Chess Forum / General Topics / August 2005

<Meth labs, a toxic threat to rural America. One small town grapples
with scourge of addiction.>
     "Along a country road on the Cumblerand Plateau"
begins a NBC story, and one suddenly realizes that the

 An official FIDE site at http://tinyurl.com/7jprk purports to give
the "History of the World Chess Championships," proclaiming
"Since 1886, worldwide chess has produced an important story of
passionate matches among top line players. Each of these is detailed as

I received the following note from a friend who's taking up chess once
again.
"Does somebody somewhere keep statistics on grandmaster games?  For example,
if I wanted to know what percentage of GM games started d4 in recent years

 In another thread I posted several questions for Larry Parr regarding
his 1985 review of "The Oxford Companion to Chess." Parr has so far not
seen, or chose not to answer, the questions. Therefore I now put them
in a separate thread, in hopes he will reply:

On Ebay now at:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5228614311
Local pickup in Ottawa near the Experimental Farm can be arranged to
save shipping costs, if it can be arranged.

I'm sure this is often asked, though strangely a Google search shows
nothing recent: should I spend the $50 a year that ICC asks, or stay
with a free server, namely FICS?
I've read some comparisons on the web which have been helpful, but the

I take the liberty to create a new thread for discussion of chess on tv, and
also to put into perspective some recent events.
[I also append a postscript to obviate a series of false suggestions that
have been raised by some parties].

15th European Team Championship 2005 - Men
Gothenburg, Sweden
Round 9 on 2005/08/07 at 15.00
     9.1 12 Poland 1½ - 2½

I just happened to look up Tom Dorsch and noticed that he has a rating
floor of 2200, although his rating has never been higher than 2260.
http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlMain.php?10496730
About half of the time, he has been bouncing off of the floor. Without

I really cannot understand what went wrong. I played such a good
opening. Soon I was a rook up. Yet I lost.
Can somebody please tell me where I made my mistake?
Sam Sloan

I'm so sad when I see human disaster. Nevertheless if it's tragedy of the
stalker (like Mr. Brennen) who was cached using false name and writing
false biography, or some human people. When tragedy happened for two people
(nevertheless if they are thieves, like Mr. Brennen and Mr. ...

The Lesbian Candidate is Beatriz, but who speaks for the Gay Man? is there a
Homosexual Man running for office?
Our voice must be heard! Homosexuals who play Chess account for at least 45%
of the membership of the USCF. Where is our Gay Candidate? Why aren't we

I use to play with beginners. Recently I played advanced players who
are part of a league.
I myself noticed and one of the advanced players pointed out that I am
all attack and no defense. I concur. It seemed that I can attack okay,

Did Kashdan really say:
"In Fischer's hands,
A slight
Theoretical

I have read more than one titled player recommend studying LOTS of master
games to improve.  I think most recently I read something attributed to
Silman that said once a player gets to a certain level, say 1800-2000, then
one of the best things for him to do is to play over ...