Just the other day i was playing with a Latvian on FICS servers. My game with him was very interesting ended as a draw after 58 moves. If i remember right he was playing black and I played smith-morra gambit, my favourite anti-sicilian system. Game was not a rated one but he was a slightly better player than me. He accepted the gambit and played usual standard moves for black. but after the mid game I managed to pin his rook and we had a draw. I shall give you some idea how smith morra is played.
Game 269: FICS server. White: tuskerking (1917) v/s Black: vilkacis (2023)
Smith-morra is gambit played by white against black's strongest defense: Sicilian. It is an anti sicilian system and works well in speed games. I shall not discuss the whole game here but only the opening and how it works. But the most important and interested part of this drawn game was the conversation after the game between me and vilkacis. I will print it here for you. I don't know why should I publish it here but it may interest you. So start.
Moves: 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3
This is smithmorra gambit accepted and from here there are various lines, almost 8 in all but not a lot of theory and study like sicilian only 8 main lines so I like this very much.
After this how game went in our case: 4...Nc6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Bc4 d6 7.0-0 Nf6 8.Qe2 Be7 9.Rd1 e5, a vary common mainline of the gambit. There is this figure for you below to have a look at the position.
Than after 58 moves game ended in a usual draw. Statistics on Chess bases says that in smith morra gambit 33% of time white wins. 49% of time black wins and 18% of time it is a draw. So we had a rare draw.
Even our conversations after the game also ended without any conclusion or result. Again we had a draw.
vilkacis: greetings from sunny Latvia
*(after the game, result; 1/2-1/2, a draw)
vilkacis: Thank you for the game
tuskerking: thanks
tuskerking: was a good game
tuskerking: sorry, i was busy calculating moves
tuskerking: didn't reply your greetings
tuskerking: hi from india
vilkacis: i was busier not thinking
tuskerking: ha :-) great.
tuskerking: playing from the work place?
vilkacis: where in India?
vilkacis: i am retired
(I hope not mentally, he plays good chess and is higher rated.)
tuskerking: western part of it
tuskerking: gujarat
vilkacis: the land of the महात्मा !! (Mahatma!!)
tuskerking: and the chess
tuskerking: are you a latvian?
vilkacis: yes
tuskerking: do you know him?
vilkacis: not personally, but i have read some of his writings
tuskerking: ....like his autobiography and his story in south africa, etc.
tuskerking: i guess so…
tuskerking: i personally don’t like much of his ideas and ideologies but i like his non violence movement...
vilkacis: the autobiography of course, but also many of his letters, my nephew has a CD with complete works
tuskerking: do you know he was in touch with leo Tolstoy for quite some time.
tuskerking: he wrote so many letters to him and count replied him very frequently
vilkacis: i would not say constant and frequent.
tuskerking: i think for quite some time they were frequent
tuskerking: it seems you know much more about him than an average indian
vilkacis: there was some correspondence, but Tolstoy died early in Gandhi's life
vilkacis: one of the great men of the 20 century
tuskerking: yeah, he was impressed by his movement. but he also was confused how britons can control such a big country
vilkacis: Gandhi was still in S Africa when Tolstoy died
tuskerking: yes
vilkacis: the Svaraj movement had not yet begun
tuskerking: after he came here in india gandhi was under the infulence of tolstoy's thoughts and ideas
vilkacis: at least he considered himself to be
tuskerking: who do you think was better? gandhi or tolstoy... for me it always is Tolstoy
* (Tolstoy certainly was a much better thinker.)
vilkacis: Gandhi, without any doubt
tuskerking: why?
tuskerking: i mean i just want to know your opinion
*(itching and irritation)
vilkacis: he accomplished much for his people, and for all humanity. He also was able to conquer himself
vilkacis: Tolstoy was just a thinker and an artist
tuskerking: what tolstoy did for his people was much more important than what gandhi did for his people
tuskerking: come and have a look around here in India, ask his people and you will find that 90 out of 100 are against him
vilkacis: Tolstoy achieved nothing
tuskerking: yeah you are right
tuskerking: he achieved nothing
tuskerking: because "nothing" was his goal
vilkacis: Tolstoy also started in a privileged position
tuskerking: that is most difficult thing to achieve... nothing.... that is what we call nirvana, moksha, enlightenment, walking with jesus etc..
tuskerking: gandhi also was a son of an aristocrat
vilkacis: an aristocrat?
tuskerking: i know traditions in kathiyawad, not exactly an aristocrat but son of a very rich man. i live in ahmedabad just few miles away from gandhi ashram...
tuskerking: mehtas, baniyas.... do you know this tradition...
