Any chess players here?

I know, I know, I'm an elitest, but it's a pretty good game.

When you're up a piece or two, maybe just up an exchange as long as position is good, then you just simplify to the end game. The trick is to know when the end game is winnable. Some may complain that it lacks the elegance of a direct win in the middle of the melee, but that's not the way you play the game most successfully. Of course, many players will recognize what's going on and resign rather than thrash through the whole inevitability, but that's not the point, the point is that the game is won.

Senator Obama has the endgame won. He's just swapping pieces to get them off the board.

Mate in 6 more moves.

I play. Well done.

Soon will be checkmate!

and quite apropos as a point of discussion about GE. Electoral maps and micro targeting of voters is nothing if not a big chess game.

Obama strategists show themselves to be superior and will do well in November.

It's hard to put a price on all of the ground game he's built up during this primary season.

Chess Club, Chess Team,and the downtown Cincinnati YMCA with the old guys on Thursday night. Burned out on it.

But it is a good analogy. A grandmaster who continues to play the endgame after a certain point looks a little silly.

if you enjoyed it enough to get good you'll enjoy it again after a lay off. In the mean time, learn to play Go, but don't even try to get good at it. That's another whole lifetime wasted scrunched over a game board. :-)

Of course, there are some great Go analogies to be made to the current political situation, but it's elitist enough making chess references!

Yes, I believe that Obama is playing an excellent game of chess.

1) Super Delegate deluge Wed/Thus

2) Major Endorsement Fri

3) some Clinton super delegates endorse Saturday

4) Obama negotiates compromise deal on MI and FL Sunday

5) Victory in Oregon, major speech with national audience

6) Clinton's financials are released on Wednesday.

supposed to be totally discredited until it wins while everybody is still trying to catch their breath. Some sort of a Nimzovitchian thingie that no one understands until it's too late.

Right?

and win playing over there while your opponent dinks around in the middle of the board where the center used to be.

swapping pieces is just bad form.

to look that far in, and when you're up the exchange or more, like Rich said, trading down is almost always the winning strategy.

I wonder if West Virginia move is going to be referred to as the Obama Gambit in the future....

that leaves an opponent's ball next to the hole with no shot left.

chess wasn't seeing the same kind of resurgence that poker was. It talked about the element of randomness that poker has and that chess lacks and speculated that this might be part of the reason that chess was unpopular. I'm not trying to say that politics is like poker, but the randomizing elements of politics are worth noting.

Besides, when we say stuff in chess like "mate in 3", we're assuming that the person who's set up to win will play perfectly. Obama's been in a number of positions now where a win was in reach and he failed to pull it out. Maybe someone better than Obama could play to mate from his position, but I'm willing to stick it out and see if he drops the ball yet again.

And if we play to a stalemate, we get to play a tie-breaker at the convention.

There's no reason to get out.

balance and the position, that's when it's time to simplify. It avoids the pitfalls of trying for the slam dunk win and just grinds out the victory. You're right, he might make a bad move, but he'll far more likely just swap down to a nice simple endgame victory.

Chess has enough complexity that for most people it seems like there's an element of randomness; you have to be pretty damn good to play the entire game as if it's deterministic.

if I sneak up behind you with this heavy ass wooden tournament board and whack you up alongside the head while you're looking for someone to poke with that knife.

Never get focused on the weapon...

(It's an extened rally, folks, which one will falter?)

and you hadn't even noticed that! (see my sig line)

However, I have to go to work in the morning, so I'll offer a draw.

Translation?

"Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam."

I have a catapult. Unless you give me all your money, I will hurl a huge stone at your head.

and I had long chess games with them too.

BTW sailors around the world thought they were
pretty good at both.

Go Fish is Hillary's game.

Once, years ago when I was working nights, I started a chess game when it was slow. When the shift was over we carried the board over to a bar to finish it. The other guy got drunker and drunker and when it was inevitable, instead of reasoning he threw the board across the room. That ended up in a fight, but no knives.

six moves?

I know chess too. :)


But your analogy is apt. You're right, all he needs to do is trade down. The stupid thing's over.

Off the topic but I've never played correspondence chess, do DUers?

That kind of thinking won't win this game.

And they are both on the same team to boot?

C.) I only said that the endgame isn't until November
D.) yeah, he ought to do the party a favor and drop out but he can't and he won't so we'll just have to take our cases to the convention I guess.

And each game has an endgame. The goal is to win the tournament, the result of each game, or each set of moves, while interesting, is not conclusive.

when I first opened this post.

One night in Bangkok by Murray Head http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDh3tu49obc A song about chess. circa 1985

What a coincidence!

Chess is a great game. It teaches you a lot about life.

The problem in comparing elections to chess is that in chess all the pieces are right in front of you on the board. In real life a secret piece might suddenly emerge and ruin your game. There is a possibility that Hillary might know the location of that piece and will put it into play just before Obamz's checkmate.

"One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble...."

"I can feel the devil walking next to me"

Barack Obama is using his knight to totally eviscerate the major pieces
behind Hillary's advancing pawns.

My old lefty friend was a chess expert.

its a great game!

and a very good analogy. at some point the opponent is literally only playing in case you do something absolutely ridiculous with your queen, because in reality most players will resign.

2 rooks a bishop and a knight to Clinton's King and pawn. SHe's dancing around the board hoping for a stalemate.

realized that she's already lost.

But that's an excellent analogy.

It's definitely mate if four moves, no less (May 20, May 31, June 1, June3)

If Clinton fouls up, it could be mate in 2 (May 20, May 31) or even one.