by scribe | Nov 7, 2014 | current news, games, openings, US Chess League
Step aside, MadBum! There’s a new hero in town, and his name is VigPanch! The San Francisco (baseball) Giants have Madison Bumgarner, the hero of the World Series. But the San Francisco (chess) Mechanics have Vignesh Panchanathan, the #4 fourteen-year-old in the...
by scribe | Oct 22, 2014 | current news, openings, ruminations, tournaments
A few final thoughts about the Reno tournament… (1) The ratings went up today and I was surprised to see that my rating didn’t go up as much as I thought it would. Only from 2164 to 2182. This means that if I had won my last-round game against GM Sergey...
by scribe | Oct 19, 2014 | Chess Lecture, current news, positions, tournaments
What a finish to the Western States Open! In the last round, I almost… Beat my first grandmaster (a bucket list item) Tied for first in an open tournament, for the first time in 20 years Scored another historic victory with the Bryntse Gambit Got my rating back...
by scribe | Oct 18, 2014 | current news, positions, tournaments
This is a lament that every chess player utters at some point… some of us more often than others. My turn to utter it was yesterday. FEN: 7k/7p/P2R2p1/5p2/2p5/1K6/6rP/8 w – – 0 48 Position after 47. … c4+. White to move. Round one of the...
by scribe | Oct 14, 2014 | current news, people, tournaments
So So wasn’t so-so! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!) I tried to look up the winner of the Millionaire Open in Las Vegas this morning, and it wasn’t as easy as I expected to find out who won. When I went to chessbase.com, usually my first source, there was...
by scribe | Oct 12, 2014 | current news, games, positions, tournaments
On ABC’s Wide World of Sports, the late broadcaster Jim McKay used to talk about “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” But in chess we have a third possibility, the agony of de-draw. The first seven rounds of the Millionaire Open in Las...
