October 30, 2021
World Series Baseball in Georgia
October 30, 2021
Monthly Archives: October 2021
October 30, 2021
Eyeball To Eyeball
On October 27th, 1962, “The U.S. side had just received two conflicting messages from Moscow about how to resolve the crisis, and did not know which one to accept. Ultimately, President Kennedy decided to respond only to the first one, with the most favorable terms for our side, namely: removal of all the missiles and nuclear weapons in exchange for a no-invasion pledge and (eventual) removal from Turkey ) the USSR’s immediate neighbor) of the 15 U.S. IRBMs stationed there. But communications were very slow on both sides, and no response had been received from the USSR by late Saturday night.”
“President Kennedy decided…” When what has become known as the “911” crisis occurred and POTUS George Dubya Bush
rollingstone.com
infamously said, “I am the decider,” chills ran up and down my spine. It has never been explained how a group of rag-headed Muslims could thwart the defenses of the United States of America and allegedly bring down several massive steel beamed buildings with a couple of airplanes…Dubya wanted to be the commissioner of Major League Baseball but lost out to Bud Selig,
wealthygorilla.com
the man who is responsible for the 1994 strike and the later ‘Ragin ‘Roids era., and the man who enriched himself and his family at the expense of the great game of Baseball.
POTUS John F. Kennedy made many decisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis and evidently all of them were good because you are here to read these words. If the leaders of the powerful military had made the decisions there would be no humans left alive on the planet because, “…the most dangerous miscalculation of all was everyone’s ignorance of (in 1962) of the concept of “nuclear winter,” what most scientists now acknowledge would be the inevitable result of a full scale nuclear exchange on the earth’s climate. A hypothesis first introduced in the early 1980s, nuclear winter posits that even a limited nuclear conflict (and certainly a large one) would so befoul the earth’s atmosphere with smoke and dust from the massive firestorms around cities produced by strategic nuclear weapons, that the result would be cataclysmic climate change – a significant reduction in the amount of sunlight reaching the earth’s surface, and a reduction lowering of the earth’s temperature for years – causing loss of most plant life in the absence of sunlight, the resulting failure of agriculture, and the collapse of the food chain. Without even considering the inevitable and poisonous results of nuclear fallout on animal life, the sure result of nuclear winter alone would have been mass starvation.” (pg. 117)
“Initial reactions by virtually everyone (except Adlai Stevenson) were that a massive air strike would be necessary to destroy the Soviet missiles…” (pg. 101) Only three people in the United States government were against blasting the hell outta the Russians. Fortunately, one of those people was the President of the United States. The other two were his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, and UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson. Those three gentlemen were all that stood between the human race and oblivion.
“We avoided nuclear war in 1962 only because the 35th President of the United States possessed a farsighted view of the global chessboard in the Cold War, rather than a myopic one; and because JFK believed “a primary responsibility of a President – indeed, the primary responsibility of a President” (as McNamara said in the documentary The Fog of War was “to keep the nation out of war, if at all possible.” [This is one of the principal differences between President John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and both Bush presidents; and is one of the reason JFK’s approval rating is now at an astounding 85% in the minds of the American people.]”
How close were we humans to oblivion when JFK and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev were “eyeball to eyeball”?
“First, there was considerable harassment by the U.S. Navy of the 4 Soviet diesel-electric submarines escorting several of the Soviet ships. Unknown to President Kennedy or to anyone else on the U.S. side that day, on one of these subs, the Captain – stressed out by a multi-hour barrage of under water explosive charges from U.S. Navy ships above, designed to get him to the surface and give away his position – ordered the one torpedo he had onboard with a nuclear warhead – a relatively small 10 kiloton device – to be loaded into its torpedo tube; he then gave the order to fire the torpedo at the harassing U.S. Navy ships on the surface. Only the bold refusal of the political commissar on this submarine to confirm the order to fire [the Soviets had a two-man consent system in place] prevented the launching of this nuclear torpedo against U.S. warships. If this device ( or any other nuclear device) had been required to retaliate with nuclear weapons against the forces of the Soviet Union, somewhere and in some way – and “the balloon would have gone up.” (pg 106)
“Second, as revealed by Richard Rhodes in Dark Sun,
at the height of the crisis, according to a retired SAC wing commander, SAC airborne alert bombers deliberately flew past their turnaround points [popularly known as “Fail Safe” points, after the 1964 film of the same name] toward Soviet airspace, an unambiguous threat which Soviet radar operators would certainly have recognized and reported. “I know what my target was,” the SAC general adds: “Leningrad.” The bombers turned around only when the Soviet freighters carrying missiles to Cuba stopped dead in the Atlantic. No SAC wing commander would have performed this action on his own authority, since it risked nuclear war. This order could only have come from the head of SAC, General Thomas Power – a man considered a “sadist” by Curtis LeMay himself, and considered unstable by others who worked under him.”
General Curtis LeMay saying General Thomas Power was a “sadist” is like the kettle calling the pot black. During “JFK’s Meeting With the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday, November 19th, 1962” (pg.119) the following exchange took place between the POTUS and the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General Curtis Emerson LeMay.
General LeMay: …And you [addressing President Kennedy] have made some pretty strong statements…that we would take action against offensive weapons. I think that a blockade and political talk would be considered by a lot of our friends and neutrals as being a pretty weak response to this. And I’m sure a lot of our own citizens would feel that way, too. In other words, you’re in a pretty bad fix at the present time.
President Kennedy: What did you say?
General LeMay: You’re in a pretty bad fix.
President Kennedy: You’re in there with me. [An outburst of forced laughter can be heard in the background] Personally.
(Note; LeMay’s presumption in lecturing the President on domeastic and international political considerations – and in such a gloating manner – is stunning, even 51 years later.] (pg 130)
Who was General Curtis LeMay?
After retiring from the Air Force in 1965, LeMay agreed to serve as Democratic Governor George Wallace’s running mate in the 1968 United States presidential election.
For the 1968 presidential election, LeMay originally supported former Republican Vice President Richard Nixon; he turned down two requests by former Alabama Governor George Wallace
to join his newly formed American Independent Party, that year, on the grounds that a third-party candidacy might hurt Nixon’s chances at the polls. (By coincidence, Wallace had served as a sergeant in a unit commanded by LeMay during World War II before LeMay had Wallace transferred to the 477th Bombardment Group.)
