I have played chess my whole life but was never very good at it. Every few years I would try to play a chess computer, would easily defeat the first level and find myself completely nuked at level 2. The learning curve was too steep, I just didn’t get it. Summer of 2020, I started getting chess videos recommended to me by youtube. I watched a few, figured out a few small things, and decided to try some things out. On January 9, 2021, I created an account on chess.com.
This is my story.
There are 4 speeds of play at chess.com: Daily, rapid, blitz, and bullet. I am going to focus on rapid alone in this article. I suck at blitz and bullet is mostly stupid. I play those to test out new openings, but rapid I consider my “real” level. I mostly play 10 minute games (each player has 10 minutes total to complete their moves), but have played some 15|10 games (15 mins total, plus 10 second increment per move). I wish 10|5 was more standard, playing with an increment makes more sense. Rarely does the clock matter in the 10 minute games, but those times it does come into play, there are some strategies to drain your opponents clock that won’t work with an increment.
Okay, enough intro: stats time.
First, I played 3 Daily games in the last year. In two, I defeated Don Escaped Texas and in the other I lost to OMWC’s son.
Rapid I have played 1244 games. My record is 601-577-66. Because chess.com tries to match you up with someone with similar Elo ratings, your record will always be about even. A slight winning record, as in my case, indicates some improvement.
With white, I am 319-253-36. As black, 282-324-30. White has a small advantage and it shows there.
A quick interlude on chess Elo ratings. The ratings formula means that for a 400 pt difference, the better player would win 10 of 11 matches. For 800 pt difference, 100 of 101. For 1600 pt difference, like between me and the world’s best players, 10,000 out of 10,001. Current world champion Magnus Carlsen has a tendency to get drunk and play online, so that is the only way the 1 could occur. And even then, I doubt it.
The default starting Elo on chess.com is 800 (it will start you at 400 or 1200 based on certain settings, but I started with the normal 800 – and I think if you are a titled player, it will start you with your actual FIDE rating, but I am not sure about that). My current rating is 1094. I peaked in September at 1210. My best win is over a player ranked 1215. My longest win streak is 8, first done in Feb of 2021, but matched a few times since. I think my longest losing streak is 7, but chess.com doesn’t report that.
In the last 90 days, the average opponent I beat was 1094, the average loss was to an 1120. I think in that area is my real range. I generally do well against opponents in the 1000s, and poorly when they get in the high 1100s, and play fairly evenly against 1100-1150. I had a horrible stretch in December where I tanked to almost 1000, so I have been moving back up from that.
It seems to be common, a nice win streak gets you a new high that you can’t really hold, followed by a losing streak that takes you too low and you have to grind back up. Same happened to me when I first broke 1100 in May of 2021. I crashed back to the 900s before grinding my way back. I broke my old high in September and went on a streak that pushed me up over 1200. But that didn’t last.
Anyway, it’s been a fun year. After 45 years or so of futzing around at chess, I feel like I know something about the game now. And realize just how bad I suck at it.
I leave you with a chess puzzle. And a song. Yes, it is obvious, but I didn’t know an extended version existed.
White to Move. Mate in 2.
I am terrible at chess. My brother always brutalized me at it. I like reading about the learning curve, makes me feel better about my abysmal play strategies.
I taught my kids the rules, they were quickly beating me and I quit playing. I’m a sore loser.
It is the nice thing about chess.com (or lichess). It matches you against someone of roughly equal ability. There are some very funny videos or epic matches between players ranked about 600, which are amazingly bad to someone like me not that high above them. You will see someone hang a queen and go untaken for 10 moves. The thing is, it doesn’t take much development at all to go from 600 to 1000. Its about learning a few fundamental rules and paying enough attention to not just flat give away a piece and to notice when your opponent gives away a piece.
At my level, most games are decided by who screws up and gives something away first. Not any grand strategy. At 600 level, the game is decided by who screws up the most and who screws up last.
Is there a level 4? Because that is what I would be. Like watching a drunk distracted person play.
I have seen a few of those and think…how am I only 400 ranked above this?
Yeah, me too. And then I hang a queen and go, oh yeah, thats how.
The learning curve is steep all the way up. I feel like I have moved up about 2 notches. But no idea how to improve again. Maybe it will happen gradually, or maybe something will click, and I will shoot up another notch. No idea.
I used to play as a kid. My grandfather taught me. I never beat him once. I could beat most of the other kids I could talk into playing.
I suck hard at chess and all strategy games. C’est la vie.
Its odd. IRL, I do better than most people at thinking steps ahead (which isn’t hard, most people don’t think ahead at all). In chess, I could never see the steps ahead.
