This collection is NOT intended for wing gambits or the Smith-Morra, although a few may exist in here.

* From 1842 Upward: Game Collection: Sacrifices in the Sicilian (B20) Part 2

* Balashov Games: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...

* Esserman Essays: Game Collection: smithmorra by M.Esserman as white

* Internet tracking: https://www.studysmarter.us/magazin...

WTHarvey: There once was a website named WTHarvey, Where chess puzzles did daily delay,
The brain-teasers so tough,
They made us all huff and puff,
But solving them brought us great satisfaction today.

There once was a website named WTHarvey
Where chess puzzles were quite aplenty
With knight and rook and pawn
You'll sharpen your brain with a yawn
And become a master of chess entry

There once was a site for chess fun,
Wtharvey.com was the chosen one,
With puzzles galore,
It'll keep you in store,
For hours of brain-teasing, none done.

There once was a website named wtharvey,
Where chess puzzles were posted daily,
You'd solve them with glee,
And in victory,
You'd feel like a true chess prodigy!

* Mr. Harvey's Puzzle Challenge: https://wtharvey.com/

"Chess is played with the mind and not with the hands." ― Renaud & Kahn

"Chess is a terrific way for kids to build self-image and self-esteem." ― Saudin Robovic

"Chess is a sport. The main object in the game of chess remains the achievement of victory." ― Max Euwe

"Life is like a chess. If you lose your queen, you will probably lose the game." ― Being Caballero

"If you wish to succeed, you must brave the risk of failure." — Garry Kasparov

"You win some, you lose some, you wreck some." — Dale Earnhardt

"In life, unlike chess the game continues after checkmate." ― Isaac Asimov

"Chess is life in miniature. Chess is a struggle, chess battles." — Garry Kasparov

"Sometimes in life, and in chess, you must take one step back to take two steps forward." — IM Levy Rozman, GothamChess

So much, much, much better to be an incurable optimist than deceitful and untrustworthy.

"Don't blow your own trumpet." — Australian Proverb

Old Russian Proverb: "Scythe over a stone." (Нашла коса на камень.) The force came over a stronger force.

"Continuing to play the victim is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Blaming others for your station in life will indeed make you a victim but the perpetrator will be your own self, not life or those around you." — Bobby Darnell

<"Sestrilla, hafelina
Jue amourasestrilla
Awou jue selaviena
En patre jue

Translation:

Beloved one, little cat
I love you for all time
In this time
And all others"
― Christine Feehan>

"Customers don't expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong." — Donald Porter

"It is so much easier to be nice, to be respectful, to put yourself in your customer's' shoes and try to understand how you might help them before they ask for help, than it is to try to mend a broken customer relationship." — Mark Cuban

"Only once customer service has become habitual will a company realize its true potential." — Than Merrill

"Customers don't care about your policies. Find and engage the need. Tell the customer what you can do." — Alice Sesay Pope

"Always keep in mind the old retail adage: Customers remember the service a lot longer than they remember the price." — Lauren Freedman

"Here is a powerful yet simple rule. Always give people more than they expect to get." — Nelson Boswell

"Every contact we have with a customer influences whether or not they'll come back. We have to be great every time or we'll lose them." — Kevin Stirtz

"The customer is always right." — Harry Gordon Selfridge (Not hardly says FTB.)

"Once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia." ― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

"Always carry champagne! In victory You deserve it & in defeat You need it!" ― Napoléon Bonaparte

"Be your own Sunshine. Always." ― Purvi Raniga

"Most promises featuring the word 'always' are unkeepable." ― John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed

"You should never say never. Just like you should never say always; because, always and never are always never true." ― J. R. Krol

"When you're lonely, when you feel yourself an alien in the world, play Chess. This will raise your spirits and be your counselor in war." ― Aristotle

"The habit of holding a Man in the hand, and moving it first to one square and then to another, in order to engage the assistance of the eye in deciding where it shall actually be placed, is not only annoying to the adversary but a practical infraction of the touch-and-move principle." ― Howard Staunton

"A bad plan is better than none at all." ― Frank Marshall

<Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" Bombardment of Fort Fisher, near Wilmington, New York, 1865

The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in the middle of the Civil War, wrote this poem which has more recently been adapted as a modern Christmas classic. Longfellow wrote this on Christmas Day in 1863, after his son had enlisted in the Union's cause and had returned home, seriously wounded. The verses which he included and are still generally included, speak of the despair of hearing the promise of "peace on earth, goodwill to men" when the evidence of the world is clearly that war still exists.

