Pigs on the 7th

What an odd name for a Chess gaming line, but I suppose it can't be worse than "The Hillbilly" against the Caro-Kann. I wouldn't normally add this sort of a Chess line to the blog because I would have thought everyone would know it by now. Based on a game I finished last night, apparently not!

As we all know the game board is 8 x 8 and your opponents second last line, the one with all the Pawns on it (at least at the start) is "the 7th". 

It's a basic game line where you get both of your rooks onto that line and they protect each other. Why "pigs"? Because in the real world pigs are omnivores and will eat anything. In the game of Chess "Pigs on the 7th" will also eat anything.

Pigs on the 7th isn't an opening. You can't really plan from the start to end that way because all those pesky pieces behind the Pawns protect the Pawns. So it's more of a mid to late game development that can become possible as the board starts to clear off.

As I said, you can't really plan for this from the start but that image gives a good idea of why the game line works. Just follow our game mantra of Checks, Captures, Threats and Development and this can develop.

Here is the game from last night and for the sake of my embarrassment, and to show the game line you can ignore most of the early game. I can't believe I made 6 Blunders in a game and still won.

So you see, once you get those Pigs on the 7th, they're unstoppable and the game is pretty much over. Let's start at move 25 because that's where I got my first Pig into an annoying place, so scroll down on the annotation.

For a game of 41 moves (26 is average), this game was quite quick, just the way I like it and the reason why I like this opponent so much.

There is an opponent in a tournament I'm playing where my opponent plays exactly one move every 3 days and he's been doing it with every player in the group. Wow, that guy is annoying.

That tournament started in February and at the rate it' going, will end next February! So don't be annoying. If you get a move, look for a better one, but then play it!