argued column, and his take and pass decisions are quoted across the circuit.

He will explain, at the end, exactly where you went wrong, in a tone entirely free of triumph, and he is puzzled that anybody minds. To him the cube is a threshold with a location, not a feeling to be guessed at, and the position either sits above it or below it. He is kind, he is exact, and he is the least comfortable man to lose to in the top tier.