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HalfPawn: 1. Making a bad move to take your opponent out of the book doesn't work in correspondence chess.
2. It's not out of the books anyway.
3. 3. cd isn't even the best reply. Kasparov recommends 3. Nf3.
HalfPawn:The reason this is bad for black is that after 4. cd, white has a flexible center and two pawns against one in the center. Best, I think, is 2...c3, where 3. cd cd equalizes and where black often can safely play Bf5. Most common though is 2...e3.
DragonKing: Steinitz said he could give God a pawn and the move. For a good account of craziness in chess, see "Chess and the Dance of Death" by James Coburn.
I nominate Kasparov and Botvinnik for their plot against Karpov in the first Kasparov-Karpov match. This was reported in the European press at the time and I would be interested to know if anyone is familiar with it.
In a six-win match, Karpov pulled ahead 5-0 with scintillating play.
Kasparov approached Botvinnik for advice and Botvinnik said: "Start drawing games."
Botvinik, as the story goes, knew Karpov took amphetamines before his games.
After 46 or something straight draws, Karpov collapsed into amphetamine psychosis and withdrew from the match due to what was reported as physical and mental exhaustion.
Groucho:This is true for me. I never played chess until the Fischer-Spassky match. But I am troubled that he never played a match against a truly great player.
Fwiffo: If somebody just turns on a chess program, it's easy to tell. For example, when a program comes to the end of its data base (human moves) it rearranges its position (switching to computer moves).
Also, it attacks in waves and makes anti-positional moves, though good ones from its perspective.
Most common is for a player to check a human selected move for tactical flaws.
An argument in favor of this is that it teaches strategy and eliminates ruining a good game through blunders.
However, it also eliminates the suspense that is part of the enjoyment of the game. So it's a choice between instruction and enjoyment.
I don't see how this is "cheating" but, in any event, those concerned about it, almost always seem to be poor players and probably would be better off concerning themselves less with witch-hunting and more with improving their skills.
i forfeited a lot of games and my rating dropped to 1200. however, i just drew a 1543 player and his rating dropped but mine didn't change. does anyone know what might account for this? thanks.