by scribe | Sep 27, 2017 | current news, people, translations
Today Levon Aronian won both of his 25-minute playoff games against Ding Liren to become the first two-time winner of the World Cup. (He also won in 2005. I’m not including the two earlier World Cups that were held using a different format and only 24 players.)...
by scribe | Sep 18, 2017 | current news, people, ruminations
I’m glad to make a two-part announcement today. First, my blog is going to start partnering with Susan Polgar’s blog, “Chess Daily News.” Don’t worry, my posts will continue to appear here as they always have, but they will also be...
by scribe | Sep 13, 2017 | current news, endings, people, tournaments
People who know I have a Ph.D. in math often think that mathematics must help me in chess. But I have to tell them: not really. Having a mathematical mind is somewhat useful: in both subjects, it’s good to be able to hold in your mind long strings of “if...
by scribe | Sep 11, 2017 | current news, people, ruminations, tournaments
The 2017 World Cup fashion show… er, chess tournament… has now finished three rounds, and the upsets continue! Fabiano Caruana went down to defeat at the hands of Evgeny Najer, and both Levon Aronian and Anish Giri lost games to their lower-rated opponents...
by scribe | Sep 10, 2017 | current news, off-topic, people, ruminations, tournaments
The FIDE World Cup is going crazy with upsets! Just look at the world’s top players on the September rating list and how they are doing so far, after the “classical” part of round 3. Carlsen — OUT Vachier-Lagrave — Tied, 1-1 Kramnik...
by scribe | Sep 9, 2017 | current news, games, people, positions, tournaments
In a fairer world, we would all be talking about Xiangzhi Bu today. At the World Cup, he just defeated the World Champion, Magnus Carlsen, in a game straight out of the nineteenth century. Bu played a daring bishop sacrifice on move 15; Carlsen accepted his challenge...
