Nifty one from Fischer

I'm at a work training in Grand Rapids, MI. Hopefully getting out of here won't be too bad with the 5" of snow forcasted. Anyway....

From Fischer-Spassky 1992.

Fischer (white) just played Nbxc5 which wins a pawn. Very creative. If Spassky takes the bait he stands to go down another pawn. Actually he goes down two pawns regardless.

Fischer was a Christian believer & had a bad experience with a church. It was nice to read that he didn't give it up despite the issues.

Simple Calculation

It looks like the Chess base diagram (left) might be better. It's easier, too.

I'm really low at this point - missing combinations that used to come easy. Here I self-destructed as Black, playing d5 (??).

It continued with:
11. exd5 Nxd5
12. Nxd5 Qxd5
13. Bxh7+ Kxh7
14. Qxd5
1-0

Old Days

The Summer Rain & Crew. That's me & Dad workin' a dream job - actually getting paid to take people fishing in Kona, Hawai'i back in 1988. For no reason in particular, I never wore shoes while working on the boat. Maybe just because they inhibited my cat-like reflexes. Or more like ninja reflexes. More like 60% - 40% ninja - cat.

The newspaper clipping is of angler, Richard Hartom, John Prettyman & Cpt. Jack Prettyman with the boat's largest fish to date - a 1229 lb pacific blue marlin caught in 1986.

4-2 vs. 3-3

English GM Daniel King on why he likes the 4-2 vs. a 3-3 pawn structure -

From the 4-2 side, the 2-3 disadvantage can be aided by a piece while slowly storming the opposing pawn minority on the other side of the board. I reckon space plays a factor.

Game - Feb 19, 2008

White was losing after missing the checkmate on move 25. That's the thing about doing stuff like that. You have to play very accurately & not give the opponent time to recover. So, I most likely would've lost if not for my opponent running out of time. Here's that game -

Sacrifice

As White, I gave up 3 pieces to reach this position and missed mate in two.
Can you find the next two moves that end the game?

The answer is 1. Qg6+ ...Kf8 (only move). 2. Qg8 mate. Well, I ended up winning this game anyway because the other guy ran out of time. That sucks. It was one of those positions - I had a feeling might work out if I sent everything.

Immediately after sac'ing the pieces I had an opportunity to force a draw but decided to go for the win even tho it wasn't clear to me that it was winning.

The computer's analysis even recommended the sac's (!) but I missed its perfect continuation.

So, the chess intuition isn't too bad at this point but that's about all I have right now. After a few 2 minute 12 second blitz games, I still can't calculate & I'm missing easy things. Relying on keeping it simple & a lot of feel. I'll have to post that game on here tomorrow.

Solid

When possible, I save every chess game I play & send it thru the computer chess program, Fritz version 10. Every one of them - win, lose, or draw. Fritz will analyze the game according to some adjustable parameters that are set & provide feedback in the form of comments, better moves and/or continuations. The term used for this process is "annofritzing". When the analysis is finished, the game is said to have been annofritzed instead of "annotated" or commented on. It's a very useful process in becoming a better player and most serious players are well aware of it.

A key here is to have Fritz analyze ONLY my moves.

My personal goal is to see that Fritz adds little to NOTHING to the games I play. In other words - seeing that it hasn't recommended anything better than what I've done means the computer agrees with my moves as being very solid. To do that, I have to play very good chess. If I see Fritz has added recommendations, then I'm missing those particular things and not playing to the computer program's top-level standards.

On average, I'll play one or two of these "perfect" games out of 20 or so played. Much of the reason those games are perfect is because the opponents make it easier although there are a few that stand out as exceptional. Which is motivating - like in golf. The average Joe makes enough good shots to keep him excited & playing more.

Anyway, having just returned to chess again I was suprised to play the following game. I hate to associate the word, luck, with chess but I wasn't feeling comfortable with the early endgame. Here it is -



Black resigns after queening the pawn is inevitable.

Played One!

I finally played one & didn't do too bad. Here's a 2 minute blitz game from yesterday on Free Internet Chess Server. using the BabasChess software interface. My opponent, PoolDiddy, wasn't rated but he wasn't a weak player, either. I'm going to start playing more. ....I mean it this time. :)



I wrote too many notes in this one. I'll keep it down next time.

DC Talk

These guys are good. Bummer they don't play together anymore.

Indoor Wood Boiler - Update 2

Had to whip out the digital video cam to get the still pics because of the aforementioned issue with digital camera. Maybe I'll up a video to show the cycle one of these days.

Anyway, the boiler is working really well & there's just a few things to tidy up. One is the conduit for the electricity wires & I also need to finish the cover for the reserviour.

Here are some explanatory pics -

The actuator is shown here in the closed position.






