No relation to Huntingdon's Korea, like Woody Guthrie had.

I mean, just look at that Kramnik's physique. He must weigh nearly ninety pounds. Obviously steroids.

Well it's time for sleep here- You know it's the second half of the cruise- and you know I hate to lose.

so make way.

Regards,
Jack Nitzsche (no relation)

You realize that in addition to producing <Neil> he wrote the theme song to the <Mary Tyler Moore> show.

"Love is all around" indeed.

Well see you tomorrow <Master Domo>.

Frogspawn hits the 250 mark...

The world's most successful online pulbication with five readers in the history of the internet.

I still think we should start advertising.

Then again, a party of five has a certain intimacy.

I'll be Virginia or Dorothy. You can be Andy or Marcel or Philip Rahv, even.

A hundred years or so before Crick, Watson & co identified the structure of DNA, one Friedrich Miescher isolated nucleic acids from discarded surgical bandages.

Who says biology has lost its <yuck factor>? As Steven Rose writes in 'The Chemistry of Life':

"He went on to show that a similar substance was present in many other less distasteful materials, notably salmon sperm..."

Hmm. I suppose distaste is relative. Even <Frogspawn>.

You two seem to feed off eachother quite well.

TIP:

DO NOT try to contain the "rhythmic, vocalized expiratory and involuntary actions" (e.g. peeing), as the comicals released into the bloodstream THROUGHOUT the entire body, have a healing effect on the human organism -- It is indeed a worthy substitute for vigorous excercise (Le Work-Out), regularly seen in your local fitness-center, le sporting club, et le gym.

Bottom line:

LOL, ROFL and LYAO as much as you can- do not fight it, do not hide it.

That is my advice.

Luckily I have my Mary-Ann Hamster (etc.) Dictionary installed on my task bar- only a click and a button were sufficient!

(We don't giggle, we 'titter')

Thank You.

<Dom> BTW I got this position (as Black) against my engine- and since I consider myself quite good in endgames but by no means a specisalist, I would like to know what the right approach would be...

Black to play

click for larger view

1...Nd5 2.a4 f5 3.a5 e4 4.Kf2 Nb3 5.Ke2 Nxd2 6.Kxd2 e3+ 7.Ke1 f4 8.a6 Kf5 9.a7 Nc7 10.Ke2 Ke5 11.g3 g5 12.Kd3 Kd5 13.g4 hxg4 14.fxg4 Na8 15.h4 gxh4, 0-1. The beast actually had the grace to resign here.

Looking back, my 'plan' is simple -- establish a passed pawn to tie down the white king, harass the bishop and exchange it if possible, and don't worry about the a-pawn as long as it can be stopped at a7 -- by which stage the game is won on the kingside.

I hadn't expected White to exchange the bishop so easily -- I thought 5.Be1 was better. But then 5...Nc5 6.Bd2 f4 7.fxe4 Nxe4+ 8.Ke2 Nxd2 9.Kxd2 Nc7 10.Ke2 Kf5 11.Kf3 g5 is an easy win.

It seems to be very difficult for White to retain the Bishop after 1...Nd5 plus ...f5 and ...e4.

As an experiment, I had Rybka 2.1 play both sides, reaching 20 to 24 ply for both colours on every move, using over 2 hours in total

From the position of the initial DIAGRAM (1... = 40...)

40... Kf7 41. Kf1 (?) Ke6 42. Kf2 Nd5 43. h4
Nf5 44. g3 Kd6 45. a4 Kc5 46. Be1 Nb6 47. a5 Nc4
48. Ke2 Kb5 49. g4 Nd4+ 50. Kf2 hxg4 51. fxg4 e4

click for larger view

this now looks a clear win

I noted that

1) for White Rybka doesn't move the a- pawn untill move 45, it hasn't got a plan for any counterplay (as opposed to Fritz)

2) Rybka chooses to play Kf7, Ke6 and *then* Nd5 and foll. by Nf5!? - as opposed to your f5- and e4 plan (though the e-pawn becomes a passer later)

3) It brings the King to b5 in the end of this line and clever play with both knights disables counterplay for White on the K-side, as well..

My own view, (including both our- and the engines' approaches), is still under construction - but the comparisons lead me to believe that this position is hard for the engines to understand, as opposed to your quick execution of Fritz. I still have to run your moves and feed them to Rybka.

(Evals moved from -3.0 to -3.6 at the end of this line)

Thanks, Dom, for your insights - I will do the finishing touches tomorrow. There are some tiny resources for White that I need to eliminate- and find a swift route to victory, alike your line against Fritz.

The site was down for most of the day, so here are a few loose ends...

<Dom> I think I covered all the bases now and put a few main lines in my forum.

