My First Tournament (Part One)

by | Aug 28, 2012 | games, people, ruminations, tournaments

This summer I am passing two big anniversary milestones: the 40th anniversary of my first official chess tournament and the 500th post of this blog. To celebrate both of these anniversaries, I’m going to post a recap of my first tournament, which I wrote back in...

My First Chess Set/Board/Clock

by | Aug 25, 2012 | people, ruminations

Before I start today’s post, I want to mention that I have finished the re-design of my blog. New theme, new header, new type font, new color scheme, etc. I hope that you enjoy the new look! I would especially like to credit my wife, the family’s computer...

Math, chess, and cheating

by | Aug 1, 2012 | chess clubs, ruminations

Last week I rather unexpectedly was waylaid by a math problem, which I spent 5 days working on to the exclusion of everything else — eating, sleeping, studying chess,… A college friend of mine sent me the following question, which he discovered 25 years...

The Best Tater is a Facilitator

by | Jul 6, 2012 | off-topic, ruminations

I always think twice before I do an off-topic post, but I decided to go ahead today. How can I resist, with a title like that? As I mentioned in an earlier post, a local bookstore called the Capitola Book Café is holding a fund drive in order to stay in business and...

Epic fails

by | Jul 4, 2012 | ruminations, tournaments

After two blog posts about my best tournaments ever, which were probably met with yawns and indifference by most of my readers, it occurred to me that it might be more entertaining to write about my worst tournaments ever. I don’t know about you, but I have a...