Originally compiled by Mating Net

Instructive French Games. What to do, and not to do, against 1...e6. Some awesome combinations and sacrifices by White in these games.

* Starting Out: French Defense: Game Collection: Starting out : The French

* Alekhine's French Def: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/che...

* A few KIAs: Game Collection: Opening Ideas

* Advance French: Game Collection: Attacking with the French

* Black Defends: Game Collection: Opening repertoire black

* Masterful: Game Collection: FRENCH DEFENSE MASTERPIECES

* TFD: https://chessentials.com/category/l...

* 38 Tactics: https://www.chess.com/article/view/...

* Wei Yi spent 48 minutes on a move: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF8...

* Prize Games: Game Collection: Great Brilliancy Prize Games of the ChessMasters

* Happy Days! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slv...

* Roger that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9S...

"The only way to change anything in Russia is a revolution" ― Daniil Dubov https://en.chessbase.com/post/dubov...

* Vladimir Bagirov Attacks: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...

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

"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.

In 2016, a Michigan-based priest named Gerald Johnson suffered a heart attack. He says he had a near-death experience that sent him somewhere he never thought he'd visit: Hell.

Johnson says that immediately after his heart attack in February 2016, his spirit left his physical body and went down to hell, entering through "the very center of the Earth." Though he says "the things I saw there are indescribable," he did his best.

Johnson claims he saw a man walking on all fours like a dog and getting burned from head to toe:

"His eyes were bulging and worse than that: He was wearing chains on his neck. He was like a hellhound. There was a demon holding the chains."

Steinitz's Theory
1. At the beginning of the game, Black and White are equal. 2. The game will stay equal with correct play on both sides. 3. You can only win by your opponent's mistake.
4. Any attack launched in an equal position will not succeed, and the attacker will suffer. 5. You should not attack until an advantage is obtained. 6. When equal, do not seek to attack, but instead, try to secure an advantage. 7. Once you have an advantage, attack or you will lose it.

A Game of Chess -
by T. S. Eliot
II. A GAME OF CHESS

The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Glowed on the marble, where the glass
Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines
From which a golden Cupidon peeped out
(Another hid his eyes behind his wing)
Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra
Reflecting light upon the table as
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,
From satin cases poured in rich profusion;
In vials of ivory and coloured glass
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes, Unguent, powdered, or liquid — troubled, confused And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air That freshened from the window, these ascended
In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,
Flung their smoke into the laquearia,
Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.
Huge sea-wood fed with copper
Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone, In which sad light a carved dolphin swam.
Above the antique mantel was displayed
As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene
The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king
So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale
Filled all the desert with inviolable voice
And still she cried, and still the world pursues, " Jug Jug " to dirty ears.
And other withered stumps of time
Were told upon the walls; staring forms
Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.
Footsteps shuffled on the stair.
Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair
Spread out in fiery points
Glowed into words, then would be savagely still. " My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me. " Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.
— " What are you thinking of? What thinking? What? " I never know what you are thinking. Think. "

I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.

" What is that noise? "
The wind under the door.
" What is that noise now? What is the wind doing? " Nothing again nothing.
" Do
" You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember " Nothing? "

— I remember
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
" Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head? " But
O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag —
It's so elegant
So intelligent
" What shall I do now? What shall I do? "
" I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street
" With my hair down, so. What shall we do to-morrow? " What shall we ever do? "
The hot water at ten.
And if it rains, a closed car at four.
And we shall play a game of chess,
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.

When Lil's husband got demobbed, I said —
I didn't mince my words, I said to her myself,
H URRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Now Albert's coming back, make yourself a bit smart. He'll want to know what you done with that money he gave you To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there. You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set,
He said, I swear, I can't bear to look at you.
And no more can't I, I said, and think of poor Albert, He's been in the army four years, he wants a good time, And if you don't give it him, there's others will, I said. Oh is there, she said. Something o' that, I said. Then I'll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight look. H URRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
If you don't like it you can get on with it, I said. Others can pick and choose if you can't.
But if Albert makes off, it won't be for lack of telling. You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique. (And her only thirty-one.)
I can't help it, she said, pulling a long face,
It's them pills I took, to bring it off, she said. (She's had five already, and nearly died of young George.) The chemist said it would be all right, but I've never been the same. You are a proper fool, I said.
Well, if Albert won't leave you alone, there it is, I said, What you get married for if you don't want children? H URRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they had a hot gammon, And they asked me in to dinner, to get the beauty of it hot — H URRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
H URRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight May. Goonight. Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight.
Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.

"Rooks need each other in the middlegame. This is why one should keep their rooks connected until the opposing queen is off the board. She'll snare 'em (usually from a centralized square on an open diagonal or perhaps a poisoned pawn approach of the unprotected b2/b7 and g2/g7 square next to the occupied corner) if the two rooks aren't protecting each other." ― Fredthebear

"In baseball, my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about the numbers. If you dwell on statistics you get shortsighted; if you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end." ― Tom Seaver

"Only those who want everything done for them are bored." — Billy Graham

"My home is in Heaven. I'm just traveling through this world." — Billy Graham

* Riddle-zapapa-dee: https://www.briddles.com/riddles/ch...

"Believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities. Without humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy." ― Norman Vincent Peale

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." ― Martin Luther King Jr.

"Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours." ― Yogi Berra, one of the greatest Yankees of all time

Dick Cavitt: "And you like that moment of just crushing the guy?"

RJ Fischer: "Right *nodding and smiling*, yeah."

St. Marher, 1225:
"And te tide and te time þat tu iboren were, schal beon iblescet."

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