ChessPad

In my last posting I recommended Arena as a good chess game for Windows. You can play that program if you like; it's a good interface. Now I'm using ChessPad v. 1.0.10 because it's easier to incorporate other chess engines. It's also very easy to post to the webpages, as I demonstrate here. In this game I played Crafty 18.10 (good chess engine; download at ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt) and I resigned after only 29 moves! (I don't like to show this because it's bad PR but I'm showing it as a demo.) I have to admit I'm a bit rusty because my last tournament was a quarter of a century ago.

The moves: 1. e4 c5 2. c3? The pawn push cramps the knight; not a good move to prepare for a possible d4. 2. ... Nf6 3. d3? Nc6 4. Bg5 h6 5. Bxf6 exf6 Black captured the pawn from center to the side; I often heard that it's best to capture from the side to the center (e.i., gxf6). 6. Nf3 d5 7. h3 dxe4 8. dxe4 Qxd1+ 9. Kxd1 Bd7 10. Kc2 Be7 11. Nbd2 Rd8 12. Rd1 O-O 13. Bb5? Black's Nb4+ will cost White a good position. 13. ... Nb4+ 14. cxb4 Bxb5 15. bxc5 Bxc5 16. Nb1 Ba4+ 17. b3 Bc6 18. Rhf1 Bxe4+ 19. Kb2 Rxd1 20. Rxd1 Bxf2 21. Nc3 f5 22. Rd2 Bg3 23. Re2 Re8 24. Nd2 Bc6 25. Rxe8+ Bxe8 26. a4 Bc6 27. Nf3 g5 28. Nd1 g4 29. hxg4 fxg4 0-1 White resigns; this demonstrates the better outcome with 2 bishops as against 2 knights in the end game. It's the opposite in the middle game where the knight's unusual move dominates. [Date: 2007-03-15; White: Human; Black: Crafty 18.10]