Get ‘Em While They’re Young

June 11, 2016

Recently it seems a lot of people are passing away in chess… not only big names like Viktor Korchnoi, but also medium-sized names like Frank Berry, who died this week at age 70. I didn’t know Frank Berry really well, but he and his brother Jim were always two of the leading players in Oklahoma. They made a […]

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Shredder’s Secret Weakness

June 2, 2016

I really will write about what the title says, but first I want to show the photo of this weekend’s chess tournament that appeared in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Ryu Cirillo is at left, Shaashuat Shetty on the right, and slightly blurry on the left is Atlee Haldeman. (Atlee wasn’t mentioned in the paper, but […]

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Aptos tournament report

May 28, 2016

It’s here! The one day out of every year when I turn into a tournament director, at the Aptos Public Library. Before I go any further, I should give credit where credit is overwhelmingly due: to the Aptos Library and to Heather Pereira (the chief librarian) and Sandi Imperio (who helped me with the practical […]

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The World’s Simplest Card Game

May 27, 2016

Two years ago I went to Atlanta to attend the “Gathering for Gardner,” a biennial conference on math, magic, games, and puzzles in honor of the late Martin Gardner. I gave an 8-minute talk at the meeting, and the video of my talk has just been posted online. Here it is! If for any reason […]

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How Do You Become a Life Master?

May 14, 2016

First, apologies for my long silence… more than two weeks! I know that there isn’t anything else worth reading on the Internet except for my blog, so I know you guys were suffering.   😉 This morning I had an interesting experience, being interviewed by a UC Santa Cruz student, whose name is Miranda, for […]

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Dear Hikaru

April 28, 2016

Recently I wrote a post (Checkmate Patterns, Moral Victories) about a game by GM Jonathan Tisdall, and I was pleased and delighted when Tisdall himself sent in a comment. That wasn’t the first time that my blog has gotten a grandmaster comment, at least indirectly. Three years ago, in 2013, I wrote a post called Rock, […]

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Annual Report Card — Most Popular Posts

April 25, 2016

About once a year I like to take a look at my blog stats, just to see what is happening. What are my most popular posts all-time? What are the most popular ones recently? The all-time list never changes very much — it’s always the same post at the top, and the same one in […]

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Straight Outta Delaware

April 19, 2016

Today was Tuesday, my regular day for Aptos Library chess club. A photographer came to take some pictures, because the library is preparing promotional material for a bond measure to support the public libraries in Santa Cruz. They wanted pictures of the good things that the library does for the community, and they sure picked the right […]

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Do Superhuman Moves Exist?

April 12, 2016

In my last post I asked readers for examples of games with “two shining moments” — in other words, one fantastic, seemingly game-winning move for each player. Mike Splane sent me a link to a game he played against Agnis Kaugars in 1993 that meets the description — and more! Both players were balancing over a […]

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Two Shining Moments

April 5, 2016

This will be a mostly off-topic post, for which I apologize, but I’ll bring it back to chess at the end. If you’re a college basketball fan in the U.S., you know what the title is about. Every year, at the end of the NCAA men’s basketball championship, the producers put together a montage of […]

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