Quite a few good players don’t bother to think X moves ahead. Rather, they memorize a vast number of board positions and the highest value move for each one.
That might work for end games, and openings, but the middle game requires the ability to plan ahead many moves. There are too many combinations for that to work.
Makes sense. You probably can tell that I don’t actually play chess – everything I know about the game is courtesy of my nephew, who is a fairly good scholastic tournament player.
they memorize a vast number of board positions and the highest value move for each one
Also not an option.
OT: TPTB – I noticed my 3rd episode is still pending, not scheduled. If something else is in the slot tonight, that’s fine – just checking.
I was super late handing in my post for Thursday. I bet others were too, it was just something about this long weekend. Your post may have been a contingency plan.
Nah, I just missed a day. I got both of you scheduled.
Please report to the COSC!
Drat…Lemme fix that.
I get my kicks above the waistline, suction.
suction?
It is sunshine.
I thought he was making a joke that was going over my head.
What he does with his shop vac is none of our business.
Above the waistline suction. He has a nursing fetish.
Sunshine?
Forget it, man, he’s rolling.
Covid Scotland: Case rates lowest in unvaccinated as double-jabbed elderly drive rise in hospital admissions
Everyone worrying about ADE a year ago was right.
Things we now know:
1) Natural immunity is far more robust (about 27 times) than the jab-induced immunity.
2) Multiple jabs actually appear to harm your immune system response.
But by all means, let’s make everyone get jabbed so the people who were jabbed can’t tell how badly duped they were and start assembling some heads on pikes.
“”It does appear weird until you start breaking things down,” said Professor Rowland Kao, chair of veterinary epidemiology and data science at Edinburgh University.”
Umm,
1. Vet
2. I thought we weren’t going to break things down into, like, age groups, co-morbidities
I was going to point out the same thing, as well as “hitting the more affluent communities”. Yeah, right.
It’s the same university bullshit games that have been going on for decades. When the aggregate data doesn’t show the desired outcome, break things down to pretend it’s only one bad slice. When the micro data shows too many bad things, aggregate the data to hide the problem.
I will jump on, play a couple of games and that is about it.
King me.
Given TresCool’s challenge yesterday, I will pass.
I’m still laughing at that one. It is definitely in the queue to roll out with the right group in the right situation. I’m thinking the Annual Fishing Trip will be the right group.
Yeah, once I got over the PTSD I started looking for suitable targets.
PTSD implies you have found yourself in that situation before….
I used to play as a kid. Every day in middle school recess, I’d play and (almost always) lose. But the interesting thing (to me) was when there were fewer pieces on the board, I’d do better. Without a handicap, if we started with only one half of board set up, I’d always beat the guy who would always beat me with all the pieces present.
You clearly needed additional memory modules for your cortical subprocessing plane.
I’d like to trade some wood for some sheep.
I have sheep, I just need wood. Anybody have wood?
Dude, at my age?
Beat me to it.
Indeed, and phrasing!
Last day to burn wood in the house. After nearly 30 years the tradition that I learned as a kid will be over. The new stove installer is supposed to call me tomorrow and install Thursday, subject to change.
Worst case scenario I can go to the garage and start a fire in the stove out there and pretend. I still have lots of wood ready to go.
It’s sort of a sad day, it’s an admission that the calendar is catching up to me. OTOH a -30 day will not be feared. I have the stove sold and the wood box goes with it.
The era of big wood burning is over!
You’ll find other things to do, Fourscore.
Congrats on effortless heating!
It might be a sad day for you, but I bet it’s a happy one for the rest of us. That’s one less thing to worry over you about.
Would you believe there’s a melancholy power pop song about having a stove replaced?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dxFBkEJPJg
I want a new stove,
One that won’t make me sick,
One that won’t make me crash my car,
Or make me feel three feet thick.
I would always say it backwards (it seemed right to me), end negotiation and discover we were both trying to trade wood to get sheep (or vice versa).
A homebrewing and gaming friend made “Three Sheep for One Wheat” Beer. It was tasty.
Fucking Catan man…
/goes and launches another pile of Castles of Burgundy games
I lose at tic-tac-toe, but then, I hate games. I’m a sore loser and winning doesn’t do anything for me.
It’s challenging for those of us with AD-
LOOK! A SQUIRREL!
Linking this just for the image.
Lol. Nice!
I have a sweet chess set that my dad made. If I remember tonight, I’ll put up some pics.
I also have the South Park collector chess set. Mint, still in the plastic wrap.
