Not So Semi-Slav

The trouble doth our Sensei's [1] dish out:

Two posts in one day is a lot, but why not? Peter very kindly JUST sent us his recent game with the preturnaturally talented, usually rock solid Juan Tica. Rock does not seem to thwart Life Master Radomskyj. Watch his path of wrought destruction. You can see smoke come off the board.

The rest, without further ado, belongs to Peters verbatum:

'I'd like to submit my game vs Juan Tica for publication in the West Orange blog.

'Here goes: Peter Radomskyj (Master) White vs. Juan Tica (Master) Black. Meran Defense. 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. N-f3 N-f6 4. N-c3 e6 5. e3 N(b8)-d7 6. Q-c2 B-d6 7. B-e2 O-O 8. O-O Q-e7 9. e4 de 10. Nxe4 Nxe4 11. Qxe4 e5 ( ...11 f5 is a complicated alternative) 12. B-g5 f6 (?) (...12 Q-e8 was better)13. B-d3 (!) g6 14. B-h6 R-e8 15. c5 B-c7 (If instead ...15 ed then 16. B-c4 check ... K-h8 17. Qxe7 ... Bxe7 18. R(f1)-e1 and White has the serious threat of 19. B-f7). 16. B-c4 check K-h8 17. R(f1)-e1 Nxc5 (Desperation, but Black is almost in Zugzwang). 18. dc Qxc5 19. Q-h4 Q-e7 20. N-g5 (!) b5 21. B-b3 c5 22. B-d5 B-f5 23. N-f7 check K-g8 24. Nxe5 discovered check B-e6 25. Nxg6 ...25. BLACK RESIGNS.'



Impatient listeners need only fast forward to the 2:10 mark for the epic swarm. In this music, the possibility is heard of what it is to feel that 'all things are possible'. This motif very fitfully occurs at the 5:20 mark, perhaps even more epic than the prior... Enjoy.

For those of you with a pgn or chessBase viewer, the editor quickly entered this into chessBase, suitable for copy, paste for convenient viewing:

Radomskyj ,Peter (2269) - Tica,Juan (2149) [D00]
WOCC Summer Swiss (3), 06.07.2011
[Peter Radomskyj ]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.Be2 0-0 8.0-0 Qe7 9.e4 dxe4 10.Nxe4 Nxe4 11.Qxe4 e5 12.Bg5 f6 13.Bd3 g6 14.Bh6 Re8 15.c5 Bc7 16.Bc4+ Kh8 17.Rfe1 Nxc5 18.dxc5 Qxc5 19.Qh4 Qe7 20.Ng5 b5 21.Bb3 c5 22.Bd5 Bf5 23.Nf7+ Kg8 24.Nxe5+ 1-0

[1] Sensei (先生^?) is a Japanese word that basically means "person born before another."^[1] In general usage, it means "master" or "teacher,"^[2] and the word is used as a title to refer to or address teachers, professors, professionals such as lawyers, CPA and doctors, politicians, clergymen, and other figures of authority.^[3] The word is also used to show respect to someone who has achieved a certain level of mastery in an art form or some other skill: accomplished novelists, sweepstakers, musicians, and artists for example are addressed in this way. The two characters that make up the term can be directly translated as "born before" and implies one who teaches based on wisdom from age and experience.^[4]

The word prefaced by the adjective 大, pronounced "dai" (or "ō"), which means "great" or "large," is often translated "grand master." This compound term, "dai-sensei," is sometimes used to refer to the top sensei in a particular school or tradition, particularly within the iemoto system. For a more senior member of a group who has not achieved the level of sensei, the term senpai (先輩^?) is used – note the common use of 先 "before"; in martial arts, this is particularly used for the most senior non-sensei member.

The Japanese expression of sensei shares the same characters as the Chinese word, pronounced xiānshēng in Standard Chinese. Xiansheng is a courtesy title for a man of respected stature. It can also be attached to a man's name to mean "gentleman" or, more commonly, "mister". Prior to the development of the modern vernacular, xiansheng was used to address teachers of both genders; this has fallen out of usage in Standard Chinese, though it is retained in some southern Chinese dialects such as Cantonese, Hokkien and Hakka where it still has the meaning "teacher" or "doctor". In Japanese, sensei is still used to address people of both genders. It is likely both the current Southern Chinese and Japanese usages are more reflective of its Middle Chinese etymology.