by scribe | Feb 15, 2008 | Chess Lecture, games, openings, people, positions
In February, there is no question that the center of the chess universe is Russia. There are two huge events, back to back: the Moscow Open, with a prize fund of 5 million rubles ($200,000), and the Aeroflot Open. The Moscow Open “A” tournament, which...
by scribe | Feb 11, 2008 | endings, games, positions, tournaments
In yesterday’s round five of the Santa Cruz Cup, Jeff Mallett and I played a very exciting game. After a death-defying opening in which Jeff seemed to get a huge advantage, I gradually managed to improve my position, and shortly after the time control I had an...
by scribe | Feb 3, 2008 | chess clubs, games
I’ve mentioned before in this blog that I run a chess club for kids at the local library on Friday afternoons. (This is not to be confused with the chess club for grownups that I play in on Thursday nights.) Most weeks the turnout is 8 to 12 kids. I set up two...
by scribe | Feb 1, 2008 | chess clubs, games, openings, people, positions
That was the story of my game in chess club last night. After winning my first game, I played against Steve Sullivan. As usual, he played poorly in the opening, and I soon had all sorts of delightful winning chances. (See, for example, this post for another example...
by scribe | Jan 18, 2008 | chess clubs, Chess Lecture, games, people, positions
After playing well in chess club my last two times, I guess I was due for an off night. I was in the top quad with Juande Perea and Dan Burkhard (who are both playing in the Santa Cruz Cup) and Steve Sullivan. First round was a lifeless draw as Black against Juande....
by scribe | Jan 15, 2008 | Chess Lecture, games, ruminations
Last week ChessLecture announced my new series, “Learn from Your Fellow Amateurs,” in which I will pick one listener-submitted game each month and lecture about it. So far I’ve gotten twelve submissions, which I think is a pretty good number —...
