I beat you fair and square!

[Drake Tungsten]

Go is exponentially more deep than chess.

I've noticed.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Shall we diverge into a discussion of the Taisha and Nadare joseki?

[MrFun]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Shall we diverge into a discussion of the Taisha and Nadare joseki?

no

[MichaeltheGreat]

Black or white?

[Drake Tungsten]

You're getting way ahead of me, MtG. I'm worse at Go than I am at chess.

BTW, been studying the French defense at http://www.eudesign.com/chessops/. Looks pretty effective, especially if you knew the theory behind it.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Cruddy


I would guess that Capablanca's popularity is down to the style of writing of his books - he's a pretty easy introduction to the strategy side of chess, even if he doesn't really go for depth on a lot of stuff.

Not that I'm any sort of expert on chess - my junior club playing was so bad that after 2 solid years I was still unrated.

The only reason I kept it up for 2 years was the local club was over a pub - ah, the joys of underage drinking.

Perhaps I can see the reason for your lack of aptitude. Did you start drinking before you quit playing?

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

Things suuure changed since I was last here .

You leave and the level of discussion goes up? Maybe there's a lesson there...

Zing!

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
You're getting way ahead of me, MtG. I'm worse at Go than I am at chess.

BTW, been studying the French defense at http://www.eudesign.com/chessops/. Looks pretty effective, especially if you knew the theory behind it.

They don't have much on the Tarrasch (3 Nd2 ... ) variation, which is much more effective for white than 3 Nc3, playing into the Winawer. (Classical, Paulsen and McCutcheon are all inferior for black than the Winawer, which is the brawling version for black).

The thing with the Tarrasch is that it's rather counterintuitive for white players who are generally looking for an open game after 1 e4. They forget that the entire job of the QN after black opts for the French is to protect the e4 pawn, and it can do that better on d2 where it can't be pinned and doesn't hang up the c-d-e pawn chain.

When I played white against the French, I didn't like the Tarrasch for the same reason, so I played a little known, and less analyzed move that Spassky used to rip the gonads of Wolfgang Uhlmann (the greatest modern era practitioner of the French, Uhlmann used it exclusively as black against 1 e4).

The normal Winawer goes:

1. e4 e6; 2. d4 d5; 3. Nc3 Bb4; 4. e5 c5; 5 a3 Bc3; 6 bc ...

There's another version that goes:

1. e4 e6; 2. d4 d5; 3. Nc3 Bb4; 4. e5 Ne7; 5 a3 Bc3; 6 bc ...

Spassky reasoned that the only reason for the 5 a3 move was to force the bishop-knight exchange, but it blocked the white QB from possible play on the a3-f8 diagonal, and was a wasted move. Spassky's experiment, which I played a lot, was to ignore the b4 bishop, and take advantage of the weakened dark squares on black's K-side (due to the white pawns at d4 and e5 and displacement of the black KB) to develop aggressively with 5 Qg4 instead of 5 a3.

In Spassky's game against Uhlmann in the 1976 Manila interzonals (playoffs to get into the world championship challenger matches), when this move was first tried, Uhlmann played the second variation where the KN moves before the c pawn.

AFAIK, although my games never counted for FIDE purposes since I never was FIDE rated, I was the first player to use 5 Qg4 against the main line Winawer, and it was very effective for it's power to take black players (who in the area generally knew I was a hardcore advocate of the French) out of their expected game.

[Drake Tungsten]

*Drake Tungsten smiles and nods, as though he comprehended what MtG just said

[MichaeltheGreat]

You're familiar with short algebraic notation? Or not? I'm just so used to it I don't think about what other people are familiar with...

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

You leave and the level of discussion goes up?

Only if you actually consider this up..

Pretend they're talking about wizard chess and this makes much more sense.

[Drake Tungsten]

Oh, I can follow the notation. I just have trouble visualizing it in my head and don't feel like pulling a board out at the moment. Don't worry; I'm copying it all to a Word file, so I can peruse it later at my leisure.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Did I ever say how much chessgames.com rocks?

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1129010

Yeah, the visualization thing is a *****. I used to be able to retain games in my head for years, and associate any rated games I played with someone to either their name or face. Got to where I could play blindfold simultaneously with two lower players, but never beyond that. Certainly nothing even close to Kolti's exhibits. He was something to see.

[Drake Tungsten]

Did I ever say how much chessgames.com rocks?

I looked at a couple Tal/French Defense games earlier. Very nice site. The only real problem I noticed was that the players resigned early, so I didn't get to see how the endgame would've played out. Maybe GM's could see the inevitable conclusion, but I was at a loss. Can't be helped, though, so why complain?

[Al B. Sure!]

how could anyone as intelligent as MtG be a political moderate? tsk tsk...