Some games just lift your mood!

I can't say this was my best game on Chess.com. However it was definitely one of the most pleasing wins I have had since I started playing on Chess.com three months ago. It was Sicilian Najdorf (which reminds me of Pradeep Paranjape), and I was playing white against C Arindam from India. Here's how it went:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Be2 Be7 8. Qd2 O-O 9. O-O Nbd7 10. f4 b5 11. Rae1 Qc7 12. Kh1 Bb7 13. Bf3 Rfe8

At this point I thought for about 6 minutes in this 10 minute blitz. Just like my old days - during my tournament years, I would frequently spend an hour thinking 2 or 3 moves at the start of middle game! After long thought, I played

14. e5

When I get computer analysis of the game tomorrow, I will know whether this was a correct move. Although not sure of the merit of the move, I took the risk with it. And the game continued -

14. ... dxe5 15. fxe5 Bxf3 16. Nxf3 Nd5 17. Nxd5 exd5 18. Qxd5 Bxg5 19. Nxg5 Nxe5

I had not analyzed the position till here, when I played 14. e5. However, we had reached this position, and it allowed me to play an exchange sac with

20. Rxe5

He accepted the sacrifice.

20. ... Qxe5

That quickly brought the matter to close with -

21. Qxf7+ Kh8 22. Qh5

(22. ... h6 23. Nf7+ followed by Nxe5)

1 - 0

Cute little victory! :-)

Behold this audacious liar!

It just amazes me how low Manmohan Singh can stoop to stay in power. No other Indian politician could have the audacity to be such a shameless liar! How many more do we have to hear from this crook before the people of our nation kick him out of his chair?

When the whole world knows that he won 2008 No Confidence motion by bribing MPs, our disrespected Prime Minister continues to lie brazenly! And this is not the first time he has done this. He lied to the nation on CWG scam. It was he who sanctioned the escalated costs, knowing fully well where the money is going. He lied on 2G scam, that he was unaware of massive corruption that was going on (Is it even possible? Such massive corruption happening under his nose, and he smells nothing fishy?). He lied on ISRO-Devas deal, which he signed, and no one else.

Every day he continues to lie shamelessly. His lies are now becoming an insult to the nation's intelligence, an insult to the nation's self-respect, and a challenge to citizens' potency.

Finally resolved issue with synchronizing gmail Contacts with my Android phone

I finally figured out the link between my Nexus S mobile phone contacts and my gmail contacts. Ever since I synced my cell phone and my gmail contacts, I had been bewildered by disappearing contacts! I would create and save a contact on my cell phone, and it would just disappear. I wouldn't show up on my contacts after I saved it. I was miffed at the way Contacts app on my cell phone was behaving. I had to open my gmail contacts on my computer and the Contacts on my cell phone, and check them side-by-side to finally figure out the link. Whatever contacts I add to my cell phone get saved to "My Contacts" contact list in gmail. So to make cell phone Contacts app work correctly, I have to display "My Contacts" contact list on my cell phone. That setting can be done from Contacts -> Display Options -> Gmail account -> My Contacts menu path.

It was a huge relief to resolve the problem with Contacts function on my Android phone. This was the only issue with my otherwise lovely phone that was bothering me.

Cold weather in Seattle

A cold wave has swept Seattle last few days. This is what I woke up to on Thursday.

So it was work from home on Thu. On Friday the temperature was sub-zero throughout the day. Cleaning the ice off the car was grueling, because the snow from previous day had turned into hard ice! I saw some interesting icicles hanging from cars.

By evening this is how the surroundings looked like:

Blogging from my new phone!

Here I am blogging from my new Android phone, Nexus S ... when I ought to be sleeping! It's 12:30 a.m. and I an alarm set for 5 a.m. But this new phone is so addictive, I just can't keep it down!

A visit to library

I spent a few hours in the library this afternoon. I really enjoyed it. Just being among all the books makes one feel elated! It was not easy for me, even in the quiet ambiance of the library, to focus fully on my study. The habit of studying is kind of broken. Yet, between the distractions that I indulged into, I was able to spend some time reading what I wanted to. I want to make it a habit to visit the library often. Let's see how it happens.

Installed Chrome

And one of the first things I did on the laptop was to download and install Google Chrome. I browsed the Net for sometime on IE, but couldn't live with it for long. So, I quickly downloaded Chrome. I am writing this blog on Chrome. The previous one was written on IE.