Subsequently LeMay, while being fully aware of Wallace’s segregationist platform, decided to throw his support to Wallace and eventually became Wallace’s running mate.[52]
Wallace’s staff began to consider LeMay to be “politically tone-deaf” and the former Air Force General did nothing to diminish the perception of extremism that some American voters had of the Wallace-LeMay ticket.[55]
The “bomb them back to the stone age” comment received significant publicity but LeMay disclaimed the comment, saying in a later interview: “I never said we should bomb them back to the Stone Age. I said we had the capability to do it”.[50][51]
The Wallace-LeMay AIP ticket received 13.5% of the popular vote, higher than most third party candidacies in the US, and carried five states for a total of 46 electoral votes.[56]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_LeMay#Vice_presidential_candidacy,_1968
From page 121 of JFK’s War it is written, “I have already written much, in the previous essays in this book, about General Curtis LeMay, the Air Force Chief of Staff. Dino Brugioni wrote that LeMay “was characterized by one observer as always interjecting himself into situations ‘like a rogue elephant barging our of the forest.” Brugioni wrote in Eyeball to Eyeball “Petulant and often childish when he didn’t get his way, LeMay would light a cigar and blow smoke in the direction of anyone challenging his position.” LeMay, a combat aviator, was uneasy in Washington. Brugioni continued: :He saw himself as an outsider, yet continually prided himself as the only authority on warfare available to the JCS. Most of all, he felt that the Joint Chiefs of Staff dallied over vital decisions and were not responsive.” General Taylor told Brugioni that “as a bomber commander there was none finer….But a good bomber commander doesn’t automatically make a good Chief of Staff, and appointing Curtis LeMay as Chief of Staff of the Air Force was a big mistake…LeMay would ‘jam that damn cigar in his mouth and place a chip on his shoulder and parade through the Pentagon looking for a fight.”
Third, concurrent with the implementation of the naval quarantine that morning, on October 24th, General Thomas Power, LeMay’s hand-picked head of the Strategic Air Command, on his own authority, placed all of SAC (all Air Force nuclear bombers and all of our ICBMs) at DEFCON-2. This was only one step away from nuclear war, and he did this without consulting President Kennedy or obtaining his permission. General Power – apparently intent not only upon frightening the Soviet Union into submission, but perhaps equally desirous of stimulating a Soviet response that might have given him an excuse to launch a pre-emptive nuclear attack – sent out not only the usual unencrypted SAC telegram to all units, but ALSO sent a follow-on, plain-English voice transmission (both surely monitored by the USSR) announcing the upgrade in posture to DEFCON-2, which dramatically began, “This is General Power…”
There is another paragraph here but because this is a blog post it must be skipped. Please read the book!
“President Kennedy was furious, for Powers’ actions could have signaled to the USSR that the U.S. was about to launch the long-dreaded first-strike on the USSR; if they had been so persuaded, JFK knew that the Soviets themselves might have pre-emptied what they thought was coming with their own first-strike on the United States.. or they might have reacted precipitately in Berlin. Fortunately, instead, the Soviet Union grounded its own long-range bomber force throughout the remainder of the Cuban Missile Crisis to ensure that they did not give the U.S. an excuse for a pre-emptive first-strike.”
From what you have read of what I have written certainly you can understand why it is a miracle you are reading these words. As the two nuclear armed nations stood “eyeball to eyeball” any of a number of things could have happened to precipitate a full scale nuclear war. For example, “Furthermore, on October 27th, Soviet missile troops, egged-on by their Cuban comrades and unable to reach their commander for instructions, decided on their own authority to launch SA-2 missiles and shoot down an American U-2 surveillance flight. this was supposed to trigger automatic retaliatory airstrikes by the U.S. side the next day, but JFK refused to do, fearing that the chain of escalation, the inevitable strike-counterstrike syndrome, would lead to nuclear conflict. His refusal to launch the previously agreed-upon retaliatory strike greatly angered the Pentagon.”
“On this same day another American U-2 which was aloft near Siberia, sampling the atmosphere for any evidence of Soviet nuclear testing, got lost and strayed into Soviet airspace, triggering an attempt by several Soviet fighter planes to shoot him down. He eventually made it home to Alaska safely, but JFK and his advisors feared that the Soviets interpret this incursion of their airspace as the prelude to a U.S. nuclear strike.”
October 28th: “The thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis came to an end on Sunday, with the public and private assurances of Moscow that the nuclear missiles and their warheads would all be withdrawn from Cuba, in exchange for a no-invasion pledge.”
The powerful military men did not care for JFK for many reasons, one of which was that they were trained to fight and make war. To some powerful military men the problem was with civilian control of the government. To them JFK was a failed PT Boat commander, the only Captain of a PT Boat to have had his ship hit and destroyed by a much larger vessel. Some laughed at the story written about JFK being a “hero” by swimming to shore with a wounded sailor attached to his back. JFK had a bad back that had put him into the hospital on many occasions, and myriad other heath problems that should have kept him out of the service, but his father, the former bootlegger turned Ambassador managed to get his son into the Navy even though there was no way he could ever pass physical exam. The hero was his older brother, Joe,
who volunteered for a suicide mission and unsurprisingly, died. Joe was to become a politician; Jack wanted to be a writer.
During the course of my life there has been a concerted effort by those responsible for the death of JFK to malign and disparage his name and reputation. The media has done a hatchet job on JFK for decades. They have their reasons. Still, the fact remains that you are here reading these words only because of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who may have had a weak body, but fortunately for us, he had an extremely strong mind. JFK is the best and brightest POTUS in the history of the United States of America. Everyone alive should thank their lucky stars that JFK was sitting in the Oval Office during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Over the course of my life I have read an astounding number of books on the assassination of JFK. A friend, a Democrat and very much a part of the establishment, would smirk at my spending so much time reading so many books about the subject. As far as Mike was concerned it happened just like the government said. On one visit I was surprised to see this book on the shelf in the library:
It was the only JFK book I had ever seen in his house. He refused to discuss it and we never, ever spoke of the assassination again.
When reading the very first book about the assassination of JFK there was only one question on my mind. Why was JFK killed? The answer is contained in the book upon which these two posts are based.
If you have any interest in why a POTUS was so brutally slain in the company of HIS WIFE, (Mob hits do not take place around family; there is a reason), then I urge you to read the book and EVERYTHING Douglas P. Horne has written. There was a driving force behind the cold blooded murder of the President of the United States of America that irrevocably altered the course of world affairs. Those responsible for the coup d’état on November 23, 1963 have thus far gotten away with murder, but those of us who have devoted so much time to reading about one of the most, if not the worst moments in our history know there was a driving force behind the brutal, cold blooded MURDER MOST FOUL of POTUS John F. Kennedy that day. If you have limited time, then please read the last volume of the five volume set and you, too, will know who was that driving force:
French President Charles de Gaulle
had some strong words about the assassination of JFK. It is in my memory that he said something about, “His security was compromised.” The best evidence of that fact can be found in this book:
The Missiles of October
Fifty nine years ago today President of the United States John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
were “eyeball to eyeball” over the missiles earlier placed in Cuba by the Soviet leader. “This was the day recalled by almost everyone in ExComm as “doomsday Saturday,” and seemed to all involved to be the immediate prelude to a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.” That, and much of what follows was taken from the magnificent book:
It begins: October 14th, 1962: A U-2 flight over Cuba photographs many of the 36 MRBMs and their mobile launchers at multiple sites.
