In which Fritz accepts a draw and becomes a stoner

Nasty, dirty forking with a bishop !

This one eventually ended in a draw, but here I gave Fritz's rooks a nasty forking with my bishop.

An amusing little swindle

Fritz - Gabridoodle, ½-½

Fritz had the white pieces and I had the black.  It looked like my goose was cooked but with all that empty real estate around his king, I was able to deliver check after check after check.  Thus I turned a loss into a game destined to end in a draw either by threefold repetition (as happened) or by the 50 move rule.

17 Sep 2012: our longest game ever ends at Gulu

The longest game ever in the history of Salem CHESS CLUB came to a crashing conclusion tonight at Gulu Gulu.  The game lasted nearly two months !  The Gabridoodle and the Pink Queen began this game on July 18th on-line at FICS.  It was adjourned by the Great Essex County Twister of 2012 which cut power (and hence interwebs) at the Gabridoodle's command center.

Gabridoodle - Pink Queen, 1-0

This is the position at the middle of move 12 when the game was brutally adjourned by the Great Essex County Twister of 2012.  The Gabridoodle has already sent his ponies to the glue factory but the Pink Queen has no bishops.  Some holes have already been ripped in the Pink Queen's pawn structure.  For the next several moves, she tormented the Gabridoodle with her knight.

Here, at move 18, the Gabridoodle has initiated a confrontation between the queens.  Note that he's also got a sneaky bishop pointed straight at the Pink Queen's rook at h8.  Her best option would have been to capture the Gabridoodle's queen and then after he recaptured with his bishop, save her h8 rook.  But perhaps being cross with the world, she instead moved her king to e7.  Thus the Gabridoodle wins a rook.

Here we are at move 33.  The Pink Queen makes a second key blunder (though at this point, the game was the Gabridoodle's to lose).  Instead of grabbing his c4 rook, she instead moved her king to b6.  The Gabridoodle of course took her rook and all she got for it was the bishop.  At this point, the Gabridoodle was ahead by two rooks and two pawns and the Pink Queen's king fainted, ending the game.

12 Sep 2012: another half-point swindle !

The need to get a doorknob fixed unexpectedly brought the Chess Pirate out of hiding.  This was thus the first CHESS CLUB meeting that featured both a trip to the hardware store and the Gabridoodle putting on a display of mechanical dexterity by installing a new doorknob in one room while standing in another.

Gabridoodle - Chess Pirate, ½-½

Training with Fritz has added briskness to the Gabridoodle's play; consequently, no time control was used (or really necessary) for this game.  The Chess Pirate wore a sombrero in an attempt to distract and/or intimidate the Gabridoodle.  The sombrero didn't really work its magic, but the Gabridoodle did fall behind in material early on, dropping a pony.  Around move 30, the Chess Pirate viciously forked him, gaining a decisive advantage.  Nevertheless, they fought on until the Gabridoodle pulled a bunny out of the hat on move 53, swindling the Pirate for a half point by means of stalemate !

In which Fritz gets the shock of his life

The Gabridoodle won a freakin' 19-move miniature against Fritz -- this time ending with mate, not Fritz's resignation !

Fritz - Gabridoodle, 0-1
1.e4 e5 2.f4 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.fxe5 Nxe5 5.d4 Neg4 6.e5 Qe7 7.Qe2 d6 8.exf6 Nxf6 9.Qxe7+ Bxe7 10.Be3 d5 11.Bd3 Ng4 12.Nd1 Nxe3 13.Nxe3 Bh4+ 14.Ke2 O-O 15.Nxd5 c6 16.Nc7 Bg4+ 17.Ke3 Bg5+ 18.Ke4 Rfe8+ 19.Nxe8 Rxe8# 0-1

18. Ke4 ...

18. ... Rfe8+

19. Nxe8 ...

19. ... Rxe8#

First SPS, now SRR

Little Rhody already coined the term SPS for Shameless Pawn Snatching.  In a game with Fritz just now, the Gabridoodle (playing black -- always okay) baffled his computer nemesis with a SRR: Shameless Rook Raid.  The going hypothesis is that the raid confused Fritz, causing him to mark time with the aimless rook moves.

Greetings from our friends' mascot

Our friends at Salem CRIBBAGE CLUB have a rather unusual mascot; he sends us his greetings !

Little Rhody makes a funny and gets promoted

As a reward for making a funny in reference to a recent game at Gulu, we are proud to announce that Little Rhody has been promoted from candidate member to full member.