UNCLEAR IS ANOTHER SPELLING OF NUCLEAR

What happens when a pretty decent player, in the Senior Open in Tulsa (2009), scores 4.5/6 and uses as his main weapon 1.Nc3 ? I have explored his play in a two part article for the next Friday edition of The Chess Reports.

To be clear, there was nothing easy about writing this. Theory (whatever that is for an opening such as this) gets pretty much tossed out the window. To top it off, the play afterwards is surprisingly good and yet unorthodox (also out the window): 1.Nc3 c5 and bizarre variations of 1.Nc3 d5.

I am sure Mike Schemm's opponents were surprised too. And while there was a little "sloppy" play, most of us wouldn't notice it at first. Endgame play was better than you might think. To me the players indulged in "hard chess."

Schemm finished higher than GM Gulko. His games were featured in the November issue of Northwest Chess; the annotations are mine. You can read Part I next Friday. If you aren't yet a subscriber, $50 will fix that! (13 meaty issues).

I'd like to thank Russ Miller for the subscription. There are a lot of interesting games in state and regional publications. The jury is out on the Van Geet, and these games are even further out!