by scribe | Mar 3, 2019 | chess clubs, ruminations, tournaments
… Unless, of course, you get three! I was reminded of this today in a roundabout fashion. Emmy and Ryder P., the sister and brother combo from my chess club in Aptos who came to watch me play a tournament in January, today got their first taste of tournament action....
by scribe | Jan 27, 2019 | Chess Life, current news, literature, people, PRO Chess League, ruminations
Daniel Naroditsky (right) chatting with his opponent, Cemil Marandi of Turkey, earlier this month at the Bay Area International. Today’s post is about two players on the San Francisco Mechanics who are both coming to a turning point in any young chess player’s...
by scribe | Jan 24, 2019 | current news, PRO Chess League, ruminations
So far in this PRO Chess League Season I’ve been focusing on the San Francisco Mechanics, since they asked me to be their official team blogger. But for a change let’s look at what else has been happening in the rest of the league through the first three weeks. This...
by scribe | Jan 10, 2019 | current news, openings, people, ruminations, tournaments
The ratings for the 2019 Bay Area International went up on the USCF website this morning, and this gives me an excuse for writing a few more reflections on the chess week that just ended three days ago. The tournament truly lived up to its name as an international....
by scribe | Sep 16, 2018 | games, literature, positions, ruminations
Sometime in my early twenties, I read Alexander Kotov’s famous book Think Like a Grandmaster, which revolutionized how chess players think about thinking. From Kotov I learned the idea of making a list of candidate moves, and analyzing each move once and only...
by scribe | Aug 20, 2018 | literature, off-topic, ruminations
Why not start out the week with a book review? Okay, I admit it will take us off topic, but I really enjoyed Amor Towles’ novel A Gentleman in Moscow and would like to encourage other people to read it. I remember my Russian teacher in college expounding at...