October 15th: The CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) in Washington, D.C. develops the film and interprets the images; this is the day that the missiles were discovered.
October 16th: President Kennedy is informed, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, as it is defined by historians, begins; this is the first day of thee harrowing “thirteen days,” to use Robert F. Kennedy’s terminology from his book about the event.
October 18th: President Kennedy kept a long-standing date with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Soviet Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Dobrynin in the White House. At that meeting, Gromyko lied to JFK and denied that any offensive weapons wee being placed in Cuba. The public still did not know about the missiles, and the Soviets still did not know that we knew.
October 19th: President Kennedy met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a body to receive their advice, and was severely pressured to adopt massive air strikes and a full invasion as his response the the Missile Crisis. The Chiefs unanimously pressured JFK to bomb and then invade Cuba, and Air Force Chief of Staff LeMay’s exchange with JFK was unusually blunt, rude, and provocative. [Specifics to come later in this essay.]
October 20th-22nd: It had proven difficult, but by Saturday, October 20th, after four days of back and forth in multiple meetings every day, Bobby Kennedy had built a narrow consensus within ExComm for a blockade as an initial response to the crisis, with an air strike and invasion a future options, or course, if a blockade did not work.
JFK met with the hastily recalled Congressional leadership early on the evening of Monday, October 22nd. It was a stormy session, with most of the leadership declaring they were against the blockade option and in favor of military action. President Kennedy then gave his nationally televised address that evening,
and the Cuban Missile Crisis then moved into its public phase, (lasting from October 23 through 28th). In his speech, JFK announced the blockade option (a “quarantine” of any offensive weapons headed to Cuba, since a blockade was technically an act of war), and threatened that the launch of any nuclear missile from Cuba against any nation in the western Hemisphere would result in a full-scale nuclear attack upon the Soviet Union by the United States. President Kennedy also moved the American armed forces from DEFCON-5 to DEFCON-3 just prior to the speech. (Defense condition 5 was peacetime deployment, and at the other extreme on that scales of readiness, defense condition 1 was “nuclear war.”)
October 23rd: The United States successfully engineered a 19-0 vote in favor of the Cuban blockade option by the Organization of American States (with Cuba abstaining).
October 24th: On this day the naval “quarantine” of Cuba was initiated.
Let us pause for a brief break in the action for personal recollections. This writer was in the seventh grade having turned twelve at the end of August, just before school began after Labor Day.
The earliest memory I have of my father, a deeply religious man, is of being in church and looking up at him holding a Bible in his hand while singing this song:
There was a gentleman in the neighborhood who had a small barber shop located in his back yard, which is where my hair was cut for many years. Like most of the men in the neighborhood he had served in the military during World War II. Some of the men would come there to talk and smoke cigarettes, and to get away from the wife for a time. I recall being there with my father during the Cuban Missile Crisis when he was asked if he thought it a good idea for me to be listening to their conversation. “The boy has got to grow up some day. Might as well be now,” replied my father. All the men were Republicans and Baptists and loathed and detested JFK. Those men were what became known as “Goldwater Republicans.” They did not care for change and especially when it came from a Yankee, Catholic, POTUS. They hated Communists and were ready for war at any cost. My father was a radioman with the Navy during “The Big One” and must have been very good at what he did because he was assigned to the Pacific Task Force and was in many, if not all of the major battles about which movies have been made. After the war he had what has come to be known as PTSD. Sloppy Floyd Bailey, who proudly called himself an old “Jarhead,” made fun of my father, saying he had “spastic colon disease.” My father never talked about the war until we were watching the Braves play in the World Series and the flood gates opened wide; did they ever…My father was opposed to war, especially nuclear war, because he had experienced enough of it to last a lifetime. The men at the Barber Shop were full of bluster, but I could sense they were scared and afraid of what the future might bring. They attempted to act like macho men around the other men but when I overheard some of them at the Boys Club they were filled with a palpable fear of the future. My father told me to say nothing about what I had heard to the other members of our family. Other members of the family, aunts,uncles and cousins, would come over and sit around the kitchen table drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes while talking in hushed tones so my sisters and I could not hear them. It did not work. Everyone was on edge; you could feel the vibes. At school we were told to not discuss anything about what we had seen and heard about the “Crisis.” This was while being made to prepare for War by learning how to “Duck and Cover.”
Everyone old enough to be aware was on edge, and even those too young to understand knew something was happening even if they did not know what it was, Mr. Jones.
It was around this time that something major happened that altered the course of my life, and I have always wondered what, if any, part the Cuban Missile Crisis played in how my life developed…
October 25th: On Thursday, U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson debated the ill-informed and hung-out-to-dry Soviet Ambassador Zorin on television at the televised U.N. Security Council meeting over the missiles in Cuba. Confronted with Soviet denials and stonewalling, Stevenson and his team produced for public consumption undeniable evidence of the Soviet missiles in Cuba on several large photographic briefing boards prepared for this purpose by the CIA’s NPIC in Washington, D.C.
October 26th: As a symbolic act meant purely to demonstrate that the U.S. blockade had teeth, on Friday, October 26th the U.S. Navy stopped and boarded a harmless Soviet-chartered Lebanese freighter manned by a Greek crew, which was known to be carrying innocuous cargo. The blockade had accomplished its goal of preventing the introduction of any more offensive weapons into Cuba, and stopping this ship was intended as proof that America was not afraid to stop ships n the high seas.
Unfortunately, this was also the date that ExComm informed JFK that the MRBMs in Cuba were probably now operational. (This was a remarkably accurate estimate; the Soviet Commander in Cuba confirmed readiness to fire the 36 MRBMs the next day, on October 27th, by cable.)
Low-level reconnaissance flights, which had been taking place twice per day since Tuesday, were accelerated to once every two hours on Friday to increase the psychological pressure on the Soviet Union, and to provide as much up-to-date information as possible to Ex Comm and the U.S. military. On this date Castro ordered his anti-aircraft gunners to begin firing on all low-flying U.S. aircraft.
On this date, we now know, the Soviet missile commander, General Prilyev, moved the nuclear warheads for his 35 MRBMs (in their mobile vans) from the nuclear bunker sites (under construction), to the field sites where the mobile launchers and the missiles were located.
October 27th: This was the day recalled by almost everyone in ExComm as “doomsday Saturday,” and seemed to all involved to be the immediate prelude to a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
End Part One
David Bowie Sings Pablo Picasso
October 25 marks the birth, 140 years ago, of the artist Pablo Picasso,
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/16/-sp-nightmare-picasso-museum-paris
born in Málaga, Spain (1881), who was living in a bohemian community in Barcelona painting portraits of his friends and acquaintances when one of his paintings was selected for inclusion in the upcoming world’s fair in Paris. He was just 18 — and he went off to Paris for the exhibition, saw paintings by Manet, Cézanne, Degas, and Toulouse-Lautrec, and came home determined to be an artist.
