RB vs P
1. e4 c5
P vs. RB
1. d4
Nice to meet you as well. I notice that you mentioned on your profile playing quite a bit of correspondence chess. Did you play your games through Canadian groups or have you played in the ICCF and some of our U.S. groups as well?
I played a few correspondence games as early as 1972 when I was 13, but did not become a steady player until a few years later in 1975. I mostly have lived in small towns and driving to a chess club took some time and correspondence chess always was a good way to keep in practice for OTB tournaments, although after the mid 1980s I played considerably more correspondence chess than OTB. I guess settling down and married life will do that to you!
Anyway good luck in our games. It has been some time since I really have played on an 8x8 board for correspondence or server chess!
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 (Hb8)
1. d4 Nf6 2.c4
When the ICCF started organizing events through the Anglo-Pacific Tournament Bureau play-times became better. At least in those events you could play against people in countries that had a decent mail system, although the Eastern European delays were often as not increased by deliberate player delays. It would have been nicer to have server events in the 80s, but Fritz and company also would have showed up if computers had been that powerful.
I played in some obscure groups as well like Ron's Postal Chess Club, who was based nearby in Cincinnati at the time, or Zugzwang before settling on doing most of my play through CCLA and the APCT and of course ICCF. I probably played 600-700 games from 1975-2002, although more at the beginning. There were times when I was still in High School or College when I had 50 games going at a time. Once I started work and went up the rating scale I usually tried to limit myself to 20 or less.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 (Hb8) 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6
1. d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.de5
The 10x10 board is interesting to play on a gives a more tactical feel or at least with Grand Chess with the piece density being at 40% it gives that feel. I have played about 20 games of Grand Chess through the Dutch site www.mindsports.net. Back in the late 90s and early 00s they held three Cyber World Championship tournaments for this variant. Christian Freeling, the inventor of this variant and Ed Van Zon(?) probably had 20-30 players participate in the three events. They even gave away a board and men for the game as well as a digital clock for the prize winners. Not too bad a prize since I think the board and men retailed above $100.00 at the time and the clock might have been another $60-$70. I don't know if you are familiar with Grand Chess, but unlike most chess variants that use a B+N or R+N piece the array was set up on three ranks more like Shogi than western chess. The game also lacks a castling move, but since the rooks are set up by themselves on the first rank they at least did not need the special move to get into the game. However just having to hoof it made the king's life a bit less comfortable!
I think entering the pieces also adds a new dimension and does get away from awkward arrays when you add the new pieces. I suppose if you want real carnage you could even add an Amazon, a Q+N piece and not just settle for the extra queen that many sets do have. I don't think that the symmetry is too big an issue. Once you are used to the boards 10x8 is O.K. to play on. Probably the toughest thing is to get away from thinking 8x8 when you are writing your moves down! However staying with an 8x8 board has the advantage of keeping the relative values of the minor pieces constant. On larger boards the Knights value dips vis a vis the Bishop. Also some of the arrays that put the knight next to the rook on the bigger boards make it harder to develop that piece effectively.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4
1. d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.de5 Ng4 4.Bf4
Yes, that would be simpler notation since the entering piece has to go on the back rank square from which the piece moving exited. However adding the entry square does make it easier to refer back to when looking over the score. Also I think you can only enter one piece for any given move, so even for "short" castling the player would have to choose between the e file or h file entry for the new pieces.
One appeal to any variant is not having to rely on all those old book moves. For S-Chess there is more familiar territory, but I imagine that can be a double-edge sword. I imagine there are many variations playable in conventional chess that are not in S-Chess. Some as Yasser mentioned, we might not miss too badly, like the Berlin Wall! As a librarian and bibliofile I was always pretty well armed for openings in my correspondence games and I still have 2400+ chess books sitting around the house (both my ex-wife and Beth were very tolerant of all that space taken up!) not to mention those million+game databases. It however is nice to get away from referring to all that stuff and just play off the cuff....
Interestingly enough my aborted game in Brainking also followed a Budapest path although my opponent stopped playing after I played 3. de5. I guess he was not too interested in exploring things further. It would be nice if Brainking added Seirawan chess to their server, but I think the owner had a bad experience dealing with one particular proprietary variant.
Bughouse was probably the most common "variant" I have played, although occassionally I had talked friends into playing Grand Chess. Had you ever read Ed Lasker's old book, "Secrets I Learned from the Chess Masters"? That's where I stumbled on the Chancellor (R+N) and Archbishop (B+N) pieces for the first time, although they have gone under various others names both in the past and in more contemporary times. As teenager I thought it was a cool concept, but never really had an opportunity to play a game until I tried a game against Wayne Schmittberger through the Knights of the Square Table (NOST) postal organization. He won a nice game that later ended up being an example game for Grand Chess in Pritchard's "Encyclopedia of Chess Variants".
