chessgames.com
Members · Prefs · Laboratory · Collections · Openings · Endgames · Sacrifices · History · Search Kibitzing · Kibitzer's Café · Chessforums · Tournament Index · Players · Kibitzing
 
Chessgames.com User Profile Chessforum

offramp
Member since Aug-16-03 · Last seen Jan-15-26
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.>.>

>> Click here to see offramp's game collections.

Chessgames.com Full Member
   Current net-worth: 1,436 chessbucks
[what is this?]

   offramp has kibitzed 25186 times to chessgames   [more...]
   Jan-14-26 Keymer vs Carlsen, 2023
 
offramp: Keymer Rouge.
 
   Jan-14-26 Julien Song
 
offramp: He is taking part in a serious match in Madrid ESP against Levy Rozman. 90 min + 30 sec / move. 15th & 16th January 2026. https://lichess.org/broadcast/gotha...
 
   Jan-14-26 Tata Steel Masters (2026) (replies)
 
offramp: <macer75> you are right! Hopefully people will somehow find my page.
 
   Jan-14-26 offramp chessforum
 
offramp: I am going to run two competitions but it's possible I am the only entrant.
 
   Jan-14-26 Garry Kasparov (replies)
 
offramp: <Petrosianic>. I dislike stories about the 3rd Reich... Kasparov was expounding about Molotov and Stalin and the Germans. I could have followed the details but I <hate> checking WWII facts on Google because you get sucked into a whirlwind of right-wing horror. So I am ...
 
   Jan-14-26 J Puccini vs J P Gomez, 2015 (replies)
 
offramp: Good pun and a good game. The final move is hard-to-spot! I was expecting some hay-maker final blow, but it is a quiet move. In fact, that last move, 19. Qd2, could be a <CREEPING MOVE>. Creeping moves can only made by queens; Spassky specialised in them.
 
   Jan-14-26 Dickson
 
offramp: The modern version is: <Innit wot I done better what I ain't never done ain't I ever dun I wot I ain't never done INNIT??>
 
   Jan-13-26 C Gilberg vs Dickson, 1866 (replies)
 
offramp: That's a great pun, and the game has a really good ending! BTW, Sally Simpson, instead of referencing the Washington Bridge, would you be interested in buying the Brooklyn Bridge?
 
   Jan-13-26 Caro-Kann, Panov-Botvinnik Attack (B14)
 
offramp: TAKE the pawn on d5 and KEEP it and win! Ah HAA HA HA HA HA!!!
 
   Jan-13-26 G L House vs S Williams, 2018
 
offramp: The move that surprised me was 17...c6. °°°°°°° This is the 10,000th episode of the Famous Dutch Queen manoeuvre: ...Qe8 then ...Qh5.
 
(replies) indicates a reply to the comment.

Ye Olde Offrampe Predicktions

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 45 OF 86 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Aug-01-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Now that the two founders have gone, what will become of the site?

Does this site earn money? Would anyone want to buy it?

I have had a wonderful vision!

An entrepreneur buys the site. He is highly computer literate.

He has a look at the most popular pages on the site. Kenneth S Rogoff and The Kibitzer's Café.

His stomach churns. He cannot believe his eyes!

Like Captain Queeg he orders a complete overhaul of the ship from stem to stern. All fractious posts are deleted.

In a night of the long knives twenty kibitzers and all their posts are annihilated.

What a joyous day that would be!

Aug-01-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: My favourite poem about the reality of death, by one of America’s greatest poets, Wallace Stevens.

Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Aug-01-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: How about this?
chessgames.com chessforum (kibitz #29870)

<B1g pwn: Who is in charge of this site now? I have a complaint of criminal threatening.

<Trav1s B1ckle: B.P., I only have a few weeks left on this site.. Then I will spend my time hunting you down a$$#0le! A good friend of mine is a lifer as a Seal in the Navy.. He's working on your IP Address.. When I have your address tough guy I'm going to punch the **** out of you f*gg**!!>

Is this site out of control now that Daniel has passed, or is someone in charge here?

For whatever it's worth, I am going to file a complaint here https://www.ic3.[etc]/splas...

Just to be on the safe side. A lot of people make criminal threats online, including stalking, like this threat, and threats of physical harm, and then they are on the news.

So even though Daniel just died and no one wants to hear this, that's not excuse to condone criminal threatening and stalking.

I've got to do what I've got to do.>
*****
I do not know if that is funny or incredibly sad. These people are savages. Rogoff and KC, Rogoff and KC...

Aug-01-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Note to self: <NEVER GET OUT OF THE BOAT>.
Aug-01-18  morfishine: <offramp> Its times like this where people act strangely and out of character (or in character depending on one's point of view). <tpstar>'s post was a class-less act that not only attacked <Mark> but was a slap in the face to Daniel. What are people thinking when they do such stupid things?

