Say What?
A lot of authors champion some pretty bad things. A duo of Dutch amateurs champion a passive Philidor-type system starting with 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nbd7 and call it the “Black Lion” for reasons that are not clear on the surface. It looks more like zebra meat a lion might enjoy as a snack. A review by Arne Moll points out some of the authors’ analysis biases. In a worse vein, German amateur Stefan Buecker used to champion the hideous Vulture (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 Ne4?) and subjectively bias the lines so that black was on top more often that not. And I won’t even talk about what American blogger “Dana M.” is espousing in terms of opening systems.
Moving up the ranks of respectability in terms of both author and subject matter, GM Victor Moskalenko champions the Budapest (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5) in a recent book. What’s there to say? Black relies on piece play without pawns in front, in violation of Kasparov’s famous attacking edicts. I guess black is hoping white messes up, because it certainly looks like a safe += in the mainlines. Just to prove its tricky nature, though,I tried it as black versus an IM and was rewarded with a lucky win in ICC Blitz. In passing, the Albin (1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5) is fairly tough to break too, as GM Morozevich has proven in many games. The Budapest and Albin are both apparently better than their long-standing reputations.
Event “ICC 5 0”]
[Site “Internet Chess Club”]
[Date “2009.05.20”]
[Round “-“]
[White “IM Dali”]
[Black “aries2”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ICCResult “White resigns”]
[WhiteElo “2291”]
[BlackElo “2421”]
[Opening “Budapest: Adler variation”]
[ECO “A52”]
[NIC “QG.01”]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 Moskalenko’s Fabulous Move.
3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. e3 White opts for the common, slow treatment, but since he hasn’t done anything wrong and black’s just floating out there in the center, I would be happy as white. Slow pawn expansion should punish the dancing knights.
5…Ngxe5 6. Nc3 Bb4 7. Bd2 O-O 8. a3?! This cannot promise much. Quite interesting is 8. Nxe5 Nxe5 9. f4!? Nc6 10. Nd5! and white can claim a small edge. Is this line a novelty?
8…Bxc3 9. Bxc3 d6 10. Be2 Be6 10…Nxf3+ is quite a reasonable alternative and black might be able to reaches full equality. For example, 11. Bxf3 Ne5 12. Be2 Be6 13. b3 Qf6! 14. Rc1 Qg6 15. O-O Bh3 16. Bf3 Rfe8 and it’s balanced.
11. b3 a5 11…Qf6!? is interesting here. 12. Rc1 Qg6! and with this typical transfer, it’s equal.
12. a4 I wouldn’t be in a rush to do this as white but it doesn’t seem bad.
12…b6?! Once again black misses the Qf6! motif.
13. Nd4 Just 13. O-O first and wait and see.
13…Bd7?! Black misses the more active 13…Qg5! =.
14. O-O After numerous imprecisions, white now has a stable edge.
14…Qe7 15. Nb5 Rac8 16. Qd2 Rfe8 17. Rae1 What can black do? 17. Rad1 is also unpleasant.
17…Ng6 17…Ng4 18. Qb2! is not fun.
18. Bd3 Nce5 19. Bc2 White is gearing up for the central pawn blitz so I have to do something.
19…Nf3+?! OK. Here we go. I’m attacking without any pawns. Chess principles say this cannot work.
20. gxf3 Nh4 21. Kh1 Forced but good.
21…Nxf3
22. Qd5 This is fine. To give us the satisfied feeling that chess principles are not broken in this game, those with sharp tactical vision see 22. Qd1! and now both 22…Bc6 23. e4! interference theme! and 22…Bg4 23. Rg1! are terrible for black. White should win after 22. Qd1!. The presence of two good moves for white at this juncture mean black’s 19th was hopelessly unsound.
22…Bg4 23. Rg1 Qh4 Of no use is 23…c6 24. Qd3! Qh4 25. Qxh7+! winning.
24. Rg2 Nxe1? Slightly better is 24…Re5 25. Bxe5 Nxg1 26. Bxg7! and white should win.
25. Qd4! Crushing!
25…Re5 26. Rxg4? A bad gaffe in blitz and where the game starts to turn 180 degrees. After 26. Bxe1 black can resign.
26…Qxf2 27. Be4? A typical blitz collapse. White had to play 27. Bxe1 but black can play on there and doesn’t need to take a draw.
27…Nf3 28. Bxf3 Qf1+ 29. Rg1 Qxf3+ 30. Rg2 Rg5!
A nice finale. The double threat on g2 and Qf1+ decides.
31. Qd2 Qf1+ {White resigns}
0-1
And the Next Stop on this Train is….
Now That’s a Dome!