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3
Converting to a Morra Gambit does seem like a good idea. The extra pieces will make the gambit even trickier. The ...Nc6/Hb8 idea in a Sicilian structure does seem to make the conventional open sicilians more difficult to play because of the attack on the queen after the exchange of knights. Still who knows, the hawk itself later might be a little exposed on c6 as well so maybe the loss of tempo is not so bad?
1. d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.de5 Ng4 4.Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5.Nc3/Hb1
Nothing like being an acquisitions librarian in a large city. Unfortunately in little Greenville we don't see too many chess books on the donation lists! It would have been nice to pick up a few of those 2400 books at somewhat cheaper prices, but at least I had 36 years or so to spread out the costs! (although I guess I had a few bargains like when friends or acquaintances would give up chess or the widow in Cleveland in the 1980s who was selling off her husbands collection) In any case I have few other vices with perhaps the exception of also liking historical board wargames, which also can take up a bit of space....
Do you remember what years those Chess Players Chronicles were? It was an interesting magazine, and I have a whole series of it, but only in reprinted form. A Czech publishing house, Moravian House, has reprinted a number of these. Stuanton lived up to his reputation of having an acid pen and it is entertaining to read some of the exchanges in an era before they had to worry to much about libel suits!
Funny enough it is ironic that you mentioned the Chess Player's Chronicle since I have been playing through games from the 1853 Harrwitz-Lowenthal match recently that appeared in that magazine. My chess library also contains a reprint of a more obscure publication called the British Chess Review, which was edited by Harrwitz himself from 1853-54. Staunton and Harrwitz definitely had nasty exchanges during the brief existance of Harrwitz's magazine and one wonders if Morphy had a chance to read any of this before he came over to Europe in 1858-59. If so he must have been rather naive when his own negotiations started to turn sour.
The Harrwitz-Lowenthat match is interesting because Staunton put Lowenthal up to playing this match promising to play Harrwitz later if Harrwitz won the match. However Staunton did not really want to play since he had already defeated Harrwitz back in the 1840s, although Harrwitz probably had improved in the meantime. Staunton thought Lowenthal was the much better player and did not expect to have to play such a match. Of course the follow-up match never occurred even after Harrwitz's victory! I imagine poor Lowenthal was not high on Staunton's list also when the match started to turn against him and this negative attitude was reflected in Staunton's annotations towards the end of the match. The match also was pretty interesting having a dramatic turn around. Harrwitz came from a 9-2 deficit to win the match by an 11-10 score with several draws thrown in!
Please forgive the history lesson, history in addition to books is another of my weaknesses!
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6
1. d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.de5 Ng4 4.Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5.Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3
Many of those old magazines were nicely bound. The trouble is that in the originals many of the 19th century magazines even when you can find them will set you back more than a $150-$250.00+ an annual volume. I have to admit for a magazine that is a bit out of my price range, although I have broken down now and then to buy a 19th century tournament book for that amount. The trouble is if you start collecting magazines it can nearly be an endless and very expensive proposition. For periodicals, I have been happy enough to read and buy the reprints. At least at $25.00-$30.00 or so you can afford to buy a run....
Keene's book on Staunton is good and I read it a number of years ago. It has 60 games, mostly with his even games, although he may have played more games at pawn and move or pawn and two moves than regular even games! Incredible that the top players of that day could give this handicap and other higher ones to other strong players, but chess theory was still in its infancy and the proper techniques of simplifying a position to an endgame to bring home the point weren't always known to 19th century players. Even to those who probably did know it at least instinctively, they still seem to have preferred a more hack and slash style of play. When facing a good player this was not the best strategy even if it might have been more fun!
Returning to the Staunton book, one nice thing about this 1976 publication it was that it was early enough in Keene's writing career and like with his better known book on Nimzovich, he still was putting some work into the writing rather than trying to rush books out as quick as possible for profit as with so many of his more recent "instant match" books. If you can find Levy's book "Howard Staunton" as well the two compliment one another. Levy's has much more prose and reprints a lot of the controversial exchanges that took place in Staunton's magazines and columns with other players of the time. A Canadian fellow, Bryan Knight, also did a little book in 1974 ("Howard Staunton Uncrowned Chess Champion of the World") which reprinted a lot of material from Staunton's Handbook, The Chess Tournament, Chess Praxis and Chess Companion.
