Home or away game?

Succesful at a young age, and unable to escape the path of self-destruction... What a pity.

I won with an untypical pawn- and exchange sac, all just to keep him from castling. Mate followed in due course.

Fianchetto against the KID - I Played through it twice and still can't believe the tactical fireworks unleashed by Zurab against a John Denis Martin Nunn, no slouch at tactics...

Ahem, ONE kibitz for this game, but I still am trying to comprehend what went wrong for Nunn, without an engine and it's damn complex, but getting there... (30...Bf5 was crucial, allowing 31 Bd5! -- but the alternative h6 isn't too appealing..)

Z Sturua vs Nunn, 1990

The Neo-Gruenfeld Sturua - Aronian (2000) is very smooth, too...

Sturua won 5 Georgian National titles spread over 10 years. Good player.

Now I'm off to some ultra expensive Spa pour relaxation necessaire...

Salut

I am chuckling and scrolling, but not driving and strolling. Sorry, no mackerels today.

My anecdote began "One Saturday ..." It was about 20 years ago.

No big deal.

F'rinstanz, <Kasparov vs Kengis, Riga 1977> -- as the man himself said, "I had very limited knowledge of the opening after 1.d4. That's why I tried to develop all of the pieces and have a solid position and hope that later I could use my tactical superiority."

Just think of the implications. Still a teenager and a committed 1.e4 player, he suddenly switches to 1.d4 -- to exploit it tactically.

This particular K vs K went 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 b6 3.Bf4 Bb7 4.e3 c5 5.Nbd2 g6 6.c3 Bg7 7.h3 0-0 ... and White won in 23 moves (23.e4, 1-0: sweet)

Sorry for not providing a live game link. I've got a few other games in mind as well, so I'll post some sundry lynx plus tard.

"Weedin' a herbal sprout in Bromley,
My baby's reminded of me...
There's a purple haze across the valley
And free range across the plains of Battersea ... Yee-haw ... where's ma shovel?"

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, 2007

"Old Trust he was a good dog ...
Best friend I ever had ...
And then it dawned, that awful day
The worst day of my life:
Old Trust put on my mohair suit
And ran off with my wife ...
I don't mind him cheatin' on me,
But I wish he'd left the car."

- Alberto y los Trios Paranoias, 1979.

"You're so sweet
Horseflies keep hangin' round your face
... you're nothin' like those females in New York City You're as wise as my dog Sam
And twice as pretty."

- Neil Diamond, 1968

"Why are people afraid of Uri Geller? Why are people looking at me? Why are people disguising themselves as coathangers and hiding in my wardrobe? Why are people taking me away?"

- Those Ersatz Neo-Bonzos Again.

"Press pause now. Please. This would have been the place, back in the sixties, where you would turn the record over, brew a cup of tea, perhaps 'skin up' a doobie ... "

Sigh. Just compare the way Viv ended side one of Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead: "I've done the back, dear ... now I'll make a start on the front."

No comparison. Even the final, doddery, valium-addicted, grey-bearded, Viv of his final years would've destroyed this lot with a one-note solo and a lethal adjective. Or even a noun, on a good day.

Yes, they've brought a new Bonzos CD/DVD out, complete with Legs Larry Smith, Vernon Dudley Bohay Nowell, Neil Innes ... and even Mr Slater, of Parrot fame. Sad, really.

"I've never been in a riot before - how's this one going? I say, there's a small one, shall I punch him? Jolly good! Are there any more smallies?"

Then again ... if *anyone else* did this it'd be rather good, really. Now it's just a reminder of the Viv-shaped hole in the cosmos ... painted black to confound messrs Jagger, Hawking etc ... and stuck with gaffer tape over the older god-shaped hole.

Look for (a) his last coherent work 'Crank', made for the BBC with new songs, and (b) anything from the John Peel/ Sir Henry Rawlinson film/book/album/radio show (Lady Florrie to a servant known as 'Old Scrotum the wrinkled retainer': "Perhaps you'd care to wash your hands?") -- anything of this ilk is magnifique, particularly the first (Rawlinsonian) album, <Sir Henry at Rawlinson End> (filmed c.1980 with Trevor Howard as Sir Henry Rawlinson and Viv Stanshall himself as Henry's brother Hubert, "now in his mid-40s and still unusual"). And (c), any other business...

Old Scrotum the wrinkled retainer replies thus to Florrie: "No thank 'ee, Ma'am, I already done that up against a tree".

- Reg Smeaton, Village Know-it-all, Concreton.

"Did you know ... there is no proper name for the back of the knee?"

- Well, um, actually ...

I *see*. Did you know that 'Orang-Outan' *really* means <'deranged ghost of red-haired musician'>??? The 'old man' line they fed to linguists and anthropologists was the usual mix of malice and politeness.

We can't be responsible if, say, a red-headed ghost-muso decides to follow one of the foreigners home to his own country ... the SETI faction among the Sarawak Chiefs' Council would be neutron-starlike in the incandescence of their righteous rage.

"Primate accidentally ruins popular music" -- such headlines are bad for the tourist industry.

"Hairy Orange Ape Goes Bananas in Hall of Fame -- Rock'n'Roll Closed for Repairs. NASA called in, Stargate program abandoned."

Let Martial Martians and Venereal Venusians take cover on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Duck and cover, Thor's Day and Frigg's Day.

Turns out that Top Cat's 'dry rubbish...' can be dated back to an 1832 letter, a full eleven years before P&P was published. And there are scattered references to the phrase all throughout the 19th century, including in some medical journal. Funny what an afternoon in the British Library can do to you.

z,Fpmz.

afs,,oy

OK YOU know how funny it looks if you begin "touch typing" with your fingers in the wrong position?

