Great news. If I recall, his previous blog was "Chess and Music" but he deleted it in one of those spurs of the moment. Now he's got The Prodigal Pawn up, especially analyzing games--his own and others:
I will concentrate mostly on analysis of games (mine and others) and on reviews of books and/or software. I will from time to time post about improvement concepts as I see them. I don't want to beat the improvement thing to death as I am only just improving and have no hardcore evidence as to what does or does not work. Be that as it may, I am an opinionated person, so I will share those opinions once in awhile. :)
Nice job here analyzing a Thompson-Morphy game.
Welcome back, Tommyg!
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Monday, April 06, 2009
Calling Chessvine's Colonel Crockett
(For those readers less familiar with United States history, Davy Crockett is a famous figure of the American frontier. He was also a Congressman, but we won't hold that against him).
Nowadays Col. Crockett runs an excellent chess news and opinion blog, chessvine.com. Yes kids, it's true, he secretly escaped from The Alamo and pursued a number of careers, sub rosa, before becoming a leading light of the online chess world.
Did I mention that he wrote a very flattering post about my piece on the Caro-Kann? That has, of course, nothing to do with this post; just coincidence, I'm sure. Then, in "What is Robert Pearson Doing Right?" he explains why this little blog is "well-placed search engine optimized." The funny thing is, it turns out I was optimizing without knowing it! Bloggers, I highly recommend you take the Colonel's recommendations seriously if you want to increase traffic.
Right now, if you Google "Robert Pearson" guess what the very top result is? This blog, beating out various artists, writers and diplomats who share that distinguished name. Is Google really, really smart, or really, really stupid? I guess I truly am optimized!
And by the way, why are you still here reading my drivel?
Hie thee over to Chessvine.com...cool as the other side of the pillow.
Nowadays Col. Crockett runs an excellent chess news and opinion blog, chessvine.com. Yes kids, it's true, he secretly escaped from The Alamo and pursued a number of careers, sub rosa, before becoming a leading light of the online chess world.
Did I mention that he wrote a very flattering post about my piece on the Caro-Kann? That has, of course, nothing to do with this post; just coincidence, I'm sure. Then, in "What is Robert Pearson Doing Right?" he explains why this little blog is "well-placed search engine optimized." The funny thing is, it turns out I was optimizing without knowing it! Bloggers, I highly recommend you take the Colonel's recommendations seriously if you want to increase traffic.
Right now, if you Google "Robert Pearson" guess what the very top result is? This blog, beating out various artists, writers and diplomats who share that distinguished name. Is Google really, really smart, or really, really stupid? I guess I truly am optimized!
And by the way, why are you still here reading my drivel?
Hie thee over to Chessvine.com...cool as the other side of the pillow.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Real Chess at a Real Chess Club
On Monday I had a wonderful time at the Juneau Chess Club and feel like I made contact again with "Real Chess," since much of my chess activity lately has been blitz on FICS, with the occasional G/15 (I guess that's not blitz) included. This despite the fact that in December I seemingly resolved to stop playing blitz...
Oh, the weakness of the flesh.
The first good thing that happened Monday was that seven people showed up, the most since I started coming a few months ago. We don't generally use clocks for the two-hour club session, so I sat down to play Brian Bezenek at just after 7:00 pm, and two hours and 61 moves later the game ended just before the librarians came to kick us out.
It was a fascinating and subtle struggle. As Black against a King's Indian Attack I won a pawn in the early middle game and in a position with one rook, opposite-colored bishops and most of the pawns left the maneuvering game began. All I needed was an open file for my rook to get into his position and I figured I'd have a great chance to win, but it was fascinating how move after move he prevented me from doing that. Finally I was able to send my bishop on a mission that was like a three-cushion billiard shot around to the rear of his position and win another pawn. Yet it was still a tough game to figure out how to win. My opponent just kept putting up stout resistance. Finally, on the 61st move, with time running out he blundered, but kudos to Brian for toughness.
This was the kind of game I could probably never play at online blitz, where the premium is on moving without too much thinking and attacking something as often as possible. While blitz has its place in the universe, I was reminded Monday that "Real Chess" is just more deeply satisfying, like cotton candy versus roast beef.
We are planning a Juneau City Championship tournament starting May 16. I'll be concentrating on the more serious brand of chess in the meantime.
Oh, the weakness of the flesh.
The first good thing that happened Monday was that seven people showed up, the most since I started coming a few months ago. We don't generally use clocks for the two-hour club session, so I sat down to play Brian Bezenek at just after 7:00 pm, and two hours and 61 moves later the game ended just before the librarians came to kick us out.
It was a fascinating and subtle struggle. As Black against a King's Indian Attack I won a pawn in the early middle game and in a position with one rook, opposite-colored bishops and most of the pawns left the maneuvering game began. All I needed was an open file for my rook to get into his position and I figured I'd have a great chance to win, but it was fascinating how move after move he prevented me from doing that. Finally I was able to send my bishop on a mission that was like a three-cushion billiard shot around to the rear of his position and win another pawn. Yet it was still a tough game to figure out how to win. My opponent just kept putting up stout resistance. Finally, on the 61st move, with time running out he blundered, but kudos to Brian for toughness.
This was the kind of game I could probably never play at online blitz, where the premium is on moving without too much thinking and attacking something as often as possible. While blitz has its place in the universe, I was reminded Monday that "Real Chess" is just more deeply satisfying, like cotton candy versus roast beef.