I have to side with <BP> on that one since <TB> made about as direct a threat as one could make

Rogoff is one thing and should be just that one. But now a bunch of dirty ruffians have overrun the Cafe. Thats a real pity. Imagine a new member finding his way around the site. He may decide "The Kibitzer Cafe looks like a great place to start". And then he sees all the garbage being slung back and forth and he can only wonder what kind of nut house <CG> really is. A real pity

Nice poem

*****

Aug-01-18  Count Wedgemore: I fully agree with <morf> that the Cafe is the no.1 problem that really should be dealt with, one way or another, on this site. The Rogoff forum is a more obscure forum, it took myself quite a while to even discover it after I had joined this site, while the KC is a sort of portal or gateway to all the different forums and arenas. How many new members must have stumbled on there, perhaps to ask a question, get help or something, only to discover the resident drunkards (given some of the comments they really do seem intoxicated or something)) spewing all kinds of insults against anyone who dares entering "their" territory? And what's up with all these endless Youtube links? That place is really a mess.
Aug-02-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: The Caruana-Carlsen match is going to be in London! In Holborn! Ain't that great?
Aug-02-18  morfishine: <offramp> That is terrific! Will you get a chance to see them playing in person? That would be the experience of a lifetime: Besides all the celelbs, media & chess vendors peddling their various chess wares, there's the food vendors!
Aug-02-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: <morfishine> I certainly intend to go this time: I have missed all of the London Classics and various matches.

The most high-level event I have ever spectated in person was Smyslov vs Ribli, 1983. It was very dull and apart from the bookstands there wasn't much else to do. It is different nowadays.

The match will be right in the centre of London!

Aug-03-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  Check It Out: I went to one of the london Chess classics, 2012 I believe, and it was terrific. Met a few chessgames folks, played some chess with them, and visited some pubs. Did not meet harry.

Enjoy the world championship match, it should be a lifetime memory.

Aug-03-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: <Check It Out: I went to one of the london Chess classics, 2012 I believe, and it was terrific. Met a few chessgames folks, played some chess with them, and visited some pubs. Did not meet harry. Enjoy the world championship match, it should be a lifetime memory.>

If I go this time, I hope I will see you there.

I know the area around Holborn extremely well.

Directly opposite the venue is a very beautiful arcade called <Sicilian Avenue>.

Will that be a harbinger?

Aug-03-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: I like this old limerick:
There was a young lady of Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger;
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger.

I also like this post:
<tpstar:
<harrylime>
<Dr Winston OBoogie>
<Enough with the fake "mourning" over the tragic loss of Daniel Freeman and your childish reactions prove that you only care about yourselves. <fab4>/<harrylime> tormented our Webmaster for eight full years from 2010 to 2018, and career criminal <Mark Finan> really tormented our Webmaster for eight full years from 2010 to 2018. Everyone else read the same things I did, Dot Dot Dot. Just think about how much more he could have done in chess, except you two unrepentant rulebreakers wasted hundreds of hours of his time with your rulebreaking damage. Yes I said hundreds.

You never cared about Daniel at all, but you already miss the special treatment.

I will finish out the criminal cases myself, and I do not care what anyone else says or thinks or does.>>

Aug-03-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Does anyone else here think that this site might not survive the year?
Aug-03-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: I was thinking today about British politician John Stonehouse. You can read about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_...

...And because I was watching cricket I also thought of Lord Dexter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timot...

In the news in May of this year was a superb journalist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkad...

Aug-03-18  Count Wedgemore: <offramp: I like this old limerick: <There was a young lady of Niger Who smiled as she rode on a tiger>>

Well, 'Niger' and 'Tiger' are pronounced differently, so this sorry state of affairs must surely lead to a points deduction on the <Internet Huskisson Sliding Limerick Appraisal Index (IHSLAI).>

Aug-03-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: <Count Wedgemore> you are right there.

I first heard this limerick as an original Edward Lear limerick, but the woman was from Riga!

https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/...

But it is NOT by Lear, Riga does NOT have tigers (and nor does Niger), and neither Niger nor Riga rhyme with "tiger"...

And you are right - the IHSLAI gives this a disastrous 0.9 points!

The name of the place and the type of animal both need to be changed.

But by then the poem will have lost a lot of its point.

Aug-03-18  thegoodanarchist: <offramp: The Caruana-Carlsen match is going to be in London! In Holborn! Ain't that great?>

I really don't know. Never been to Holborn myself, so I cannot speak to the quality of the venue.

Aug-03-18  thegoodanarchist: < offramp:

If I go this time, I hope I will see you there. >

This was directed to <CIO>. However, I'd like to add that I hope to see you in person too. Especially if you look like your Avatar, Albert Pike.

