i love when ILX gets all chessed out (ILX hot chess action is here)

This makes it 12-0!!! I'm like The Undertaker!

I think this is an omen that someone's going to break the winning streak soon (a la Randy Orton at the forthcoming Wrestlemania...)

i am so screwed

Another way of putting it is that, until (I assume) you reach a certain level, it often feels as if you lose because of a mistake rather than because of choices you've made. (Although perhaps they still feel like mistakes, even at that level?)

(The Problem with go is that it takes a zillion games before you even begin to have a sense of how the pieces work. It doesn't take quite as long in chess to stop flailing around pointlessly as much.)

But then I'm still working through my fabled first 50 games of go. I beat the GNU go last night with a 7x7 board and 2 starter pieces, so I felt a bit proud of that. Then I tried it again and it smote me.

By saying there is a "Problem" with either game I am not saying they are bad games. The actual Problem with chess is that it has been analysed to death, and I suspect Fischer Random Chess is the better game. But I haven't played it yet (or, I always play as if I'm playing it).

Games are so great.

(7x7 with 2 stones is impressive!)

I guess so. I tend to lose by 10 points or so with no handicap stones, though. And it won't let me take just 1 handicap stone.

I have already resigned in my Ken rematch. Dude fucking blitzkreiged me.

i just got checkmated by chris p! i totally overlooked an obvious mistake, and was way way too fixated on this one checkmate possibility i would have had if i could have only gotten him to move his one rook.

i suck at chess. but it's fun.

One handicap stone doesn't really have any meaning - it'd actually be a disadvantage, moving first but having no choice where to put the stone? Small advantages are generally done with point bonuses (or lack of the normal one).

You are maybe right, about exceptions. I should revise.

I beat the 7x7 with no handicap stones, at last. The game, on the small scale, is starting to fill me with less dread.

i would join in but:

a. i are SHOCKING at chess
b. i worry about the drain on my time
c. accessing redhotpawn at work...

But isn't the programme designed to play like a master? I mean, it beats me easier than anyone on redhotpawn, Yahoo Chess, and offline too. Not to mention that playing in real time makes things more challenging. The programme plays with my head - I think I've made a safe capture of a major rank but actually I've played a part in creating a setup that materializes 5 moves later and which ends up cutting me off from even moving.

What's a good book on strategy that's easy to follow? I took out Evans' Chess Questions Answered, which is useful, but I find its layout to not be totally user-friendly.

Tomorrow night I aim to see if chess lessons can be transferred to the kickboxing ring.

haha and just to immortalise it (before captainzep kills the streak)
http://www.lolrider.com/pwn/pawn3d.jpg