by scribe | Mar 24, 2011 | literature, people, tournaments
As long-time fans of the Peanuts comic strip know, Charlie Brown’s favorite baseball player is one Joe Shlabotnik, whose claim to fame is that he gets sent down to the minor leagues and bats .143 (which is really bad). He epitomizes the same sort of lovable...
by scribe | Mar 17, 2011 | Chess Lecture, endings, games, tournaments
What is the hardest “normal” endgame in chess? I think the answer is probably K+Q+RP vs. K+Q. A few years ago no less an authority than Vassily Smyslov wrote a series of columns on this endgame for “64” magazine (in Russian), and you could...
by scribe | Feb 10, 2011 | chess clubs, Chess Lecture, tournaments
OK, let me admit right up front that this may seem like the most egotistical blog post in history. But today it hit me, as I was cleaning the dust off my trophies for the first time in a year: “Why not do a blog post about each of my trophies?” The intent...
by scribe | Jan 30, 2011 | games, openings, tournaments
Last night I had a chance to go over all of my games from the New Year Open (my most recent tournament, a month ago) with Gjon Feinstein, my friend and frequent analysis partner who is a national master. We got to an interesting position from my first-round game...
by scribe | Jan 11, 2011 | current news, off-topic, tournaments, US Chess League
Here’s my joke for the day. Q: What did Gilligan say when the other castaways fought over places on the raft? A: “Why can’t we all just get a log?” Somehow I think this is relevant to the current world of politics — i.e., if we...
by scribe | Jan 2, 2011 | current news, positions, tournaments
The Bay Area Chess New Year Open was a very strange tournament, but it worked out pretty well for me. As usual, it had two schedules, a 2-day and 3-day schedule. The 3-day schedule, which I played in, had nine players (in the open section), of whom only one was rated...
