Friday, June 26, 2009

Remembering the Jackson Trial

"Because in the over all scheme of things, who are we to pass judgement on this man, who amongst us can honestly say that they have never slept with a twelve year old boy after sharing some alcohol and pornography in the company of a chimpanzee."


Thursday, June 25, 2009

Haven't had much time to post lately. A lot of good stuff is in the mix, for sure, but until then if you are looking for a good read try Blunder Prone's Fathers day post. You wont be disappointed... Stop giving me that look... I'm serious.

"In case you are wondering how I got to be such a chess enthusiast, you needn’t look much further than one click up the genealogical tree in my family. Being father’s day, I thought I’d take the time and tell you the story of Ray, my dad."

Thursday, June 18, 2009

More #%&! Than Carter Has Liver Pills

1.The coveted Endgame crowd has finally accepted me.

2. What does doing a couple hundred mate in one puzzles and a few dozen mate in two puzzles do to my game? We will soon find out.

3. Why are people so interested in finding out what your reading when the book is enormous and dull but not when your face deep in a normal sized awesome book that your desperate to talk about, even to random strangers?

4. The person who lives upstairs from me seems to have constructed a go cart from scratch and rides it around the back yard like a lunatic. Its frightening. And I'm jealous. But mostly frightened.

5. I'm attempting a new tactic against my brother on Facebook chess. He wont have Internet access for the next couple weeks, so I'm making moves at strange hours in the hopes that he will be to slow to play in time and thus forfeit the game. Its a new low for me, kind of.

6. Gordon Ramsey Swears At You!




Sunday, June 14, 2009

Conundrum





I found this puzzle some years ago. Cant remember exactly where or when. White to move. Mate in something like 9 or 12. Here are a couple different perspectives to massage your egg head. It can be frustrating, which is why Ive never solved it. No screen punching and leave your answer in the comments please.




Saturday, June 13, 2009

The Goat Tower


Wang and I had a scheduled game tonight. The first game of our bloggers tourney. He cancelled saying that he had a long day blah blah. The truth is he got wind of my new piece "The Goat Tower." Its like a Bishop and a Rook but with goats in it. You'd be surprised what it does to the magnitude to my Scotch game. Don't be scared it wont hurt... much.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Holocaust Memorial Museum Shooting

After reading this story it seems like a good idea to share it.

"Regular readers will probably remember my that my father-in-law Frank Burstin, who passed away about a week before last fall's elections, was a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp. For that reason, as you may imagine, the news this afternoon about a shooting at Washington's Holocaust Museum hits pretty close to home for me and for my family."

Read the whole thing: http://www.pollster.com/blogs/this_is_personal.php

Monday, June 08, 2009

Menage a pawn

My brother showed me this set of moves in England when we were visiting last. We were analyzing a game (I lost) and talking about "The Grip" pawn formation when he busted it out gloriously. Its an interesting and useful formation that is relatively simple. I also have no idea what its called, if it has an official name at all, so were going with Menage a pawn in the hopes that no bone fide title ever emerges. Note that the placement of the king is key. If the king is within striking distance of the pawns the scenario changes completely. Take a gander, gander takers:

What shall white do?

Black now has two options. Push one of the outside pawns or capture with one of the outside pawns. Lets explore how neither option wins.
Black pushes.
White captures and can promote to whatever he wants shortly. Black has no recourse. If he pushes the center pawn white can simply capture and gain another advantage.
Black captures.

At this point the one and only way white wins is by pushing the pawn into the fray.
If black takes the courageous pawn, White modestly pushes the other.


And if black takes the other pawn, white captures the center pawn and is in the clear once again.

In other news, if your looking for chocolate covered bacon on a stick this August I have some good news for you: http://www.wistatefair.com/09_web/food/food_stick.html

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Donate Button?

Ive added a donate button and wish list to the sidebar. Why? Its simple.

This is what Knightskewer brings you.



This is what the government brings you.



Who would you rather donate to?