by scribe | Sep 4, 2012 | Chess Lecture, current news, tournaments
In my last post I did not have any information on who won the Northern California state championship. I will now make up for my shortcomings as a reporter by telling you who won all the state championships this weekend. (Labor Day weekend is the traditional time for...
by scribe | Jul 18, 2012 | Chess Lecture, literature, off-topic
I think that the above question, or simply, “Where is Jesse?”, is the most common one I get when I talk with people about my gig for ChessLecture. Jesse is, of course, Jesse Kraai, the Sensei of ChessLecture, the ChessLecturer par excellence. If...
by scribe | Jun 4, 2012 | Chess Lecture, current news, people
The best series of articles at chess.com came to an unexpected and somewhat sad conclusion last week. I wrote previously in two posts (here and here) about Bryan Smith’s series, “A Traveling Chess Player,” which began with his impulsive and not...
by scribe | Apr 24, 2012 | chess clubs, Chess Lecture, games, positions
At Mike Splane’s last chess party, he told each of us to introduce ourselves and “tell us one little-known fact about yourself.” I basically went blank, and the only little-known fact I came up with was that my favorite cereal is Grape-Nuts. Well,...
by scribe | Apr 11, 2012 | Chess Lecture, endings, games, positions, tournaments
I’d like to show you my longest and hardest-fought game from last weekend’s tournament in Reno. I have decided that I won’t give a lecture on it, partly because it’s too long and partly because there are too many mistakes. But it is still a...
by scribe | Apr 8, 2012 | Chess Lecture, current news, tournaments
Just like the NCAA basketball tournament, the first annual Larry Evans Memorial had a lot of upsets early, but as the tournament wears on the cream rises to the top. The early Cinderella was Cameron Wheeler (2126), who defeated FM Viswesh Kameswaran (2319) and IM Eric...