Quick Victory in Chess

In a recent chess game, I forced a resignation from my opponent on my tenth move. I played this game at letsplaychess.com. My opponent was Minoosh from France. In this game I played white. Here I provide the moves of the game along with my commentary.

1. e4 d5

Black chooses to play the Scandinavian Defence which is also known as the Centre-Counter Defence.

2. exd Qxd5

Another possible move for black here is Nf6.

3. Nc3 Qe6+

A more popular move for black here is Qa5.

4. Ne2 Nc6
5. Nb5 Qe5

I decide to threaten Nxc7+. Black replies by attacking my knight with his queen but this move is a mistake because he cannot keep his queen on the diagonal. Qd7 and Kd8 are better alternatives.

6. a4 a6

I push my queen rook pawn to support my knight and black immediately attacks my knight.

7. d4 Qf6

I attack black's queen and black moves his queen to the best square for his king knight. In this position black's best move is to take my pawn with his knight. In fact, d4 is not my best move because black can take my pawn with his knight. A stronger move is f4.

8. Nxc7+ Kd8

Black is forced to move the king.

9. Nxa8 e5

Black plays a very bad move. It is difficult to find a good move for black, but e6 is clearly better.

10. dxe+

Black cannot capture the pawn because he is in check. He resigns because on my next move I will capture his queen.

In this game black chooses to play the Scandinavian Defence. On his second move he brings out his queen and later moves her three more times. He does so at the expense of the development of his other pieces. I am able to attack his queen and take advantage of his exposed king. This is my key to victory.

Famous Quotes

Many quotes have been a source of inspiration or wisdom throughout history. For this reason, they have become famous. I wish to share ten famous quotes which are among my favourites.

Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool some people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

John F. Kennedy is the source of two of my favourite quotes. The first is undoubtedly one of his most famous: "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

He also said, "Change is the law of life. And those who only look to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

I love this quote by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard: "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."

Albert Einstein said, "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."

Winston Churchill is responsible for this inspiring quote: "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

This beautiful quote is from Mother Teresa: "If you judge people, you have no time to love them."

Mahatma Gandhi is the source of many famous quotes. One of my favourites is "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

I now quote George Bernard Shaw: "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."

My last quote is from Helen Keller. She said, "The best and most beautiful things in the world can not be seen or even touched. They must be felt in the heart."

I hope these quotes are as inspirational and memorable for you as they are for me.

Exciting Chess Game

I recently played one of the most exciting chess games I have every played. The game took place at letsplaychess.com. My opponent was Stagli of Croatia. He made a knight sacrifice that made me very nervous because my king was relatively exposed, but I was able to survive. In this game I played black. Now I will provide the moves along with my commentary.

1. e4 c5
2.Bc4 e6

I play e6 so that the white bishop cannot target f7.

3. Nc3 a6
4. a4 Bd6
5. Nf3 Nc6
6. 0-0 Nge7
7. d3 Qc7

My queen and bishop are a powerful force on the h2-b8 diagonal.

8. Be3 b6
9. Ng5 0-0

White's move seems premature to me because the knight has little support. Now that the h2 pawn is undefended, it is possible to play Bxh2+ and in fact, I wish I had played this move here!

10. f4 f6

White is playing aggressively.

11. Nh3 Kh8

I play Kh8 so that white's bishop will not be able to put my king in check at a later stage of the game.

12. Qh5 g6
13. Qh6 Ng8
14. Qh4 Bb7
15. f5 Bxh2+
16. Kh1 Bg3
17. Qg4 exf5
18. exf5 g5
19. Ne4 Bd6
20. Nhxg5 Ne5

Rather than play the immediate capture fxg5, I decide to fork white's queen and bishop with my knight.

21. Qh5 fxg5
22. Qxg5 Nxc4

White's move surprises me because I expect Nxg5 with the threat of mate on h7. I am prepared to play either h6 or Nf6 in defence but white's move demands a different move. I suspect his strategy is to push his f-pawn to f6 and mate with his queen on g7.

23. dxc4 Bxe4
24. f6 Rf7

My rook prevents mate.

25. Rae1 Raf8
26. Bd4 Bxg2+

White wants me to capture his bishop in order to exchange bishops and free space for his e-rook but I do not cooperate. I sacrifice my bishop to expose the white king and gain a pawn.

27. Qxg2 cxd4
28. b3 Nxf6

I finally move my knight but this move is not the best. Here it is better to play Rxf6 and offer an exchange of rooks.

29. Re2 Qb8
30. Ref2 Bc5
31. Qg5 Ne4
32. Rxf7 Nxg5
33. Rxf8 Bxf8

Down two pieces and one pawn, white decides to resign. Fortunately for me, his knight sacrifice does not succeed. This game is undoubtedly one of the most exciting I have ever played.

Foreign Words in Chess

Chess has a number of foreign words that players can use to make the game sound sophisticated. It is not surprising because chess is played all around the world but is undoubtedly most popular in western countries. Nevertheless, it is believed that the game first originated in India. Many of the foreign words used are from European languages.

The word "fianchetto" is derived from Italian and means "little wing". If white places the bishop on b2 or g2 and black places the bishop on b7 or g7, this is a fianchetto. If the bishop gains full control of the diagonal, it can turn into a big advantage.

The world "luft" is derived from German and means "air". If one of the three pawns in front of the king is pushed forward one square, the king has a little breathing room. It prevents the threat of a back rank mate because the king has a square to escape to.

The word "en passant" is derived from French and means "in passing". Pawns can only move one square forward at a time but when they have not yet moved there is the two-square option. They may move forward either one or two squares. Unlike bishops, knights, rooks, queens and kings, they move differently from the way they capture. They move vertically down the chessboard but capture diagonally.

