French Defense (1)

Get ready to play in a chess tournament this weekend.

Here's a little video to help you get your engine started. (-or to just learn a little more about the game.)



This is a solid answer to king-pawn openings. I've played both sides of this. Black's plan is to build a strong point on d5. While he will trade his queen pawn off, he will wait until it is advantageous.

White has a number of plans. The main line is to strike out with his own queen-pawn to d4, thus creating the duo in the center. Black counters by attacking the king-pawn by Nf6. White defends with Nc3.

Whenever I play this setup, I always figure the game can go either way.

Chess events in your area . . . and visit The Chess Website who created these wonderful videos.

3 Kingdoms - Chapter One - 3

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong

5 Upon receiving this book, Jue practiced night and day. Eventually, he could summon the wind and rain, and came to be known as the Great Peace Daoist. Within the first lunar month, during the first year of Emperor Ling's Zhongping era, an epidemic had spread throughout the country side. Zhang Jue made charmed water, which he used to cure the peoples' sickness. He gave himself the title of great and virtuous teacher. Jue had developed a following of more than five hundred people, who spread to the four-corners of the empire. All of them had learned how to write magic charms and chant spells. Later on as he gathered more followers, Jue organized his disciples into 36 chapters --- a large chapter numbered well over 10,000 people, whereas a small chapter might contain six or seven thousand, --- and each chapter had its own commander, who was called a general. Rumors abounded that, "The blue skies of spring are now dead, and the yellow skies of summer are upon us." People were also saying, "This is the 'Yang Wood Rat' year, first year of the sixty year cycle, a hugely auspicious turn of events in the world." Zhang Jue ordered his followers to take a piece of chalk and write "Yang Wood Rat" on the outer gate of their houses. People from the households of eight administrative regions --- Qingzhou, Youzhou, Xuzhou, Jizhou, Jingzhou, Yangzhou, Yanzhou and Yuzhou --- all worshiped the great and virtuous teacher Zhang Jue. Jue secretly sent one of his cronies, Ma Yuanyi, to offer gifts of gold and fine cloth to the eunuch Feng Xu, in order to establish friendly relations, so that he could have an inside man. Jue discussed the situation with his two brothers, saying, "The hardest thing is to win over the peoples' hearts. Right now, the people are already on our side. If we do not seize this opportunity to take over the world, it will truly be a pity." Shortly thereafter, yellow banners were made in secret, while he settled upon a date to launch his offensive. He also dispatched his disciple Tang Zhou to deliver a letter to Feng Xu. Instead, Tang Zhou went straight to the authorities and reported the plot. The emperor ordered Commander-in-chief He Jin to dispatch troops to arrest Ma Yuanyi, who was subsequently beheaded. Following that, He Jin rounded up Feng Xu and his ilk, and threw them all in prison.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.

More About This Story

This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.

Chapter Summary: Three brave men swear an oath of allegiance at the feast in the peach gardens; our heroes' first achievement is the vanquishing of the Yellow Turbans.

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This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.

Wizard of Oz - Chapter Three - 22

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum

3. How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow


When Dorothy was left alone she began to feel hungry. So she went to the cupboard and cut herself some bread, which she spread with butter. She gave some to Toto, and taking a pail from the shelf she carried it down to the little brook and filled it with clear, sparkling water. Toto ran over to the trees and began to bark at the birds sitting there. Dorothy went to get him, and saw such delicious fruit hanging from the branches that she gathered some of it, finding it just what she wanted to help out her breakfast.

Then she went back to the house, and having helped herself and Toto to a good drink of the cool, clear water, she set about making ready for the journey to the City of Emeralds.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Romance of the Three Kingdoms the great Chinese novel from the Middle Ages.

The trailer of Judy Garland's breakout movie of 1939; why wasn't the rest of Baum's Oz books made into movies?

Illustrated: cover of the book's first edition in 1900.

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A Quote I Like 4/28/10

The minute you get away from fundamentals - whether it's proper technique, work ethic, or mental preparation - the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, whatever you're doing.

- Michael Jordan

More on Michael Jordan

Photo cc Steve Lipofsky.

Innocents Abroad - Chapter Three - 22

by Mark Twain

By some happy fortune I was not seasick.--That was a thing to be proud of. I had not always escaped before. If there is one thing in the world that will make a man peculiarly and insufferably self-conceited, it is to have his stomach behave itself, the first day it sea, when nearly all his comrades are seasick. Soon a venerable fossil, shawled to the chin and bandaged like a mummy, appeared at the door of the after deck-house, and the next lurch of the ship shot him into my arms. I said:

"Good-morning, Sir. It is a fine day."

He put his hand on his stomach and said, "Oh, my!" and then staggered away and fell over the coop of a skylight.

Presently another old gentleman was projected from the same door with great violence. I said:

"Calm yourself, Sir--There is no hurry. It is a fine day, Sir."

He, also, put his hand on his stomach and said "Oh, my!" and reeled away.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

More About This Book

This travelogue cemented this rising author's reputation when it was published in 1869.

Chapter Summary: "Averaging" the Passengers--Far, far at Sea.--Tribulation among the Patriarchs--Seeking Amusement under Difficulties--Five Captains in the Ship

Photo: Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) by Matthew Brady Feb. 7, 1871.

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Kim - Chapter One - 22

by Rudyard Kipling



The first minutes of the movie; the first pages of the book.

---

'Oh, for that one but asks a question and pays money, and the appointed persons despatch all to the appointed place. That much I knew in my lamassery from sure report,' said the lama proudly.

'And when dost thou go?' The Curator smiled at the mixture of old-world piety and modern progress that is the note of India today.

'As soon as may be. I follow the places of His life till I come to the River of the Arrow. There is, moreover, a written paper of the hours of the trains that go south.'

'And for food?' Lamas, as a rule, have good store of money somewhere about them, but the Curator wished to make sure.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.

More About This Book

Kipling's novel of India and the British empire, published in 1900.

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Monday, April 26, 2010

The Illiad - Book One - 22

by Homer

Thus all day long the young men worshipped the god with song,
hymning him and chaunting the joyous paean, and the god took
pleasure in their voices; but when the sun went down, and it came
on dark, they laid themselves down to sleep by the stern cables
of the ship, and when the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn,
appeared they again set sail for the host of the Achaeans. Apollo
sent them a fair wind, so they raised their mast and hoisted
their white sails aloft. As the sail bellied with the wind the
ship flew through the deep blue water, and the foam hissed
against her bows as she sped onward. When they reached the
wide-stretching host of the Achaeans, they drew the vessel
ashore, high and dry upon the sands, set her strong props beneath
her, and went their ways to their own tents and ships.

But Achilles abode at his ships and nursed his anger. He went not
to the honourable assembly, and sallied not forth to fight, but
gnawed at his own heart, pining for battle and the war-cry.

---

Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Kim by Rudyard Kipling.

More About This Book

From the earliest days of Ancient Greece, the author(s) of this poem were contemporaries of the writers of the Bible's Old Testament.

Summary of First Book: The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles--Achilles withdraws from the war, and sends his mother Thetis to ask Jove to help the Trojans--Scene between Jove and Juno on Olympus.

Painting: The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Drolling, 1819.

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