<I have made a little research of games in chessbase.com's database and it seems to be that after [1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Ba5 6. b4] <cxb4> 7. Nb5 Nc6 the main and by far most common continuation of white with many correspondence games is 8. axb4 Bxb4+ 9. c3 Be7 with major crossroad of 10.Ba3, 10.Bd3 and 10. Qg4. 8. Bd2 is probably a good alternative (at least it scores better than the main line)... It seems to be that black can keep the Pawn but white gets powerful centre and initiative for that. I am not sure that this is the kind of play which would please us much.>

<<"Swarm" 6...cxd4.> That is a continuation which is definitely more in the spirit of Winawer and French. Black's priority should be to undermine and destroy white's centre. Unfortunately, I don't feel much comfortably in line with 7.Qg4 Ne7 8. bxa5 dxc3 9. Qxg7 Rg8 10. Qxh7 Nbc6 which looks like a bit worse version of main line with 5...Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4.>

Around 2001-03, the Winawer as a whole and this line as well were quite popular at high-to-elite GM level, with players such as Khalifman (a world champ, lest we forget) among its champions. Then, quite suddenly, it vanished. As if some high-profile theoretic struggle had 'refuted' it - but I know of no such game.

Actually, it seems to have been part of a wider swing against the semi-open defences to 1.e4. I found this regrettable: my favorite openings book as a teenager was Pachman's 'Semi-Open Games', dealing with every response to 1.e4 other than 1...e5. This is probably why, even now, I could happily switch from a French to a Caro, Scandinavian, Pirc, Sicilian, Nimzo, etc -- but not 1...e5. I've never properly understood the so-called 'open' games, with the possible exception of the closed Spanish (which often feels more like an English).

And, even if I have a fair idea of how to behave in such middlegame positions, I haven't a clue as to getting there. I'd probably fall into Noah's Ark first, or Ut-Napishtim's Big Boat.

I'm very happy to see recent elite 2700+ examples of the French, Caro, Alekhine, etc. They all seem to be back in play, which is great news.

On the other hand, Baburin - one of the top 2 or 3 Alekhine's enthusiasts - has lost about 4 games with it in the past year. Even allowing that one loss was to Svidler, this would have been unthinkable before. All these defences - even the Sicilian and French - are risky for black.

I could distinguish now an extraordinary pattering upon the steps of my grand staircase, on the waxed floors, on the carpets, not of boots, or of naked feet, but of iron and wooden crutches, which resounded like cymbals. Then I suddenly discerned, on the threshold of my door, an armchair, my large reading easy-chair, which set off waddling. It went away through my garden. Others followed it, those of my drawing-room, then my sofas, dragging themselves along like crocodiles on their short paws; then all my chairs, bounding like goats, and the little foot-stools, hopping like rabbits.

- Guy de Maupassant

She could talk about things
That never mattered ever
One person's lying miserable life after another
She could talk to the French or Germans at will
They'd never listen.

Calling out her name
You'd be surprised at what came
Galloping out of the darkness
Just like furniture.
The Chinese envoy was here
The Chinese envoy was here
In her broken-hearted pagoda.

- John Cale

And, best of all, the furniture
Need not be rearranged.
If it suits the way it is,
There is no need for change.

- Horslips.

La silence éternel de ces espaces infinis m’effraie.

- Blaise Pascal

La silence éternel de ces meubles infinies m’effraie.

- Liberty Blaise (drawing a Duchampesque moustache on Pascal's famous line)

According to quantum theory it is possible, though overwhelmingly unlikely, for a large armchair to seemingly break the laws of gravity and go walkabout. It is not actually breaking those laws: merely acting at the extreme outer limits of the possible.

When two or more pieces of furniture do a runner, however, we're no longer talking quantum probabilities. We've moved from the zone where a monkey types out Shakespeare's Henry IV on its typewriter to a zone where it adds footnotes from Holinshed's Chronicles in the original spelling and rounds off the text with a sonnet of its own about the quiddity of monkeyness. In other words, you're being hoodwinked.

Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence; three times is enemy action.

This is a useful rule of thumb, but it's not much use in chess. If you apply it, say, to the loss of pawns - waiting until you lose a third one before you conclude that your opponent is up to something is a recipe for disaster.

"He was not completely nude;
It was winter and he had his wits.
He was not especially rude;
But he had no time for @#$%s.
When stoned, or smashed, or stewed,
He wrote doggerel clumped in Fits.
And his overall attitude
Was benign, though with ready mitts.

He enjoyed the risque and lewd
Though he never looked at tits
Not because he was a prude
But he preferred eyes - e'en slits.
He often shouted at food
"You're the flesh! The rind! The pits!"
And if anyone called him 'dude'
He sighed. And called it quits."

In fact, I haven't even been absent. I've been here, lurking in my own forum - how sad is that? *Absence* is a legitimate and even a *manly* activity, as carried on everywhere by, well, *men*.

