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:
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.
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.
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More dog-eat-dog action below the fold:
"OK, so the loser has to go over to President Obama's house for dinner, right?"