DOM

Well you've finally fooled me. I tried my best to follow your last monologue there but the allusions flew over my head like so many V-1 rockets during the blitz.

sigh.

I'M GETTING STUPIDER

heh. Luckily, I'm so happy you are enjoying your chess AND STOMPING people. My favorite part is when you crush the other guy's ego.

As I was telling the Major, despite me spending most of the last few weeks designing a whole curriculum and seven million lesson plans for my return to 'WORK' today, whereupon I discoverred I have no actual WORK for another three weeks but I have to sit here 8 hours a day doing nothing, I've decided to write a novel.

I'm calling it <Entropanto 2: the Revenge- This time it's Personal>, and I"ve already sold the screen rights to David Beckham. Michael Caine, of course, will star, providing he's not actually deceased by the commencement of principal photography.

Dam I forgot what I wanted to say agian.

hang on....

no, that wasn't it..

OH YAhH

i HAVE time to study chess again. Ok so I'm so happy you posted your NABOKOV- MUNSTER- deferred REVERSE NIMZO Alikhine novelty win there-- I'm going to spend some time with it and since I'm never going to be a expert chess player I'm going to try your opening in an actual game and see what might happpen.

OK.

er WOTCHA MACK how they man? <George Stiener> I"ve actually read. He quoted <Bob Dylan> poems at length in this book of his, claiming him to be the last hope for HIGH MODERNISM and all the good stuff about that.

Of course that was back in Montreal, before the Blitz.

Details are a bit hazy.

OK back soon with an update. I'd take up methamphetamine but I don't think I actually need them, if you catch my drift.

Hmm. A tad *too* "over", methinks. It's that darn multipolarity again: And when he was up he was up, and when he was down he was down, and when he moved into hyperspace (#5 Tesseract Grove, Hintonville, FRO) he was both up and down, TO and FRO.

That's "TOADY" and "FROGSPAWN", btw.

'Reality' seems curiously malleable. I start thinking about Art, meanwhile Monets and Cezannes start vanishing in Switzerland. An inside job, but whose inside?

"Always choose YES when your computer offers you a security update ... A diode in room 47 knows you are awake ... now that machines do our thinking we can put our brains to a better use ..."

Hmm. Radio's talking to me again. Somebody told it that I was planning to criticise it. But how? That radio doesn't have a car ...

You never know which Pandora's box you're cracking, do you?

100,000 welcomes, anyhow. *Cead Mile Failte* in Vernac.

Glad you saw my (with a modicum of hindsight) incredibly lucky victory against Mr Over-confident 2100+. My retreat mode, when I had a potentially winning advantage, was sheer stupidity and would've been punished 99 times out of 100. But I got lucky.

I won another pleasing club game last Friday. Against a guy rated about 600 points below me, so it 'should' have been easy -- but these are precisely the games I've struggled with: blunders through over-confidence (Mr 2100+ taught me a lesson there), or silly opening trickery, or just waiting for an opposition blunder, never a good idea.

So for this game I resolved to be more direct and aggressive, and to play a sac-type attack if opportunity arose. It did.

These are the moves: take a look when you get the chance. Sure, he's outgunned: but he found some good moves, and made no *outright* blunder - so I had to take forcible action to win.

White: moi
Black: him

1.Nf3 d5
2.d4 Bf5
3.g3
(Niels & Doc Euwe and I had discussed the London System with Nf3 and Bf4 by White. But I'm happier with g3 systems generally - so I just resolved to play it more aggressively.)

3 ... g6
4.Bg2 Bg7
5.0-0 Nf6
6.c4 e6 (?)

Not an outright blunder, but the Black setup has problems - b7 is weak, the LSB can't return to c8/d7, and he hasn't castled. I determine to keep him like that, even if it costs material.

7.Qb3 b6
8.Qa3 Nbd7
9.Ne5

I'm breaking the 'rules' here -- Queen out early, moving it twice, also moving Knight twice with other pieces undeveloped: while Black is seemingly developing 'normally'. But my plan to keep his King uncastled proceeds, and is worth the eccentricities.

9 ... Nxe5
10.dxe5 Ne4

Fritz suggests winning a piece here with 11.g4 Bxg4 12.f3 -- I think it looks horrible, inviting kingside attack with ...Qh4. Barely glanced at it.

11.cxd5 exd5
12.Nc3 Bxe5
13.Nxe4 dxe4
14.Bh6 Qf6
15.Qa4+ c6
16.Bxe4?!

A slight error. I'm not concerned about pawns, but I wanted the long diagonal open -- forgetting momentarily that this lets Black castle queenside with 16 ... Bxe4 17.Qxe4 0-0-0, when he can connect rooks and put his king on b7, while the lack of a LSB weakens the white attack.

16 ... Bd7?

Black is probably lost now.

17.h4 Bxb2
18.Rad1 Qe6
19.Rxd7! Kxd7
20.Rd1+ Kc7
21.Bf4+ Kb7
22.Rd6

Much stronger than, eg, 22.Bxc6+ (also playable on previous move) Qxc6 23.Rd7+ Qxd7 24.Qxd7+ -- winning the Queen, but black has enough material to struggle on.

22 ... Qxd6

He could resign anytime, but he plays on to mate. I didn't mind.

23.Bxd6 Rac8
24.Bd3 a5
25.Qb3 Bd4
26.Qc4 c5
27.Qd5+ Ka7
28.Qxf7+ Ka8
29.Be4+ Rc6
30.Qxc6#.