by scribe | Mar 19, 2016 | current news, openings, people, positions, ruminations, tournaments
Leave it to Hikaru Nakamura to give us another lesson in how not to play chess. That is, literally, how not to pick up the pieces and move them. Last year, he taught us not to castle with both hands. (You might remember that in an Armageddon playoff game with Ian...
by scribe | Mar 17, 2016 | current news, off-topic, people, ruminations
My ISP had server problems the last couple days, so I wasn’t able to post in a timely fashion and the “news” is no longer news. The match between Lee Sedol, the top human go player, and AlphaGo, a new computer program developed by Google, ended in a...
by scribe | Feb 28, 2016 | games, positions, ruminations
My computer issues are resolved, so I can go back to showing you games with diagrams. This one is an amusing riff on “how to beat the computer.” To be honest I really don’t know how to beat the computer, but sometimes I get lucky. Rule number one is...
by scribe | Jan 28, 2016 | games, people, positions, ruminations
Today’s trivia: Name a person who has been the chess champion of both Connecticut and Norway. Today’s quiz: Black to play and win. Position after 28. Qe4. Black to move. FEN: 1r5k/p1pn2p1/1p1p4/5N2/2PPQ3/1K1R3P/P4q1B/6n1 b – – 0 28 The quiz and...
by scribe | Jan 16, 2016 | current news, ruminations
Can television, chess, and the Olympics ever mix? This is a question I was asking myself after I watched a program called “Curling Night in America” on the NBC Sports Network last night. People sometimes call curling “chess on ice.” The...
by scribe | Jan 14, 2016 | games, off-topic, ruminations, translations
It’s interesting how you can learn so much about your own language by learning another language — or by hearing a non-native speaker speak your own. This entry is inspired by a lecture at chess.com by grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky, called “1. e4...
