I played a mini tourney a number of years ago that Harry Lime won, with one of the games being an opposite castling Sicilian where I thought I was playing to entice his pawns forward, only to notice too late that he was only doing so to restrict my pieces, whereupon I threw my queenside pawns forward too late. Here's a game that I won though, where my opponent effectively lost the game through a positional blunder that allowed me to dominate the board. I liked the ending though, where I encouraged him to take as many pawns as he wanted, but each one taken weakened his position. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 Bg4 5. Be3 Bxf3 6. Qxf3 c6 7. Nc3 Qa5 8. O-O c5? This created an outpost for me at d5. So I proceeded to swap off as many of his minor pieces as I could that could access d5, starting with my dark squared (useless) bishop for his f6 knight. 9. Bg5 Nbd7 10. Bxf6 Nxf6 11. Nd5 O-O-O Giving up a pawn, but if he's castling on the opposite side he may not care too much. 12. Nxf6 gxf6 13. Qxf6 Rg8 14. Bd5 The whole point of the exchanges. 14... Qd2 15. Rfd1 Look at that tasty c2 pawn, undefended and helpless. Here's your chance to get your pawn back. 15... Qxc2 16. Rac1 Qxb2 17. Rb1 1-0 He didn't move in time, and I claimed a win on time. A plausible continuation for black may be to move the Q to e2 and hopefully escape back to g4. However, that d5 B is mighty strong, and the game might have continued thus. 17... Qe2 18. Qxf7 Rg7 Looking to defend the 2nd rank as well as support the Q coming to g4. However, the white Q is in the way, as that d5 B makes itself felt. It's forced mate from here. 19. Bxb7+ Kb8 20. Bd5+ Kc8 21. Be6+ Rd7 22. Qe8+ Kc7 23. Qb8+ Kc6 24. Bd5# As well as encouraging my opponent to take my pawns, I also liked the theme of using my Q to block the way while my B did the heavy lifting.
Thanks for the memory jog into a bit of the Ruy Lopez. I know, that dates me. I do like white's chances before the blunder even with the bishop versus the knight. Being restricted to a color field means you pretty much need two or none. It may just be my personal preferences. Too bad time was too short. More time and this may have been interesting for an end game.
Hey Pann You may like the Chigorin if you favour doubling your opponent's pawns; in the main line you will trade bishops for knights to at least hurt white's structure on one side. You lose the bishop pair, but you can still enter into a semi-closed position where your knights can really shine in the mid-game. For example, I had this position a little earlier tonight. I often find that I have greater control, and better chances to shape the game, as black; something I bemoaned in my last blog post on playing the English as white. Even with the Pirc, which is fairly passive, it still forces white into a narrow range of options, each of which is fairly well parried. I've never played the Pirc against d4, although you are quite right, after 2.e4 Nf6 it would indeed be the same position - I had never realised! I actually favour the Chigorin much more though; I probably face e4 70% of the time, so I never get much chance to really go to town with my favourite opening. Like many Pirc players, I used to favour a King's Indian style defence (which is actually the Alekhine's against e4), but I didn't like seeing 2.e5 and having my knight pushed around so much, so picking up the Pirc seemed the most natural solution. I do actually still play Indian defences against openings other than e4 and d4, although given that (admittedly rarely seen) variety, I should probably learn some proper lines, instead of winging it with Nf6 every time. Other than that, I've tried the Caro-Kann and the Slav a few times, but I always felt I sacrificed a lot of agency as black and they weren't to my tastes. The Caro-Kann exchange variation was great, but I didn't particularly like the advance lines for black - white got to make that decision every time, so I didn't much care for it. If you ever fancy a game, do let me know!
