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| The back yard |
It’s hard to believe that just a few days ago the temperature was pleasantly in the mid-60s, it was sunny and I was out cutting the grass for the last time this year. Then the last couple of days the bottom fell out...the temperature dropped into the mid-teens, it was overcast and then it snowed.
Here it was only enough to cover the ground, but yesterday further east conditions were so bad that a woman was killed in a 16-car pileup on the Ohio Turnpike and the day before whiteout conditions resulted in a pileup involving as many as 85 vehicles near Akron, Ohio.
A bus bound for New York City flipped on its side on a snowy highway in Syracuse, New York, early Tuesday injuring seven passengers and jackknifed tractor-trailers shut down a section of Interstate 90 in Pennsylvania overnight. All together this storm claimed at least six lives stretching from Kansas to Ohio.
Not that it in any way compares to the tragedies on the highways, but last night we took our 12-year old nephew out to Olive Garden for dinner and it was a disaster.
My wife ordered the Tour of Italy (chicken parm, lasagna and fettuccine Alfredo) and the lasagna was disgusting.
It had a thick, black, badly burnt crust on the bottom. Seriously, it was about 3/8 of an inch thick and you could barely cut it with the knife. When she pointed it out to the waitress, she knew it was bad and offered to replace it. My wife told her no, not if it’s from the same pan. The waitress replied, “We have lots of lasagna...it’ll be from a different pan.”
Eventually the waitress brought out a large bowl of glop that was supposed to be fresh lasagna, but it tasted burnt and had no pasta on the bottom. When my wife informed the waitress that it was the same stuff and they had just scooped off the top layers that weren't burnt to a crisp, the waitress just smiled and said, “Sorry about that.” No offer to bring something else or adjust the bill even though one third of the meal was not fit to eat.
Since the weather hasn’t been so good, it’s been a good time to play some online chess, but that hasn’t gone very well either. I did a lot of experimenting with the Wing Gambit against the Sicilian.
I know the Wing Gambit Deferred is better; the straight Wing Gambit (1.e4 c5 2.b4) is played with the idea of deflecting black's c-pawn, then dominating the center with an early d4. GM Joe Gallagher called it "a forgotten relic, hardly having set foot in a tournament hall since the days of Frank Marshall and Rudolph Spielmann. White sacrifices a pawn for...well, not a lot." Be that as it may, I still wanted to play 2.b4.
The following game against some guy in the US Navy was typical of the way we rating challenged players conduct a game...I came out of the opening with a decent position, went astray tactically and then ended up blowing the ending. A perfect example of how not to play chess.
[Event "Online G10"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2019.11.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Tartajubow"]
[Black " A Sailor"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]
%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Sicilian Wing Gambit} 1. e4 c5 2. b4 cxb4 3. a3 {Opening stats in my opening
book don't support it, but it seems that 3.d4 would be better.} 3... d5 {Black
has played several different moves here and this seems no better or worse than
any of the others.} 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. Nf3 e5 {Obviously he's not going to take
the a-Pawn and I'm concerned about ...e4.} 6. axb4 Bxb4 7. c3 Bc5 {In Lutz,K
(2325) -De Firmian,N (2545), Biel 1993 black retreated to e7 then played
...Nf6 and got a good game. The text is also good.} 8. d4 {In my database the
book move is the inferior 8.Na3. With his timid retreat black loses his
initiative. After 8...exd4 9.cxd4 Bb4+ the position is supposed to be equal,
but honestly, I don't like the looks of white's position.} 8... Bd6 9. Na3
Nc6 10. Bc4 Qe4+ 11. Be3 exd4 12. Bxf7+ {Not bad, but not to Stockfish's
liking. I would have done better with 12.Nb5} 12... Kf8 {Now the fish says
13.Nb5 is about equal, but after my move it is less equal. Positions are like
pigs...some pigs are more equal than others.} 13. Bxg8 {letting the wind out
of his own sails} 13... dxe3 {Probably the best of the equal captures (...Kxg8
and ...Rxg8)} 14. Qxd6+ Kxg8 15. O-O { The auto-annotation feature of Fritz
makes the astute observation - White castles and improves King safety.} 15...
e2 16. Rfe1 Bg4 17. Nd4 Nxd4 18. Qxd4 { Feeling that an ending offers the best
chance. Stockfish thinks black is only a tiny bit better here. Me...I was
worried.} 18... Qxd4 19. cxd4 Kf7 20. f3 Be6 {I didn't see it, but Stockfish
quickly pointed out that 21.Nb5! probably draws. 21...Rhd8 22.Nc7 Rab8
23.Nxe6 Kxe6 24.Rxa7 Rxd4 25.Rxe2+} 21. Rxe2 a6 {Covers b5 so the N can't go
there.} 22. Rb1 {Centralizing the N with Nc2-e3 was better. But, I was
thinking this game was lost and I might be able to use my slight time
advantage by complication things.} 22... b5 {Now I should either reposition
the N with Nc2 or bring up the K with Kf2, but black has a significant
advantage in either case.} 23. Nxb5 axb5 24. Rxb5 {I was curious to see if
black could take advantage of his extra material and actually win this. As it
turned out, he could.} 24... Rhd8 25. Rb7+ Rd7 26. Reb2 Rxb7 27. Rxb7+ Kf6
28. Rb2 Ra2 29. Rxa2 {This offers little resistance, so I should have kept the
Rs on. Not that it would really matetr.} 29... Bxa2 30. Kf2 Bd5 31. Ke3 Kf5
32. g3 Ke6 33. f4 Kf5 34. Kf2 Ke4 35. Kg2 Kxd4+ 36. Kh3 Ke4 37. Kg2 Kf5+ 38.
Kf2 Kg4 39. Ke3 h5 40. Kd4 Kh3 {There was no need to bother saving the B since
he easily wins the ending. Realizing this I resigned just 16 moves before
getting mated.} 0-1
My wife ordered the Tour of Italy (chicken parm, lasagna and fettuccine Alfredo) and the lasagna was disgusting.
It had a thick, black, badly burnt crust on the bottom. Seriously, it was about 3/8 of an inch thick and you could barely cut it with the knife. When she pointed it out to the waitress, she knew it was bad and offered to replace it. My wife told her no, not if it’s from the same pan. The waitress replied, “We have lots of lasagna...it’ll be from a different pan.”
Since the weather hasn’t been so good, it’s been a good time to play some online chess, but that hasn’t gone very well either. I did a lot of experimenting with the Wing Gambit against the Sicilian.
I know the Wing Gambit Deferred is better; the straight Wing Gambit (1.e4 c5 2.b4) is played with the idea of deflecting black's c-pawn, then dominating the center with an early d4. GM Joe Gallagher called it "a forgotten relic, hardly having set foot in a tournament hall since the days of Frank Marshall and Rudolph Spielmann. White sacrifices a pawn for...well, not a lot." Be that as it may, I still wanted to play 2.b4. 
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