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Jul-19-08
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| micartouse: I had the following position in a tournament game. It is white to move:
click for larger viewI was deep in time trouble and lost the game by losing the opposition. White is up a pawn but has an awkward structure that gave my opponent chances to outfox me. My erroneous thoughts were as follows: 1. White cannot move his king without allowing the Black king in. 2. Therefore, White and Black must leave their kings still and count the tempi of useless pawn moves. The first one who has to give way will lose. This is in fact not the case. White is winning the endgame easily by playing 1. h3! which gives his king a pivot point. Now with the following position: 
click for larger viewWhite can indeed toggle his king back and forth between e3 and f3 (since Black can't penetrate to g4) until Black runs out of pawn moves. At this point, Black will have to back his king off, and White will penetrate the position. The pawn at h3 gives the white king a safe pivot between e3 and f3, so no fancy tempo counting is necessary. |
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Jul-20-08
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| playground player: <micartouse> Great to hear from you! I had formed the impression that unless you walked on the left side of the road around here, you walked alone. I'm going to take some time to digest your suggested responses to the French Defense. I did try out the Steinitz Attack at chess club the other night, and got a draw and a tough loss out of it against a stronger player than myself (and the loss was due to a miscue in the midgame, had nothing to do with the opening). I suppose it should be noted that Steinitz said he hated the French Defense, although why that should've led him to 2.e5 is not clear. BTW, I lived in East Lansing, Michigan, for a year (a long time ago) and pretty much had a blast. I loved the Michigan winter, and the way Spring came like the sudden raising of a curtain. |
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Jul-20-08
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| micartouse: <I had formed the impression that unless you walked on the left side of the road around here, you walked alone.> No way! Although a lot of my beliefs and voting patterns are leftish, some rightish. It just depends. I'm always surprised how people make most topics simple. Politics is like chess: It's complex, it takes a lifetime to learn, and sticking rigidly to a system while ignoring specifics gets bad results. I identified with your remark actually because I've lived a few years in an area that is very liberal, but in a pushy way. It's not truly liberal actually, it's kind of fake! It's sort of a stealth snobbery that pretends to be diverse and openminded, but is not. My heart is kind of hardened, and anymore I appreciate the non-conformist who just lives by their own rules and wants others to do the same! We don't need to be cookie cutter; God got us right the first time around. <I loved the Michigan winter, and the way Spring came like the sudden raising of a curtain.> Yes, yes. :) |
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Jul-25-08
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| playground player: <micartouse> What part of Michigan do you live in? I lived just on the outskirts of East Lansing, with most of my friends in the Lansing hippietown. I looked one of them up recently, after not having heard from him since the 1970s. In those days, a self-appointed "committee" (they couldn't quite bring themselves to use the word "soviet") voted him "an enemy of the people" for starting a small business and making a profit. I had a long talk with him on the phone, 30 years later, and was astounded to discover he hadn't grown, intellectually, one iota. He probably identifies more closely with the "committee" now than he did back then--and back then he junked his business because he wanted to curry favor with a few self-righteous marxists. Be that as it may, it's a pleasure to meet someone who thinks for himself. |
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Jul-31-08
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| micartouse: <playground player> Wow, that's a crazy story. I shouldn't complain then - I haven't dealt with anything that obnoxious. I live in Royal Oak now, but I've lived many places in Michigan and enjoy it very much. I myself have to be more tolerant of the world around me, even when people drive me crazy sometimes. haha |
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Sep-11-08
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| playground player: <micartouse> Here's one: www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1045172 |
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Sep-11-08
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| micartouse: Cool, thanks! That makes enough sense; the pawn can be supported easily with c4 and Nc3. I like this better than bxa5. Good - I'm going to play around with this more. |
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Sep-11-08
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| playground player: <micartouse> Enjoy it! I've found the Orang-utang just about always leads to a hard-fought and exciting game (unless one is in a hideous slump brought about by trying to learn a new opening system). Black has a great many responses to 1.b4 at his disposal: but, oh, boy, is it easy to pick the wrong one! |
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Sep-17-08
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| playground player: <micartouse> Maybe it's just because the learning process in chess often leads to confusion at first, but I've come up against a real snag in the Orang-utang: 1.b4, c6 2.Bb2, d5. Black plays the first two moves of the Caro-Kann, and so far (OTB only) it has totally stymied me. All I end up doing is winding up with my men all in each other's way. To make matters worse, I don't find this among the various contingencies covered in Lapshun's book, "Play 1b4!" Any ideas from your end? The CG database has very few games in this scenario--not enough to constitute a meaningful sample, in my opinion. There must be a good response to this. Wonder how long it'll take to find it. |
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Sep-17-08
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| micartouse: <playground player> Well, I suck at chess openings, positional play, tactics, strategy, etc. But you already know that! So I'll tell you what I'd do anyway. Instinctively, I am afraid of Black playing 3 ... e5 and getting a big grip on the center. Maybe 3. Nf3. Now if Black plays 3 ... Nbd7, then I may play 4. d4. That may look ugly, but I'm trying to keep my share of the center. At my earliest convenience, I'll play moves like e2-e3, c2-c4, 0-0, etc. Aiming for more of a Slav than a Caro-Kann. I don't have software on my new computer yet, so these ideas have not been checked. Also, I'm thinking that if Black plays ... a5 at any point, I would be ready to move bxa5. Not much way around that IMO. It sounds like a good defense anyway. |
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Sep-17-08
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| micartouse: Nah, you still may be able to play b4-b5 as a response to ... a5. I keep forgetting how easy it is to support that pawn. So there's flexibility here. Also, I think in this opening, you can be flexible with the Nb1 and Bf1. The knight can go to either c3 or d2, and the bishop can go to e2 or d3 depending on specifics. I'm having fun with this opening, but basically getting very slow paced games. |
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Sep-17-08
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| micartouse: Also, I forgot about the bishop on b2 protecting against ... e5. The only way black could enforce that move is by playing ... f6 and ... Qc7, and that would completely wreck his position. I might even play 3. e3 right away then - I'm not sure it matters. Black may fianchetto, but this still seems fine for White. Sorry about the meandering responses. :) |
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Sep-18-08
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| playground player: <micartouse> That e5, f6 combo for Black is not uncommon in the Polish Opening. White can gambit with a Pawn to f4 to shake Black's position. There are all sorts of things either side can do in this opening; and unlike others, there are not centuries of theory and hundreds of thousands of games on record to back it up. This opening is still in its early stages of development: who knows what it'll look like, 200 years from now? It's been my experience, so far, that if I can maintain a pawn at b5--without all my men getting in each other's way--it becomes a thorn deep in Black's side and is often the key to victory. |
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Sep-19-08
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| refutor: <A nice collection of games including the minority attack compiled by <Refutor>.