Modern players do have a lower opinion of the play of former days. 19th century players were definitely amateurs compared to today's players both in attitude and preparation. Many ideas yet needed to be discovered not to mention they did not have million game databases, informants and hundreds of new books and computer software appearing every year to study hours on end or to use as examples. However, even if they were more amateurish in their approach to chess, it is interesting using the games for instruction as many of the mistakes that are present there are a little easier to spot and are often similar to what we mere mortals do as well in our own club and tournament play.
By the way did you find many Harrwitz games? I wonder how many of his games still appear in databases?
Anyway I hope you had a Happy Holiday and sorry for my delay. Christmas can get a little hectic, but now it is back to reality and a few chess moves as well. Also never knew Trompowsky's name was that long. You learn something new every day!
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6
1. d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.de5 Ng4 4.Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5.Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3 Hg6 7.Hxg6
Yes, Harrwitz does get a little credit for actually playing although his "moral superiority" over Staunton disappeared once things went against him in that match. He first began delaying play and eventually ceased althougher before the stiuplated 7 wins for that match were actually reached. Morphy probably should have added a "no show" forfeit clause like Lowenthal did in his match. Harrwitz actually forfeited a couple of games in that match to take leave to recover at the Ocean when things turned against him early in that match.
How did your Christmas Holiday go? My son is enjoying his new Wii console. I have to admit enjoying the basic Tennis game on that and I guess there is a bit of an advantage to actually playing real tennis since I have a 6-0 advantage over him today, although he did cream me pretty well in bowling, which is something I have only done once. Of course his favorite things are games that have Pokemon in them!
I saw there is an interesting discussion on variants to a variant. I think that if we want to bring back a viable Fianchetto, probably the suggestion made my Seirawan himself to make a drop an actual move rather than a bonus move when another piece moves out would allow safer King-side Fianchettoes again. Still I think it is worth playing the faster pace version a little first before trying to slow things down or restrict entry locations.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6 8.h3 Be7
1. d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.de5 Ng4 4.Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5.Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3 Hg6 7.Hxg6 Bxc3+ 8. bc hg6 9.Qc2/Ed1
What can I say about Panzerschiff? It has become my standard handle on gaming sites. Naval history and wargaming is another hobby of mine and "Panzerschiff" is just the German name for any kind of ironclad or armored ship, although it most commonly referred to Armored Cruisers by the end of the 19th century. Later by the 1930s and after the amoured cruiser went the way of the dinosaurs, the three ships of the Deutschland Class: Graf Spee, Lutzow/Deutschland (renamed Lutzow to avoid the psychological damage of losing a ship named after the country) and Admiral Scheer were called Panzerschiffe. "Pocket Battleship" was used more commonly by we English speakers since the ships mounted a weak battleship armament on a Cruiser hull. They displaced approximately 12,000 tons and carried a main armament of six 11 inch guns.
As a kid I liked the idea behind their design where they could theoretically outgun other cruisers and run away from larger slower ships. However the idea was quickly flawed and by the beginning of the 2nd World War, two French Battlecruisers (Dunkerque and Strasbourg) could both blow them out of the water and have run them down as well as could the three older British Battlecruisers, Hood, Repulse and Renown, which has been in service since 1920 or earlier for the "R"s. So the concept was rather doubtful unless they could have reached the 31-33 knot speeds other "treaty" heavy cruisers had at the time. With their diesal engines they could make somewhere between 26 and 28 knots depending on what reference one refers to. However they did have a nice cruising range and Admiral Scheer before air power became too dominant actually sailed into the Indian Ocean. However flawed or not a certain fondness for the ships never wore off, I guess, and is why I still use the handle. In any case most of the good chess ones are used quickly, although I did play under "Vehrefisch" from time to time in the ICC.
Fortunately our weather in Ohio has not been that cold! The books you mentioned sound interesting. I have to admit not being too big a fan of my country's foreign policy and wars over the last 8 years and I hope we return to a more cooperative arrangement where we try to listen and consult with our allies before going off someplace half cocked.
Do you like to read History? We have a nice military history and Ancient History section in the Greenville Libary. One nice thing about being the head of a library is that one has a certain influence on what kinds of materials we order, although I have shown remarkable restraint when it comes to adding chess books! While Dayton has a nice chess club it still is about an hour's drive from here and most chess players in Greenville are just casual players and just need pretty basic books in cases where there is any interest in reading about chess.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6 8.h3 Be7 9. Bf4 e5
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. de5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5. Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3 Hg6 7. Hxg6 Bxc3+ 8. bc hg6 9. Qc2/Ed1 Rh5 10. e6
Well it looks like we might have shared a few books. If it is the same Friedman, I enjoyed his "Decline of Great Powers" that I read many years ago. I also read "Fiasco" when it came out a few years ago, and it definitely reinforced my view on how big an error the invasion of Iraq was at that time. On the whole I thought the proper response to the New York attack was a police action and in retrospect even 1% of the money spent to conduct both the war in Iraq and its twin in Afghanistan would have bought a lot of intelligence, not to mention assassins to knock off the guys who ordered the attacks in the first place. However just as Jr. High kids get pleasure out of thumping on one another, so do nations at times when dealing with their enemies. Alas, the dark side of human nature, which continues to be well illustrated by what is going on in Gaza now.
