kansas city

so i just finished my open port course from Cerner and got 96% woo-hoo! the $3000+ US they spent sending me here, feeding me, etc. was allegedly worth it ;)

last night i went to a great japanese place. they had one of those grills where they cooked the food right on your table. there were 7 of us at this table. me, this girl from my class, two older people and three girls. man those three girls were like sex in the city. they were talking about having sex with all these guys and how some basketball player emailed her with a picture of herself and he was "well hung". i laughed. anyways the food was really good. i had salmon, which was a bit of a stretch. the girl i went with she had calamari. if i ever come back to KC and go there (which is a possibility, i'm going back in november) i'll try the calamari. afterwards he flicked shrimp at us and we had to try and catch it like trained seals. me and the girl i was with (she was chinese i don't even know her name, Yung maybe?) were the only two not to catch. i don't know if that means i have class, or i just have bad coordination ;)

i have decided to try the Adorjan gambit



i think the gambit's sound...look at the development advantage i have. in any case, i'm gonna try it.

i started up a refutor code on ICC the other day and i whupped up kirk good last night ;)

The season premiere of Smallville is on tonight and i am decidedly excited. me and Anderson are going to watch them once i get my Starchoice set up. i'm fired up. tomorrow i'm going back home, get there 1:30AM and then i move in with the jane that day. should be an interesting couple of months ;)

lata

one of my life goals is complete

well more like one of my chess goals. a number of years ago i read a quote from korchnoi that said something like this (paraphrasing) "Playing the Sicilian is like attacking your tag team partner with a chair". today, in Kansas City, Missoura, i found the book that came from and actually own it. i did paraphrase

Geller v. Korchnoi 1960

1.e4 Nf6

It is generally thought that the sharpest and most active defense to 1.e4 is the Sicilian. However, is there not a resemblence between the Sicilian defender and the wrestler who begins the fight before he has climbed into the ring?

That fabulous quote from Korchnoi has rekindled my spirit to play chess, and more correctly, the Sicilian. I'm as big a fan of wrassling as anyone I know, and if i was a wrassler i would attack my opponent before he climbed into the ring. so hence i will play the Sicilian until i die.

thank you Viktor Lvovich

another book down the drain...

i should really go to a town with a decent library. i just finished Tony Miles' "It's Only Me". Good book, interesting. I have a couple of choices for what to complete now...the Polgar book, the Kramnik book, Fire on Board, there's a Kasparov book. I have a couple of PDFs from Eric Schiller that I should look at. Maybe I'll just pack

last week i was in baltimore and i had a chance to go play a simul (and meet) Pascal Charbonneau but unfortunately, the cab was $40 and the training was a little more involved than i would have liked. oh well, allegedly the canadian open will be in kitchener this year so maybe i'll meet him there ;)

i played inthe kitchener active two weekends ago and my spirit was broke by an 8 year old in the first round who beat me in 15 moves. grr..

me and jane are moving in together in a couple of weeks...

i have a new favorite song

Stage Door

i know i can't hide
this fear inside
still my friends understand
things have
worked out
much as you have said
ain't no mystery
what i need
understanding and you're sweet sympathy
a steel string guitar and a little weed
and someone to keep me company
someone to keep me company

down the alley through the stage door
sometimes i wonder
just what i
what i do it for

down the alley through the stage door
sometimes i wonder
just what i
what i do it for

ain't no mystery
what i need
some understanding
and your sweet sympathy
a steel string guitar and a little weed
and someone to keep me company
someone to keep me company

it's a go for November 27th...

i'll post a link when it's available

5 rounds, $5

jane and kirk both did really well today...jane was surprised i think :) i'm glad for her...i felt nervous for her, i can't imagine how *she* felt ;)

nerves

man am i nervous for Kirk and Jane. they're both starting teaching today. jane said she couldn't sleep and honestly i wasn't much better ;)

this is too good not to post

Magnus Ver Magnusson



i love this guy

Active Tournament - November 27th

I think I'm gonna organize an Active tournament in Owen Sound, November 27th. i'm gonna go down sunday probably and confirm, but the idea is $5 EF, $3 going to rating fees, the other two going to buying a book for the Owen Sound Public Library. Should be fun.

wait a tick...

so i may have just figured something out...i like 1.Nf3 but i don't necessarily like the QGD, so why not 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 d5 3.Bg5. i've always had a tough time playing against it...although 3. ...Ne4 is stronger than in tromp proper i believe because the bishop is already guarded by the knight. i'll consider it

the funk of 40,000 years

so i've been playing through Tony Miles' "It's Only Me" and I'm starting to become a fan of the "English Defense" 1.c4 b6 particularly in his game v. Olafsson which started 1.c4 b6 2.Nc3 e6 3.d4 Bb4 4.e3 Bb7 5.Nge2 f5 which is an improvement over the nimzo i think. i may give it a go...i'm influenced by the books i'm reading (i'm the highly suggestable type) and i think Miles is a good person to get influenced by...he's so strong inthe middlegame and endgame. i'm at all all-time high at ICC while i'm reading this, i'm not sure that's a coincedence. the last time i read a good middlegame book, it was Zurich 1953 by Bronstein and my play improved, if not my rating. i'm not sure whether i'm gonna do Kramnik : LIfe and Games or My System next...i've been holding off on My System, but I think i'm gonna do it.

This is a picture from my parent's 30th anniversary party a couple of weeks ago...it was good times. I got some books from a guy over the Internet today "Kramnik : My Life and Games" and some theoretical book on the Nimzo. The Nimzo book isn't very interesting (theory and game fragments v. full games) but the Kramnik book looks good, if a little light on analysis. But it should be good.