by scribe | Dec 14, 2007 | chess clubs, games, openings, people, positions
When I was a graduate student, I once heard this story about one of the professors in the department, a world-famous mathematician who was originally from Japan. He was giving a lecture in an undergraduate course, probably calculus, and a student raised his hand and...
by scribe | Dec 12, 2007 | people
In his ChessLecture on Alexander Alekhine last week, Bryan Smith talked a little bit about the pronunciation of Alekhine’s name. The “correct” Russian pronunciation is <ahl-YO-kheen>. The Russian “kh” sounds like the Scottish...
by scribe | Dec 8, 2007 | chess clubs, people
Writing about the Mechanics Institute chess club started me thinking about other chess clubs that I’ve played in. Although I played in school chess clubs from about eighth grade all the way through graduate school, the first club for adults that I ever went to...
by scribe | Dec 5, 2007 | chess clubs, Chess Life, games, people, positions, tournaments, US Chess League
This Tuesday night the Mechanics Institute held a reception for its latest member to make a big splash in world chess: 11-year-old Daniel Naroditsky, the world champion chess player under the age of 12. That has a nice sound to it, doesn’t it? “World...
by scribe | Dec 3, 2007 | games, people
Garry Kasparov (the former world chess champion) has been making news this year as the leader of a political coalition in Russia that is opposed to the continued rule of Vladimir Putin as president. Last weekend elections were held to the legislature, and in the final...
by scribe | Nov 26, 2007 | chess clubs, games, people, US Chess League
When U.S. Chess League Commissioner Greg Shahade came up with the idea for a national chess league, the first person he called was his sister. The second was John Donaldson. Donaldson, an International Master who now resides in the San Francisco area, was an old...
