User:Krakatoa

In real life, I live in Park Ridge, Illinois (a Chicago suburb, and hometown of Hillary Clinton), with my wife, daughter, dog, and three cats. Professionally, I am an attorney. I published an article, "Waiver in the Federal Courts," in the Fall 1996 issue of the Appellate Law Review. I have since written a book on the same subject, entitled "Waiver of Arguments in the Seventh Circuit," that ABA Publishing offered to publish as an e-book. In August 2015, I received a CPA certificate.

I hold the titles of National Master (awarded in 1983) and Senior Master of Correspondence Chess (awarded in 1997) from the United States Chess Federation. The International Correspondence Chess Federation awarded me the title of Correspondence Chess Master in 2024. I finished with an even score (+2 =8 -2) in the 1997 United States Absolute Championship, which is open to the top 13 correspondence players in the United States who accept their invitations, and with the same score (=12) in that event in 2023. I am currently playing in the 2024 event.

I have published two of my best chess games in Chess Informant, both of which were also cited in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings and other works. (See below for games.) Chess Informant's panel of grandmaster judges also cited the first game, Rhine-Sprenkle, as the 8th-9th most theoretically important game in Volume 32 of Chess Informant.

I have primarily written and contributed to chess-related articles in Wikipedia. I am particularly proud of my articles First-move advantage in chess, George H. D. Gossip, and Swindle (chess). The first two of these have been promoted to Featured Article, the highest rating on Wikipedia. Only about 2,700 of the 3.1 million articles in the English Wikipedia are Featured Articles. Of almost 4,100 chess-related articles on Wikipedia, these are two of only four Featured Articles. They appeared as Today's Featured Article on the Main Page of Wikipedia on March 21 and December 6, 2009. Only about one out of every 1,400 articles ever becomes Today's Featured Article.

I have also written articles about the American Chess Quarterly, John Washington Baird, Rosendo Balinas, Jr., the Balogh Defense, Joseph Bertin, the Blackburne Shilling Gambit, Henry Charlick, Chess theory, Istvan Csom, the Czech Defense, desperado (chess), dice chess, G.H. Diggle, the English Defense, Frederick Esling, Edward Freeborough, Ellen Gilbert, Golden Knights (chess), John Grefe, James Grundy (chess player), James Hanham, Carsten Hansen, Robert Hess (chess player), the Horwitz Defense, Henry Hosmer, the Immortal losing game, the Irish Gambit, the Italian Game, the Jerome Gambit, Lubomir Kavalek, Kieninger Trap, Atanas Kolev, Bogdan Lalic, Le Palamède, Anatoly Lein, James A. Leonard, the List of Ethnic Chess Openings (renamed the List of chess openings named after places after surviving a vote for deletion), Napoleon Marache, Mihail Marin, Max Lange Attack, Dragoljub Minić, Leopold Mitrofanov, Hugh Myers, the Nakamura Trap, the Norwegian Defense, the Parham Attack, the Peruvian Immortal, Petar Popovic, Arshak Petrosian, the Polish Defense, the Polish Immortal, Charles Ranken, Ilya Smirin, Jeff Sonas, Mihai Suba, William Wayte, White and Black in chess, John G. White, and Michael Wilder; writing most of the article about Fred Reinfeld, which had been a stub; completely rewriting Chess Player's Chronicle and X-ray (chess); adding a lot of content to Henry Ernest Atkins, Leonard Barden, Bird's Opening, Black Knights' Tango, Boden's mate, Amos Burn, Checkmate, Chess handicap, Jan Hein Donner, Double check, Dunst Opening, Englund Gambit, Larry Evans, Bobby Fischer, Fortress (chess), Glossary of chess, Gisela Kahn Gresser, Hippopotamus Defence, Latvian Gambit, Francis Joseph Lee, David Levy (chess player), Andor Lilienthal, List of world records in chess, Maróczy Bind, Marshall Defense, Owen's Defence, Passed pawn, Ponziani Opening, Promotion (chess), Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, Ortvin Sarapu, Scotch Game, Gregory Serper, Sicilian Defence, Sisters (Lynne Cheney novel), Stalemate, Howard Staunton, Staunton Gambit, Mir Sultan Khan, Touch-move rule, Vienna Game, Wade Defence, John Herbert White, Baruch Harold Wood, World Chess Championship 1972, World Junior Chess Championship, Zugzwang, and Zwischenzug; and contributing to myriad other articles.

Chess historian Edward Winter referred to two of my articles in his famous Chess Notes Internet column: "5919. Wikipedia" "It is impossible not to have misgivings, both general and particular, about Wikipedia, but we have recently noticed a great improvement in some of the chess articles in the site’s English-language version. There is, for instance, excellent treatment of G.H.D. Gossip, and it is also good to see a fine article on Hugh Myers."