We are planning a Juneau City Championship tournament starting May 16. I'll be concentrating on the more serious brand of chess in the meantime.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Maggots v. Hydrogel: You Decide
Researchers comparing maggots with a standard "hydrogel" in treating leg ulcers found little difference.
Thank goodness.
I'm probably more "scientific" than most, but even if the maggots were, say, 10 percent more effective I would still want the hydrogel rather than have fly larvae squirming around under the bandages...but that's just me.
On the other hand, if they ever have to reattach my thumb or some other part I have no problem with using leeches to help make sure it stays reattached.
You can call that speciest discrimination, but I don't give a damn.
Thank goodness.
I'm probably more "scientific" than most, but even if the maggots were, say, 10 percent more effective I would still want the hydrogel rather than have fly larvae squirming around under the bandages...but that's just me.
On the other hand, if they ever have to reattach my thumb or some other part I have no problem with using leeches to help make sure it stays reattached.
You can call that speciest discrimination, but I don't give a damn.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Test Driving the Caro-Kann
Like most serious chess players I've tried out a number of different openings over the years, for a number of different reasons; educational purposes, competitive surprise, because I bought the book, even at times just because I wanted some variety.
For tournament games, in response to 1. e4 I went e5 at the beginning of my career in the early 1980s, tried the French Defense (1. e4 e6) a few times with a lot of suffering involved, back to 1... e5, a mixture of Sicilians (1. e4 c5) and the Pirc/Modern (1. e4 d6) for much of the 1990s and early 2000s, then about four years ago started working with the Center-Counter (Scandinavian) 1. e4 d5, which I have played pretty consistently since.
Notice the one main defense that's not listed? That's right, the Caro-Kann (1. e4 c6).
Why not the C-K? Hmm, before reading further you need to click this link...
Now that doesn't represent my real feelings about the Caro-Kann defense, but it's funny, I think I did play it exactly once in all my tournament career, and lost to Darcy Robinson. One loss did not completely determine my attitude toward the C-K, but generally I saw it as passive and somewhat dull. Botvinnik took it up in his later years, when he was old. A pretty consistent King's Indian Defense man against 1. d4 since my early days, I just always figured the Caro didn't suit my supposed style.
A few months ago I gave it a try in some blitz games, mainly for the variety factor mentioned above. I don't even have the one book I own on this opening available (in storage until early May) and so after the first few moves I was basically on my own, just making stuff up, developing pieces and trying to control the center. And guess what? I did fine. I scored pretty well, and the games didn't seem dull in any way. Of course it was blitz, where there's rarely a dull moment, but I began to think the C-K is OK!
After a brief period it occurred to me (I'm sure this is hardly an original insight) that the Caro-Kann is just an improved Center-Counter! WOW! I don't know why I never noticed it as a dedicated Center-Counter practitioner, but after 1. e4 c6 Black can play d5 on move two against anything, and maintain his full and fair share of the center.
So after all these years (going on 27 of tournament play) I finally have some appreciation for the Caro-Kann. Once I actually start learning some book lines, who knows how far it might take me?
Want to be taken somewhere else? Take the "A" Train. But make sure you have the full 9:26 available. This is just magical stuff (h/t Jaltcoh):
For tournament games, in response to 1. e4 I went e5 at the beginning of my career in the early 1980s, tried the French Defense (1. e4 e6) a few times with a lot of suffering involved, back to 1... e5, a mixture of Sicilians (1. e4 c5) and the Pirc/Modern (1. e4 d6) for much of the 1990s and early 2000s, then about four years ago started working with the Center-Counter (Scandinavian) 1. e4 d5, which I have played pretty consistently since.
Notice the one main defense that's not listed? That's right, the Caro-Kann (1. e4 c6).
Why not the C-K? Hmm, before reading further you need to click this link...
Now that doesn't represent my real feelings about the Caro-Kann defense, but it's funny, I think I did play it exactly once in all my tournament career, and lost to Darcy Robinson. One loss did not completely determine my attitude toward the C-K, but generally I saw it as passive and somewhat dull. Botvinnik took it up in his later years, when he was old. A pretty consistent King's Indian Defense man against 1. d4 since my early days, I just always figured the Caro didn't suit my supposed style.
A few months ago I gave it a try in some blitz games, mainly for the variety factor mentioned above. I don't even have the one book I own on this opening available (in storage until early May) and so after the first few moves I was basically on my own, just making stuff up, developing pieces and trying to control the center. And guess what? I did fine. I scored pretty well, and the games didn't seem dull in any way. Of course it was blitz, where there's rarely a dull moment, but I began to think the C-K is OK!
After a brief period it occurred to me (I'm sure this is hardly an original insight) that the Caro-Kann is just an improved Center-Counter! WOW! I don't know why I never noticed it as a dedicated Center-Counter practitioner, but after 1. e4 c6 Black can play d5 on move two against anything, and maintain his full and fair share of the center.
So after all these years (going on 27 of tournament play) I finally have some appreciation for the Caro-Kann. Once I actually start learning some book lines, who knows how far it might take me?
Want to be taken somewhere else? Take the "A" Train. But make sure you have the full 9:26 available. This is just magical stuff (h/t Jaltcoh):
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