I need to check my beer/wine supply.
TIME TO LOOK AT JAN 22 EAST COAST POSSIBLE MAJOR HISTORIC SNOWSTORM/1
just wow. just fucking wow. 3 possible solutions for Jan 22 in NC/ Mid Atlantic
A) moderate B) major C) holy shit
Great…
Sounds like a scare tactic to keep people from attending the January 23 protest.
Good for you! Chess is one of the games that explodes my brain on contact, like any game that requires long-term strategery. Agricola is another one.
Agricola is fun, but hard.
In that style, I prefer Puerto Rico. Or Powergrid.
Powergrid, with the right players, can get brutal at the end.
My problem with the long-term strategy type games is the variables of the other players’ moves, and adjusting my play accordingly.
La Granja is one that I enjoy at that level, as is Keyflower. Unfortunately, both of those are too heavy for the girlfriend (and I don’t like playing either at 2 player). She does like Power Grid, but has an unreasonable attachment to green power plants, which knowing that means that I can bid them up to hurt her.
Carcassone is one that looks like a friendly little game, but playing it 2 player is brutal.
I could never get into carcassone.
I enjoyed playing it on my Kindle. I wasn’t very good at it, but I enjoyed it. *shrug*
The digital version usually offer an option to show dead spaces on the board and/or the distribution of remaining tiles, which can help for learning the game at a higher level.
When you start adding a pile of the expansions, it can start getting wonky. I usually prefer to play with base set or base set and the river.
I always mix up Carcassone with Carcosa.
Carcosa can’t fit on a planar tabletop.
Are those like Canasta? I used to play that a long, long time ago
It was stylish to play Go when I was a kid. I learned but it never really took.
I’m more of a physical game player. Except for Cards Against Humanity. That I will sit still for.
I’ve been playing Go half my life, and still am not close to amateur dan level. 🙁
I think I may have just randomly stumbled across a game right up your alley:
Pan Am the Board Game
I haven’t played it yet, but it’s on the list to pick up for the girlfriend and I (plays 2-4 players).
Feed your head.
Thanks.
I am wildly inconsistant at chess. Some days I’m really good.
Other days I lose in a fool’s mate unintionally.
Fool’s mate or scholar’s mate?
Fool’s mate is super easy to avoid…don’t move the f pawn. Unless you are an expert at Bird’s opening, and leave that to grandmasters.
*shrug*
It was years ago and it was on something like the third piece moved.
That would be scholar’s mate, probably. Lots of low level players try to get cheap wins with it. Even if you avoid mate, bad defense can lose a pawn or piece. But once you learn the simple defense, then it becomes advantageous for them to try it against you.
Same for wayward queen attack.
Gambit #3 will shock you!
I’m more of a Chutes and Ladders guy.
Neat. I suck at chess, primarily because I never committed the time to learn. I am also afraid that I would become obsessed with winning and not be able to quit.
Update from Front Sight:
Mrs. Dean is enjoying her assault rifle class, which started yesterday. Its very small – only 8 people (and some are undoubtedly there for only the first two days). Typical class sizes run up to 30 for the “no pre-reqs” classes, and my shotgun class of 18 was the smallest I’ve seen. They have between 3 and 4 instructors.
She’s liking the rifle – as I told her, its easier to shoot a long gun reasonably well than a handgun. Her laser boresight in the garage got her pretty dang close, so she dodged the tedium of zeroing. I don’t think I’m getting my 2X Trijicon back. The only issues were with fully loaded mags – you need to back off a few rounds – which as issues go is very minor. I had her do as much dry practice as she could leading up to the class so she was reasonably familiar/comfortable with the rifle, which she’s only shot once before.
Everyone is fascinated by the bullpup, apparently. Everyone else is running an AR of some kind (she thinks, she’s not a gun nerd like some people).
Bullpups are categorically vulnerable to feedway stoppages, especially with STANTAG magazines. Downloading your 30s to 28 rounds is a good idea.
I told her it was unlikely she would get in a firefight where those extra couple of rounds would matter.
And if she did, I’d be adding volume to the outgoing fire, anyway.
Once I stopped dithering over whether to roll with the M1A, the Tavor, or the Beretta. “Let’s see, the Tavor is light and quick and holds many rounds, but the Beretta is one-and-done, in range. Hold on, the M1A shoots those big bullets, very hard and very far. Aaargh!”
Very much so. And even if those two extra rounds were important, a functional rifle to fire them out of is more important.
Your Move.
You would think I would have picked an on-topic music piece from my favorite band. But I forgot about it. Thanks.
