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.

14 Jan 2013: Bulgarian-American exhibition at Gulu Gulu

Our friends at the Salem Boardgames Meetup were treated to the spectacle of not one, not two, but three exhibition games at Salem's inimitable Gulu Gulu.  As if that wasn't wild enough, the first two were miniatures !  CHESS CLUB got quite an introduction to the Explorer !

In addition to all the chess action, the Explorer and the Gabridoodle played two games of backgammon, each winning one.

In CLUB business, the Explorer has been promoted from prospective candidate member to candidate member.

Game 1
Gabridoodle - Explorer, 0-1

This game was an 18 move miniature.  The Gabridoodle pontificated about pawns and how the older one gets, the more one appreciates them.  The Explorer put this knowledge to use, making clever use of his h-pawn, delivering checkmate as shown in the diagram.

Game 2
Gabridoodle - Explorer, 1-0

The Explorer was offered the white pieces but demonstrated a marked affinity for sticking with black.  The shock received in the first game woke the Gabridoodle up and like a raging bull (or pony, in this case), he found a weakness in the Explorer's defenses and ruthlessly exploited it, delivering checkmate in only 14 moves.

Game 3
Gabridoodle - Explorer, 1-0

The evening's final game was a relative marathon, lasting 33 moves.  After some initial jousting, the Gabridoodle began a lengthy and ultimately successful stalking of the Explorer's king.  The Explorer, however, did make the Gabridoodle work for it, uncorking new kingside threats whenever the opportunity presented itself.

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.

Game at Gulu Gulu with a candidate member

This was a wild, crazy, and messy game held at the Salem Boardgames Meetup at Gulu Gulu.  This was not, repeat, not an exhibition game !  The Gabridoodle blundered away a queen in the early going but as usual, this setback was inspirational and he fought back with vigor.  The candidate member later fell victim to a discovered check that led to a sequence that did severe material and positional damage.  Indeed, the rest was mopping up.  In fairness to our candidate member, it should be noted that she played reasonably well for someone who was very much out of practice.

[candidate member] - Gabridoodle
Gulu Gulu Salem, MA, USA, 18.06.2012

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 Bg4 5.Bxf7+ Ke7 6.f3 Bh5 7.Bb3 Ke8 8.g4 h6 9.Ne6 Qd7 10.Nc3 Bf7 11.Ba4 Nc6 12.Nxf8 Rxf8 13.b3 g5 14.h4 Rh8 15.Ba3 gxh4 16.Qb1 Nd4?? 17.Bxd7+ Kxd7 18.b4 Nxf3+ 19.Ke2 Ng5 20.b5 h3 21.Rf1 Nxg4 22.Rg1 Bh5 23.Nd5 Rhf8 24.c4 Nf2+ 25.Ke1 Nf3+ 26.Ke2 Nxg1+ 27.Ke3 h2 28.Qxg1 hxg1Q 29.Rxg1 Nd1+ 30.Kd3 Nf2+ 31.Kc2 Nxe4 32.d3 Nc5 33.Rg5?? hxg5 34.Bxc5 dxc5 35.a4 g4 36.a5 g3 37.Kc3 g2 38.Kb3 g1Q 39.b6 axb6 40.axb6 Bd1+ 41.Kb2 c6 42.Nc7 Ra6 43.Nxa6 bxa6 44.b7 Rb8 45.Ka3 Rxb7 46.Ka2 Rb3 47.Ka1 Qf2 48.d4 Qb2# 0-1