I've been tagged
Well, I've been blogtagged, as those who follow the comments on this blog probably noticed long ago. But I'm just starting to get caught up here. I guess this means that I'm supposed to post 6 random things about myself and then tag 6 other people.
Well, I think I'll pass on tagging others, but I'll put up my six.
1. I love to play volleyball when I get the chance, but hate playing "bad" volleyball.
2. I play the Caro-Kann defense to the king's pawn opening. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, join the millions who had something to do in boring grad school classes and jobs other than try to figure out chess openings.
3. I built my own computer (with help from a church member who'd done it before), took it apart, and put it back together again (and did both of those on my own.) Turns out to be no harder than building a lego project.
4. I collect Indian arrowheads, spearheads, scrapers, and whatnot. I find them when I can, and buy them when I can find authentic, reasonably priced ones. That means that I found most of the ones I've got.
5. I like snakes. I'll still avoid the poisonous ones, but a snake is kind of my ideal pet.
6. I've always wished I could play the guitar.
posted by Minister @ 4:55 PM
4 Comments:
I haven't had a chance to play chess in years, but I was always partial to a variation of the Sicilian defense which I had developed meyself.
And I too was tagged, so I guess I should do as you've done.
The Sicilian can be double-edged and unstable. There are so many possible permutations, and many require memorizing on the order of 20 moves into the game. Neither characteristic appealed to me. The classic Caro-Kann, played correctly, only involves 13 or so moves memorized out, with a few major variations. Most end up with a pawn structure advantage for black, and all along it had the potential to bust open the game if white made a major mistake (and since so many more people are more familiar with the Sicilian, it's sometimes easier to force a white mistake with the Caro-Kann). I haven't played in ages, but it would be fun to get a game on sometime.
And I'll have to swing by and check out your list.
The key for me was to not memorize scenarios. The instability is part of what I like. In a tournament in Kuwait, I actually had an opponent resign becuase he didn't understand my opening and couldn't find the holes on his own. Well, there really aren't any; they have to be made, but once they're made they can be devastating.
Perhaps once we both get moved, perhaps we could do a play by email game. Let me know if your interested.
Sounds like fun! Of course, since I hardly ever play the king's pawn openings as white, I'd never get to see your cool defense.
Of course, if we ever get the chance to meet in person (not impossible, since your new location looks to be roughly on the path between our new location and Joy's parents), we'll definitely have to try a game.
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