by scribe | Oct 23, 2021 | current news, endings, people, ruminations, Uncategorized
Walter through the years. Last Sunday, my father Walter Nance passed away at the age of 88. Walter taught me to play chess when I was about 7 years old, and I can still remember how excited I was when I beat him for the first time when I was 9 years old. He was a...
by scribe | Oct 9, 2021 | chess clubs, games, positions, ruminations, tournaments
Some of you might wondering, “When are you going to write Year 50 of your 50 Years of Chess series?” Patience! We are still in year 50. Actually, I had a plan that went awry. I was going to play in the “Real Bay Area Championship” in Santa...
by scribe | Aug 22, 2021 | endings, games, people, ruminations
I want to thank the people who wrote to me here or by e-mail or on Facebook after Mike Splane’s death. In this blog, I’ve been privileged to have the opportunity to steal — oops, um, er, I mean “write about” — many of his ideas....
by scribe | Aug 12, 2021 | current news, literature, people, ruminations
Last night I received a very unexpected e-mail from Ken Case, one of the regulars at Mike Splane’s chess parties. Ken said that Mike has passed away. Mike has been in poor health for at least the last two or three years. The source of some but not all of his...
by scribe | Jul 31, 2021 | current news, games, ruminations, tournaments
I’d like to interrupt my retrospective to mention an event that is going on in the chess world here and now: the 2021 World Cup. Principally, I’d like to congratulate Sam Shankland for advancing farther than any other American contestant, all the way to...
by scribe | Jul 27, 2021 | Chess Lecture, games, openings, ruminations
In Year 35 of this retrospective, I wrote a post called One for the Ages, in which I showed my lifetime masterpiece, Mackenzie-Pruess. In that game I debuted a new opening variation, the Bryntse Gambit (which had been played before in correspondence chess but never,...
