[Lalu]

"Lalu is about 2400-2500 strength in blitz, I'd have no chance in the longrun at 3-2 time odds."


Boo, if curtains himself admits this, I guess people won't be taking any action should such a match ever occur will they? Ohh well, at least you've now publicly admitted this, and now it's saved for posterity to remember [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

"As far as pawn odds go, no one has raised how an absent pawn can be an advantage to some extent. I could see missing f7 being pretty bad, because it doesn't open a piece and exposes the king. But wouldn't opening up a rook file be pretty sweet--if you can play a wide open attacking game? What about the others? Taking the d pawn off = instant gambit? (And yes, sure, I don't mean a net advantage, but against a weaker player, maybe even a player not that much weaker, it's not an all-around negative, right?)"

Opening the rook file, people think that's an advantage, but it just really is not, and will end up being far more of a liability later. As for d-pawn missing = gambit, gambit implies you have some kind of long term compensation for what you are missing, and you clearly do not in this case so describing it as a gambit doesn't really make sense. Missing the d-pawn though would be far more of a liability than the h-pawn as if you've ever studied chess at all, I'm sure you know how important central control is in the early game, and missing a central pawn puts you at an insane disadvantage in that regard.