From zefrank

Voting CLOSED Until 7pm

Today's Suggested Moves have been posted, and the voting polls will open Saturday, 5 August@7PM EDT and close at Monday, 7 August@12AM EDT (Sunday Night), in order to give time for enough deliberation before the votes are cast. Don't have a username/Id yet? Get one here! and take some credit for your contributions!

Remember to check back even if you've already cast your vote! .. there's still some disagreement between potential moves .. and analysis will most likely continue up until Sunday night when the polls close. It's also not too late to submit a vote for another move that has not been evaluated yet .. (although it looks like we have most of the best move options available, people can always miss things).

• (very) Rough draft of the Fabuloso Chess Edit Guide is now up and located here

Use the following tags to help suggest moves, and remember if you want to throw up an example speculative board in the discussion, please refer to the Edit Guide on how to properly format it.

 <!-- ==Speculative Move== -->

 <!-- REMOVE THIS LINE TO INSERT BOARD

  REMOVE THIS LINE TO INSERT BOARD -->

 <!-- MAKE CERTAIN YOU ADD A COMMENT TO JUSTIFY THIS POSITION-->

{{clear}}

Just follow the instructions, and completely delete those lines .. and don't forget to replace 'Speculative Move' with the actual move name. Also bear in mind that anything after the clear tag won't be visible, so don't enter any text underneath it (unless you're adding another section)

Voting Instructions

Cut and paste the following to vote

# '''VOTE''' by ~~~~: add a comment! 

• You may vote for many moves as you like, but only one vote per move.
• When voting closes, the move with the most votes wins.
• If there is a tie, whoever tallies the votes breaks the tie.

Strategy Discussion

Contents 1 Voting CLOSED Until 7pm 1.1 Voting Instructions 2 Strategy Discussion 2.1 Yesterday's Discussion about Qd1 3 Suggested Move Summary 3.1 Nc5 3.2 Nf6 3.3 Qxe4 4 If we Win, should we buy Ze a Consolation Prize? 4.1 Buy Ze a Prize 4.2 Don't Buy Ze a Prize

Yesterday's Discussion about Qd1

The following is taken from yesterday's discussion of Ze's possible responses to 26. ... cxd6. PTWhipplebang 11:34, 4 August 2006 (PDT)

27...Nc5 or ...Nf6. Seem about the same to me. 27....Qxe4 28. Bf3 is annoying so let's wait to take the e4 pawn. Snark 14:22, 3 August 2006 (PDT)

• I think I like Nf6 a little bit more because it places the knight in a position that they could aid in a checkmate down the line, if for whatever reason we lay off e4.arc
  • Yeah, that's a good point. But the knight on c5 also attacks the pawn on a4. Snark 14:52, 3 August 2006 (PDT)
    • That's definitely the good thing about Nc5 vs Nf6. Nc5 is probably the better move for long term play, I'm thinking there should be a mate in here somewhere before the endgame though. The one thing about threatening a4 is that if we did move Nxa4, Ze's Qxa4 puts us in a bit (just a bit) of trouble. Of course, threatening isn't the same as taking, and it's easy enough to wait until his queen moves, which she'll have to at some point. arc
      • Well, I don't think there is a forced mate, unfortunately. We'll probably end up with exchanged queens about three connected passed pawns in the center. If Ze doesn't resign, that is. Snark 15:01, 3 August 2006 (PDT)
• 27....Qxe4 28. Bf3 Qc2 wins us at least one pawn. Geedubber 17:33, 3 August 2006 (PDT)

Please take the time to familiarize yourself with some common middlegame tactics as well.

Also, please don't be too hesitant to suggest your own move in this section. Just use * to begin a line and add your idea, even if you aren't familiar with notation, or don't feel comfortable updating the boards/suggestions yourself, there are plenty of us that will be more than willing to set them up for you (and keep everything organized) ßrigade^rant

Suggested Move Summary

Suggested Position Suggested Move: Nc5

Suggested Position Suggested Move: Nf6

Suggested Position Suggested Move: Qxe4

Nc5

This move puts pressure on two pawns, and advances our knight forward. In response, Bh5 would be my best guess, or maybe Nc1 to cover his pieces. Bh5 and we have to move our queen, and if we go Qxe4 he plays good old Bf3. arc