Your town might be the twin of Greenville. We have about 13,000 people and the town is the county seat of Darke County, which is a county pretty heavy into agriculture. Unfortunately like a lot of Ohio what light industry we have has fallen on hard times and we are having our fair share of lay-offs. In fact my cataloger at the library just had news her husband was in for a longer layoff after having been off a couple of weeks already around Christmas. We in government have not felt things too badly as yet, although library budgets have been frozen here for a number of years. We probably will have to do a bit of belt tightening and the timing for the recession could have been better. We just finished a 10,000 square foot addition to the library, which pretty much drained the savings that we had previously accumulated during the boom years in the 90s.
My library in Greenville probably has 30 chess books or so, although most are elementary, although I did donate a set of one of my earlier editions of the "Encyclopedia of Chess Openings", which I imagine has never been checked out! I helped out a couple of years with a High School Chess program, and thought I could justify buying a few books to help support that program, but in the end we never really had more than casual players. Even before the High School Program I thought the library should have at least one new chess book a year! If we had done a third year we thought about expanding the program to the Jr. High, but, Matt, the teacher who was behind it went off in another direction and his big interest since 2007 has been in helping kids at risk.
Have you worked with a High School program? While I have tought tournament players, both adult and scholastic before this was my first experience with trying to motivate casual players. I don't think I was particularly successful and never could decide whether I should do the "coach" thing and say if you want to be in the program you have to work or do as I pretty much did and let them have fun with the game and do what they wanted to do.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6 8.h3 Be7 9. Bf4 e5 10. Be3 Be6
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. de5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5. Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3 Hg6 7. Hxg6 Bxc3+ 8. bc hg6 9. Qc2/Ed1 Rh5 10. e6 de 11 Exd8+ 9...Rh5/E would have made the e6 idea a sacrifice rather than just an exchange as it is now. It's hard to say even against 9...Rh5/E playing 10.e6 anyway may be a better move than say 10. Ed5 or 10.e3 which are other "safer" candidates.
I wonder if that was the old Victory at Sea series or something more recent? The Victory at Sea was done in the 1950s and has some great battle footage shot from World War 2 sources. Some of the more recent documentaries often have quite interesting computer animated graphics some based on those done by such games as Rome at War, etc. I assume they were covering the Battle of the Coral Sea. The Carrier damaged there was cobbled together soon enough to participate in the Midway Battle, but alas it was not lucky enough to survive both battles. There was a lot of luck in those early carrier battles and the Japanese could just have easily have won the Midway battle if "luck" or providence had gone their way. Perhaps they might have anyway if they had kept their fleet concentrated rather than spreading it over half the Northern Pacific with the complicated plan they came up with for that battle.
Globalization has had its plusses and minusses. On our side our politicians and business leaders have been rather short sighted and the pursuit of maximum profits in the short term has arguably hurt our economies in the long run. However there have been good things and some formerly really bad places now have better standards of living overseas and even if in some nations are still only making "sweat shop" wages this is better than the often abysmal conditions many people had before starving on small farms in backward rural communities.
I forget the exact title of the book I read a few years ago who emphasized this, I think it was "On Poverty" and it delt with the truly horrific poverty in the developing World and not the "relative poverty" in the developed world. The author's point was that economic development is not a zero sum game and these gains in the developing world under "globilization" have often outweighed some of the negative impact on the developed world's economies generally to the overall benefit of both. Still I guess if you are one of the guys that used to make things in North America that "zero sum" logic is not so clear and again is it always the best idea to sacrifice your manufacturing capacity? I always had a little chuckle when people here would sabre rattle about China. It we ever went to war with China in a few months we no longer would have anything to buy in out stores and our economy would probably collapse before we could hope to defeat them in a war with all our wonderful military gadgets on which we have spent so much treasure!
