50 Years of Chess: Year 18

The last year of the 1980s was a time of transition for me: from single to married, and from North Carolina, where I had lived very happily for six years, to Ohio. As I mentioned in my last post, I had fallen in love in 1988 and proposed to Kay at the end of the year....

Addenda

Friend and long-time follower of this blog, Mike Splane, sent in excellent comments on my two most recent posts, which I think both warrant some more discussion. First, commenting on my Transition post, he says: “I totally agree that you got much stronger...

Fire, Foresight, Fortune

Boy, if it isn’t one catastrophe, it’s another. First there was the coronavirus. Then the protests in many U.S. cities (though, thankfully, not very much unrest in Santa Cruz, where I live). Now there are fires in the mountains north of Santa Cruz, set off...

Not All Equals are Equal

Here’s a position I reached in a recent rapid game against Shredder. I’m White, and it’s my move. The computer is set to a rating of 2321. One of the nice things about Shredder is that you can stop the clock even during a “rated game,”...

First Live Chess in Four Months!

Yesterday I played my first live, in-person chess game since the coronavirus pandemic started, in early March. To be precise, March 3 was the last date when the chess club at Aptos Library met. Most likely I played one of the kids that day, although I don’t...