by scribe | Jul 12, 2014 | current news, people, tournaments
Not long ago I wrote here jokingly about the fact that the U.S. has “too many” young players getting IM and GM norms. I hope everyone realizes I wasn’t serious… This is a true golden era of American chess. Today I was browsing the list of the...
by scribe | Jul 7, 2014 | current news, endings, people, tournaments
I’m back from my three days and two nights in Sacramento. For me, the tournament was a Learning Experience. That’s another way of saying that it didn’t go as well as I had hoped. Strangely enough, though, I enjoyed it and I will definitely consider...
by scribe | Jul 5, 2014 | current news, endings, positions, tournaments
In my first 18 years of living in California, I somehow never played a single chess game in Sacramento, the state capital. There are a few reasons. First, it’s a three-hour drive. I can’t commute between home and the tournament, as I can if the tournament...
by scribe | May 13, 2014 | Chess Lecture, current news, openings, people, tournaments
Over the weekend I spent a lot of time studying a fascinating game from the first round of the U.S. Women’s Championship, won by a 13-year-old girl from the Bay Area, Ashritha Eswaran. Eswaran is the lowest-rated player in the tournament and a relative newbie to...
by scribe | May 3, 2014 | current news, tournaments
Yeah, I thought that headline would get your attention. It’s true: Every year I run a free (unrated) chess tournament for kids at the Aptos Public Library. Today was the day for this year’s tournament. For me, it was a huge unqualified success, because: We...
by scribe | Apr 25, 2014 | current news, people, ruminations, tournaments
It seems like forever since my rating has been over 2200. How long has it been, exactly? Well, take a look at this graph. The last time I was over 2200 was after the World Open in 1995, before I even moved to California. For the longest time my rating just seemed to...
