by scribe | Mar 24, 2009 | chess clubs, endings, games, openings, people, positions, tournaments
Note: In the first draft of this post I got an important name wrong, and I have corrected it throughout. My apologies. — DM I’m back home from my second trip to Oslo. In my last entry, IÂ promised some analysis of Roar Elseth Nikolas Mellem’s upset...
by scribe | Mar 20, 2009 | chess clubs, endings, games, people, tournaments
Note: In the first version of this post I got a very important name wrong, and I have corrected it throughout. — DM Michael Aigner, of “fpawn” blog fame, is fond of complaining about all the youngsters who snap up the top prizes in northern...
by scribe | Dec 24, 2008 | endings, positions, ruminations, tournaments
The 2008 Berkeley International concluded yesterday, with Grandmaster Giorgi Kacheishvili of Georgia snagging the $1400 first prize by virtue of his last-round draw with Vinay Bhat. GM Zviad Izoria (also of Georgia)Â could have caught up with him if he had beaten...
by scribe | Oct 21, 2008 | Chess Lecture, endings, games, tournaments
In my last post I promised to show you the endgame from my last-round game at the Western States Open. It was the last game in the entire tournament to finish, and by winning this game I managed to tie for second place under 2300. In this endgame miracle, I somehow...
by scribe | Oct 20, 2008 | endings, games, tournaments
Many years ago there was a cartoon in The New Yorker that shows a frumpy old housewife with permed hair, standing in a house that is the epitome of depressing: a bare light bulb dangling from the ceiling, a flea-bitten dog, a bald husband with a t-shirt and a beer...
by scribe | Jul 15, 2008 | endings, games, positions, tournaments
It might not have the resonance of Batman versus the Joker, but the rivalry of Bishops versus Knights is one of the eternal dramas or morality plays of chess. Sometimes the straight-arrow bishop triumphs. Other times it’s the crooked, shifty knight....
