And even if I had a dog or a, well, *gerbil* instead of a cat ... well, they're all pets. The hurt is what counts, you cruel, callous person, you...

Er, (sic!). Is this the kind of stuff you mean?

chessgames.com chessforum (kibitz #21546)

Reporting forom Bunratty Chess Festival 2014, Alina L'Ami wrote about this picturesque village and her new found love of Guinness Beer:

"It is common knowledge that playing chess has the tendency to dehydrate, amongst some other side-effects. Just imagine how people would feel during a weekend tournament, with one round on Friday, three on Saturday and two more on Sunday! Such a marathon certainly requires some liquids at hand, so what could be more perfect than a…glass of beer?! It was not a rare picture to see players sitting at the game with their pint. On top of that, my fourth round opponent, the Irish IM Sam Collins, had no less than three (or was it more?) beers during our game and, nevertheless, beat me in good style! – The new key to success?!

In Langrock's new book on the Rubinstein (which I am awarding 96 points for by the way-- it has a real spicy depth and some enchanting woody notes) he recommends the following rare line against the Advanced French.

(Langrock writes, "While it definitely is a sideline, it is also true that a good number of masters and grandmasters have already played this variation with the black pieces. A grandmaster who uses it regularly is Serbia's Sinisa Drazic." Unfortunately our db doesn't have any games in this line with Drazic as Black.)

<1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Bd7 5.Nf3 a6!? 6.Be2 cxd4 7.cxd4 Bb5 8.Bxb5+ axb5>:

click for larger view

Langrock continues: "Black had to allow the doubling of his b-pawns, but it is not even clear if that's a disadvantage. Black will soon move the pawn to b4, gaining space and also fixing a2 as a weakness. As tournament praxis has shown, he shouldn't have any problems here, and in general not after the tame <6.Be2>..."

A radical and provocative solution to the problem of the bishop, this line. I haven't played it yet since I'm happy with the games I'm getting in the Advanced, but I did file the idea away. I propose we call this the Wahls Variation, after the GM-turned poker player Matthias Wahls whom Langrock credits with first introducing him to the variation.

But how to play it? In the game I tried to ditch my bishop a la the Wahls Variation scheme out lined in my previous post. But as it turned out my new b5 pawn *was* weak, and I had to suffer through a very bad ending (which I swindled into a win, but never mind that.)

First, I had a death in my family: my mother died fairly suddenly at the start of February. I was away for a few days - the funeral was in another town - and when I got home I came down with a bad cold. Standing at a rain-lashed February graveside probably didn't help.

I got over that in a week or so, which you might think was enough misfortune for one month. Alas, no. Last Friday I fell downstairs and broke my pelvis. I'm now in hospital painfully learning to walk again. Or even stand. I'm told there's no real treatment but time, physio, and painkillers. We'll see.

I'll log in here when I can, but I know a couple of you are waiting to hear from me. Please hold on a little longer.

And no, I hadn't had a drink when I fell. I'd squatted down to look at a chess notebook which I'd left on my upstairs landing, overbalanced, and rolled head-over-heels down ten steep wooden steps. It then took me over an hour to crawl back up to bed, hoping it would improve overnight. It didn't, so I had to get an ambulance next day.

Luckily, I don't seem to be dead - similar falls killed two friends of mine in recent years.

Thanks, all.