By the middle of the 20th century, he was generally considered the greatest living artist in the world.
Pablo Picasso, who said, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life,” and “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/twa-the-writers-almanac-for-october-25-2021/
metmuseum.org
nightcafe.studio
twirpx.com
modernamuseet.se
Just Like Bob Dylan’s, Bill Kirchen’s, and Dr. Zwig’s Blues
Decades ago a Gentleman by the name of Jim made a cassette tape for me which contained songs he thought I might like, and did it ever! I played that tape as much as if not more than any other tape I ever owned. After it broke I was in a state of shock for more than a little while…A lady friend thought I was making a mountain out of a molehill. “It was just a tape,” she said. “Woman,” I began, “you saying that tape was ‘just a tape’ is akin to my saying ‘Your daughter is just a girl'”! I will never forget the look on her face…
That tape had become a part of me. I may have had the last music box that contained a cassette player. In addition, the box had a CD player, but it is, like the tape, gone with the wind…Every song on the tape was excellent, like the following song heard for the first time:
But there was one song that completely blew me away, a song with which I was unfamiliar. It is quite a departure from the version with which I was familiar:
The song immediately went to the top of the list of all-time Bob Dylan covers, and was the main reason the tape came undone.
This is mentioned because a live version was discovered and it reminded me of the aforementioned cassette tape put together by Gentleman Jim.
This could be one of the best versions of this song I have ever seen.Bill Kirchen is a big Bob Dylan fan and I think any fan of either performer would agree that this video will raise the hair on the back of your neck make you quit your job and get on tour !
This is from the Turning Point in Piermont NY a great place to see a show.
March 28, 2013 look for Bill in your neck of the woods http://www.billkirchen.com for details
But wait, there’s MORE!
Southland Ballroom
Raleigh, NC
12-16-14
That’s not all, folks! While putting this post together I found another version by another artist with whom I was unfamiliar and the video you are about to see and hear has been seen and heard by almost THREE AND A HALF MILLION VIEWERS!
3,464,188 views
Feb 2, 2016
Dr. Zwig
65.4K subscribers
“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” official live music video by Dr. Zwig. From the new album, ‘Live at the Wiltern Theatre’, featuring Adam and his band rocking out to a capacity crowd in Los Angeles! Recorded and produced by Grammy winner David Bianco. https://goo.gl/zH3BNd
Stream / Buy:
Apple Music / iTunes: https://goo.gl/ehL28c
Spotify: https://goo.gl/ZmLo4A
Google Play: https://goo.gl/yiNfk2
Amazon: https://goo.gl/BCT8mR
CD: https://goo.gl/5K665q
Vinyl: https://goo.gl/TgkG3L
“He not busy being born is busy dying” – Bob Dylan
What do you think of this quote? He has said a lot of interesting things, so much so, that Adam decided to put Dylan’s “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” into his set at the Wiltern Theatre, and Adam’s version of the song became a Top Ten hit on the Adult Contemporary radio charts.
Please comment and share on YouTube if you like the tune!
Dedicated to Gentleman Jim Kraft
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
Written by: Bob Dylan
When you’re lost in the rain in Juarez
And it’s Eastertime too
And your gravity fails
And negativity don’t pull you through
Don’t put on any airs
When you’re down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there
And they really make a mess outta you
Now if you see Saint Annie
Please tell her thanks a lot
I cannot move
My fingers are all in a knot
I don’t have the strength
To get up and take another shot
And my best friend, my doctor
Won’t even say what it is I’ve got
Sweet Melinda
The peasants call her the goddess of gloom
She speaks good English
And she invites you up into her room
And you’re so kind
And careful not to go to her too soon
And she takes your voice
And leaves you howling at the moon
Up on Housing Project Hill
It’s either fortune or fame
You must pick up one or the other
Though neither of them are to be what they claim
If you’re lookin’ to get silly
You better go back to from where you came
Because the cops don’t need you
And man they expect the same
Now all the authorities
They just stand around and boast
How they blackmailed the sergeant-at-arms
Into leaving his post
And picking up Angel who
Just arrived here from the coast
Who looked so fine at first
But left looking just like a ghost
I started out on burgundy
But soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they’d stand behind me
When the game got rough
But the joke was on me
There was nobody even there to call my bluff
I’m going back to New York City
I do believe I’ve had enough
Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music
The Pub In Snellville Open Mic takes place every Wednesday from 8-11pm. Address: 3902 Hwy. 78 West, Snellville, GA Please see http://www.pauldouglasmusic.com for more information
The Cochrane Variation: Marching to the Offbeat of a Different Drummer
Anthony Acosta 1731 vs Kevin Sun 1622
Mechanic’s Institute Sep-Oct 2021 Tuesday Night Marathon Rd 6
B20 Sicilian defence, Cochrane variation
- e4 c5 2. b3 g6 3. Bb2 Nf6 4. Nc3 d6 5. Qe2 Nc6 6. Nf3 Bg4 7. h3 Nd4 8. Qd3 Bxf3 9. gxf3 Bg7 10. O-O-O a6 11. f4 b5 12. Bg2 Nh5 13. Qe3 Bh6 14. Ne2 Nxe2+ 15. Qxe2 Nxf4 16. Qf3 e5 17. h4 b4 18. Bh3 a5 19. Bg4 a4 20. h5 axb3 21. Qxb3 g5 22. Kb1 Qb6 23. Qc4 Qa6 24. Qb3 c4 25. Qxb4 Qxa2+ 26. Kc1 O-O 27. Qxd6 Bg7 28. d3 cxd3 29. Rxd3 Nxd3+ 30. Qxd3 Rab8 31. Qc3 Qa6 32. Re1 Qf6 33. Bf5 g4 34. Kd1 Qb6 35. h6 Rfd8+ 36. Kc1 Bxh6+ 37. Kb1 Bd2 38. Bxh7+ Kxh7 39. Rh1+ Kg8 40. Qxe5 f6 41. Rh8+ Kxh8 42. Qh5+ Kg7 43. Qxg4+ Kf8 0-1
https://live.followchess.com/#!tuesday-night-marathon-september-october-2021/1689717820
1.e4 c5 2. b3
(Now there’s a move not seen every day, or week, or month; come to think of it, every year! Makes me wonder why I didn’t think of playing it ‘back in the day’…Not to give anything away but if I make it through the pandemic there may be a new not so now secret weapon for my next Senior tournament! Maybe it should be used with discretion, though, and held back if my opponent contains a pace-maker…This move sent me to the ChessBaseDataBase (https://database.chessbase.com/) whereupon I learned the move was played by Russian GM Maksim Chigaev, rated 2958 (Look out Magnus!) vs Polish GM Gajewski Frzegorz (2691) at the 7th Titled Tuesday intern open, with the game ending in a draw. The folks at Chessbase should look into that astronomical rating, at least for a human. If a computer program cannot break 3000 it is worthless…Russian GM Alexander Morozevich (2659), no surprise, played the move against Ukraine GM Anton Korobov (2688). Moro was checkmated on move 53. The game was also played at the Titled Tuesday intern open, but the number is absent. Frzegorz played 2…Nc6; Korobov played 2…Nf6) 2…g6 (StockFish 13 @depth 49 plays this move, but SF 14 @depth 46 prefers 2…d6. Against the latter White has scored 53% over 539 games; against the move played in the game White has only scored an astoundingly low 37%! I kid you not. This is from 239 games. 2…Nc6 has been the most often played move with 962 games in the CBDB, and White has scored 52%) 3. Bb2 Nf6 4. Nc3 (To illustrate how rare is this opening, 4 Nc3 is not shown at the Big Database at 365Chess.com and that contains games played by players of all levels, from GM to patzer) 4…d6 (SF 14 plays 4…Bg7) 5. Qe2 (This is a Theoretical Novelty. Two different SF programs play 5 Bb5+, and so should you. There are times when playing Qe2 in the opening is not a good idea and this is an example)
Listen Up, 365Chess.com! (https://www.365chess.com/) This is the game in which 2 b3 versus the Sicilian Defense first appeared, hence, the “B20 Sicilian Defense: Cochrane variation.”