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6 8.h3 Be7 9. Bf4 e5 10. Be3 Be6 11.Hg3 Bxc4 If 12.Qxc4 then 12...,Ha6
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. de5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5. Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3 Hg6 7. Hxg6 Bxc3+ 8. bc hg6 9. Qc2/Ed1 Rh5 10. e6 de 11 Exd8+ Kd8(E) 12. Bg5+
Well it will nice to see some change in politics in this country. However with a basic choice of only two parties we always have the problem of not being completely satisfied with all the policies of the party in power. For my part I tend to be socially liberal and fiscally conservative. It thus will be nice to see changes in foreign policy and things like how we deal with abortion, but on the other hand I am not sure all the spending plans that are on the horizon are justified. Giving politicians unlimited license to spend is about as bad as given an alcoholic gift certificates to his favorite bar. It will be interesting to see how well the economic stimulus package turns out and how much unnecessary and pork barrell spending is included with what might be good in it. Of course we still yet to see anything clear for the mortgage crisis which brought a good deal of this about in the first place.
On a lighter note we are recovering from a nice snow storm. We probably had 9 or 10 inches, which may not be too much for your neck of the woods, but tends to shut things down here. I had the library close down early on Tuesday and we were closed the entire day today. My son, Alex of course likes the snow day and enjoyed his time off. He even played a bit of hot seat Civilization 4 with me today. Recently he saw me playing some Civilization 3 again. Usually I do more computer games in the winter since I am not an outdoorsman in the winter! He liked what he saw so much he even started playing his own games and moved onto the version that I had not played much because of audio problems I had before upgrading the RAM on my computer. Anyway it was fun playing against him although I allowed him a couple of levels of handicap and he is still we ahead of me when we saved the game after a couple of hours of play. He definitely liked that! :-)
I don't know if trials are really justified. With Bush and company it probably was more stupidity than viciousness that has characterized others brought before international tribunals. However one hates to see people's lives played with to prove a theory. The Iraqis and many of our soldiers certainly have paid in blood for the theoretical notion that democracy could be established in the Middle East by force. Alas as long as we are in that country a semblance of democracy may remain, but I don't see it lasting too long after the last soldier is pulled out. That country was so disunited that it almost needed somebody as nasty as Saddam Hussein to keep all the factions in line. It will probably split into two or three states eventually although one almost wonders whether it would not be better if the country was returned to its old imperial masters, either Turkey or dare I write it, Iran. Of course they might not want it either, except for the oil producing regions!
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6 8.h3 Be7 9. Bf4 e5 10. Be3 Be6 11.Hg3 Bxc4 12.Qxc4 Ha6 13. Qb3 Qa5/Ed8
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. de5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5. Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3 Hg6 7. Hxg6 Bxc3+ 8. bc hg6 9. Qc2/Ed1 Rh5 10. e6 de 11 Exd8+ Kd8(E) 12. Bg5+ Nf6 13. e4
Glad to see you are back. I will soon be taking a break from winter weather and traveling to Florida to thaw out. My hotel has wireless so I should be able to make moves down there as well. We have takenn my son, Alex, down to Disney World for his last three birthdays, although this may be the last birthday trip for awhile since we are starting to feel guilty about taking him out of school for a week, especially since he will be in the 4th grade next year. Our big snow did melt, but we received a dusting today and again there is at least a little snow on the ground.
No, I don't think Bush will ever be tried either. With only two political parties it would be too devisive and not even Richard Nixon, who obviously did illegal activities, faced prosecution for his acts. Bush's condoning of torture probably is one of the bigger stains on his records. As you pointed out regime change has not be a rare occurrence in American "Real Politic". Especially in the Cold War the old frontier saying of either being "fer us or agin us" was the basis of supporting certain foreign governments no matter how reprehensible they might otherwise be. The Shah, Pinochet and others perhaps too numerous to name were supported simply because they were anti communist. Bush brought back that attitude with a vengence although terrorists rather than communists were to be the yardstick for measuring "bad guys" in the 21st century.
However as bad as some of our foreign policy choices were, we can say that we did not replace the native rulers with our own "governors" and other colonial administrators or set up artificial boundaries which were the policies of 18th and 19th century European great powers. Africa in particular is still suffering under the consequences of these policies, although I suppose one could also say that of the Middle East as well.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6 8.h3 Be7 9. Bf4 e5 10. Be3 Be6 11.Hg3 Bxc4 12.Qxc4 Ha6 13. Qb3 Qa5/Ed8 14. He2 Nxe4
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. de5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5. Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3 Hg6 7. Hxg6 Bxc3+ 8. bc hg6 9. Qc2/Ed1 Rh5 10. e6 de 11 Exd8+ Kd8(E) 12. Bg5+ Nf6 13. e4 e5 14. Be2
No problem about the delay especially since I have not been that fast myself this time around. Returning from vacation always seems to leave you many things to catch up on and I have been doing that this week. I had a state library report to submit as well as my usual monthly board report to mail out before Monday's board meeting. I also have to admit that I also have been dabling with one of my son's birthday presents Civilization IV Beyond the Sword. These games also can distract you from other more important things!
