by scribe | Apr 25, 2015 | games, positions
Today I happened to watch a pretty amazing bullet game online. The players were identified as Kozakov versus Bah. I think Kozakov is probably grandmaster Mikhail Kazakov of Ukraine, whose name sometimes seems to be spelled Kozakov. According to one comment I read on...
by scribe | Mar 24, 2015 | chess clubs, current news, games, openings, people
No, not that kind of bird! (That’s a scrub jay who has taken up residence in one of our bushes, driving Max the cat wild.) I mean this kind of Bird: Position after 4. … b5. White to move. FEN: r1bqkbnr/p1pp1ppp/8/1p2p3/B2nP3/5N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQK2R w KQkq...
by scribe | Feb 28, 2015 | Chess Lecture, games, openings
My last post on the French Defense, a few days ago, attracted more comments than any post I’ve written for at least a couple years. So let’s continue the conversation. One of the commenters (Brian Wall, I’m looking at you) asked, “What...
by scribe | Feb 11, 2015 | games, literature, off-topic, people, positions, ruminations
Last week I finished reading a military-history book called Saratoga: Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War. I am totally not a military history buff, but recently it bothered me to realize that I do not know a single battle of the American Revolution,...
by scribe | Jan 21, 2015 | games, openings, people, positions
This Sunday I had the chance to meet with Gjon Feinstein, Mike Splane, and Eric Montany at a coffeehouse to go over my recent game with Ivan Ke. (See this post for some earlier discussion of the game.) We tore apart and dissected the game until there were only the...
by scribe | Jan 6, 2015 | current news, games, positions, ruminations, tournaments
It’s an age-old question: is chess truly just a game of skill, or is there luck involved too? Here is perhaps the most crucial position I faced in the New Year Championship tournament last weekend. It’s round five, and I’m playing back against Ivan...