It also makes the heart grow fonder, which doesn't sound manly at all. Barely masculine, if that. Probably a typo for 'breasts' -- "absence makes the heart grow breasts" ... yep, that sounds a lot more masculine. And no, I have not been having hormone treatment or injections of monkey pineal glands, right?

I got a plan to revive this place with some chess, but the details are under wraps until I've paid off the Bulgarian. The *other* Bulgarian, I mean -- Christo.

Thanks for dropping by.

<(um yang in Korean; >

Incorrect.

At least, it's incorrect if.. and only if...

-- by "Korean" you mean the actual language that is normally spoken/written by Korean people today in common parlance.

In this kind of "Korean", the "yin yang" symbol and concept is always referred to as the <taegeuk>, at least nowadays.

I'm not conversent with "Old Korean," although I know several "old Korean people. Do you know some of them are four feet tall?

It's a fact!

However, that said, in common parlance many Chinese words are still used, but normally in sharply demarcated meanings.

Example:

"Who has seen the wind?"

The "korean" Korean word for wind is <param>.

But a Chinese word for wind-- <poong>-- is also used, but only in three cases.

An electric fan, of all things, is called a <sa poong-i> (wind machine).

And if the place name of a geographical location has the word wind in it, the Chinese word is used, not <param>.

Viz- the village of "hyunpoong" means "Black Wind", and in this case the Chinese word is used.

Also, the Chinese word for wind is used when talking about "Typhoons" <tae poong>.

But if someone asks, is there wind today? Or how stong is the wind? Or the wind feels nice...

Then <param> will always be used, and never <poong>.

To the point that if you use <poong> instead of <param> in these contexts, the Korean listener will actually not understand what you are talking about.

Really.

Ok I hope that's helped to confuse matters further.

Anyhow, it's turned into Whack-a-Paddy Month aka The Long Green March. I can't really hold my breath that long.

So next weekend is the Cork 'Masters' tournament, with lots of opportunities to whack and be whacked by chessiferous Paddies.

<ignored this festival>.

heh...

Yes, remember when <The Slid> called you a "miserable git" for ignoring it?

Many such, for instance, think the world will end in fire or ice.

But I think it will end undramatically: a power outage, a general brownout, a lot of cholera when the drains back up, a few wars betweeen those who still think they live in nation states and those who've moved on, some drowned cities, a new dark age with dwindling population, more medieval diseases, a great forgetting, and fade to black.

That's just the human picture, of course: microbes and beetles won't even notice the difference.

En passant, did I see you chez <Jessica> talking about Richard Feynmann recently? One of my favorite Feynmann stories concerns the time he attended an interdisclipinary event with scientists, philosophers, and religious and artistic types. Thought he'd try to bridge the gap between scientific thought and all the woolly stuff, and gave a stirring talk in this vein.

Afterwards, he was about to get into the elevator when some religious-looking students, possibly Hasidic, approached him. "Thank you for a very interesting lecture, Professor", said one, "is it okay if I ask you a question?"

Cool, Dick thought. I've stimulated a young mind, given it some idea of the beauty of science, the poetry of mathematics. "Ask me anything" he said.

"Is electricity fire?" said the student. Feynmann talked a bit about EM radiation and could see their eyes glaze over if he got even slightly technical, so he tried a different angle -- "Why do you want to know?" he said.

Because of the elevator, came the reply. If electricity was a form of fire, then they couldn't use it on the sabbath, and this was a sabbath. So, just to be on the safe side, would Doc Feynmann mind pushing the elevator buttons for them? Just in case their deity disapproved.

Makes you want to scream, doesn't it? Whenever I'm seduced for a moment into thinking that humanity has the *slightest* chance of survival, I think of those for whom is-electricity-fire? is the burning question.

Feynmann resolved there and then not to accept any more invites to such 'interdisciplinary' conventions.

If this is what qualifies as a meeting of minds across disciplines ... then <intercourse> is what you do after the soup course while waiting for the main course.

Is cluiche boird í an fhicheall, agus í ceaptha do bheirt imreoirí. Is í aidhm an chluiche ná rí an chéile imeartha a mharbhsháinniú. Tá an rí marbhsháinnithe, nuair atá sé faoi ionsaí agus ní féidir leis éalú.

Thought you might like this new word that I saw user<Whiteshark> come up with earlier this month:

Underdogmatism.

Used in its orignal context here: FIDE Women's Grand Prix (2009)

Well you've certainly done a good job of keeping square on point regarding the <Anteater question>.

Howaaard and I have been engaged in a public/private bit of discussion on this important topic.

Your contribution in this forum is staggering= it's got me thinking.

Did you guys play in the <Cork Tournament> this past weekend?

Any chance of a report?

I hope you are both doing well.