In his DVD on the Queen's Gambit Declined (confusingly labelled Queen's Gambit -- presumably a later DVD will go into the Queen's Gambit Accepted) Gary Kasparov says throughout that the opening has/had a reputation for having been played out and a bit boring. He ends by saying forget about boring openings, unsound openings, there are only openings and anything else is what the player puts in to the ones he's using.

-- I was going to post earlier that I've come to the conclusion that the Colle would be a good opening against a young, impatient player when I saw that Stefan had pretty much written that same idea. So, in the course of this thread I've gone full circle from thinking this would be a safe line to play against a much higher rated player, or someone needing a win as black, to thinking it might be a good choice against an all out attacking player who might try to push too soon, or to take advantage of a weakness that just isn't there.

Stefan Buecker wrote on 09/19/11 at 15:46:33:

Boersma in his 1983 booklet indeed attaches the name of Vinken to 2.Nc3 and 3.f4. Pachman in his 1986 edition of Moderne Schachtheorie doesn't. I would like to see more games of Vinken, especially with 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 g6.

Stefan, you show a game against a 9-year old who forgot to protect his king?

Ok, agreed. White can win in the Colle. But I'm sure even you'll agree that it's unambitious and a poor choice unless white only wants a draw. Even then, it's probably not the best way to play for a draw as White.

It is interesting though, that White scores well after 9.e4 de4?!

If Black knows not to rush this exchange, he scores well. But at least there's a hint of venom in the position.

Exactly, Agropop. I came in discussing an opening I was only interested in playing against and instead find myself receiving an education about things that, last week, I hardly knew existed, but this week I'm glad to be learning about. 

MNb, great links as always. Seems no place today is particularly tranquil. It's always interesting to me how religions that should be serving a positive role much more often tend to turn people against each other.

I think there's going to be a lot more tension in the coming decades as a result of overcrowding and possession of fertile land and most of all good water sources. Actually, that's putting it as blandly as possible; the general expectation is those things will be the cause of major upcoming wars.

DoubleRipVanWinkle wrote on 09/19/11 at 05:55:04:

On a more or less regular base there have been serious riots on the South Moluccans between christians and moslims.

http://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/pdfs/bertrand.pdf

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/09/14/after-riots-stillness-pervades-amb...

I know about rumours that the Indonesian Army has been involved, directly or indirectly. As far as I know there is no conclusive evidence, but given their reputation on Timor and Papua I would not be surprised.
The riots have a lot to do with Indonesian demographic policy. Java is overpopulated, so "emigration" to the Moluccans and Papua is stimulated. Of course it's very convenient that those emigrants will not support local separatism.

This is an excellent article by NYT. Thanks to Peace Corps there are quite a few Americans in Suriname - the USA even have an embassy.

http://www.nospang.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9117:amerika...

Those National Geography pictures are beautiful indeed, but also a bit stereotypal. This won't be your first impression at arrival and your second neither, so to say.

US Army South (or whatever) doesn't forget Suriname either. I have had the pleasure to meet some American soldiers in my town.

http://www.dvidshub.net/news/74055/construction-nears-end-suriname#.TnZrpPr-qUM

But, despite Suriname's bad reputation, DEA is not interested in having an office here, despite a Surinamese offer.
So yes - there áre Americans who do know that Suriname is not in Africa or Asia. 

MNb Thanks for the links, I'm finding them very interesting and useful; didn't know about that great flood.  Some of the maps speculating on what will happen to the worlds coastlines as ocean and sea levels rise again are quite sobering. Some coastal areas and islands worldwide are already being swamped.

500,000 in one city sounds like a good pool for chess playing. During the 80s I became spoiled by playing in NYC and came to assume there would be a lot of chess players almost anywhere I'd move to in the U. S.. Once married and having moved something like 60 miles away to Central New Jersey I learned otherwise. I'd be able to walk to the beach and look across the harbor and see Brooklyn, but there were few if any tournament players in my local area, and no chess clubs.

I guess Central Forida has about the same population as your capital city, and a lot more chess activity, clubs and tournaments than the much more densely populated part of New Jersey I moved from.

Of course chess popularity per capita in the United States isn't comparable to many other countries. Even in NYC I eventually came to know all the regular weekend swiss players. The game was briefly popular when Fischer was world champion, but those days are long gone.

Stefan and Jupp,

Many thanks for the information about the Dutch/German dialects, Plattdütsch and Friesian, I’m sure that will prove to be very helpful to me.

Stefan, like yourself I’ve lived in different regions of my own country going back to the 60s, originally I was from New York. Forty-five or so years ago, when I first went to states other than the one I was raised in I found the local accents fairly difficult to understand. Over the years I’ve continued moving around and noticed in this last relocation, from New Jersey to Florida, that the accents, even of those who’ve lived here their entire lives, wasn’t nearly as distinct as it was when I last lived here (only 50 miles from where I am now). I spoke with a sociologist about this a few weeks ago and said it must have been the effect of so many people moving here from other states. She said the greater influence was so many decades of television. Over the course of time local accents have been influenced by what people hear on television shows, a sort of neutral English. That seems reasonable to me. I’ve long noticed that regional accents of actors in movies from the 30s and 40s are much more distinct than anything I hear today. I’m wondering if television has had a similar effect in Germany and other European nations.

Mnb,

I’d have known a little about Guyana, but learned some new info by looking up your own nation. I realize you’ve got a relatively small population, around 500,000, but despite that is there a lot of chess activity? I’ve found it varies greatly in different parts of the United States.

Your explanation of the dialect you speak reminds me of things a French friend many years ago told me about people in North America, mainly Canada and the US state Louisiana who speak French but because they’ve communities have been away from France for so many centuries it wouldn’t be easy for them to understand the language as it’s currently spoken in France itself, and of course the reverse is true.

I know of Friesia from Medieval history as raiders of the English coast, I’m assuming these are the same people. So I find the comment about their language predating Dutch to be especially interesting.

dfan,

I stand corrected.    In any case I don’t think I can produce that special figure on my keyboard.

-- I’ve noticed GM Jim Pratchett is also very adept at properly pronouncing non-English names. I enjoy his videos very much, especially his side remarks which are often very amusing. He seems like a real character.