'twas harder than I thought, but in the end it might have turned out as something useful... in all fairness the practical implications need further thought and attention...

No hurries, no worries - we're winning, anyway.

Have you seen the shots taken in western Pennsylvania (on BFRO.net)? The so-called "Jacob's creature." Looks interesting. I think I do know the shots you were describing on top of a mountain. I think they're on BFRO.net as well.

Congrats on your chess successes, especially on taking out a 2000-er! Excellent, excellent! I play sparodically. If you don't mind my sharing, here's a little combo I sprung in a blitz game on gameknot a few nights ago against a 1700er (this is the position as I recalled it after the game [I'm playing White]):

click for larger view

I'd sacced a pawn to try to open things up, but Black seems to have the advantage--two bishops against two Knights, with White's pawn center somewhat vulnerable. But White actually has a forcing combo: 1 Rxg7+ Kxg7 (1...Kh8 2 Qh6) 2 Rg1+ Kh8 (2...Kf6 3 Qh6#) 3 Qg3 Bf6 (if 3...Rg8, then 4 Nf7#. But now Black looks all right--the g7 and g8 squares are covered)) 4 Qg8+ Rxg8 5 Nf7#

"My style is somewhere between that of Tal and Petrosian," is sometimes circulated as an ironic comment but makes more sense in its full context; from his book Great Chess Upsets: "I am essentially a positional player, although I can conduct an assault with precision and vigor, when the opportunity arises. My style lies between that of Tal and Petrosian. It is neither over-aggressive nor too passive. My strength consists of a fighting spirit, a great desire to win, and a stubborn defense whenever in trouble. I rarely become discouraged in an inferior situation, and I fear no one."

Fischer wrote an article called "A Bust to the King's Gambit" when he was about 17. Teenager refutes world's most venerable chess gambit shock! Probably also a dig at the Russkis, cos Spassky used to play the King's Gambit.

The Fischer Defence wasn't totally new: it was based on playing solidly with ...d6 rather than the wilder countergambit style (...g5 leading to the Muzio etc) popular in the 1800s. The ...d6 idea was known, but RJF fortified it.

Nor did it bust the King's Gambit, which has bounced back. In fact, I bet we see a resurgence soon, due to the dreaded Petrov.

Although, if you want a surprise weapon after 1.e4 e5, try the Four Knights: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6, and now the gambit line 4.d4 exd5 5.Nd5 is fun.

Sound like a politician today, don't I? Answering every question but the one asked.

Me, too. And for some reason I can play quite well in time trouble (at tournament speed) as long as I've had a couple of long ruminations earlier. I'm terrible at blitz: with 5 mins or less for a game, I go to pieces. Sic.

But after years of quoting Botvinnik when offered a speed game -- "young man, I haff not a blitz game played for forty of your human years", or words to that effect -- I finally succumbed on Friday, went to the chess club, and played several games -- both 5 and 10 mins, various opponents (probably all with ratings a little lower than mine, but all very used to blitz style of play... attack, surprise, counter-attack, cheapo, tactic, shazam, mate...). I won a few and lost a few, and agreed draws in some where we both lost on time. Did okay, really, but I still don't think it's chess.

In my very first game I was a rook up, and got mated while trying to find the best winning plan. Heh. The gods of Blitz laugh out loud (an ugly sound, Super-Lollerizing across the sky like psychotic thunder or Thor with a hangover) whenever they hear the word 'plan'.

From now on, it's 30 mins per player per game, minimum. Rapid I can live with. Blitz, not. And Bullet...

"Listen all you bullets that never hit
A lot of throats are growing
In open collars..."

- Leonard Cohen, Bullets.

<Jess> Hi, G'day... counter-EMUlation and EMphatic EMolument on the way, when I get my head together, man. I am literally between computers, if you can visualize such a weird metaphysical condition.

"Eh, what's that? I musta left my ears in the flash memory. And my liver's in longterm storage somewhere, and the backup won't boot. Also, my brain seems to be incompatible with the entire cosmos."

Regards,
your wacky pal Jess>

I've always been a head of my Tim.

Did you have a fun Hollow Weenie? Must be scary spying for the great leaderhosen down under. I didn't dress up this year. Bearded ladies are so passe and besides I shaved it off. Have you considered teaching your munchikins chess? That might be a good way to learn some new words. They can repay you by teaching you go which I think you would fall hard for. Keep those coded messages flowing.

What a wonderful Halloween it was. Chess is in the air-- I'm having a GRAND time over on <letsplaychess.com>.

These YouTube videos from there have me all fired up.

