The web actually abounds with <48 foot tall GIRAFFE images> as well.

I play on <Yahoo> chess only-

It's hardly the best option, but I know the ropes and I can get what I want there.

I only play <2 hours each time control>.

So what I do is I sign in to 6 rooms at the same time and create a board and then sit at it.

I set the time control for each of the six boards.

Then I click back and forth betwwen the boards until someone in the 1700-2000 ratings range sits and clicks "play game".

That's plenty strong enough opposition for me at this time- and the chat box is good.

good for people to whine in. That's almost the best part.

I hate internet chess. My mates at my chess club in Canada never whined. There is no chess club in Korea except in Seoul which is 500 miles away from my house.

Anyways on <Yahoo> it takes around ten or twenty minutes for me to find a game with this method.

I've been doing it for two and a half years.

Lots of people play at FICS.

It just struck me that if you did choose to go with a <Max Euwe> avatar, that it would sit at the top of the actual <Max Euwe Center for Chess Studies>.

Because our avatars are the first thing at the top of our profiles.

Thanks, GHOD it's been exhausting.

Only 13 pages to the record now but the closer it gets the further away it seems...

I used to think so but now I don't know there are A LOT of things i take HALFASSEDLY but perhaps I take alienation and isolation seriously...I was driving around Delaware looking for a specifically awful floor tile yesterday specifically requested by tasteless delawareians and the WHOLE DAMN STATE was getting me down its just another GDCOWTOWN!!

OK i'm going to run a few miles today to get that lymph circulatin'. Later with the JOKES.

Ma'am.

<Tasteless floor tiles> are an abomination.

In Montreal all the apartments have that <black and white> floor tiling in the bathrooms that they used to use in <mental hospitals>.

Thank you both for the tips and encouragement.

I've declared it "within my grasp" to be able to get a few decent <Euwe> pictures uploaded to the CG avatar DBase.

I even have a good friend with a digiCam, so I should be able to arrange a set of fine pics.

Euwe was an outstanding player, writer, teacher and FIDE president - and me using his name will have to be reflected, acknowledged, by an appropriate avatar.

Thanks for the encouragements! Really.

Then convert the whole thing to Giraffe.

Down at the bottom is Fischer's quote: "There's something wrong with that man. He's too normal."

Although I think Kmoch's quote is more accurate: "Euwe can only breathe freely when he is smothered in work."

Münninghoff's biographies and photos are renowned and top quality indeed.

Euwe wasn't the type to "hang around" - and he worked hard at all compartments of his game. Also he was not a monomaniac. He had a wide range of interests and talents, and treated them all with respect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgtK...

I found a very strong (in relation to me) player and we played a three game match.

Nice guy too.

Draw, Draw, and I won the last one!!

HAHAHAHA

Match win today.

He was a good "technical" player, very clean and "logical" moves.

He was looking to simplify to an even playing field at all times.

"Mr. Draw"

I checked his record and he did have a lot of draws.

He always tried to break the tension and open lines etc. so long as he didn't have to give any concessions to do so.

He was not reckless, however- far from it in fact.

But three parts felt very good to me:

1. I know I said I like beating the rude players most, but it's actually 10,000 times more pleasant to have a courteous opponent

2. I had to play one of those <dreaded> 2 R v Q endgames and after 70,000 moves I managed to reach a technically drawn position. That was torture, but then I pretended it was something I had to learn how to do and it became like a puzzle- I had the two Rooks + pawn against his Queen + pawn- And having played the other way round last month against my Shredder, I have to say I think it might be a bit easier to get the draw for the guy with the two rooks. Dunno.

3. In the final game of our Match, I managed to beat him in a technical K + P endgame in which I successfully took the time to actually "count out' a long variation that would land him in a perfect <zugzwang>-- and it wasn't an easy calculation either.

I was inspired in this project by the very excellent, and long, video annotation of a great <Yasser Seirawan> K + P endgame by <Dennis Rhinoceros> on <chessvideos.com>.

http://www.chessvideos.tv/forum/vie...

