50 Years of Chess: Year 28

by | Mar 28, 2021 | endings, games, people, tournaments

In the next year of my chronicle, 1999, I got the opportunity to play three present or future U.S. champions in one year: Hikaru Nakamura (champion in 2005, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2019), Roman Dzindzichashvili (1983, 1989) and Walter Browne (1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1981,...

50 Years of Chess: Year 27

by | Mar 22, 2021 | endings, games, openings, people, tournaments

One of the best things about living in California is the fact that you’re so close to Hawaii! Close in a relative sense, of course. It’s 2400 miles from San Francisco to Honolulu, which is about the same as the distance from San Francisco to Washington,...

50 Years of Chess: Year 26

by | Mar 13, 2021 | games, off-topic, people, tournaments

And now let us begin the downward half of my chess chronicle! I jest, of course. The last 25 years, since I moved to California, have been the best of my life, both in chess and otherwise. On July 29, 1977, I wrote in my diary, “Daddy asked me what I thought...

50 Years of Chess: Year 25

by | Feb 28, 2021 | chess clubs, games, openings, people

We’ve come to the halfway point in my chess narrative, and it’s the year of a big change: my move to California. During the first 25 years of my chess career I lived in several different places: Indiana, Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio. In the...

50 Years of Chess — Year 24

by | Feb 23, 2021 | endings, games, off-topic, people, ruminations

If you asked me what tournament that I’ve played in was the most fun or the most rewarding, the list would be very short. My first rated tournament. The tournament I played in Russia in 1978. My two North Carolina championships, of course. The 2006 Western...