connoisseur series500

Have to keep it up. I've got you, Ed, and Vajjy breathing down my neck! :bwallace2:

Wow, I didn't notice the "standings" tab. I've been manually tabulating the year to date results each week. And I have been accurate too! Here are the Year to Date standings (per CBS): Connoisseur series 500 13* 11* 12 9 7 8 11* 71 Van Basten II 12 7 12 8 10* 8 9 66 Edward Tak 11 8 12 8 7 10* 9 65 vajerzy 11 7 13* 8 9 9 8 65 Aggie87 11 8 11 7 9 8 8 62 Noj 7 7 12 9* 7 7 7+ 56 Soulstation1 7 8 9 7 6 8 8 53

Congratulations to Vishy Anand! I have been enjoying the games. Vishy has been outplaying Big Vlad in every facet of the game. Vlad's time is over. He has been surpassed by a few chessplayers over the last few years and is no longer one of the top 3-4 players in the world. Morozevich, for example, has been beating him consistently in their matchups. Carlson is destined to be the next world champion, though I can see Vishy successfully defending his title perhaps one more time. Topalov will be the next likely challenger, and I rate Vishy a slight favorite. The games will be exciting for sure! In the meantime, I think there is still a lot of good chess still ahead for the remainder of the current match.

Emmit's always good for a laugh. I love the guy to death and I love his malapropisms. He has no pretence about being clever, unlike his partner Steve Young, who comes across as a pedantic dullard. http://awfulannouncing.blogspot.com/2008/1...of-patches.html

Don't pick when you are drunk.

Ok, I've edited it. But it would have been nice if the CBS poll automatically grants the "one point less than the bottom score," so I wouldn't have to tabulate all this.

Week 7 Results: Connoisseur se CHI DAL PIT CAR MIA TEN BUF NYG HOU GB NYJ WAS TB NE 1 11 Edward Tak CHI DAL PIT CAR MIA TEN SD NYG HOU GB NYJ WAS TB DEN 49 9 Van Basten II CHI STL PIT CAR MIA TEN SD NYG HOU IND NYJ WAS TB DEN 56 9 vajerzy CHI DAL PIT NO MIA TEN BUF NYG HOU IND NYJ WAS TB DEN 39 8 Soulstation1 CHI DAL PIT NO MIA TEN BUF NYG HOU IND NYJ WAS TB DEN 41 8 Aggie87 CHI DAL PIT NO MIA TEN SD NYG HOU IND NYJ WAS TB NE 49 8 Noj This player has not yet submitted picks for this week 0 Year to date results: Conn 71 Van B 66 Ed 65 Vajerzy 65 Agg 62 Noj 57 (assuming he scores a "7" for the week. His picks actually worked out to "6." SS1 53 Need some guidance here: Noj actually got only 6 correct picks this week, but Vajerzy states that the CBS rules allows him to finish one below the lowest for the week, which is actually a 7. What do I count him for the week? I've credited him with 7, but advise if this is not correct.

You have up to 60 minutes before first kickoff- if you miss out- you'll receive 1 less than the person in last place for the week- so not all is lost. OK, so that's how we score it? Might actually help Nojjy because his picks were atrocious! I'll score him as one less than the week's loser.

That's an understatement! Brad Johnson looked AWFUL with 3 ints, and a spaghetti arm, Marion Barber fumbled, Roy Willliams was O fer, TO had no impact. On D they couldn't stop the run or the passing attack of the mighty Rams. Granted, the following starters or key players are all gone right now: Tony Romo Kyle Kosier Matt McBriar - for year Sam Hurd - for year Felix Jones Roy Williams (the other one) - for year Terence Newman Pacman Jones - for year (?) That's alot of secondary starters missing, but still no reason to play as poorly as they have on D. I feel for Dallas fans. On paper, Dallas looked like the SB favorite. They are stacked. It's hard to watch your team do a tailspin when they've seemingly put all the right pieces together. Opportunities to go to the Super Bowl are rare in the NFL. You've got to take advantage when you can. I personally don't care for Wade Phillips. I didn't care for some of his snide remarks about Spygate. He doesn't deserve success.

I'll count your picks, Noj.

Happy Birthday Chris!

It's the only Reuben Wilson LP I've flogged because I thought it was crap. But I've made many mistakes in the past and this might be one. In the light of Mike and Shawn's comments, I'll try this again. MG I like it ! Definitely worth picking up the Reuben Wilson - and the sound on the CD reissue is really outstanding. I can sort of hear the similarity in style with 'Moon Rappin' that SS mentions. Definite 1971 groove.. I just listened to it this week, and found it abysmal. May be the worst Blue Note album I've ever heard. I agree with you that it's pretty weak, but track #7, "Tom's Thumb" rocks!

Cowboys paid a high price for Roy Williams. He can help the Cowboys but... Advantage: Detroit.

Too many people breathing down my neck.

