We’ve gone on holiday by mistake

Not reassembling anything until mid-October.

(Can you name the source of the post title without assistance from Mr. Google?)

It’s so rainy I don’t even feel like shooting anybody

Overall number of Boston-area shootings down 60% in June.

Chance

That was my haircutter’s name: Chance.

It seems…inauspicious.

Then again I’m glad he isn’t a bomb technician.

A very short chess opening lesson for class C and below

See this move? This Bb5? People keep playing it in blitz.

Don’t play it.

It’s a very bad move. (Or else it’s good in such a sophisticated way that most of us won’t be able to follow through on the ideas.)

Here’s why it’s so bad.

Look at the pawn structure. The pawn structure dictates what plan each player must use in the next phase of the game.

White has a central pawn chain that gives him more space, and particularly freedom to maneuver on the kingside. If Black castles short, White is likely to make a good attack. That’s White’s most obvious plan.

Black wants to undermine that pawn chain, blow it up, liquidate it to free his pieces. The current base of the pawn chain is d4. So Black will attack d4. Thus has it ever been in the French defense. His most critical way of doing that is by attacking it with a pawn (…c5) and threatening to capture. That’s Black’s most obvious plan.

So what happens after this bad Bb5 move is that Black plays …Nc6, and White typically plays Bxc6 . (What else would the bishop be doing out there? Its ability pin something to the Black king is very short-lived as Black will play …Be7 and …0-0. Either you trade it or you just completely wasted a tempo by putting it there.) Black will respond …bxc6.

Now look at the new position. What piece would have been really useful in White’s kingside attack? A killer bishop sitting on d3, scoping the g6 and h7 squares. And what again is the key to Black’s counterattack on the center? The c-pawn.

By playing Bxc6, in one fell swoop you have tossed overboard one of your best attacking pieces and also given Black AN EXTRA C-PAWN. So he’ll trade on d4 and then get to play …c5 AGAIN! Your ability to execute your plan is weakened and Black’s ability to execute his plan is strengthened.

Do not do. Many failpoints.

The man

Finally something about the pilot of the plane that landed in the Hudson:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28683246/

Resolute

There are goals, there are wishes and then there are resolutions.

A goal for 2009 is to raise my chess rating to 2156. That will be an all-time high for me, by one point. I’d prefer to do it by July 1. The 44 little points after that are gravy.

A wish is something beyond your control. I wish Chessloser would return to blogging. I can’t make him.

My resolutions are simple and clear. First, to exercise more consistently. Second, to be more considerate of other people. The second may sound a little mushy and undefined, but it is not – I have a concrete plan for achieving it and turning it into a habit. (Skeptics be damned.)

And you? Goals and resolutions?

The trophy wife

Spent an evening (some years ago) with a couple married for more than a decade.

He was smart as a whip, a very successful businessman equally comfortable with operational details or high finance and curious about any other subject you might throw at him.

She was petite, lovely, stylish, and about six beats behind throughout the evening.

You might have been tempted to think, ‘Gee buddy, nice job there, how’s this trophy wife thing working out for ya?’

But in the entire evening he never spoke crossly to her; he explained things or filled in the gaps and made her part of the conversation without the slightest hint of impatience or annoyance.

Love is a funny thing, and beautiful too.

There’s too much to learn

Editing, security, the Web. How to negotiate. How to sell. How to write marketing copy. SEO. Economics and budgeting and investing. Politics and governance. How to lead. How to follow. How to cook. How to beat Metallica’s One on the hard setting on Guitar Hero. How to play chess endings. How to play the Kan Sicilian, the French, the QGA, the QGD.

Books to write, sites to update, articles to publish, invoices to file, grass to cut, blogs to read.

Occasionally my vision-tunnel is infiltrated by a reminder about the most important thing: Learning how to be a good Dad.