richie_and_oprah
Lionel Winfrey
Marie Byrd Land, International 
Member Since: Feb 5, 2009
Last Login: Oct 13, 2009
Profile Views: 6080
Points: 1861
Status: Gone, daddy gone. (5 months ago)
Occupation: Singer, Talk Show Host, Media Anthropologist, Iconoclast
About Me:
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Hello. Is it me you're looking for? Say You, Say Me. I'm into Endless Love & Dancing On the Ceiling with my own special Ballerina Girl in our Brick House. Still, Three Times a Lady Can't Slow Down All Night Long.
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Six of One
I am not a rating. I am a free man!
“I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered!
My life is my own.
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Let's play a game of chess.
If you are going to make one move a day for three months I'd prefer you to not challenge me. That's not chess. It's a long term relationship. If you are going to play-on down two pieces with no hope to salvage I'd prefer you to not challenge me. That's not chess. It's sado-masochism.
This is not e-Harmony. I don't do relationships.
I am bad at them.
That's why I'm here.
Think about it.
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Acknowledgement: Special Props to Tom Murphy, the man who taught me more about the chess/life combo than perhaps any other single person See Tom in action click here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2007/09/28/VI2007092800478.html
Tom is one of the greatest US chess players that almost no one in 'mainstream" chess circles knows about. Unless you really get into the streets, and the parks, and the smokey back rooms and skittle chambers at the larger tournaments, you might not ever see him. He has cracked it off on some of the greatest American players and is one of the most intellectually generous people in the game of chess. Tom is such ambassador of the game, one cannot help but to root for him.
Keep eye out for an upcoming documentary about the powerful and far-reaching chess culture that exists right beneath our eyes in the heaviest urban areas of most large metropolitan cities. Many of these players rarely get to test their skills against others in high profile tournaments, but their game is on par with some of the very best.
The meeting point between these two divergent chesss cultures, the "haves" with their ability to pay and participate in large $$ tournaments, and those without such economic leeway, is often in small side room at large US tournaments. Here in the skittles room, a re-creation of the ritualistic passing of economic opportinuties that takes place usually only in the parks, is in constant motion.
"Simple" Chess Secrets from Tom
1. King Safety. Keep that dude warm and cozy.
2. Control the Center. Of the board and your life.
3. Development. Give all members of your tribe a good job. Hard work, but not overtaxed. Respect them and their skills.
Helpful Hint for these Trying Economic Times: Trying to live in enemy territory ain't easy. The rent is high. Reconnoiter. Make sure you can pay the bills.
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Some Things I do:
- Teaching my kids
- Learning from my kids
- Shooting photographs
- Talk
- Attempt to be pithy while engaged in above activity
- Play Chess (see more below on this subject)
- Struggling to make a good homemade Sesame Chicken
- Make smiley faces at people despite not feeling so inclined
- Post on intrawebs trying to be pithy
- And much, much more!
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Please take a look at the photos! Please leave comments!
Be as critical or as effusive as you wish. Even ad hominem attacks are allowed! Other people will enjoy reading them, as will I, and so long as term of service are not completely violated, or something libelous of other people is posted, I won't delete anything.
I am reminded of this joke: A sadist and a masochist are arrested on seperate charges and put into a holding cell together to await arraignment. The masochist begs the sadist, "Beat me!" To which the sadist replies, "No!"
It should always be so easy to make people happy.
Have fun in whatever form you find it!
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CHESS IDEOLOGIES:
- Tactics Currently going through Hertan's Forcing Chess Moves
- Play over full games Currently working through Kasparov-Karpov II
- Play Games Doing so here Online 3-4 hrs/day
- Annotate Currently Neglecting !