Happy Marriage of Princeton and Yale: Sotomayor!
Referring to the recent Obama Supreme Court nominee, traditional conservative CNN windbag columnist Ruben Navarette writes, “How about on sheer qualifications? Sotomayor sure has them. Raised by her mother after her father died, Sotomayor graduated from Princeton University summa cum laude and from Yale Law School.” He goes on to note, “radio talk show host [pill-popper] Rush Limbaugh called her “an affirmative action case extraordinaire,” although affirmative action doesn’t help you graduate summa cum laude from an Ivy League university.” This is a good point, I hope “Rush” (what a name!) takes notice. I was not an affirmative action case and had a miserable GPA because the student union building also doubled as pizza and beer; New Jersey was a “18” state for drinking at the time. I also noticed that critics routinely omitted the honors; I presume on purpose. An example of the omission: dogmatic conservative columnist Jeffrey Rosen rushes to omit by saying “She was raised by her mother, a nurse, and went to Princeton and then Yale Law School.” Nice foxy omission, Jeff but it’s not going to work; she will get confirmed in a landslide. At the very least, critics should get the bio right before falling over themselves to attack the candidate on the grounds of ethnic favoritism. Postscript: Newt Gingrich ‘tweeted’ (sorry, Newt is a cretin racist name) “White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw.” Newt? Does this withered prune fellow have any credibility? Did some young fascist Republican show him how to Tweet? I can’t fathom the guy even logging on. “Newt” and “Rush” are amusing cretin hillbilly names – quite predictable they would spew vitriol more often than not. We could switch them around, two new hate-filled personas “Nush” and “Rewt”. VIVA this happy union of Princeton and Yale. It reaffirms an earlier post regarding Yale’s excellent graduate programs and Princeton’s tigerhold in the undergraduate arena.
Postscript 5/28/09: Ed Rollins, Chairman of the RNC, agrees!:
“There can be no debate over her qualifications. Her lifetime achievements in the academic world, in the legal world and the judicial world are unchallengeable. If that was the only measure, she would be confirmed unanimously.
That isn’t going to happen! We are into full-bore political battle within the Republican Party, with conservatives and pragmatists arguing over what are the best tactics to stop the direction that this young president and his congressional allies are taking us.
But I just offer a word of caution. The confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor is not the battle to be waged and it won’t be won.”
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Tags: Albin, Budapest, Ed Rollins, honors, ICC Blitz, jeffrey rosen, Morozevich, Moskalenko, navarette, Newt, Newt Gingrich, Princeton, Rush, Rush Limbaugh, sotomayor, Yale
IM Mark Ginsburg Presents A Personal Chess History 
May 24, 2009 at 9:39 am |
Those old domes are marvels – how the heck did they build them ?
Ah, the days before safety rules. Likely couldn’t be built today – too many rules.
May 28, 2009 at 1:57 pm |
Mark: “Dana M.” with no link? And implying (by the order given) that he’s lower than the Vulture?
Yeah, no link. The Vulture hands your head over as black; I don’t want you following a link to hand your head over as white.
As for Sotomayor, sure she’ll get confirmed. By these standards, so should Bork have. Why did Sen. Obama vote against Roberts and Alito? They had superb qualifications!
To me, far-right is scarier because they positively enjoy denying habaeus corpus, creating legal justifications to torture, and so on. We have chess player Eugene Meyer at the helm of the Federalist society: “The Federalist Society has experienced a golden era under President Bush, who will, not surprisingly, be giving the keynote address at the organization’s black tie gala on Thursday [11/12/07 – MG]. It has served as a gateway for judges and legal aides who strive to work inside the administration, in effect promoting individuals who have dedicated themselves to enforcing a right-wing ideology rather than the law.” I heard torture-meister ex-AG John Ashcroft address the Federalist Society on NPR to thunderous applause so apparently he is well received by Caucasians past middle age.
It was Joe Biden that opened the ideological floodgates regarding federal judicial nominees, let us not forget.
Hee hee, maybe I’m older; I think it went on before that.
Newt, Rush and the rest are powerless right now, so I’m a little surprised at the personal vitriol and ad hominem attacks–are these people still a threat to mind-control the Great Unwashed outside the Yale-DC corridor?
Anyway, I enjoyed the piece very much; the strike-out technique was exemplary.
May 28, 2009 at 6:32 pm |
Mark, thanks for your replies. I wasn’t implying that there wasn’t some ideological component in Senate confirmations before Bork, but I would argue that whole circus began 20 years of periodic ugliness in the process. Luckily that’s died down somewhat.
I think the system is out of balance when every Supreme Court nomination is a world-historical event; it shouldn’t be that important. But that’s another topic for another day.