true genius

In those days I did well with the Main Line Winawer. In practice, a lot of players avoided the ultra-sharp 7.Qg4 lines and went 7.a4 or 7.Nf3 instead; but I was always happy vs the 7.Qg4.

To truncate a long story... I almost always played the Winawer vs 3.Nc3, but I had more problems with 3.Nd2 - which was quite popular then due to Karpov's influence. It was almost a generational thing: the Fischer & Spassky fans liked 3.Nc3, while Karpovians chose the Tarrasch.

In response to 3.Nd2, I tried 3...b6; 3...Nf6; 3...Nc6; 3...b6; 3...a6; 3...c5 and 3...dxe4. There may even have been others: I lost quite a few and kept switching lines.

For a while 3...b6 was my pet variation -- a draw in a simul with Tony Miles and a few wins vs 2000+ opponents, but then it began to fail. After that, I mainly settled on 3...Nf6 - and got sharp positional games, won some, lost some.

<Cut to 2006>. I'm rebuilding an opening repertoire for a new millennium and a return to competitive chess after 17 years.

After some thought, I decided to stick with the French - it was what I knew - but to modify the lines I played. I settled on 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Ba5 (Winawer 'Swarm'); and 3.Nd2 c5 4.exd5 Qxd5 (Tarrasch, Chistyakov Variation). Last seen, to my knowledge, last week in Gibraltar: M Calzetta vs Speelman, 2009.

I have back-up alternatives to both of these lines as well, just in case. But I've scored well with the Winawer Swarm - 4.5/6, I think. Not so well against 3.Nd2 - but only *one* player rated below 2200 has played it against me. I've got good positions against FMs and IMs, but lost the majority.

The difference now in 2008-09 is that at my level - most opponents in the range Elo 1600-2300, say, with the majority 1800-2000 - is that almost nobody is playing either 3.Nc3 or 3.e5. Most of my games as Black feature various defences to 1.d4/1.c4/1.Nf3 ... and the 1.e4 players are split between the Advance, the Exchange, and the King's Indian Attack.

I'm broadly happy with my systems and results against the KIA and Advance, but I've lost far too many Exchange Variations against lower-rated players (and won a few too against stronger opposition, so it's not all bad).

People are playing the Exchange for different reasons. Some just don't know any theory, and think (wrongly) this is a way out. There is theory, but it's riddled with transpositions. And many master games are draws.

Others play it because it seems UnFrenchlike. This is true - the pawn structure is more like a Petrov. I'm not familiar with such open games and don't play them as well as I might.

This week I've actually been working on improving my play in the Exchange -- after yet another last-round loss, dropping me from 4th place in the tournament to 14th. My opponent was about 100 ELO points higher, but I feel I'd have beaten him under other circs. Which means he chose the opening well.

Anyhoo ... one upshot of all this is that I have very little to say on any of the 3.Nc3 or 3.Nd2 lines. Apart from that, I've never played either the MacCutcheon or Classical 3...Nf6 (yet). My response to 3.Nc3 has always been either the Winawer 3...Bb4 or Rubinstein 3...dxe4.

There was also a chapter called 'Friendly Games'. It consisted of just one sentence: "There is no such thing as a friendly game of chess".

Fischer knew that. His last known non-match game (vs Cathy Forbes) is proof enough.

Anyhow ... stealing a pun from a 'How to Cheat ...' book seemed appropriate. Like the 1960s Yippie Revolutionary - was it Abbie Hoffman? - who published a slim volume named 'Steal This Book'.

Many people, me included, did just that. At least if you got caught (sorry, ahem, <busted by the Man while liberating stuff for the people> ...) then you had a readymade excuse.

God I'm so bourgeois. Third in line for the firing squad when the revolution comes, after the religious proselytizers and the taxi drivers.

BTW, most of the time I *like* cab drivers. I don't drive, I get a lot of taxis, and some of my best friends etc. But I had a weird experience yesterday ...

I was looking for an address in the outer suburbs of Dublin - not a very big city, but low population density means that it sprawls for many miles in all directions. I had the right info, but the street name didn't come up on the guy's satnav. Luckily, he had an old-fashioned paper map as well, and he asked me to sit beside him up front and navigate.

I found our destination easily, showed it to him, showed him where we were at that moment. No use. It turned out he had no idea how to read a map ... got confused by concepts like up/down, left/right, north/south.

