Re: The New Chess Thread!

by Father Dugal Sat Jun 28, 2014 7:07 pm

All I want to do, ever, is play chess.

Hey, I've read that quote before. I think it shows up in one of the Bobby Fischer books I have on tap.

by **Casey** Sat Jul 05, 2014 4:43 pm

Alright, the dust has cleared, and the bodies have been removed from the battlefield. Now it's time to take a look back at the game.

I thought your double kingside sacrifice could have worked. You effectively destroyed the pawn structure defending my pieces and exploited my lack of developed pieces on my queenside. Specifically, my Queen's Bishop was blocked in, and that Bishop in turn blocked in the Queen's Rook. Several of your attacks raised complications for me that could have ended in my checkmate, and I had to tread very carefully.

I think the reason why your attack failed in the end was because your Queen had no pieces to support her attack. Had one or both of your Rooks been brought to bear, I'm not sure that I could have extracted my King without having to make some sacrifices myself. As it was, your Queen, although threatening, was not capable of forcing checkmate on her own.

Incidentally, there is an article up right now on chess.com about Paul Morphy's brilliant sacrifices. You can read it at this link.

In other chess news, I've been doing rather poorly in my other games. In one game I brilliantly traded my Queen for a pawn. I resigned immediately. In another game, I was up a piece for a pawn after a fun pawn fork as my opponent was trying to exploit my Bishop being pinned to my Queen. Then I allowed the same Bishop to get pinned to my King, and lost it. Following that, I let my King get pushed away from the Rook it was protecting, losing that piece as well. Sad

Such is life. Ratings-wise, I'm at my lowest point in over a year. Such a reduction is deserved; I haven't been playing all that well lately, missing tactics that would win for me, and making moves that allow my opponent tactical opportunities to beat me.

We'll see what happens next.

by Father Dugal Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:54 pm

Such is life. Ratings-wise, I'm at my lowest point in over a year. Such a reduction is deserved; I haven't been playing all that well lately, missing tactics that would win for me, and making moves that allow my opponent tactical opportunities to beat me.

We'll see what happens next.

Hmm. That's sad to hear. I recently challenged a dude and the match lasted a whole three moves. And while it was nice to win on time, I didn't actually gain any points from it. Blast.

Speaking of rematches, I wish I could get Marc to respond to the many thousands of requests I've sent to his account.

Maybe, I should mail him a headless pawn as a sort of death threat to play. Do you think he would get the idea across or would it send him in a spiral of paranoia and fear from which he would never recover?

by Father Dugal Mon Jul 14, 2014 10:02 pm

So, what happens when a Yiddish space squid attempts a move at the game of kings? A Youtube video that last about ten minutes and some change, that's what.

by Father Dugal Wed Jul 23, 2014 9:39 pm

This is how I feel, at times, when I start a new chess match with Jon.

by **Casey** Fri Jul 25, 2014 10:35 pm

Alpha Centauri wrote:So, what happens when a Yiddish space squid attempts a move at the game of kings? A Youtube video that last about ten minutes and some change, that's what.

I admit, I think I watched that video for close to 5 minutes...

by **Casey** Fri Jul 25, 2014 10:37 pm

Alpha Centauri wrote:This is how I feel, at times, when I start a new chess match with Jon.

There are those that say that chess will be "solved", and it may be that with perfect play on both sides White might win 100% of the time (like in this video), or that it will be like tic tac toe, with a draw 100% of the time.

Others say that it is impossible to solve chess: there are more possible moves than there are particles in the universe by many orders of magnitude.

by Father Dugal Sat Jul 26, 2014 11:12 am

Others say that it is impossible to solve chess: there are more possible moves than there are particles in the universe by many orders of magnitude.

That many possible combinations? Wow man, chess is like some kind of groovy cosmos. Look at the might of the universe at night and then look at a chess board and behold the universe trapped in a small wooden board.

Woah, man. Woah. Zennnnnn. geek

by **Casey** Wed Jul 30, 2014 7:31 pm

Holy crap:

GM Nakamura, GM So to square off in epic Death Match 28

That last one was epic. This one will be beyond imagination.

by Father Dugal Wed Jul 30, 2014 9:28 pm

GM Nakamura, GM So to square off in epic Death Match 28

That last one was epic. This one will be beyond imagination.

I'm sure it will be epic. Just as long as mud is provided.

by **Casey** Mon Aug 04, 2014 8:47 pm

Well, on the last one my mind provide all the mud required

Very Happy

by Father Dugal Tue Aug 05, 2014 10:42 pm

Who says a chess battle needs to end when the victor says, "Checkmate"? You have the power to bring the metaphysical chess battle into to the physical world. On and on into eternity. Or at least until the next chess match.

by **Casey** Wed Aug 06, 2014 7:34 pm

British comedy...

by Father Dugal Thu Aug 07, 2014 5:18 pm

British comedy...

Ha, ha! The man is speechless.

by **Casey** Thu Aug 07, 2014 7:46 pm

Haha! Yeah, well it's a good thing that the one guy says "checkmate" at the beginning of the video, otherwise I would have been completely confused by the intent of the video. British humor (sorry... humour) is just, well, different.

by Father Dugal Mon Aug 11, 2014 5:54 pm

Haha! Yeah, well it's a good thing that the one guy says "checkmate" at the beginning of the video, otherwise I would have been completely confused by the intent of the video. British humor (sorry... humour) is just, well, different.

I would tend to agree.

British humor lies in two separate camps. On one side, you have reserved humor with Brits acting up to cultural expectation while on the other you have a more liberal approach to the funnies with reserve and manners tossed into the nearest bin (trash can). The clip above is from a show that falls squarely into this more liberal approach to humor, which became common in Britain around the 1970s thanks to comedy groups like Monty Python.

by Father Dugal Tue Dec 02, 2014 10:20 pm

It's the only way explain the greatness of these two great players. It's the only way.

The New Chess Thread! - Page 3 Capablanca+vs+carlsen

by Father Dugal Sat Dec 20, 2014 10:46 am

Here's a neat little chess match up. JLA vs. Avengers!

I like this matchup because I can imagine every hero as representing the piece space they occupy.

I am most amused by having Flash and Quicksilver as the pawns. Sure, they are only two guys; but since they move so fast, why not have them duplicate so as to fullfill all the pawn duties at once?

The New Chess Thread! - Page 3 DSC06398

by **Casey** Sat Dec 20, 2014 7:48 pm

In a glass case huh? Someone thinks very highly of that chess set.

Razz

by Father Dugal Sat Dec 20, 2014 10:20 pm

In a glass case huh? Someone thinks very highly of that chess set.

Hey, I would if I had a chess set like that. Too much finger grease might corrode the fine plastic figurines is what I say.

by Father Dugal Sat Aug 01, 2015 5:16 pm

So how many games of chess are there? Way back in the 1950s, (you know when making chess computer programs were all the rage) a scientist named Shannon came up with the number of 10¹²⁰ possible games. In this video, Youtube user Numberphile tackles this question with gusto and discovers all sorts of interesting points on the subject. The number of chess games increases dramatically even after the first move!

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