http://www.ficgs.com/blog.html Last messages in FICGS players blog http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_26-quote-3.html "The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn't betray it, I'd be ashamed of myself." —Noam Chomsky http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_25-question.html question: Is 'This statement is paradoxical' a paradoxical statement? Or is it a meta-paradox? http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_24-quote-3.html " '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. http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_23-quote-2.html 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 http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_22-join-the-bigchess-waiting-list.html 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! http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_21-old-chess-quote-updated.html "pushing plastic is for the many, pushing virtual pieces is for the fewer, pushing wood is for the very few." - me http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_17-quote-1.html "I am not the life and soul of the party, unless it is a political party." - Micheal Albert, in Remembering Tomorrow http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_13-sorry-i-didnt-read-it-properly.html Sorry for the comment, I misread your post in a hurry and because of eyestrain. The only person that my comment makes look stupid is myself! http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_13-Ryaad-are-you-suggesting.html Ryaad, are you suggesting that the competition at ficgs is significantly *weaker* than at other places? :D http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_17-offchess-quotes.html "I am not the life and soul of the party, unless it is a political party." - Micheal Albert, in Remembering Tomorrow http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_16-Swedish-junior-cc-championship.html The swedish junior correspondence chess plays with the time control 30/10 days, so after 10 moves you get 30 days. The start date was 30 april, ut already a lot game have end. 18 players and i am one of them. There are 2 qualifying groups and the 3 best player have to play in the Final on the Iccf server. I have alrady won 2 games of player how plays without any chessprograms and i will win. I have also played a draw with maybe my hardest opponent. It was a short game so i did not used my chessprogram only my openingsbook. Here is the game. 1. d2-d4 Ng8-f6 2. c2-c4 g7-g6 3. Nb1-c3 d7-d5 4. c4xd5 Nf6xd5 5. e2-e4 Nd5xc3 6. b2xc3 Bf8-g7 7. Bf1-c4 c7-c5 8. Ng1-e2 Nb8-c6 9. Bc1-e3 O-O 10. O-O Bc8-g4 11. f2-f3 Nc6-a5 12. Bc4-d3 c5xd4 13. c3xd4 Bg4-e6 14. d4-d5 Bg7xa1 15. Qd1xa1 f7-f6 16. Be3-h6 Rf8-e8 17. Kg1-h1 Ra8-c8 18. Ne2-f4 Be6-d7 19. e4-e5 Na5-c4 20. e5-e6 Bd7-a4 21. Nf4xg6 h7xg6 22. Bd3xg6 Nc4-e5 23. Bg6-e4 Ba4-c2 24. Be4xc2 Rc8xc2 25. Qa1-d1 Kg8-h7 26. f3-f4 Kh7xh6 27. f4xe5 Qd8-c8 28. Qd1-d3 Draw. I have one intressting game like i really want to win. But i am in the end game and my oppenent use a chessprogram with 1 hour analysis. 1. d2-d4 Ng8-f6 2. c2-c4 e7-e6 3. Nb1-c3 Bf8-b4 4. e2-e3 O-O 5. Ng1-f3 c7-c5 6. Bf1-d3 d7-d5 7. O-O d5xc4 8. Bd3xc4 Nb8-d7 9. Qd1-e2 b7-b6 10. a2-a3 c5xd4 11. e3xd4 Bb4xc3 12. b2xc3 Bc8-b7 13. Bc4-d3 Qd8-c7 14. Bc1-d2 Nf6-d5 15. Qe2-e4 Nd5-f6 16. Qe4-e2 Nf6-d5 17. Qe2-e4 Nd5-f6 18. Qe4-e3 Rf8-e8 19. Rf1-e1 e6-e5 20. Nf3xe5 Nd7xe5 21. d4xe5 Ra8-d8 22. Ra1-d1 Rd8-d5 23. Qe3-g3 Rd5xe5 24. Re1xe5 Qc7xe5 25. Qg3xe5 Re8xe5 26. f2-f3 Re5-e8 27. Bd3-b5 Re8-d8 28. Kg1-f2 Bb7-c8 29. Bb5-e2 Bc8-e6 30. Bd2-c1 Rd8xd1 31. Be2xd1 Nf6-d5 32. Bc1-d2 Nd5-e7 33. g2-g4 f7-f5 34. h2-h3 h7-h6 35. Bd1-e2 Ne7-c6 36. Bd2-f4 Kg8-f7 37. Be2-b5 Be6-d7 ChessPosition=WPa3,WPc3,WPf3,WPg4,WPh3,WBf4,WBb5,WKf2,BPa7,BPb6,BPf5,BPg7,BPh6,BNc6,BBd7,BKf7 If you know how white can win you can send me a message. http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_14-Go-game.html "Trying to master a game where the basic ideas keep breaking and changing in each and every rank you grow is like trying to catch a fish in a world with no friction" Hi Mik, I fully agree with this :) .. Have good games ! http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_14-Go-And-Lust.html I have been playing this game for a while now And it amazes me in every new thing I learn So great so complex and yet so simple