In that video, <Yasser> "counted out" a 22 move variation that won- rather precisely.

So my task was nowhere near as unclear or difficult-

But I'm very happy because I've been doing a lot of endgame study recently- an awful lot in fact.

Actually that's all I've been studying for several weeks.

Anyways, in the position, we had equal pawns on both wings and our Kings were literally "squared off" in the center of the board. But one of my pawns was passed- making me think that there had to be a win here somewhere- though of course that's not automatically true in every position like this. But, after taking a good long time to think here, I saw that it was possible to make very precisely ordered pawn advances in order to make sure that it was HIS turn to move when there would be no good move left.

If I had miscalculated this variation, I would have been in zugzwang and lost, despite having a passed pawn.

But I took the time and I was right about it too.

WHOOPA Cripe I've been playing chess for hours since the crack of dawn.

Playing a nice fellow- and playing three games in a row with the same guy- brought back fond memories of Chess Club experiences.

The internet is great, don't get me wrong- you can find a good game at any level at any time control 24/7 == which is kind of miraculous if you think about it.

But- and this is a BIG BUT (Bigger than Jennifer Lopez's butt even)--

THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR A CHESS CLUB WHERE YOU CAN SMELL YOUR OPPONENT AND EVEN, IF YOU REALLY WANTED, TIP THE WHOLE BOARD OVER HIGH IN THE AIR AND START SCREAMING

"I won! I won! I finally beat you!!"

Was that you guys who left all that <Garbage> in my house!

I spent all day cleaning that up.

I mean it's ok if you guys come in to use my stereo, but please clean up after.

http://www.labatechess.com/61_games...

I get all the latest directly from <Mr. Labate> because I"m on his <email list> and I'm happy to be. I enjoy his humor and dedication to chess, and to selling bona fide chess books, very much.

He is a witty, urbane, rational man and he is in no way "obsessed" by anything. He is just in a unique position to be a leader in debunking this appalling, and grotesque, fraud on <Bobby's> legacy.

I am totally convinced the book is false.

<Yasser Seirwan>, in particular, was adamant that he does not for one second believe that the book is genuine.

Ok I don't want a discussion of this topic in my forum here right now, but I have to say that having read so many of <Mr. Labate's> emails, and the emails he has forwarded to me, I just don't understand any motive he might have to discredit this book other than he firmly believes it's a fake.

I think by now that every person who cares to read through all of the published material about the book would come to the same conclusion.

But thanks to conspiracy buffs and con men, such "mysteries" remain mysteries long after they are "finally resolved."

Remember in <Annie Hall> where the guy is standing in line with his girlfriend to see a movie? And he is trying to impress her with his theories about <Marshall MacLuhan>?

Well in the movie <MacLuhan> walks up to them and says to the man, "You have no idea what you are talking about".

heh...

I think that if <Bobby> came back from the dead and denounced all of these fakers, there would still be plenty of people who would persist in "believing."

You know the difference between

"believing something to be true"

and

"believing in something"

When someone tells me they "believe in something" I start putting ear plugs in early, so as to save time.

"The truth" about everything is in fact "out there," but the odds of humans ever finding even a fraction of this truth are obviously impossible.

"Facts," however, are also out there, and many of them can "in fact" (heh) reliably be discerned. Obviously, in order to accomplish this difficult and important task, we rely on observation, experimentation, and, sometimes, finger prints and lie detector tests.

I know this because I watch a lot of <Crime and Medical Dramas> on TV.

That makes me an expert on epistemology.

Plus, it <is> true, since we are on the subject, that <Tori Spelling's head> is ridiculously too big for her body and she <does> wear hotpants all winter long.

If you don't have earplugs, then you can stick your fingers in your ears. If you use your thumbs, then you are able to wiggle the other fingers in derision. It really makes people angry--which is kind of the point.

http://veryrarebooks.blogspot.com/s...

From the few sentences on show in the pictures, it doesn't even sound like Fischer IMO.

Only a MORON would buy this book.