Weeeellllll…

January 14, 2016

It’s interesting how you can learn so much about your own language by learning another language — or by hearing a non-native speaker speak your own. This entry is inspired by a lecture at chess.com by grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky, called “1. e4 — Don’t Be Embarrassed.” Gjon Feinstein had suggested that I listen to this […]

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US Amateur Teams

January 13, 2016

It’s been a while since my last tournament, as some of you may have noticed. Let’s put it this way: When I played my last tournament, the baseball season was still going, IM Emory Tate was still alive, and there had been only one Republican presidential debate. But now I finally have my next tournament […]

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Queen vs Rook and Pawns

January 3, 2016

Yesterday I played my first chess of the year, getting together with Gjon Feinstein and Mike Splane and Juande Perea and Austen Green for speed chess. I had a very good time except for the fact that I kept losing on time. Five-minute chess is not my thing, especially yesterday. I kept getting “brain locks” […]

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How to Beat a Grandmaster

December 30, 2015

My old friend from North Carolina, Robin Cunningham, decided this year to fly to England for the New Year and play in the traditional Hastings tournament. He did it once before and enjoyed the experience. This year, he’s doing more than just enjoying it: He’s kicking butt! In the first two rounds he defeated Grandmaster […]

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Why Does Anybody Play 1. e4?

December 24, 2015

Of course this is a rhetorical question, but really. Earlier this year I wrote a series of posts called Grading the Openings looked at the winning percentages of each of the ECO opening classifications in master play. There’s a small but undeniable difference between the winning percentages of 1. e4 and 1. d4. In king […]

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What Would Wei Yi Do?

December 22, 2015

You’re White in this position. What would you do? Position after 12. … Bf5. White to move. FEN:rn3rk1/ppp2ppp/8/3q1b2/1b3B2/2NP1NR1/PPP1Q2P/R3K3 w Q – 0 13 This wasn’t an actual game, but if I were playing White I would first look at 13. Bxc7, winning back my pawn. I would realize that doesn’t work because of 13. … […]

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Good Mistakes and Bad Mistakes

December 19, 2015

One of the kids who has been coming longest to the Aptos Library Chess Club is named Alex. He’s maybe 12 or 13 years old. Over the years he has gotten more interested in chess and less interested in making trouble, and he has now reached the point where he is definitely the #2 and possibly (at […]

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The Mike Splane Question… in Doctor Who?

November 30, 2015

This weekend the British science fiction show Doctor Who, of which I am an avid fan (though not a rabid fan), had an episode that can only be described as an instant classic. Over the weekend its user rating on IMDb was 9.7 stars out of 10, which would make it the second most popular […]

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The Joke’s on Me

November 22, 2015

“Hey, I just saw this great game by some kid from Brooklyn, Bobby what’s-his-name … you won’t believe it, he sacrificed his queen and won, like, 15 moves later. Here, let me show you!” Among all the possible conversational gaffes that a chess player could make, this is probably the only one that would be […]

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The Perils (and Rewards) of Doing Nothing

November 18, 2015

At Mike Splane’s latest chess party, Austen Green showed one of his games from the recent U.S. Game/30 championship. Although his score was only 2½ out of 5, he beat an International Master and drew a Grandmaster, so it was a very good tournament for him. He raised his rating from 2221 to 2235. The victory over […]

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