Anyway nice piece there about winter in Canada. It is hard to imagine 2 meters of snow on the ground and it being cold and hard enough to support your weight. We seldom have even a foot of snow on the ground and really have not had snow on the ground for a few weeks now, although even with our nice thaw it is still possible we can yet have a bit of snow before winter in gone. However it was 70 degree Fahrenheit yesterday and we finally had a nice break from what has otherwise been a chilly winter for us.
Florida was a nice trip and we did have good weather there as well. Maybe a little on the cool side for Floridians, but the low 70s we had throughout the week was plenty warm for us. We only went to Disney once, but did have an opportunity to hang out with my Aunt Marcia for a nice dinner. She is a favorite Aunt and when my brother and I was young did quite a bit of babysitting. She was 15 years younger than my father and only 9 years older than me so she was almost like a big sister. It is always nice to see her and Greg when we are down at Disney and they moved into that area a few years ago from North Carolina.
Anyway I hope all is well with you and good luck with those Eco issues! It is always a tough call balancing environmental issues with perceived needs and historically it has not been well balanced.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6 8.h3 Be7 9. Bf4 e5 10. Be3 Be6 11.Hg3 Bxc4 12.Qxc4 Ha6 13. Qb3 Qa5/Ed8 14. He2 Nxe4 15. Ha6 ba6
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. de5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5. Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3 Hg6 7. Hxg6 Bxc3+ 8. bc hg6 9. Qc2/Ed1 Rh5 10. e6 de 11 Exd8+ Kd8(E) 12. Bg5+ Nf6 13. e4 e5 14. Be2 Bg4 15. Be3
I have always had a weakness for games as far back as 4 or 5 when the games were Chutes and Ladders or Uncle Wiggly. Maybe it is a good thing that there were no computer games in those days as I probably would have been addicted as any of today's young people who spend too much time with computers. In my library I often see people come in at the crack of dawn and if they are lucky enough and our computers are not too busy they will stay on for practically the whole day, perhaps taking breaks for food or cigarettes.
Chess caught my attention relatively late around age 12, although I had played a sort of chess at age 8 after having seen it on an old "Land of the Giants" episode. I then had my grandmother buy a little plastic set and teach my brother and I how to play, although our pieces did not always follow regular patterns. Knights often bounced off pawns and landed about anywhere we thought we could get away with! Rip king also was a house rule.
Strategy War games came a little after chess about age 14 and computer games maybe around age 29 or 30 when I had my first PC at home. It is funny to think about some of the games that ran on that old 286 machine with a 40MB hard drive and maybe 640 K of RAM and a clock speed on 12 Mhz!
Again a nice piece there. In Ohio we are pretty settled and the "wild" is a distant memory. The closest I get to it is those fishing trips my In-laws like to drag us on to Western Ontario every other year. For me the beach is a more ideal vacation although it is nice to get away for a little piece and quiet, even if fishing is not my thing.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6 8.h3 Be7 9. Bf4 e5 10. Be3 Be6 11.Hg3 Bxc4 12.Qxc4 Ha6 13. Qb3 Qa5/Ed8 14. He2 Nxe4 15. Ha6 ba6 16. Ed5 Nxc3
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. de5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5. Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3 Hg6 7. Hxg6 Bxc3+ 8. bc hg6 9. Qc2/Ed1 Rh5 10. e6 de 11 Exd8+ Kd8(E) 12. Bg5+ Nf6 13. e4 e5 14. Be2 Bg4 15. Be3 Nfd7 16.0-0-0
Happy belated birthday! It is always "fun" to reach those milestones. I also imagine Vancouver has a good selection of Chinese restaurants. Even the little town of Greenville Ohio has three! I generally like the spicier Chinese fare, although like many people came to it by trying Sweet and Sour Pork or Chicken first. In my case Julio Torres, who used to be the Lima Chess Club president when I was a teenager, took my friends and I out to a Restaurant in Columbus, after a tournament. That probably was a good opportunity as I might have had to wait longer otherwise as my dad was always a meat and potatoes kind of guy and still does not like to eat in Chinese or Mexican Restaurants. Generally if mom wants that kind of food we meet for a Friday afternoon lunch!
Speaking of milestones, I am trying to remember if we started these games as early as last summer and I may already have mentioned earlier that I had a big party for my 50th last July, where between the two parties we had 50 friends and relatives. One nice thing about a July birthday is that you can have a cookout outside and can set up a furniture and a pavillion. The weather even cooperated and it was only in the low 80s. Sometimes my birthday can see temperatures in the high 90s!
