Maff

read more becuase this is pretty comprehensive

who's planning on doing No Post November this month

i got those new sonos headphones and so far i like them

Excellent question, Tati. Let me tell you a story.

Here is the start of a game between Petkov and Nikolov, a common position reached after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 d5 3.e3 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nd2 Bf5 6.Ngf3 Qb6:

The queen tentatively dips her toe into the game. What's important about this particular move is that the queen can't be easily be counterattacked by a knight or a rook. Since any other piece would love to trade itself for the queen, the queen must step where the only piece that can easily attack it is another queen. This caution is a kind of sapphic identity. (I'm reminded of a lesbian I knew who said it was easier to develop a resting bitch face than develop the ability to defuse horny men.)

A pawn is attacked, and white should defend it. The black queen has bared her throat. To a knight or rook, this merely means weakness-- but the other queen understands a bared throat as something to gaze at, an invitation. So she follows her into the fray:

The subject of the game is now the tension between the queens. If black's queen simply captures the white's queen, dissolving the tension, then white will recapture with the pawn-- and with a newly-free rook and a pawn ready to fling itself at the opponent, white will have the advantage. The same is true with colors reversed. This means that the queens should not be traded-- they must stay on the board, continuing to stare at one another. The tension is unbearable. Black tries to break it apart.

Two women meet in a forest and, under cover of thicket, discover the sensation of fingertips on palms. A voice calls for one of them. What happens next? In many games, white's best move is Qc2. The girl should say goodbye, if only to promise another rendezvous tomorrow. The tension will survive the broken eye contact. But here, the bishop is eyeing the c2 square. The white queen is running out of spaces to go that don't give up the pawn.

White played Qxb6, capturing the queen. A kiss, but an ending, and therefore a concession. Black would go on to win this game elegantly.

For a moment, that opening revolves around the brisk eye contact between two queens, forbidden to resolve that tension. This, too, is yuri.