Game Collection: Minority attack>
i'm glad somebody looks at this stuff...it's amazing the limited amount of information on a positional topic like this...if i ever get about 800 points stronger i'll write a book on it :) |
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Sep-19-08
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| micartouse: <refutor> I think it came up in a google search extremely high when I was trying to practice the technique last year! Hundreds of people may have looked at the games - the internet is wild like that. The most esoteric chess book on my shelf is called "Hanging Pawns" by Mikhalchishin. lol talk about an impulse buy. I'm pretty sure nobody who bought it has read it. |
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Oct-01-08
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| refutor: <orangutang opening>
i like the outflank variation against it
1.b4 c6 2.Bb2 and instead of 2. ...d5 mentioned above, i play 2. ...a5 this puts immediate pressure on the position (worst comes to worst you trade your a-pawn for white's b-pawn and give him an isolated a-pawn) and you can always play ...d5 afterwards a line i like instead is the Réti-Smyslov with 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.b4 
click for larger viewlots of strong players have played it including Smyslov in the World Championship Smyslov vs Botvinnik, 1958
Raymond Keene, Jan Timman |
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Oct-02-08
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| micartouse: <i like the outflank variation against it 1.b4 c6 2.Bb2 and instead of 2. ...d5 mentioned above, i play 2. ...a5 this puts immediate pressure on the position (worst comes to worst you trade your a-pawn for white's b-pawn and give him an isolated a-pawn) and you can always play ...d5 afterwards> I want to try this next time I face 1. b4 as black since it sounds effective. I still think White has an answer if he's alert. The database gives 1. b4 c6 2. e3 which allows b4-b5, but I like 2. c4 even better since ...cxb5 would be recaptured by a pawn. |
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Oct-02-08
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| refutor: after 1.b4 c6 2.c4 i would think Black would just strike back in the center with 2. ...e5! i can't imagine anyone playing 2.b4 after 1.c4 e5 |
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Oct-05-08
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| refutor: an example from Benko-Suttles, Canadian Open 1971 is 1.b4 c6 2.c4 e5 3.Bb2 f6 4.a3 d5 5.e3 Bd6 (0-1, 47). Black got a good position by taking over the center |
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Oct-19-08
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| playground player: <micartouse> Hey, I beat the Little Chess Partner twice this week, using the Polish Opening! I won't tell you how many tries it took for me to do it--but any time I beat LCP, it's a big deal for me. |
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Oct-19-08
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| micartouse: <playground player> Good job! I've been using it a lot too in casual play, still preferring 1. Nf3 with a more positional approach. You guys have given me ideas for both sides of the board so that I've included it in my basic repertoire. I'll play anything, but in tournament I try to keep it mainstream! |
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Oct-20-08
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| playground player: <micartouse> Yes, playing the Polish in a tournament would take a lot of nerve (unless you're Yuri Lapshun). Before I started seriously studying this opening, I was using it against strong players on the Internet and almost always winning with it. Now, trying to absorb a lot of new information, I'm losing. But once the learning process is complete, sure, I'd use it in a tournament! The surprise factor alone would be worth something. |
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Oct-24-08
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| playground player: Now would be a good time for Kramnik to play the Orang-utan against Anand. He certainly isn't getting anywhere with 1.d4! 1.b4 would come as a surprise, to say the least. |
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Oct-25-08
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| playground player: Encouraging news! Last night at chess club I played the Polish against a regional senior champ, and got a hard-fought draw out of it. So I must be learning something--nice to see this hard study beginning to pay off. |
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Oct-25-08
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| micartouse: <Now would be a good time for Kramnik to play the Orang-utan against Anand.> What difference would it make?
If things keep going so well for you, then you can try 1 ... b5 systems. |
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