Ah, the Club...

                                                           

I made it to the chess club at the library, today.

If that first picture represents me, an old chess player, then the second picture has to represent the progress of my two games today.

Two wins. Had to grind them out...

In my first game, my opponent threw his pawns forward. I countered by throwing my pieces forward. The middlegame was quite a sight. And a bit long.

However, pieces checkmate easier than pawns do, and so I eventually delivered checkmate.

My second game I began, hopefully, with 1.e4, looking for a Jerome Gambit. My opponent countered with 1...d5, looking for a Scandinavian Defense. Ha! I played 2.d4, hoping he would capture my e-pawn, so that I could play 3.f3, looking for a Blackmar-Diemer Gambit. But, no, he played 2.f5!? which might be the Walcott Defense, named after George Walcott, who played it against Harlow Bussey Daly in their game in the New York State Chess Association tournament in 1910.

Okay, Readers, you probably are not familiar with Walcott, but certainly you have already decided that my game should have gone 1.e4 d5 2.d4 f5 3.exd5, answering 3...Nf6 with 4.Bb5+; or 3...Qxd5 with 4.Nc3.

Instead, I played what I learned after the game was Stockfish 16.1's second choice of moves, 3.e5. Let the grind begin.

I can only say "Wait 'Til Next Year!" - I mean, next game.