by scribe | May 15, 2019 | chess clubs, literature, off-topic, ruminations
Although I recently had a small reminder of the value of humility, today I’m going to soldier on in my immodest way and celebrate the first anniversary of one of the most exciting days of my life, the publication day of The Book of Why. Being a writer,...
by scribe | Apr 11, 2019 | literature, off-topic, ruminations
Coming to the U.K. on May 2! Last week I got a package in the mail from England: ten copies of the paperback edition of The Book of Why! The occasion brought to mind that goofy old Beatles song, Paperback Writer. In fact, I’ve been waiting quite a long time...
by scribe | Jan 27, 2019 | Chess Life, current news, literature, people, PRO Chess League, ruminations
Daniel Naroditsky (right) chatting with his opponent, Cemil Marandi of Turkey, earlier this month at the Bay Area International. Today’s post is about two players on the San Francisco Mechanics who are both coming to a turning point in any young chess player’s...
by scribe | Dec 7, 2018 | literature, off-topic
This morning, my co-author Judea Pearl sent me an e-mail: “Did you know about this?” Well, no, I didn’t. Here’s what “this” means: http://s3.amazonaws.com/scifri-segments/scifri201812076.mp3 Science Friday, probably the...
by scribe | Nov 8, 2018 | current news, literature, off-topic
If any of you have visited my book’s page on Amazon recently, you have seen a scary message like this one: “Available only through third-party vendors.” I don’t see that message today, but the page still does not say “In Stock,” nor...
by scribe | Sep 16, 2018 | games, literature, positions, ruminations
Sometime in my early twenties, I read Alexander Kotov’s famous book Think Like a Grandmaster, which revolutionized how chess players think about thinking. From Kotov I learned the idea of making a list of candidate moves, and analyzing each move once and only...