Week 6 results: Edward Tak NYJ MIN IND WAS TB ATL HOU NO DEN GB PHI DAL SD NYG 42 10 vajerzy NYJ MIN IND WAS TB ATL MIA NO DEN GB PHI DAL SD NYG 43 9 Connoisseur se NYJ MIN IND WAS TB ATL MIA NO DEN SEA PHI DAL SD NYG 1 8 Van Basten II NYJ MIN IND WAS TB CHI HOU NO DEN SEA PHI DAL SD NYG 46 8 Soulstation1 NYJ MIN IND WAS CAR ATL MIA NO JAC GB SF DAL SD NYG 41 8 Aggie87 NYJ MIN IND WAS CAR ATL MIA NO DEN GB PHI DAL SD NYG 55 8 Noj NYJ MIN IND WAS CAR ATL MIA NO DEN SEA PHI DAL SD NYG 45 7 Year to date results: Conn 60 Van B 57 Vajerzy 57 Ed 56 Agg 54 Noj 51 SS1 45

This game was played today. A 2700+ GM gets blown away in the Caro Kann. [Event "ch-RUS"] [site "Moscow RUS"] [Date "2008.10.13"] [Round "9"] [White "Timofeev, Arty"] [black "Svidler, P."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B14"] [WhiteElo "2670"] [blackElo "2727"] [PlyCount "37"] [EventDate "2008.10.03"] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. Nf3 Bb4 7. Bd3 dxc4 8. Bxc4 O-O 9. O-O b6 10. Bg5 Bb7 11. Re1 Nbd7 12. Rc1 Rc8 13. Qb3 Bxc3 14. Rxc3 Rc7 15. Ne5 Kh8 16. Rh3 Qa8 17. Nxd7 Rxd7 18. Bxf6 gxf6 19. Rxh7+ 1-0

Yes, but with a limited budget one has to prioritize. I played three games in a tournament on Saturday (2.5/3 pts) and two of the games involved the Caro Kann. I played it as black in one game, and faced it in another. It is one of my defences to 1. e4. Here are the last few books I bought from NiC publishers. http://www.newinchess.com/Shop/Images/Products/388_s.jpg Can't say enough good things about this one. Plus the paper and type are top notch. http://www.newinchess.com/Shop/Images/Products/336_s.jpg I'm hooked on this series. Some of the openings are junk, but there's enough good stuff which allows you to avoid main theory. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515k...L160_AA115_.jpg This one is published by Russell Enterprises, but you wouldn't believe how instructive the examples are. These are positional puzzles as opposed to tactical ones.

Good luck Randy! Make sure you tell us how you finished.

I don't think the Patriots will make the playoffs unless they get another quarterback. Cassell is simply awful.

No, I haven't read that book. I think it was voted as best book of the year, but I haven't yet picked it up. I buy new chess books all the time, but have been focused on Everyman Chess, Gambit Publishing, and New In Chess Publishing for the most part. I love Bareev. I loved his games when he played; and I like his wit and charm. I should get this book.

The World Chess Championship match begins tomorrow between Vishwanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. I rate Kramnik as a slight favorite. He wins +1. What do you guys think?

Well it's a very good cd. Good news.

I don't have much savings besides my old 401ks and IRA. I'm sure they've taken a good hit, but I don't really give a crap. My outlook for using the money is still 10+ years away. Too much can happen before then. Our investments will bounce back; and they will bounce back amazingly quickly, imo. But I fear the economic shakeout of this crash--what it means for consumer spending, business investments, jobs, etc. I'm not convinced that the automakers will survive this mess. At least one of them could fail. As far as banks are concerned, I have no doubt that more failures like ahead. Ironically, I think the safest place to have your money right now would be in mutual funds invested in the stock exchange. A diversified equity portfolio won't go to zero.

If you were down 5 percent, then you're doing about 35 percent better than many of the rest of us. My 401k has taken a pretty big hit, but I'm not worried about that. In fact, since I'm still actively buying through the account and retirement is about 10 years out for me, I'm fine with the drop. In the long run it'll be a good thing. That's the good news. The bad: It's death by 1,000 cuts where I work, with 10 more people laid off just yesterday. Frankly, we're so thin now there's little incentive anymore for me to bail faster, cause it's pretty apparent the boat is sinking and I could easily be the next one tossed over the side. I have about enough cash to carry me for a year, but much of it is locked up in a CD until January, and I'm even nervous about that. It's grim, basically, and I'm just hanging on knowing full well the ax could fall at any time. Actively looking for another job in another industry at my age isn't a happy prospect, especially in this job market. So .... paper or plastic? I feel your pain. Last year, I took the plunge and reentered school at the age of 48. I'm in my second semester of nursing school. Had no background nor experience in healthcare prior to that. Wanted to focus on an area that was the closest thing to a "guaranteed job." It's never too late to make a change. Now I'm somewhat sheltered from this mess since I'm in school and just living on school loans. Hope the job market improves in another year when I start looking.

Incredible story. Bobby Fischer's millions are deposited there somewhere.