vilkacis: a better than average Vaishya
tuskerking: in old india they worked as collectors
tuskerking: and they used to manipulate everything under their control
vilkacis: that is a businessman or a crook, but not an aristocrat
tuskerking: his forefathers were rich otherwise it was impossible to go to england in those days when even bread was difficult to buy
vilkacis: they certainly were not poor
tuskerking: have you ever been to india sir?? do you know how things used to work here? what is the caste system and how much important a businessman was in indian feudal system?
vilkacis: you are right, i am ignorant
*(I was rude, he was wrong.)
tuskerking: even more important than king himself sometimes if one is a really rich businessman... nothing less than an aristocrat
vilkacis: plutocrat
tuskerking: exactly, that was the case with nehru also.
tuskerking: you are not ignorant, for sure, but just our opinion differs a bit
tuskerking: but ground reality today is much different than what it was before 60 70 years
vilkacis: Gandhi nevertheless had to work as a lawyer, admittedly unsuccessfully
tuskerking: yeah..
tuskerking: because he was more like an or rather one who was listening to Englishman. their mouthpiece.
tuskerking: he always lived his life as an english man... pretending as if working for his own people
vilkacis: it is of course different, but had it not been for Gandhi the British might still rule
tuskerking: no chance !
tuskerking: after world war II london was far behind new york in economic war.
tuskerking: new york was new world economic capital and english was facing all kind of problems to rule not only over india but over more than 50 colonies
vilkacis: of course one can make all the hypotheses one wants, but history will be unchanged
*(Irritated, tired poor old man)
vilkacis: maybe colonialism was falling apart in any case
tuskerking: if you want you can read glimpses of world history by nehru and all will be much clear
tuskerking: gandhi or no gandhi, nehru or no nehru english were forced to leave india...
vilkacis: maybe
tuskerking: Hitler was the key factor for India, i think, he hit the british economic back-bone and also french and new york bankers who did the same. good for india.
vilkacis: but also because of their impoverished state they could have decide to stay and recover their strength through exploitation
tuskerking: 1930s great recession shattered america and to recover from it she needed another world war
tuskerking: american agents were doing their arms business all over europe... one very famous american agent worked with hitler also... i don’t remember his name right now. may be john bright.
vilkacis: that is certainly a unique view
tuskerking: at that time they were not able to stay any more, i tell you, coz indian rupee was even stronger than pound at that time
vilkacis: rupee was probably still gold, no?
tuskerking: yeah rupee was on gold standard while much weaker pound was off gold standard
tuskerking: they maintained this because they wanted to suck gold out of indian market
vilkacis: economics is something of which i have no understanding at all
tuskerking: it is all rosy from outside about the movement. gandhi openly biased for nehru.. Sardar patel was the most powerful candidate for the PM. gandhi was not even a very good human being in my opinon. though he was better than average.
vilkacis: as a primary historical source i am sure they are valuable.
*(nehru’s letters to indira.)
tuskerking: an enforced Mahatma. but still what he did for the poor was good
vilkacis: well there we must differ
tuskerking: what is your age sir?
vilkacis: very old
tuskerking: in your 80s? or 90s? or don’t remember anymore like me?
vilkacis: 80s
tuskerking: you must have seen both the world wars.. or may be second one.
tuskerking: was part of anyone of them? may be second worldwar?
vilkacis: no just one,
tuskerking: World War II
vilkacis: for us second war finished only in 1991
tuskerking: 1991?
tuskerking: civil war in latvia
tuskerking: ?
vilkacis: the end of Soviet occupation
tuskerking: oh yes
tuskerking: i forgot
tuskerking: before that latvia was under polish-german rule i think
vilkacis: Polish?
tuskerking: in distant past
vilkacis: first the Soviets invade, then the Nazis, then the Soviets again, but not the Poles
tuskerking: in 1100s may be
tuskerking: latvia was doing trades with poles
vilkacis: Polish-Lithuanian ruler was 16-18 century
tuskerking: i rather should say through poles with western europeans
vilkacis: Poles used to come as seasonal farm laborers
tuskerking: i am confused where is latvia? in eastern europe or in northen europe... i think it is in northen
vilkacis: between the wars Poland was a bit backward
tuskerking: was not doing trading with western european countries?
tuskerking: just like russia? a barbarian country... for so many centuries
tuskerking: and than suddenly become one of the worlds most technologically advanced country
vilkacis: not so sudden
tuskerking: my 125 year old mother is shouting
tuskerking: my food is ready i have to go
tuskerking: i will be back after sometime
*(and we never talked after that)
tuskerking: sayonara
vilkacis: all the very best
vilkacis: Namaste
tuskerking: same to you
tuskerking: namaste
Game 269: FICS server. White: tuskerking (1917) v/s Black: vilkacis (2023)
Smith-morra is gambit played by white against black's strongest defense: Sicilian. It is an anti sicilian system and works well in speed games. I shall not discuss the whole game here but only the opening and how it works. But the most important and interested part of this drawn game was the conversation after the game between me and vilkacis. I will print it here for you. I don't know why should I publish it here but it may interest you. So start.
