by Prime Rib

The French Defense is one of the top 3 most played chess openings, which happens after the first moves 1.e4 e6. An early deviation which happens after 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 is called the Two Knights Variation.

According to lichess, if Black simply goes 3...Nf6 against the Two Knights Variation, then the main line is 4.e5 Nfd7 5.d4. This is the exact same position as White would have reached if they'd played 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Nf3. Why play the Two Knights at all then if Black can just transpose into territory they're more familiar with?

Another idea of the two knights variation is to provoke 3...d4 and get some kind of reversed Old Indian. Some players like these pawn structures, and it also may not be blacks taste to be the one with the space advantage.

1. e4 e6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Nc3 d4
( 3... Nf6 )
4. Ne2 c5 5. c3! Nf6
( 5... d3?! 6. Nf4 c4? 7. Qa4++− )
6. cxd4 cxd4
( 6... Nxe4!? )
7. Ng3
( 7. e5 Nfd7 8. Nexd4 Nxe5= )
a6!
( 7... Nc6 8. Bb5⩲ )
8. d3
( 8. Bc4?! b5 9. Bb3? d3! ∓ )
Nc6 9. Be2 e5∞

Objectively black is minimal better due to his space advantage, but white operates with the vacuum which d5-d4 has created in blacks position. He will sooner or later play f2-f4 and attack the pawn chain e5/d4, for example by playing h3 and Nh2. If black takes on f4 this will isolate the d4 pawn, and white may be able to win it. Of course that will not work if black plays it sensible, for example by protecting the pawn with Qb6 and Rd8. The stronger player will win.

But as you already said, Black can play 3...Nf6 and this transposes to the main lines.

This is why I play it: I'm a 1. Nc3 player and after d5, 2.e4 e6, part of the reason I play Nf3 is black might play d4 into lines I'm used to. Also people who don't know this position often play 5. c3 d3? And if they do go for the mainline I can take them away from their book with 6. Bg5.

You play the standard move order because you want to play 5. f4 which you can't do in the two knights. If you want to play 5. Nf3 anyway then you're better off in the two knights move order. – Noah Steamboat Snyder

Chino says: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_1...

Freire: Wikipedia article: Freire

"A game played by men of equal strength, if played accurately, will end in a draw, and it is apt to be dull." ― Emanuel Lasker

"Time control directly influences the quality of play." ― Boris Spassky

"Chess is all about stored pattern recognition. You are asking your brain to spot a face in the crowd that it has not seen." ― Sally Simpson

"All warfare is based on deception." ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

"The essence of chess is thinking about what CHESS is." ― David Bronstein

"Ponder and deliberate before you make a move." ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Gerald Abrahams' dictum: "Good positions don't win games; good moves do".

"I think any student of military strategy would tell you that in order to attack a position, you should have a ratio of approximately 3 to 1 in favor of the attacker." ― General Norman Schwarzkopf

"I won't be lectured on gun control by an administration that armed the Taliban." ― voter

"I will never quit. My nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down I will get back up, every time. I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and to accomplish our mission. I am never out of the fight." ― Marcus Luttrell, Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

* Annotated Games: Game Collection: Annotated Games

* Assorted Good Games by rbaglini: Game Collection: assorted Good games

* Back rank mating tactics: Game Collection: 610_Back rank mating tactics

* Classic games by great players: Game Collection: Guinness Book - Chess Grandmasters (Hartston)

* Fork OVerload (Remove the Defender): Game Collection: FORK-OVERLOAD OR HOOK-AND-LADDER TRICK

* Impact of Genius: 500 years of Grandmaster Chess: Game Collection: Impact of Genius : 500 years of Grandmaster Ches

* Chess Prehistory Compiled by Joe Stanley: Game Collection: Chess Prehistory

* Best (Old) Games of All Time: Game Collection: Best Games of All Time

* 'Great Brilliancy Prize Games of the Chess Masters' by Fred Reinfeld: Game Collection: 0