I also wrote an article about February 12, 1809, probably the greatest birthday in history: Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, two of the greatest men in history, were both born on that date. Newsweek thought the subject was significant enough for a cover story, but to my dismay the Wikipedia community voted to delete my article. My article about the blog Echidne of the Snakes met the same sad fate.

I am also interested in law, liberal politics and blogging. If acting in plays (rather than films) counted toward a Bacon number, I would have a Bacon number of 3, having acted in school plays with Chris Rolfes, who has a Bacon number of 2.

My aunt, Frances Olsen, is the subject of a Wikipedia article, as are two of my law school suite-mates, Rockard Delgadillo and Monica Medina, and Ron Klain, Monica's husband. As a lawyer, I met Barack Obama back before he held any political office, and have shaken his hand on five occasions. I have a Morphy Number of 4 (many grandmasters today have one of 5), having drawn a game online against Leonard Barden, one of the few living players with a Morphy Number of 3. I have a better record against Viktors Pupols (one draw) than Bobby Fischer (one loss) did.

Why "Krakatoa"?
My Wikipedia handle "Krakatoa" actually refers to chess, not the famous volcano that is west of Java, contrary to the mistitled 1969 movie. Particularly when playing speed chess, certain players Marvin Dandridge have been known to exclaim that they are "cracking" their opponent (i.e. have secured a winning position, especially in the form of a decisive mating attack against the enemy king). Someone (maybe even me, I don't remember) adapted this into the exclamation "Krakatoa!"

Chess studies
The endgame study immediately below was not (unfortunately) composed by me, but by Mitrofanov. It is a corrected version of his original problem, which won first prize in the 1967 Rustaveli tournament. That problem had Black's knight on f3 instead of g2 (see algebraic notation), but turned out to have a cook. I bring it to your attention because I was so amazed and impressed by it. White, on move, is to play and win. The solution is here.

Below is a study that I composed in 2005. It was published in "Benko's Bafflers" in the May 2006 issue of Chess Life magazine. It is based on a simpler study that I composed in 2001, which was also published in "Benko's Bafflers." (In the earlier problem, there are no knights on c5 or d3, White's rook is on h1 rather than h4, and Black's bishop is on e5 rather than d6.) White, on move, is to play and force a draw. The solution is here.

Chess games
Below is a game I won against David Sprenkle (Black) in 1982. Chess Informant, volume 32, published it with my annotations. In volume 33, it was voted the 8|8th-9|9th most theoretically important game in volume 32. Larsen ranked it first, and Byrne ranked it second. It was also cited in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings and Modern Chess Openings, and occupies a whole chapter in all three editions of Nunn’s book "Beating the Sicilian." See John Nunn, Beating the Sicilian, American Chess Promotions, 1984, pp. 130-35, ISBN 0-7134-0899-5; John Nunn, Beating the Sicilian II: A Complete New Repertoire for White, Batsford, 1990, pp. 149-54, ISBN 0-7134-6445-3; John Nunn and Joe Gallagher, Beating the Sicilian 3, Henry Holt and Company, 1995, pp. 200-05. ISBN 0-8050-4227-X. You can play over the game on the chessgames.com website, or play over all three of the below games starting from here.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6!? Introducing the razor-sharp Nimzowitsch Variation of the Sicilian Defense. 3.e5! Nd5 4.Nc3 e6 5.Nxd5 exd5 6.d4 Nc6 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.Qxd5 Qb6 9.Bc4 Bxf2+ 10.Ke2 O-O 11.Rf1 Bc5 12.Ng5 Nd4+ 13.Kd1 Ne6 14.Ne4 d6 15.exd6 Rd8 16.Bd3 Bxd6 17.Qh5 f5 18.Nxd6! An important theoretical novelty at the time, this is now considered the main line. As I write this in February 2015, ChessBase Online shows that White scores over 75% with 18.Nxd6! Qxd6 19.Qxf5 Qxh2 Minić later drew against Short with 19...Nf8!? '''20.Qf7+ Kh8 21.Bg5! Rg8 22.Be3! Nd8!? 23.Qf2''' 23.Qf4! is better. '''Nc6! 24.Kd2 Qd6?''' 24...Ne5! and if 25.Rh1 Nxd3! comes close to equalizing. Now White has a winning attack. 25.Rh1 h6 26.Bc5!+- driving the queen away so that White can play Qf4 or Qe3, with the crushing threat of Rxh6+ Qd5 26...Qc7 27.Qf6!! gxf6 (otherwise Rxh6+) 28.Rxh6+ Kg7 29.Rh7# '''27.Qf4! Rd8''' (see diagram at left) If 27...Qxg2+, 28.Kc3. '''28.Rxh6+! Kg8 28...gxh6 29.Qxh6+ Kg8 30.Qh7# 29.Rh8+! Kxh8 30.Qh4+ Kg8 31.Qh7+ Kf7 32.Qg6+ Kg8 33.Qh7+ Kf7 34.Rf1+ Bf5 35.Rxf5+ Qxf5 36.Qxf5+ Kg8 37.Kc1 1-0'''

Below is a correspondence game I played against Kyle Thompson (White) in 1992. Chess Informant, volume 57, published it with my annotations. It was also cited in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings, and was chessgames.com's Game of the Day on December 14, 2010. You can play it over here.

