by scribe | Oct 4, 2015 | current news, ruminations, tournaments
I’ve even gotten tired writing about the World Cup, imagine how tired the people are playing it. The final four-game match between Peter Svidler and Sergey Karjakin has been disappointing in a way I never expected. First, take a look at the results: Svidler 1,...
by scribe | Oct 3, 2015 | current news, literature, people
This afternoon, a week or two after everybody else, I finally got a chance to watch Pawn Sacrifice, the movie about the Bobby Fischer – Boris Spassky match starring Tobey McGuire. I know that any chess player can easily find flaws with the portrayal of chess and...
by scribe | Sep 29, 2015 | current news, people, tournaments
If there’s one person in the world I wouldn’t want to be today, it’s Pavel Eljanov. The Ukrainian grandmaster was the Cinderella player in this year’s chess World Cup. He started as the #26 seed, but played more impressively than anyone else in...
by scribe | Sep 24, 2015 | current news, people, tournaments
Last time I wrote that the problem with Cinderella is always what happens when the pixie dust wears off. In round five of the 2015 FIDE World Cup, the answer was emphatically, “Don’t worry about it.” The #26 seed, Pavel Eljanov, claimed #2 Hikaru...
by scribe | Sep 23, 2015 | chess clubs, current news, positions, tournaments
Yesterday, like every Tuesday, was chess club day at the Aptos Public Library. We had a good turnout of 18 kids, from April to Zoey. Lately we’ve had an unusual number of girls, which I’m pleased to see. I think we had eight this week, which has to be an...
by scribe | Sep 22, 2015 | current news, people, tournaments
Round four of the 2015 FIDE World Cup was definitely the Round of the Underdogs. When the smoke cleared, five of the eight higher-seeded players had lost, and only two players who were originally seeded in the top 8 have actually made it to the final 8. The two...