* bengalcat47's favorite games of famous masters: Game Collection: bengalcat47's favorite games

* Mil y Una Partidas 1914-1931: Game Collection: Mil y Una Partidas 1914-1931

* Fire Baptisms Compiled by Nasruddin Hodja: Game Collection: Fire Baptisms

* maxruen's favorite games III: Game Collection: maxruen's favorite games III

* some famous brilliancies: Game Collection: brilliacies

* Brilliant games Compiled by madhatter5: Game Collection: Brilliant games

* Cheating: https://www.chess.com/article/view/...

* The Fireside Book: Game Collection: Fireside Book of Chess

* 'Chess Praxis' by Aron Nimzowitsch: Game Collection: Chess Praxis (Nimzowitsch)

* '500 Master Games of Chess' by Savielly Tartakower and Julius Du Mont: Game Collection: 500 Master Games of Chess

* Masterful: Game Collection: FRENCH DEFENSE MASTERPIECES

* Great Combinations by wwall: Game Collection: Combinations

* Middlegame Combinations by Peter Romanovsky: Game Collection: Middlegame Combinations by Peter Romanovsky

* Exchange sacs – 1 Compiled by obrit: Game Collection: Exchange sacs - 1

* Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters Volume II: Game Collection: Secrets of the Russian Chess Masters Volume II

* Ne5 Holler of a Tree in Fredthebear Country: Game Collection: 5 Ne5 Holler of a Tree in Fredthebear Country

* 'The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games' by Graham Burgess, John Nunn and John Emms. New expanded edition-now with 125 games. Game Collection: Mammoth Book-Greatest Games (Nunn/Burgess/Emms)

* Best of the British by Timothy Glenn Forney: Game Collection: Best of the British

* The Best Chess Games (part 2): Game Collection: The Best Chess Games (part 2)

* Scandinavian Miniatures: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...

* sapientdust's favorite games: Game Collection: sapientdust's favorite games

* shakman's favorite games – 2: Game Collection: shakman's favorite games - 2

* Steinitz collection:
Game Collection: Steinitz Gambits

* Reti Opening by KingG: Game Collection: Reti Opening

* Veliki majstori saha 16 RETI (Slavko Petrovic): Game Collection: Veliki majstori saha 16 RETI (Petrovic)

* Richard Réti's Best Games by Golombek: Game Collection: Richard Réti's Best Games by Golombek

* ray keene's favorite games: Game Collection: ray keene's favorite games

* Variety pack by Nova: Game Collection: KID games

* JonathanJ's favorite games 4: Game Collection: JonathanJ's favorite games 4

* jorundte's favorite games: Game Collection: jorundte's favorite games

* elmubarak: my fav games: Game Collection: elmubarak: my fav games

* Golden Treasury of Chess (Wellmuth/Horowitz): Game Collection: 0

* Last Collection by Jaredfchess: Game Collection: LAST COLLECTION

Q: Where did the cow drive to?
A: The moo-vies.

"Chess first of all teaches you to be objective." — Alexander Alekhine

"Among a great many other things that chess teaches you is to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good. It trains you to think before grabbing and to think just as objectively when you're in trouble." — Stanley Kubrick

"Chess helps you to concentrate, improve your logic. It teaches you to play by the rules, take responsibility for your actions, how to problem solve in an uncertain environment." — Garry Kasparov

"Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game." — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

"To avoid losing a piece, many a person has lost the game." — Savielly Tartakower

"Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter." ― Winston S. Churchill

"We can compare classical chess and rapid chess with theatre and cinema - some actors don't like the latter and prefer to work in the theatre." ― Boris Spassky

"In my opinion, the style of a player should not be formed under the influence of any single great master." ― Vasily Smyslov

"Almost immediately after Kasparov played the magic move g4, the computer started to self destruct." — Sam Sloan