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bc4 e6 6.f5 White is playing the hyper-aggressive Grand Prix Attack against my Sicilian. '''Nge7 7.fxe6 fxe6 8.d3 d5 9.Bb3 b5! 10.exd5 exd5 11.0-0 a well-known line entailing a piece sacrifice by White Bxc3!?''' 10...c4! 11.dxc4 dxc4 12.Qxd8+ Nxd8! 13.Nxb5 cxb3! 14.Nc7+ Kd7 15.Nxa8 bxc2! was later shown to favor Black. 12.bxc3 c4 13.Ng5 Bf5 14.dxc4 dxc4 15.Qe2 cxb3 16.axb3 Qd5 17.Ba3 b4 18.cxb4!? theoretical novelty '''Nd4 19.Qf2 Nxc2! 20.Bb2 0-0! 21.Nxh7!? Kxh7 22.Ra5? Qd3!!-+''' Since this was a correspondence game, I was able to spend many hours analyzing this position to a forced win in all lines. 23.Qh4+ Kg8 24.Qh8+ Kf7 25.Qg7+ Ke8 26.Re5?? (see diagram at left) One of the main points of the centralizing 22...Qd3!!, rather than the more natural 22...Qxb3, was that it prevented this move! '''Qxf1+! 27.Kxf1 Bd3++ 28.Kg1 Rf1#'''

I played the following correspondence game against against Antonie Boerkoel (Black) in the 1995 Golden Knights semifinals. Boerkoel played like a tactical genius, sacrificing, or offering to sacrifice, literally every kind of piece possible except his king -- pawn, knight, bishop, rook, and queen. You can play it over here.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.b4 Nh5 10.Rel f5 11.Ng5 Nf4 12.Bxf4 exf4 13.Rc1 Kh8 14.Bf3 Be5 15.c5 c6!? theoretical novelty 16.exf5 Nxf5 17.dxc6 Qxg5 18.cxb7 Bxb7 19.Bxb7 Rab8 20.Ne4 Qh4 21.Ba6 dxc5 22.bxc5 Rbd8 23.Qb3 (see diagram at left) Ne3!! Threatening to win with either 24...Nxg2! 25.Kxg2 f3+ or 24...f3! 25.g3 Qh3 26.Bf1 Nxf1. 24.g3 If 24.fxe3, f3 with the triple threats of Qxh2+, Qxe4, and f2+ is strong. 24...fxg3 25.hxg3 Rxf2!! Now Black's knight, rook, and queen are all hanging. 26.Kxf2 If 26.gxh4, Rg2+ 27.Kh1 Rh2+ draws by perpetual check. If 26.Qxe3??, Qh2#. And if 26.Nxf2??, Qxg3+ and mate next. 26...Bxg3+!= 27.Nxg3 Forced. If 27.Kxe3??, Qf4+ 28.Ke2 Qxe4+ 29.Kf1 (or 29.Qe3 Qg2+) Qh1+ 30.Ke2 Qg2+ 31.Ke3 Qf2+ 32.Ke4 Qf4#. 27.Ke2?? Qg4+ 28.Kxe3 Qf4+ is the same. 27...Qf4+ 28.Ke2 28.Kg1?? Qxg3+ and mate next 28...Qg4+ 29.Kxe3 Qxg3+ 30.Ke2 Qg2+ 31.Ke3 Qg3+ 32.Ke4 Qg4+ 31.Ke3! 31.Ke5?? Qf5# 1/2-1/2 A brilliant game by Boerkoel. Who says draws have to be boring?

I later found the following grandmaster game, which has strikingly similar tactical ideas to those in Rhine-Boerkoel: Westerinen-Sakaev, Gausdal 1992 1. e4 2.c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nge2 d6 4.g3 Nc6 5.Bg2 Nf6 6.0-0 Be7 7.h3 0-0 8.d3 Rb8 9.f4 d5 10.exd5 exd5 11.f5 d4 12.Ne4 Nxe4 13.Bxe4 Bd6 14.Nf4 Ne5 15.Qh5 Re8 16.Ne6!! g6! 17.fxg6 hxg6 18.Rxf7! 1/2-1/2 You can play it over here

For an outrageous swindle, see Rhine-Nagle here. More of my games (warts and all) are at 365chess.com and chessgames.com.

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