As black, I tend to like openings that unbalance the pawn opposition, thus allowing me greater scope for shaping how the game plays. Often, the effect is to develop within my first three ranks whilst preparing for any premature pawn breaks by white. When I'm playing well, which admittedly isn't to any high standard, I'm usually perceptive enough of when premature crosses the line into timely, and prepare my own counters. Sometimes, I get too engrossed in my deliberately cagey game, and get pinned back, with ugly results. However, overall, that approach doesn't require such a memory of opening lines or a razor sharp sense of danger that e4 e5 requires (or worse still, d4 d5). Oh, and a friend once taught me about one of the great qualities of the Pirc. You can play it against both e4 and d4. You can even play it as white. Thus you cut down on the amount of opening theory you need to learn.
This brings back memories from decades ago. I was always a Fischer guy so this was one of my favorites. Anything to steal a tempo!
Yeah, I live with a native speaker. She teases my Chinese which is admittedly awful. I don't even try to pronounce it clearly anymore. The quicker you say it the better they understand you. I lived in Shanghai. The people down there are nice. People in Changchun are southern nice though. I have a teacher friend that lived in Nanjing. Last I heard, she loved it there. I don't hear much from her since she was my ex- wife's friend. I lived in China for 4 years (more than any other country), however, my time here is coming to close. I am moving to Indonesia . I will blog about China, but it will be after the other countries I lived in.
I copied and pasted the pinyin from Google, since it was too much effort to do it myself, and I just noticed how much it got wrong Even using reputable dictionaries has gotten me in trouble before, so it's tough trusting anything other than a native speaker - and even then people's opinions conflict a lot. Trial and error at the end of the day I guess Not quite yet. Definitely heading to Nanjing in August, but I hope to spend some time in Zhejiang before - just waiting to hear back from some folks about a potential scheme I've applied for.
If Google Translate is telling you are wrong, then you may be right. If it says it is right, then you most assuredly wrong. To give you an idea, some of my unscrupulous would use Chinese sites, then translate them to English, then copy and paste it. I take it you are not in China? Or are you?
Thankfully not the worst thing you can encounter in my textbook. Chapter 39 saw an American exchange student try to kidnap a Chinese waitress and bring her back to the States to work as a slave in a kitchen. No wonder people want to go to outer space.
You need to get back to the one about the Steelseers, that was great to read. :thumbsup2 [SIZE=1]and yes I need to read your AAR at some-point as well. :whistling [/SIZE]
Other projects? I'm not sure. My Skyrim AAR kind of died, even though I have screenshots for the next few chapters, I haven't been bothered enough to update it, since I haven't touched the game since buying it. I'm still rather humbled by the response Dies Irae got, so I might do something with that soonish - I also had ideas for a similar Eastern-influenced fantasy style project, but I doubt I'll do much with that. In AAR terms, I've had a really cool idea for one - even wrote an introductory chapter - but who knows. I might just write it on the side without posting it; if I get into it and like it enough I might post it, but I'd be more inclined to finish it before I posted it, just because I don't want to embark on another big project whilst currently doing Yokai, which is my main priority (I will finish it!). Then I have ideas for big projects I want to do after Yokai's finally done - in like two years or something No use talking about that though.
You are pretty boring:tongue: And are did you mention other writing projects? Have you got something planned that we should no about????!!???
Originally Posted by warman222 Wait, I thought Citizens couldn't make blogs yet? I thought right now only higher ranking members could? I'm confused. Great blog post though. He is also a member of Content staff.
Originally Posted by Junaidi83 de Bodemloze Nicely done cousin Hitai, Hijō ni utsukushī sakuhin Arigato! Originally Posted by warman222 Wait, I thought Citizens couldn't make blogs yet? I thought right now only higher ranking members could? I'm confused. Great blog post though. I infiltrated the system, don't tell anyone or my cover will be blown
Wait, I thought Citizens couldn't make blogs yet? I thought right now only higher ranking members could? I'm confused. Great blog post though. ;)
Nicely done cousin Hitai, Hijō ni utsukushī sakuhin :thumbsup2
I think I'm going to be messing around with it for a while. I can't find a transparency setting though, which is irksome...
Ooh nicely done, Hitai :thumbsup: and it is indeed prettier than mine. I should design a style for it ... and since I do look pretty in pink, you guess it ;)
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