OK - that's point #1

Point being that with either colour I would be tempted to expect a win for the superiorly organized and equiped team. 11 recent correspondence wins for Black indicate that indeed there is so much area to discover, and so many lines to be refuted, even in the Najdorf.

Another point is that recently Anand half smilingly said that Carlsen seems to test "what number of openings <he can get away with>" ...

His (Carlsen's) recent Chigorin versus Svidler seems to prove and enforce Anand's statement if you see the way in which Carlsen steered it to a quick draw while looking completely lost earlier.

Perhaps a reason to review our fixed "opening" belief systems?

Black willingly allows this because an undeveloped piece can still be developed, but white's trapped knight had nowhere to escape.

White seemed so intent in forcing black back that he didn't realise that he was walking into a trap.

By contrast, black's 3...h6 places white in a position where he really does not want to make a move. Whichever move he makes gives black a strong reply. In effect, black is saying that white doesn't have a good move after 3...h6.

Miles' 1...a6, much as I would wish it to be otherwise, doesn't do this. White has plenty of sensible developing moves so that black doesn't have time for a pass move like this. Psychological value maybe, but not much else.

When Even Even Deeper Thought finally "solves" chess we may find that in relatively closed positions (eg the French, esp the advance) the advantage of the move is a lot less than in open positions - and in some cases it may be preferable to move second rather than first.

But in "race" openings - eg king's gambit and the open sicilians - this probably doesn't apply. Every tempo is precious and each side has plenty of good moves that they would like to make if they have the chance.

An odd thought that the value of time may change depending on what opening you play...

It sort of reminds me of my professional life. The Government has calculated the value of a human life in things like road accidents, train crashes and the like. It helps them to work out whether it is worth spending a lot of money to make something safer - eg is it worth spending £100 million to save 5 deaths on the railway per year?

But something I have never been able to understand is that the values that the Goverment uses varies from one type of transport to another. The value of human life in a train crash is different to the value of human life on a bike.

Oh, no, hold on. It's the adjacent generations on either side that misunderstand me. That tears it.

The same is not true in the French, of course. Even in the simple Exchange Variation, I sometimes think White is in a sort of 'opening zugzwang' after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5. Whatever formation he adopts, Black can counter: having the move, as you say, is not an advantage.

From TATA 2011 -- Grischuk vs Carlsen, 2011

[Event "Nec recisa recedit"]
[Site "http://gameknot.com/"]
[Date "2011.02.11"]
[Round "-"]
[White "weaponofchoice"]
[Black "tkdman"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2335"]
[BlackElo "2413"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Bb7 5. Nc3 d5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. e3 Nxc3 8. bxc3 Bd6 9. Bd3 O-O 10. O-O c5 11. Re1 Nc6 12. Qc2 h6 13. e4 Rc8 14. e5 Be7 15. Re4 h5 16. dxc5 Na5 17. Rf4 Rxc5 18. Be3 Rc8 19. h4 Bd5 20. Rd1 Qc7 21. Bh7+ Kh8 22. Rxd5 exd5 23. Rxf7 Rxf7 24. Qg6 Rcf8 25. Qxh5 g6 26. Bxg6+ Kg8 27. Bxf7+ Rxf7 28. Bh6 Bxa3 29. Ng5 Bf8 30. Nxf7 Qxf7 31. Qg5+ Kh7 32. e6 Qxe6 33. Bxf8 Qf7 34. Be7 Nb7 35. Bf6 Nd6 36. Bd4 Nf5 37. Be5 b5 38. h5 a5 39. g4 Ng7 40. Bxg7 Qxg7 41. Qf5+ Kg8 42. Qxd5+ 1-0

To quote Roman Dzhindz... oh, the guy the Dzhindzi-Indian is named after ... he sez "Reti opening is not cissy opening". So there.

Ackshully, there are two completely different Dzhindzi-Indians. One is a hybrid Benoni-Blumenfeld with early ...a6 by Black. The other is something like a Leningrad Dutch where Black exchanges the g7 bishop early with ...Bxc3.

On returning to competitive chess after a 15-year break I decided to rebuild new openings on old foundations. By studying new lines, but in an area where accumulated positional understanding helps. And it has worked: I have a big plus score in the Winawer - and despite losses in the Advance and Exchange, the French is paying its way these days. Better than it used to, in fact.

Meanwhile my score against 1.d4 has got worse, and my results against the Reti/English (which I play as White) are terrible. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.

