Dragons

These legendary animals are

not to be confined in some

variation of a chess opening

In the nonfiction cross-genre book Searching for Ropens and Finding God, we read: “Responding to a strange idea by negatively labeling its advocate—that can blind us or at least blur the border between truth and error, even if our concept is better. When in human history has one person always been wrong? And when one pearl is found in the mud of an old oyster bed, expect another.” “. . . what are these flying creatures that shock us with appearances that pull words out of our throats—pterodactyl, dragon, flying dinosaur— whether or not those words exit our lips? I believe that many of the reports that I have received from around the world over the past eleven years, indeed most of them, are from encounters with modern living pterosaurs.” “. . . Natives on the remote island of Umboi [in Papua New Guinea] use [the word] ropen for a real creature, large and nocturnal, that glows for a few seconds at a time while flying between one mountain and another, or between land and reef.” From the introduction in the book: Searching for Ropens and Finding God

Variation in Sicilian Defense

White has a number of alternatives to this defense in the Sicilian. This means black needs to be prepared for each of them. Yugoslav Attack 6.Be3  Bg7 7.f3     0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 This variation of the Sicilian has been studied in more depth in recent years. In particular, 9. O-O-O, an older line, has made a comeback, and the result is fireworks. Classical Variation 6. Be2 Levenfish Variation 6. f4 Harrington-Glek Variation 6.Be3   Bg7 7.Be2   0-0 8.Qd2