Informal game at Gulu with Little Rhody

We welcomed our newest candidate member, Little Rhody, with this informal game played at Gulu Gulu.  Once again, the Gabridoodle proved that, as one book title has it, "black is okay."

Little Rhody - Gabridoodle, 0-1

Being a n00b, Little Rhody began with some rather unusual queenside pawn pushes.  The Gabridoodle sarcastically remarked that if it worked, he'd note it with TN for theoretical novelty.  Despite this vicious commentary, the game proceeded amid a friendly enough atmosphere.  When Little Rhody attempted to move a bishop from b1 to b2, there was much merriment.  At move 24, she coined the abbreviaton SPS for Shameless Pawn Snatching (ironically, she was the one grabbing the pawn).  At move 31, she announced that she knew what the Gabridoodle was going to do.  When he made an ominous bishop move (green arrow in the illustration), she had to admit that this wasn't what she expected.  The end came soon after, as shown in the other illustration.  The Gabridoodle delivered a brief post-game lecture on pins, forks, skewers, and -- though it wasn't relevant to this game -- Alekhine's Gun.

Watch out for the Missus !

Although the Chess Missus didn't win this postprandial game, she played notably well and really made the Gabridoodle sweat for the win.

Gabridoodle - Chess Missus, 1-0

The game couldn't have had a more orthodox opening.  But eventually things got tense, then violent.  The Chess Missus faced a dilemma: aggressive play is normally rewarded and yet putting the Gabridoodle in a tight spot causes him to rally, playing better, often getting out of trouble and going on to win.  To some extent this is what happened here.  As already noted, the Chess Missus played well, getting zapped for a rook but subsequently zapping the Gabridoodle for a rook.  She was even ahead in material at one point.  However the Gabridoodle uncorked a couple of nasty surprises.  The most dire for the Chess Missus was a criminally-minded passed pawn that was protected by a knight: she had to either say goodbye to her rook or let the pawn promote.  Promotion it was and after shocking king move (to e2, as shown in the illustration) the rest was cut-and-dried.

15 August 2012: Our first official on-line game !

Salem CHESS CLUB is back from something of a summer vacation -- talk about a forced move !  There's been some leadership turmoil and it isn't clear if Her Majesty is actually an unseen yet omnipresent goddess or merely a pirate.

Today, an innovation !  Salem CHESS CLUB has had its first virtual meeting !  The Pink Queen and the Gabridoodle played a game at the Free Internet Chess Server.  Their user names are letusplaypong and gabridoodle, respectively.  We encourage club members to set up an account there.  There are various graphical interfaces; one that works well with Windows is Babas Chess.

We'd also like to say hello to our new friends at Salem CRIBBAGE CLUB !

Pink Queen - Gabridoodle, 0-1
Time control: Fischer, 10 minutes + 30 seconds per move.
Played at Free Internet Chess Server

The Pink Queen began with aggression, as usual, but this time it was  more of a spirited attack rather than a crazed, frenzied offensive.  The Gabridoodle knew that he would have to focus on doing some fancy defensive footwork before he could even think about seriously going on the attack.  This, indeed, is how things played out.  At one point, the Gabridoodle even gave away a bishop in exchange for positional compensation.  The Pink Queen made one howler of a blunder (involving a rook) but cleverly declined to exercise the takeback owed to her by the Gabridoodle, saving it for another game.  The quote of the game came at the position illustrated at right.  Having moved a rook to d1, the Gabridoodle exclaimed, "Into the meat grinder you go !"