You said, if I recall, something about wanting to play or trying to play a Najdorf. All very well ... but dangerous when playing an inveterate deviater or an idiot. After 3.h3 it was still too soon to know which you were facing - he *could* have been a hyper-subtle reverse-hippo avant-garde type. Though it's unlikely, as 3.h3 is a bad move.

Unlike 3.a3, btw. I saw a 2200 guy get crushed by this recently: a kind of wing gambit with a3 and b4. But h3 ... naaah.

Once the guy had moved his knight from f3 to e5 to f3, you could be pretty sure his mistakes were actual, well, mistakes.

This is where it's useful to tell yourself: <There is no such thing as a Najdorf> - just a combination of pawn structure and piece development that suits your style, that you know how to play, etc.

In many irregular sicilians ...g6 demands to be played. Doesn't make it a Dragon: just a good place for a bishop.

Chess is an adventure game, innit? Can you still buy <dragon dung> from 'specialist stores'? Seemingly it scares off passing basilisks *and* gets you high as a pterosaur. If that's your cup of thermals.

And who could forget <The Chernobyl Yellow Face>?

Unless it's a [*cough*] Trekkie thing. That vapid android likes to dress up as Holmes, once loosing a virtual Moriarty on the galaxy. And Klingons holiday in Minsk.

Of course, that's after Belarus becomes rebranded as Soviet EuroDisney.

Scotty: "It disney work, i'm tellin' ye!" [a boom is heard].

<Queenie was a blonde, and her age stood still

And she danced twice a day in vaudeville.>

Hot off the press: the latest discoveries on the <Calyx of Held>, published today http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/sho...

I looked at your game. I'm sure most of us have had many similar experiences. A couple of years ago, I posted an especially frustrating game where I managed to miss about five wins.

3. h3? - at first glance I thought this was a move reversal intending 3. c3 Nf6 4. h3, a variation I sometimes play in blitz. 4..Nxe4?? is of course met by 5. Qa4+, but other reasonable moves are met by 5. Bd3 and followed by other weird moves designed to annoy the opponent :-)

Of course if he had been aiming for this he would have played 4. c3 instead of 4. e5 which to may eyes just looks ugly, ugly. This guy was not very strategically savvy, overall.

6...e5, as you pointed out, looks strong.

12. g3? What?! Bf4 is not a strong enough threat to warrant that kind of weakening.

Actually 21...Qxc2 may be the easiest way. Note that after Bxe5 fxe5 white's knight has no immediate squares (to jump to in order to create a discovered attack on e5).

Recently there's been something of a fashion for 3...h6 in the Tarrasch French, ie 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 h6 -- but if this can be played by black, what's so bad about white playing 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.h3 ...?

A few things. Black can play many different things on move 3 of a Tarrasch French -- I've played 3...c5, 3...a6, 3...Nf6, 3...Nc6, 3...b6 -- and there are others like ...Be7 just as good. One point is that if the centre is closed by a white e5, black can adopt a solid defensive posture in which ...h6 is useful.

But playing 3.h3 as white in the Sicilian actually causes problems. White still has to decide whether or not to play an early d4, ie choose an open or closed Sicilian. In any open line, h3 is a major tempo loss that hands black the initiative -- ...Bg4 or ...Ng4 are not threats worth preventing so early. And giving away the initiative in an open Sicilian is a very bad idea.

On the other hand, the Closed Sicilian is possibly even worse. White's normal pawn structure would involve d3 and g3, maybe f4 -- but h3 weakens the kingside: there's a hole on g3 if the f-pawn moves, and an overall weak structure if g3 is played. So black again gets a nice game.

It's just about playable, as a consciously risky move, by somebody who knows the pitfalls. Jess's opponent quickly proved he wasn't one of these.

I can remember, ten zillion years ago, playing in my very first schools chess competition, and knowing totally zilch about openings. I played 1.e4 and had to face the Sicilian twice. In one case, after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6, I tried 3.Bb5; in the other, 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.c3.

In neither case did playing 3.d4 occur to me; I had no idea it was the normal move, and I made something up. As it turned out, both my 'inventions' were good moves -- my point being that White has many good options at this point in a Sicilian. But they all do something useful, like develop a piece or fight for the centre. 3.h3 does neither.