- Openings Currently Studying 1.5 hrs/day ~ Working with the NIC Series Tactics in the Chess Openings
I like sharp play. Main lines. Also, simple positions. I respect your game and if I am down material with no compensation or chance to swindle, I resign. I prefer counter attacking systems on the dark squares when playing black (that's the color of e1 and g1!) and direct assaults on the center when playing the white pieces. I will continually play for complications and try to maintain central tension until the board itself almost implodes.
My penchant is for positions with extreme imbalances and/or possession of the Bishop pair. This desire often compels me to find as many ways as possible to dump/sac the Queen's Rook for a minor piece, which seems the easiest and most consistant way to achieve this inbalance and create favorable positions based on this stratetgy.
I firmly belive the number of people in the Chess army is as important, and often times more important, than their values. It is too easy to put too much emphasis on material superiority, foget the underlying dynamics of the position, and miss the chance to gain the upper-hand.
I do not find any style of play annoying, but do find several methods puzzling. My main strategic aim is to create positions with material imbalances which are difficult for both side to assess, but not along the lines of unsound gambiting or speculative piece sacrifices.
Recent Opening Infatuations Include:
- Tango!
- Any viable variation named after Frank Marshall
- 1. e4 e5!
- Open Spanish ~ Riga Variation
- The Gruenfeld
On the Subject of Memory and the Persistance Thereof:
The role of human memory in chess is both under studied and mis-aligned. Perhaps the single most common thread amongst all strong players is their vacuum tight ability to remember. Not just positions (kerns), but concepts, rules, move orders, and also the reasons why!
We all see so many advocates of the "Don't Memorize Things" School of Chess Learning. And while there are some valid points underneath their umbrellas, their overarching concept is faulty.
Consider: What good is reading anything at all if you cannot remember what you have read?
Without memory, there is no learning.
It is also dangerous to assume that memory is everything or that I am advocating a course of simple memorizing things. Well, I am! For the latter and not so much the former, at least. Face it, memorizing things is not easy and takes a lot of work (there is that dirty four letter word most people do not like so much.....work!). If someone sets about the task of memorizing the right things, like a particular opening, the resulting array of positions that arise from it, the plans that make sense to implement in that position, and the tactics that could come from that positon, I argue they have learned.
A lot.
And, that they also have good chances of now using this "memorized" info to go win chess games.
Chess Epilogue Part I:
The gane for me now has become about always playing to get better and understand chess a bit better after each game. Winning is always the goal, but never obsessively so. Sportsmanship and respect for partners ranks high on my list of things I aim to achieve consistantly.
Finally, I have realized and accepted that I am not into long otb tournaments anymore. There are several contributing factors: Too much $$$ on all the 'peripherals' has made it economically unfeasible, but also sitting in silence for the better part of a nice weekend now seems a silly thing for me to do. Blitz has always been my preferred weapon of choice, and I'll spend the entire time in the Skittles room at the World Open rather than fork over $300+ to add to the kitty. I'd rather do some hustlin & bustlin with the give-and-take chitter-chatter smack down fast talkin $5/game money players than keep my sphincter tight all weekend like most of the people are choosing to do in the main hall.
Chess Epilogue Part I Redux:
What is the name of that transition area between the cream at the top of the bottle and the rest of the skim milk that fills most of the container? It's this thin Flatland-esque type of existence where occasionally you get to taste some fat from the creamy top but mostly one is nourished by the less dense milk underneath so that a floating stasis is attained. Sort of like whatever beings would be able to live in the gases of Jupiter. If there is not a word for this, I think perhaps I will make one up.....
Below is one of my better games played in a tournament at standard time controls, againts IM Igor Ivanov, who later went on to get his GM title. Igor was perhaps as good at chess as he was on the piano and this is the only game I ever got to play against him but I did get to hear him play music many times and saw a lot of his games.
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A bone for the critics: Here on the intrawebs you can rest assured that I am really still living in my mom's basement, posting while wearing just my skivvies. Flingin boogers on the screen and yelling obscentities at people that beat me while simultaneously pretending to be civil.
It's a perfect fit.
