User:Krakatoa

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In real life, I live in Park Ridge, Illinois (a Chicago suburb, and hometown of Hillary Clinton), with my wife, daughter, dog, and two cats. Professionally, I am an attorney. I published an article, "Waiver in the Federal Courts," in the Fall 1996 issue of the Appellate Law Review. I have since written a book on the same subject, entitled "Waiver of Arguments in the Seventh Circuit," that ABA Publishing has offered to publish as an e-book.

I hold the titles of National Master (awarded in 1983) and Senior Master of Correspondence Chess (awarded in 1997) from the United States Chess Federation.[1] I finished with an even score (+2 =8 -2) in the 1997 United States Absolute Championship, which is open to the top 13 correspondence players in the United States who accept their invitations. I have published two of my best chess games in Chess Informant, both of which were also cited in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings and other works. (See below for games.) Chess Informant's panel of grandmasters also cited the first game, Rhine-Sprenkle, as the 8th-9th most theoretically important game in Volume 32 of Chess Informant.

I have primarily written and contributed to chess-related articles in Wikipedia. I am particularly proud of my articles Swindle (chess) and First-move advantage in chess. Out of over 2,500 chess-related articles on Wikipedia, the latter article is one of only four to be rated A-class or better ("Featured article" is the only higher rating). I have also written articles about Rosendo Balinas, Jr., the Balogh Defense, the Blackburne Shilling Gambit, Chess theory, Istvan Csom, the Czech Defense, the desperado piece, dice chess, the English Defense, Golden Knights (chess), John Grefe, Robert Hess (chess player), the Immortal losing game, the Irish Gambit, the Italian Game, Lubomir Kavalek, Atanas Kolev, Anatoly Lein, the List of Ethnic Chess Openings (renamed the List of chess openings named after places after surviving a vote for deletion), Napoleon Marache, Mihail Marin, Max Lange Attack, Dragoljub Minić, Leopold Mitrofanov, the Norwegian Defense, the Parham Attack, the Peruvian Immortal, Petar Popovic, Arshak Petrosian, the Polish Defense, the Polish Immortal, Ilya Smirin, Mihai Suba, White and Black in chess, and Michael Wilder; writing most of the article about Fred Reinfeld, which had been a stub; adding a lot of content to Bobby Fischer, Checkmate, Dunst Opening, Fortress (chess), Hippopotamus Defence, Passed pawn, Scotch Game, Sicilian Defence, Staunton Gambit, Stalemate, and Wade Defence; and contributing to myriad other articles. I wrote an article about February 12, 1809, probably the greatest birthday in history (Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, two of the greatest men in history, were both born on that date), but to my dismay the Wikipedia community voted to delete it. My article about the blog Echidne of the Snakes met the same sad fate.

I am also interested in law, liberal politics and blogging. If acting in plays (rather than films) counted toward a Bacon number, I would have a Bacon number of 3, having acted in school plays with Chris Rolfes, who has a Bacon number of 2.

The problem immediately below was not (unfortunately) composed by me, but by Mitrofanov. It is a corrected version of his original problem, which won first prize in the 1967 Rustaveli tournament. That problem had Black's knight on g2 instead of f3 (see algebraic notation), but turned out to have a cook. I bring it to your attention because I was so amazed and impressed by it. White, on move, is to play and win. The solution is here.

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[edit] My chess problem

Below is a chess problem I composed in 2005. It was published in "Benko's Bafflers" in the May 2006 issue of Chess Life magazine. It is based on a simpler problem I composed in 2001, which was also published in "Benko's Bafflers." (In the earlier problem, there are no knights on c5 or d3, White's rook is on h1 rather than h4, and Black's bishop is on e5 rather than d6.) White, on move, is to play and force a draw. The solution is here.

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[edit] Chess games

Below is a game I won against David Sprenkle (Black) in 1982. Chess Informant, volume 32, published it with my annotations. In volume 33, it was voted the 8th-9th most theoretically important game in volume 32. Larsen ranked it first, and Byrne ranked it second. It was also cited in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings and Modern Chess Openings, and occupies a whole chapter in all three editions of Nunn’s book "Beating the Sicilian." You can play it over on the chessgames.com website.

Rhine-Sprenkle, after 27...Rd8

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 Introducing the razor-sharp Nimzowitsch Variation of the Sicilian Defense. 3.e5 Nd5 4.Nc3 e6 5.Nxd5 exd5 6.d4 Nc6 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.Qxd5 Qb6 9.Bc4 Bxf2+ 10.Ke2 O-O 11.Rf1 Bc5 12.Ng5 Nd4+ 13.Kd1 Ne6 14.Ne4 d6 15.exd6 Rd8 16.Bd3 Bxd6 17.Qh5 f5 18.Nxd6! An important theoretical novelty at the time, this is now considered the main line. Qxd6 19.Qxf5 Qxh2 Minić later drew against Short with 19...Nf8!? 20.Qf7+ Kh8 21.Bg5! Rg8 22.Be3! Nd8!? 23.Qf2 23.Qf4! is better. Nc6! 24.Kd2 Qd6? 24...Ne5! and if 25.Rh1 Nxd3! comes close to equalizing. Now White has a winning attack. 25.Rh1 h6 26.Bc5!+- driving the queen away so that White can play Qf4 or Qe3, with the crushing threat of Rxh6+ Qd5 26...Qc7 27.Qf6!! gxf6 (otherwise Rxh6+) 28.Rxh6+ Kg7 29.Rh7# 27.Qf4! Rd8 (see diagram at left) If 27...Qxg2+, 28.Kc3. 28.Rxh6+! Kg8 28...gxh6 29.Qxh6+ Kg8 30.Qh7# 29.Rh8+! Kxh8 30.Qh4+ Kg8 31.Qh7+ Kf7 32.Qg6+ Kg8 33.Qh7+ Kf7 34.Rf1+ Bf5 35.Rxf5+ Qxf5 36.Qxf5+ Kg8 37.Kc1 1-0