The en passant move is only possible when a pawn is on its original square and moves two squares. If white has a pawn on e2 and pushes it to e4, black can capture if there is a black pawn on d4 or f4. Black captures as if the white pawn had moved to e3. However, this move must be played immediately after white's move. The black pawn captures the white pawn in passing because it captures on a square behind the white pawn.

Chess is a game which uses a number of words from languages other than English. These include the words "fianchetto", "en passant" and "luft". They give the game of chess both a sophisticated and international flavour.

Ergative Languages

Languages such as English are classified as nominative-accusative or simply accusative languages. However, a number of languages are classified as ergative-absolutive or simply ergative languages. Ergative languages are very different from accusative languages.

In accusative languages the subject of a transitive verb and intransitive verb are the same. The object of a transitive verb is different and is thus marked differently. This is illustrated by the sentences "He knows her" and "He is sleeping". In the sentence "She met him yesterday", the object "him" is marked differently from the subject "He".

In ergative languages the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb are the same. It is the subject of a transitive verb which is marked differently. In an ergative language, the subject of the sentences "He knows her" and "He is sleeping" are different. In the sentence "He is sleeping", the subject "He" is marked the same as the object in the sentence "She met him yesterday". However, the subject in a sentence such as "He knows her" is marked differently.

The subject of an intransitive verb can be analyzed as a patient or experiencer. In contrast, the subject of a transitive verb is an agent. In ergative languages, the patient is marked the same as the object.

The subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb are referred to as the absolutive in an ergative language. The subject of a transitive verb is referred to as the ergative. In an accusative language, the subject of a transitive and intransitive verb is referred to as the nominative and the object of a transitive verb is referred to as the accusative.

In an accusative language such as English, the agent and the experiencer are marked the same and the object is different. In an ergative language such as Basque, the experiencer and the object are marked the same and the agent is different.

How would English look if it were an ergative language? Let us take the examples "He knows her", "He is sleeping" and "He met her yesterday" to exemplify. The subject of "He is sleeping" and the object of "He met her yesterday" would be marked the same. However, the subject of "He met her yesterday" would be marked differently.

If English were a hypothetical ergative language, the previous examples would look as follows:

He is sleeping.
*Him met she yesterday.
*Him knows she.

The asterisk is used to mark an ungrammatical sentence. In the examples we notice that the subject of the intransitive in "He is sleeping" is the same as the object of the transitive in "Him met she yesterday". In these examples, the subject of the intransitive and the object of the transitive are both subject pronouns.

Ergative languages are very different from accusative languages. Basque and Georgian are two of the world's ergative languages. In ergative languages, the distinction between subject and object of accusative languages is not made. Rather, the distinction is between agent and patient which is also known as agent and experiencer.

Nasal Vowels of French

The French language can be distinguished from many other languages by its nasal vowels. Languages such as English also have nasal vowels but they are followed by nasal consonants. French, however, has fully nasalized vowels which are not followed by nasals.

French has four nasal vowels. They are the low mid front unrounded, low mid front rounded, low mid back rounded and low back rounded nasal vowels. In a number of dialects, the low mid front rounded nasal vowel has disappeared in favour of the low mid front unrounded nasal. This is not surprising because the low mid front rounded vowel is far more marked than the unrounded one.

The low mid front unrounded nasal vowel occurs in a number of words. These include vin (wine), singe (monkey) and faim (hunger).

The low mid front rounded nasal vowel is less common than the low mid front unrounded. It occurs in words such as parfum (perfume), un (one) and lundi (Monday).

The low mid back rounded nasal vowel occurs in many words such as bon (good), son (sound) and long(long). The oral counterpart occurs in words such as beau (beautiful) and faux (false) but is in fact articulated with a higher tongue position than its nasal counterpart.

The low back unrounded nasal vowel also occurs in a number of words. They include an (year), blanc (white) and sans (without).

The nasal vowels are an important feature of the French sound system. Many languages such as English have nasal vowels which occur before a nasal, but French has fully nasalized vowels which occur without a following tautosyllabic nasal. The low mid front rounded nasal vowel has been replaced by its unrounded counterpart in a number of dialects. In this case, they have only three nasal vowels instead of four.

Numbers in Welsh

The Welsh language is a Celtic language primarily spoken in Wales. In Wales, the highest percentage of Welsh speakers is found in the northwest. The population of Wales is bilingual in Welsh and English.

The Welsh numbers from one to ten reveal that the Welsh language is rather different from English. As in English, the pronunciation is often rather distinct from the orthography The Welsh numbers from one to ten are: un, dai, tri, pedwar, pump, chwech, saith, wyth, naw, deg.

Now I will add my notes about the pronunciation.

un (the u sounds like the i of "radio")
dai (the ai sounds like the y of "my")
tri (the r is trilled)
pedwar (the r is trilled)
pump (the i sounds like the i of "it")
chwech (the ch is a velar fricative as in "Loch Ness" and the e sounds like the ay in "say")
saith (the ai sounds like the y of "my" and the th is a voiceless interdental fricative)
wyth (the wy sounds like the oy of "boy" and the th is voiceless)
naw (the aw sounds like the ow of "cow")
deg (the e sounds like the ay in "say")

The Welsh language is a language that is no longer as widely-spoken in Wales as it once was. This is due to the dominance of English. However, it is a source of Welsh pride and very much remains part of the Welsh culture and identity. An analysis of the Welsh numbers from one to ten indicates that many are relatively distinct from English.