May-14-12
 | | beenthere240: Black's method of postponing mate on move 40 (39...Rh6!) was ingenious, even if if doomed. I imagine both parties had a laugh. |
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May-21-12
 | | sevenseaman: Irina Krush! I gonna crush. Wonderful power game. |
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| May-21-12 | | rilkefan: Winning pun. |
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May-21-12
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: There are so many game titles contained within the names of these players. I'm a little puzzled by one thing. Why did Black go to the trouble of playing ...Bg5 and then *not* play ...Bxe3? The dark squared Bishop was the worst minor piece in either camp. |
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| May-21-12 | | Oceanlake: I wonder along with An Englishman. |
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| May-21-12 | | YGraupera: When you go symmetrical in the opening you never know when to stop! |
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May-21-12
 | | Abdel Irada: Viktorija said "Ni!" but Irina said "It!" and tagged her out in true Monty Python style. |
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May-21-12
 | | sorokahdeen: @An englishman:
what a wonderful question! Since you didn't include a move number, I can only work with the various positions where black's dark-squared bishop had moved to g5, or where it was on g5 for several moves. It first went to on black's fifteenth move, following which white played 16. Ne3. Had black exchanged the bishop for the knight in that position, forcing white to capture with 17. Fe3, the resultant pawn formation would have been bad for black because of his fianchettoed king's position with pawns at g6 and f6 and no dark-squared bishop to plug up the holds. that is before you take into account the half-open f-file and open hole on f6. In addition to this, in that line, white's pawn on e3 would have kept black's knight out of the d4 square while white's pieces had a perfect outpost on d5 which could have been supported by a later e3-e4 push, so that exchanging off whatever piece white posted at d5 would finally have been replaced by a protected passed pawn that black would have had to either blockade or undermine in order to try to maintain the balance in an endgame. Black's bishop's second vacation trip to g5 was 29... Bg5. At this point, it was part of black's attempt at counter-attack, and in most of the subsequent moves, it was burdened with protecting the rook on h4 after 30...Rh4 which is what forced the exchange of queens (the B on g5 was en prise) and gave white a strong initiative after (33. rf5 be7, 34 d6 Bd8, 35. g5 rh5 36. Kg4...) which allowed white to steamroller black in short order. Does that explanation make sense? |
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| May-21-12 | | YoungEd: It seems to me that Black tried to attack with the K-side pawns without enough preparation; White was actually able to get there firstest with the mostest once the lines were cleared! |
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May-21-12
 | | HeMateMe: Cute pun. An ode to the singer Frank Sinatra. |
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| May-21-12 | | TheTamale: Poor Black. She would probably fare much better were her surname not so close to NN. |
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May-21-12
 | | kevin86: White mate on the back rank-even through the back door:43... b6 44 h7+ g8 45 d5+ f8 46 h8# |
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May-21-12
 | | RookFile: Checkmate, extra piece ahead, spacial advantage.
Yeah, I would say it was time for black to resign. |
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May-21-12
 | | zakkzheng: I really love the sentence they put up as for the game of the day. <That's why the Lady is a Champ> |
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May-21-12
 | | An Englishman: Good Evening: <sorokahdeen>, the explanation does make sense, except that after 15...Bxe3; 16.fxe3,f5 shortens White's "share" of the f-file, allows the Rf8 to cover f6, and denies e4 to White's Knight. If 17.e4,f4!? (even as an eventual pawn sacrifice) turns the Bg2 into a big pawn. As it happens, Black spent a lot of tempi keeping a dark-squared Bishop that proved rather useless. If both the game continuation and my suggestion are problematic, we can always look at 15...Bg7 intending 16...f5. |
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| May-21-12 | | drpoundsign: I lost three games on gameknot blitz to a guy using the "suicide king attack" BOY do I Suck |
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| May-23-12 | | tjipa: All the same, I am glad for Viktorija's 4th place in the US championship. I played a rapid (or blitz? I don't remember) game with her in a club event in Riga around 2005, and she, being some 13-14 years of age, beat me soundly. Although we in Latvia are a bit sad about her playing in and for the US now, I am still rooting for her and following her amazing chess and life progress. |
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