On a rare "serious chess note.."

Given that my chance to play in my first ever OTB chess tournament with clocks and tables and chairs and such is at least another year away...

And given that you're about to go into battle at <Galway Firth>....

Do you investigate your opponents before you play, and try to find out their Openings, styles of play, as part of your tournament preparation?

I've never had the chance to do that myself but it sounds quite fun.

I was able to do what you describe precisely once ever, playing in the 2007 Irish championship - one game per day, and all games from each round posted online a few hours after they ended, along with the next round's draw. Which left time to research one's opponent and plan something.

It worked a few times, though the games didn't always go according to plan. Against my last round opponent, Grose-Honeberger, I planned a Reti with Qb3, and found myself in the very line I'd analyzed the previous night. I got a won position, but only drew it due to time shortage.

It's generally impossible to do this in a weekend tournament - you tend only to see the draw for a round shortly before it starts. Of course, if you're paired against a well-known player or somebody you've played several times in the past, then you have a good idea what to expect.

Weirdly, this knowledge can be an inhibiting factor. One of my Irish c'ship games - I was black - began 1.d4 e6 - and then my opponent had a ten-minute think. He'd seen that I'd won a couple of sharp games with the Dutch, but he hadn't got as far as actually deciding what to do. Eventually he played 2.e4 transposing to a French, and soon found himself in a lost position. One of my lesser psychological victories.

BTW, my rating has dropped to an appalling 1730. My best event last year, with a performance rating over 2000, was not graded due to an error. I then dropped about 100 points in a week, with four idiotic losses to players under 1400. I haven't been this low since my first-ever rating in the 1970s. Galway better signal an upturn, or else.

In Cowboy Angels, Alan Turing emigrated to the USA instead of killing himself. He went on to work in quantum computing, leading to 'Turing Gates' - devices for travel between alternate realities. The world in which this history happens calls itself 'the Real' and tries to export democracy and the American way to other universes where America hasn't been so lucky (The American Bund, the Nixon Sheaf, the WW3 after Cuban missile crisis, etc).

So I came up with my own idea. One where Mikhail Botvinnik, instead of wasting time on chess, turned his brain and talents to his other interest, electrical engineering and computing. As a result, the USSR invent Turing Gates (aka Stalin Gates) first.

Then - in a reality something like ours - Soviet spies circa 1960 steal a secret American report on the situation in other 'nearby' universes. The Politburo learn how close they were to cosmic dominance, if only that fool chessplayer had worked on something serious.

So they take Botvinnik out and shoot him.

So the Russians never took computers seriously, and Silicon Valley forged ahead [sic]. Until Tetris changed everything ...

No. No, no, no. Don't go there. Not even a depraved goth with a decorticated frog in his cranium would go there. Just don't.

The venue for her final match with Hou Yifan was Nalchik in the Caucasus. In Estuary English - the dialect which originated near London, Essex, and the Thames estuary, and which was popularized by Tony Blair to give his 'New Labour' cabal or gaggle the common touch - this is pronounced 'Now Chick'.

Does PR get any better? <"Fashion Model and Now Chick Queen is world chess champ!">

Roll over Vishy and tell Capablanca the news ...
Just saying. To myself, mostly.

*Not* "I see therefore I think" or anything so presumptive. Just I think I see.

He has been harrassing me the past few weeks-- following my posting history in order to post threats-- he has me on ignore, but takes me off ignore to scan my posting history on a daily basis.

In short, he is stalking me.

Lurking in my forum and posting threats to me.

He has also been emailing me obsessively with constant veiled and open threats to get me banned.

I have copied and pasted the post he just made here in your forum and "blown the whistle" to the administrators.

I have also just sent the following email to <Daniel Freeman>:

<Dear Mr. Freeman--

Would you please instruct <User: Frogbert> to cease from harrassing me?

He has taken to tracking my posting history in order to bully and threaten me with getting the administrators (you) to censor me or sanction me or something.

He has also taken to obsessively emailing me and I have these emails ready to send in to you if necessary.

They contain constant threats, and I want a stop put to it.

Please this man is out of control-- I don't care how "important he is" -- I haven't broken any posting guidelines for a long, long time-- not since you so throughly warned me.

I expect you to hold this man to the same standard you have held me to in the past.

Please, please, please do something about him-- all I want you to do is to

A: tell him in a forceful way to stop posting to me threatening to "turn me in " to you--

B. tell him to refrain from sending me any further emails.

Please get back to me , OK Mr. Freeman?

Thank you-
>

I don't want to rub salt into an open wound (at least not until I have put my gloves on v...e..r...y slowly) but with all the rating inflation doing the rounds these days, your current rating could well be considered considerably worse than your original lowest!

I need some strong competition to get back in shape, with some good after-game analysis. I get beaten on yahoo but they don't stick around to analyse the games, and I don't have any computer programs at the moment because my computer is busted!

Do you play on yahoo? I can't play anywhere that requires a download because I am running my PC off a CD right now LOL!

What do you think? Or we could play a 'short' correspondence game if you want. I say 'short' because it isn't my thing, how about a gentleman's agreement to only think for a maximum of half-an-hour per move? Post one move every 24 hours?

Can you think of anybody else who would be interested?

Cheers.

I did try telling Frogbert once that I was the arbiter of all things batrachian, but did he listen? No.

if you want to read my two posts, just send me an email, and i'll post'em to you.

regarding my 2 emails in question to jfq, you can read the post in my player page. jfq is simply not telling the truth about them, whether you find that convenient or not. in the extreme case, i can have my mail-provider confirm the contents of the mails i actually sent, but for now i can provide you with a copy if you like, to show that this sentence, written by jfq to all of you, is just plain untrue:

But different people have different truths. You may have 'harassed' her without intending to.

I'm amused to find the same topic -- rating inflation among GMs combined with a different dynamic below 2000 Elo -- both on your player page and here. Sheer coincidence, I presume. Thinking otherwise would be paranoia. And it's an interesting topic...