connoisseur series500

You're just being literal-minded. Psychologically, it's gory stuff. This is it exactly. Part of the definition is "a desire for violence." Well, it fits chess as much as it does boxing, only the violence lies in breaking down your opponent's ego. If you were to say to Sugar Ray Leonard that boxing is just violence and blood, he would laugh in your face. Boxers such as he enter fights believing that their technique defends them against harm. Fights often end violently (including Sugar Ray's) but chess ends violently as well. Even though Irina Krush is a professional, I bet it took her a few weeks to recover from that loss in the Woman's championship, just as it takes a boxer several weeks to recover. Just because she wasn't physically abused doesn't mean that violence wasn't involved. Her ego was temporarily crushed. To make an analogy, people suffering from serious depression are considered "sick and in need of hospitalization." They may not be physically sick in the same way as someone with a fractured arm, but the medical profession knows better and classifies them as seriously ill and in need of equal if not more attention. I am not interested in discussions dealing with whether chess is a sport or not. Who cares? But my point is that it is as bloodthirsty as boxing. In fact, the parallels between the two "sports" are uncanny. They are not team sports, and the contestant is on his own. He tries to breakdown his opponent both mentally and physically--yes the two are connected. Our mental wellbeing does not exist independently of our physical being. The likely winner of a chess match isn't necessarily the most intelligent person just as the winner of a boxing match is not necessarily the strongest physically. There is art and technique involved; but mainly it comes down to the win to will. Sugar Ray said that he won his fights because he wanted to win just a little more than the other guy did. Similarly, chess is not for gentle souls. Gentle and intelligent people don't last long in competitive chess. They do other things. It is simply too violent for their tastes. Madness runs through the game's best players. They tend to become highly paranoid. The paranoia comes from the belief that they are always defending their ego against other players. Others are out to not checkmate them but to destroy their egos and world construct. It is very telling that few competitive chess games ever end in actual checkmate. People resign ahead of it; the actual end is too painful and only someone who didn't commit their ego and drive into the game would actually play it out to checkmate. When you devote several hours to the game at hand; and have invested your entire ego and view of life into the game, then it is absolutely crushing to lose. Again, I can see how someone like Dan is oblivious to this, as he hasn't played high level tournament chess. No doubt to him, chess is some gentlemanly game played by aristocrats. Well that's far from the case. It is a very bloodthirsty sport or art, or whatever. It is definitely COMPETITION; and it likely doesn't appeal to more gentle and intelligent people like Tom Storer, because the need to win is an absolute requirement for high results in the game. Myth 1: the best chess players are the most intelligent Myth 2: the best boxers are the strongest

Niko and Tom Storer have got it right. You really need to care about winning and losing if you are to be good in any competitive sport. Here is a link to the final few seconds of the US woman's Championship. Watch the second video around the 25-30 second mark. It gives a little glimpse about the bloodthirstiness of chess. http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4686

I don't much care about either. This was always a sore point with my teammates in gym class sports... They felt I should be far more concerned with winning! My older brother is fiercely competitive in games and sports. As a child, if his team lost the baseball game he would weep with rage and be impossible to live with. Later he moved to chess and from there to backgammon. He made a living for a while as a backgammon hustler but has mostly given up tournament play in favor of deep, ponderous study of the game. Anyway, once I suggested he take up role-playing games--I don't like those either but I thought they could only be more fun than backgammon. He looked at me like I was crazy and patiently explained as if to a child that he played in order to win, not to dream up fantasies. Interesting story.

Sorry but unless you have blood-splattered pieces, I call "bullshit". That's because you don't play competitive chess and don't have the foggiest idea about it.

Play in USCF rated events. I'm actually ranked in the top 1500 in the country. Would be higher if not for all these immigrants. Here's the link. http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlMain.php?12672331

Competitive chess. Don't laugh. It's as bloodthirsty as boxing. I'm still trying to get better and imagine I am doing so even at my age....

three of us so far.

