25 Feb 2013: Jaho field trip !

Another field trip for Salem CHESS CLUB !  This time the destination was the Jaho café on Derby Street.  As if that wasn't unusual enough, this happened on a freakin' Monday !  Even our old friend the Chess Visionary expressed astonishment when she heard about this.  News still travels, even when you're on double-secret probation.

We started with the Shiny game, which the Gabridoodle won in short order (details below).  The reader will note the absence of the usual sharp commentary -- being at Jaho definitely promoted a certain decorum.

The Pirate didn't let this defeat get her down, however.  She proposed an experimental blindfold game !  Well, not true blindfold: the Gabridoodle was to keep his eyes open while the Pirate would keep hers closed but be allowed to feel the pieces.  The Gabridoodle was characteristically patient, for example, reminding the Pirate that the king doesn't jump over other pieces nor move three squares forward at once.  The Pirate became increasingly frenzied, impatiently demanding that the Gabridoodle move.  She then began making more than one move per turn, wildly tossing her pieces around, sending the game into a complete state of collapse.

But wait, there's more !   An attempt was made at playing Chess 960.  The Gabridoode had only a partial grasp on the rules for 960 but this game actually moved in a controlled fashion (unlike the "blindfold" game), with the Pirate eventually winning (the Gabridoodle blundered his queen away at one point).  The CHESS CLUB clock can generate Chess 960 starting positions, so this is something we may mess around with again in the future.

Chess Pirate - Gabridoodle, 0-1

The initial battle for the center in today's "serious" (ie, Shiny-awarding) game reached a brisker than usual conclusion.  In the middle game, the Gabridoodle fell behind in material but gained significant positional compensation.  So much so that he quickly regained the material edge while simultaneously bringing the game to a crashing conclusion on move 25 (see diagram).

Mowing the lawn at Gulu

It's not often that our friends at Salem Boardgames have back-to-back Mondays at Gulu Gulu, so you can bet that Salem CHESS CLUB made the most of the opportunity.

This time it was just the Gabridoodle and the Explorer who clashed over the chessboard.  Little Rhody, la Marmotte, the Pink Queen (and her consort the Townie), Crazy Joe, the Chess Genius, Scoot, and el Greco were present but involved in other (non-chess) games.

With help from Scoot, the Explorer learned about prophylaxis, drapes, and carpets.

Game 1: Gabridoodle - Explorer, 1-0

The Explorer began with an unusual knights-on-the-rim approach but soon demonstrated an obsession with the f2 square.  The Gabridoodle had to deal with that while simultaneously avoiding a nasty forking.  Once some debris was cleared off the board, the Gabridoodle's active rooks became very active indeed, delivering a lawnmower checkmate.

Game 2: Gabridoodle - Explorer, 1-0

The highlight of this game was a lengthy stalking of the Explorer's king.  Someone else might have found a quicker win, but even a woodpusher like the Gabridoodle was eventually able to deliver mate.

15 Feb 2013: "Horror show from the first moment"

A horror show for the Chess Pirate, anyway !

CHESS CLUB's afternoon began with a field trip !  The Gabridoodle was initially led to believe that this would involve a trip to the library but in a cruel change of plans -- perhaps she just wasn't willing to face Miss Susan -- the Pirate instead took him to a going-out-of-business sale at the Black Paw on Pickering Wharf.  The torment suffered amid all the steeply discounted candles, fairies, and other girly items evidently sent the Gabridoodle into a "put your anger into your work, my boy" frame of mind.  When they finally did return to CLUB headquarters, he ripped the Pirate and retained the Shiny.

Gabridoodle - Chess Pirate, 1-0

The horror show began with the Pirate's usual game of chase-the-Gabridoodle's-horse-all-around.  This was abruptly halted by the Gabridoodle on move 4 thanks to a surprise horse placement.  The Pirate gradually shed material over the course of the game, eventually falling behind by 2 pawns, 1 horse, 1 bishop, and 1 queen ... combined !  By move 19, the Gabridoodle was doing well enough to say, "It's like a garroting.  It just gets tighter and tighter."  Two moves later, his horse stepped aside, uncorking a devastating discovered check. This shortly cost the Pirate a bishop, to which she said, "This game is so very, very, very wrong in so many ways."  Not long after that, she flipped him the bird. On move 27, the next to last one, the Gabridoodle did give the Pirate a chance to make an en passant capture (she declined, as she always has).  It didn't matter at this point anyway, as the Gabridoodle's freshly unleashed bishop ended the game as shown in the diagram.  The Pirate's closing remark was, "Good game.  Shitty game, actually."

11 Feb 2013: moar exhibitions at Gulu Gulu

CHESS CLUB staged a couple of exhibition games at a gathering hosted by our friends at the Salem Boardgames Meetup.  Salem's inimitable Gulu Gulu served as the venue.

Although he claims to be inexperienced, el Greco stunned the Gabridoodle, winning his maiden game at CHESS CLUB.  The Gabridoodle put his anger into his work, though, and he then won a 48-move marathon against the Explorer.

In CLUB business, el Greco was appointed candidate member.

Game 1: el Greco - Gabridoodle, 1-0

This game began in orthodox enough fashion.  El Greco, with the white pieces, began mounting an impudent kingside attack.  At move 13 (see illustration at left), the Gabridoodle made what turned out to be a key blunder, moving the horse to d4; it was promptly grabbed by el Greco's queen.  This greatly complicated the Gabridoodle's management of el Greco's impudent kingside attack.

Here we are at move 23.  El Greco's impudent kingside attack has become a major crisis for the Gabridoodle.  However, thanks to some fancy footwork and a befuddling move or two, he actually managed to survive it, although at the cost of The Exchange.

They don't call it a poisoned pawn for nothing !  At move 27, el Greco got greedy and grabbed the Gabridoodle's a7 pawn.  This allowed the Gabridoodle to suddenly go on the offensive, unleashing his queen, eventually relieving el Greco of a horse and a rook !

After quite a bit of dancing around, el Greco finally got the situation under control, delivering checkmate at move 40, as shown at left.  Lessons learned...  For the Gabridoodle: don't slack off when there's an impudent kingside attack.  For el Greco: never, ever give the Gabridoodle a chance to wriggle out of the noose.

Game 2: Gabridoodle - Explorer, 1-0

The first two dozen moves of this game featured all the thrust and parry we expect from a confrontation between the Gabridoodle and the Explorer.  A decisive moment came at move 25.  The Explorer seemingly scored a coup, forking the Gabridoodle's rook and queen (it had been at e3).  However, the Gabridoodle came up with a response, moving his queen to b6 and demonstrating that sometimes the best reply to an attack is a new attack !  Now if the Explorer took the rook (he didn't), he'd lose a bishop and a horse.

Move 33 brought a key event: the Explorer blundered away a bishop by impulsively moving his rook to attack the Gabridoodle's queen.  The Gabridoodle simply snatched the bishop with his queen, gaining an ultimately decisive material advantage.

The Gabridoodle probably had a faster, more elegant way to win, but being a mere woodpusher, he didn't checkmate the Explorer until move 48.

Our first video lesson: The Price of Impulsiveness

Well, it was only a matter of time before we started poasting videos at YouTube...