Cautionary Tales

by | Mar 10, 2019 | current news, endings, people, positions, PRO Chess League

Ordinarily we think of the endgame as a time when our kings are safe from checkmate, and they can roam with impunity around the board. But in complex endgames (where each side has two or more pieces, or a queen) it isn’t necessarily so. There are three ways in which...

Brutal. Epic. Fail.

by | Mar 7, 2019 | current news, endings, people, PRO Chess League

Someone get David Pruess an ice-cold Yoo-Hoo, because he’s gonna need it. The San Francisco Mechanics’ manager was speechless after our unbelievable last-round meltdown last night. He looked like Sheldon Cooper in the TV show “Big Bang Theory,” who wrote a paper he...

Brilliancy Checking

by | Mar 6, 2019 | people, positions, ruminations

Recently I watched a lecture by Elizabeth Spiegel online where she talked about the importance of blunder-checking, especially for scholastic players. It’s not a new idea. Before you make your move, she said, write it down, and then look back at the board and ask,...

The Highs and the Whews

by | Feb 27, 2019 | chess clubs, current news, people, PRO Chess League

Here are a couple of fun reaction photos that I took last night during the San Francisco-Dallas PRO Chess League match, which the Mechanics won by a 10-6 score. David and Andy are just a little bit enthused. The commentators for most of our matches have been David...