Only beginners develop their rooks to h6 …

… Therefore I must be a beginner! Gjon Feinstein came over last night to play some speed chess and watch a couple lectures on ICC. We played four or five speed games (at a time control of game in 8 minutes, which perhaps for some people does not count as blitz)....

Human reasoning versus computer reasoning

Yesterday I learned a new chess principle, which very likely did not exist until yesterday. It’s called the Mike Splane Principle of Activating the Most Pieces. The occasion was another of Mike’s chess parties. I presented one of my games from the recent...

Leap Day Special

Leap Day gives me one more chance to write a blog post in February this year, and also one more chance to show a game from the U.S. Amateur Team West. Yesterday I recorded a ChessLecture about Todd Rumph’s game in round six of the tournament, where he saved a...

Interesting Endgame 1

I’m going to have a couple posts this week about interesting endgame positions I’ve run into recently. One of them is from a blitz (8-minute) game I played last night against Gjon Feinstein, and the other is from a tournament game between two 1400-level...