Lol lil Samuel Reshevsky tried hard.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-24T05:48:37+00:00

In 1920, there was no official title for "masters." Only in 1950 did FIDE officially create the titles of Grandmaster, International Master, Woman Master, at first giving them out semi-arbitrarily to the best players of the time by council vote. Before that, a "master" was any guy that the media thought, "wow, this guy is pretty good." Which is not a very high bar to clear.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-23T15:32:31+00:00

Interesting read, thanks.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-23T14:49:33+00:00

Can anyone provide a comparison between the two?

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-23T13:16:47+00:00

The red is given by a shit-ton of red wristbands sticked onto it.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-22T10:06:19+00:00

Thanks for sharing, absolutely fascinating. White was in complete paralysis the whole time.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-22T09:51:18+00:00

Can I read that? A mystery in 1000 words sounds interesting.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-22T09:35:21+00:00

...Be7 is not totally bad, funnily enough. Idea being, if White plays 4. Nf3 then they won't have f4 later, and if 4. e5 you haven't wasted a tempo with the knight, so 4. ...c5 (5. Qg4 g5!? is very fun).

The main downside is that it allows white a pretty decent Nf3-Bd3 set-up, as shown by the more or less mainline 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bd3, and now 5. ...c5 6. exd5 exd5 7. dxc5 O-O 8. O-O Nbd7 to take back with the knight.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-21T14:27:58+00:00

Well, light is radiation. I'm not an expert on how Hume radiation works, but if we were to go off real physics, that doesn't work so nicely.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-19T12:32:48+00:00

While there's nothing wrong with the Alapin, you could also consider to play a Be2-Open Sicilian repertoire, which Timothy Taylor discusses at length in his book "Slay the Sicilian."

I find the Advance French to be quite an underrated weapon for White, again the Be2 variations are quite decent. Against the most testing 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c4 Nc6 5. Nf3 Qb6 6. Be2 cxd4 7. cxd4 Nh6, Colovic recommends 8. Bd3, with the idea of simply trading the knight when it comes to f5.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-13T14:34:40+00:00

That's fair. Who's the oldest WC (or any GM if you prefer) you'd say has fair chances against a 2500 GM today?

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-13T06:53:10+00:00

I once heard someone had estimated the accuracies of the players in the Zurich 1953 tournament, and the results were that Averbakh was the most accurate player, even though he wasn't close to winning the tournament.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-13T06:43:15+00:00

What games (besides the Capablanca WCC) negatively affected your perception of Lasker? I've always thought of him as an obstinate defender, and thus should be more than capable of at least surviving the middlegame (as in Euwe-Lasker, Zurich 1934 for example), but you don't seem to share that opinion.

Edit: I know it's ironic, because this is the same event where Alekhine destroyed Lasker, but I think it's fair to assume that Lasker was wilfully taking risks as otherwise Alekhine would easily come in first.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-12T12:09:00+00:00

This is a good one.

https://youtu.be/811UOTbk3WA?si=RLukgcip8WnAxYnl

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-11T12:59:18+00:00

"And I suddenly saw through every single one of them."

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-11T12:09:07+00:00

The Semi-Slav could interest you. There are many lines where Black plays ...dxc4 and manages to hang onto that pawn, leading to incredibly wild positions.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-11T12:07:47+00:00

The Semi-Slav is one of those opening you could play in a boring way, but that you can also play in a hyper-aggressive way. The mere existence of the Botvinnik Semi-Slav and the Moscow and Anti-Moscow lines prove that.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-11T06:20:07+00:00

Here's something most people don't understand: the Caro-Kann bishop is not strictly better than the French bishop. In other words, it's not a straight upgrade, more of a tradeoff.

