by scribe | Apr 30, 2013 | Chess Lecture, Chess Life, current news, literature
A while ago I sent in a submission to Chess Life for their column “My Best Move,” which appears on the last page of every issue. In this column, famous and semi-famous players share their favorite moves from their entire chess careers. I felt a little bit...
by scribe | Dec 12, 2012 | chess clubs, Chess Life, openings, positions, ruminations
Today’s post is a grab bag of topics… 1) The Aptos Library Chess Club has been a hopping place lately. Two weeks ago we had 23 kids, which forced us for the first time to use every single board and set in our collection. This week we had 16, I think. I...
by scribe | Dec 7, 2012 | Chess Life, current news, literature, people, ruminations
One of my favorite scenes in the documentary Brooklyn Castle, which I reviewed here recently, was the one where (spoiler alert!) Rochelle Ballantyne won the national girls’ high school championship on tiebreak, earning herself a scholarship to the University of...
by scribe | Nov 15, 2012 | Chess Lecture, Chess Life, literature, people
Last night I started looking online for lists of all the state chess champions in the U.S. since the beginning of time (or since 1878, when the New York State Championship was first held). It will probably surprise no one to hear that the information is scattered and...
by scribe | Oct 29, 2012 | Chess Lecture, Chess Life, current news, tournaments
Randall Hough’s report on the Western States Open finally went up at Chess Life Online, a week after the event ended. So I can now finally tell you that Alexander Ivanov won the tiebreaking playoff over Tatev Abrahamyan. I’m also pleased to report that...
by scribe | Sep 14, 2012 | Chess Life, games, literature, openings, ruminations, tournaments
Today I’m going to do something a little bit unusual. Really unusual. As long-time readers of this blog know, a few years ago I played my chess masterpiece. It came in the last round of a tournament in Reno, against International Master David Pruess. I played a...
