Jim West On Chess: PCG at Chess.com

Thursday, March 6, 2008

PCG at Chess.com

To date, my most viewed post at Jim West Talks Chess is last Saturday's entry on the Philidor Counter Gambit. It has also generated the most comments.

By a remarkable coincidence, I defeated the same opponent with the PCG one day later at the Marshall Chess Club. Surprised by a move 7.Bb5+ that I had never seen before, I did not find the best continuation. My 11...Kf8 could have led to White's advantage after 12.Nc3 which my opponent missed. Instead of 11...Kf8, Fritz9 thinks that Black is slightly better after 11...g6 12.Qxh7 Ne7 13.h4 Bd4 14.Bg5 Qg7 15.Qxg7 Bxg7 16.Bxe7 Bxh8 17.Ba3 b4 18.Bxb4 Bxb2 19.Bc3 Bxa1 20.Bxa1 Nc6.

Yesterday, in yet another coincidence, Frederic Fournier posted this game at his Contre Gambit Philidor blog.

"My study of chess was accompanied by a strong attraction to music, and it was probably thanks to this that from childhood I became accustomed to thinking of chess as an art, and have never regarded it as anything else, for all the science and sport involved in it. And, moreover, an art which in some ways is closer to music than it is customary to think. Perhaps chess and music are drawn together by laws of harmony and beauty which are difficult to formulate and difficult to grasp, or perhaps by something else." - Vasily Smyslov