Emergency! Day Thread! Continue reading Emergency William Day Thread

He’s not angry about the lack of a proper day thread. He’s just disappointed. Continue reading Disappointed William Day Thread

The great disadvantage of the standard Queen’s Gambit Declined for black is that 2… e6 locks in the queen’s bishop. The Slav Defence, then, takes the reasonable approach of defending the pawn on d5 from the other side, with 2… … Continue reading Slav Defence Day Thread

The most popular response to the Queen’s Gambit is to decline it with 2… e6, defending the pawn on d5 and maintaining a solid pawn presence in the centre. The Queen’s Gambit Declined, or QGD, has developed an enormous body … Continue reading Queen’s Gambit Declined Day Thread

Despite its name, the Queen’s Gambit Accepted (QGA) is not an attempt by black to win a pawn. The Queen’s Gambit is not like the other gambits. White has easy ways of regaining the sacrificed pawn, and if black tries … Continue reading Queen’s Gambit Accepted Day Thread

By far the two most common opening moves in chess are 1. e4 and 1. d4. In previous headers, we’ve looked exclusively at king’s pawn openings, those that begin with 1. e4. Today, we take a look at 1. d4. … Continue reading Queen’s Gambit Day Thread

Also known as the Centre Counter Defence, this is one of the oldest known chess openings. In fact, it appears in a fictional game of chess in the Valencian poem “Scachs d’amor” from 1475 which (despite its fictional status) may … Continue reading Scandinavian Defence Day Thread

The Sicilian Defence is the most popular, and statistically, best scoring, reply to 1. e4. Like the classical reply 1… e5, it attacks the d4 square, preventing white from immediately building a strong pawn centre. But unlike 1… e5, it … Continue reading Sicilian Defence Day Thread

In previous chess opening headers, I’ve talked only about “double king pawn” openings: those that begin with 1. e4 e5. There are good reasons for black to respond to white’s two-square advance of the king’s pawn with their own two-square … Continue reading French Defence Day Thread

Here’s another of the classic gambit openings. What is a gambit, you ask? It’s a sacrifice of a pawn in the opening in exchange for some other advantage – usually the rapid development of your pieces, leading to a strong … Continue reading Danish Gambit Day Thread

This opening, also commonly known as the Ruy López, was mentioned in the Gottingen Manuscript of about 1500, but was systematically described by the Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura in his 1561 treatise on chess. This opening looks very … Continue reading Day Thread of the Spanish Opening

The Italian Game is one of the twelve openings described in the Gottingen Manuscript of c. 1500, making it one of the oldest recorded chess openings. Nf3 and Nc6 are logical developing moves, bringing the knights into play and first … Continue reading Day Thread of the Italian Game

The King’s Gambit is the premier opening of the aggressive, romantic style of chess that dominated in the 19th century. For centuries, it was a popular opening, culminating in the days of players like Adolf Anderssen, for whom chess was … Continue reading The King’s Gambit Day Thread

The Centre Game is perhaps the least subtle, most primitive of the double king’s pawn openings (i.e. those in which white opens by moving their king’s pawn forward two spaces, and black responds symmetrically). According to classical chess principles, both … Continue reading Centre Game Day Thread

Cécile Chaminade (1857 – 1944) was a French composer of the late Romantic period. She showed great musical aptitude as a child, playing piano and composing music for her cats, dogs, and dolls, and although her father denied her wish … Continue reading Cécile Chaminade Day Thread

(Apologies to JGoo. Your thread was not tagged, so we thought an emergency thread was needed, and now I’m not sure how to delete it.) Carl Friedrich Abel was an early Classical composer, living from 1723 to 1787. He studied … Continue reading Day Thread of Carl Friedrich Abel

Emergency! Everybody to get from thread! Continue reading Emergency Day Thread

James McIntyre (1828-1906), a Scottish immigrant to Canada, liked cheese. He liked cheese a lot.  He settled in what was then Canada’s dairy country, in Ingersoll, Ontario. There he ran a business manufacturing and selling furniture, but his true calling was as … Continue reading Cheese Poet Day Thread

Many children write letters to Santa Claus, but very few receive such lengthy replies as J.R.R. Tolkien’s children did. Starting in 1920, when the eldest, John, was three, each year the Tolkien children received an envelope in the post, complete with … Continue reading Letters from Father Christmas Day Thread

Some fifty years after child prodigies Nannerl and Wolfgang Mozart impressed the crowned heads of Europe with their musical ability, another pair of sibling prodigies appeared on the music scene. Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn were the eldest of the four … Continue reading Fanny Mendelssohn Day Thread