by scribe | May 31, 2011 | current news, games, people, tournaments
The last day of the CalChess State Championship was kind of strange for me (I’ll get to that below), but it went about as expected for Sam Shankland. The tournament’s only Grandmaster surged at the finish, winning his last two games to go 5-1 and win the...
by scribe | May 30, 2011 | current news, people, tournaments
This weekend I’m playing in the CalChess State Championship, in Fremont. I’m a little bit puzzled because the state championship (for northern California) is usually held on Labor Day weekend. However, this year’s edition has been organized for the...
by scribe | May 25, 2011 | Crestbook, current news, tournaments
The interminable series of draws … finally terminated! In the last “classical” game of the final match to determine Viswanathan Anand’s next challenger for the World Championship, Boris Gelfand defeated Alexander Grischuk. Thus Gelfand wins the...
by scribe | May 10, 2011 | current news, endings, games, positions, tournaments
The quarterfinal matches in the World Championship Qualifier are now complete, and my description of the tournament as “May Madness” is now even more appropriate than ever. First, just as in March Madness, upsets were the order of the day. The winner in...
by scribe | May 7, 2011 | Crestbook, current news, tournaments, translations
This week the World Championship Candidates’ Matches got underway in Kazan, Russia. Once upon a time the candidates’ matches were marathons: 12 games in the quarterfinals, 12 in the semifinals, 24 games in the finals. They took a year or more to complete....
by scribe | Apr 24, 2011 | current news, people, positions, tournaments
The last round of the Reno Far West Open featured some great fighting chess, a nice change of pace from the drawfests that one often sees in the last round of big-money Swiss system tournaments. Both of the games on the top two boards were decisive. On board two,...