Well, I can’t contribute much to the chess discussion, so I’m happy to help with songs.
Opening Move
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F3eRabNAzI
My issue really is I do not record my game and study my play and opponents’ play. So I just end up making the same mistakes
I found that using the self analysis after games on chess.com works well. I have a free account, so I can only get one of the computer analysis per day, but the self analysis helps. It mostly depresses me though when I see that games I think I played well, I actually missed an obvious mate 20 moves earlier.
It is a neat feature. I used to have Chessmaster The Art of Learning narrated and taught by Josh Waitzkin.
I haven’t played in 30 years, but I had a electronic chess board in college (made by Radio Shack) that would kick my ass regularly. It had a feature that allowed you to rewind the game and study where you fucked up and try different strategies going forward.
Made my game a lot better, but I quit playing a couple years later.
https://thepostmillennial.com/us-colleges-set-to-impose-new-mask-requirements-pandemic-restrictions-as-classes-reopen?utm_campaign=64502
I can’t image paying to be treated like that.
*imagine
So I guess putting yourself in debt for the rest of your life to be treated like that would also be out of the question.
Paying $64K/year to be treated like that.
My alma mater is ground zero for federal brown-nosing. There’s probably very little they wouldn’t do to ingratiate themselves with any part of the government, and they receive huge amounts from Fauci et al.
the school is imposing a Feb. 1 deadline for booster shots
I do look forward to the class actions for the permanent damage caused by these shots. Even the FDA waved a red flag over boosters for younger people. The complaint practically writes itself.
A lot of this is the School of Public Health talking, which is heavily funded by Bloomberg and in cahoots with the NIH.
I always had a low opinion of that school, turns out I was right.
The virus is getting less dangerous, but the restrictions are getting more onerous. Science.
Yeah, my kid’s got in his applications and I’m watching in horror and dismay as one by one colleges keep falling into this. Thanks, apparently, to the faculty pushing it, and compliant students. I’ve seen only a few student groups try to push back against the absurdity.
I’d be curious to know if they’re requiring the faculty to vaccinate/boost.
I bet they aren’t.
Isn’t Johns Hopkins supposed to be known for science?
Supposedly.
What it should be known for is being the best at collecting federal grants. It was $750M/year back in 1990, I’ll bet it’s over $2B/year now.
I’m where you were last year, playing chess throughout my life but never getting serious or great at it. My one shining moment was about 20 years ago. At my (then) job, we worked with a guy who was a Vietnam vet and a former chess master. In his youth he’d play games with his back to the board, calling out moves and playing from memory. We would have office tournaments for a while. He only lost to one person, and I played him to a tie once.
We taught our kids to play using No Stress Chess. This works great even for small kids.
Is been an hour and no comments on the hover text over the puzzle. I figured someone would have cursed at me by now.
I looked at it for a few minutes and then checked the hover text hoping for a hint.
:: shakes fist at robc ::
I thought it was a good hint, if you know the rule change.
I’m trying to figure out if castling on one side or the other would get it done in 2 moves. Mate in 3 looks easy.
The left rook 2 places right? I don’t get it.
I was trying to work the mate and the mouse hovered over it and I stared quietly.
I just figured I wasn’t good enough at chess to see the solution. I didn’t check for hover text, you bastard.
Solution is promote pawn to rook!
After black King move to g2, castle vertically! Moving king to e3 and newly created rook (which has never moved and is eligible to castle) to e2, creating the mate.
In 1972, FIDE clarified that vertical castling was not legal. I think that was a bad decision.
Heh….would have never thought of a vertical castling since never knew it was a possible legal move in the past!
It literally never came up. There are no known examples of it happening in a game. Puzzle makers used the idea and FIDE was like, “umm, no, lets just put a stop to that shit now.” How often are you going to promote your 3 pawn without having moved your king AND it make sense to not make a queen?
e pawn, not 3 pawn.
That’s…. interesting.
I
And then in 1974, Korchnoi was playing Karpov in the final of the Candidates’ matches and had a winning move in one game that involved castling, except that his rook was under attack. He actually had to ask the arbiter if castling was legal in that case.
OT:
Elon says BREED!
In hindsight I wish we would have had a couple more kids. Too bad I realized it about 15 years too late!
We would have had more, but IVF is expensive and we were down to our last chance. That is what happens when you wait to 46 to have your first.
For sure. It sure would be interesting to tell the Tundra of 1991 how he would feel in 2022. When we got married (30 years ago TYVM), we were convinced that we weren’t going to have any.
Oh well, maybe ttyrant and his lovely bride will make up for us!