no one can master go Tring to master a game where the basic ideas keep breaking and changing in each and every rank you grow is like tring to cach a fish in a world with no friction In recent years you see more and more pro players changing the ideas Making more and more chaos Showing me how little I know about this wonderful game Please join me in my quest for knowledge and become my friends so I can join youre's http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_13-To-Thibault.html Bonjour Thibault & really thanks for you have never ignored any message in public or private. I would really appreciate that. Regarding my played tournaments, after 16 tournaments that I have participated at FICGS it was the first one that I led :-) http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_12-Fighting-against-oneself.html After having played about a hundred correspondence chess & Go games simultaneously during a few months at FICGS & IECG, I'm finally to reach a reasonable number of games... Oof ! Correspondence chess is definitely addicting, server chess and FICGS chess WCH time control makes it even more oppressive when playing too many games, but it is still hard to resist to this continuous challenge. Correspondence chess has changed a lot during these last 2 years and looks just deeper & deeper to me as chess engines like Rybka, Fritz, Hiarcs and others improve, as well as CC players' opening books. A player rated 2400 nowadays plays probably at least 50 points above a player rated the same two years ago but trusting an engine without looking deeply at the position still generally means losing (which is quite positive, chess is not dead)... Of course I lost some games to very good players these last months, but I also lost some to myself, definitely playing too fast or too confident, in example this nice game with Gaetano Laghetti in WCH round-robin final 1, that I just waste at move 70 after a hard battle to ensure a draw. In the same time, I feel to have improved quite a lot at Go, just by playing stronger players, this game is definitely deeper than chess and I'll probably have many difficulties to win some more points after having reached 1 kyu but FICGS is a place to learn patience and definitely I have to improve a lot yet :) http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_10-Re.html Hello Ryaad, tournaments winners list is not updated in real time, but the result should be correct now. http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_10-Leader-of-a-tournament-on-my-tournaments.html Bonsoir, since I led a tournament FICGS__CHESS__RAPID_B__000070 there are 2 leaders while I am the only leader by 6/6 :-) Thanks RA http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_7-Move-order.html 21. Qa6? The bishop is guarding this rook so this seems like a blunder. http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_5-how-to-fool-fritz.html Hello Albert, thanks for the link ! I agree with you for the most part of your work. Keep the queens :) http://www.howtofoolfritz.com http://www.ficgs.com/blog_read_7-Kramnik-line-Accepted-Queen-G.html Hi all: This is how it can be done.Following Kramnik-Deep Fritz, Bonn 2006: 1.d4 d5 2. c4 dc4 3.e4 b5 4.a4 c6 5.Qc2!? Qd4 6. Nf3 Qc5 7. Be3 Qb4+ 8.Bd2 Qd6 9.Nc3 b4 10.Rad1!? bc3 11.Bc3 Qf4 12.Be5 Qh6 13. Bc4 Nd7 14. 0-0 (now white fully developed and mobile) a5 15. Rc1 c5 16. Qb3 e6 17. Bb5 Ngf6 18. Bc6 Ra6 19. Qb5 Be7 20. Bf6 gf6 21. Qa6 and white up comfortably up over +2. AHA/Fritz-10 Athlon 2Ghz,april 2007. After 2.- dc4 the machine rates equality (0.00)so the accepted queen gambit is not really a gambit unless a second pawn goes (5.Qc2). Typical computer "fool move" is 10. Rad1 after 9. --b4 black looses tempi via b5-b4-bc3(Qd4--Qh6) and is posionally lost on his queen side via full mobility of white's bishop pair, Rc1, etc.Its simple. Playing via head calculation with a "small and enduring" advantage -risk margin 0.5-(in fact, waiting for a human mistake of the opponent under tournament conditions) is hopeless and that is why Kramnik c.s cant figure it out.The machine makes no calculative mistakes and knows no fatigue. After 9. b4 10. Rd1 and then bc3 the "coach" warns that white is lost over -2 risk margin. Ignore him. See the -2 dwindle when the depth grows and tilts to + for white 4-5 moves later. ALL the best! Albert H. Alberts Amsterdam Pays Bas.