I got us there eventually by pointing out every turn and junction ... "slow up here, small side road on left, keep going, yeah that way, a bit more, left again, now the next right, this should be it ..."

That was fun. There's always one, I guess. Nor was the guy a recent teenage immigrant from Ruritania who spoke only Ruritanian ... he was a native Dubliner, about my age.

I find it weird that people can't read maps. But maybe I'm biased because I know how to get from g2 to b7 in knight moves ...

Which brings us back to <Frogspawn>.

The wider question 'what is Frogspawn' is one of the great polyphilosophical conundrumata of the age.

"Where's my black cap?" ... *clears throat* ... ribbit ... *courtroom flunkey with judicial spittoon (engraved with the old Norman motto <Honi Soit Qui Mal y Cracher>) dashes forward, too late, misses, gets gobbed*. Another one in the eye for Justice!

I address the Defendant. "Open Deffi Defence, it is the finding of this court that on February 8th 2009, at a place or places unknown but not a million miles from a certain well-known subcontinent, you did wilfully, wantonly, and with malice aforethought, *refuse to boogie*."

Court flunkey whispers something in my ear. Can't hear a word of it. He sighs theatrically and gets out his blackberry. I read the words as they flash up on my autocue.

"Tiny mix up here, m'lud. That's the *next* case, <refusing to boogie with malice etc> - it's why you asked me to bring in the black cap. The scoundrel will *swing*, heh, at the court's discretion, of course. But *this* delightful young lady ..."

I get the idea ...
"Is a model citize, a chess player, a mother, a paragon of virtue known as 'Saint Deffi the Wise' ... who just got careless and *lolled* in the wrong place. Hmm. I See."

"Ms Defence, it appears that I have osmosed an err. To make restitution, I sentence *myself* to <transportation for life>, also known as a 'bus pass'. And I award you full costs, plus the state lottery numbers for the next three weeks. Go 4th and <lol> no more.

This sounds kinda Phildickian ... a simulation of the planet Terra?

Or is that too much like those <May Tricks> movies?

Once upon a time I'd have agreed without hesitation -- "it's all data, it all has value, nobody knows what losing X might mean". I dimly remember a sci-fi story in which space-trading aliens arrive on Earth with amazing hi-tech goodies. But they don't want any of the tawdry crap we produce: they got better.

Until it transpires that a very obscure Amazonian language has a structure never before recorded anywhere, and worth a fortune on the intergalactic language market. So we can have some warp drives and zap guns, they just want some brains containing Amazonian.

This is a dilemma for military types? "How would you like the heads preserved, Mr Mxklptk?"

And I'm not sure now about <if we don't store what we know now, soon it'll be gone forever!>. Maybe the best response is 'good riddance'.

so it's no to <Billy Bunter Ratty> and yes to <Cork>? Please keep me updated so I can continue to follow your Pilgrim's Progress Chess activities. I'll be reporting at length on them, as usual.

Also, when you recount your inspiration for "Frogspawn" you better remember that you started calling this place Frogspawn directly upon reading my outrageously racist post in here-- one of my first in fact--

In which I happily reported how we "bested the Frog" at Waterloo (with FENS!)

"What about German women?

<The Major:> "GOOD CARD PLAYERS!"

Hmm... curious attitude for the manager of <Frogspawn>...

I think that's certainly what I'm doing. As traumatic as Galway was, I can't help but be drawn back to the Irish chess circuit.

<Qf4>?

I wish you had posted the rest of the score in that excellent, and courageous article.

Seems to me <Qf4> is kind of necessary to get your Queen back in play--

What's the alternative?

Qh8+ then King moves to his luft square and you move your Queen along his back rank?

I've only looked at the posted position for about five minutes and I'm not sure I want to put my engine on it.

<Twinlark> suggested that it's "jejune" to run an Engine on a friend's game.

Also, I want to understand myself what happened in your position.

So i will spend some more time trying to figure out why <Qf4> is a "nothing move" when I don't at the moment see anything more useful that jumps out.

Nervy game- well played IMO- I find positions with exposed kings and the Queen and both Rooks on to be <exceedingly complex and nerve wracking>....

Ok I'm going to spend some time with this and then if it's OK with you I'd like to post the link in my forum to see what the lads have to say.