offramp Member since Aug-16-03 · Last seen Jan-12-26 Some chess books that I think are outstanding: 1. <Fundamental Chess Endgames>, by Müller & Lamprecht, reprinted 2020. 400pp+, £25. 2. <Secrets of Practical Chess>, by Dr Nunn. 256pp (the USUAL 256pp!, i.e. the usual 2^8). £20. 3. <Capablanca's Best Chess Endings>, Irving Chernev's best work. 300pp. £15. 4. <107 Great Chess Battles 1939-1945>, written by Alexander Alekhine, but edited by Edward Winter. 256pp, £15. 5 (a) <Petrosian Year by Year Volume 1 (1942-1962)>, and - Karolyi & Gyozalyan, 484pp. (b) <Petrosian Year by Year Volume 2 (1963-1984)> - Karolyi & Gyozalyan, 516pp. They are £34 each. I bought one, then a few months later, the other volume. They are available in Kindle format! 6. <The Queen's Gambit Accepted: A Sharp and Sound Response to 1. d4> by Chris Ward. Ward wrote a superb book about the QGD, many years ago. I think this is useful for a book about the QGA. A total antidote to 1. d4, 2. c4. And now some total clinkers. NOT those well-known garbage chess books. The following are really bad chess books. 1. <Capablanca: A Compendium of Games, Notes, Articles, Correspondence, Illustrations and Other Rare Archival Materials on the Cuban Chess Genius Jose Raul Capablanca, 1888-1942> by Edward Winter. 360pp. c. £35. The title is the best thing. 2. <Larsen: Move by Move> - Cyrus Lakdawala Paperback, 488pp. 3. <Emanuel Lasker Volumes 1, 2 & 3 - Forster, Negele & Tischbierek>. £55 each. This book is unbelievably boring and tedious. Just look through it, then forget about it. AT THIS SAME TIME a totally superb book has just come out: <Emanuel Lasker All Games Volume 1 & 2: 1889-1940 (2 books)>, £55 for two books: Volume 1 covers the time Lasker became World Champion and played matches against Steinitz (twice for the World Championship), Bird and Blackburne amongst others. He also took part several famous tournaments including Hastings 1895, St Petersburg 1895-96 and Nuremberg 1896. Volume 2 covers the time Lasker played matches against Marshall, Tarrasch, Janowski, Schlechter and Capablanca for the World Championship. He also took part several famous tournaments including St Petersburg 1914, New York 1924, Moscow 1935 & 1936 and Nottingham 1936. Hardbacks, 388 and 342 pages, Russian Chess House. A real bargain. 4. <Pal Benko : My Life, Games and Compositions>, £140. Who is the most famous chess player out of Benko and Fischer? Who published the most plush, most opulent book? Benko. ..... Here are another 7 books: <He received a letter from his bookseller, informing him that only seven copies had been sold, and concluding with a polite request for the balance. Scythrop <[SKI-throp]> did not despair. <Seven copies,> he thought, <have been sold. Seven is a mystical number, and the omen is good. Let me find the seven purchasers of my seven copies, and they shall be the seven golden candlesticks with which I will illuminate the world.>.>

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offramp has kibitzed 25169 times to chessgames   [more...]

