The invincible Bulgarian gambit

Once again, the Explorer and the Gabridoodle did battle at an event hosted by our friends at the Salem Boardgames Meetup.  This time the event was at the storied Highlands Clubhouse.  The main level was chock full of proprietary games.  We chess players and our decidedly non-proprietary Mexican equipment were exiled to the hot tub room and had a strip search been necessary, we might well have wound up hopping in.  However, our clothes stayed on and the Explorer exacted his revenge, winning both games.

Game 1: Explorer - Gabridoodle, 1-0

In this game, the Explorer uncorked the infamous Bulgarian gambit, which consists of some very, very strange yet profound king moves in the early going.  In addition to being distracted by the presence of the hot tub, the Gabridoodle was clearly rattled by this gambit.  What followed for him was kingside torment and eventual checkmate.

Game 2: Explorer - Gabridoodle, 1-0

Our next game featured a subtle variation on the Bulgarian gambit.  While not as effective as the orthodox version, it was effective enough.  In the end, a hot-tub-distracted Gabridoodle fell victim to an elementary trap thanks to his fixation on his criminal (passed pawn).  With the Explorer up a rook and about to execute the criminal, the Gabridoodle resigned.

Firing Alekhine's gun at Fritz !

The Gabridoodle, with the black pieces, went on to win after successfully employing the famed "Alekhine's gun" formation.

1 Mar 2013: kind of like a back-ranker

Thanks to great confusion earlier in the afternoon, the Chess Pirate was kind enough to serve lunch at today's meeting.  Her cooking repertoire is evidently not limited to Italian quiche.

While the Gabridoodle retained The Shiny, the real news of the day is that we have the First Annual Salem CHESS CLUB Chess Jamboree planned !  There may be a tournament of some sort, perhaps even awarding a shiny object (though not The Shiny).  New players are welcome and lessons can be given for the benefit of the inexperienced.  Stay tuned in case the arrangements change, but the current plan is that it will take place at Salem's Jaho Café on Friday March 15th at 2:00 pm.

In other CLUB business,                                                       .                        .                                                    .  However, the Pirate failed to truly grasp the reference to Catholic practices.

Gabridoodle - Chess Pirate, 1-0

Today was one of those days when the Pirate was determined to exchange pieces.  There were indeed a number of exchanges but the Gabridoodle was careful to hang onto his queen.  The Pirate made a valiant effort at putting him in a jam but he wriggled away and then sailed on to the victory shown at left -- a back-ranker but in the middle of the board.


The Pirate did at least get a number of choice comments in over the course of the game, notably:

"To the killing fields !"

"Big fucking deal.  It's a bishop."

"So chickenshit crawls away."

Just for fun, the Gabridoodle and the Chess Pirate next played a game of chess 960, aka Fischer Random with only 10 minutes each on the clock.  The starting position is shown in the diagram at left.  The game was neck-and-neck until the Pirate robbed the Gabridoodle of a bishop.  The Pirate then ground him down but much to her consternation, the Gabridoodle managed to lose on time before she could deliver mate.

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."