by scribe | Jul 14, 2011 | Chess Lecture, current news, people
This is just a very short entry, to tell all readers of this blog that they are required to click here and read the continuation of Bryan Smith’s travelogue in Europe. His series, “A Traveling Chess Player,” is the best writing ever on chess.com....
by scribe | Jun 28, 2011 | Chess Lecture, people, US Chess League
Last weekend I had an opportunity to attend a class for masters (and a few experts) that was led by grandmaster Varuzhan Akobian. Akobian was teaching kids at the Berkeley Chess School last week, and my friend Robin Cunningham, who also works at the Berkeley Chess...
by scribe | Jun 19, 2011 | Chess Lecture, current news, games, openings
Many of you have probably already seen the game from earlier this month where Viswanathan Anand destroyed Alexei Shirov (as Black!) in 17 moves. However, I feel as if I should say something about it because it is an ultra-rare appearance in top-level chess of an...
by scribe | May 16, 2011 | Chess Lecture, people, tournaments
Tomorrow I’m going to record a ChessLecture about Steven Zierk’s impressive victory in the final round of last month’s Far West Open in Reno. By now, the game has been analyzed online not only by me but also (very briefly) by Steven himself at his...
by scribe | May 3, 2011 | Chess Lecture, people, ruminations, tournaments
My fellow ChessLecturer, International Master Bryan Smith, just finished a very interesting series of three articles at chess.com, which you can find here, here and here. They’re very amusing and fun to read, and I don’t want to give away too much, so...
by scribe | Mar 17, 2011 | Chess Lecture, endings, games, tournaments
What is the hardest “normal” endgame in chess? I think the answer is probably K+Q+RP vs. K+Q. A few years ago no less an authority than Vassily Smyslov wrote a series of columns on this endgame for “64” magazine (in Russian), and you could...