The plastic pipe shown is rated for 180 degree water. Suprisingly, it's not hot to the touch like copper or steel piping. Does this thick plastic have decent insulating properties?

Indoor Wood Boiler - Update 1

The actuator & aquastat arrived. I was bummed because I ordered a 24 volt actuator when there was a 110 available (I thought I ordered the 110). I just gave them the wrong number. Oh, well - it's cheaper & easier to throw a transformer into the circuit instead of returning the one & waiting for another, so, we'll be good to go as soon as that gets here. Safer than 110v, too.

All plumbing is roughly 80% complete & I'll be finalizing that & making the mounts for the electronics on the reserviour this afternoon after chess class (I'm teaching the fine art/critical science of chess to grades K - 10 and my son's school).

I hate plumbing under the house. I hate ANYTHING under the house. With all the recent flooding, I feel like John Rambo while doing the belly crawl thru the cold, wet, poorly luminated underside of our dwelling. The only thing missing was the AK-47 and the torch to light the way (no rats, either). The UNDERWORLD is more like it - the water, the mud, the webs, spiders, centipedes, & even just the smell of this place where only the most undesirable critters care to venture (Hmmm..... since I'm under there, does that mean I'm undesireable, too?). I happened upon a couple of them that never made it out. Not sure how they got there or even what species they were - one looked like it might've been a bat & another may have been a little red squirrel. I'm really happy I brought the water pump up inside the house last month so I never have to go under there to work on it again. On the plus side, I did find a silver-clad quarter from 1977 under there last night. It's probably worth all of 29 cents. Oh, BOY! :) PERSPECTIVE: Just a minor inconvenience that could never offset the fresh air, the peace, the spaciousness, & tranquility of living in an old farmhouse in the marshy wetlands of beautiful Calhoun county, Michigan. Gotta love it.

No new pics yet. Our digital cam ain't working - the battery door won't stay shut because the little plastic thingy broke. Makes no sense. We've gone thru two digital cameras because of the same problem - little plastic thingies that are supposed to hold the doors shut.

Progress is slower than I'd like but then again I ain't killing myself over it, either.

....stay tuned.

Indoor Wood Boiler

Since my waterline splice broke (underground) I've been heating the house with an old wood burner salvaged from the barn. It's done a nice job with the exception of two rooms upstairs and the downstairs bathroom. So, my engineering skills are out in full force again - converting this indoor wood-fired stove into an indoor wood-fired boiler. Words of wizdum: never put a water splice underground if you're using pex tubing. Even if you're in a hurry.

Frankly I'm suprised at the lack of information available on the internet to convert a mid-sized free-standing stove to a boiler that'll heat the entire house as well as domestic hot water. I'm sure it's been done & I've heard of add-on units to oil-fired systems. I read a lot of "hey, you're gonna blow that thing up" when it comes to some boiler ideas and yes, they likely woulda blew those things up.

One thing I'm looking forward to is the minimal amount of wood I'll be going thru compared to the large outdoor one I built in 2003 (Central Boiler inspired design). That thing has been very dependable but seemed to go thru more wood than I was comfortable cutting.

Anyway, I built a reserviour to sit on top of the woodburner - it's 14 x 14 x 27 and will hold a capacity of 23 gallons (most likely will keep it at or around 20). Just sitting on top, the water in it heated to 170 but it seemed like the heating took too long to be effective as a boiler. There wouldn't be enough recovery because the furnace fan removes 30 degrees out of the water that goes thru the water to air heat exchanger on every cycle. That's my outdoor boiler figure but it must be pretty much the same.

That is unless I piped water inside the box (which isn't unheard of and standard on some units that you can buy). So, I made a manifold to sit inside of the burn chamber & this will allow the fire to super-heat the water, thus allowing for a quicker recovery of water temperature.
















Here's what it looks like inside the fire chamber now. I don't think there'll be any problem getting water up to temperature quickly with this arrangement.

So far, it's been a fun project. I've got to plumb in the pump & order the motorized actuator and an aquastat for the automated function. Should be nice. In case you're wondering, it is a non-pressurized system so it's safe, too.

The key is to be sure there is no air or steam in the system. Air expands and steam creates dangerous pressure.

The actuator I'm looking at will take 15 seconds to cycle the draft door once the aquastat sends the signal that the water temp is too low. The draft door will open via the actuator and then when the water is up to temp, the aquastat will break the circuit and the actuator will close the draft door by way of spring return which is another safe feature. It'll spring return in case of power outage or failure. Also in 15 seconds for a smooth and quiet operation.

The pics are sizeable so if you're having difficulty seeing because they're a little fuzzy, right-click & select "open in new window".

More pics & updates to follow.