Anti-Inspiration.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iSjh6vMTUvk
Jesse Peterson, wrongly describing a reality his earliest history belies ...
Thomas Sowell more accurately describes what Peterson IS seeing, without giving such a false, permanent, unhelpful label.
Anxiety comes from not forgiving female figures in your life?
Especially and usually Mom?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jCrKVtxtwdI
Arguably the stupidest and craziest sounding thing I've heard that might have SOME validity. (Freud made an entire field of study out of what Jesse Peterson says here using different, less spiritually inclined language, after all. Darned if I'm not curious to hear what other off-the-wall things he's inclined to say on his shows now, too ...)
King's Gambit. Respected forerunner of my beloved Latvian Gambit.
Probably the most aggressive and fast-paced yet relatively sound opening I know. Observed here after Black decides to use an all-out attacking pawn, empowered bishop, and queen setup on me. Multiple traps and threats. If I castle after the Queen is down there, I lose in one move. If I stand my ground, and he advances the pawn that has already taken 2 of MY pawns, I find myself receiving a "discovered" check from his queen requiring my king to move, lose my rook to that self-same "killer" pawn AND, because that same move grants his pawn full promotion, find myself facing a 2nd queen.
And I've actually survived challenges like that, and relish such challenges when in the right mood, but this was too early to get THAT fast and loose.
A kamikaze with my bishop, follow-up queen attack, elimination of that Arya Stark-like pawn, exchange of queens, and king-side castling, neutralizes all those threats AND puts my opponent on the defensive, finding his own king under attack ...
Unfortunately for him or herself, my opponent (who may be a computer, now that I think of it) goes behind his knight.
This is understandable, but means, when I move my rook over one square, that the poor horsie is pinned down for one of my pawns to capture. Moving his own rook only means a rook lost to bishop x-raying of his king, and the king avenging that loss means a 2nd piece pinned, to be taken to throw this match into sudden "end game" territory.
Though the material is actually numerically even (the gains I made only made up point wise for the pawns lost to create the gambit, and the bishop I kamikazied to get out of early checkmate trouble), his King is cut off from help and about to get subjected to rook-rolling.
He resigns, knowing what the likeliest outcome would be.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BmZDfGVSXPY
My SECOND favorite plane rescue in any media.
My first is the one that inspired it; Charles Sullenberger's "Miracle on the Hudson"
So, I got the chance to play the Benko Gambit for the first time.
Kinda strange, if somewhat cool, the way it worked out.
It was almost as if my opponent knew what opening I wanted to try and was helping me with the initial setup. Felt like cooperation, intentional or not, because a lot more depends on your opponent in arranging this than say, Latvian Gambit, where you need him to make arguably the two most common first moves by White in Chess, or the even less dependent King's Gambit, where you only need White to play THE most common opening move in the entire game (e4) ...
First Benko Gambit game, continued (Part 2 of 3)
After setting up the initial opening, and proffering the 2nd pawn to be avenged by my light square bishop, I followed the only other recommendation, which was to "fianchetto" my dark square or kingside bishop.
Everything else was just me playing as I normally do ...
My first Benko Gambit game (Part 3 of 3)
I had little idea of what I was supposed to do outside of what I just described.
It was almost exhilarating to feel THAT out of sorts in a game I've literally played for years. I won by sheer dumb luck; my queen had been effectively trapped into what is probably the second worst material exchange possible.
Fortunately, the Benko is supposed to give Black pretty solid positioning, and seems to have done just that. I thwarted a mate attempt with a knight fork that made my opponent resign, despite my being down my own queen at that point.
An opening worth exploring, definitely.
In no particular order:
Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's most famous swordsman, fighting for a castle.
Probably a somewhat allegorical depiction of his habit of dueling with a wooden sword called a bokken. Interestingly, his most famous duel was won by his fashioning a makeshift version of a bokken with the oar of a boat.
Interesting because Musashi in that instance was deferring confidence in his skill to superiority in weaponry. His opponent in that duel, Sasaki Kojiro, was famous for dueling with a sword called the drying pole, so named because of its being so long compared to conventional blades. Using an oar neutralized what otherwise might have proved an insurmountable reach advantage.
Musashi, according to most accounts, managed to land and kill with one strike, doubtless fueling a reputation of being an immensely strong man who could fight with oars, or, as shown here, even with big wooden planks and posts.
Props to the man whether this is or isn't artistic license on the part of the artist; he was formidable any way you slice it.
Other photos are Denarys with what I presume are supposed to be dragon eggs on GoT, but look most like the full green version of a coconut.
(At least to my memory of seeing coconuts, whole, in video clips before.
Looks nothing in full version, like people are USED to thinking of and seeing when they imagine coconuts ...)
Also Maxima, Andrew Klavan, Superman, and Wonder Woman.