John Cochrane vs Howard Staunton
Event: London m2
Site: London Date: 1842
B20 Sicilian defence
1.e4 c5 2.b3 e5 3.Bb2 (Bc4 SF) Nc6 4.Nf3 (4 Bb5 SF) d6 5.Bc4 Be6 (5…Be7 SF) 6.d3 (6 0-0 SF) Bxc4 7.bxc4 Nge7 8.Nc3 Ng6 9.Nd5 Be7 10.g3 a6 11.a4 Rb8 12.O-O Qd7 13.Ne3 O-O 14.c3 b5 15.cxb5 axb5 16.axb5 Rxb5 17.Bc1 Rfb8 18.Nf5 Bd8 19.h4 Nge7 20.Nxe7+ Bxe7 21.Kg2 f5 22.exf5 Qxf5 23.Qe2 d5 24.Re1 Bf6 25.Ra6 R5b6 26.Rxb6 Rxb6 27.Ba3 Rb3 28.Bb2 e4 29.dxe4 dxe4 30.Qc4+ Kf8 31.Qxb3 Qxf3+ 32.Kg1 Bd4 33.Qc2 Qxg3+ 34.Kf1 Qh3+ 35.Kg1 Ne5 0-1
https://www.365chess.com/game.php?back=1&gid=2687745&m=12
Another reason to admire Nazi, not that one is needed…She often prefers, shall we say, “offbeat” openings. We obviously march to the offbeat of a different drummer…
Nazi Paikidze (2374) vs Julia Alboredo (2183)
Event: Online Olympiad Top DivD 2021
Site: chess.com INT Date: 09/08/2021
Round: 2.2
ECO: B20 Sicilian defence
1.e4 c5 2.b3 Nc6 3.Bb2 e5 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Nge2 Be7 7.O-O O-O 8.d3 a6 9.a4 Nd4 10.Nxd4 cxd4 11.Nd5 Nxd5 12.Bxd5 Qc7 13.f4 Bd7 14.Rf2 Bc6 15.Bxc6 Qxc6 16.Qg4 b5 17.a5 Qc8 18.f5 Bf6 19.Raf1 Ra7 20.Re2 Rc7 21.Rff2 Qd7 22.Bc1 Rfc8 23.h4 Kh8 24.g3 Rc6 25.Qf3 Qd8 26.b4 R8c7 27.Rh2 Kg8 28.g4 Qc8 29.Qf2 Be7 30.g5 Bf8 31.Rg2 g6 32.h5 Rc3 33.Bb2 R3c6 34.Rh2 Qd8 35.Bc1 Rc3 36.Qg3 Qc8 37.Qf2 R3c6 38.hxg6 fxg6 39.Qh4 gxf5 40.exf5 Qxf5 41.g6 Rg7 42.Reg2 Be7 43.gxh7+ Kh8 44.Qxe7 Rxg2+ 45.Rxg2 Rc8 46.Qg7# 1-0
https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=4304419
GM Alexander Morozevich 2676 RUS vs Vladislav Artemiev 2692 RUS
2017 RUS-ch blitz
B20 Sicilian defence
1.e4 c5 2.b3 d6 3.Bb2 Nf6 4.Nc3 g6 5.Bb5+ Bd7 6.Bxd7+ Qxd7 7.Nd5 Bg7 8.Nxf6+ exf6 9.Qf3 Qe7 10.O-O-O Nc6 11.Ne2 O-O 12.Nf4 f5 13.Bxg7 Kxg7 14.Rhe1 Qe5 15.c3 Rae8 16.exf5 Qxf5 17.Re3 Ne5 18.Qg3 Ng4 19.Rf3 Ne5 20.Re3 Ng4 21.Rf3 Ne5 1/2-1/2
The World Champ
has been known to experiment with offbeat openings:
Magnus Carlsen (2881) vs Rafael Leitao (2645)
Event: Four Player Festa da Uva 2014
Site: Caxias do Sul BRA Date: 03/06/2014
Round: 4.1
ECO: B20 Sicilian defence
1.e4 c5 2.b3 Nc6 3.Bb2 d6 4.Bb5 Bd7 5.f4 a6 6.Bxc6 Bxc6 7.Nc3 Nf6 8.Qe2 e6 9.Nf3 Be7 10.O-O-O Qc7 11.d4 cxd4 12.Nxd4 Rc8 13.g4 O-O 14.g5 Nd7 15.h4 b5 16.Rhe1 Rfe8 17.a3 Nc5 18.f5 Bf8 19.f6 a5 20.Ndxb5 Bxb5 21.Nxb5 Qb8 22.Kb1 Nxe4 23.fxg7 Be7 24.Qxe4 Qxb5 25.a4 Qc6 26.Qd3 e5 27.Rf1 Kxg7 28.Qf5 Rf8 29.h5 Rc7 30.Rd2 Qd7 31.Bxe5+ Kg8 32.Qxd7 Rxd7 33.Rf5 Re8 34.Bc3 1-0
https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=3886013
Levon Aronian (2752) vs Alexander Morozevich (2721)
Event: Amber-blind 15th
Site: Monte Carlo Date: 03/25/2006
Round: 7
ECO: B20 Sicilian defence
1.e4 c5 2.b3 d6 3.Bb2 Nf6 4.Bb5+ Bd7 5.Bxd7+ Qxd7 6.d3 g6 7.f4 Bg7 8.Nf3 O-O 9.O-O Nc6 10.Qe1 Rac8 11.Nbd2 Nb4 12.Qc1 b5 13.a3 Nc6 14.Kh1 d5 15.e5 Ng4 16.Qe1 f6 17.h3 Nh6 18.g4 Nd8 19.Qg3 f5 20.g5 Nhf7 21.h4 Ne6 22.Rf2 c4 23.bxc4 dxc4 24.dxc4 bxc4 25.Bc3 Nd6 26.h5 Ne4 27.Nxe4 fxe4 28.Nh2 Nd4 29.Rd1 Nf5 30.Rxd7 Nxg3+ 31.Kg2 Nxh5 32.Bd2 Rcd8 33.Rxe7 Rxd2 34.Rxd2 Nxf4+ 35.Kh1 e3 36.Rdd7 Ne6 37.Rd1 e2 38.Re1 Nd4 39.e6 h5 40.Rxa7 Be5 41.e7 Re8 42.c3 Bg3 43.Nf3 Bxe1 44.Nxe1 Nb5 45.Ra6 Kg7 46.Re6 Nxc3 47.Kg2 Nd5 48.Re5 Nxe7 49.Rxe2 Kf7 50.Nf3 Nf5 51.Rxe8 Kxe8 52.Kf2 h4 53.a4 Kd8 54.Ke2 h3 55.Kd2 Nd6 56.Kc3 Ne4+ 57.Kd4 c3 58.Kd3 Nxg5 59.Nh2 Ne4 60.a5 Kc7 0-1
https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=3325139
WGM Eva Repkova 2359 SVK vs WGM Ekaterina Kovalevskaya 2443 RUS
2003 CRO-chT (Women)
1.e4 c5 2.b3 d6 3.Bb2 Nf6 4.Nc3 g6 5.Bb5+ Nbd7 6.f4 Bg7 7.Qf3 O-O 8.Nge2 Nb6 9.h3 a6 10.Bd3 e5 11.fxe5 dxe5 12.O-O Be6 13.Ba3 Qc7 14.Qe3 Nbd7 15.Na4 b6 16.c4 Rfd8 17.Nac3 Nh5 18.Nd5 Bxd5 19.cxd5 Nf4 20.g3 Nxd3 21.Qxd3 Nf6 22.Rac1 Rac8 23.Qe3 Qd7 24.g4 h5 25.g5 Ne8 26.Qg3 Nd6 27.d3 Qe7 28.Rf2 Rf8 29.Rcf1 b5 30.Qe3 b4 31.Bb2 Ne8 32.Ng3 a5 33.Kh1 Nd6 34.Rf6 Rfe8 35.Kh2 a4 36.R6f2 Nb7 1/2-1/2
Viewing the 2021 US Chess Championships
There will be a playoff for the title of 2021 US Chess Champion between three players, two of them world class. Fabiano Caruana
is currently ranked third in the world after losing two games, back to back, in the recently completed 2012 US Chess Championship. Wesley So
