Let's Add Some More Great Chess Blogs!

I'm going to reorganize the links and other sidebar stuff soon, but right now I'm just going to correct some omissions by adding links that I should have gotten to some time ago.

Patzer's Corner (Wang) is a fine blog by a hardworking blogger who is working hard to improve. Also, he was recommended by chessloser. With all of this going for him, he MUST be on the blogroll. Now.

The Back Rank (Loomis) is by a Knight who offers many interesting games and positions for your consideration.

Finally, I don't know how I missed adding the excellent and well-known Temposchlucker (since I've linked to him before in posts). You can find out a great deal by reading dk's new essay.

There are a number of other fine blogs that will be added during the remodel coming soon. I think I'll categorize the links, as well, and add some other playing sites, puzzle sites, etc. Watch This Space!

Clifford-Pearson, Reno CC Summer Swiss Rd. 2, 1-0

Finally found the time to get this game up--the first impressions were here. Looking through it again, I played a little fast and loose throughout the game; 31. ... Be3 is a visually spectacular move, but since it didn't dent his calm whatsoever, it wasn't so effective. Overall, a good effort by my opponent, a rather loose one by me, with some good ideas but too much drifting and strings of second-best moves...

Quick Note on a Win

Back in the win column last night in the Reno CC Summer Swiss vs. Hadi Soltani (1646). With the black pieces I went back to the King's Indian and when he played an unusual fifth move (Bd2) I was able to get some advantage, eventually winning a pawn; but the play remained very complicated and I let most of my advantage slip, though he was still a little tied up. A few moves after the first time control (30/90, G/60) however, he made a mistake that led to him getting suddenly mated by my Rook and Knight.

So a good result against a fellow B-player, but on at least two occasions I didn't see a reply of his to one of my moves and that's not so good...if I'm not seeing these kinds of moves I'm not playing Real Chess at the level I'm looking for.

Now I've got a three-game backlog to post; sorry about that, but I'll get around to it SOON (yeah sure--ed.).

My Strange Conversation With Zed

I noticed from the referrer log on my sitemeter that this little blog is now listed on the French-language link page Nouveaux liens and discovered a whole world of new (to me) chess sites there.

While I haven't had time to really explore this extensive list, I randomly clicked a few including Zed the Chessbot, which sounded like a hoot. From the entry on Nouveaux liens page:

Est un robot d'échecs hébergé, qui est capable de communiquer sur les échecs. J'ai posé la question provocatrice "nulle?" à Zed, qui a répondu "ce que vous avez dit était trop complexe ou trop simple pour moi", une réponse presque digne de l'oracle de Delphes.

Ha, that's a good one! My experience was similar, and here's a bit of give and take that just cracked me up:

You: What is V. Kramnik's current rating?
Zed: Do you have any conditions I should know about?

You: I have an aversion to the Open Game as black.
Zed: Where did you get it ?

You: I caught it from Fischer.
Zed: I hope it is not contagious. Also I hope you get well soon.

You: I will, with a steady diet of the Sicilian Defense.
Zed: I lost my train of thought.

You: Your train of thought seems to have left the tracks a long time ago.
Zed: it left the station with out me.

Note to programmer--BACK TO THE DRAWING(KEY)BOARD!

Comings and Goings

Some of our very favorite blogs are more or less on hiatus right now:

Chess Improvement (dk-transformation) is pushing hard on his work with Chess Tactics Server, CT-Art 3.0, 1001 Sacrifices and Combinations, and the rest of his amazing, focused and productive life.

hardcore pawnography (chessloser) is off to sunny Spain; "i'll be back hopefully in july." Watch out my friend, other men have gone to Spain and never returned to their humdrum bourgeois lives back in the States...

Dread Pirate Josh stopped posting back in December, right around the time I put him on the sidebar--I seem to have that effect on people :); the same thing happened with Hungarian Knight (e4c5.net), for as soon as I put up a link his site crashed--but at least he has the coolest "blog under repair" photo ever.

Qxh7 is back on a fairly regular basis after a long hiatus.

Grandpatzer had wrist surgery, but implies "back soon" so we can look forward to more of his excellent work.

I'm sorry I never took the time to link to chessdad64's The 64 Square Jungle, and now, well:

For the time being, this is all I have to say.