The Eternal Dilemma

The Eternal Dilemma

The Planet Greenpawn

The Eternal Dilemma

You wake up, you toss the mail in the garbage,
feed the cats, wash, have a cup of coffee, turn on the radio,
hear some bright cheerful giffnit blabbering away, turn off the radio
and log onto to RHP for the fix.

So far the day has been good. Then you see the Skull.

skull2


The guy has not made a move in the required time, I can claim the game.
Do I crunch the skull or do I leave it uncrunched?

Whole threads are dedicated to this very subject with the camps being split 50/50.

Claim the game. If he had left his Queen hanging I would take it.
It’s part of the rules, he agreed to the time control when he accept the game.

PM him and tell him to make a move. It’s the decent thing to do.
Refuse the skull and walk in the sunshine with your head held high.

I clicked the skull and this appeared…

warning1


….except I’m seeing this.

warning2


What to do? Take it and be a super cool dude.
greenpawn dude


But what happens if I get one of these…
robbie carrobie


..and nasty PM’s appear threatening violence.

This predicament is most unfair.
Why can’t RHP make the decision for you.
If the process was automatic I would not be staring at my screen brooding
on what to do next.

I get enough of that looking at my games. At least the mess I’m in my
games is my own doing. This decision has been thrust upon me.

I hate having to make decisions after I’ve fed the cats.

So what did I do?

skull2


A win is a win boys. Take it any way you can.

post of the week


This week’s winner is:

kes


He posted this in the Chess Forum where boys are planning to build
a computer that will solve the riddle we know as Chess.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The simple formula for the sum of the first k terms of a geometric series
(with R not equal to 1) is

S = [U(R^k – 1)] / [R – 1] <=> k = [log (S(R-1)/U) +1] / log R.

If you have S and U in the form S = 10^a, U = 10^b, a good approximation
(given that numbers are so obscure) for k is

(a - b)/logR (with log base 10).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I have no idea what it means but boy am I impressed.

Ok Let’s look at a game.

[b]Darax The Good - Shaberma, RHP 2010

The position after 8 moves. White to play.



Eight moves have been played and Black has spent seven of them on pawn moves.

White even had time to fianchetto his Queen’s Bishop, something
you rarely see in a 1.e4 e5 opening where quick development and
tempo is usually the norm.

The position is ripe for ripping open freeing all of White’s pieces and punishing
Black for messing about with his pawns.
And this starts with 9.dxe5 (9.Nxe5 also works).

A sac happy sample line using the b2 Bishop is;
1. dxe5 dxe5 2. Bf7+ Kxf7 3. Nxe5+ Kg7 4. Nd5 Kh7 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. Qd4.



Play around with the position after 9.dxe5 (or indeed 9.Nxe5).
White soon hits paydirt.

Instead White played 9.d5??



This is worse than leaving a piece hanging.
Both Bishops have just been de-frocked, the centre is chocked up,
the lead in development will evaporate.

An important thing to remember about a lead in the big D. is it is
not a permanent plus.
Start messing about and it will slip through you fingers and if as White
you allow Black to catch you up (equalise) then Black is winning.

So the game went on.

Black, who decided that the safest place for his pieces was to keep them on
the back rank and win this game with pawns moves has an idea.

The Queen idea.

So two Queen moves, one more pawn move…and the Queen is trapped.



A move later and White sees too much without really seeing anything at all.



Now the sole idea of trapping the Queen on h3 takes precedent. Nothing else matters.
Fearing the Black Queen may escape with… h4 he stops that idea with 16.Qg5.
But the simple 16.bxc4 and 17.Nf2 still bags the Queen.

Then here Black to play.



He moves the Rook and despite Black’s new opening idea;
“things are safer on the back rank”. the Knight dies on g8.

However….a shot lay in here.

17…Nd2 and if White goes for Plan A the winning of the Queen.
18.Nf2?? then 18…Nf3+ mates.



Also 17…Nd2 may have thrown some confusion in the White ranks.

17….Nd2 18.Rf2 (a very plausible move at this level) 18…Nf3+ 19.Rxf3 gxf3.



Black is alive and well, the g2 mate has to be stopped and Bf6 is coming.

We will never know……

Always look for shots like this especially when your opponent has a good
and winning move in the position.

Not much more to add. White kicked into gear and mopped up.

Here is the complete game
.

Posted to The Planet Greenpawn

Show Comments (1)
Comments (1)

  • Posted 4983 days 20 hours and 22 minutes ago
    Subscribergreenpawn34
    Been sitting here for weeks with the commerts box
    switched off.

    Thought I had better switch it on. 🙂
    Last Post
    23 Mar '24
    Posts
    467
    Blog since
    06 Jul '10

Cookies help us deliver our Services. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn More.I Agree