Counting Down

May 9, 2018

The countdown to my book’s launch is on in earnest now: only six more days! Such metaphors as “countdown” and “launch” seem very apropos to me, because I feel like an astronaut strapped in his chair, with only ten minutes to go until liftoff. There is nothing more I can do at this point to […]

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Crafting a Lesson

May 3, 2018

For the Aptos Library Chess Club this week I wanted to teach a lesson based on one of Sam Shankland’s games from the recently concluded U.S. Championship. I think that the kids should know who the best players are … especially when one of them came from our area and not too long ago was […]

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Sam Does It!

April 29, 2018

All in a day’s work for Sam Shankland: Wins his sixth game in the U.S. Championship against no losses. Wins his last three in a row, when even a single draw would have dropped him into a tie for first. Finishes a half point ahead of Fabiano Caruana, who will challenge Magnus Carlsen for the […]

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Remembrance of Times Future

April 28, 2018

In the spring of 2006, I organized a team of mostly Santa Cruz players to compete in the East Bay Chess League (also known as “Liga”). My team, called “Eight is Enough,” had two masters alternating on top board — Robin Cunningham, with whom I later won the U.S. Amateur Team West championship (2012) and […]

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What Does My Opponent Want to Do?

April 24, 2018

At Mike Splane’s chess party last weekend, Gary Kelly showed an exceptionally interesting game that he played, I believe, last week at the Kolty Chess Club. We started in the following position: Position after 0. … Bd8. White to move. FEN: rq1b1rk1/1n1n1ppp/p2p4/1p1B2P1/4PP2/4B2P/PP2Q3/2RR2K1 w – – 0 1 Because Gary didn’t show us the previous moves, […]

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Computer Grob Fail

April 21, 2018

So far this year, I haven’t written a single post about a game against the computer. I’ve been avoiding that on purpose, because I overdid it last year. But two of the things that give me the most satisfaction in life are beating the computer and beating the Grob. When the two come together, and […]

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Eagles Skewer Pandas in Championship Match

April 8, 2018

Season two of the PRO Chess League has now ended, and the Armenia Eagles are the champions! In fact, the championship match went exactly as Hikaru Nakamura predicted. He said in an interview before the match that he expected an 8-8 tie and then expected Armenia to win in tiebreaks because of their superior blitz […]

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Live PRO Chess League Playoffs!

April 7, 2018

Today was a very exciting day in the history of the PRO Chess League: the day of the first in-person playoffs. Four teams — the Chengdu Pandas, Ljubljana Turtles, Armenia Eagles, and St. Louis Arch Bishops (the defending champions) came to San Francisco to face off in the two semifinal matches. The winners will go […]

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Most Popular Posts (2018 Edition)

April 3, 2018

About once a year I take a look at my site statistics to see what my most popular posts were. Then for the rest of the year, I ignore what’s popular and just write what I feel like writing! I do think that new or infrequent visitors might appreciate a guide to what some of […]

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My Game with Magnus

April 1, 2018

Happy April Fool’s Day! I really am going to show you my game with Magnus, only it isn’t the Magnus you’re thinking about. In 1995 I played in the World Open, and for once it kind of lived up to its name. In round one, I played against Leonid Filatov, a U.S. player born in […]

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