I would have gladly given you two, 1 of each, but they are older than you. Too late to start raising them.
For essentially a one hit wonder, he’s still going strong.
https://youtu.be/OHCtLIsja6Q
I love that song and it never gets old. It was my ringtone for a long time till I changed it to “Walk Like an Egyptian”. I think I’ll change it back.
Timeless. I always think of Spring Break 1985 in Fort Lauderdale. Every club played the shit out of it.
LOL. I saw Chess in Soho back in 88. Head’s understudy was working that night but still a good show.
I hope this isn’t really Under Siege 3.
Don’t question muh faith.
I don’t think Dan Crenshaw is gonna raise a lot of money off *this* video.
I thought he was smarter than getting verbally aggressive with an eleven year old in public.
What a douche.
When your online Twitter voice gets out in the wild.
I don’t understand what the cons see in that douche. I mean, he’s a fucking WEF Young Leader, FFS (so is Tulsi, by the way).
Fuck off, cyclops.
They get caught up on the veteran thing I guess. I see right through it…
The eyepatch is pretty badass too. Pliskin for President! or, whatever.
Chess is for nerds who masturbate and cry themselves to sleep.
Firsting is for winners who go home and fuck the prom queen.
Give it a rest. We all know you’re bopping the bishop.
Yeah, I fully confess that I dialed up “Bangkok” in Amazon music before reading the article.
(My iPhone won’t let me keep YouTube playing if I click back to the article; Amazon Music keeps it going. Fuck, I’m addicted to Amazon.)
Stephen Colbert is unfunny and constitutionally illiterate.
CBS’s Stephen Colbert laments “Mrs. Hamburglar” aka Kyrsten Sinema has decided that “while she values voting, the filibuster is her first love” even though it’s “an anti-Democratic tool, which is a pretty good description of Kyrsten Sinema.”
Again, this is supposedly comedy.
an anti-Democratic tool
Which the Democrats used immediately after their public nervous breakdown about how awful it is. To block a Republican bill.
That is different! Arrest him! Insurrection!
Just like “Trump’s election lies” (even the ones he didn’t personally say) but ignore the years of Russia lies and zero accountability for those (and unlike the uninvestigated and uncorrected whitewashing of election fraud, those are demonstrably false).
Colbert is the lowest of the low when it comes to political comedy.
Samantha Bee says “hi”.
If the Repubs win they should get rid of the filibuster, and play clips like this and Biden’s on a loop instead of having a debate.
Other fun strategy games to play with a friend or spouse:
Othello: “A minute to learn; a lifetime to master.” I love that game. I think my husband and I are about 50/50% in that matchup.
Mancala. Another with easy rules but tough to read the strategy. Husband to wife running total on that is 67/33%. Mandala sets can be very pretty and would be a fun woodworking, rock-collecting project for crafty types.
https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/how-to-play-mancala-409424
Hah! We had one of those when I was a kid! I think my dad actually made it.
Thanks! I may have to take another look at that one.
I believe Mancala has been solved (as in there’s an optimal strategy that can’t lose).
Some other solid 2 player strategy games are Patchwork, Jaipur, Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small (much simpler 2 player version of Agricola), Hive, and Onitama. Onitama is probably the closest to chess, as you have a board, the difference being you have move cards. When a player uses one, it gets passed over to their opponent. So you need to add that to your strategy as well.
there’s an optimal strategy that can’t lose
What happens if both players use that strategy?
A draw.
The only way to win [dramatic pause] is not to play.
I have an undefeated record in all of those!
*continues to have never played a game*
In my house it’s more a matter of BAC. Also, it’s just an excuse to hang around and chat, no real stakes. So we have fun with it, and even sometimes put it out at parties so others can try their hand.
Games with easy rules and quick rounds are great.
I also like the game of Hell (sort of a group “solitaire” thing with one common playing field but a separate deck for each player), Pug (a dice game, quite amusing for kids and drunks), and Pit.
Pit is my favorite card game of all time (sorry, Uno.)
We play gin on occasion for the same reasons.
Dice game is “pig” not pug.
Stupid autocorrect.
https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Moves-Games-Pass-Pigs/
Pass the Pigs! My kids loved that one!
Patchwork, Jaipur, and Onitama would be the ones that fit those requirements the easiest.
Patchwork is a game where you’re buying pieces to build a quilt. Jaipur is a card game where you’re trying to become a master trader. Onitama is chess like. Another one that may work is called Schotten Totten, which is a Scottish themed card game where you’re building visible poker hands to try to claim boundary stones (three out of nine wins the game).
I wrote an Othello game for an AI class when I was in undergrad.
Correctly tweak the number of moves the AI looks ahead, and I could never do better than a draw. More often lost.
Seems that was the perfect game for programming. Programmed in HS on an Apple IIe
Some years back, I had a chance to meet 2 of the Polgar sisters, Susan and Judit – enough times that Susan recalled our first meeting. Each successive time I saw her she would ask me how I was doing using the chess app she had recommended. (Meh, was the answer).
I love the game – learned young – but never could be bothered to really learn the game.
At the time, Susan was in the midst of some controversy because she had just left Texas Tech (as coach of their chess team) and gone to Webster University – and I guess some of the chess nerds followed her.
The second time I met her, she brought one or two of her students, who told a group of us about some of the training she did with them: they all had to learn how to play multiple games blindfolded. She was (evidently) savage as a coach, but her students loved her for the success she brought them. Texas Tech won the chess national championships back-to-back with her as coach in 2011 and 2012.
Nice lady – not bad looking, either.
Here’s her wiki – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Polgar
She and her sisters are basically chess royalty; Susan drew with Karpov on 2 separate occasions, 3-3 each time.
I remember reading about them. Pretty spooky upbringing IMHO.
Yeah – that’s what I remember, too. Dad was a chess wizard himself who decided to perform what amounted to an experiment on all 3 of his daughters. Fucking loon.
I guess there was a documentary about Susan, but I’ve never seen it.
Aren’t we all performing experiments on our kids?
*stomps on cassette tape*
yeah, I was a bit of a nerd girl and my dad taught me to play, so I thought – hey I’ll join the chess club in middle school it’ll be fun! My very first game, I lost in a very short time. It was humiliating (as only a middle school girl can think she’s humiliated) and I never went back. It did make me feel slightly better later when he became a ranked junior player, so I could at least tell myself it wasn’t that I was that bad, he was just really good. But the damage was done and I never picked it back up.
It’s really difficult to listen to Nancy P. when her dentures are falling out.
“It’s just the filibuster in the way. So, in a way, if you really, truly want to honor Dr. King, don’t dishonor him by using a Congressional custom as an excuse for protecting our democracy. We have no right to honor this family, to visit the monument,” Pelosi said.
She continued,” Imagine, 30 – someone 36 years old, left this earth in such a way that he has a monument on the Mall along with Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. All of them with tears in their eyes for the departure from our democracy that is happening right now – unless the truth is acknowledged and this legislation is passed.”
Indeed. Thomas Jefferson LOVED democracy…
“our democracy… our democracy… our democracy…”
Fuck our democracy.
There really is nothing they won’t stoop to in order to achieve their one-Party state, is there.
I think the fitting punishment for Pelosi would be for her to be forced to watch as her precious ice cream is tossed out of the freezer and left to melt on the kitchen floor.
LOL.
Yeah Dems, keep yelling Apocalypse!/Panic!/Emergency! as a selling point for every one of your policy preferences. Notice everyone shrugging their shoulders?
Clown. World.
.@SpeakerPelosi is seriously considering this person to serve as the chairwoman of the Transportation Committee.
Ah, the room temperature idiot who has held onto her phony delegate position in the hopes of being DC’s first rep. Or maybe senator.
The DC Home Rule Act was a fucking mistake. Fuck you Nixon for yet another piece of shit that continues to haunt us today.
Disregarding private property and personal responsibility is a tenet of their beliefs.
That is one of your elite overlords.
Here’s a Golden Earring song from 1974 that applies to just about every public health official today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yfqtHy8UTM
I thought maybe it was “Twilight Zone,” but this is acceptable.
I played chess a bit when I was a kid.
I’d say I was fair at it.
I haven’t played in…. twenty years?
Regime defiance from Charlottesville to Nova.
From Arlington to Albemarle, school divisions across Virginia are rejecting Glenn Youngkin’s dangerous anti-science executive action and keeping mask requirements in schools to ensure the health and safety of K-12 students in the Commonwealth.
Those fuckers didn’t complain when Northam forced Highland to comply with the mask mandate. Let them suck on it.
And that corridor is prog central.
I hope he yanks their funding. The NOVA drones are going to do whatever they can to tank the administration even though Youngkin is a squishy Republican.
What? They think they can flip dissent back to being patriotic? Defiance to your lawfully elected executive is treason, insurrection, SEDITION!
Sugarfree brought us the story a few weeks back about men who thought that wiping their asses was gay.
I propose that touching your own penis while you piss is gay. I have invented a tool to assist in non-penis contact male peeing. I hope to have this on the market within 6 months. I have contacted Mike Lindell for help with the matter, but so far no response.
The Bro’s gifts to humanity are endless. Not just Firsts, not even just The First That Will Change Everything, but also saving you from the sin of touching your own penis.
Too bad Ron Popeil is dead. That would have been perfect .
The ZARDOZ non-contact penis tool? Because the penis is evil?
Mike Lindell’s busy being cancelled from every direction.
Another “Just start your own!” and watch, they will and the left will decry First Insurrectionist Bank of Delaware
Free Canada.
This is how it’s done, well done this lady
Remember they rely solely on compliance of the public.
Wow!
“Don’t shake your head at me you fucking Brownshirt!”
She’s gonna pay for it, but that was great. And she’s right. Any cop who is still willing to do this shit is absolute shit.
I played competitively as a youth. I think I topped out just over 1400 FIDE. Haven’t played much at all in the last 20 years. I stopped in to chess club meeting at the local library one night. I got my ass handed to me a couple of times. So yeah, that skill is definitely perishable.
Hey dude! A buddy of mine got me into chess.com a few months ago as someone to play regular games with. I really enjoy it although my game is only developing very slowly. The lessons and puzzles are really helpful although I’m only on a free membership so limited to one per day.
PS nice touch with the main page pic. I’ve never seen the movie, I just know the song.
National Review with the case for firing Fauci
“Fauci’s own behavior has undermined public trust in the response to the pandemic: by sitting for celebrity puff profiles and documentaries, by stifling public debate about the origins of Covid-19 and the proper response to it, by responding in lawyerly and evasive fashion to questions about NIH research dollars supporting work at the Wuhan lab.”
And my favorite:
“It has always been bizarre that the head of an obscure agency has soaked up so much media attention. Over the past two years, Fauci has done so many interviews with so many outlets — from Sunday shows to obscure podcasts — that one wonders how he had time for his day job. Nearly everyone in Washington enjoys being in front of a microphone, but even the most shameless media hogs might blush at Fauci’s interview schedule. “
He made time for a Disney documentary too.
Lawyerly and evasive? Redundant.
Yeah, Fauci is a major warning sign about concentration of unchecked power.
WAA. (The non-blasphemous version)
Hey, you don’t get to be the highest-paid federal employee and expect to accumulate checked power.
OT: This morning I called the work travel agency to cancel my trip (would have flown out tomorrow). The agent said I sounded terrible, and she was right!!
This bug I have has swollen my throat so much I sound comical. It started as a dry sore throat but now it very different. My lungs feel like fire when I cough.
Fatigue and headache are gone, so aside from throat and lungs, I fell much better than yesterday.
I bet it’s strep. Probably going to a drive through clinic for a test. Antibiotics will help with strep. Besides, it was strep gone rogue that almost killed my husband last year by getting in his bloodstream and attacking his heart and veins.
Get it checked. It could be strep or COVID. Either going to the lungs is not good.
Standard procedure now is to test for Covid, Flu, and Strep. Three swabs, but they’re not as invasive as they used to be. Two come back right away, and Covid might take a few days, unless you have had symptoms for a while and they give you a rapid test.
Hope they’re able to treat you and get you healthy soon.
Sorry. Yes, get it checked out and get well soon!
Demand the antibiotics immediately. I had to do that when it was clear my teen had strep but they insisted on not doing anything until the COVID test came back.
Yikes!
I hope you get that squared away fast.
Coof. Well, we’ll miss you.
Get better quick and put this behind you.
Yup. A good friend and co-worker died a few years ago. Late fall, he complained of fever and a severe sore throat and went untreated. A month or so later, painful joints. A month after that found dead at home from a “cardiac event”. Dr. Tres figures strep, rheumatic fever, and mitral valve stenosis.
He was far from the picture of health but gone at 45 ’cause he wouldnt see a doctor and get some antibiotics.
Coworker had to leave to pick up his kid because the kid was “exposed” to covid by someone who tested negative last Friday but positive over the weekend. The kid can return to school tomorrow because that will be after the 5 day “quarantine” period. The kid was, of course, at school yesterday and today. ///honk-honk
🙄
School was open yesterday?
Or are you in the freakland to the north?
Forgot MLK day I guess. So no but my point stands.
I played 4 bullet games today! I play chess a lot, but I am not good, and I get little satisfaction playing. Despite that, I still do it.
Been way more into online poker recently. Up $60 so far. .15/.30 NLHE.
