A note on
how this is made.
After the Last Move is a small editorial practice — one writer, one room, an irregular schedule. What follows is the house style, kept honest so you can keep me honest.
A working engineer, writing slowly.
After the Last Move is written by Nakul Bharti — an engineer working in Jaipur. I write about what I actually do — building software, running servers, the security and SRE work that fills my weeks, and the reading and thinking that fills the spaces between. The posts are short when they should be short and long when they should be long. There is no schedule and no newsletter you cannot leave.
The journal is named after the hours I like most: the ones spent looking at a position after the game is already over, asking what actually happened. Most of my best ideas arrive there.
Type as voice.
The annotations.
Borrowed from chess notation. Used sparingly, and never as categories in the usual sense — more as a mood for a piece.
- ! Brilliant A move the writer is unusually proud of.
- ? Dubious Published anyway — a thought I'm still arguing with.
- !? Interesting Unsure if it's right. Fond of it regardless.
- ⁂ Study A how-to; something you could follow along with.
- □ Only move The one thing the situation demanded.
- § Report Weekly tech and status reports from the engine room.
How to be in touch.
- Post
- A post office box, when time is not a factor.
- One envelope a month, reply if you like.
- The rest
- Handled by silence, as a matter of policy.
to change one's mind."