by scribe | Jun 15, 2022 | current news, literature, people, ruminations, tournaments
You know something really unusual has happened when one of your Facebook friends who is not a chess player posts something about chess on your wall. “Have you heard about this?” she asked. “The New York Times has a new chess column.” I did know...
by scribe | Apr 27, 2022 | current news, literature, off-topic, ruminations
What I did during the pandemic. One of the best things about being a writer is the moment when you first hold a book in your hands that has your name on the cover. I think that it may be similar to becoming a parent. You spend months and months anticipating something...
by scribe | Dec 31, 2021 | current news, literature, openings, ruminations
One of the first things that kids love to do, after they learn the rules of chess, is to tamper with the rules. I’m not sure why. For example, they say, “Let’s make every piece a queen!” Sounds like fun in principle, but what happens in...
by scribe | Oct 10, 2021 | Chess Life, current news, literature
A gift to all of my readers. An incredibly nice surprise came in my e-mail yesterday. It was from Joshua Anderson of the Chess Journalists of America, informing me that I had won an award for the Best Online Blog in 2021. (The award was shared with Ray Linville, whose...
by scribe | Sep 1, 2021 | chess clubs, games, literature, tournaments
As the finish line of my retrospective approaches, we’re going to put on a “finishing kick” and cover three years in one post. The reason is that I have almost no games to show you from the years 2016 to 2018. I played in only one tournament, with 5...
by scribe | Aug 12, 2021 | current news, literature, people, ruminations
Last night I received a very unexpected e-mail from Ken Case, one of the regulars at Mike Splane’s chess parties. Ken said that Mike has passed away. Mike has been in poor health for at least the last two or three years. The source of some but not all of his...
