Chess Club Thursday

Thursday night featured two new players joining our ranks (get it?) - welcome:  Jason Black and Alex Bates.

Two Vice-Presidents are offered up:  Taylor Walton and Shane Breuss.

Thursday was more of a party than a chess club meeting.  The school unblocked You Tube and so strange and funny videos were brought up on the big screen, despite my efforts to keep loading GM games.  Oh well.  Think Like a King software was a huge attraction with Nick now in the lead for the executive set, while Shane and Taylor are still plugging away and nearly caught up. 

Bughouse dominated the night with more serious games played by yours truly and Erwin Kett.  Desmond was in a losing position, but then pulled out a surprise check mate on Erwin in an end game that made dad proud.  He sucker-punched Erwin by providing an enticing mate in two that Erwin could not refuse, and then removed a guard on the 2nd rank allowing his rook free access to the first rank and a  mate.

I explored the orangutan opening and won 3 games against Chris, Andrew, and Erwin.  The orangutan is also known as the Sokolsky Opening or the Polish Opening, and thrives on queenside tactics after 1. b4!.   I was surprised at the success of the opening game and the focus by which I played.  I enjoyed how katy-whompus the board looked during the middle game because of asymmetry.  I also refused to make a move until I was able to concentrate on the board.  This was a huge feat as players were loud, rude videos were guarded against, Desmond and Jake were amping up on soda, and several kids were on my computer.  Plus I kept smelling dead animal.  It turns out, today, that I found my cooler with a rotten pair of deer lungs in the lab that my Physiology class was dissecting two days ago and neglected cleaning up.  It really was a dead animal!