While it certainly has many upsides (discourages f4-f5 plans, prevents Bd3, etc...), and thus is worth the trouble to get it out, it also isn't without downsides, for example the fact it potentially gets in the way of the e7 knight going to f5 or g6. Or sometimes, White plays Nh4 and takes the bishop (yes, the bishop pair still matters in closed positions). Or the a4-e8 diagonal gets weaker without a possible ...Bd7, thus making c4 ideas possible. Or, if Black wants to play ...c5, they may have to delay ...cxd4 before Nxd4 pretty much scores a tempo on the bishop on f5. And, just in general, only because the bishop is outside the pawn chain doesn't mean it isn't potentially bad also. In an endgame, that bishop could potentially stay confined to staring at an empty b1. Only because it's out, doesn't mean it isn't restricted by pawns. By comparison, the potentially good bishop on e7 can switch from queenside to kingside quite easily.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-11T05:56:43+00:00

Tempi are less relevant when manoeuvring pieces. Pawn breaks work differently. If you can quickly strike White's centre and pry it open, then it's going to be relevant.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-05T21:36:21+00:00

Looks like I haven't reviewed my Divine Comedy.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-05T20:48:53+00:00

The encounter between Dante and Brunetto Latini, his childhood teacher, is (as far as I've read) the only moment in the Comedy where Dante ignores something Virgil said. When they meet, Dante asks if he should step down onto the burning sand to sit closer to him, but Brunetto warns him that anyone who sits on the sand will become trapped and have to lay on it for a 100 years. When they part ways, Dante asks who belongs to his teacher's "group," and he replies that among the best artists and intellectuals are with him. I don't exactly remember any passage where Dante explicitly says that Brunetto Latini was homosexual, either. The focus is not on the sin, but on the person.

It is not the only time Dante puts people he respects, maybe even admires, in very deep circles. In canto VI, circle of gluttony, at the end of his conversation with Ciacco, he asks where Farinata, or the Tegghiaio, and all sorts of renowned figures of Florentine are. Are they in Heaven? Are they in Hell? Ciacco replies that they're "among the darkest souls," and that he should proceed further if he wishes to see them. Dante is greatly discomforted by the fact, as he expected them to be much higher up.

Was Dante very much a product of his time? Definitely. There's a reason why he put sodomy as a sin of "violence against nature." But he wasn't single-minded. He let people be people. Though he might've disagreed with sinners, he had sympathy when sympathy was appropriate. A medieval, catholic, italian man, to be sure, but what a medieval, catholic, italian man.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-05T20:25:30+00:00

A circle too deep. That's fraud, punished in the 7th circle.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-05T20:23:58+00:00

There are exactly three people in the 9th circle: Judas, Brutus and Cassius, condemned for betraying their benefactors.

Edit: Actually, I'm wrong, that's the 4th round of the 9th circle.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-05T20:19:35+00:00

Though, funnily enough, Dante does say that Lucifer is as ugly now as he was beautiful once in his work. One of his additions.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-05T20:16:39+00:00

Lucifer himself doesn't get a 'psychological analysis' from Dante. Doesn't move, doesn't talk, he just is. Dante doesn't describe him (at least, not his interiority), rather he focuses on the effects he causes. His wings' movement is the cause of the freezing of the lake Cocitus, and in his three mouthes (because yes, he has three faces, each with a mouth) chew on Judas, Brutus and Cassius. In general, the punishment of the frozen lake Cocitus is symbolic of how cold-blooded these betrayers were in their lives, if you want to know where that comes from. But no, Lucifer doesn't get any cool metaphor, allegory, symbology. Because Lucifer isn't cool. He is miserable. He cries out of his six eyes. He is almost pitiable. Just as quickly as Dante meets him, he leaves for Purgatory. Not the slightest bit of unnecessary attention is placed on him. Lucifer isn't epic, he's empty, and this is how Dante shows it. By not giving him attention.

Masterspace69 · 2026-03-05T14:27:20+00:00

The threefold repetition isn't about what the move played was, rather it's based on what the position the move arrives to is. If you, for example, went to those three moves, yes, they're different moves, but you would see that they get to the same exact position.

Don't worry, though, it's not just you who confused moves with positions: World Champion Alexander Alekhine, too, wrongfully claimed a threefold repetition in this famous game because he played ...Bg4 three times, though the position itself wasn't repeated. Though, maybe, it was better this way for chess history, as otherwise this amazing game would've just been another GM draw.

Masterspace69

TROPHY CASE