offramp Member since Aug-16-03 · Last seen Jan-17-26 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.>.>

Current net-worth: 1,436 chessbucks [what is this?]

offramp has kibitzed 25205 times to chessgames   [more...]

Jan-16-26 Tata Steel Masters (2026)    offramp: <Freelance Assassin>, in Giri's last major tournament I predicted that would end up no where. I lambasted him. I face-planted because Giri won that tournament easily. SO NOW I have made a volte-face, whatever that is. I believe that <GIRI> will win this Tata Masters. ...      Jan-16-26 offramp chessforum   offramp: Here's a good DVD Database: <ChessBase '26 Premium-Package Expand Your Chess Horizons Only available as download - Most computers no longer have DVD drives and the amount of data is now so large that it can no longer be stored on a DVD. After your purchase you will receive ...      Jan-16-26 M Schekachikhin vs C Dolgun, 2024   offramp: The Caissa Hotel is on the Aegean Sea, in Ayvalik, Turkey. This game is very interesting all the way through, right from 4...Qh4!      Jan-15-26 Julien Song   offramp: The first game is dead level. I reckon Song will win this match easily.      Jan-15-26 Giri vs Niemann, 2025   offramp: Giri said... <"Before the game I visualized a victory against Niemann. There's this technique.... I saw myself win. Then I went a bit too far and I started thinking about who would be in my team for the Candidates' - and that's when I realized I had gone too far."      Jan-15-26 Dickson    offramp: Someone asked, "What the dickens??" The answer is "No."      Jan-15-26 S Rosenthal vs Count Isouard, 1871    offramp: "Is You Is or Is You Ain't Isouard?"      Jan-14-26 Keymer vs Carlsen, 2023   offramp: Keymer Rouge.      Jan-14-26 Garry Kasparov    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    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.

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Ye Olde Offrampe Predicktions

