Chess
When I’m in a complex position,
I feel I’m lost in a magical forest,
where every tree is alive,
and I have to listen to their whispers
to find a way out.
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- Jennifer Shahade, Grandmaster
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Here's a game I played against a higher-rated 1893 player that has all my favorite elements.
French defense, Advance Version.
I love it when White pushes the pawn on 3. e5.
It looks aggressive but then I get to swarm the queenside with a Black version of Queen's Gambit.
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It also allows my knight to boomerang around
on 15. Bxf8 Nxf8 and then back again
to block out the queen 16 Qg4 Ng6.
Then the time pressure and frustration gets to him
and he drops a pawn then his rook, game over.
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I felt really good until we started to chat afterward.
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Me: "Hi, I'm Michael. I'm a lawyer in Boston USA."
Him: "Hi, I'm Swaminathan from Mumbai. I am 8 years old. Do you like Pokemon?"
I have beaten Jamie Raskin in chess
237 times in the last five years.
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Garry Kasparov has only beaten him ONCE.
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Raskin-Kasparov, casual game, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C., September 2017
Sicilian Defense
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 Nc6 5. Nc3 g6 6. O-O Bg7 7. a3 O-O 8. Ne2 Bg4 9. Ng3 Nd4 10. c3 Nxf3+ 11. gxf3 Bh3 12. Re1 e6 13. d4 cxd4 14. cxd4 Rc8 15. Bf1 Bxf1 16. Rxf1 Qb6 17. Rb1 d5 18. e5 Nd7 19. Be3 Qa6 20. a4 Rc6 21. b4 b5 22. a5 Rc4 23. Re1 Nb8 24. Re2 Nc6 25. Reb2 f6 26. f4 Qb7 27. Nf1 fxe5 28. fxe5 Qf7 29. Nd2 Rxd4 30. Bxd4 Nxd4 31. f3 Bxe5 32. Nb3 Nxf3+ 33. Kh1 Bxb2 34. Rxb2 Qf4 35. Nc5 Nh4 36. h3 Qg3 37. Nxe6 Qxh3+ 38. Kg1 Qxe6 White resigns.
1) Jamie initially played 7. Bxf7??
just to be able to say
he put Kasparov in check.
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Kasparov got pissed off
and made him take it back.
Of course, Jamie ended up losing
without ever putting Kasparov in check again.
2) Stockfish computer analysis actually shows
an equal game after 19. ... Qa6.
Jamie might have drawn Kasparov
if he hadn't been playing to the cameras
[a cautionary tale]
The Dragon that Lurks inside Petrov's Defense
My favorite chess trap, which played out once in college.
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An alpha-male lacrosse player challenged me,
a skinny little nerd boy,
in a room with some women bemusedly looking on.
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I'm White, we play 1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nf6. He is playing Petrov's Defense, a legit opening,
but you have to be aware of the Dragon lurking inside it.
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3.Nxe5 and here Black must drive the knight off first
before retaliating on e4.
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But we are playing in the presence of women,
so he cannot let even a half-move go
without immediate macho response.
So he blunders 3 ... Nxe4.
Enter the Dragon
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4. Qe2 and he thinks he can fortify his knight with 4 ... d5.
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Wrong.
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5 d3 drives the knight out, and after 5 . . . Nc5
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6. Nc6+.
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When I said "check" at first he scoffed,
thinking I had confused his queen with his king,
But no, it's a discovered check.
He can block the check, or he can save the queen,
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BUT HE CAN'T DO BOTH.
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So he's lost his queen by move 6.
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Suddenly he remembered he had a party to go to,
and the women in the room got bored and left with him.
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But Nietzsche was right, He who jousts against dragons
must become a dragon himself.
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The Maryland Senate
Chess Scandal
Gun-rights video
condemning "disrespectful" Sen. Raskin
(start at 1:55)
In 2013, MD state senator Jamie Raskin introduced gun control legislation.
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Thousands of angry gun owners
came to testify at open hearings.
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In the 11th hour of marathon hearings,
a gun-rights activist snuck behind the lectern
to photograph Sen. Raskin
playing chess on his computer.
The Internet lit up.
A Raskin supporter opened a Facebook page Raskin Plays Chess,
photoshopping Jamie playing computer chess
through great moments in history.
Chess puzzles and Marxism:
I've been playing speed puzzles, rapid-fire sequences of forks, skewers, forced mate combinations.
While it's good for pattern recognition, it has been terrible for my actual play against real opponents.
The puzzles create a false sense of destiny,
a dangerous assumption that inside every position there is some lightning strike,
some brilliant combination
that wins in a few moves.
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So in actual games, I keep making arrogant mistakes because the puzzles have led me to believe
in imminent victory, the End of History.
I have spent so much time thinking about crisis moments like July 1789 or October 1917 or May 1968, just a few moves away and the King will fall!
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And I don't think about patience, developing pieces, sound defense, positional attrition.
Because Leftists like me can't be bothered
to think about positions
unless there's a clear immediate solution.
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“Tactics is knowing what to do
when there is something to do.
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Strategy is knowing what to do
when there is nothing to do.”
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– Savielly Tartakower
V.I. Lenin v. Maxim Gorky (Capri Italy 1908)
Alekhine Defense: Four Pawns Attack
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Lenin (White) develops well, opening Gorky's (Black) center. But this allows a possible pin on the White Queen, which Lenin dodges with 17. Kh1. Then Gorky uses the open space to get his major pieces into a massive attack on Lenin's kingside. Lenin doesn't see the danger, and gobbles up an irrelevant pawn with 23 Nxc7. Gorky aligns his bishop and Queen with 25 . . . Bd6, and it's all over. On Move 27, Lenin could take the free rook on e3, but the temporary seizure of material does not give him lasting control of the means of production. Gorky would then draw Lenin's King to h1 with 27 . . . Rh1+, and then deliver mate 28 Kxh1 Qh2#. Lenin's rigid attack only opens space for Gorky, ending up on the dustbin of history.
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1.e4Nf6 2.e5Nd5 3.d4d6 4.c4Nb6 5.f4dxe5 6.fxe5Nc6 7.Be3Bf5 8.Nc3e6 9.Nf3Be7 10.Be2O-O 11.O-Of6 12.Nh4fxe5 13.Nxf5exf5 14.d5Nd4 15.Bxd4exd4 16.Qxd4Nd7 17.Kh1Bc5 18.Qd3Qg5 19.Nb5Rae8 20.Bf3Re3 21.Qd2Rf6 22.b4Be7 23.Nxc7Rh6 24.Ne6Qg3 25.h3Bd6 26.Kg1Rxh3 0-1
My speed chess rating is way up this year.
Playing three seconds per move is a different game.
Sure, standard time controls let your brain marinate.
You get the psychedelic pleasure of entering a magic forest and letting the spell morph into poetry.
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I guess that's the fantasy of the Left, that if only we get to think long enough the perfect solution will appear.
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But in accelerated blitz, you're fighting in real, unforgiving time. I often lose on time in winning positions because I take too damn long to think.
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(The story of my life)