by scribe | Feb 18, 2020 | chess clubs, current news, endings, games, tournaments
First, an update on the U.S. Amateur Team West championship results. In my last post I knew that we had tied for second but I didn’t know for sure how the tiebreaks worked out. Now I can tell you that we in fact finished third, which is great! Third place gets...
by scribe | Feb 3, 2020 | current news, endings, positions, PRO Chess League
For the California Unicorns, this week’s PRO Chess League match was one that they were expected to win. Their opponents, the Brazil Capybaras, were in seventh place in the Western Conference, and they don’t have any super-GMs. Quite a change from last...
by scribe | Dec 26, 2019 | current news, endings, positions
In my last pre-Christmas post I wrote about the game Magnus Carlsen – Levon Aronian, in which Carlsen played a beautiful rook sacrifice that enabled him to promote a pawn. However, when all was said and done he still found himself in a fiendishly difficult endgame to...
by scribe | Dec 24, 2019 | current news, endings, games
This is part one of a two-part post. Come back after Christmas for part two! Every now and then I see a game that makes me realize that the chess I play is just a completely different game from the chess that 2800 players play. I’m looking at you, Magnus Carlsen....
by scribe | Oct 7, 2019 | chess clubs, endings, people, positions
Yesterday’s chess party at Mike Splane’s house turned into an endgame workshop, because both Mike Arne and Paulo Santanna came prepared with some beautiful positions. Ironically, both of them went to Spain this summer but they didn’t play in the same events. Mike Arne...
by scribe | Jul 27, 2019 | endings, games, openings, tournaments
It’s been amazing to me to see how double e-pawn openings have changed over the last 10 to 20 years. Once upon a time, White would always press for an advantage, making threats, working toward the pawn break d2-d4, keeping Black on the defensive. Not any more....
