Politics posters chess thread
Mods - I hope this is OK, if not, move to LC or something.
Seems we've got a few chess players here, and some threads end up getting derailed arranging chess games. Figured maybe we could have a thread for it. So far, lagtight and I have played quite a few games, forumula72 and luckbox have expressed a wish to play, and a few other posters have taken an interest in passing. Post here to set up a game! We have been playing on chess.com so far.
Ok... this move might end up being OK or might end up losing me the game if I have miscalculated somewhere or missed a tactic..
qc1
Someone post the board plz.
Black to move.
Gonna get ugly if black can open up the board and use his bishop pair.
If that happens, my strategy is going to be to hang, I mean sacrifice a bunch of pieces and hope he gets excited and blunders his queen or mate in 2 or something.
... Rc8
I'm pretty annoyed that you got my chess juices flowing again. I was happy to not have that bug eating away at my life for a few years. This makes me want to play again.
Sorry I'm not talking about the position all that much. I'm happy to give my thoughts, and I know that's one of the purposes of a game in a forum like this instead of just on a chess server, but it feels weird to do so during the game. I'll try here, anyway, but enclose it in spoilers for those that may not want to read. I have no problem with others saying whatever about the game as long as it's general, of course.
Spoiler
Qc1 seemed to be with the dual threat on undefended LSB and the QB battery along the dark diagonal, with the intent of playing Bh6 (to trade off my DSB, the only defender of the light square complex around my king). I think Rc8 makes it a lot harder for white to open up the c-file, and if Bh6, I will be happy to do open things up myself. Bh6 and Bxh7 just costs white more time, and the LS weakness wouldn't be critical.
My lead in development is a big asset here and definitely makes me want to open up the middle as I've seen suggested, but timing is important there. I've almost played e5 several times, now, but decided against it for various reasons. There are a few tactical resources hiding in the position that I'm eyeing and might talk more about later if they don't come up, too.
...bh6
The queen-bishop battery on the diagonal vs the fianchettoed bishop was what I was referring to below btw:
I told you guys, I don't know the opening books! It doesn't seem terrible to me, I am strengthening the defense of my d4 pawn since I expect him to fianchetto his dark squared bishop and then possibly push e4 or capture dxc3 opening a line for his queen to attack the d4 pawn, I am developing a piece, and I am opening the option to develop my knight to d2 as well as c3 (without blocking in the bishop) in case he starts threatening to annoy me by jumping in with his knight to e4.
ETA: Didn't see Gorg's post above prior to posting this, as I suspected bh6 was something he had already considered.
I think white has to use his left horse to challenge the black horse in the middle of the board.
In due course. I believe doing so prior to bh6 would have ended badly for white.
... bxc5
dxc5
You are going to be facing pressure on the diagonals from Qa5 and Bb5. At first glance, I think you are destined to at least lose a pawn here.
I resigned myself to losing a pawn a while back, that's the absolute best case scenario for me as from a few moves ago IMO. Everything I've been doing for the last 4-5 moves is trying to limit the damage/material losses from my horrible position/opening mistakes. If I come out of this all down only one pawn, I will be more than happy.
ETA: qa5 doesn't seem to achieve much for black (he can get my pawn anyway without moving his queen all the way out there, the pawn seems dead lost), but I might well be missing something.
... Qa5
Spoiler
This is definitely winning a pawn, and it should hold. This stops b4 while attacking the pawn twice. I think the only imbalanced feature that could work against me is the distant majority in the endgame (2 pawns vs 1 pawn far from the kingside). Kind of a boring position that mostly plays itself here, for at least a few moves.
I'll premove Kxg7 if you do Bxg7 here FYI
Nxc5 would make for a sharp position with some potential for tactics. I don't know that black is going to take with the knight here (couple of possible responses to Nxc5 in spoiler).
Spoiler
Nxc5 Ne5
Nxc5 Nb3
Very unlikely I'll be able to move or even check in here until I get home later this afternoon.
