The Wednesday clash... on Thursday!

With all my translation work, I seem to have forgotten my "Wednesday night" game. This one was played by my grandfather against a certain Mr. Fowler. In winning the game, he extended his streak to three games; his score, in whatever event this happened to be, was now +4-3=0.

[Date "1946.04.09"]
[White "VV"]
[Black "Fowler"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.e3?

{Probably worthwhile here is 4.cxd5, gaining some advantage with the win of a pawn (4...cxd4 5.Qxd4 Nc6 6.Qd1 exd5 7.Nxd5), although some time is wasted.}

4...Nc6 5.cxd5 exd5 6.dxc5 Nf6 7.Nf3 Bxc5

{Material is even, and Black is even slightly ahead in development, but he is also saddled with an isolated pawn in the center. The position is pretty equal.}

8.a3

{White should have developed his bishop on f1, to clear the way for castling.}

8...O-O 9.Bd3 Qe7

{Perhaps 9...Bg4 would be better, clearing c8 for the rook and putting some pressure on White's kingside.}

10.Ne2 Bd6

{10...Bg4 was good here, threatening 11.Bxf3, which after the recapture with the pawn on g2, would leave the White kingside very exposed.}

11.O-O Bg4 12.Nfd4 Nxd4 13.exd4

{Now both sides have isolated d pawns.}

13...Qc7

{Aiming at h2, but it's not a credible threat.}

14.h3 Bh5 15.Be3 Bxe2 16.Qxe2 Bh2+

{A spite check, in my opinion. Making the king move doesn't improve Black's position.}

17.Kh1 Bf4 18.Rac1

{White ignores the invitation to exchange bishops.}

18...Qd6

{Pretty much forced, considering the position of the bishop on f4.}

19.Qf3

{This forces the exchange, as the bishop cannot retreat.}

19...Bxe3 20.fxe3

{Well, the d pawn is no longer isolated, but the new e pawn is backward (it can't be supported by a pawn, and is therefore vulnerable to attack). The f file is half open, and White has heavy artillery on it.}

20...g6


{A blunder. What the Germans call a fingerfehler. A very common phenomenon among us amateurs, though it is not unknown among professionals (just a lot rarer).}

21.Qxf6 Qg3

{All this does is give White time to improve his position. Somewhat better was 21...Qxf6 22.Rxf6 Rae8, I think, but Black is down a piece in any event.}

22.Qf3

{22. Rf3 was better, in my opinion, as it put more pressure on Black. Here, an exchange of queens is an option; with Rf3, it's not.}

22...Qg5 23.Rc5

{Personally, I'd have played 23.Rc7, putting more pressure on f7. Then again, Rc5 puts pressure on black's d pawn, and it does the job.}

23...Rad8

{Protecting the pawn, but I wonder if Rae8 wasn't a little better (counterattack instead of defense).}

24.Bc4

{Taking advantage of the pin against Black's queen and lining up on the Black king. Black really doens't have any good moves available.}

24...Qe7 25.Bxd5 Rxd5

{This doesn't offer the most resistance, but it's a defense. Black is just waiting for the knife to fall, in my opinion. White, on the other hand, has to find a way to win.}

26.Rxd5 f5 27.g4

{Now if 27...fxg4, White exhanges his battery on f8, recaptures on g4 from h3, and remains a full rook up, with connected passed pawns in the center.}

27...Qh4 28.gxf5

{White should probably put a rook on d7, to contain the king, but the text move will work, too.}

28...g5

{Trying, maybe for ...g4 with pressure on h3, but White would have to blunder now to lose the game. He now has three connected passed pawns in the center.}

29.Qg4 Qh6 30.e4

{30.f6 was a lovely move, threatening to take the g pawn with the rook.}

30...Qf6

{Black realizes this, I think.}

31.e5 Qc6

{Pins the undefended rook, but doesn't really improve Black's plight.}

32.Qxg5+ Kh8 33.Qg2

{Necessary, to defend the rook.}

33...Rg8

{Attacking the defender.}

34.Qf3

{Forced.}

34...Qc4 35.f6 a5

{White now has a mating attack, starting with 36.f7. Black must play 36...Qxd5 to stave off the threatened mate in two, to which White must play 37.Qxd5 to regain mobility for the queen. With White now a queen up, the rest is easy.}

Believe me, such games are stressful, even when you are on the winning side. Which is why even winning lopsided games such as this gives one a sense of accomplishment.

Cheers...

Recharging... and working again!

Another job came into the office today, and it was not the backtranslation job that was offered yesterday but never followed up upon after I called and left three messages for the project manager who sent me the original e-mail. It's all to the good, however, as the new job is with a better client, and anyway: backtranslations are tricky.

The idea of a backtranslation is fairly simple: if you want to check the quality of a translation, you give it to someone to translate back into its source language, without giving the translator the original source, naturally.

In theory, what you get back should provide the meaning of the original. In practice, it's a little like playing the juvenile game of "telephone," except the stakes tend to be a little higher. People can get severely ticked off, especially if they expect to get back the original text, word for word, which is clearly not feasible for a text of any reasonable complexity.

For example, if the original says, "The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain," and the backtranslation comes back with "The snow in Peru is deep," you know you have a problem somewhere. But what if it comes back as "The plains receive most of the precipitation in Spain"? If you think some grown people won't argue until they're blue in the face about the difference (or lack thereof) in these two sentences, think again.

Now, you'd expect a bit less tension with such an arrangement if the client is an agency, but there are still opportunities for conflict therein. If the agency's project manager is not a linguist, then resolving discrepancies can be very tricky as the project manager attempts to get at The Truth™.

Anyway, what goes around comes around. They blew me off, I'm doing work for someone else. :^)

Cheers...