So Many Things Happening!

September 6, 2016

I feel guilty for not writing any posts for the last week when there are so many things happening in the chess world. The past weekend was the traditional weekend for state championships in the U.S. Also, halfway across the world, the Chess Olympiad is going on in Baku, Azerbaijan. Let me start local and […]

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All’s Well That Ends Well (Memorable Games, part 6)

August 28, 2016

We’ve arrived at game number six in my series of Six Memorable Games. It is not at all a perfect game, but in some ways it is a perfect illustration of both the good and bad features of my chess: occasional moments of creativity interspersed with frustrating moments of self-sabotage. Does that sound familiar? I’ll […]

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What Jesse Missed, What I Missed

August 24, 2016

 A couple weeks ago I got a really cool surprise in my e-mail. A chess player named Frank Brown, whom I didn’t know previously, sent me a photograph that he had taken in 2009, when I played against grandmaster Jesse Kraai on one of the top boards at the Western States Open in Reno. I […]

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Xiong Enters Chess Stratosphere!

August 21, 2016

Today Jeffery Xiong of Texas completed one of the greatest accomplishments ever by a U.S. junior chess player, winning the World Junior Championship by a full point and doing it at age 15. Xiong clinched the title with a round to spare and coasted in with a draw in the final round to finish with […]

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Three Blind Mice

August 19, 2016

The title describes me, Gjon Feinstein and Mike Splane, although in truth Mike should get credit for being only half blind. Yesterday afternoon we got together for some rare weekday chess (usually we meet on weekends), and Mike wanted to show Gjon the two challenge positions from my last blog post, which Gjon had not […]

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Walking on the Wild Side

August 12, 2016

Well, it was inevitable. Ever since I started playing what I call “Matrix chess” against the computer (i.e., games at a 40 moves/10 minutes time control with one timeout per game where I can take unlimited time), it was inevitable that a game would come along where I would want to take two timeouts. Sure enough, […]

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Chess Missing Persons Bureau

August 9, 2016

Are there any people whom you used to see regularly at chess tournaments or chess club, but don’t see any more? Of course, when somebody vanishes from the chess scene, it’s not necessarily a big deal. Lots of players decide that chess isn’t for them. Even very good players like Stuart Rachels or Ken Rogoff […]

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Everything Old is New Again

August 7, 2016

I was delighted to read all the anecdotes and stories that my last post (on chess humor) provoked. Coincidentally, last night I saw a post by Sam Shankland on Facebook that struck me as pretty humorous too. Sam showed the following game from Round 1 of his recent wire-to-wire victory at the Biel International Chess Festival. […]

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Funniest chess anecdotes

August 2, 2016

Although I seldom mention it, my wife writes a blog on quilting (which she started a year before I started this one). Last week she wrote a hilarious post on buttons. You would think that of all the topics in the world, the least likely one to be funny is buttons. If you think that, […]

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Never Give Up (Memorable Games, part 5)

July 29, 2016

The fifth in my series of memorable games contains several elements of the previous installments. Like game 4, it contains an absolutely miraculous comeback, from a position that seems totally lost to a brilliant victory. Like game 1, it ends with a queen sacrifice. And like game 2, it ends with a long sequence of […]

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