Below is a correspondence game I played against Kyle Thompson (White) in 1992. Chess Informant, volume 57, published it with my annotations. It was also cited in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings. You can play it over here.

Thompson-Rhine, position after 26.Re5??

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bc4 e6 6.f5 White is playing the hyper-aggressive Grand Prix Attack against my Sicilian. Nge7 7.fxe6 fxe6 8.d3 d5 9.Bb3 b5! 10.exd5 exd5 11.0-0 a well-known line entailing a piece sacrifice by White Bxc3!? 10...c4! 11.dxc4 dxc4 12.Qxd8+ Nxd8! 13.Nxb5 cxb3! 14.Nc7+ Kd7 15.Nxa8 bxc2! was later shown to favor Black. 12.bxc3 c4 13.Ng5 Bf5 14.dxc4 dxc4 15.Qe2 cxb3 16.axb3 Qd5 17.Ba3 b4 18.cxb4!? theoretical novelty Nd4 19.Qf2 Nxc2! 20.Bb2 0-0! 21.Nxh7!? Kxh7 22.Ra5? Qd3!!-+ Since this was a correspondence game, I was able to spend many hours analyzing this position to a forced win in all lines. 23.Qh4+ Kg8 24.Qh8+ Kf7 25.Qg7+ Ke8 26.Re5?? (see diagram at left) One of the main points of the centralizing 22...Qd3!!, rather than the more natural 22...Qxb3, was that it prevented this move! Qxf1+! 27.Kxf1 Bd3++ 28.Kg1 Rf1#

I played the following correspondence game against against Antonie Boerkoel (Black) in the 1995 Golden Knights semifinals. Boerkoel played like a tactical genius, sacrificing, or offering to sacrifice, literally every kind of piece possible -- pawn, knight, bishop, rook, and queen. You can play it over here.

Rhine-Boerkoel, position after 23.Qb3: Black initiates a sacrificial orgy.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.b4 Nh5 10.Rel f5 11.Ng5 Nf4 12.Bxf4 exf4 13.Rc1 Kh8 14.Bf3 Be5 15.c5 c6!? theoretical novelty 16.exf5 Nxf5 17.dxc6 Qxg5 18.cxb7 Bxb7 19.Bxb7 Rab8 20.Ne4 Qh4 21.Ba6 dxc5 22.bxc5 Rbd8 23.Qb3 (see diagram at left) Ne3!! Threatening to win with either 24...Nxg2! 25.Kxg2 f3+ or 24...f3! 25.g3 Qh3 26.Bf1 Nxf1. 24.g3 If 24.fxe3, f3 with the triple threats of Qxh2+, Qxe4, and f2+ is strong. 24...fxg3 25.hxg3 Rxf2!! 26.Kxf2 If 26.gxh4, Rg2+ 27.Kh1 Rh2+ draws by perpetual check. And if 26.Nxf2??, Qxg3+ and mate next. 26...Bxg3+!= 27.Nxg3 Forced. If 27.Kxe3??, Qf4+ 28.Ke2 Qxe4+ 29.Kf1 (or 29.Qe3 Qg2+) Qh1+ 30.Ke2 Qg2+ 31.Ke3 Qf2+ 32.Ke4 Qf4#. 27.Ke2?? Qg4+ 28.Kxe3 Qf4+ is the same. 27...Qf4+ 28.Ke2 28.Kg1?? Qxg3+ and mate next 28...Qg4+ 29.Kxe3 Qxg3+ 30.Ke2 Qg2+ 31.Ke3 Qg3+ 32.Ke4 Qg4+ 31.Ke3! 31.Ke5?? Qf5# 1/2-1/2 A brilliant game by Boerkoel. Who says draws have to be boring?

I later found the following grandmaster game, which has strikingly similar tactical ideas to those in Rhine-Boerkoel: Westerinen-Sakaev, Gausdal 1992 1. e4 2.c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nge2 d6 4.g3 Nc6 5.Bg2 Nf6 6.0-0 Be7 7.h3 0-0 8.d3 Rb8 9.f4 d5 10.exd5 exd5 11.f5 d4 12.Ne4 Nxe4 13.Bxe4 Bd6 14.Nf4 Ne5 15.Qh5 Re8 16.Ne6!! g6! 17.fxg6 hxg6 18.Rxf7! 1/2-1/2 You can play it over here

For an outrageous swindle, see Rhine-Nagle here.

[edit] Barnstars

		The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
		For many fine contributions to chess topics. Bubba73 (talk), 23:26, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

		The Content Creativity Barnstar
		For the tremendous work and material you put in the article First-move advantage in chess so that it reached A-class, I award you this barnstar. SyG (talk) 08:08, 3 May 2008 (UTC)