I just made a heavily edited and stuffy post on the admin page there- just wanted to drop by with some less formal observations.

I too like the use of other languages- I like it immensely, in fact.

One of the reasons for this is that I have recently discovered the GOOGLE Translator and it's loads of fun seeing if it "works" or not.

Another reason is that the use of other languages culturally enriches a chess website like this.

Really on a very personal level, my agreement with <Tabanus> stems from a selfish motive- for over a year I have been making frequent use of player and game pages I would never have visited, in search of information for "fillims."

I have grown dismayed at how much "nonsense"- virulent, nasty, off-topic pollution- exists on these out of the way corners of our site.

It lowers the dignity of our website and reduces the instructive value of the player and game pages. I'm not suggesting the admins start censoring humor on the game pages- However, like <Howard>, I maintain that it's actually pretty easy to recognize unambiguously nasty stuff in a post.

Well it offends me. I'm easily offended though.

Nonsense, dear.

<Jess> And I'm not easily offended, as I say sufficiently often to imply the opposite. Oh well. So it goes.

Innaresting burst of admin activity there. Maybe the good guys have successfully retaken the ship from this week's parasite species. Or whatever.

I think I'll volunteer for biog corrections too. Quite a few have strange little mispellings and non-idiomatic constructions. A small number are berserk, in the Wikipedia sense: full of bizarrely over-specific datums.

Every word I write is nonsense to *me*. I always assume a few people are smart enough to keep pace, though.

The English were actually present in the region over a century back, introducing railways and phone systems and such. Possibly also sniffing for oil and looking for ways to beat the Russians in the Great Game.

You are brilliant- so very brilliant.

I was aware of the "listen button" on the GARBLED TRANSLATE page.

However, it had never once made any sound when I pressed it. I assumed it was permanently broken or maybe even "just there for show."

Thanks to your <Chipmunkajeeb> post, which also didn't make any sound on my computer, I investigated further.

I knew only two facts:

I couldn't hear the Chipmunk

You could hear the Chipmunk.

So then I typed in "Why doesn't the listen button work on GARBLED TRANSLATE"? on Google.

A few seconds later, I got to a website that kindly informed me

<Idiot- there is no "bug." Whitelist "google.com" on your "flash blocker">.

Intrigued- largely by being called an idiot- I decided to find out what "whitelist" and "flash blocker" meant.

A few hours later, after much flailing about, I found some "instructions."

So I "whitelisted" my "flash blocker" for "google.com"

I did this without understanding- in any way- what these terms actually "meant," including the term <google.com>.

However, SUCCESS!!!

I can has vocals!

Thanks to you <Stoned Hedge>-

Important note for <ANNIE>-

Annie although I can has hearing now, if you check yourself you'll hear that the audio quality is terrible compared to your Q-files.

In addition, your Q-files all feature a uniform speaker with a good Eastern European accent and an extremely attractive voice.

So I'd still like all the Q-files you are willing to send me- they are the gold standard in my book.

But I was thinking- you could also use the GOOGLE TRANSLATION "listen" function to check out their pronunciation.

In the case of <Stoned Hedge's> Chipmunk example, the speaker "sounds Russian" to me but how would I know eh?

It also sounds like they are speaking into a two dollar microphone from the bottom of the ocean.

However I'm excited about this- I can has access!

Finally, hats off to your initiative to get the admins to grok on your idea, and to request a few of your Q-files.

I hope you send them the <Charousek> one.

In gratitude, I've taken the liberty of purchasing a life time membership for you to this club here:

<In the case of <Stoned Hedge's> Chipmunk example, the speaker "sounds Russian" to me but how would I know eh?>

Yep - that's the Russian sound... which I can't quite manage.

<I hope you send them the <Charousek> one.>

Yeah, I did... figuring I might as well send some names I'm actually sure about!

Btw, I've notified our tame Russian here that his assistance will be required for the pronunciations, so it's probably a matter of a few days to a week now.

Funny you should mention <Richard> no he adores you and against strict orders he even looked up your Player page and saw your photos.

He has taken this as unlimited license to tease me.

Also against strict orders he has investigated comments about his narration on my youtube channel page and his ego has inflated to Hindenberg sized proportions.

Seems to think he's indispensible to the project now...

He's not tame you see.

Possibly I will choose a Russian lad for my next boyfriend.

<Richard> is used to your voice now and I also prefer it.