by scribe | May 1, 2017 | current news, games, literature, off-topic
I know this seems like a weird thing to say on May 1, but yesterday I played my first chess against a live human opponent in 2017. I’m not completely sure of this because I might have played a couple of blitz games back in January or February, but I have been so...
by scribe | Sep 14, 2016 | current news, literature, ruminations, tournaments
Here’s the good news: the New York Times had an article about the U.S. gold medal in the 2016 Chess Olympiad. Here’s the bad news: the New York Times had an article about the U.S. gold medal in the 2016 Chess Olympiad. What do I mean? Well, first read the...
by scribe | Nov 30, 2015 | current news, literature, off-topic, ruminations
This weekend the British science fiction show Doctor Who, of which I am an avid fan (though not a rabid fan), had an episode that can only be described as an instant classic. Over the weekend its user rating on IMDb was 9.7 stars out of 10, which would make it the...
by scribe | Oct 3, 2015 | current news, literature, people
This afternoon, a week or two after everybody else, I finally got a chance to watch Pawn Sacrifice, the movie about the Bobby Fischer – Boris Spassky match starring Tobey McGuire. I know that any chess player can easily find flaws with the portrayal of chess and...
by scribe | Jul 24, 2015 | literature, off-topic, people, ruminations
I was doing some random web-surfing today, when I ran into a jaw-dropper of a thread on Google Groups, from 2002. Wrote Larry Tamarkin (a master from New York) in rec.games.chess.politics: Having played some of the great young talents of the last 20 years, I can give...
by scribe | Jul 3, 2015 | current news, literature, ruminations
My interview for “Only a Game” aired on National Public Radio last Saturday… and they forgot to tell me! You can still listen to it online at the Only a Game website. Although any publicity is good publicity, I have to say that I’m a little bit...
