by scribe | Apr 19, 2008 | people, tournaments
I’ve mentioned in a previous blog entry that I very much enjoy Ilya Odessky’s stream-of-consciousness articles at www.chesspro.ru, which start out being about chess but end up going in completely unpredictable directions. So I’m going to try a...
by scribe | Apr 10, 2008 | chess clubs, people
… Means “in passing,” and I’m writing this entry to honor someone who passed on too quickly. Zoe, whose last name I do not know, was a regular at the Borders chess club here in Santa Cruz. She was a true chess fan, someone who was devoted to...
by scribe | Mar 29, 2008 | Chess Lecture, endings, games, literature, people, tournaments
A quick update between rounds… I won in both round three and round four, so I now have a score of 2-2 and feel as if I’m back in the tournament. When I told my wife last night about my nervousness with this funny time control, she said, “Why? It...
by scribe | Mar 28, 2008 | games, people, tournaments
The U.S. Championship Qualifier got under way today. The final turnout was 104 people, with 10 grandmasters. The top-rated player in the tournament is Julio Becerra. There were no big surprises yet that I know of, but we did have our first mini-controversy. In the...
by scribe | Mar 6, 2008 | games, people, positions
Today I read, first on www.uschess.org and then on Michael Aigner’s blog, that we have a new holder of the title of youngest National Master ever in the U.S. His name is Nicholas Nip, and he is 9 years and 11 months old. Aigner’s blog says that Nicholas...
by scribe | Mar 4, 2008 | people, ruminations, tournaments
Okay, to get a little discussion going, today we’re going to talk about one of everybody’s favorite topics: ratings. What do you think about them? Are they a blight on the game of chess? A useful yardstick for gauging your own improvement? My own attitude...