Week 12 results: Noj PIT CLE TEN JAC BUF BAL NE TB CHI DAL DEN ATL NYG WAS IND GB 43 11 Connoisseu PIT CLE TEN JAC BUF BAL NE TB CHI DAL DEN ATL NYG WAS SD GB 56 10 Soulstation1 PIT CLE TEN JAC BUF PHI MIA TB CHI DAL DEN ATL NYG WAS IND NO 46 10 Van Basten II PIT CLE TEN JAC KC BAL MIA TB CHI DAL DEN ATL NYG WAS IND GB 32 9 Aggie87 PIT CLE TEN JAC BUF PHI MIA TB CHI DAL DEN CAR NYG WAS SD NO 49 8 vajerzy CIN CLE TEN JAC KC PHI MIA TB CHI DAL DEN ATL NYG WAS IND GB 38 7 Edward Tak PIT CLE TEN JAC KC PHI MIA TB STL DAL DEN ATL NYG WAS SD GB 49 6 Year to date results: Connoisseur series 500 13* 11* 12 9 7 8 11* 10 8 10 9 10 118 Van Basten II 12 7 12 8 10* 8 9 9 9* 12* 10 9 115 vajerzy 11 7 13* 8 9 9 8 10 8 10 10 7 110 Aggie87 11 8 11 7 9 8 8 8 9 11 11* 8 109 Noj 7 7 12 9* 7 7 7+ 9 8 11 11 11* 106 Edward Tak 11 8 12 8 7 10* 9 9 8 8 7 6 103 Soulstation1 7 8 9 7 6 8 8 11* 6 11 9 10 100

Not sure that I agree. I can really bomb out one weekend, and lose my lead in a flash. I think several people are still in the running, but we'll see once I post the updated totals after tonight's game.

Happy Birthday Buzz! Live chat soon?

Week 11 results: Aggie87 NE NO GB NYG MIA PHI CAR ATL IND TB STL ARI PIT TEN DAL BUF 49 11 Noj NE NO GB NYG MIA PHI CAR ATL IND MIN SF ARI PIT TEN DAL BUF 41 11 vajerzy NE KC GB NYG MIA PHI CAR ATL IND TB SF ARI PIT TEN WAS BUF 10 Van Basten II NE NO GB NYG MIA PHI CAR ATL IND TB SF ARI PIT JAC WAS BUF 29 10 Connoisseu NE NO GB NYG MIA PHI CAR ATL IND TB SF SEA PIT JAC WAS BUF 36 9 Soulstation1 NE NO CHI NYG MIA PHI CAR ATL IND MIN STL ARI PIT TEN WAS CLE 45 9 Edward Tak NE NO GB NYG MIA PHI CAR ATL IND TB STL SEA SD JAC WAS BUF 35 7 Race is getting tighter! Year to date: Connoisseur series 500 13* 11* 12 9 7 8 11* 10 8 10 9 108 Van Basten II 12 7 12 8 10* 8 9 9 9* 12* 10 106 vajerzy 11 7 13* 8 9 9 8 10 8 10 10 103 Aggie87 11 8 11 7 9 8 8 8 9 11 11* 101 Edward Tak 11 8 12 8 7 10* 9 9 8 8 7 97 Noj 7 7 12 9* 7 7 7+ 9 8 11 11 95 Soulstation1 7 8 9 7 6 8 8 11* 6 11 9 90

Van B. has been interviewing both coaches prior to the games.