is ranked eighth in the world. Then there is Sam Sevian…There is a saying in Poker that is applicable here: “If you don’t see a sucker at the table, you’re it.” Sam was ranked 91st on the top list compiled by FIDE before the tournament, and he did gain points for his good performance. Being one of the top 100 Chess players in the world is a tremendous achievement for any player, but Caruana drew a match with the World Chess Champion in which he was not defeated in the only games that count, those played with a classical time limit. The quick play playoff to determine the “champion” is a joke and terrible insult to the players who just spent almost two weeks vying for the title because Chess is inherently unfair since there is an odd number of rounds and some players sit behind the White army in more games than other players, which gives them a HUGE advantage. Caruana and Sevian each had the White pieces in six games while Wesley So had the White pieces in only FIVE games. Therefore, Wesley So should be crowned as the 2021 US Chess Champion. Congratulations to the Champ, Wesley So!
The tournament was Sam Sevian’s for the taking. In the penultimate round he was a pawn up and could have played 27 Kc2 in lieu of repeating the position but for whatever reason Sam decided to play poltroon Chess. You can bet your sweet bippy Bobby Fischer
trinitynews.ie
would have played 27 Kc2. Then in the last round this “game”, and I use the word loosely, was “played.”
Daniel Naroditsky
vs Samuel Sevian
- e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Bd2 Bxd2+ 8. Nbxd2 d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Qb3 Na5 11. Qa4+ Nc6 12. Qb3 Na5 13. Qa4+ Nc6 1/2-1/2
It made me wanna PUKE!
If ever there were a time to play for a win it was this game because victory could possibly bring the coveted title of United States Chess Champion and probably entry into the US Chess Hall of Fame. His opponent had just lost a game the previous round and his testosterone level had to be low. Naroditsky had already lost FOUR GAMES! Do you think Bobby Fischer would have played the above game in the LAST ROUND of a US Chess Championship? In the post game interviews Naroditsky was obviously happy with the short draw, saying something about how he “…should have drawn the day before.” When it came time for Sam to explain his decision to acquiesce to the repetition he explained by saying, “Before the tournament my plan was to play solidly with Black…” Translated that says he was “…playing to draw with black and win with white.” The young man should not even be called a “Co-Champion.” No matter what happens for the remainder of his Chess career Sam Sevian will continue to wonder what might have been if only he had
The question will haunt him until he takes his last breath.
The sixth round game between Ashritha Eswaran
and Megan Lee
youtube.com
reached this position after the moves: 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. O-O e5 5. d3 Ne7 6. Nbd2 O-O 7. e4 c6 8. Re1 Qd6 9. c3 f5
Eswaran played 10 d4 and Maurice obviously very much liked the move, calling it “…an outstanding move!” I was following the action at FollowChess (https://live.followchess.com/) because only the moves are displayed and I had my doubts. Still, Maurice has some kind of computer Chess program, so I thought it must be OK…Nevertheless, inquiring minds want to know, so I surfed on over to ChessBomb (https://www.chessbomb.com/) where a Red move was showing…Chess24 says White goes from being “much better” to “equal.” Maybe the “engine”, as they are so fond of calling the computer program, had a glitch, or was turned off…
I took note of the following because it was so hilarious, coming as it did from a player not known for playing 1 e4 during his illustrious career: Yaz: “Nobody likes to play against the Najdorf because the variations are so lengthy…” Round 8 2:45 into the game. You know that put a smile on the face of Mr. Najdorf, French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave!
The thing is that I stopped playing the Najdorf over four decades ago after hearing a Grandmaster talk about those players “Who study the Najdorf but not Chess.” Still, I learned much about the Royal game by playing the Najdorf. One never forgets his first love…
During the final game of the event, between Bruzon Batista
and Alex Lenderman
which lasted for 127 moves, Maurice said, “If only we could be paid by the move.” Cracked me up…I will admit to have been “pulling” for Lenderman, and evidently not the only one. If only he had found 38 Qa1, challenging the Black Queen, in lieu of 38 Rc8 against Caruana in round 10…
phamlore: What could Lenderman do? He needed a win today, and he never had a position where a win for Black was that doable?
ArcticStones: Lenderman has had an impressive tournament, imho.
jphamlore: Lenderman tried at least. It’s just his opponent played a decent game himself.
