A lot of the conversation around Freeman at 13 that I’ve seen hinges around ‘we have better options there’, and I don’t disagree that right now and long term Lawrence is the choice.

However, I have seen very few people mention the fact that Freeman being a world class winger who can also play 13 (and 15 in a pinch) adds a hell of a lot to both Freeman’s personal longevity (how often have we seen Daly make a squad due to his versatility?) and to England’s flexibility in being able to get (potentially) a 7-1 bench come the World Cup.

In the case where we have M Smith and Freeman in, Earl can play the Kwagga Smith role of centre cover in the forwards, that gives the ability to reshuffle to cover pretty much any eventuality, needing just a 9 replacement on the bench.

Does anyone have that short vid of two guys with LUSCIOUS 70s hair talking about how to be inclusive/nice to people over band T-shirts (I.e. don’t be a gatekeeping dick).

I need it to show my hairdresser; I thought 196-ers would prob recognise the description.

Inspired by a comment on another post, thought it might be nice to aggregate lemmy’s chess wisdom when it comes to general rules.

Could be related to the chess itself (e.g. rooks belong behind passed pawns) or more general (e.g. in classical think about concrete variations on your move, and plans on your opponent’s).

None of these are ever hard and fast, but are often useful if you’re at a loose end in a position.

A couple I’ve found helpful:

• the bishop pair together is generally worth about 7 pawns, rather than 6. Useful when evaluating exchange sacs quickly in blitz
• in closed positions, your play is generally in the direction the pawn chain is pointing for you (so in the French, black’s play is on the queenside and white’s on the kingside
• in a closed position, plans generally revolve around engineering a pawn break. Look for them and check each. No pawn breaks; no plan
• when in doubt, push the a/h pawn

Any more for any more?

Sitting somewhere between folk, techno and dance music are the Peatbog Faeries. I’ve seen them live and they are incredible.

Couple of songs: Caberdrone: high tempo dance number, with bagpipes

Humours of Ardnamurchan: probably one of my favourite of theirs, from their newest album. Incredible fiddle playing.

Dragon’s Apprentice: slower track, for variety.

I know a few other bands in that genre, if anyone particularly likes it. Fairly niche!

Does anyone know of good resources for the black side of Bf4 Pirc positions? Nothing on it in Moskalenko’s book (perfect Pirc modern), and it’d be nice to read something on the subtleties of this specific line, as it comes up often vs Jobava players.