Week 10 results: Van Basten II CLE MIN NE JAC MIA ATL NYJ BAL TEN CAR PIT SD NYG ARI 34 12 Aggie87 CLE GB NE JAC MIA ATL NYJ BAL TEN CAR PIT SD NYG ARI 49 11 Noj CLE GB NE JAC MIA ATL NYJ BAL TEN CAR PIT SD NYG ARI 37 11 Soulstation1 CLE GB NE JAC MIA ATL NYJ BAL TEN CAR PIT SD NYG ARI 46 11 Connoisseu CLE MIN NE JAC MIA ATL NYJ HOU TEN CAR PIT SD PHI ARI 42 10 vajerzy CLE GB NE JAC MIA ATL NYJ BAL TEN CAR PIT SD PHI ARI 39 10 Edward Tak CLE GB NE JAC MIA ATL NYJ HOU CHI CAR PIT SD PHI ARI 49 8 Great solo win by Van B. Year to date results: Connoisseur series 500 13* 11* 12 9 7 8 11* 10 8 10 99 Van Basten II 12 7 12 8 10* 8 9 9 9* 12* 96 vajerzy 11 7 13* 8 9 9 8 10 8 10 93 Aggie87 11 8 11 7 9 8 8 8 9 11 90 Edward Tak 11 8 12 8 7 10* 9 9 8 8 90 Noj 7 7 12 9* 7 7 7+ 9 8 11 84 Soulstation1 7 8 9 7 6 8 8 11* 6 11 81

Not the answer, but the problem is a bitch to solve. I'll leave it open for the night crew to have a chance at it before posting the answer. Again, endgame studies are pretty, but they are extremely difficult to solve. Usually, you have to spend up to 1/2 hour on the problem, and who tends to do that?

chessgames.com is a great site. I play "guess the move" a lot. Great for building up your skills.

Yup, I was right! hehehe! Took me about 2-3 minutes to solve it. Everything is pretty forced. Endgame studies are a lot tougher, I think.

I think I've got the answer. I didn't set up the pieces but worked from the diagram. 1...h5! and mate is unavoidable. For example: 2. d8=Q+ Kh7 and white's extra material cannot stop the dual mating threats of ...Qf8+ or Qf5+. I haven't checked out Krabbe's website in a long time. Was this from his greatest moves of all time? I once printed them all out, but went over only about a dozen of them. I think I'll go the website and check my answer. (Notice that I didn't give the website of my endgame study?)

These endgame studies are not easy so don't be alarmed if you struggle solving them. White is always to play first.

Hey! I just got back and missed the fun! Let me see if I can donate a problem or two. The only problem with your problem is that the pieces are all over the place and it is obviously composed (as opposed to having occured in a real game.) I prefer problems that come from real games. Endgame studies can be fun because they can occur in real games. Let me see if I can find one with diagram and such. How were you able to copy the diagram?

Sorry to hear the bad news.

Thanks everyone. Got to join the next live chat session.

Anytime anybody picks the Browns, they lose.

Week 9 results: Aggie87 BAL JAC STL CHI BUF TEN TB MIN DEN ATL NYG PHI NE PIT 49 9 Van Basten II CLE JAC STL CHI BUF TEN TB MIN DEN ATL NYG PHI IND PIT 34 9 Connoisseu CLE JAC STL CHI BUF TEN TB MIN DEN ATL NYG PHI IND WAS 38 8 Edward Tak CLE JAC ARI CHI BUF GB TB MIN DEN ATL NYG PHI IND WAS 49 8 Noj CLE JAC STL CHI BUF TEN TB MIN DEN ATL NYG PHI NE PIT 45 8 vajerzy CLE JAC ARI CHI BUF TEN TB MIN DEN OAK NYG PHI IND WAS 43 8 Soulstation1 CLE JAC STL CHI BUF TEN TB HOU DEN OAK NYG PHI IND WAS 40 6 Dallas may be down, but it doesn't necessarily keep a Cowboy fan down. Congrats for sharing the week's victory w/ Van B, Agg. Year to date, I feel Van B getting closer. Vajjy is a consistently good picker; and Ed won the title a couple years back. I'm feeling the heat!! Year to date totals: Connoisseur series 500 13* 11* 12 9 7 8 11* 10 8 89 Van Basten II 12 7 12 8 10* 8 9 9 9* 84 vajerzy 11 7 13* 8 9 9 8 10 8 83 Edward Tak 11 8 12 8 7 10* 9 9 8 82 Aggie87 11 8 11 7 9 8 8 8 9 79 Noj 7 7 12 9* 7 7 7+ 9 8 73 Soulstation1 7 8 9 7 6 8 8 11* 6 70

Happy Birthday Russ!

Steelers are looking like the second best team in the AFC (to Tennessee)