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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 189 OF 963 ·
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Jun-11-07
 | | jessicafischerqueen: Dam it's been a <coon's age> since I "caught you live" Dom, a real treat. Frank S Buck: <Bring Em Back Alive>, a book I read in Grade 7. |
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Jun-11-07
 | | Domdaniel: <Jess> f'tang f'tang? In my time the family called themselves <P'tang P'tang Ole Biscuit Barrel> Holy mother of miracles! It's a sound change! It's plosive to fricative! It's Grimm's Law! You're like a fairytale. Grimm. |
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Jun-11-07
| | Domdaniel: <The Irish do not play chess ... historically> This bit of received wisdom was even held to be true in Ireland up to about 20 years ago. It's utter nonsense, of course. Born in Ireland: Alexander MacDonnell, James Mason, CHO'D Alexander. Plus others ... and those from Heidenfeld to Baburin who 'became' Irish. The match between MacDonnell and LaBourdonnais in the 1830s is the start of modern chess, and the direct ancestor of the current Candy Dates. <Jess> Thanks for the reminder re innuendo (what a ridiculous word, by the way -- it sounds like a sort of pidgin-Italian sexual activity).
I'll try to behave now, honest. |
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Jun-11-07
| | Domdaniel: Frank S Buck? Anything to the <Pearl Buck> who won a Nobel prize for Literature? Hang on, am I imagining this? I couldn't possibly have imagined Pearl Buck, could I? Help. |
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Jun-11-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: Heh. Did you recognize the <Ray Luxury yacht> bit? It's one of <Graham's> from <MPFC>. Well ok then young man!!
I suspected the Irish played well.
But do they play hysterically? That may of been what he meant. BTW the book itself is very interesting- I think there's something wrong with <horowitz's> brain. He's totally bonkers, but there are many bits of chess arcania worth lookint at. I'll be posting quotes from it at my place. I'll email you a few quotes that would not be allowed at CG.com. Yes, it's THAT kind of chessbook. |
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Jun-11-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: Heh. no, no, <The Good Earth> is a masterpiece in my O. I still remember when the chinese farmers tried to boil dirt as soup cuz they were all starving. Pearl s Buck is fantasitc. |
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Jun-11-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: Scheisse I'm not even pretending to try to spel correctly. Whither scholarship? Not in Kanada. |
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Jun-11-07
| | Domdaniel: Now I'm totally confused. There were guys named Horowitz and Harrwitz about 100 years ago, who sometimes even played each other. And raking side-by-side attacking bishops are still sometimes called 'Horowitz [or maybe Harrwitz] Bishop'. But there was also a naval gun with a similar name. Any connections? I really should look stuff up sometime, but my googling arm has withered away. Horowitz... isn't that Yiddish for "Having the intelligence and adaptability of a lady of the night"? |
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Jun-11-07
| | Domdaniel: A <totally bonkers> chess book is indeed a thing to cherish. I had one -- a long long time ago -- which featured a character named <Chippy de Zoete>. I think. If this rings a dim bell, I'd be much obliged for info. He's not the kind of chap one could openly google, even if I was un googleur. |
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Jun-11-07
| | jessicafischerqueen: <Dom> I'll keep an eye out for <Chippy>. The <Horowitz> in question is a Master, not a GM. He was a perennial <also-ran> at the US Championships just before the era when <Fischer and Larry Evans> won them. funny, eh? <Larry Evans> is the chessplayer who has the most right to call himself <Fischer's friend>, and the year he won the US Championship it was because <Fischer> made a Honking Stink about the Tournamet conditions and forfeited. I wonder if he was afraid of losing to his buddy?
