First Team Meeting

by | Dec 24, 2018 | chess clubs, current news, games, PRO Chess League

On Saturday the San Francisco Mechanics had our first team meeting at the spacious and inviting new headquarters of the Berkeley Chess School. This is where the team will play half of its matches in the PRO Chess League in 2019; the other half will be played in the...

Grown-Up Tactics

by | Dec 19, 2018 | games, people, positions, tournaments

For the Bay Area International I am preparing in two different ways. I am doing tactics puzzles at chess.com, and I am studying games by Baadur Jobava. The puzzles are (for the most part) Tactics Lite, where the answers are short and clear-cut. Jobava’s games...

The Square From Which all the Tactics Flow

by | Dec 6, 2018 | games, people, positions

Here’s a question for my esteemed readers. What sub-2700 player do you consider to be the best for an amateur to study? Why? Well, for any player the answer is “Study your own games.” But we’re not allowing that answer. The reason I’m...

Boring Draw (not)

by | Nov 24, 2018 | 2018 world championship, endings, games, people

Grandmasters will probably describe today’s eleventh game of the World Championship Match as “a boring draw.” However, I disagree! I think that this was a perfect game for introductory to intermediate players to study. The game was replete with...

The Shampoo and the Mirror

by | Oct 19, 2018 | current news, games, positions, tournaments

This weekend I’m in Reno to play in my second chess tournament of the year, the Western States Open. When I got up this morning I wanted to wash my hair, but I couldn’t find the complimentary bottle of shampoo provided by the hotel. I looked high, I looked...