26th
I’m taking the day off celebrating my 4th anniversary, but Brooke’s on the phone, so I’m playing a few games of online chess…
Anyway, I happened into this position, and I really like it, because it represents my favorite type of chess game, which is asymmetrical unbalanced.
By that I mean, both my opponent and I have very different types of advantages. He has a tiny material advantage (He has 2 rooks, 1 bishop vs. my 1 rook, 1 bishop, and 2 extra pawns), and in exchange I clearly have a better pawn position. His pawns are disconnected like “grandma’s teeth” whereas mine are nice and linked, and on E7 I have a passed pawn (which means that he has no pawn either directly in front of it, or on either of the files right next to it, potentially blocking it).
These types of asymmetrical games tend to be the most rambunctious and unpredictable, and I’ll try to get into them everytime if I can.
(FWIW, I ended up winning the game on time, though that passed pawn I mentioned earlier proved to be crucial later on, and would have given me the win sans-time constraints. As the great Aron Nimzowitsch once said, in what is arguably one of the greatest quotes of all time: “A passed pawn is a criminal which should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient.”)
