Saturday, February 14, 2009

Castling: One Giant Leap for Civilization

Tactics

It was an average day. I'm 148 problems from hitting the 4000 mark.

Logical Chess

I read through game 21 (about the Colle System). This is what Chernev said after White castled: "This remarkable coup, by means of which the king is spirited away to safety while the rook magically appears on the scene, is probably the most significant contribution to civilization since the invention of the wheel."

Now that is a hot sports opinion!

Play

I didn't feel much like playing a longish game, so I played a couple of blitz games. I lost to a player I played a few days ago. Then I posted another seek. Three people accepted, but aborted before a move was made. 15 minutes later, someone finally accepted my seek. I did my best to play the Colle. He ended up putting his bishop on f5 which I didn't know what to do with. So I improvised. Eventually I traded my knight for his white bishop and then I got my bishops directly in the center bearing down on his queenside castled king. I won with a checkmate.

1 comment:

  1. Congrats with the win but remember that the Colle is more a positional opening then a tactical opening so finding good spots for your pieces has to have priority above looking for neat combinations.

    Offcourse, if there is a combination present in which you win a piece then dont hesitate to do so.

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