Best play is 4. Nxd4 exd4 Opening Explorer instead of 4. Nxe5?! Qg5 etc.

1.Qb1

Do the right thing--root against the Yankees. Their payroll is triple that of some other teams. And the dummies STILL couldnt win a penant in the last 6 years. They are what is wrong with baseball.

Even if football revenues are roughly equal, you have to account for owners/corporations who have deep pockets outside of the NFL revenue stream. George Steinbrenner, a shipping magnate, has always outspent the other teams. Thats partly due to having more disposal income, and partly due to being so obsessed with having a winning team that he ignores other business opportunities. Daniel Snyder, who I think owns capital one credit cards, is a man in the same mold. People like Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavs, and Al Davis, owner of the Raiders are cut of the same mold. They will spend stupid, hit or miss, in an attempt to win, and to get themselves worshipped by the public, vicariously, through their sporting teams. In contrast, the Bears and Patriots, owned by families, who are more conservative, will not keep up with the big spenders. The green Bay Packers are owned as a public utility, they are owned by the state of Wisconsin. A board of trustees evaluates the work of the general manager, Coach, etc., and makes hiring and firing decisons.

I would see a shift, in about 5 years, of the haves being perhaps 25% more likely to be in the playoffs, then the have nots. But the game ratings will suffer, I think, because of lack of parity. TV ratings will suffer, the players will realize that a future TV contract will be weak, and they will go back to a cap format.

Why hasn't it happaned in baseball? A major reason, believe, is that the largest group of sports watchers in the country are white, and baseball is the only major sport here where the majority of the athletes are white. Thats not something that commentators can say on television, but the numbers bear it out. Inner city kids (blacks and latinos) aren't interested in baseball. They play basketball, soccer or bike X racing. Baseball is the home of middle aged white guys who want to see their own group on TV.

the other reason is that baseball fans enjoy seeing the skill set in play, a great pitcher facing great hitters without caring so much about whose player is on which team. That won't work in football. The individual skill sets are too wrappped up in team play. It the team is losing badly, viewers will tune out.

I would just say that in baseball the huge difference in payrolls among the teams occurs because each team keeps all the money from its local TV and radio broadcasts, which is the largest part of their revenue. So the Yankees wipe out Minnesota or Kansas City in that way.

I hadn't considered that owners would simply begin spending their own money just to build a good team, with no economic incentive. In other words, they'd lose money in order to win games.

Now Daniel Snyder might try, but even with a billion dollars he would never win. Entirely clueless. A more likely candidate would be Jerry Jones of Dallas, who is rich, has shown he'll spend a lot, and knows football. The 49ers in the deBartolo era (Montana-Rice-Young-Lott) would have done the same, as they spent as much as possible in those years.

It looks like the NFL players will not accept the current offer by the owners. this means that at the end of this season, there will be no salary cap in the NFL. The same will happen in football that happened in baseball--big market teams will buy up the best free agents, steal other teams best young players. A team like Green Bay will be crushed. I do think that people will tune out of football if there is no parity. Who wants to see a bunch of 40-3 games?>

This is known as the "Oh my God!" Opening. As that is what one does as one is meant to "see" suddenly one has blundered the e pawn... Amusing for patzers.

Then hopefuly follows;

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nd4 4. Nxe5 Qg5 5. Nxf7 Qxg2 6. Rf1 Qxe4+ 7. Be2 Nf3#
lack mates 0-1

We also more lately have been having trick or treat, I saw some children dressed in capes and so on, and going around, but my children didn't do it in the their time - it is more from the influence of US TV shows etc ..although Halloween originates from a very old European Pagan festival...

1...cxb1, 2. Rd1
1...Kg1, 2. Be3
1...Ke1, 2. Bd2>

Yep, the trick is figuring out what to do about Black's Ke1. It's clear you have to either stop it or threaten mate if Black should play it, and the former doesn't get much of anywhere. I also noticed that 1.Rd1+ (surely a thematic try) would be mate next move if not for 1....cxd1=N. But this move remains central to the play after the true key.

Here's another one. More lightweight, but not as hard. It has a neat trick.

click for larger view

--- Lodewijk Prins