You analysed: <I hadn't expected White to exchange the bishop so easily -- I thought 5.Be1 was better. But then 5...Nc5 6.Bd2 f4 7.fxe4 Nxe4+ 8.Ke2 Nxd2 9.Kxd2 Nc7 10.Ke2 Kf5 11.Kf3 g5 is an easy win.> It is.. But here my engine exchanges pawns first: 5 fxe4 fxe4 *then* 6 Be1 Nc5 7 Bd2 Kf5 8 Ke2 Ke5? 9 Bc1 -- and a more difficult win still remains...

Instead of Ke5 - I played 8...h4! - which after: 9 Kf2 g6 10 Ke2 g5 11 Kf2 Nb3! 12 Be1 e3+ should be a relatively easy win.

All in all it shows that your 'plan' was indeed the way to go- and that my engine, (at 20-24 ply) went in another direction - less efficient but in the end just "sufficient".

The many hours of analysis were worth it, as I feel that in these kind of unbalanced "now [X] should win easily" positions, a lot needs to be proven, still, when put to the test.

Just saying..

Ta for your help- you were spot on, as it turned out!

<Niels> - thanks for pointing me towards endgames. Always a good topic to get absorbed in.

Recharge! Reboot! Refuel! We depend on our regular dose of comicals!

I'll cut to the chase...

Where the hell is <Jess>?

Assuming Frogspawn is governed by a kind of <collective brain>, I am convinced Jessica is the Pituitary gland, I mean really!

( consider me the <sella turcica> of the <sphenoid bone> )

Game Collection: One Hundred and One Great Endgames.

H K Mattison vs Rubinstein, 1929

I'm interested in this opening: ECO code is D78 or D79. But it doesn't have a memorable name (Fianchetto Gruenfeld or Slav-Gruenfeld) and can be reached via many move orders. Sometimes it's called a Neo-Gruenfeld. And several games in the database are mistakenly given as King's Indians, [E60].

Heh. That would be the <control gland> producing more than 25 key hormones ... rather than the seat of the Cartesian soul?

She could be both, of course.

Can I be the corpus callosum? Just a bridge between hemispheres, me, incapable of thought but a useful networking device for those who really do the thinking.

I couldn't believe it when for the first time half-a-human-head was presented to me on a plate... Truly amazing to see those different parts for real, as I was unable to fathom the fact that "everything happens and is controlled, from there..." E.g. the Pituitary gland is only a little over 1 cm^3 in size? When you start studying the origins through examining the development during several different embryonic stages, it gets even more impressive...

Anyhoo, where were we? You the Corpus Callosum of Frogspawn? Err.. no. You are much too creative for that.. Let's say you *pay* your Premium to the corpus callosum. I.e. "le Server". Or should that be the <Pia Mater>?

Ah, It's been over 15 years now- I take a break here...

BTW your initials CC would run into protests, I figure.

Colin Crouch speaks of a 'geographically differentiated chessboard':

<This whole game is puzzling if one is used to thinking of central control as a permanent asset. All through the game the appearance is given that one of the players tries to control the center, then relinquishes the centre, which the opponent then temporarily takes over, then abandons. The whole question makes more sense if one sees the chess struggle not as a seamless whole but rather as a series of multiple skirmishes across a geographically differentiated chessboard... While both players recognize the need to keep a presence in the centre, the game will be strategically decided on the flanks, where the potentially decisive weaknesses are...

So what of the centre? The point is that the centre is a reservoir of strength for pieces located there, as such pieces may move to either flank at very short notice. On several occasions, this reservoir has been drawn upon, as play has sharpened on one or other of he flanks. This gives the impression of the centre being unnecessarily abandoned, when in fact it is being used correctly. A situation has now been reached however, that we may say with only a little simplification of the truth that Black controls the centre. It is noticeable that Black does not actually win the game in the centre. Instead, his priority is to make the centre as secure as possible, to make it a permanent reservoir of strength, and then win the game on the flanks...>

It's eccentric, but it's not nonsense (though nobody would use capital-M 'Man' like that today). And he clearly knows his chess. One killer quote jumped out:

<I'm interested in this opening: ECO code is D78 or D79.>

http://www.chessica.de/eco.html gives this info (German - ♘ = Springer (S)

[D7] 1.d4 Sf6 2.c4 g6 3...d5

D78] 3.g3 d5 4.Lg2 Lg7 5.Sf3 0-0 6.0-0 c6 7.

D79] 3.g3 d5 4.Lg2 Lg7 5.Sf3 0-0 6.0-0 c6 7.cxd5

Opening Explorer shows large drawing percentages, though there are some eyecatching wins in the cg database...http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...

7...Nxd5 seems more interesting but is not played very often.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...

"I had a strong bias in favor of Russian scientists; many can be put to active use as chess coaches. In addition, they are also extremely helpful in the interview process. When MBAs apply for trading positions, they frequently boast 'advanced' chess skills on their resumes... 'because it sounds intelligent and strategic'. MBAs, typically, can interpret their superficial knowledge of the rules of the game into 'expertise'. We used to verify the accuracy of claims of chess expertise (and the character of the applicant) by pulling a chess set out of a drawer and telling the student, now turning pale, 'Yuri will have a word with you'."