We’re number 1290!

I just learned, courtesy of Bill Brock’s Chicago Chess Blog, that the USCF member pages have added another new wrinkle: a line that indicates your ranking in the whole country. My current rating is 2093  🙁 . That puts me at #1290 in the country, which is...

Remembering past rivals

As I mentioned in my last post, the US Chess Federation now makes it possible to get oodles of statistics about your personal tournament history. My favorite item is a list of the 30 people you have played the most rated games with — your greatest rivals....

Nemeses and punching bags

The U.S. Chess Federation keeps upgerading the quality of its member statistics. The latest goodie is a “Game Statistics” page, which lets you see things like this: Your overall won-loss record since 1991. Your won-loss against each 100-point rating tier....

Counting Pilcrows

¶ For those of you who are wondering about how Jesse Kraai, David Pruess, and Arun Sharma are doing after their auto accident, I have not heard anything more. I assume that means everything is okay. I’ll let you know if I hear anything else. I also do not have...

Strange Endings

The worst kind of self-induced defeat in chess is resigning in a won or drawn position. In my most recent ChessLecture, I talked about a game submitted by Matt Hayes where his opponent fell into exactly this trap. It was especially memorable for Matt because it put...