I'm brain-dead. Clinically, I suspect.

<3.Nc3> dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 (5.g3 b6 6.Bg2 Rb8 7.Nf3 Bb7) Ngf6 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6 7.c3 c5

<3.Nd2> Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ne2 Qb6 8.Nf3 cxd4 9.cxd4 f6 10.exf6 Nxf6 11.0-0 Bd6

<3.e5> c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.a3 c4

It is quite probable that in the rematch against GMVA a majority would vote for 1.e4 and play against above lines. What would you recommend for White?

Your odd off again and on again setting might have given you much more in the way of acceptance

Best,

*checks recent posts*

Hmmm.

*takes off glasses, looks in mirror*

I'm fully aware of your proverbial sense of balance. Many of us may have some knowledge of the French Defence, but you understand this opening and that is what matters most (irrespective of the line or the side of the board).

We'll solder on.

Place hasn't been the same without your imperious presence.

Thanks again, Hânh.

Your English can be stragely beautiful, even when that's not the effect you intended. It shows, too, just how hard translation really is.

I wrote somebody a letter in Swedish once. To a speaker of Asian languages, English and Swedish are close relatives. And I have been to Sweden several times, have Swedish friends, even had lessons in the language for a few weeks. I'm told that when I try to speak Danish, which is very similar, a Swedish accent comes through.

And yet my letter - before Google Translate and other net shortcuts - was effectively in baby-talk. Short simple sentences and a small vocabulary. I don't like to sound like a baby.

So, I'm curious. When you talk about my "odd off again and on again setting", is it *me* or my computer? Is it something I do? Like mood-swings? Erratic visiting hours to CG? Apparent changes of mind on current issues?

I can't tell. It *does*, however, sound like something I would do.

My best wishes, please don't be offended -- you're a star.

Meanwhile, a different sort of refreshment calls. Somebody gave me a bottle of a whiskey liqueur called Dubliner (I'd have preferred a Ulyss, but those Joyces are stingy).

I'm tasting it now. Honey in there somewhere, like they were distilling mead plus mountain dew. Probably dangerously strong, but the sweetness persuades one otherwise.

Sip. Yep, not bad.

In the words of Sir William Bunter QC, Conservative Member for Greystoke, Greyfriars & Concreton Central, "When in Rome, do as the Medes and Persians do".

For any event the times you comment are rich in other then normal bound constraints that make the SF community rich with possible thoughts from you :)

Sometimes I write clearly and try to communicate. Sometimes it's so cryptic and dense with puns that I don't understand it myself.

Sometimes I play chess fairly well, at a level above 2100. Somedays I play so badly that my level is 1000 points lower. Results bear this out, and I have no way of telling in advance which kind of day it is.

And sometimes I'm nice and sometimes I'm not so nice. At one point during the year, Mr Goldsby said that I was "cruel and strange". I almost wish it were true - it is, sometimes - but on other days I'm relatively kind and depressingly normal.

I'd love to write SF again. It's now 20 years since I published anything in the genre. I may even have lost touch with the future for a while, but I think I feel it coming back. Like chess and other addictions, the future will always come back if you wait for it.

I will write some SF in 2012. The ideas are ready to roll. Thanks in advance for your support.

As ever,