The Unbreakable Pin and the Long March

March 23, 2019

This week I played a game against the computer that featured two of my favorite strategic themes. The unbreakable pin is, of course, well known. The second concept, the Long March, is one that I named but of course didn’t invent. It’s simply the plan of marching the king from one side of the board […]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read the full article →

Best Checkmate Ever?

March 20, 2019

With the San Francisco Mechanics not qualifying for the PRO Chess League playoffs, I didn’t watch the playoffs last night. It was my loss, because I missed the chance to watch in real time what one fan called “the best 60 seconds in PRO Chess League history” and what GM Robert Hess called “the most […]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read the full article →

End of Season Blues

March 12, 2019

Tonight was the final night of the regular season for half of the teams in the PRO Chess League. For the San Francisco Mechanics, it was our last chance to make an improbable comeback and qualify for the playoffs. To recap the whole season to this point, we started out the year very badly with […]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read the full article →

Jumping Into the Deep End

March 11, 2019

This weekend two of my protégés at the Aptos Library Chess Club, Emmy and Ryder Pimentel, ventured into the world of rated chess for the first time. And they did it in a reallllly big way: they played in the CalChess Super State Championships, a scholastic tournament that was expected to draw more than 1300 […]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read the full article →

Cautionary Tales

March 10, 2019

Ordinarily we think of the endgame as a time when our kings are safe from checkmate, and they can roam with impunity around the board. But in complex endgames (where each side has two or more pieces, or a queen) it isn’t necessarily so. There are three ways in which mate can come into the […]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read the full article →

Brutal. Epic. Fail.

March 7, 2019

Someone get David Pruess an ice-cold Yoo-Hoo, because he’s gonna need it. The San Francisco Mechanics’ manager was speechless after our unbelievable last-round meltdown last night. He looked like Sheldon Cooper in the TV show “Big Bang Theory,” who wrote a paper he thought would win the Nobel Prize, only to find out that an […]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read the full article →

Brilliancy Checking

March 6, 2019

Recently I watched a lecture by Elizabeth Spiegel online where she talked about the importance of blunder-checking, especially for scholastic players. It’s not a new idea. Before you make your move, she said, write it down, and then look back at the board and ask, “Can my opponent take this piece?” After you’re sure that […]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read the full article →

You Only Get One First Tournament…

March 3, 2019

… Unless, of course, you get three! I was reminded of this today in a roundabout fashion. Emmy and Ryder P., the sister and brother combo from my chess club in Aptos who came to watch me play a tournament in January, today got their first taste of tournament action. The event was a one-day […]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read the full article →

The Highs and the Whews

February 27, 2019

Here are a couple of fun reaction photos that I took last night during the San Francisco-Dallas PRO Chess League match, which the Mechanics won by a 10-6 score. The commentators for most of our matches have been David Pruess (also the team manager) and Andy Lee, on the lower right of the screen. Here […]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read the full article →

Closer to Fine

February 26, 2019

When the San Francisco Mechanics started out the season with three losses in three matches, there was some understandable consternation in the City by the Bay. Tears were shed. Bad rap lyrics were written. Hope was abandoned. (One of those three statements is actually true.) But over the last five weeks, the Mechanics have, by […]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →