by scribe | Apr 5, 2010 | people, tournaments
I just received an e-mail from Sam Shankland (and a followup from Jennifer Shahade) saying that Jesse Kraai, David Pruess, and Arun Sharma were in a serious car accident coming back from the Far West Open in Reno. All three were taken to the hospital but they have now...
by scribe | Mar 28, 2010 | Chess Lecture, Chess Life, games, positions, tournaments
The worst kind of self-induced defeat in chess is resigning in a won or drawn position. In my most recent ChessLecture, I talked about a game submitted by Matt Hayes where his opponent fell into exactly this trap. It was especially memorable for Matt because it put...
by scribe | Feb 16, 2010 | endings, games, people, tournaments
Yesterday the 36th (almost) Annual Peoples Tournament concluded. It was pretty much of a lost weekend for me, or perhaps I should say a drawn weekend. After my excellent start, a win against Michael Aigner, I then spun my wheels with four straight draws before losing...
by scribe | Feb 14, 2010 | Chess Lecture, positions, tournaments
Recently Dave Vigorito gave a ChessLecture that called “Not Quite an Agony Game” where he showed a recent game he lost against Raymond Kaufman. Dave mentioned at one point that it was his first tournament loss since his last “agony game”...
by scribe | Feb 14, 2010 | games, tournaments
In my last tournament I played against Michael Aigner in round one and lost, which prompted me to write this entry comparing our “rivalry” to Sylvester versus Tweety Bird. At that point my lifetime record against him stood at 1 win, 7 losses, and 1 draw,...
by scribe | Jan 31, 2010 | tournaments
The Bay Area has been blessed with three large open tournaments in the first two months of the year. In January we had the New Year’s Open in Santa Clara, won by Sam Shankland, and the Golden State Open in Concord, won by Alex Lenderman. The latter tournament...