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 71 OF 86 ·  Later Kibitzing> Oct-20-24    offramp: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saidu... The Akhūnd of Swāt. Oct-22-24    offramp: I went dahn the donkey sanctuary dahn Dorking way, didn't I? Next field they only had a bleeding owl sanctuary. What a bunch of gits. Turns out that the government has cut all funding to the donkey sanctuary., hasn't it? But funds for the owl sanctuary has INCREASED hasn't it? Oh what a load of gits! There was a bit of a fight, but the owls won easily. Oct-23-24    offramp: I blame society. It is all society's fault. I forgot all that theory .... I thought I tried to learn rook endings in small doses my some magic, learnt from a book under my pillow by osmosis. Oct-25-24    offramp: IN A GADDA DA VIDA Nag Hammadi Library IN A GHAMMADIVIDA. Oct-25-24    offramp: In history, which TOP chess players have been left-handers? Oct-25-24    offramp: I was in Egypt, in that famous town Nag Hammadi. There was no one else there so I played some rock music. I was playing <Innagadavida> in Nag Hammadi. By Iron Butterfly. Oct-26-24    offramp: A Nicaraguan iguana. Oct-27-24    offramp: A punk style song. The singer sings a line, then the band shouts <bollocks>. Alexei Sayle wrote a limerick with the same rhyme scheme. <Everyone needs a NEW ROLL OF paper in a toilet> BOLLOCKS! <That's the kind of thing that will spoil it> BOLLOCKS. That's an example. Oct-28-24    offramp: fhould remain at Rofa's houfe ; but as there was no apartment ready for An- felmo , he was obliged to pafs the night . in a clofet contiguous to Rofa's chamber . " Did he ftay there the whole night ? " " I know not , but I much doubt it . " Rofa was ftill beautiful ; Anfelmo had lived for three years like an anchoret ; the Grecian and Spaniſh wines , of which he drank plentifully , had greatly heated his blood , and it is very difficult to al- lay that ardour in reciting a rofary .. Whatever may have been the cafe , they all awoke in a very gay humour , and a plentiful breakfaft repaired the fatigue of having made an excellent fupper ..... Oct-28-24    offramp: THE THREE MONKS!!! LET me then inform you , young brifk damfels , for I write to pleaſe you , and not to pleaſe mothers , aunts , and old coufins , that the town of Ferrara had given birth to three young men ; the firft was called Dominico del Frazo , the fecond Silvino Pezzali ; and the third Georgani ; Dominico had been brought up by a prudifh girl , who called him her nephew , and he called her his aunt . " Who were his father and mother ? " Oct-28-24    offramp: Alexander Aird Thomson Oct-28-24    offramp: I have seen <The Two Jakes> once. I really liked it. It was a surprise that the grizzly old hayseed was the villain. Oct-30-24    offramp: I AM CLAIMING reparations. I want sixteen trillion Australian dollars, and no cents, from the Aboriginal Australian Tribal Nation for aiding, abetting, giving succour😂 to deported prisoners sent to Australia at the time when they, the abos, were the custodians of that tribal entity. GIMME GIMME GIMME!!! Nov-04-24    offramp: For you my angel I saved up all those eleven eleven elevens.... Nov-04-24    offramp: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/543... Nov-04-24    offramp: <kitty alone a story of three fires by s. baring gould> Nov-04-24    offramp: There is a major election starting, in the USA. It doesn't affect us in the UK. Nov-09-24    offramp: "I've got a great horse for you. A dead cert. In the 6th race at Leavenworth. It's a mile and a eighth, a hurdles race. The horse is called Seventh Heaven. The horse is number twelve, in gate nine. It'll be about 11 to one. Have you got that?" "I haven't got a pencil. Goodbye." Nov-15-24    offramp: Memorable quote from today. Ding - Gukesh World Championship Match (2024) (kibitz #65) I'll post tomorrow. Nov-17-24    offramp: <"3,600,000 Miao, about half of the entire Chinese Miao population, were in Guizhou in 1990. The Guizhou Miao and those in the following six provinces make up over 98% of all Chinese Miao: Hunan: 1,550,000 Yunnan: 890,000..."> Humans? Nov-19-24    offramp: As usual I have posted, LIKED, commented, subscribed to the Channel and paid for the EXTRA subscription AND I HAVE paid the usual donation via Crowdfund: in this case £308.50!! What a huge amount!! Nov-20-24    offramp: I'm indoors...the sun is shining, but my nose is freezing cold. I'm watching telly in a big blue fleecy dressing gown. Nov-20-24    offramp: I like watching <"Border Control"> from Australia. It's funny to hear the Immigration Officer talking to a Brit or a Yank, and he says, "Vy you vant enter Autral? Vy you come here?" Nov-20-24    offramp: Ding - Gukesh World Championship Match (2024) (kibitz #150) <Messiah: PREDICTION CONTEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every correct predictions earn 1 point. 1. Will the match be decided by a tiebreak? (yes/no) 2. Will there be a decisive classical game with all queens off right after Black's move #15 or earlier? (yes/no, promoted queens count to 'all') 3. Will there be at least 3 classical games with castling on the opposite sides? (yes/no, exactly 3 will mean 'yes') 4. Will either of the players or their crew file an official fair play complaint throughout the entire match, tiebreaks included? (yes/no) 5. Will there be a classical game where Black makes his 99th move? (yes/no) 6. Will there be a classical game ending in a perpetual check? (yes/no) 7. Will Kramnik accuse publicly either of the players of cheating, not before the first legal move of the first classical game, and not later than the closing ceremony's end? (yes/no) 8. Will Gukesh score a win with the black pieces in the classical games? (yes/no, forfeiture will mean 'yes') 9. Will Ding score a win with the black pieces in the classical games? (yes/no, forfeiture will mean 'yes') 10. Will the average game length of classical games be strictly longer than 40 moves? (yes/no, exactly 40 will mean 'no') 11. Will a player resign a game before White's move #25? (yes/no, forfeiture does not count as resignation) 12. Will any of the games feature the following position, tiebreaks included? (yes/no):> Nov-21-24    offramp: Here are my answers: Ding - Gukesh World Championship Match (2024) (kibitz #168) <offramp: User: Messiah 1. NO 2. NO 3. NO 4. YES 5. YES 6. NO 7. NO 8. NO 9. YES 10. NO 11. YES 12. NO Many thanks.> The questions he set were very good. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 86) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 71 OF 86 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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