Now there is some fine Deutsches craftmanship. Danke! :up:

That is a nice looking board.

Previous move: 3...a7-a6

My move: 4. Bb5-a4

This line is indeed the Morphy. It also is my favorite line. Seems like you know your theory, which means that this is going to get really interesting.

We've an interesting mix of nationally named openings going on here: The English opening in match 1, the Spanish in this game (as the Ruy is also known), and the French defence in the third game. Seems all the major 17th century colonial powerhouses are accounted for :lol: .

:lol: If I win, I get Burma.

Wrong. It's Catalan System. you rejected my offer to play it English. Lousy gentleman, I have to say! :-j If you wouldn't have played 5. .../d5, then it would have probably turned English.

Yeah but that subtle nuance only kills my Colonial theme as Catalan is not a 17th century colonial powerhouse :P

Dang...you guys know your openings, national histories and all.

Okay...lemme try a developing move which buys a little time by putting pressure on White's King Pawn. This should bring the crowds back from the beer stands.

4. Bb5-a4.....your move.

4. Ng8-f6

By the way I come from the old school move recording method of P-K4, N-KB3...etc. So, should any of my algebraic notation cease to make sense just refer to the picture. :D

http://zioxville.homestead.com/files/Chess4.jpg

C'mon you guys. It took you 2 days to get to this point in the game ? After all it's only the beaten path you took :lol:

[i am serious btw ;) ]

Yes, let the mushrooms raise all over the board! :D

BTW, torplexed, what kind of notation is that you mentioned? P-K4? Pawn to King 4...? :doh: I know the long notation (Ng1-f3) and the short notation (Nf3) and the correspondence chess notation (7163), but I never heared or red of the one that you mentioned.

English notation, also known as descriptive notation. A lot of chess literature that's published in english was written with this notation - until the last couple decades when we began to finally switch over to algebraic and joined the rest of the world.

It still persists though, even today, as a lot of the classics that are reprinted are done so without any conversion from descriptive to algebraic. My personal favourite of these is my copy of Staunton's "The Chess-Player's Handbook" (originally published in 1847, my copy is a reprint from 1994); try and follow this typical quotation from it:

1. P to K's 4th 1.P to K's 4th.
2. K's Kt. to B's 3rd. 2. Q. to K. B's 3rd
3. K's B to Q.B's 4th. 3. Q to K. Kt's 3rd

"Black now attacks two undefended Pawns, but he can take neither without ruinous loss to him; for suppose on your playing P to Q's 3rd, to protect the K's P., he ventures to take the K Kt.'s P., you immediately take the K.B's P. with your B (ch)..."

Its notation is much more cumbersome than the more common abbreviated form of descriptive in other books (ex P-K4 instead of P to K's 4th), but I bought the book anyway as a curiousity piece :)

My apologies. Can't speak for Tak but this is the first chess game I've played in years. You're not gonna get hyper-modern revolutionary openings when you're as rusty as I am. :lol:

Yes! scandium is correct Skybird. English or decriptive notation. Just like with the metric system we didn't want to convert to algebraic for the longest time. Most of my old chess books are written in it. Old habits die hard here. ;) Written in descriptive notation our game would read like this so far..

1. P-K4 P-K4
2. N-KB3 N-QB3
3. B-N5 P-QR3
4. B-R4 N-B3

I admit I don't get the meaning of it, nor do I see how that example should be a description of the opening moves I had with Scandium. But as we people on the continent know since centuries - Englanders are QUEEEER...! :-j

Sorry Sixpack. I have this job that keeps getting in the way. I am up at 4 am (local time) and work until 3:30. I usually get home by 4:30, where I have a few minutes before I either start teaching private music lessons or have to go back downtown for seminar and class (I am working on my doctorate). Hopefully, I should have more time this weekend to devote to your entertainment. :roll:


Torp, don't worry about being rusty. I run the school's chess club, which keeps me on my toes. This is the only reason that I am up to speed.




Anyway......

Your move: 4...Ng8-f6



My move: 5. d3

Does that mean we will see the famous Takeda cavalry charging? :D

First you have to suffer through my famous pawn assault wave. ;)

5. d3.....Takeda's move

5. b7-b5......gotta keep the clergyman on his toes.

BTW it's nice to know in the age of addictive mind-numbing video games that there are still chess clubs to be run. :up:

http://zioxville.homestead.com/files/Chess5.jpg

[quote="Torplexed"] BTW it's nice to know in the age of addictive mind-numbing video games that there are still chess clubs to be run. :up:

I agree with regard to chess itself. I never really enjoyed playing in lcubs, in teams, tournaments and such - timetables, and an obligation to appear regularly, at least when playing team tournaments. Never liked that, I am no club-man. However, Takeda and me maybe should join forces - he now trains a schooll's chess club, and I have been captain of my school team for three years. :) and in west-Berlin of that time, we were even good. Two times second place amongst all W-Berlin schools!

Strategy on PC is all nice and well and entertaining, but most of the time hardly has anything truly strategic in it. Most of the time it is more about finding the mechansm by which the show is run, and then repeat it again and again. I miss the true diversity in most PC-strategy titles, and the brain-cooker-stuff.

:lol: The Tiger of Kai rides again.

Very nice regarding being captain of the team. That tends to mean a lot more in Europe than in America, as education in the game of chess in this country leaves a lot to be desired. This is why Americans (generally) perform so poorly in international play, with exception to a few unhinged loons like Bobby Fischer.

Torp's previous move: 5...b7-b5


My move: 6. Ba4-b3

And the book goes out the window.

Not at all...! At least not with regard to Germany. Representing one's school in Germany does mean close to nothing, where I have the impression it means a lot more in America, they also have more events in sports organized on school level. This is not a tradition in Germany. I took over that position from two other guys who were older and had finished school. These two guys really were killer players and after school directly jumped into Germany's national chess league as semi-pros. Captain of the team sounds like much, but it is not like that. I just was more experienced than the new and younger ones that came after the two others had left - that's all. nevertheless we were able to be almost as successful on regional level than we were before, with the two "killers" still being part of the team.

The prawn....oops...I mean pawn...assault continues. Sorry for the Freudian slip. I try not to think of my front line troops as finger food.

6. Ba4-b3....Takeda's move

6. d7-d5

http://zioxville.homestead.com/files/Chess6.jpg

That's surprising to me. I figured that countries that produced such great players with high frequency would start an emphasis on the game early. Even to this day, I am intimidated when sitting across the table from a European, especially a Russian or a German.