If not, I think I would be disappointed, even if you look BETTER than Pike!

Aug-03-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: <tga> did you see the post at offramp chessforum (kibitz #1099) ?
Aug-03-18  thegoodanarchist: <offramp: <tga> did you see the post at offramp chessforum (kibitz #1099) ?>

I did see that post. And frankly, I can't always tell when you are being serious and when you are jesting.

Is that really you? Or is it a jest?

Aug-04-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: <tga> I understand what you mean about how it's hard to tell if I'm serious or not, but that's really me.
Aug-04-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Gap-maker poem:

<Is this picture of Picasso's, this "hoard
Of destructions", a picture of ourselves,

Now, an image of our society?
Do I sit, deformed, a naked egg,

Catching at Good-bye, harvest moon,
Without seeing the harvest or the moon?

Things as they are have been destroyed.
Have I? Am I a man that is dead

At a table on which the food is cold?
Is my thought a memory, not alive?

Is the spot on the floor, there, wine or blood
And whichever it may be, is it mine?>

*****

Did you see this? Why do people even LOOK at the KC??

Kibitzer's Café (kibitz #235563)

<If Daniel died of a heart attack, I think <W1nston> and <H@rry> can take a lot of blame for his death, frankly.

<M@rk> AKA <W1nston> is a con man. He said so himself. What he does is buys a user a membership "anonymously" and then tells them, along with some kind of &%?£ heartfelt, true blue compliment. Then he sends them messages on FB so consummate their "friendship". Then he spills his guts about his drug life and the <MOUNTAIN> he has overcome, pathetically calling for their sympathy. Then he gets a pat on the head, just for almost being normal now, and he uses this flattery, this con, to con certain members of this site into defending him, because trolling on this site is of the utmost importance to this kid.

This site losers, like <M@rk>, <H@rry> and <Tr@vis> can't help themselves, so we should have some understanding at the end of the day, but we should also understand everything.

It really comes down to their upbringing. Parenting really matters and people are brought up differently. It makes a difference if your folks go to church and live right, versus if your mother is a whore who goes to the bar 5 nights a week and brings men home when Dad is away.

All of that matters...>

Savagery in the time of retrospection.

Aug-04-18  thegoodanarchist: < offramp: <tga> I understand what you mean about how it's hard to tell if I'm serious or not, but that's really me.>

It's an excellent likeness, sir!

I see you've spared no expense. And you look nothing like King Leopold the XXVI, nor even Albert Pike.

Aug-05-18  morfishine: <thegoodanarchist> I couldn't pass on your comment: <...And you look nothing like King Leopold the XXVI, nor even Albert Pike> I respectfully disagree. If <offramp> were to carefully let his beard grow out while diligently trimming and grooming, he would be the spitting image of Mr. Pike

It'd be a Pikeness Likeness !

Aug-05-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: The beard is very recent. It got some good reviews after I started it so I kept it.

I’m just an average overweight, over aged London geezer.

I see friends and acquaintances dying young.

I think, “I’m older than Alekhine, Tal, Petrosian and Capablanca when they died.”

Scary.

Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 86)
search thread:   
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 45 OF 86 ·  Later Kibitzing>

NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! If you already have a username, then simply login login under your username now to join the discussion.

Please observe our posting guidelines:

  1. No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language.
  2. No spamming, advertising, duplicate, or gibberish posts.
  3. No vitriolic or systematic personal attacks against other members.
  4. Nothing in violation of United States law.
  5. No cyberstalking or malicious posting of negative or private information (doxing/doxxing) of members.
  6. No trolling.
  7. The use of "sock puppet" accounts to circumvent disciplinary action taken by moderators, create a false impression of consensus or support, or stage conversations, is prohibited.
  8. Do not degrade Chessgames or any of it's staff/volunteers.

Please try to maintain a semblance of civility at all times.

Blow the Whistle

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform a moderator.


NOTE: Please keep all discussion on-topic. This forum is for this specific user only. To discuss chess or this site in general, visit the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors.
All moderator actions taken are ultimately at the sole discretion of the administration.

Participating Grandmasters are Not Allowed Here!

You are not logged in to chessgames.com.
If you need an account, register now;
it's quick, anonymous, and free!
If you already have an account, click here to sign-in.

View another user profile:
   
Home | About | Login | Logout | F.A.Q. | Profile | Preferences | Premium Membership | Kibitzer's Café | Biographer's Bistro | New Kibitzing | Chessforums | Tournament Index | Player Directory | Notable Games | World Chess Championships | Opening Explorer | Guess the Move | Game Collections | ChessBookie Game | Chessgames Challenge | Store | Privacy Notice | Contact Us

Copyright 2001-2025, Chessgames Services LLC