by scribe | Jun 23, 2015 | chess clubs, current news, people, ruminations, tournaments
So many things going on at once, and I’d like to write a separate post on each of them but then it would take too long. So here are three separate, unrelated pieces of news at once. This My rating graph since 1991, downloaded from the USCF website. It’s...
by scribe | Jun 22, 2015 | current news, endings, people, ruminations, tournaments
This weekend, at the National Open in Las Vegas, I finally returned to the chess Valhalla: a rating of 2200, the minimum (and only) requirement to be a National Master. Never mind that I’ve been rated 2200 before. Never mind that I am already, in fact, a Life...
by scribe | Jun 5, 2015 | current news, endings, positions
In my last post I wrote about the amazing 2N versus P endgame that Hans Niemann won recently at the Chicago Open. In that post, with help from the computer and especially the Nalimov tablebase, I wrote about the “Niemann maneuver” and generally gave the...
by scribe | Jun 1, 2015 | current news, endings, people, tournaments
I’ve written before about the Four Endgames of the Apocalypse — the four rare endgames that all chess players dread, which occur just often enough (like once or twice a lifetime) that you really ought to know them. They are: K+Q vs. K+R K+B+N vs. K K+Q+RP...
by scribe | May 20, 2015 | current news, off-topic
Going off topic again! I don’t plan to turn this chess blog into a pet blog, but I thought some of you might like an update on how Daisy, the new puppy, is doing. Plus, more pictures! After all, what’s the point of having a cute puppy if you can’t...
by scribe | May 18, 2015 | chess clubs, current news, people, tournaments
I wrote this post on Saturday but had a problem with my website that kept me from posting it until now. This year’s Aptos Library Chess Club tournament was a smashing success in every way but one. We didn’t have as big a turnout as we did in 2014 (31...