Hard to tell with RJF. I think he was definitely afraid of <Karpov>. And with good reason!! |
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Jun-11-07
| | Domdaniel: Chess and counting have an ancient relationship. Especially in pawn endings. When you could go "yan, tan, tether ... dick" [cf Latin, 'decem', Irish Gaelic 'deich', Russian 'desyat', etc -- or, further away, *zehn, ten, tio, ti* usw]. You could also go "eeny, meeny, miny, mo" which is a related counting system and just means "1, 2, 3, 4". So today's chess tip. Say "eeny, meeny, miny, mo" loudly, with your hand hovering over the board. Your opponent will think you're about to move randomly, and relax -- but really you'll be counting moves to a win. Tomorrow's hot tip: how to sneak extra pawns onto the board using sleight of hand. |
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Jun-11-07
| | Domdaniel: Larry Evans also pops up on my dadaism radar: he played Marcel Duchamp in the 1940s -- something like the 1947/8 New York State championship. Larry 'Merciful' Evans gives the game in one of his books. Or part of it. But I haven't found it elsewhere, even in megadatabases. I remember 'your' Horowitz now. Bonkers, eh? Excellent. More datums. I think the <Chippy de Zoete> guy was in a piece of fiction by one (Maurice?) Richardson ... but all I read was an extract in somebody else's chess anthology. Might have been in a 1970s book by the aforementioned CHOD Alexander. Who was born, oddly enough, in Cork, where I, et cetera, und so weiter. |
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Jun-11-07
| | Domdaniel: <afraid of Tolya> Later, maybe, but my guess is he was much too egocentric to notice the rise of Karpov. Even the Russians had real doubts about his tenacity, and feared RJF would roll over him. In 1974, before their first candidates match, Korchnoi was saying "I will beat Karpov to save him from Fischer". I have some magazines from that era with headlines like "It's Karpov vs Fischer!" Ah, innocence. But I only like these what-if games when they get spun off into elaborate counterfactuals. It's boring when people just say how great their fave players were -- the *Morphy creams Kramnik* [or vice versa] stuff. |
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Jun-11-07
| | Domdaniel: <Jess> Sorry, can't help it. But you'd need your Horowitz about you to read Samuel Beckett's early book, Whoroscope. |
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Jun-11-07
| | Domdaniel: And now I'd better stop before I wreck the place. Thanks for the timely note of restraint, Jess. I look forward to the email. Email? Isn't that the German for 'enamel'? And there's a verb, emailieren, to enamel ... maybe useful for Deutscher toilet jokes? Nein. |
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| Jun-11-07 | | whiteshark: For today I will keep silent, particularly with regard to <toilet jokes>, although.... no! |
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Jun-12-07
 | | Open Defence: <Dom> now remember they locked up this place once ;-p |
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| Jun-12-07 | | whiteshark: Freedom for <I inhibit co-exist> women! |
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| Jun-12-07 | | whiteshark: <OD> Thanks for thoughtful remarks, which I'll bear in mind in future! |
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| Jun-12-07 | | mack: <If this rings a dim bell, I'd be much obliged for info.> I thought I'd heard the name before somewhere, so googled away. Only five hits, one of which was my bloody forum. Specifically, your second-ever post there, from 13th November 2006: <Afternoon, Mack. "The woods are... " Hmm. Can't say I recognize it. Dylan's Tarantula, back-translated from Lithuanian? Chippy de Zoete? Robert Frost after a bender with William Burroughs? Karl Marx? No, no, no.> Just like today, you were trying to guess a quotation in my profile. And furthermore, you were also havin' a go at googling: <Actually, I rarely google anything. Like Reg Smeaton the village know-it-all ("Did you know there is no proper name for the back of the knee?") I prefer to rely on the grotesque filing cabinet in my head.> It's a funny old world, isn't it. Of course, I wouldn't have stumbled across this in the first place if I hadn't, well, googled. |
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Jun-12-07
| | Domdaniel: <mack> Yes, you've rumbled me. I am actually on a loop. It can sound vaguely erudite for about 30 seconds, and wheezes on a bit longer without actually repeating. But then *everything* comes round again. Not that I'd remember. Korsakov's syndrome. No medium-term memory at all. I'm only able to explain this much because They had it tattooed on the back of my hand. At least I think it's my hand. |
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Jun-12-07
| | Domdaniel: Pawns are the entropy of chess.
This is true, but it's of no earthly use to the practical player. If you're one of them, just ignore it. If you're the other kind, hang around. |
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| Jun-12-07 | | mack: I sent that crazy crap to your gmail account, hope you find it in amongst the thickets. |
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| Jun-12-07 | | mack: <Pawns are the entropy of chess.> Amazing how one little sentence can set the mind racing. I've been thinking about this all afternoon. You know Dom, I can't help but feel that you're beginning to see through me, but so long as you toss out little nuggets like this every two minutes, then you shall remain impregnable. |
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Jun-12-07
| | Domdaniel: <m> Ta. And likewise, I'm sure. |
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