Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Chess Pains

Before turning in last night I watched an episode of one of my all time favorite sit-coms, FRASIER. It was 'Chess Pains' from Season 3, Episode 18. From IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106004/episodes#year-1996) "Frasier buys an elaborate antique chess set, but becomes obsessed by his inability to win against Martin."
Martin is Frasier's father. The chess set is a monstrosity. Anyone who would play on such a set should lose; both of them!
There was a line that, had I been aware of it, I would have quoted in my last post. "The King is stationary while the Queen has all the power."
After losing the first game to Martin, Frasier was sitting in the coffee shop, looking at the position on what looked like a wooden travel type board, while talking with Roz, the pretty woman with a mellifluous voice, obviously my favorite character (insert smiley face here). "Now I know how he won," blurts Frasier. "He somehow stumbled onto the Panov-Botvinnik Attack!" At least the writer used a legitimate chess term, although chess players know it as an opening, not a 'winning attack'. Hey, he could have written it as the 'Stalin-Trotsky' attack!

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