I recommend <kingscrusher>, <majnu> (a strong Club Player from Holland!), and <canstein2>.

You can see their analyses just by going to Youtube and typing in their names in the search box.

I've given up TV altogether it seems- After a hard day's work It's just more interesting to study chess and chess history, since my brain is WAY TOO TIRED to play competitively. Heh. If your brain is tired, then turn "study" into "entertainment."

I'm a CHESS NERD. Ok I admit it. Sue me.

Speakin' a which, have you checked out this tournament?

Game Collection: WCC Index [Candidates Tournament 1959]

<Fischer <<<age 16>>>, Petrosian, Olaffson, Keres, Smyslov, Tal, Gligoric, and Benko.

This is one of the strongest tournaments in the history of chess, I thinks.

Many of the games have very interesting kibbutzing by <CG.com> experts, including historical background and tactical analysis with engine help.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Can you imagine if you had a vacation where you got to attend this tournament? And in 3 different cities, too.

But between you, <mack>, <Niels>, and <Eyal>, "you guys" together <know everything>.

Same with me, Dom...

30mins was my minimum as well- and obviously for good reason, as you pointed out. But instead of being lured into some faster timecontrols by some youngsters at a club, I have succesfully made an effort to play 10min games against the Chessmaster clubmembers...

And just now I lost a game on time (what the heck) as I decided to play it out against my Rybka, since I thought this endgame should be a 100% win- and wanted to check if my assumption was correct, rather than worry about the few lousy points as was about to lose... So I decided to resign and copy the position to Rybka.

Here's that position

click for larger view

Looking for several minutes at this- I envisaged a possible set-up, what I thought would be hard to avoid for White-- and a must win position for Black:

click for larger view

And while my engine disagreed with every move I made I went on with my "plan".... And sure enough, some 6 moves later I got to this won position

click for larger view

Comp eval after 20 secs: minus 1.5

after 90 secs: minus 3.1

after 3 minutes: still -3.1

"They" do understand very little about these sort of positions...

But I adore them.

Funny thing a bit later in this position...

click for larger view

Here I played f7-f6, saccing one of the two f-pawns, in order to free f7 for my Knight and get the h-pawn -- shazaaaammm easy win but my engine doesn't even think of that move! hehe

It considered the pointless (heh) Ne4 as the best move for Black... Mind you -- still eval at minus 3.5 - for crying out loud!

So after the above game I played this morning, I have arrived - after two weeks of playing a lot of 10 min games - at the point that I no longer "see a point" in playing those fast time controls...

So, Dom, the *only* point in playing them, as I see it, is when you -plain and simple- derive pleasure from playing them -- Enjoying the excitement and the challenge...

I know that former Dutch GM Jeroen Piket (once close to top 10 in the world - from memory) played Blitz 24/7 - with his brother Marcel... But I can't recall him saying it helped his chess after reaching top level... Fact is though, that he played thousends of Blitz games as a kid - and it surely formed him as a talented youngster, to become familiar with a large number of openings - to just name one benefit.

For a geezer like umm..."me".. it is a different tale all together...

From my experience, someone almost invariably looks at the board for a few seconds and suddenly says "checkmate"... There's a better-than-average attempt to represent a dramatic finish at the beginning of <From Russia with Love> (the "Kronsteen – McAdams" game), based on Spassky vs Bronstein, 1960, though interestingly it's not exactly the same position. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail... has an interesting bit about that, with some references at the end (in the part titled "From Leningrad with Love").

And the other person acts like he didn't see that mate in one coming.

That's still okay.

Game Collection: WCC Index [Candidates Tournament 1959]

<Fischer <<<age 16>>>, Petrosian, Olaffson, Keres, Smyslov, Tal, Gligoric, and Benko.

This is one of the strongest tournaments in the history of chess, I thinks.

Many of the games have very interesting kibbutzing by <CG.com> experts, including historical background and tactical analysis with engine help.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Can you imagine if you had a vacation where you got to attend this tournament? And in 3 different cities, too.

Thanks for your wonderful posts about "pop chess" and the TITANIC Candidates Tourney. I see you've reverted to your "old ploy" of NEVER posting in your own forum.

Funny you should ask--- "hot dogs" make me barf, personally.

But the Koreans are MAD about them.

Every street corner has a <Korean hot dog> vendor.

But these are "special hot dogs".

A. (Lars will be relieved)-- None of these hot dogs are made out of "real dogs". They are made out of piggies.

B. They are on a "stick". No buns, ever.

C. They have at least ten times as much fat as "Canadian hotdogs".

I believe they are about 7000 calories each.

Do they have <Indian hot dogs>?

Do they have curry?