by scribe | Aug 14, 2014 | current news, tournaments
The last round of the Chess Olympiad is in the books and, no surprise, China won. They beat Poland, 3-1, making any discussion of tiebreaks academic. As I mentioned in my previous entry, they completed the event with only one loss out of 44 games, a truly dominating...
by scribe | Aug 13, 2014 | current news, tournaments
With one round to go in the chess Olympiad, the U.S. is still in contention for… something, and the gold-medal team is in my opinion all but decided. China beat France in round 10, taking over sole first place with 17 points (7 wins, 3 ties). The only team that...
by scribe | Aug 11, 2014 | current news, off-topic, ruminations, tournaments
Bobby Fischer can breathe a sigh of relief. If only he were still breathing, that is. Sam Shankland isn’t going to beat his record of 19 consecutive wins, because Sam drew in round nine of the Olympiad. Still a good result for Sam — a draw as Black against...
by scribe | Aug 10, 2014 | current news, people, tournaments
What do Mathias Ssonko, Martin Martinez, David Gluckman, Aman Hambleton, Guillermo Vazquez, Jahongir Vakhidov, and Judit Polgar have in common? Answer: They are the victims of the juggernaut that has been Sam Shankland at the Chess Olympiad in Tromsø, Norway. After...
by scribe | Aug 1, 2014 | current news, people, positions, tournaments
A few years ago, Santa Cruz seemed to have more good players hiding in the woodwork than any other city its size. But this week, one of them has come out of hiding in a big way! I refer to James Tarjan, a grandmaster and frequent contender for the U.S. championship...
by scribe | Jul 27, 2014 | current news, off-topic, people, tournaments
The title is a line from a song you wouldn’t know, by a singer you wouldn’t know. It’s a line that came to mind this afternoon, as I was driving home from my latest tournament, the People’s Tournament. There are some tournaments I often play...