• with both this move and Nf6 the response to Bf3 would almost certainly be Nxe4. Is there any other plausible move for Ze other than Bf3 in response to either Nc5 or Nf6? Kingpatzer 12:12, 4 August 2006 (PDT)
  • I don't think he can do Bf3 immediately after any of these or Rxa2. arc
    • Dropping that knight doesn't cost him anything .. it's effectively dead anyway :) But actually I think Rxa2 is a MISTAKE! For example: 27. ... Nc5 (or Nf6) 28. Bf3 Rxa2? 29. Qb1 Rxa4 30. Qxb6 and he's going to have a little bit of activity for a spell. Compare that to 27. .. Nc5 (or Nf6) 28. Bf3 Nxe4 29. Re1 Rd2! Kingpatzer 12:22, 4 August 2006 (PDT)

Nf6

This puts nice pressure on the e4 pawn, moves the knight forward, and also covers Bh5. I don't see many options for white here. arc

• This seems to cover more of our bases than Nc5. Plus, I like the idea of keeping the knight more on the kingside. PTWhipplebang 12:05, 4 August 2006 (PDT)
  • Agree Cubzas 12:07, 4 August 2006 (PDT)
• I like this slightly better than Nc5 as it seems both more natural a square and I like that it is slightly more flexible for a kingside attack. However, c5 is a more advanced square. There may be some subtle reason to prefere one of these knight moves to the other, but I can't see any disadvantage to either. Kingpatzer 12:09, 4 August 2006 (PDT)
  • What do you think of Bh5 in the case of Nc5? It's not a very serious threat, but the one thing about this move is I can't really see anything he can do next move that will be effective. arc
    • That's one of the reasons I like this move better, it kind of neutralizes the Bh5 threat. PTWhipplebang 12:14, 4 August 2006 (PDT)
      • I don't see Bh5 as much of a threat now that his Q is on d1. In the case of Bh5 we just play Qxe4 no? Kingpatzer 12:17, 4 August 2006 (PDT)
        • The one thing about Bh5 is it lets him get his bishop off of row 2 without losing his knight to our rook. His e4 is dead no matter what, I think. Either way I don't see a very bright light at the end of Ze's tunnel, but i'm leaning towards this over Nc5 right now. arc

Qxe4

As Snark points out above, the move of Bf3 is annoying, though we are at least taking care of that pawn. arc

• i don't know that Bf3 is annoying, as we can simply play Qd3. However, it doesn't seem nearly as good as Nf6 or Nc5. With the knight moves we are bringing more firepower to the game and Ze is starting to feel his material disadvantage (both being pawns down and having a knight effectively out of the game). This just seems to me to be a weaker move. Kingpatzer 12:14, 4 August 2006 (PDT)
  • I also don't like putting us into a position where we are likely to trade queens. Sure it will happen eventually, but the queen gives us a better opportunity to mate sooner, if Ze slips up. arc

If we Win, should we buy Ze a Consolation Prize?

The following was suggested and discussed yesterday. PTWhipplebang 12:11, 4 August 2006 (PDT)

Anyone want to vote on if we buy Ze a consolation prize for letting us have this much fun? I haven't pledged yet, but I'll toss in a few bucks to get him one of his books anyway. This game has been a hoot. I realize we don't have to, after all, he's lost (well not yet, but soon), but it'd be kind of cool to treat him to something off his list for letting us have all this fun. Kingpatzer 17:58, 3 August 2006 (PDT)

• Why not Das Max und Moritz Buch? It's what we were going to buy him when we weren't sure how much money we could raise. Heh...that sounds funny now. PTWhipplebang 18:04, 3 August 2006 (PDT)
  • Also, I don't think it makes much sense to buy him something too expensive, since technically we don't owe him anything. PTWhipplebang 18:06, 3 August 2006 (PDT)
  • Sounds like a good plan. Lets set up voting for this. It's very arrogant to work on a consolation prize before we have won, that's why I love the idea. arc
• I would definitely kick in something for the consolation prize. I think that's a great idea. This has been fun! Snark
• I agree, I mean after all, he brings a few minuets of quality entertainment to us for free every day. M4cfr34k 02:08, 4 August 2006 (PDT)
• Me too. I haven't been participating, or even following very closely (no time), but it has been fun to watch it progress. I'll kick in. --Sford 09:10, 4 August 2006 (PDT)

Buy Ze a Prize

1. VOTE by PTWhipplebang 12:11, 4 August 2006 (PDT): I've had a great time playing and I think it would be nice to show Ze our appreciation.
2. VOTE by Kingpatzer 12:15, 4 August 2006 (PDT) : I agree. I've had a blast. It wouldn't hurt to show Ze we appreciate him taking his beating like a sugartit, er man.
3. VOTE by Cubzas 12:21, 4 August 2006 (PDT) We have fun, don't we? Let's thank Ze.
4. VOTE by Arc 3:25, 4 August 2006 (EST) I want the amazon gift card to say "Thanks sugartits!"

Don't Buy Ze a Prize