Terugloper: @Arctic –> Could be, but Imho your commentaries during this tournament are way more impressive
ArcticStones: You jest. Commenters such as jphamlore know far more about chess than I do!
Terugloper: Lol!!!
ArcticStones: I’m serious.
KJBellevue: The evaluation here is totally wrong
Terugloper: Why?
KJBellevue: Tablebase clearly indicates a draw
Terugloper: I see
Terugloper: So 74. … Kh2 was an acceptable move?
KJBellevue: Yes, still drawn
Terugloper: Okay
Terugloper: Long Live Lenderman, folks!
Terugloper: I would play 78. Kc6 to have square d6 available for possible Q-trades
KJBellevue: But Black can still check on the white squares
Terugloper: Yes
Terugloper: Lenderman know his stuff
Terugloper: *knows
Terugloper: Black Queen Symphony
Terugloper: Black Queen Symphony on white squares
jphamlore: Lenderman the king of instructional endgames this event.
Terugloper: Yeah – Endgame King Lenderman
Terugloper: But still I give all of you the following strict advice –> Don’t try this at home
Terugloper: Lenderman feeling so comfortable now that he attacks on the black squares now
KJBellevue: He knows this ending well
jphamlore: Unfortunately, even if White touched the wrong piece, I’m not sure Lenderman has any way to win this.
Terugloper: Lenderman – The living table base on two legs
I_LUV_U: a table base is three or four legs
Terugloper: Why not five legs?
Terugloper: You met one in the subway?
mrlondon: What the record for most number of checks in a game?
Terugloper: Good question – I will ask Tim Krabbé
Terugloper: https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/check.html
Terugloper: In the 200-move game Wegner – Johnsen, Gausdal 1991 a total of 141 checks were given, of which 98 by White alone.
Terugloper: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/wegner—johnsen-gausdal-1991
mrlondon: Interesting. Thanks!
mrlondon: It’s not going to happen here.
Terugloper: Yep
Terugloper: Just 10 moves to go now for 50-rule move draw claim
Terugloper: 5 moves
Terugloper: Minus 2 moves
KJBellevue: 🙂
Terugloper: Bellevue! My main man!!!
Rhinegold: eval also indicates draw, noob, lol
https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2021-us-chess-championship/11-Bruzon_Batista_Lazaro-Lenderman_Aleksandr
The coverage was excellent even though Jennifer Shahade
was missing. She does bring a terrific smile and is the perfect foil to the understated Yasser Seirawan as she has occasionally given him perfect opportunities for a SNL moment that Yaz used so effectively with the previous female to accompany him:
One of my favorite features was the “Parkside Chats” between Yaz and Maurice. Although they are all good, the one that follows is my favorite because I worked at a Chess Club:
The next one is great in a historical sense as the guys discuss what it was like ‘back in the day’ when Bobby Fischer put the Royal game on the front page of every newspaper and every broadcast of the nightly new on television. After watching these videos I realized how much laughter has been missing in the pandemic era. Sometimes one really does need to laugh to keep from crying…
I urge you to take a few more minutes to watch this video which is an interview with one of the top players of the game of Scrabble in the world, who lives near the St Louis Chess Campus. You can thank me for bringing it to your attention by leaving a comment:
Roll Over Chuck Berry and Be Goode
It’s the birthday of singer-songwriter Chuck Berry, born Charles Edward Anderson in St. Louis, Missouri (1926). He broke into the charts in 1955 with “Maybellene”
then followed it with “Roll Over, Beethoven”
and “Johnny B. Goode.”
Berry said:
“The gateway to freedom … was somewhere close to New Orleans where most Africans were sorted through and sold. I had driven through New Orleans on tour and I’d been told my great-grandfather had lived way back up in the woods among the evergreens in a log cabin. I revived the era with a song about a colored boy named Johnny B. Goode. My first thought was to make his life follow as my own had come along, but I thought it would seem biased to white fans to say ‘colored boy’ and changed it to ‘country boy.’”
It was on this day in 1954 that the first transistor radio appeared on the market.
Transistors were a big breakthrough in electronics — a new way to amplify signals. They replaced vacuum tubes which were fragile, slow to warm up, and unreliable. During World War II there was a big funding push to try to update vacuum tubes since they were used in radio-controlled bombs but didn’t work very well. A team of scientists at Bell Laboratories invented the first transistor technology in 1947. But the announcement didn’t make much of an impact because transistors had limited use for everyday consumers — they were used mainly in military technology, telephone switching equipment, and hearing aids.
Several companies bought licenses from Bell, including Texas Instruments, who was determined to be the first to market with a transistor radio. Radios were mostly big, bulky devices that stayed in one place — usually in the living room — while the whole family gathered around to listen to programming. There were some portable radios made with vacuum tubes, but they were about the size of lunch boxes, they used heavy non-rechargeable batteries, they took a long time to start working while the tubes warmed up, and they were fragile. Texas Instruments was determined to create a radio that was small and portable and to get it out for the Christmas shopping season. They produced the transistors and they partnered with the Regency Division of Industrial Development Engineering Associates who manufactured the actual radios. Their new radio, the Regency TR-1, turned on immediately, weighed half a pound, and could fit in your pocket. It cost $49.95 and more than 100,000 were sold.
Texas Instruments went on to pursue other projects but a Japanese company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo decided to make transistor radios their main enterprise. They were concerned that their name was too difficult for an American audience to pronounce so they decided to rebrand themselves with something simpler. They looked up the Latin word for sound, which was sonus. And they liked the term sonny boys — English slang that was used in Japan for exceptionally bright, promising boys. And so the company Sony was born. Soon transistor radios were cheap and prevalent.
With transistor radios, teenagers were able to listen to music out of their parents’ earshot. This made possible the explosion of a new genre of American music: rock and roll.
The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, October 18, 2021
Never Give Up
There was a print out taped to the wall just to the right of the stairs at the old Atlanta Chess and Game Center that looked like this:
failuretolisten.com
Every player who walked up the stairs could see it before every Chess game played at the House of Pain. The story goes that the owner, Thad Rogers, liked it and put it there for all to see. I always considered it the most apropos thing ever seen at the House of no fun whatsoever, which was heard on more than one occasion.
After the Legendary Georgia Ironman told the IM of GM strength Boris Kogan that he intended on becoming a National Master Boris asked, “Why Tim? It requires much sacrifice.” That it does, because when your friends are out at a bar hoisting them high and spending time with the ladies you are at home studying Rook and Pawn endings. Then again there are those players who will have hoisted a few, but that was at the Stein Club while attempting to win that Rook and Pawn ending on the board in front of you in which you have an extra pawn. You do this because Chess is HARD, and It Don’t Come Easy!