"In the endgame, it's often better to form a barrier to cut-off the lone king and keep shrinking the barrier than to give check. The mistaken check might give the lone king a choice move toward the center when the idea is to force the lone king to the edge of the board and then checkmate." — Fredthebear

The Use Of Knowledge

Between two citizens
A controversy grew.
The one was poor, but much he knew:
The other, rich, with little sense,
Claimed that, in point of excellence,
The merely wise should bow the knee
To all such moneyed men as he.
The merely fools, he should have said;
For why should wealth hold up its head,
When merit from its side has fled?
"My friend," said Bloated-purse,
To his reverse,
"You think yourself considerable.
Pray, tell me, do you keep a table?
What comes of this incessant reading,
In point of lodging, clothing, feeding?
It gives one, true, the highest chamber,
One coat for June and for December,
His shadow for his sole attendant,
And hunger always in the ascendant.
What profits he his country, too,
Who scarcely ever spends a sou –
Will, haply, be a public charge?
Who profits more the state at large,
Than he whose luxuries dispense
Among the people wealth immense?
We set the streams of life a-flowing;
We set all sorts of trades a-going.
The spinner, weaver, sewer, vender,
And many a wearer, fair and tender,
All live and flourish on the spender –
As do, indeed, the reverend rooks
Who waste their time in making books."
These words, so full of impudence,
Received their proper recompense.
The man of letters held his peace,
Though much he might have said with ease.
A war avenged him soon and well;
In it their common city fell.
Both fled abroad; the ignorant,
By fortune thus brought down to want,
Was treated everywhere with scorn,
And roamed about, a wretch forlorn;
Whereas the scholar, everywhere,
Was nourished by the public care.

Let fools the studious despise;
There's nothing lost by being wise.

‘May your Departures equal your Landfalls!'

"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them." ― Dalai Lama

"Never run after a man or a bus, there's always another one in five minutes." ― Cherry Adair, Kiss and Tell

Why should you never trust stairs?
They're always up to something.

The Old Man And His Sons

All power is feeble with dissension:
For this I quote the Phrygian slave.
If anything I add to his invention,
It is our manners to engrave,
And not from any envious wishes; –
I'm not so foolishly ambitious.
Phaedrus enriches often his story,
In quest – I doubt it not – of glory:
Such thoughts were idle in my breast.
An aged man, near going to his rest,
His gathered sons thus solemnly addressed:
"To break this bunch of arrows you may try;
And, first, the string that binds them I untie." The eldest, having tried with might and main,
Exclaimed, "This bundle I resign
To muscles sturdier than mine."
The second tried, and bowed himself in vain.
The youngest took them with the like success.
All were obliged their weakness to confess.
Unharmed the arrows passed from son to son;
Of all they did not break a single one.
"Weak fellows!" said their sire, "I now must show What in the case my feeble strength can do."
They laughed, and thought their father but in joke, Till, one by one, they saw the arrows broke.
"See, concord's power!" replied the sire; "as long As you in love agree, you will be strong.
I go, my sons, to join our fathers good;
Now promise me to live as brothers should,
And soothe by this your dying father's fears."
Each strictly promised with a flood of tears.
Their father took them by the hand, and died;
And soon the virtue of their vows was tried.
Their sire had left a large estate
Involved in lawsuits intricate;
Here seized a creditor, and there
A neighbour levied for a share.
At first the trio nobly bore
The brunt of all this legal war.
But short their friendship as It was rare.
Whom blood had joined – and small the wonder! – The force of interest drove asunder;
And, as is wont in such affairs,
Ambition, envy, were co-heirs.
In parcelling their sire's estate,
They quarrel, quibble, litigate,
Each aiming to supplant the other.
The judge, by turns, condemns each brother.
Their creditors make new assault,
Some pleading error, some default.
The sundered brothers disagree;
For counsel one, have counsels three.
All lose their wealth; and now their sorrows
Bring fresh to mind those broken arrows.

Q: Why did the old man fall into the well?
A: Because he couldn't see well.

