Poor Confused Computer Needs Your Help

November 23, 2019

Last night, in the fourth round of the Kolty Club Championship, I was paired against an expert, Chris Atkeson. We played what I think was a really high-quality game… and as it usually happens in games where nobody makes an obvious mistake, we drew. It was a draw that both players were happy with (at […]

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Waiting for Paint to Dry

November 15, 2019

Last night I won my third-round game in the Kolty Chess Club championship. While last week’s game was short and invigorating, this game was more like waiting for paint to dry. I was paired against Anika Rajaram, who is the fourth-rated 11-year-old girl (and 54th 11-year-old overall) in the nation. I played my usual Marshall […]

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Return to Action

November 8, 2019

I’m back! Not only back to writing my blog, but back to actually playing tournament chess. Last night I played my first tournament game in 10 months, at the Kolty Chess Club Championship in Campbell, California. I’m not exactly sure why it’s taken me so long to try out the Kolty Club. Yes, it’s a […]

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Weaknesses

November 5, 2019

Lately I have been going through a book called “It’s Your Move!” by Chris Ward with some of my chess club students. I like the concept of this book very much. It consists of 150 positions from grandmaster games, in which students are supposed to come up with the best plan. I like the way […]

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New Book, New Plans

October 20, 2019

If any readers of this blog are into mathematics as well as chess, you might be interested in my latest book, which has just been published by the American Mathematical Society. What’s Happening in the Mathematical Sciences (WHIMS for short) is a regular series of books about … well, exactly what the title says. Recent […]

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It’s Their League …

October 13, 2019

… But we don’t have to like it! The PRO (Professional Rapid Online) Chess League officially announced that its fourth season will start on January 6, and there have been some major changes. The big ones are: The league is contracting from 32 teams to 24. This is the opposite of what they said last […]

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Endgame Workshop

October 7, 2019

Yesterday’s chess party at Mike Splane’s house turned into an endgame workshop, because both Mike Arne and Paulo Santanna came prepared with some beautiful positions. Ironically, both of them went to Spain this summer but they didn’t play in the same events. Mike Arne played in the Benasque tournament, and showed us this deceptively simple […]

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Bill’s Book Bag (New Literary Award?)

September 25, 2019

This afternoon I got some amazing news from my co-author: our book, The Book of Why, was mentioned in a new documentary series on Netflix! It’s in a show called “Inside Bill’s Brain.” If you watch the first episode, about 21 minutes in you’ll see Bill Gates’ assistant loading up his book bag with books […]

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Xiong Keeps Going!

September 22, 2019

In today’s playoff round of the World Cup, Jeffery Xiong became the only American player still standing. In a thrilling match, he beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda 4 1/2 – 3 1/2. White won seven out of eight games, so arguably it was the one game that Xiong managed to draw as Black (a Caro-Kann in the […]

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Xiong Train Running

September 21, 2019

Okay, bad pun, but now is the time to get on the Jeffery Xiong train! It’s currently boarding passengers in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, and the next stop is Yekaterinburg, where next year’s World Championship Candidates tournament will be held. All aboard! Okay, my announcement may be a little premature, but that’s part of the fun of […]

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