That also was an interesting account about your uncle. Do you write columns for a newspaper or other type of publication? Your writing has that nice polished feel. I have tought my son and various nephews both in my 1st and current marriages, but nobody ever took it up seriously. Generally the kids always preferred the board games and nowadays the computer games that I have showed them in the strategy game realm. I always thought it would be interesting to have a relative who was a strong player to perhaps help in your chess development, but perhaps on the other hand the way I was about losing at games as a youngster, I might have preferred to play another game with them as well! Also there was always a certain prestige of being "the chess player" in the family, which encouraged further work in that direction.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6 8.h3 Be7 9. Bf4 e5 10. Be3 Be6 11.Hg3 Bxc4 12.Qxc4 Ha6 13. Qb3 Qa5/Ed8 14. He2 Nxe4 15. Ha6 ba6 16. Ed5 Nxc3 17. Ea5 Nxa5
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. de5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5. Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3 Hg6 7. Hxg6 Bxc3+ 8. bc hg6 9. Qc2/Ed1 Rh5 10. e6 de 11 Exd8+ Kd8(E) 12. Bg5+ Nf6 13. e4 e5 14. Be2 Bg4 15. Be3 Nfd7 16.0-0-0 Kc8 17.h3
I hope you had a nice Easter. I am still on a bit of a Holiday. The Library closes for Good Friday and I took Monday off except for the board meeting to stay home and watch Alex, who is still on his Spring break through today anyway. I did have a pretty eventful time off. I have a friend who lives about 35 minutes away from here, Steve, whose wife just turned 40. He of course could not resist throwing an ornery party for her. Looking at her facebook posts she was definitely a little upset about reaching that milestone and even at the party mentioned being half way to 80 now! I remember replying that was better than half way to a hundred!
Last year they had her 39th party outside, but this year the weather did not cooperate and we have yet to have our 1st 70 degree day in April. Usually by now we would have had one, although we have had a run of nice 60 degree days with sunshine. Unfortunately Friday was not one of those and the party pretty much had to be inside.
We also visited my brother over the weekend and had a traditional easter egg hunt. However the kids are starting to be a little big for this and even Alex at 9 thought the hunt was a little too easy, although he did not mind having the plastic eggs stuffed with chocolates and candy. Alex also passed another milestone and played his first board wargame with me. We played something called War of the Worlds which was an operational level game (Units of battalion to division size) of Martians vs. Humans in 1895. To make the game playable the humans have a bit better chance against the Martians than in the book, and as some of these games go, it plays pretty quickly and the rules are not too involved. One unique feature to the game was variable combat tables for the humans, of which the Martians select one of the six at the start of the game. If you are the humans, as the game progresses, you have to figure out what is the best individual or combination of units among your Cavalry, Infantry and Artillery does best against the Martian Tripods while at the same time trying to prevent them from burning down London, which features prominently on the map. Have you ever played games like these? Usually these types of games use cardboard counters that manouver on a hexigon grid on the map.
You definitely do a nice job on your writing and descriptions and it does not surprise me that you also write for magazines as well as newspapers. My sole literary effort has been to write chess columns, which I have done for the Chess Correspondent, Ohio Chess Bulletin and even a couple of Grand Chess piece for Abstract Games Magazine over the years. However technical writing like that is not as demanding as it already has its certain standard style and format that you pretty much have to use to please the "fans".
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6 8.h3 Be7 9. Bf4 e5 10. Be3 Be6 11.Hg3 Bxc4 12.Qxc4 Ha6 13. Qb3 Qa5/Ed8 14. He2 Nxe4 15. Ha6 ba6 16. Ed5 Nxc3 17. Ea5 Na5 18. Qc3 Ec6
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. de5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5. Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3 Hg6 7. Hxg6 Bxc3+ 8. bc hg6 9. Qc2/Ed1 Rh5 10. e6 de 11 Exd8+ Kd8(E) 12. Bg5+ Nf6 13. e4 e5 14. Be2 Bg4 15. Be3 Nfd7 16.0-0-0 Kc8 17. h3 Bf3 18.Bxf3
No problem, I have to admit with the weather turning nice that my moves may not be coming the fastest either. I actually was able to read out on my porch last weekend and finished a nice history "Sea of Thunder" which concerned itself with the battle of Leyte Gulf and four particular commanders involved in that battle. I'm also about to wrap up a bed time story with Alex called the "Second War of the Worlds", which is a humerous account of another Martian invasion on an alternate Earth (Annwyn). I read in back when I was in High School and thought Alex might enjoy it as well, which he has so far. I have been reading it to him a chapter at a time and we are now on the 16th and final chapter.
