Chop, chop, … don’t chop

March 1, 2016

I’d like to show you a position from my one loss in the U.S. Amateur Team tournament. It came in round two against Neel Apte. Although I hadn’t played him before, I consider him sort of a “classmate,” because there are three or four Bay Area kids who cracked the 2200 barrier at just about […]

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Positional Pawn Sac

February 28, 2016

My computer issues are resolved, so I can go back to showing you games with diagrams. This one is an amusing riff on “how to beat the computer.” To be honest I really don’t know how to beat the computer, but sometimes I get lucky. Rule number one is to get a blocked position. First, […]

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Computer go

February 27, 2016

First, apologies for not writing very many posts this month. I have minor hardware issues. The power cable for my laptop is not working any more and I have ordered a new one, but it hasn’t arrived yet. So for the last week I have been turning on my laptop very sparingly, to conserve the […]

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USATW results

February 16, 2016

This weekend I played in the U.S. Amateur Team West tournament, on a team called “Stean Punks,” which consisted of me, Larry Smith, John Wilson, John Williams, and Richard Robinson. It was, as always, a lot of fun to play in a team tournament. I actually knew only one of my teammates before this weekend […]

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Of Lingerie and Spelling Bees

February 10, 2016

My laptop computer with Chessbase is in the repair shop at the moment, so I can’t upload chess diagrams. So I’ll just go off-topic completely. This morning as I was jogging I passed a hand-lettered sign that said “<– Lingerie.” It isn’t all that often one encounters a handmade lingerie sign on the street, but […]

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The Subtlest of Differences

February 5, 2016

One of these positions is a win for White. The other is a draw. Can you tell which is which? Position 1: Position after 51. … Kd4. White to move. FEN: 8/1p3p2/8/p2p2p1/P2k2Pp/1P1B3P/6K1/8 w – – 0 52 Position 2: Position after 51. … Kd4 (alternate reality). White to move. FEN: 8/5p2/1p6/p2p2p1/P2k2Pp/1P1B3P/6K1/8 w – – 0 52 […]

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The Van Damme Truck Trick

February 1, 2016

I’ve got a new tactical trick for you! Of course, there is nothing new under the sun in chess, but this is a sneaky trick involving two rooks that I don’t think has ever been given a name before. (I hope someone will correct me if I’m wrong.) I’m going to call it the Van Damme Truck Trick, […]

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Checkmate Patterns, Moral Victories

January 28, 2016

Today’s trivia: Name a person who has been the chess champion of both Connecticut and Norway. Today’s quiz: Black to play and win. Position after 28. Qe4. Black to move. FEN: 1r5k/p1pn2p1/1p1p4/5N2/2PPQ3/1K1R3P/P4q1B/6n1 b – – 0 28 The quiz and the trivia question are actually related to each other, because the player of the Black […]

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Bird by Bird, Part 6

January 20, 2016

Recently Roman Parparov posted a comment here that was too important to remain buried in the comments. He asked: Dana, are you aware that your favorite Bird got destroyed twice on the very top level very recently, in the same Nxd4, exd4, Bc4 variation: Saric – Carlsen (!), Tromso 2014 1-0 http://www.pogonina.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=2515 Caruana (!) – […]

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TV, chess, curling, Olympics

January 16, 2016

Can television, chess, and the Olympics ever mix? This is a question I was asking myself after I watched a program called “Curling Night in America” on the NBC Sports Network last night. People sometimes call curling “chess on ice.” The comparison makes sense in some ways, not in others. Like chess, curling is quite […]

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