by scribe | Nov 30, 2013 | current news, people, tournaments
Yesterday at the California Class Warfare tournament I had a chance to talk with Taylor McCreary and her father Michael, who are frequent participants in Bay Area tournament. Taylor told me some exciting news, which is that she has qualified to play in the World Youth...
by scribe | Nov 25, 2013 | Chess Lecture, current news, people, tournaments
I just had a conversation fifteen minutes ago with my next-door neighbor Dave, who has never shown any interest in chess previously but had heard something somewhere about a new world champion. This conversation reminded me of an obvious fact: more than anything else,...
by scribe | Nov 9, 2013 | current news, people
Because the first game of the world championship match doesn’t give us much to talk about today, I can catch up on one important piece of news from earlier this week: Elizabeth Spiegel (née Vicary) gave birth to a baby boy! His name is Noah. If you’d like...
by scribe | Oct 26, 2013 | Chess Lecture, literature, people, positions, tournaments, US Chess League
Last night I went with Gjon Feinstein to attend Jesse Kraai’s book reading and signing at the NorCal House of Chess in Fremont, California. It was great to see Jesse again after three years. He looked trimmer, has grown a beard and now looks more like a starving...
by scribe | Oct 16, 2013 | games, people, positions
At Mike Splane’s latest chess party, on Sunday, Richard Koepcke showed us a game that involved a “hanging pawns” formation in the center, where the owner of the hanging pawns did not play actively enough, let them get blockaded, and eventually lost....
by scribe | Oct 14, 2013 | Chess Lecture, current news, games, literature, people
Lisa, Jesse Kraai’s Great American Chess Novel, is now available through Amazon.com! Even more than the Great American Chess Novel, it’s the Greater San Francisco Bay Chess Novel. Astute readers will notice several local personalities in the novel —...
