Sat. Nite Chess Thread 04-21-2012: Dog Eat Dog Edition [OregonMuse]

Woof woof. Welcome back once again to the legendary Saturday Nite AoSHQ Chess Thread, which ace apparently doesn't know about. So everybody keep quiet and don't tell him.

In keeping with the AoSHQ meme of the week, I wanted to show an opening or variation with some dog reference attached to it, but didn't come up with much. This saddens me. There's no Schnauzer Gambit or Samoyed Opening. And why is it named the "Fried Liver Attack"? It seems to me that it could just have easily been called the "Fried Poodle Attack".

What I actually found was something called the Mad Dog Attack, which is a variation of the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit. It goes like this:

1.d4 d5 2.e4 dxe4 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.f3 exf3 5.Nxf3 g6 6.Bc4 Bg7 7.h4

I guess that pawn push is supposed to strike terror in Black's heart. Perhaps it does. It might be more effective if you were foaming at the mouth while playing it. Arf.

This week's famous chess game is Steinitz-Von Bardeleben, which earned the brilliancy prize at Hastings, 1895. It's fun to see Steinitz's rook attach itself to the Black king like a Yorky with an old shoe -- and Black can't do anything except run like a whipped cur.

Here is the game score:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 d5 8.
exd5 Nxd5 9. O-O Be6 10. Bg5 Be7 11. Bxd5 Bxd5 12. Nxd5 Qxd5 13. Bxe7 Nxe7 14. Re1 f6 15. Qe2 Qd7 16. Rac1 c6 17. d5 cxd5 18. Nd4 Kf7 19. Ne6 Rhc8 20. Qg4 g6 21. Ng5+ Ke8 22. Rxe7+ Kf8 (22... Qxe7 23. Rxc8+ Rxc8 24. Qxc8+) (22... Kxe7 23. Re1+ Kd6 24. Qb4+ Kc7 25. Ne6+ Kb8 26. Qf4+ {and White wins}) 23. Rf7+ Kg8 24. Rg7+ 1-0

This game was also notable for a craptacular display of bad sportsmanship by Von Bardeleben, who, instead of nutting up and resigning like a man when he realized his position was lost, started to hump Steinitz's leg in frustration. No, actually, what he did instead was stomp out of the playing hall in a huff. Steinitz technically won the game on time. But everyone knew that he had, you know, beaten Von Bardeleben like a dog.

Losing at chess is hard. I think we all know this. But some take it a lot harder than others.

On an administrative note, I may be switching the chess thread to Sunday night. It depends on when they're going to be scheduling the new gaming thread, which I think is going to be a monster hit with the morons. So if they're going to put it up on Sat. night, I'm afraid my meager little chess thread is going to get all squished. So Sun. nite may be better. We'll see.

Thanks to those of you who have sent me tips for this thread. They may be sent to me at

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More dog-eat-dog action below the fold:

posted by Code Red at 08:00 PM

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