Just a draw

Hi chess fans! There are many places on the Web where you can read about the super-GM tournament in Linares, but only here can you read about the Santa Cruz Cup! Today we “almost” finished the round-robin portion of our tournament, but there is one game...

Odds & Ends

This is just an entry devoted to odds and ends of various kinds. First of all, I just wanted to let everybody know that I’ve gotten over my blunder of last Sunday, which I wrote about in my post “Back to Square One.” I now realize it was not the...

One that got away

In yesterday’s round five of the Santa Cruz Cup, Jeff Mallett and I played a very exciting game. After a death-defying opening in which Jeff seemed to get a huge advantage, I gradually managed to improve my position, and shortly after the time control I had an...

Silman’s Complete Endgame Course

A few months ago I bought a copy of Silman’s Complete Endgame Course, and I’m finally starting to dig into it. I think I’m going to learn a heck of a lot from it. The only endgame book I have really studied before was a slim book by Averbakh called...

Russian Superfinals

A couple weeks ago the Russian Superfinals finished. It was a wonderfully hard-fought tournament, with fewer than 50% draws in the men’s bracket and an even smaller percentage on the women’s side. Alexander Morozevich won the men’s tournament with a...