by scribe | Apr 23, 2011 | current news, games, positions, tournaments
I’m playing this weekend in the Far West Open in Reno, one of the two traditional big tournaments of the year in this city. This year it seems somewhat smaller than in the past, with around 160 players. The top of the wall chart is also missing some familiar...
by scribe | Apr 18, 2011 | current news, positions, tournaments
My alert correspondent, Jim Krooskos, spotted an occurrence of the Hook and Ladder Trick in the first round of the U.S. Women’s Championship (currently taking place in St. Louis). Here’s the position. Defending champion Irina Krush was White, and Sabina...
by scribe | Apr 10, 2011 | games, positions
I have a love-hate relationship with my computer. Analyzing with the computer is a great way to get discouraged and to make unrealistic assessments of positions. (You think that the position is good because the computer says so — but then it turns out that you...
by scribe | Mar 7, 2011 | games, people, positions
Yesterday I had a mini-chess salon at my house, with only two guests: Gjon Feinstein and Mike Splane. Gjon has been to my place many times — so many that he even knows which legs of my chess table are loose! For Mike, on the other hand, it was his first visit....
by scribe | Feb 8, 2011 | games, openings, people, positions
Today marked a milestone for Brian Wall’s chess discussion list: the 2000th daily digest. When I think of how much work I’ve put into my blog to write a measly 338 posts (339 if you count this one) and then I try multiplying that by almost 7 … It is...
by scribe | Jan 2, 2011 | current news, positions, tournaments
The Bay Area Chess New Year Open was a very strange tournament, but it worked out pretty well for me. As usual, it had two schedules, a 2-day and 3-day schedule. The 3-day schedule, which I played in, had nine players (in the open section), of whom only one was rated...
