Einstein

No, the other strong players that challenged me took an interest in wanting to coach me in my game....it was nice of them.

And stop being so childish, optimissed. I've beat stronger players than me, and I don't tout...I just move on to the next game.

Anyways, thanks for offering to go over the game with me.

But my mind is thinking a million thoughts a minute...I can't stay anchored to any one thing right now...I've got plenty of games  where I want to go over just lying in wait...I need to drink some wine now to slow down my brain frenzy 

The day we started our games, two days ago, I lifted more weights than I ever did in my life and my shoulders are aching now. 270 lifts of my measly small 75 pound weights & I never did more than 140 before. I've been doing it for a couple of years or so but not every day. Sometimes never for a few weeks. I'll be 64 in a couple of months and I think I need to get into shape. You could try walking. After an hour, your brain will slow down.

Good for you, man. I see you tending to your physical and intellectual health.

Yoga, walking, running, meditation - all been tried. Doesn't work on me.

An existential lightweight I am...I've changed residences more than 30 times in the last 20 years...transatlantic...just like those bees, forces larger than myself dictate...

Shucks.

I shouldn't run, really. Not if I don't want bits of me to drop off. I'm always pulling tendons.

Have you tried opium?

never did opium. I should look into it .

I'm 50 and I can sprint like I'm in my 20s, I still look my 20s-30s...there's a trick to holding onto your health...wish I could tell ya...but I'm waiting on writing a book about it 10 years from now...when I hit 60 and still haven't change physically

I was extremely fit up to about 46. Then I had a series of injuries. In my mid 40s I also looked like I was in my 20s. Now I look my age, except that when I see other 63 year old men, mostly they have lost all their strength and are knackered.

Regarding my so-called blunder in that game, basically I think I pushed the d-pawn a bit early, which was a bit of a blunder. I could have retreated my bishop, which may hhave been correct, but what I couldn't afford was to leave things where they were, after which you got a pin, which simplified into a fairly even game or maybe, I thought, slightly better for you. I wasn't happy with how I handled the opening. Playing a3 wasn't a blunder but it was due to desperation. I'd looked at that position for an hour and I simply couldn't work out how to get an advantage. But after I more or less forced you to win the exchange, your strongest piece, that bishop, was gone and you needed several moves to finish your development. In particular, your extra rook was out of the game and I was able to force your knight back to a8, which I thought was your only move. I was pretty happy with my game. I didn't think I was losing but couldn't see a win. There were situations where I had queen and two extra pawns against youer two rooks. Several different positions where I had queen against rook, minor piece and an extra pawn, but you had all the activity. If I'd spent an extra move making an airhole for my king, maybe with h3, all would have been well, but there were a lot of positions where you could force simplification to a probably winning position, or I got checkmated. That was if I pushed too hard. Eventually I more or less thought I had a strong continuation against each of your possible moves and you chose the weakest, thinking you could get your king out. It actually belonged on b8. I probably put six or eight hours of thought into that game. You probably thought for less than an hour. I thought you played very well but you needed to analyse more deeply. The move that gave me the most trouble was a6, not c6, which lost. I was intending N a7+ followed by N c6, forking your king and queen, forcing you to take with your b pawn, after which the other knight came in, again threatening the king queen rook three way fork, which of course won the exchange back, leaving me a minor piece down, your queenside completely smashed up and still you're two moves away from completing your development. But I wasn't sure that you would lose. The other variations, I was a bit more confident.

You may as well be talking to chinese to me...now that I'm well flooded with -OH in my veins....

I'm like - daaag! Lost again, as usual! That was the extent of my analysis of the game. Oh well (shoulder shrug)

I'll take a better look at what you wrote tomorrow.

OK>
Regarding the other game, I thought the position was ok to allow you to turn my Paulsen Sicilian into a Benoni. The tactic that you missed was that after b5 hitting your bishop, you didn't have to move it. You could have played dxe6 and I had to recapture, otherwise if I took your bishop you had ef+ followed by a queen check which won my a8 rook and the game ... hence after dxe6, my position wasn't as solid as in the game and I thought you kept a slight edge, whereas after the game continuation, the only move I had to worry about was a4 by you, although I think I ignored it and attacked your e-pawn, although I can't really remember because I am tired. I have several hundred miles to drive tomorrow so better get to bed.

Also getting delicious chest and shoulder burn pains after the weightlifting.

alrighty. You tell me what you know. I tell you what I know...humans when they hit 25 y.o. - we reach developmental zenith physically....all the cells in their body that was supposed to have bloomed bloomed. At that age 35% of body is made up of collagen - the glue that holds us together. Each year after that we lose 1% of collagen - because the body no longers manufacture it....so exponentially losing one percent of collagen each year (or compounded losses)...when you hit your 40s...hence the injuries...the glue in our body had dried up and diminished...

I think I just gave away the secret. Oh well!!

Tis not a call for people to go injecting themselves with collagen...

Invasive intervention is a no-no....people don't realize they are injecting a dead thing into themselves...you gotta respect nature...when you do - nothing is a better executor of your wishes.

Heehee...sm pleasures, eh?

Being in love with a girl who doesn't know you exist is the most exquisite of sm pleasure...LOL

I wouldn't fancy that. I suppose I need to try it.

nah...stick to getting it from weight-lifting!

At least there's some sort of payoff from it!

Thankyou Lustwaffles, a3 was a positional sacrifice, which wasn't as good as I thought, so perhaps it was a blunder. But I liked the way all my pieces were co-ordinated after the so-called blunder, whilst Feufollet's best piece had mysteriously vanished, traded for my own bishop which was getting in my way and which was a slight liability. And his active knight was traded for a rook which, in normal circumstances, wasn't going to play an active part for a few moves. Maybe the truth is that a3 was more of a blitz move than well-considered but also, e1 was a good square for my queen, which in some variations went to a4 via d1. So did a3 actually lose, or should it have lost? I didn't want to play Be7, which, I thought, reduced my practical chances of winning. Playing the man and not the board in practice gives results.

As for following up d5 with Nb5, I was thinking of it and didn't play it. As you say, it was probably the correct continuation.

can't believe where this conversation went!

"Does anyone know if Einstein was fond of chess?"

that's a chess topic, yet this is in off topics ??

I was also thinking he might play Rd8 hitting my queen instead of taking the rook immediately as he did. I was going to interpose a knight, with interesting complications.

Its a pissing contest