by scribe | Jun 16, 2016 | games, positions, ruminations
Recently one of my readers asked whether I play against the computer for training or just for fun. I answered that it was probably 75 percent for fun and 25 percent for training. But perhaps I was wrong, because the two are not mutually exclusive! Here’s a game...
by scribe | May 27, 2016 | current news, off-topic, ruminations
Two years ago I went to Atlanta to attend the “Gathering for Gardner,” a biennial conference on math, magic, games, and puzzles in honor of the late Martin Gardner. I gave an 8-minute talk at the meeting, and the video of my talk has just been posted...
by scribe | May 14, 2016 | chess clubs, current news, off-topic, people, ruminations, tournaments
First, apologies for my long silence… more than two weeks! I know that there isn’t anything else worth reading on the Internet except for my blog, so I know you guys were suffering. 😉 This morning I had an interesting experience, being interviewed by a...
by scribe | Apr 25, 2016 | endings, games, people, ruminations
About once a year I like to take a look at my blog stats, just to see what is happening. What are my most popular posts all-time? What are the most popular ones recently? The all-time list never changes very much — it’s always the same post at the top, and...
by scribe | Apr 12, 2016 | games, people, positions, ruminations
In my last post I asked readers for examples of games with “two shining moments” — in other words, one fantastic, seemingly game-winning move for each player. Mike Splane sent me a link to a game he played against Agnis Kaugars in 1993 that meets the...
by scribe | Mar 23, 2016 | chess clubs, endings, games, people, ruminations
At present the two strongest players in the Aptos Library Chess Club are named Luke and Alex. It’s so interesting to watch them play, because they have contrasting strengths. I think Luke overall has a more solid understanding of the game. He has actually done...