Jan-12-26 Georg Rotlewi    offramp: <Chessical>, Rotlewi was described as a "tireless walker". At first I read that he was a "wireless talker"... Like Kramnik's non-stop internet complaints on YouTube.      Jan-12-26 A Somoff vs A Spice, 2008   offramp: <whiteshark>. Spice controls the whole board.      Jan-12-26 A Vitolinsh vs Bronstein, 1975    offramp: I didn't get the pun at all, possibly I have never watched <"Alvin & The Chipmunks">. I watched the film with the guy from <"My Name is Earl">. The star was okay but the three chipmunks were unbearable. I couldn't understand a word they said. Perhaps I could have watched      Jan-12-26 offramp chessforum   offramp: White is puzzled... [Event "III Itt Temuco 2026"] [Site " https://lichess.org/broadcast/iii-i... "] [Date "2026.01.12"] [Round "6.2"] [White "Flores Quillas, Diego Saul Rodri"] [Black "Flores, Diego"] [Result "*"] [WhiteElo "2400"] [WhiteTitle "IM"] ...      Jan-12-26 Yuri Gonzalez Vidal   offramp: Yuri Gonzalez Vidal went on holiday to Mexico and saw a bullfight. And we saw gore Vidal.      Jan-11-26 Tata Steel Masters (2026)    offramp: Vincent Keymer. 🇩🇪 4 2776 22 Erigaisi Arjun. 🇮🇳 5 2775 19 Anish Giri. 🇳🇱 6 2760 32 Four of the 13 players are Indians. There are 2 Uzbeks, 2 Dutch. Just one American, Niemann. He speaks Dutch.      Jan-10-26 J Hu vs S Badacsonyi, 2025   offramp: 14...Nb7. [DIAGRAM] White does not want to castle. It looks risky. White wasn't sure what to do. Instead, he played a2-a4, then a5 and a6, creating an important outpost for his knight at b7. 20. Nb7. [DIAGRAM] 20...e3 21. f3. Mate in 3.      Jan-10-26 Firouzja vs D Lazavik, 2025   offramp: I was drawn to this game from the home page. Some other people were discussing Two Knights (C58) . In a blitz game GM Firouija played the 2♘ opening. I was interested to see the modern ideas in this very ancient opening. Here is a new one: White had played 4. Ng5, that is      Jan-09-26 Kasparov vs Nunn, 1989    offramp: It's a really good game, mainly because Kasparov is White against the King's Indian, which he normally played as Black. White had a big shock but managed to defend.      Jan-09-26 Mackenzie - Reichhelm US Championship (1867)    offramp: I have played through these games and I have found them interesting, but not setting the world on fire. I think that MacKenzie was <professional>, but not exciting. He did not really give his opponent a chance, he outclassed him.

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Ye Olde Offrampe Predicktions

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 1 OF 86 ·  Later Kibitzing> Apr-21-06    WannaBe: Please allow me to be the first one to kibitz on <offramp>'s page. =) Apr-21-06    offramp: Welcome to my chess forum. A O'Brien vs R Morgan, 1991 is a good game. There is an unusual position after 28....g5. click for larger view Here is analysis by Fritz 8: 1. (3.87): 29.a4 Bf5 30.Re5 Nd3+ 2. (2.81): 29.h4 gxh4 30.gxh4 a5 31.a4 Nb1 32.h5 h6 3. (2.59): 29.a3 4. (2.56): 29.f3 a5 30.a4 White is obviously winning; but the moves suggested by Fritz all look like waiting moves. Apr-21-06    blingice: <offramp> Now you are TRULY welcomed to the site. :D That is indeed an odd position, because white seems to be on the verge of loss, but black does also. What do you plan to do with your Chessforum? Would you like to play your Fritz against my Chessmaster? Apr-21-06    offramp: <blingice: <offramp> Now you are TRULY welcomed to the site. :D That is indeed an odd position, because white seems to be on the verge of loss, but black does also. What do you plan to do with your Chessforum? Would you like to play your Fritz against my Chessmaster?> Thank you for the welcome! I would like to play a comp-comp match soon; not immediately, though. I have never played one before. Do you play like a move-a-day or something? I think I'd like to play the Polugaevsky Sicilian. So I left Fritz looking at the position overnight, and here are its top 7 lines: O'Brien,A - Morgan,R, Barbican Rapid 2004 click for larger view Analysis by Fritz 8: 1. (4.03): 29.g4 a5 30.h4 h6 31.f4 gxf4 32.g5 hxg5 33.hxg5 Ne6 34.Re8+ Kg7 35.Rg8+ 2. (4.03): 29.a4 Bg6 30.Rxa7 Rb4 31.Bf7 Kg7 32.Nd5 Nxd5 33.Bxd5+ Kf6 34.a5 Ke5 35.Bg2 3. (3.65): 29.h4 gxh4 30.gxh4 Nb1 31.Bxd3 Nxd3+ 32.Kf1 Rxf2+ 33.Kg1 Rxf6 34.Rxb1 Rb6 35.Rd1 Rd6 36.Rxa7 Rg6+ 4. (3.15): 29.f4 gxf4 30.gxf4 a6 31.h4 Rg2 32.f5 Bxf5 33.Re8+ Kg7 34.Rg8+ Kxf6 35.Rxg2 5. (3.12): 29.a3 a5 30.h4 gxh4 31.gxh4 Nb1 32.h5 h6 33.Bxd3 Nxd3+ 34.Kf1 Rxf2+ 35.Kg1 Rxf6 6. (3.09): 29.f3 a6 30.h4 h6 31.a4 gxh4 32.gxh4 Bg6 33.h5 Bf5 34.Re5 7. (3.00): 29.h3 a5 30.h4 gxh4 31.gxh4 Nb1 32.a4 h5. Very unusual. Apr-22-06    blingice: <offramp: Do you play like a move-a-day or something?