Rook of Jungle Healing

Ive written about the healing power of chess before. While reading Out of Captivity: Surviving 1967 Days in the Colombian Jungle I came across another smirk producing passage. One of the captives spent a year carving all 32 pieces and was able to scrounge a piece of cardboard to put them on. The piece carving and the marathon games took their minds away from the brutal imprisoning by the FARC. It did what it always does to the human mind.

"Eventually I got so immersed in chess that I would skip lunch if i was in the middle of a game so that I could study the board and plot my next moves. During our marathon, day long matches, the guards who had gone off duty at the start came up to us later in the day for an update. These titanic struggles between the master and the pupil loomed large in everyone's imagination. I was grateful for the distraction the games provided; they helped me take my mind off of Ingrid and the others. I prayed for her nightly and hoped she was well."

Its like imagining a time without sandwiches.

The beginning/middle of a game my brother and I are currently entrenched in. I slacked. Leaking knowledge. He won the last four games. But I can feel it returning. When the doors open up in your mind and the water rushes out, like its been waiting, but it had to because it wasn't the right time. The Colle System felt right. The rust had to be scraped off eventually. He tends to get spiderwebbed in conservative games, while I get hosed on the open Field finding complications where their are none and missing the path of trampled grass aiming for the king side. What to do now? I don't know. He is on a short vacation. But it will be mindful. And if I lose their is always a fallback: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/upgrade/4311795.html

1. d4 d5
2. Nf3 Bf5
3. e3 e6
4. Bd3 Bg4
5. Nbd2 Bd6
6. O-O Nf6
7. Re1 O-O
8. e4 dxe4
9. Bxe4 c6
10. h3 Bh5
11. a3 Nbd7
12. c4 Rc8
13. b3 Bb8
14. Bb2 Qc7
15. g3 Rcd8
16. Kh2

Hows your butt feel?

Thats the title of a new tv show Im pitching. Kind of like Anthony Bourdains No Reservations but all you eat is bacon. All kinds of delicious bacon from countries around the world with travel and culture mixed in. Mmm.

Did you know their is a chess game on international flights. That little screen that you cant quite see, ya you can use it to play against the binary brains of the aircraft. The controls are either awful or a well planned design to stall for as much time as possible so you dont have a cabin fever freak out. Thats the good news. The bad news is that it hangs pieces on medium and hard cant possibly be over 1200. What does that mean for aircraft technology? Well, I landed safely.

Also, facebook has a chess application now. Its move within three days stuff. Ive been playing a game with my brother on it and so far so good. Havent had time to explore it thoroughly though. Just wanted to give a heads up for you electronic hipsters.

Open Your Mind

Preparation for the upcoming match against the brohim.

Deal with all personal psychological issues before play. A swamping brain always makes for poor decision making.

Eliminate the ego. Once the ego is in play commitments get squirrely. Ownership of moves is bad, moves are, the game is. Keep emotions free and think of the game.

When five minutes is left on the clock keep the moves to approximately five seconds. I like to mull. And mulling doesn't do a lot of good when the clock is spiraling through time at an awaiting flag.

When we have less than fifteen seconds left the position of the board greatly decreases as it will be irrelevant if the flag falls. We must now move at a rate of no more than one second per move.

Keep your vision. Don't let your mind stray and pay attention to knight jumps and sniping bishops. Play book openings as far out as possible and save time so the endgame can contain good strategy.

Seize, retain and exploit the initiative. Through offensive action, a commander preserves his freedom of action and imposes his will on the enemy.

If you blunder, don't give up fighting. After getting the advantage, your opponent may relax and let you escape.

The ability to produce duos is the most important measure of the value of a pawn formation.

Remember the Windmill.

And you were raped.

Two games that I actually won! By being a sneaky bastard no less. I like being a sneaky bastard.

Delemak curradojr
1 Pe2-e4 Pe7-e5
2 g1-f3 b8-c6
3 Pd2-d3 Pd7-d6
4 Ph2-h3 Bc8-e6
5 Pc2-c4 c6-d4
6 f3xd4 Pe5xd4
7 b1-d2 g8-f6
8 d2-f3 Pc7-c5
9 Bc1-g5 Bf8-e7
10 Qd1-c1 Qd8-a5+
11 Bg5-d2 Qa5-c7
12 Pg2-g3 Ko-o-o
13 Bf1-g2 Be6-d7
14 Ko-o Pb7-b5
15 Pb2-b3 Pb5-b4
16 Kg1-h2 Pa7-a5
17 Pa2-a3 Ph7-h6
18 Pa3xb4 Pc5xb4
19 f3xd4 Pg7-g5
20 Qc1-b2 Pg5-g4
21 Ph3-h4 f6-h5
22 Rf1-c1 Rd8-g8
23 Rc1-e1 Pd6-d5
24 Pe4xd5 Be7xh4
25 Kh2-g1 Bh4xg3
26 Pf2xg3 h5xg3
27 Re1-e3 Ph6-h5
28 Kg1-f2 g3-f5
29 d4xf5 Bd7xf5
30 Re3-g3 Ph5-h4
31 Rg3-e3 Qc7-f4+
32 Kf2-e1 Ph4-h3
33 Re3-e2 Ph3xg2
34 Re2xg2 Rh8-h1+
35 Ke1-e2

