My apologies for the delay in posting Jim's latest move. I offer no excuse because--well--there is no excuse for such poor behavior. Anyway, Jim has decided to ignore my slow advance of pawns towards his King, and instead has chosen to attack my Queen by moving his Black Bishop to g5.
Oh, and I have been remiss in leaving a link to Jim's blog. It appears he is once again posting at his original haunt, Mockingbird's Medley, a development about which I am pleased.
So, I guess I have to move my Queen out of harm's way. So, without further ado, here is my move: Queen to C7.
Oh, and I have been remiss in leaving a link to Jim's blog. It appears he is once again posting at his original haunt, Mockingbird's Medley, a development about which I am pleased.
Which is worse? To waste time, or to be too slow in expending it?
Of his first 16 moves, Black has used six to shift his Queen just one square from where it originally started, and with what result? He's a Pawn down, and he still hasn't finished developing.
But it could be worse. Preferring to play slowly and deliberately, White has ignored making several hard shots, one of which would have left Black"s "powerful" Q-side in a shambles, with as many as three weak, isolated Pawns to defend, in addition to the one that he is already out. But now, after castling on that side, White's P-QR4 is no longer any kind of a shot.
For a blog that was inactive for a whole month, the Medley's been getting quite a bit of traffic. I'm stunned, to put it modestly. I might as well keep it -- hell, it's just over four years old, and it seems that most blogs don't last half as long. But for long-term purposes, I'm concentrating on building up the music-based Mockingbird Jim blog -- the Medley might get busier as Election Day approaches, but after that, it'll be a part-time hobby at best, unless I can goad my co-bloggers into keeping the site hopping for me. (Not likely.)
And I tend to agree with Carl's analysis of my own playing, looking back on the way this game's unfolded. I spent too much time playing offense with too little to show for it. But this game's all fucked up now, so there's no sense in complaining about it.
Knight f-3 to d-4...