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whitebeach
Member since Oct-12-07 · Last seen Jul-17-10
I taught myself chess at age six and have loved the game ever since, which is getting to be a long trip.

In the 1970s and 1980s I lived in New York and for years was a member of the Marshall Chess Club, a wonderful place for any player.

Back then my rating generally swung between the high 1800s and the high 1900s. I believe that, if I'd worked at it, I would pretty easily have reached Expert or maybe (I kid myself) even very weak Master, but I played mainly for fun, usually only once a week in the club's Thursday Swiss, and my notion of deep opening analysis was something like, "This guy thinks I always open with e4. What if I lay Bird's on him instead?"

I've faced some strong Masters and usually lost, but won or drew often enough to keep me coming back with my ego more or less intact.

I live in Baton Rouge now and haven't played a rated game in a long time, partly because there seems to be very little competitive chess here. Would be happy to find some.

My favorite player, naturally enough for a Louisiana boy, is Morphy. I love watching how the lines open up as if by magic, and even more than the brilliant sacrifices I love how his pieces almost always seem to be on the precise squares from which those brilliant sacs can be launched. Starting with my Marshall days, though, I came to appreciate Tal almost as much as Morphy. Tal played the game like a game, like exuberant fun, not like digging a ditch or running a hedge fund. Kasparov, I've always enjoyed his play too. Even Karpov, in I guess the same way that some people can be fond of boa constrictors as pets. (If the Russians had ever found a way to interclone Tal, Kasparov, and Karpov, it would be another century before any computer stood a chance.)

Of course Fischer was probably better, objectively, than any of those players, but I could never call Bobby a favorite.

The newer guys I'm not familiar enough with yet. But it's still the same old game, a pleasure and a beauty to play or even just to observe.


   whitebeach has kibitzed 173 times to chessgames   [more...]
   Jul-14-10 P Deshmukh vs B Thipsay, 2008 (replies)
 
whitebeach: Oops, sorry, Bish. Didn't notice you'd already mentioned 16. Nf1. Past my bedtime.
 
   Feb-27-10 Larry David Evans (replies)
 
whitebeach: <centralfiles>: Just looked back at this, and yes, thanks for the correck. Even after all these years I still screw up the scoresheet. I think it comes from growing up with one notation system and switching to another later in life. Or quite possibly I would screw up in any
 
   Feb-27-10 Glek vs J Hector, 1995 (replies)
 
whitebeach: Me too. My first and really only thought was 44 . . . b4, but what bothered me about it wasn't 45. d7+ but 45. Nc4. I'm too sleepy to analyze it, though, and if the annotator didn't mention it, it's probably not the move.
 
   Feb-25-10 R G Hegde vs S Palatnik, 1988 (replies)
 
whitebeach: dzechiel and jessica--If the old boy has never played blindfold, this is the time to try it. But mainly, recover soon. And yeah, 59 . . . Bg7.
 
   Feb-23-10 S Horrocks vs G Mancini, 2010 (replies)
 
whitebeach: 32 . . . Bd1 is one of those intuitive moves, by which I mean you don't have to parse all the variations, you just know the minute you see it that it wins.
 
   Feb-07-10 J Sloth vs W N Watson, 1991 (replies)
 
whitebeach: I spent some time trying to figure out a way to get the dark-square bishop into play, then finally saw that the open rook file was the key to the game. Then I pretty much found the line--the N sac, the rook check, the queen penetration after the exchange sac--but I never saw the ...
 
   Feb-01-10 Tal vs Koblents, 1965 (replies)
 
whitebeach: The strangest thing is why Koblentz played it out to mate. Was he in deep time trouble so soon? Was he simply in shock? Was he perhaps hitting the vodka a little early? I hope he at least didn't waste too much time thinking over his last move. I remember a guy at the Marshall ...
 
   Jan-28-10 N Kosolapov vs R Nezhmetdinov, 1936 (replies)
 
whitebeach: The game continuation is cute and faster, but 22 . . . Ng3+ also forces mate and probably should count as a solve.
 
   Jan-27-10 Kasimdzhanov vs H Hofstra, 2004 (replies)
 
whitebeach: <redmaninaustin> Yeah, it did seem a little easy for midweek, but even more so, it was easy in a sort of knock-down-the-dominoes way. After this move, that move, etc., right up to the end, with no way to go off the track.
 
   Jan-24-10 Short vs Ljubojevic, 1991 (replies)
 
whitebeach: <stacase: I was move for move until 29 Bh6, I would have moved 29 g5. Black's Bishop would be toast and the White Queen would just power on through!> But black at this point is a piece ahead and can let the bishop be toast, butter, and jam if he wishes. I haven't analyzed ...
 
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