curradojr Dave77234
1 Pe2-e4 Pc7-c5
2 Pc2-c4 b8-c6
3 b1-c3 Pd7-d6
4 Pg2-g3 g8-f6
5 Bf1-g2 Pe7-e6
6 g1-e2 Bf8-e7
7 Ko-o Ko-o
8 Pd2-d3 Pb7-b6
9 Bc1-e3 Pe6-e5
10 Pf2-f4 Bc8-b7
11 Pf4xe5 c6xe5
12 Ph2-h3 Ra8-b8
13 Be3-f4 e5-g6
14 Ra1-b1 f6-h5
15 Kg1-h2 Pf7-f5
16 Bg2-f3 h5xf4
17 e2xf4 g6xf4
18 Pg3xf4 Pf5xe4
19 Bf3xe4 Bb7xe4
20 c3xe4 Qd8-c7
21 Qd1-g4 Rf8-f7
22 Rf1-f3 Rb8-f8
23 Rb1-f1 Ph7-h6
24 e4-g3 Qc7-c6
25 Pf4-f5 Pd6-d5
26 Pc4xd5 Qc6xd5
27 Qg4-e4 Qd5xa2
28 Rf1-f2 Be7-f6
29 g3-h5 Bf6xb2
30 Rf2-g2 Qa2-b3
31 Pf5-f6 Bb2xf6
32 Rf3xf6 Rf7xf6
33 Rg2xg7+

Psychotic Chess

Chess: –noun, a game played by two persons, each with 16 pieces, on a chessboard.

Insanity: –noun, plural -ties. 1. the condition of being insane; a derangement of the mind.

Add them together, combine in a bowl, mix well, set aside. Later add intensity, some giddiness and an unusual lack of social skills for a chess player.

Now you know my experience in behavior health a few months ago. I neglected to write about it for some time because, well you know, it was really, really strange.

Their had been talk of this middle aged, scruffy looking man who played chess constantly on the unit since the moment I arrived. He apparently could and had beaten every staff member so far. Intriguing as it was to meet this guy, my options were limited to following around someone who's meds got screwed up. Which in turn caused him to have a magnificent episode involving the works, including the padded room. So I waited. And sometime half way into the evening another babysitting staff member saw my sultry gaze layed gently onto the crazy man and his checkered board. He volunteered some time and I took it. Graciously. So scruffy, potbellied, crazy man and I played a couple games. I couldn't tell you any specifics of the game. Only things like the gross stain on his white tshirt, the over medicated shaking hands, his body language unremorsefully spilling the turmoil in his head outward and what seemed to me to be a true desire to figure the best moves. We played four games in all over two days. After I won the first game he was challenged. It was clear in his eyes and the the way he hastily found me every few hours to thrust the pieces in my direction meekly. They were fun games. For someone who probably had almost no literacy level and spent months at a time in the nuthouse he played remarkably well. And during the final game I debated the situation. How many games would a psychotic man who is used to winning lose before losing it altogether. I let him win.

Bounce On The Double

I get out of class on Monday for presidents day. Really I do. Tell me that's not absurd. So whats the appropriate celebration? Work! And maybe a stop at the overcrowded chess club over the tracks. Ill let you know how it goes.

"Im just a pawn in this game of life!"

Played a couple games on Pogo the other day. Won them both. My rating had dropped down to below 1600. Yes I know Pogo rating blah blah. But he hung his queen twice and was rated 200 points above me. It seemed odd and he said he was having an off day. When I got to thinking about it, maybe over thinking, my tactics were pretty solid. I'm bringing "solid" back from the fifties with the help of an elderly woman in case you were wondering. He brought his queen out a little too early both games. I hunted his queen, cause that's fun, especially with knobs on Pogo who don't know how to handle it. Well it paid out in spades as it frequently does, plus it gave me a chess ego boost. And it gave me an excuse to post that hilarious picture.

Diluted

I'm not sure what I'm going to blog about today. The Super Bowl is about to start and I'm buying time before the Cards do some unpredictable rampaging. People are still coming to this site even though nothing of any real value has been posted in some time. Which is appreciated for sure. But its strange that certain posts hold enough substance to get a continued readership.

The last games I played were back in Milwaukee over the new year at the much aforementioned Bremen Cafe with the notorious Rob. You know the one who just joined the Army? We went one and one for two games that didn't have any fireworks. That's kind of what was nice about them though. Some times the best games are the midday slowbies that are only vaguely memorable.

On a related note, Ive been steadily churning through books on battles in Fallujah and Baghdad. Probably not going to improve my chess game a whole lot with them, but they definitely give a good grounding on invasion and urban warfare tactics. Its surprising how much detail they are allowed to go into. The two best so far and both highly recommended by yours truly are "On Call In Hell" and "No True Glory." If you cant get a good sense of the people, battles and culture of Fallujah from these two your probably mildly retarded. Or you cant read, in which case you shouldn't just stare at books for no reason. If their is anything chess related one can glean from such writings its that you should finish what you start on the board. Having a good feasible plan only to pull it back for something better is a risk to big to take.

Steakums and stuff

Well, my nerdy brother has joined the ultimate nerdom of the Oxford Chess Club. I guess I should probably get back on my game. I cant very well let him win. It probably has something to do with the way he horded the Steakums when we were growing up. Man those were delicious.

Not too much on the chess scene over the previous few months. You probably noticed by the lack of posts. In fact, you probably just stopped stopping by. A few random games with scantily clad ladies late at night, Pogo kids with serious ADHD and a small competition with my bro back home a couple months ago make up the entirety of recent chess adventures. Their have been many adventures to be sure, I settled a feud between the Scottish and Northern Irish, held hands with the many of the dying, got hit with a cane, held some peoples heads down while others shoved tubes down their throat, played eight hours of "soccer" with an abused Hispanic kid and saw much of the Southwest to name a few. But those aren't particularly chess related. So we shall see how some studying does me. Wouldn't want to be all hat and no cattle after all.