I've had a lot of fun being in the Gambit Fantasy club and playing a bunch of unsound (but fun, and besides, it is not enough simply to say a position is unsound; you must prove it!) openings. It's a very active club with lots of tourneys. I highly recommend it to anyone who A) likes playing a lot and B) is tired of the same old 'correct' openings every game.
In the following game, I played white against a player rated 300 points lower, and made an over-confident, short-sighted mistake early on. Rather than resign, I took enough risks to keep hope alive and managed to salvage a draw.
F*** it. Let's all hold on to hope that one day Russ will actually code a ROBUST PGN viewer. This one sucks.
Originally posted by greenpawn34Yep. One of many chances I'm sure he missed to win the game.
Only way I could get to work was to remove the header.
Something in there RHP did not like.
[pgn]
[FEN "r1bqkbnr/pppp2pp/2n5/4pp2/4P3/2N2N2/PPPP1PPP/R1BQKB1R w KQkq F5 0 1"]
{As is usual in Gambit Fantasy tourneys, I get a strange position instead of the usual comfortable order of the normal start position. OK, so what's going on here? Looks like B ...[text shortened]... 2....Rxh2 the White Bishop is pinned to it's King.
Threat, amongst others. Rh1+ etc...and Rdh1.
I need to fly to England and teach someone to program. Maybe you could teach me how to play a little defense in a game of chess. 😛
I rarely find myself defending, I'm usually material down and attacking.
Well it looks like I'm attacking. Often I am just losing.
My Latvians have been sussed by the good guys. Back to the Pirc/Modern.
Had a recent try out with the Elephant which is as good as the Latvian.
Going to England to teach programming? You can't even post a simple PGN. 😉
Jump a train to Edinburgh whilst you are there.
Originally posted by greenpawn34Right. So you'd attack and I'd defend. Best way to learn is to play some crazy bastard who's hell-bent on killing your King every game. (no offense)
I rarely find myself defending, I'm usually material down and attacking.
Well it looks like I'm attacking. Often I am just losing.
My Latvians have been sussed by the good guys. Back to the Pirc/Modern.
Had a recent try out with the Elephant which is as good as the Latvian.
Going to England to teach programming? You can't even post a simple PGN. 😉
Jump a train to Edinburgh whilst you are there.
I know. I know. I get frustrated too easily now. I used to have the willpower to troubleshoot those PGNs. But today I felt too principled to do so. I keep thinking, "It shouldn't be this #*$)() hard!!"
I think I could write a better PGN parser in javascript faster than I could figure out how to make a PGN work. That's how bad it is.
Years ago I played at a chess club, they had a set of cards with wild gambit positions on them, 4-6 moves deep in the opening if memory serves. They had a tournament where you drew a card and that's the position you played with your opponent. They were openings I would never have played myself, but it was a hoot. It's fun to shake it up now and then.
Originally posted by greenpawn34The moment you are a piece up sac it back.
Agree the PGN thingy is as fussy as a grumbling OAP and everything must be right.
The fun is seeing what you can and cannot do.
Best way to defend v a crazy bastard is to become one yourself.
The moment you are a piece up sac it back.
For those newer to chess, Greenpawn34 is not just being witty here. The chess principle/wisdom embedded here is called conversion of advantages, and is an important technique.
The idea is that an advantage has to be pressed for it to mean anything, and sometimes one has to change the nature of the advantage to realize its full potential.
With an extra piece, one can:
1) launch an attack;
2) trade down to a FAVORABLE endgame. Be careful to avoid technical draws where an extra piece does not matter.
3) exchange the piece for positional considerations, such as gaining squares, files, or a superior pawn structure.
#1 is almost always the most favorable. Beyond the obvious power of an extra piece, the defender also has the burden of trying to avoid 2 or 3, which means avoiding unfavorable exchanges.
When your opponent feels obliged to avoid exchanges, the attack then becomes even easier, because your pieces will be able to move to better squares, and your opponent will tend to "undevelop" just to avoid being traded down to a lost ending.
I hope this does not seem pedantic, but I know there are newer players who read these, and I did not want them to miss the real "punch" in the punch line.