Well I hope all is well with you and that you soon will have a nice touch of Spring weather as well.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6 8.h3 Be7 9. Bf4 e5 10. Be3 Be6 11.Hg3 Bxc4 12.Qxc4 Ha6 13. Qb3 Qa5/Ed8 14. He2 Nxe4 15. Ha6 ba6 16. Ed5 Nxc3 17. Ea5 Na5 18. Qc3 Ec6 19. Rac1 I assume you mean Rac1 rather than Rdc1 as written since the QR has not been moved yet. Anyway I will reply 19...Exc3
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. de5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5. Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3 Hg6 7. Hxg6 Bxc3+ 8. bc hg6 9. Qc2/Ed1 Rh5 10. e6 de 11 Exd8+ Kd8(E) 12. Bg5+ Nf6 13. e4 e5 14. Be2 Bg4 15. Be3 Nfd7 16.0-0-0 Kc8 17. h3 Bf3 18.Bxf3 Rh8 19.Bg4
I am glad your father did not "fall from the perch", although I have to admit that expression is new to me! :-) My dad will be soon turning 75 on May 21 and at this time in my life I see mortality creeping up on the ones I love. I guess I am lucky in many ways since my parents were pretty young when Mark and I came along. My mother had getting babies out of the way by the time she was 19. There is only about 20 months difference between my brother and I.
Again a nice piece you wrote. Spring seems a little reluctant here as well, and we have only had a handful of 70 degree days so far, although today is going to be one, which is nice since I have the day off because I am working tomorrow. Do you have any travel plans in the near future? In about a month I will be in Western Ontario north of a little place called WaWa where my in-laws like to do their biennial fishing excursion. I have to admit I liked my brother's trip to the Outer banks in North Carolina better as I am more a beach person than a fishing king of guy, but the two trips conflicted within a week of one another and we could not go to both.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6 8.h3 Be7 9. Bf4 e5 10. Be3 Be6 11.Hg3 Bxc4 12.Qxc4 Ha6 13. Qb3 Qa5/Ed8 14. He2 Nxe4 15. Ha6 ba6 16. Ed5 Nxc3 17. Ea5 Na5 18. Qc3 Ec6 19. Rac1 Ec3 20. Rc3 d5
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. de5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Bb4+(Hf8) 5. Nc3/Hb1 Nc6 6. Nf3 Hg6 7. Hxg6 Bxc3+ 8. bc hg6 9. Qc2/Ed1 Rh5 10. e6 de 11 Exd8+ Kd8(E) 12. Bg5+ Nf6 13. e4 e5 14. Be2 Bg4 15. Be3 Nfd7 16.0-0-0 Kc8 17. h3 Bf3 18.Bxf3 Rh8 19.Bg4 Nb8 20.Rd2
I have observed a bit of that beer drinking over the years when we were waiting on the train that takes us to the Lodge. I guess you have to get a good start even before the Fishing begins! Again I would prefer my beverage to be wine or a mixed drink on the beach or a bar next to it! :-) It picks us up at a little town called Hawk Junction that is maybe 10 miles or so North of WaWa. When I see that name it always reminds me of the old show Petticoat Junction that was on U.S. TV in the 1960s.
School is winding down here and Alex is looking forward to his summer break which will begin next Thursday. Do Canadian schools go year round or do they still maintain the summer off tradition like we have down here? A few U.S. schools go year around, but they are a distinct minority and usually most that do maintain such a schedule are in Urban areas.
Well had better head off to work. I hope all is well with you and that you are finally having that taste of Spring. Nice weather has returned to Ohio again and people are even starting to complain that it is too warm. We had a couple of days in the 80 degree Fahrenheit range this week.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6/Hb8! 3.Bc4/Hf1 e6 4.d4 cd4 5. c3 dc3 6.Nc3 Nf6 7. Qe2(E) d6 8.h3 Be7 9. Bf4 e5 10. Be3 Be6 11.Hg3 Bxc4 12.Qxc4 Ha6 13. Qb3 Qa5/Ed8 14. He2 Nxe4 15. Ha6 ba6 16. Ed5 Nxc3 17. Ea5 Na5 18. Qc3 Ec6 19. Rac1 Ec3 20. Rc3 d5 21 Rc1 f6
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. de5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Nc6 5. Nf3
Sure, we can give the Budapest Defense another go. I am not sure your opening was so bad the first time around. 9...Rh5/E as you pointed out earlier is an improvement. As played the two bishops just became too dominant, especially with the king stuck in the center.
Anyway nice to get a few completed games in with this variant. The fellow I was playing Embassy Chess with went on a trip so this is about it for my current Variant Activity. Maybe just as well, I start getting a bit lazy with making chess moves once Summer arrives!
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