offramp Member since Aug-16-03 · Last seen Jan-10-26 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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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 Tata Steel Masters (2026)    offramp: It's wonderful to see this ancient tournament. This year this will be the 87th top-class Dutch tournament. The town has no actual name: <Wijk aan Zee> means, "town on the sea". <Time to getta proppa name dudezz👾!!> Giri has real chances of winning this one because he ...      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.      Jan-09-26 Mackenzie vs G Reichhelm, 1867   offramp: The French Defense (C15). MacKenzie kept the position in control. Mainly, he did everything he could do to keep that dratted black QB in a prison. 34...Bxd7. [DIAGRAM] Black was in real trouble.      Jan-08-26 P Wells vs K Hanache, 2025   offramp: I've been pondering about this game. <Are you pondering what I am pondering?> (Brain & Pinky.) The whole game is interesting, right from the start. E.g., Black was 13. Wells was 60. Wells played in the traditional English weekend circuit style. That style includes Kim ...      Jan-08-26 Tata Steel India Rapid (2026)   offramp: Good old Niemann. He is a globe-trotter. I have seen his suitcase. It is pretty small, and it is covered in stickers: <London>, <Tashkent>, <Beijing> and many others. Now he is in <Kolktata>. My Indian friend told me that Niemann was a bit <funky>. And ...      Jan-08-26 G Reichhelm vs Mackenzie, 1867   offramp: The powerful Evans Gambit might resurface in the 2030s. Many players might get fed up with the Joko Piano. I don't know the Evans. I don't know how far the theory goes down. In that era they played 1000s of the Evans. Oh blimey! 19. Nfd5. [DIAGRAM] There was available to Black a      Jan-08-26 G Reichhelm vs Mackenzie, 1867   offramp: This was similar to the first game: both players were happy to accept every exchange. 16. Rxc3. [DIAGRAM] Now plays very well. It's interesting to see that Black did <not> give a <luft> square for the black king until he <had> to do it. 22...g6. [DIAGRAM] ...      Jan-08-26 Mackenzie vs G Reichhelm, 1867   offramp: Both sides accepted all exchanges. When we get to 16...Qe7... [DIAGRAM] ...In the 21st century we would say that White has a bad pawn formation. White ( George Mackenzie ) carries on. It is very interesting. Here is the best move: 22...Rd6. [DIAGRAM] 23. Rff6! <Black: ...

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Ye Olde Offrampe Predicktions

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 6 OF 86 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jul-14-06    offramp: I have posted a picture quiz here http://freemason.mylivepage.com/fil... feel free to ask for any hints as I know it is hard. Jul-14-06    offramp: <Stevens:<offramp> did you have a go at the puzzle in the cafe?> I have seen it but it is definitely way way beyond me. I have had a look at a few of the answers and even <view>ed <source> to get some help - but I have had to give up! Jul-14-06    JoeWms: <offramp> and <Stevens>. My apologies: You didn't home-town me on this one. The military phonetics code. I haven't used the system, but I've come across those particular words in my reading. I did notice the anomaly of a capital T in tango, a common noun. I shoulda followed through on it. If I hadn't had my head stuck up my movies ... It is not healthy for a 75-year-old to lament "Oh, how dumb am I!" I do not have Al Simul's disease. Not looking for it either. If I keep exercising on the words treadmill, I'll do fine. It is why I am on this ste. Jul-15-06    offramp: <JoeWms> Joe, I have a feeling you would do very well on the picture quiz I mentioned a few posts back... Jul-15-06    JoeWms: Thanks, guy. All my special enhancements (including View:Larger) are for text material. Most of the navigation tools for graphics and photos are discombobulating. (Been wanting to use that big word since I was six, but I wasn't tall enough to reach it back then.) Last whack at a dead horse. My hard-drive resident Merriam-Webster dictionary has a separate entry for capital T Tango, "a communication code word for the letter T." If I had gone with the early hunch I think I might have crawled in Imdb all the way to Zulu. Like the chess player who posts in his bio that his rating doesn't really reflect his skill, my real brilliance will show itself soon. Joe Jul-16-06    offramp: This very funny. It is clips of Darth Vader taken from the Star Wars film, but overdubbed with audio clips from other films by James Earl Jones. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A0r... Jul-17-06    offramp: There's a thread at the IMDB for Koyaanisqatsi, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085809... Someone asked what our favourite sequences are in the film. In my typically jejune way I wrote, "I like the exploding telly." This enraged one person who replied: "Seems there are some troglodytes posting here. Too bad. This film thread should be restricted to people who have some degree of comprehension and appreciation for this film. The marriage of Godfrey Reggio's film and Philip Glass's score have been unofficially declared the biggest...." and blah blah blah. To which I replied: "But did you like the exploding telly?" Jul-18-06    offramp: The answers to that picture quiz I posted earlier: http://freemason.mylivepage.com/file Aug-14-06    oao2102: A very uncommon list of favorite players offramp...why are these guys your favorites? Sep-08-06    offramp: I think Mason and - especially - Pillsbury were ahead of their time. The others have great imagination and fighting spirit - except for Szekely. I think Szekely did what I would do if I was a GM, travel the world keeping my rating intact and enjoying myself. Sep-12-06    offramp: Just players that are full of spunk! Nov-27-06    Domdaniel: Ahh, such delightful delicacies. Mason, who played many games in what was euphemistically described as 'an hilarious condition' at numero uno? I can empathise with that... And of course <Joe Wms> has been here ahead of me. Inevitable, really. Yo, Joe... Hi <Offramp>... Why am I here? Interesting philosophical question. In the old days, when I used the name <Offield>, I had noticed our, ah, lexical contiguity. However... Proximate cause: everyone in my forum suddenly started communicating via limerick (verse-form, not the city), and I happened to mention that the <place> was known as Stab City, and somebody (<Open Defence> - Deffi also gets everywhere ahead of me) invoked your name, and... ... and that'll do for now. Masonry, eh? Must get back to this... Dec-04-06    offramp: My nickname comes from the book The Tetherballs of Bougainville by Mark Leyner. Dec-04-06    JoeWms: Welcome back, friend. I hope you will come visit my funny farm on occasion. Dec-04-06    Domdaniel: <offramp> Leyner? I've only got My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist. And possibly I Smell Esther Williams. Not always an easy writer to track down, but, hey, I'm just an infinitely hot and dense dot, you know... "Positively Masonic, this", as I remarked to <mack> when we started trading Viv Stanshall quotations. Jan-04-07    notyetagm: <offramp: <notyetagm: <offramp> What a brilliancy that would have been, defeating Anand in style!> It would have been so cool! It would be unusual as well, in that the rooks aren't sacrificed passively - on their home squares - like in A Afifi vs Beliavsky, 1985 and so many others, but they are thrown forward.> Not thrown forward, -hurled- into the Black position! ♖f8+!! ♖a8+!! Apr-21-07    Archives: Game Collection: World's Most Overrated Chess Games Nice collection, I agree that most of them are actually overrated, expecially D Byrne vs Fischer, 1956 Jun-01-07    timhortons: DUDE WHO IS THAT R.J.F? was it bobby? id seen youre post sayin welcome back bobby Jun-21-07    offramp: That was Bobby Fischer. He came here for a very short time. The name was RJF or R.J.F. He answered questions that only Bobby would have known. His posts are hard to find - but one could bear in mind that I replied to every one of his posts! Jun-21-07    WannaBe: Um... silly question, if this Bobby Fischer answered questions that only Bobby would have known, how do you know the answer is true? Jun-22-07    offramp: The questions were quite straightforward. 1) Scrooge bought enough crackers this year for everyone at his Christmas dinner to pull exactly one with each and every other person there. He hadn't himself intended to attend, not being too keen on fun. But after a pep talk from a number of ghosts, he decided to join in. As a result he had to buy double the number of crackers he would have needed if he had not attended. How many people were at his party? Bobby got that right within 30 seconds. 2) If you wish to keep just one of these six new year resolutions, which should it be? 1 I will break just one of these resolutions 2 I will break just two of these resolutions 3 I will break just three of these resolutions 4 I will break just four of these resolutions 5 I will break just five of these resolutions 6 I will break all six of these resolutions. Bobby answered that immediately, ie the correct response was there as soon as I had returned from 'preview kibbitz'. 3) In the interzonal game against Taimanov in 1971, did you play 44.Kc5 or 44.Kb4? Within a minute he responded that he had played "K-B5". That was indeed correct. It had to be him. Oct-01-07    MrMelad: The answer to 1 is: One person beside Scrooge atended the party. Solution: If Scrooge have to give a cracker to every other person, then if there is 1 person Scrooge have to give 1/2 a cracker, and if there are 2 people Scrooge have to give 1 cracker which is double what he needed before. I guess just writing that took me more then 30 seconds, but I'm no Bobby.. The answer to 2 is: 5 I will break just five resolutions. Solution: If I will break resolutions 1,2,3,4,6 then I would keep just one of the resolutions, resolution 5. Oct-29-07    offramp: This should be it http://rs219l3.rapidshare.com/cgi-b... Oct-29-07    JoeWms: Hey, Riddle Man, nice to have you back on these pages. Oct-31-07    offramp: Thank you Mr Williams; I have simply been busy! Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 86) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 6 OF 86 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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