by scribe | Oct 23, 2018 | current news, people, tournaments
What a strange tournament I had this weekend at the Western States Open. But before I talk about my experience, let me recap the bigger picture. The victor was Grandmaster Fidel Corrales Jimenez, with a score of 5-1. He benefited a bit from the fact that the other two...
by scribe | Oct 19, 2018 | current news, games, positions, tournaments
This weekend I’m in Reno to play in my second chess tournament of the year, the Western States Open. When I got up this morning I wanted to wash my hair, but I couldn’t find the complimentary bottle of shampoo provided by the hotel. I looked high, I looked...
by scribe | Oct 5, 2018 | current news, tournaments
Two years ago, American chess fans were justifiably proud and thrilled when our team brought home the gold in the 2016 Chess Olympiad. However, it’s worth remembering that we actually won by the slimmest possible margin on tiebreaks; the outcome of one game on...
by scribe | Sep 4, 2018 | current news, people, positions, tournaments
When you are an adult playing chess in the San Francisco Bay area, it sometimes feels as if you are that last person holding your finger in the dike, trying to keep the sea of young players from completely wiping out the older generation. Sometimes, the old folks...
by scribe | Jul 21, 2018 | chess clubs, current news, positions, tournaments
Before I started playing in the Tuesday Night Marathon, I told myself that I wouldn’t care too much about my result. The goal was simply to get back into form after two years of no tournament chess, and I didn’t really know how I would do. For the first...
by scribe | Jul 11, 2018 | chess clubs, current news, games, tournaments
After six rounds of the Tuesday Night Marathon at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco, I realized something kind of odd. I hadn’t played a single sacrifice in any of my first five games (in one round I took a half-point bye, so obviously no sacrifices in...
