by scribe | Sep 3, 2014 | current news, people, ruminations, tournaments
Fabiano Caruana and Paul Richter: Who had a better week? You probably think I’m joking. The whole chess world knows about Fabiano Caruana. The 22-year-old Italian/American, playing in the strongest tournament in chess history, the Sinquefield Cup, has scored an...
by scribe | Sep 1, 2014 | Chess Lecture, current news, people, tournaments
This weekend I played in the CalChess (i.e., northern California) state championship, which was well organized and well attended. We had in the neighborhood of 250 to 260 players, which means among other things that we trounced southern California, which had...
by scribe | Aug 24, 2014 | current news, people, ruminations, tournaments
At Mike Splane’s latest chess party, which was held today, Juande Perea showed three of his games from the recent Kolty Club Championship, which he won in impressive style. Juande scored 5-0 in the games he actually played, plus he took two half-point byes for...
by scribe | Aug 10, 2014 | current news, people, tournaments
What do Mathias Ssonko, Martin Martinez, David Gluckman, Aman Hambleton, Guillermo Vazquez, Jahongir Vakhidov, and Judit Polgar have in common? Answer: They are the victims of the juggernaut that has been Sam Shankland at the Chess Olympiad in Tromsø, Norway. After...
by scribe | Aug 1, 2014 | current news, people, positions, tournaments
A few years ago, Santa Cruz seemed to have more good players hiding in the woodwork than any other city its size. But this week, one of them has come out of hiding in a big way! I refer to James Tarjan, a grandmaster and frequent contender for the U.S. championship...
by scribe | Jul 27, 2014 | current news, off-topic, people, tournaments
The title is a line from a song you wouldn’t know, by a singer you wouldn’t know. It’s a line that came to mind this afternoon, as I was driving home from my latest tournament, the People’s Tournament. There are some tournaments I often play...