Moves: 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3
This is smithmorra gambit accepted and from here there are various lines, almost 8 in all but not a lot of theory and study like sicilian only 8 main lines so I like this very much.
After this how game went in our case: 4...Nc6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Bc4 d6 7.0-0 Nf6 8.Qe2 Be7 9.Rd1 e5, a vary common mainline of the gambit. There is this figure for you below to have a look at the position.
Than after 58 moves game ended in a usual draw. Statistics on Chess bases says that in smith morra gambit 33% of time white wins. 49% of time black wins and 18% of time it is a draw. So we had a rare draw.
Even our conversations after the game also ended without any conclusion or result. Again we had a draw.
vilkacis: greetings from sunny Latvia
*(after the game, result; 1/2-1/2, a draw)
vilkacis: Thank you for the game
tuskerking: thanks
tuskerking: was a good game
tuskerking: sorry, i was busy calculating moves
tuskerking: didn't reply your greetings
tuskerking: hi from india
vilkacis: i was busier not thinking
tuskerking: ha :-) great.
tuskerking: playing from the work place?
vilkacis: where in India?
vilkacis: i am retired
(I hope not mentally, he plays good chess and is higher rated.)
tuskerking: western part of it
tuskerking: gujarat
vilkacis: the land of the महात्मा !! (Mahatma!!)
tuskerking: and the chess
tuskerking: are you a latvian?
vilkacis: yes
tuskerking: do you know him?
vilkacis: not personally, but i have read some of his writings
tuskerking: ....like his autobiography and his story in south africa, etc.
tuskerking: i guess so…
tuskerking: i personally don’t like much of his ideas and ideologies but i like his non violence movement...
vilkacis: the autobiography of course, but also many of his letters, my nephew has a CD with complete works
tuskerking: do you know he was in touch with leo Tolstoy for quite some time.
tuskerking: he wrote so many letters to him and count replied him very frequently
vilkacis: i would not say constant and frequent.
tuskerking: i think for quite some time they were frequent
tuskerking: it seems you know much more about him than an average indian
vilkacis: there was some correspondence, but Tolstoy died early in Gandhi's life
vilkacis: one of the great men of the 20 century
tuskerking: yeah, he was impressed by his movement. but he also was confused how britons can control such a big country
vilkacis: Gandhi was still in S Africa when Tolstoy died
tuskerking: yes
vilkacis: the Svaraj movement had not yet begun
tuskerking: after he came here in india gandhi was under the infulence of tolstoy's thoughts and ideas
vilkacis: at least he considered himself to be
tuskerking: who do you think was better? gandhi or tolstoy... for me it always is Tolstoy
* (Tolstoy certainly was a much better thinker.)
vilkacis: Gandhi, without any doubt
tuskerking: why?
tuskerking: i mean i just want to know your opinion
*(itching and irritation)
vilkacis: he accomplished much for his people, and for all humanity. He also was able to conquer himself
vilkacis: Tolstoy was just a thinker and an artist
tuskerking: what tolstoy did for his people was much more important than what gandhi did for his people
tuskerking: come and have a look around here in India, ask his people and you will find that 90 out of 100 are against him
vilkacis: Tolstoy achieved nothing
tuskerking: yeah you are right
tuskerking: he achieved nothing
tuskerking: because "nothing" was his goal
vilkacis: Tolstoy also started in a privileged position
tuskerking: that is most difficult thing to achieve... nothing.... that is what we call nirvana, moksha, enlightenment, walking with jesus etc..
tuskerking: gandhi also was a son of an aristocrat
vilkacis: an aristocrat?
tuskerking: i know traditions in kathiyawad, not exactly an aristocrat but son of a very rich man. i live in ahmedabad just few miles away from gandhi ashram...
tuskerking: mehtas, baniyas.... do you know this tradition...
vilkacis: a better than average Vaishya
tuskerking: in old india they worked as collectors
tuskerking: and they used to manipulate everything under their control
vilkacis: that is a businessman or a crook, but not an aristocrat
tuskerking: his forefathers were rich otherwise it was impossible to go to england in those days when even bread was difficult to buy
vilkacis: they certainly were not poor
tuskerking: have you ever been to india sir?? do you know how things used to work here? what is the caste system and how much important a businessman was in indian feudal system?
vilkacis: you are right, i am ignorant
*(I was rude, he was wrong.)
tuskerking: even more important than king himself sometimes if one is a really rich businessman... nothing less than an aristocrat
vilkacis: plutocrat
tuskerking: exactly, that was the case with nehru also.
