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L. Fric, 2051
J. Huang, 2012

0-1

See game 135688




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Normajean Yates     2009-06-02
quote#14: Yeats on hypermodern chess ;)     comments : 0

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;" - the famous line from W. B. Yeats's poem 'The Second Coming' (1919) - an allusion to hypermodern chess?


Normajean Yates     2009-06-02
quote#13: another take on insanity     comments : 0

Einstein's definition of insanity: "Endlessly repeating the same process, hoping for a different result." (provided by Scott Nichols)


Normajean Yates     2009-05-23
quote#12: from Agatha Christie     comments : 0

Hastings: 'She has courage, that girl.'

Poirot: 'And calculation.'

Hastings: 'What do you mean - calculation?'

Poirot: 'I mean that she has the power of looking ahead.'


(The ABC Murders, Agatha Christie, 1936)


Normajean Yates     2009-05-18
quote#11: chess is not life...     comments : 0

"Unfortunately, chess is not life." - GM Larry Evans, Chess Life, May 1962

(from the essay 'White to play and win?', excerpts with the quote (p.147, last paragraph) reprinted in GM Larry Evans's 'Chess Catechism', 1970.)


Normajean Yates     2009-05-16
quote #10: on stupidity..     comments : 0

'Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.' - Friedrich Schiller (provided by Rodolfo d Ettorre)


Normajean Yates     2009-05-16
quote # 8 - by Iouri Basiliev (and #9)     comments : 0

'Chess is quintessence of war' (Iouri Basiliev)

reminded me of what will be Quote #9:

'Insanity is the first sign of dandruff' - Yoko Ono



(#4-#7 - unnumbered below - were by [resp.] Samuel Johnson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lynne Truss and Rodolfo d Ettorre; I am looking for a chess quote from MauriceLeBlanc [Arsene Lupin] to balance Doyle [Sherlock Holmes]; also in Joyce's 'Finnegan's Wake')


Normajean Yates     2009-05-12
bigchess thoughts and tips, part 3     comments : 0

Rook v Bishop - both are longrange pieces but:

1. a Bishop can reach only 128 squares, a Rook can reach all 256. (and all the other standard reasons why the R is [in general] much more powerful than the B, they carry over to bigchess eg a R can confine the opp's K to an edge; K+R v K is standard easy mate, etc.)

2. In 8x8 chess, once you have a semi-open file, one tries to 'boost' a rook up that file (even if one cannot reach the 7th file). This is much more common, and much more commonly advantageous, in bigchess, because one easily creates a 'quasi-semi-open' file by pushing a pawn 4-5 squares ahead, and boosts a Rook up this 'quasi-semi-open' file. (specially the e-Rook and the m-Rook)

Hence, I feel that just as in 8x8 chess, the Rook is nearly twice as powerful as the Bishop in bigchess.


Normajean Yates     2009-05-12
bigchess thoughts and tips, part 2...     comments : 0

(essentially my forum post)

compared to 8x8 chess, bigchess has twice the number of men but four-times the number of squares. Hence, initial and average board-population density is half that of 8x8chess. So, games are more commonly 'open' - games as closed as an 8x8-chess closed game will be comparatively rare.

Hence, also, (because of low population-density) long-range pieces Rook, Bishop and Queen are *in general* -- Thib., agreed: only 'in general' :) --- much more powerful than their 8x8-chess counterparts.

However, the queen can still get trapped early - see my game number 31191 - opp resigned on my [black's] 7th move because of trapped Queen.. http://www.ficgs.com/user_page.php?page=viewer&game=31191&flip=1


Normajean Yates     2009-05-11
Big Chess: Thoughts and Tips     comments : 0

(This is essentially my forum-post: I thought it should be in my blog for my quick future-reference)

I think Bigchess is a wonderful invention of Thibault's (I presume it is Thib. who invented it: any way he is the only one offering serious bigchess (on this site) - the starting position is very well-concieved..

I feel Bigchess needs more publicity. This is about the only place one can play it - and here there are 2-3 top-class players; less than 20 middle-standard players (including me); others try it once or twice and for some reason get scared or overwhelmed and give up - I see no reason why..