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church....a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes." ― Charles Swindoll

What do you call malware on a Kindle?
A bookworm.

from the simpleton poet:

Roses are red.
Violets are blue.

Chess is creative.
And a journey too.

Good in the morning.
Or just before bed.

Play cheater_1, with engine.
Or OTB, all in your head.

Do You Have It?

Riddle: Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die. What is it?

Answer: Nothing.

"To know the mighty works of God, to comprehend His wisdom and majesty and power; to appreciate, in degree, the wonderful workings of His laws, surely all this must be a pleasing and acceptable mode of worship to the Most High, to whom ignorance cannot be more grateful than knowledge." — Nicolaus Copernicus

The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

"Venice is incredible. Although you may have seen it in pictures, you can't grasp how beautiful it is until you visit." — Gino D'Acampo

Did you hear about the painter who was hospitalized? The doctors say it was due to too many strokes.

"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people." ― Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, and former U.S. Army Colonel

"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them--that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like." ― Lao Tzu

Q: What is an egg's favorite vacation spot?
A: New Yoke City

Register a t t he Front Des k:

* First of each ECO: Game Collection: First of Each ECO

* How to Analyze: https://thechessworld.com/articles/...

* Recommendations: https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/wiki...

"Above the clouds I lift my wing
To hear the bells of Heaven ring;
Some of their music, though my fights be wild,
To Earth I bring;
Then let me soar and sing!" ― Edmund Clarence Stedman

"Life has, indeed, many ills, but the mind that views every object in its most cheering aspect, and every doubtful dispensation as replete with latent good, bears within itself a powerful and perpetual antidote. The gloomy soul aggravates misfortune, while a cheerful smile often dispels those mists that portend a storm." ― Lydia Sigourney

"Genius does not need a special language; it uses newly whatever tongue it finds." ― Edmund Clarence Stedman

Ten Chess Tips:
* https://www.chess.com/article/view/...

Look at your opponent's move.
Make the best possible move.
Have a plan.
Know what the pieces are worth.
Develop quickly and well.
Control the center.
Keep your king safe.
Know when to trade pieces.
Think about the endgame.
Always be alert.

*GothamChess: https://www.bing.com/videos/rivervi...

"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." ― Lou Holtz

"In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result." ― James Allen

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." ― Martin Luther King, Jr.

"A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at." ― Bruce Lee

"When you locate good in yourself, approve of it with determination. When you locate evil in yourself, despise it as something detestable." ― Confucius

"Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves." ― Dale Carnegie

How did the hipster burn his mouth?
He ate his pizza before it was cool.

"Venice is incredible. Although you may have seen it in pictures, you can't grasp how beautiful it is until you visit." — Gino D'Acampo

"To know the mighty works of God, to comprehend His wisdom and majesty and power; to appreciate, in degree, the wonderful workings of His laws, surely all this must be a pleasing and acceptable mode of worship to the Most High, to whom ignorance cannot be more grateful than knowledge." — Nicolaus Copernicus

You know why you never see elephants hiding up in trees? Because they're really good at it.

Do You Have It?

Riddle: Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die. What is it?

Answer: Nothing.

"It is quite an advantage to have the initiative, and once you have it you must keep it. If your opponent has it, and relinquishes it through some accident or other, you must take it." ― Jose R. Capablanca

How do you measure a snake?
In inches—they don't have feet.

Old Russian Proverb: "A drop hollows out a stone."

Drive sober or get pulled over.

"For surely of all the drugs in the world, chess must be the most permanently pleasurable." — Assiac

"Life is fun. It's all up to the person. Be satisfied. You don't have to be ‘happy' all the time, you need to be satisfied." ― Lucille Boston Lewis, eternal optimist 101 years old

"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them." ― Dalai Lama

"Faith and joy are the ascensive forces of song." ― Edmund Clarence Stedman

What does a house wear?
Address!