I don’t what it is about about Jen Psaki that makes me want to heave her off a cliff but man she seems like an insufferable person to be around. I know that the Press Secretary’s job is to lie for their boss but at least the previous Press Secretary’s tried to provide the veneer that the administration that they are lying for cares about the American people. Not this administration because Psaki’s press conferences are using in some form telling the American people to get fucked and sneering at the rubes who dares questions the wisdom of the Biden Administration.
A really repulsive combination of haughtiness and disdain – while collecting a large paycheck from us.
Yep. Every time she’s up at the podium I get a, “fuck off and eat shit rubes,” vibes from her.
Greatest hit was when she was asked about the supply chain debacle and quipped, “The tragedy of the delayed treadmill.” Oh, tee-hee… Nobody can buy even the most basic consumer goods. Get back in your house and wait for the all-safe sign, prole.
Her kids don’t mind wearing the masks, Ed.
She is so bad at her job it went beyond funny awhile ago. I miss the cute blonde.
I miss Kayleigh and her binders.
They could have been just for show, but that is how you display readiness at least. Got a question, I have research right here in my binder. Ask away.
It’s like the gov. of Oregon. She can’t be bothered to answer the slightly challenging Fox questions, and it shows how clueless she is. Watching Psaki of Pshit not actually answer any questions and just snark is just as sad.
The Governor of Illinois whenever he doesn’t get a softball question loses his composure real fast. A lifetime of inherited wealth and living a bubble doesn’t prepare you when someone calls you out on your shit.
See Obama whenever someone challenged him. He got used to the suck-ups real quick.
Any politician really. They expect prescreened questions that may touch an area on the fringes, but don’t you dare go any deeper.
Or pretty much every senior engineer I’ve ever worked with.
That even applies to accounting. When I started my career in accounting someone gave me the advice that a good accountant who are worth their weight in gold are always willing to answer any question asked of them and also have the humility to say, ” I don’t know the answer right now, but let me go look at it and get back to you later.”
“I don’t know” is one of my preferred interview answers. “How would you figure it out?” tells me more about them.
I like Psaki, she’s the living epitome of F You. She gets paid (a lot, I presume) for reminding us that we are the deplorables and need spanking on a daily basis.
FYTW is her unspoken mantra but she is able to get it across anyway. She’s doing a difficult job, what with the material she has to work with.
I’d hire her for Customer Relations
Chess youtubers to follow:
https://www.youtube.com/c/GothamChess is the most entertaining, but not as educational as some others. I like his Guess the ELO series and his breakdowns of his own tournament games. He is trying (but not very hard or well) to become a GrandMaster. He has the title below it, InternationalMaster.
https://www.youtube.com/c/DanielNaroditskyGM is more educational. Follow one of his “speedruns” from low levels up. The title is ironic, as he takes it very slow and spends a long time discussing each game, it is not a real speedrun.
Don’t feel bad about losing to my kid. I’ve been playing for 60+ years, and if I get past 15 moves with him, I feel like it’s a moral victory.
I resigned on move 26, but probably should have about 15.
Looked at analysis, I started falling apart on move 18, and after move 20 it was totally over.
I used to play a lot of chess, back in college. But when I moved away that dropped off. I still have a few books on it, Capablanca and Lasker, people like that. I will sometimes dip into online chess, different programs over the last 20 years, but only against the computer.
Right now I am doing drywall work, small patches. Fuck, I hate doing this shit, I would rather wire on 460vdc.
I fucking hate drywall.
But I love Baron Samedi! Excellent choice!
Hanging drywall was OK, finishing was not in my play book.
Also, my kid strongly recommends the videos from Ben Finegold. He met Ben when he was 12-ish and was in complete Chris Farley mode.
Yes, his are good too, but I havent watched many.
I used to play “Fruit Ninja” on my 1st iPhone while I was on the shitter.
Good times.
Wait…this is still a gaming article right?
People who bring things with them into the bathroom are unclean.
I just wanted to share my disgust of you.
Well, since I took your sister in the bathroom (figuratively, too) you’re mostly correct.
So she’s a big girl, then?
Or it was a tiny, euro-style, bathroom.
JFC I can’t wait for this sanctimonious asshole to be out of office.
“Sanctimonious Asshole” was my Ska-punk side project.
Walz seems to be on the down low lately. Since the legislature took away his executive powers he has quieted down, I hope. Temporary, I’m sure.
All I know about chess is “queen to queen’s level 3”
Thanks, robc. One of these days I’ll get around to writing up some of my experiences as a regular tournament player from the ’70s. Online chess is great (I spend too much time on chess.com these days), but I miss the characters I met back in the day.