Bigchess gives no advantage on account of huge memorisation of theory, or of better engines: there are *no* theory books; and there are no known engines in existence (probably there isnt one - too little demand, and writing a *good* engine is somewhat laborious, coming up with a *good* static-eval function is tricky, fast board-implementation issues...), so it is all wits...


In fact last week I spend part of two days writing down whatever theory I could discover [with help from top games], it comes to half a page.. but it is very rudimentary.. (it is 'work in progress')



So, here are some tips for people who want to try bigchess:

1. Bishops are much more powerful than Knights. (because of much longer range compared to 8x8 chess).

The consensus on the values of bigchess pieces is David Grosdemange's valuation: pawn=1
knight=2.5 (written 2,5 in the continent, of course)
bishop=4
rook=6
queen=11



2. In the opening position, the c,f,L and o-pawns are unprotected.

So, if white's opening move is with the j2-Knight ( freeing the queen), then on move 2 white can move the Queen and threaten to pick up a pawn by forks.. Similarly for black.

*However*, such pawn gambits are quite playable because the Queen can be forced to make many moves to capture a pawn, while the gambitting side develops their pieces.


***3. Most Important For Many People: board for offline analysis.

Best of course, is to take time to draw a 16x16 board on paper and stick it on cardboard. And get hold of four sets of chess pieces.

Another way: print a position, and after a move is made - just update the position using correction fluid (typewriter/printer-ink erasing fluid) or something. That way you don't have to keep printng a lot of positions.


Normajean Yates     2009-05-11
Rodolfo's corollary of Gloria's maxim     comments : 0

I didn't notice this one before; it is wonderful enough to be stored as a quote!

A woman without a man is a fish without a bicycle (Goria Steinem)

A married woman is like a fish riding a bicycle. (Rodolfo d'Ettorre)

:)

(just a quibble: to be precise, Rodolfo's corollary is meant to be read as *not* counting same-sex marriages)


Normajean Yates     2009-05-10
sequels...     comments : 0

'Gandhi II: The Mahatma Strikes Back' (example of use of colon in Lynne Truss's book 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves')


Normajean Yates     2009-05-09
chess excellence and criminality - 1 ;)     comments : 0

'[Amberley] excelled at chess – one mark, Watson, of a scheming mind.' (Arthur Conan Doyle, 'The Adventure of the Retired Colourman', in 'The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes',1927)


Normajean Yates     2009-05-07
chess: in Dr Johnson's dictionary...         comments : 2

CHESS, n. f. [echecs, Fr.] A nice and abstruse game, in which two sets of puppets are moved in opposition to each other. (Dr Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary Of The English Language, 1755)


Normajean Yates     2008-11-07
quote #3     comments : 0

"The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn't betray it, I'd be ashamed of myself." —Noam Chomsky


Normajean Yates     2008-11-07
question:     comments : 0

question: Is 'This statement is paradoxical' a paradoxical statement? Or is it a meta-paradox?


Normajean Yates     2008-11-07
quote #3     comments : 0

" 'preceded by its own quotation yields a falsehood' preceded by its own quotation yields a falsehood " - W. V. O. Quine - Set Theory And Its Logic, 1953.


Normajean Yates     2008-07-18
quote #2     comments : 0

History is the quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all.

—Jane Austen


Normajean Yates     2008-07-14
join the bigchess waiting list!     comments : 0

FICGS__BIG_CHESS__TOURNAMENT__000025. 4 players already, 3 more needed to begin. [1 day/move + fischerincrement 1 day/move]

Come on ye brave souls, we are all novices sorry pioneers in this. Who knows what openings are good? Who knows whether white has any advantage? What computer+book+database can help? No one, no one, and none! So jump right in - 3 more passengers and the boat starts its voyage!

With the opposing army 17 sqaues away, ther is nothing to fear - for a few months at least!


Normajean Yates     2008-07-13
old chess quote updated     comments : 0

"pushing plastic is for the many, pushing virtual pieces is for the fewer, pushing wood is for the very few." - me


Normajean Yates     2008-07-09
off-chess quotes         comments : 1

"I am not the life and soul of the party, unless it is a political party." - Micheal Albert, in Remembering Tomorrow








 		 
 
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Gueci, Alberto     (ITA)        [member # 185]

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I'm 59 years old and i live in Palermo (Sicily). I'm quite weak on the board so I'm engines dependent ;-)





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