What kind of shorts do clouds wear?
Thunderpants

"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them." ― Dalai Lama

"Never run after a man or a bus, there's always another one in five minutes." ― Cherry Adair, Kiss and Tell

Why should you never trust stairs?
They're always up to something.

Reminds me of Ogden Nash:
"Behold the hippopotamus!
We laugh at how he looks to us,
And yet in moments dank and grim,
I wonder how we look to him.
Peace, peace, thou hippopotamus!
We really look all right to us,
As you no doubt delight the eye
Of other hippopotami."

"God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well." ― Voltaire

When does a joke become a ‘dad' joke?
When it becomes apparent.

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?" ― Martin Luther King, Jr.

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." ― Harry S Truman, 33rd President of the United States, and former Colonel in the U.S. Army

144 xp Zirab Zeus in peril eight red herring after sunset gravel knightmarz of Al.

What's the difference between a hippo and a zippo? One is really heavy and the other's a little lighter.

The Serpent and the File

A serpent, neighbour to a smith,
(A neighbour bad to meddle with,)
Went through his shop, in search of food,
But nothing found, it's understood,
To eat, except a file of steel,
Of which he tried to make a meal.
The file, without a spark of passion,
Addressed him in the following fashion:
"Poor simpleton! you surely bite
With less of sense than appetite;
For before from me you gain
One quarter of a grain,
You'll break your teeth from ear to ear.
Time's are the only teeth I fear."

This tale concerns those men of letters,
Who, good for nothing, bite their betters.
Their biting so is quite unwise.
Think you, you literary sharks,
Your teeth will leave their marks
On the deathless works you criticise?
Fie! fie! fie! men!
To you they're brass – they're steel – they're diamond!

"Chess is like body-building. If you train every day, you stay in top shape. It is the same with your brain - chess is a matter of daily training." ― Vladimir Kramnik

"In order to improve your game you must study the endgame before everything else; for, whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middlegame and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame." ― Jose Raul Capablanca

"Even in the heat of a middlegame battle the master still has to bear in mind the outlines of a possible future ending." ― David Bronstein

"He can be regarded as the great master of simplification. The art of resolving the tension at the critical moment and in the most effacious way so as to clarify the position as desired is Capablanca's own." ― Max Euwe

Q: What gets wetter the more it dries?

"Don't cry over spilled milk" is an idiom that means there's no point in being upset over something that has already happened and cannot be changed.

A: A towel.

*Railroads were problematical in 1830, when this was written.

"Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly." ― John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, and former Navy Lieutenant

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." ― Thomas A. Edison

"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." ― Abraham Lincoln

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." ― Winston Churchill

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." ― John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, and former Navy Lieutenant

Romans 15:13
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

"Remember us,
Should any free soul come across this place,
In all the countless centuries yet to be,
May our voices whisper to you from the ageless stones, Go tell the Spartans, passerby:
That here by Spartan law, we lie."
― Frank Miller, 300

Luke 2:9, 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

Conceive a man by nature and misfortune prone to a pallid hopelessness, can any business seem more fitted to heighten it than that of continually handling these dead letters and assorting them for the flames? For by the cart-load they are annually burned. Sometimes from out the folded paper the pale clerk takes a ring: - the finger it was meant for, perhaps, moulders in the grave; a bank-note sent in swiftest charity: - he whom it would relieve, nor eats nor hungers any more; pardon for those who died despairing; hope for those who died unhoping; good tidings for those who died stifled by unrelieved calamities. On errands of life, these letters speed to death. Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity! — Herman Melville

"Whatever you are doing in the game of life, give it all you've got." — Norman Vincent Peale

"What you do today can improve all your tomorrows." — Ralph Marston

"Many have become chess masters, no one has become the master of chess." ― Siegbert Tarrasch

"In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are." — Max De Pree

16 sweetie: move 27. zoottr Frat z dumbo drops Qb1? trollie pokd hiz cmputr Zhao