> Oh, it's basically whenever you get the time, as computers don't think when we don't have them switched on. Apr-23-06    offramp: Are there any girls called Junior? Apr-23-06    EmperorAtahualpa: <offramp> I don't recognize your avatar. What is it? Apr-23-06    offramp: Crowley, Larry and Moe; it's Aleister Crowley and Larry & Moe Fine. Chessgames have a 48x48 pixel limit wcich is pretty bloody restictive! Apr-23-06    offramp: The Lutine Bell. I suppose it is rung more and more frequently nowadays. There is so much more shipping on the sea. All that oil. And all that thundering noise. The noise that disrupts the navigation of dolphins and whales and porpoises. They end up getting caught in drift-nets because of all that noise. World governments are supposed to be getting rid of drift-nets because of that problem. But they aren't. People should be more vocal. So really society is to blame. We are all guilty. We are all guilty that the Lutine Bell rings incessantly. Apr-23-06    Gregor Samsa Mendel: <offramp>--Get the names of your Stooges right. http://www.threestooges.com/bios/bi... Apr-23-06    offramp: Is it better to have more suicide bombers or less? Apr-23-06    offramp: <Gregor Samsa Mendel: <offramp>--Get the names of your Stooges right. http://www.threestooges.com/bios/bi...; Oh yeah! I mixed up the brothers... I meant Aleister & Joe DeRita and Curley Howard. I'm a woman anyway, so what would I know? Not really. Apr-23-06    EmperorAtahualpa: Hang on, isn't there a relation between the Three Stooges and AJ's favorite quote "nyuk, nyuk, nyuk"? Apr-23-06    Gregor Samsa Mendel: http://www.threestooges.com/downloa... Apr-23-06    EmperorAtahualpa: I knew it. :) Apr-23-06    offramp: I wish chessgames.com was a bit more like the imdb in its searches. If you type in 'Konstantinopolsky' you get, "Sorry, we have no names that exactly match 'KONSTANTINOPOLSKY' in our database". There's not even a few suggestions. The imdb would at least have a few suggestions. Apr-23-06    azaris: Tell me about it. I've yet to reach the Roman Dzindzichashvili page. Apr-24-06    acirce: The most ridiculous thing is that you can't reach the page of someone like Ståhlberg by typing in his real name, you have to use this bizarre English convention of replacing 'å' with 'a' instead. <Sorry, we have no names that exactly match ' HLBERG' in our database.> Huh? Or Hübner, etc. Apr-24-06    suenteus po 147: <acirce> As Americans we reserve the right to mispronounce and misspell anything we like, including the English language and American names! Apr-24-06    acirce: And "Leko" should probably be written "Lékó" like I see that the Hungarians do. Apr-24-06    suenteus po 147: Leko= pronounced "Lee-ko" or "Smith." Apr-26-06    offramp: Why not make soccer matches officially 93 minutes long and dispense with injury time? Apr-26-06    offramp: There's an old hoax : which three English words end in the letters -gry. In fact there are only 2 - hungry and angry. There is, however, a Scottish word 'greegriment': "There is one Scottish Rosslyn Templar who argues vociferously that the Letter 'G' indicates GREEGRIMENT, an old Scots word meaning harmony or concord." So if you have greegriment you might well have greegry. Apr-26-06    offramp: Samuel Beckett didn't know much about chess: 'The Australian writer and actor Lawrence Held recalls having asked Beckett, during a rehearsal in West Berlin, what Endgame was about. After a moment’s pained look, Beckett recovered and, referring to a chess tournament under way at the time, responded, “Well, it’s like the last game between Karpov and Korchnoi. After the third move both knew that neither could win, but they kept on playing”.' Apr-26-06    offramp: He may have been referring to Korchnoi vs Karpov, 1989 - he died in 1989. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 86) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 1 OF 86 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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