Thoughts on “Queen’s Gambit”

December 1, 2020

Taking a one-post break from my retrospective series to jot down my thoughts on “Queen’s Gambit,” the television series on Netflix. I know I’m way behind, because I like to take my television in small doses, so everyone else has already finished watching it long ago. However, I finished just last night. Here are my […]

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50 Years of Chess: Year 15

November 28, 2020

For 1986, I’ve decided to show you yet another game I played against a fellow North Carolina champion. This series is becoming a who’s-who of North Carolina chess! First I showed you a game against Matt Noble (co-champion, 2002), then a trifecta of games against Greg Samsa (champion, 1981, 1982, 2002). My opponent for today’s […]

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50 Years of Chess: Year 14

November 22, 2020

The next year in my retrospective, 1985, was my busiest year ever, with 60 tournament games, so there are lots of games to choose from. And it was the year that I won the title of North Carolina state champion for the first time, which of course I consider to be one of the high […]

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Addenda

November 13, 2020

Friend and long-time follower of this blog, Mike Splane, sent in excellent comments on my two most recent posts, which I think both warrant some more discussion. First, commenting on my Transition post, he says: “I totally agree that you got much stronger strategically during the time that I’ve known you. Is there anything you […]

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50 Years of Chess: Year 13

November 11, 2020

“In my mind I’m going to Carolina…” For anyone who has lived in North Carolina, James Taylor’s song is a little bit of an anthem. Perhaps like “Sweet Home Alabama” for people who live in that state. When you drive down I-95, the length of the East Coast, you start in New England, which has […]

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50 Years of Chess: Transition

November 8, 2020

In the spring of 1983 I earned my doctorate from Princeton University, and after a somewhat nail-biting job search I landed a one-year position in the math department at Duke University. After a year it turned into a tenure-track position, and I ended up staying at Duke for six years, from 1983 to 1989. Those […]

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50 Years of Chess: Year 12

November 5, 2020

By the end of 1982, it was starting to look as if my two-year sabbatical to focus on math instead of chess had been a good decision — not only for my math dissertation, but also for my chess game! My rating was up to 1989, the closest I had ever been to the “promised […]

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50 Years of Chess: Year 11

October 31, 2020

After two years of not playing any rated chess games, I returned to the tournament scene in 1982 at the U.S. Amateur Team East championship. This was my introduction to one of the most popular and fun tournaments in the American chess calendar — the only tournament with no money at stake where you will […]

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50 Years of Chess: Years 9 and 10

October 26, 2020

No chess in this post. In 1980 and 1981, I took a two-year sabbatical from chess while real life clobbered me over the head. I actually did play in one tournament in January 1980 (six games, but I only have the moves for four of them). I thought of showing one of the games here, […]

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50 Years of Chess: Year 8

October 17, 2020

After spending three posts on 1978, a huge year in my chess life and my personal life, let’s move on to 1979. It was my last year of college (spring) and first year of graduate school (fall), and a very strange year. Coming back from Russia to America, I felt detached from my old life […]

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