tuskerking: you are not ignorant, for sure, but just our opinion differs a bit
tuskerking: but ground reality today is much different than what it was before 60 70 years
vilkacis: Gandhi nevertheless had to work as a lawyer, admittedly unsuccessfully
tuskerking: yeah..
tuskerking: because he was more like an or rather one who was listening to Englishman. their mouthpiece.
tuskerking: he always lived his life as an english man... pretending as if working for his own people
vilkacis: it is of course different, but had it not been for Gandhi the British might still rule
tuskerking: no chance !
tuskerking: after world war II london was far behind new york in economic war.
tuskerking: new york was new world economic capital and english was facing all kind of problems to rule not only over india but over more than 50 colonies
vilkacis: of course one can make all the hypotheses one wants, but history will be unchanged
*(Irritated, tired poor old man)
vilkacis: maybe colonialism was falling apart in any case
tuskerking: if you want you can read glimpses of world history by nehru and all will be much clear
tuskerking: gandhi or no gandhi, nehru or no nehru english were forced to leave india...
vilkacis: maybe
tuskerking: Hitler was the key factor for India, i think, he hit the british economic back-bone and also french and new york bankers who did the same. good for india.
vilkacis: but also because of their impoverished state they could have decide to stay and recover their strength through exploitation
tuskerking: 1930s great recession shattered america and to recover from it she needed another world war
tuskerking: american agents were doing their arms business all over europe... one very famous american agent worked with hitler also... i don’t remember his name right now. may be john bright.
vilkacis: that is certainly a unique view
tuskerking: at that time they were not able to stay any more, i tell you, coz indian rupee was even stronger than pound at that time
vilkacis: rupee was probably still gold, no?
tuskerking: yeah rupee was on gold standard while much weaker pound was off gold standard
tuskerking: they maintained this because they wanted to suck gold out of indian market
vilkacis: economics is something of which i have no understanding at all
tuskerking: it is all rosy from outside about the movement. gandhi openly biased for nehru.. Sardar patel was the most powerful candidate for the PM. gandhi was not even a very good human being in my opinon. though he was better than average.
vilkacis: as a primary historical source i am sure they are valuable.
*(nehru’s letters to indira.)
tuskerking: an enforced Mahatma. but still what he did for the poor was good
vilkacis: well there we must differ
tuskerking: what is your age sir?
vilkacis: very old
tuskerking: in your 80s? or 90s? or don’t remember anymore like me?
vilkacis: 80s
tuskerking: you must have seen both the world wars.. or may be second one.
tuskerking: was part of anyone of them? may be second worldwar?
vilkacis: no just one,
tuskerking: World War II
vilkacis: for us second war finished only in 1991
tuskerking: 1991?
tuskerking: civil war in latvia
tuskerking: ?
vilkacis: the end of Soviet occupation
tuskerking: oh yes
tuskerking: i forgot
tuskerking: before that latvia was under polish-german rule i think
vilkacis: Polish?
tuskerking: in distant past
vilkacis: first the Soviets invade, then the Nazis, then the Soviets again, but not the Poles
tuskerking: in 1100s may be
tuskerking: latvia was doing trades with poles
vilkacis: Polish-Lithuanian ruler was 16-18 century
tuskerking: i rather should say through poles with western europeans
vilkacis: Poles used to come as seasonal farm laborers
tuskerking: i am confused where is latvia? in eastern europe or in northen europe... i think it is in northen
vilkacis: between the wars Poland was a bit backward
tuskerking: was not doing trading with western european countries?
tuskerking: just like russia? a barbarian country... for so many centuries
tuskerking: and than suddenly become one of the worlds most technologically advanced country
vilkacis: not so sudden
tuskerking: my 125 year old mother is shouting
tuskerking: my food is ready i have to go
tuskerking: i will be back after sometime
*(and we never talked after that)
tuskerking: sayonara
vilkacis: all the very best
vilkacis: Namaste
tuskerking: same to you
tuskerking: namaste
hmmm...soon we should have some kind of clash. i challenge you for a game of chess. the best game invented by mankind.
ReplyDeletei use only one ID everywhere, tuskerking @yahoo @ICC @FICS and all other servers.
ReplyDeletewhat kind of chess you play? i mean open games, closed games with d4 open or semi open games? i love to play and study different kind of gambits.
french open mainly...d2-d4. sometimes najdorf with early Nf6. but when i am with black...all my moves go for a toss. you can dictate me to move as you wish. but still, i can pose a grave challenge.
ReplyDeletefrench-tarrasch with delayed castling is my favourite one and i play best with black. i study black openings and gambits also.
ReplyDeleteyeah! that would be great! white mine and black yours. de la grandi mefistofilis! (this is a bengali lit character's war/eureka cry)
ReplyDelete