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

The original also included several verses referring specifically to the Civil War. Before that cry of despair and answering cry of hope, and after verses describing the long years of hearing of "peace on earth, goodwill to men" (a phrase from the Jesus birth narratives in the Christian scriptures), Longfellow's poem includes, describing the black cannons of the war:

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!>

*At some time or other tournament player learns a few opening lines, some tactical ideas, the most basic mating patterns, and a few elementary endgames. As he gets better and more experienced, he significantly adds to this knowledge. However, the one thing that just everybody has problem is planning. From Z to class E (under 1200) D to Master, I get blank stares when asking what plan they had in mind in a particular position. Usually the choice of a plan (if they had any plan at all) is based on emotional rather than chess-specific considerations. By emotional, I mean that the typical player does what he feels like doing rather than the board "telling him what to do. This is somewhat cryptic sentence leads us to the following extremely important concept: if you want to be successful, you have to base your moves and plans on the specific imbalance-oriented criteria that exist in that given position, not your mood, taste and/or feared. Literally every non-master's games are filled with examples of "imbalance avoidance". Beginners, of course, simply don't know what imbalances are. Most experienced players have heard of the term and perhaps even tried to make use of them from time to time, however once the rush of battle takes over, isolated moves and raw aggression (or terror, if you find yourself defending) push any and all thoughts of imbalances out the door. In this case, chess becomes empty move-by-move, threat-by-threat (either making them or responding to them) affair. What is this mysterious allusion of the chessboard's desires (i.e., doing what the chess board wants you to do)? What is this "imbalance-oriented criteria? ― How To Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman

"There just isn't enough televised chess." — David Letterman

"Do the things that interest you and do them with all your heart. Don't be concerned about whether people are watching you or criticizing you. The chances are that they aren't paying any attention to you. It's your attention to yourself that is so stultifying. But you have to disregard yourself as completely as possible. If you fail the first time then you'll just have to try harder the second time. After all, there's no real reason why you should fail. Just stop thinking about yourself." — Eleanor Roosevelt

"Many have become chess masters, no one has become the master of chess." — Siegbert Tarrasch

"True power is expressed in quiet confidence; it was the sea's very calmness that epitomized its mighty force." ― Emile Habiby

"Remember that there are two kinds of beauty: one of the soul and the other of the body. That of the soul displays its radiance in intelligence, in chastity, in good conduct, in generosity, and in good breeding, and all these qualities may exist in an ugly man. And when we focus our attention upon that beauty, not upon the physical, love generally arises with great violence and intensity. I am well aware that I am not handsome, but I also know that I am not deformed, and it is enough for a man of worth not to be a monster for him to be dearly loved, provided he has those spiritual endowments I have spoken of." ― Miguel Cervantes

4$zzzeeee

Q: What do you call something that goes up when the rain comes down? A: An umbrella.

Q: What do you call a doctor who fixes websites? A: A URL-ologist.

Q: What do you call a sleeping dinosaur?
A: A dinosnore.

Q: What do you call a Christmas tree that knows karate A: Spruce Lee.

Q: What does a triangle call a circle?
A: Pointless.

Q: What do you call a piece of sad cheese?
A: Blue cheese.

Q: What do you call a cow in an earthquake?
A: A milkshake.

Q: What do you call an M&M that went to college? A: A smarty.

How many chess openings are there?

Well, White has 20 possible 1st moves. Black can respond with 20 of its own. That's 400, and we're ready for move 2. I don't know them, but I would not be at all surprised if there was a name for each of them. People are like that. You really, really don't need to know them all.

If you follow the rules of thumb for good opening play, I promise you that you'll be playing a named opening. Just put the 1st 3 moves in google, and you'll get the opening's name. With that information you can find other games that started the way your game started, likely by some very good players. Also, with the name you can read about it on Wikipedia, and find out what people think of it, who plays it, and its particular traps and idiosyncrasies.

Once again, The Rules of Thumb for Good Opening Play:

- Develop your pieces quickly with an eye towards controlling the center. Not necessarily occupying the center but controlling it certainly. - Castle your king just as soon as it's practical to do so. - Really try not to move a piece more than once during the opening, it's a waste of valuable time. - Connect your rooks. This marks the end of the opening. Connected rooks means that only your rooks and your castled king are on the back rank. - Respond to threats appropriately, even if you have to break the rules. They're rules of thumb, not scripture, or physical laws.

If you and your opponent follow these rules of thumb, you'll reach the middle game ready to fight. If only you follow these rules of thumb, you're already winning! Good Hunting. -- Eric H.