by scribe | Mar 29, 2014 | current news, ruminations, tournaments
As most of my readers probably know already, Viswanathan Anand, the former world champion who was dethroned last year by Magnus Carlsen, has earned a rematch with Carlsen by winning the Candidates in dominating fashion. The tournament isn’t even over yet, but...
by scribe | Mar 9, 2014 | games, openings, positions, tournaments
Continuing my series of posts of favorite games from the Santa Cruz Cup… The third Santa Cruz Cup, in 2005, was a really weird one for me. I finished first, but only because of unbelievable blunders by my two main rivals, Ilan Benjamin and Juande Perea....
by scribe | Mar 7, 2014 | games, openings, positions, tournaments
At Mike Splane’s last chess party, about two weeks ago, I was excited to see two people who have been almost absent from the Santa Cruz chess scene for six years: Eric Fingal and Juan Diego (Juande) Perea. In Eric’s case the reason for his absence was...
by scribe | Feb 27, 2014 | current news, off-topic, tournaments
Last night the new season of Survivor premiered, and once again we have a contestant claiming to be a chess player. Some of you might remember a guy named Marty a few years back who claimed to be a grandmaster. Then I went and checked and there are no grandmasters...
by scribe | Feb 18, 2014 | current news, tournaments
President’s Day weekend can only mean one thing in U.S. chess — it’s time for the U.S. Amateur Team championship! I didn’t play this year, but I went to the tournament site on Sunday afternoon to spectate. It was another great success for...
by scribe | Feb 16, 2014 | Chess Lecture, endings, positions, tournaments
Today Gjon Feinstein and I were going over a wonderful game between Wei Yi and John Bryant from the recent Bay Area International, a game that I’m planning to lecture on for ChessLecture. There’s one variation that I wasn’t quite sure how to...
