by scribe | Apr 17, 2013 | Chess Lecture, current news, games, off-topic, ruminations
I have now returned from my trip to the small town of Emory, Virginia, where I gave an invited lecture at Emory and Henry College, and then to Sewanee, Tennessee, where my father lives. He just celebrated his 80th birthday, and I wanted to see how he was doing....
by scribe | Mar 21, 2013 | current news, games, positions, tournaments
And then there were two. In round six of the Candidates Tournament, it became crystal clear who the two contenders are. Both Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen won their games today, and continue to share first place at 4½-1½. Meanwhile, their opposition has literally...
by scribe | Mar 20, 2013 | current news, games, people, tournaments
When the histories are written about this year’s Candidates Tournament, they will probably say very little about Round 5, which took place today. After all, all four games were drawn. But as opposed to round one, when all four games were also drawn, this round...
by scribe | Feb 15, 2013 | Chess Lecture, endings, games, positions
Two of my most intense and difficult wins of the past year both happened against the same person, who also happens to be a reader of this blog: Praveen Narayanan. By coincidence, I spent the morning studying the game I call Praveen II (though perhaps he would call it...
by scribe | Feb 11, 2013 | current news, endings, games, tournaments
Yesterday. at Mike Splane’s latest chess party, Uyanga Byambaa showed an endgame that could have come straight out of The Walking Dead. But actually the whole game was very interesting, not just the endgame. She told us, “This is the toughest game...
by scribe | Jan 30, 2013 | current news, games, ruminations
Okay, I’m a little bit late getting to this, but I just caught up on the first two episodes of a new game show/reality show called King of the Nerds. For anyone who identifies as a nerd or is even semi-nerdish, this show is really a hoot. Imagine rounding up...