Playing Chess well requires many things and one of them is a tenacious fighting spirit. To advance in Chess one MUST be able to concentrate no matter what the situation on the board. A player MUST look for ANYTHING that will help his position. Complacency (A feeling of contentment or self-satisfaction, especially when coupled with an unawareness of danger or trouble) has no business being anywhere near a Chess board.
In the seventh round of the 2021 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship this position was reached in the game between Megan Lee and Nazi Paikidze:
There is nothing for me to describe to you here because even 700 rated USCF politico Allen Priest knows Black is busted, Buster. Then again, maybe not, but every player with a four number rating would know Black is doomed, DOOMED! Nazi has a snowball chance in Hell of salvaging a draw and winning is out of the question unless her opponent falls over dead. Some, if not most, would wonder why Nazi had not resigned. You may be wondering about the time factor. Time was not a factor. The fact is that Nazi has mating material and has a Queen and Rook on the Queen side which is where the White King is located, which totals plenty of cheapo potential, especially when all three of White’s pieces are located on the King side. Look at the position. What move would you make?
The Black King now has four legal moves. If it moves to g7 or h8 White will take the Bishop with check and that’s all she wrote. If the Black King moves to g8 the White Queen will take the pawn on g5 with check and it’s game over. That leaves h6, which is where Nazi moved the King, bringing us to this position:
I would like you to take a good look at this position and cogitate awhile before scrolling down. To insure you cannot glance down to see what follows we will pause with this musical interlude in order to block you from seeing anything that may, or may not influence your cogitating:
Black to move. Think about it awhile…What move would you make?
The situation on the Chess board has changed as much as the music videos. A situation has been reached, by force by White I must add, in which the Black King has no legal moves. If, and that is a big IF, the Black Queen and Rook left the board, the position would be one of STALEMATE. A stalemate position is reached when one King has no legal moves. Then the game is immediately declared DRAWN. This is a RIDICULOUS rule. It is also ABSURD to the point of LUNACY. There are too many draws in Chess. If a position is reached in which the only move of the King will put it in CHECK then that King should abdicate his throne. For this reason Nazi Paikidze should have played the move 56…Rxb2+ reaching this position:
Fortunately for Megan Lee her opponent played 54…Qa4+ and lost. Certainly both players should have recognized the situation on the board had changed DRASTICALLY after the 55th move by Black which had put the King in a possible stalemate situation. They both had plenty of time to cogitate. At that point in the game Megan Lee had only one thing to consider: stalemate. Nazi Paikidze only had one thing for which to hope: stalemate. Megan gave Nazi a chance but she did not take advantage of the chance given.
Megan Lee 2211 (USA)
chessgossip.com
vs Nazi Paikidze 2374 (USA)
theapricity.com
U.S. Women’s Chess Championship 2021 round 07
B06 Robatsch (modern) defence
- e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nf3 d6 4. Be3 Nd7 5. Nc3 a6 6. a4 b6 7. Bc4 e6 8. Qd2 Bb7 9. Bg5 Ndf6 10. Qe2 h6 11. Bh4 g5 12. Bg3 Nh5 13. O-O-O Ne7 14. Ne1 Nxg3 15. hxg3 Qd7 16. d5 exd5 17. Nxd5 Bxd5 18. Bxd5 Nxd5 19. exd5+ Kf8 20. Qe4 Re8 21. Qc4 b5 22. axb5 axb5 23. Qb3 Ra8 24. Nd3 Bf6 25. f3 Kg7 26. g4 c5 27. dxc6 Qxc6 28. c3 Qb6 29. Kc2 Rac8 30. Nb4 Be5 31. Nd5 Qa7 32. Rd2 Rb8 33. Re1 Rhc8 34. Re4 Kh7 35. Nb4 Rc5 36. Nd3 Rc4 37. Rxc4 bxc4 38. Qxc4 Bf6 39. Nb4 Qa4+ 40. Qb3 Qe8 41. Rxd6 Be5 42. Rd1 Bf4 43. Kb1 Kg8 44. Qc2 Ra8 45. Nd5 Be5 46. Qe4 Rb8 47. Rd2 Kg7 48. Re2 f6 49. Nxf6 Qd8 50. Nh5+ Kg8 51. Qg6+ Kh8 52. Qxh6+ Kg8 53. Qe6+ Kh7 54. Kc2 Qa5 55. Qf5+ Kh6 56. Rxe5 Qa4+ 57. Kc1 Qa1+ 58. Qb1 Qa6 59. Ng3 Rd8 60. Nf5+ Kh7 61. Nd6+ Kh8 62. Nf7+ Kg7 63. Nxd8 Qf1+ 64. Kc2 Qf2+ 65. Kd3 1-0
https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2021-us-womens-chess-championship/07-Lee_Megan-Paikidze_Nazi
cycledan: Paikidze could have pulled even with Irina, half game back in 2nd. Now she will be 1.5 back if Megan can convert. Tough loss
Murasakibara: is 56. Rxe5 correct? because black has a draw
Murasakibara: rook sac
Murasakibara: and queen check forever
Murasakibara: to miss that from nazi oh no
cycledan: white Q can prevent the perpetual I think
Murasakibara: no because after kxR there is Qa2 and Qd2 and go back and forth check
Murasakibara: until king force to capture
Paintedblack: yeah it would have been a legendary swindle but missed
Murasakibara: im so mad at nazi
Murasakibara: xd
Murasakibara: was rooting for her
Murasakibara: she didnt realize her king have no move because she thought her position was doom so a chance to draw didnt come in her mind
Murasakibara: that got to hurt
Winnie – the – Pooh Corner
This week in 1926 Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne was published.
etsy.com
Milne was a writer for Punch and many of his first “children’s” poems and stories were printed there, not intended for children at all but for whimsical adult readers. The first Pooh story, “In Which We are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees and the Stories Begin,” was published in The London Evening News on Christmas Eve in 1925 and broadcast on the BBC the next day.
Even though Milne based the Winnie-the-Pooh stories on his son, Christopher Robin, and his son’s stuffed bear, he didn’t even read the stories aloud to Christopher Robin. Milne preferred to read his young son the novels of P.G. Wodehouse. Christopher Robin later said: “My father did not write the books for children. He didn’t write for any specific market; he knew nothing about marketing. He knew about me, he knew about himself, he knew about the Garrick Club — he was ignorant about anything else. Except, perhaps, about life.”
Winnie-the-Pooh begins:
“Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn’t. Anyhow, here he is at the bottom, and ready to be introduced to you. Winnie-the-Pooh.
“When I first heard his name, I said, just as you are going to say, ‘But I thought he was a boy?’
“‘So did I,’ said Christopher Robin.
“‘Then you can’t call him Winnie?’
“‘I don’t.’
“‘But you said —’
“‘He’s Winnie-ther-Pooh. Don’t you know what “ther” means?’
“‘Ah, yes, now I do,’ I said quickly; and I hope you do too, because it is all the explanation you are going to get.”
https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/twa-the-writers-almanac-for-october-14-2021/
Armchair Warrior 