by scribe | May 28, 2017 | chess clubs, Chess Lecture, current news, tournaments
Yesterday I wrote about the results of the Aptos Library Kids’ Chess Tournament, which I directed yesterday. I have two followups to that post. First, our local paper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, had an article about the tournament with some nice photographs (but...
by scribe | Apr 26, 2017 | Chess Lecture, current news, endings, games, people, positions
Six years ago I wrote a post called Master Class, about a class taught by Varuzhan Akobian at the Berkeley Chess School, which I went to along with several of my chess friends. In the comment thread after my post there was a lively debate over whether the class was...
by scribe | Jan 2, 2017 | Chess Lecture, current news, games, people
Welcome back! I’m officially ending my blog hiatus today, but I have to warn you that posts will continue to be very sporadic for the next month or two. My book still isn’t finished yet, and that has to be the #1 priority. Still, I will post here when I...
by scribe | Aug 28, 2016 | chess clubs, Chess Lecture, endings, games
We’ve arrived at game number six in my series of Six Memorable Games. It is not at all a perfect game, but in some ways it is a perfect illustration of both the good and bad features of my chess: occasional moments of creativity interspersed with frustrating...
by scribe | Aug 24, 2016 | Chess Lecture, games, people, positions
A couple weeks ago I got a really cool surprise in my e-mail. A chess player named Frank Brown, whom I didn’t know previously, sent me a photograph that he had taken in 2009, when I played against grandmaster Jesse Kraai on one of the top boards at the Western...
by scribe | Jul 29, 2016 | Chess Lecture, Chess Life, games, openings, positions, ruminations
The fifth in my series of memorable games contains several elements of the previous installments. Like game 4, it contains an absolutely miraculous comeback, from a position that seems totally lost to a brilliant victory. Like game 1, it ends with a queen sacrifice....