But I agree with Ziggurat's last point as well -- you can have a completely won game that still drags out for 30 or 40 moves. Maybe because I play the French I'm used to having to win ve-ery slowly. You Sicilian types are so hot-blooded and impetuous.

*Wrench* ... *Heave* ... *pulls out plug*.

Here is a ton of beautiful and exciting material. Seven pages of listings, some 80 video clips. It took me the whole day today :-) Enjoy!

Here's a wonderful little tactic from -- Anand vs L Ravi, 1988

White to play - find the killer move (difficulty: MEDIUM/DIFFICULT)

click for larger view

Note: NO KIBITZING for this page yet (prior to my post today)

PS. I will go back to the Tukma-Karpov game IN DEPTH this weekend -- and I posted a game I won against <CRAFTY> at the Center yesterday that I was quite proud of -- once I got my King centralized (well before that already) the "beast" was just utterly powerless. (Rook+pawns endgame)

Well I failed on this. Qxh6+ Ke7 (forced) Qxg5+ is probably advantage White but it's nothing..

Qh8+ doesn't force anything or go anywhere.

I tried to make Qxh6+ Ke7 (forced) Ba2 work for a long time, but after Kd7 all White can do is force off every piece except King and pawns, with an unclear endgame.

Obviously, White must have a crushing preparatory move before the Queen does anything. That's as far as I can get... And I tried hard too.

Bg6 and the Bishop is immune-- if fxg6 then Qh8+ wins a Rook and the game, but Black doesn't have to take the White Bishop.

IE- I can't see anything else in the postion--

I don't see the immediate forcing threat of Bg6 because obviously Black is not going to take the Bishop fxg6...

HELP.. anyone..

IT'S DRIVING ME INSANE HELP ME>

HELP.. anyone..> Relaaaaax.....

Of course White has a forcing move... Queen takes (...)

(of course I wrote my post without knowing yours... Guess Jess has sunk in VERY DEEP thought now...)

Ok I know from trying it 800000 times that <Qxh6+> is not forcing,

Therefore Bg6 has to be the right idea.

Ok we know the Bishop is immune from caputre.

Ok so the Immediate threat Bg6 poses is...

OH!! Ok now since the Bishop is on g6, Black cannot afford to lose his bishop guarding the f7 square or it's Checkmate!!

I'm so stupid....

OK- Bg6- say Black does nothing-- IE, moves a6 or something--

Then Rxe6 <REMOVES THE GUARD> and attacks the Black Queen- black has no defence.

But does Black have any defence to Bg6?

If the Black Queen tries to cover the f7 square, then Qh8+...

And the DIFFERENCE now (due to the White Bishop on g6) is that no matter what square the Black Queen moves to that will protect the f7 square, NOW Bxe6 is crushing--

IE-

Bg6 Qc7 (for example)

and now Qh8+ Ke7

and NOW Rxe6+

And Black is shattered.

If he tries fxe6 then Qxe8+ (made possible cuz the Bishop is on g6).

On my BEST DAY if I had this position in a game on Yahoo, I MIGHT have figured out that Qxh6+ doesn't work and then I probably would have just grabbed the Black g and h pawns and tried to win from there.

No way in a MILLION YEARS would I have found Bg6! in a game.

No way, no way, no way.

Stupid Banana.

It's not as if he's World Champ or anything.

I was beginning to think I was stupid there for a while...

BTW are you excieted about GRAND PRICKS tournamnt!!!

It's starteing soon...

EVERYONE'S CHERING FOR THE MIDGET

(except on the <Carlsen> page, where they have been calling each other names and engaging in endless long repetetive pedantic and insufferable "arguments" for three days instead of posting anything about MAGNUM OPUS...)

Psychologically, it's "interesting" that none of these "people" seem able to take any kind of responsibility for their childishness, even on an internet chat site.

Imagine if you were married to them!!

(Monty Python sketch):

Luckily, the GRAND PRICKS should prove decisive, unless it isn't.

This should be a banner year for chess!