by scribe | Nov 8, 2020 | chess clubs, people, ruminations, tournaments
In the spring of 1983 I earned my doctorate from Princeton University, and after a somewhat nail-biting job search I landed a one-year position in the math department at Duke University. After a year it turned into a tenure-track position, and I ended up staying at...
by scribe | Oct 26, 2020 | Chess Life, off-topic, people
No chess in this post. In 1980 and 1981, I took a two-year sabbatical from chess while real life clobbered me over the head. I actually did play in one tournament in January 1980 (six games, but I only have the moves for four of them). I thought of showing one of the...
by scribe | Oct 7, 2020 | chess clubs, Chess Life, off-topic, people, ruminations, tournaments
In the fall of 1978, I joined a group of 35 American students for a semester abroad in Leningrad, Russia. I had been studying the Russian language since my junior year of high school, and chess was one of the main reasons (at first). When I was at Phillips Academy, I...
by scribe | Oct 3, 2020 | games, openings, people
When you put a call out to the universe, sometimes the universe answers! A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I did not have the scores of any of my games from 1976. But then I got an e-mail from an old friend I hadn’t heard from for many years: Macon Shibut, who...
by scribe | Oct 2, 2020 | 2012 world championship, people, ruminations
Chessbase had an interesting column yesterday about the ten highest-rated players of all time, in which they tracked down the exact games where they hit their rating peaks. It’s an interesting list, and I’ll give you the condensed version here (without the...
by scribe | Sep 30, 2020 | current news, off-topic, people, ruminations
To: World From: Chess players Where have we seen this before? Refuses to play by previously agreed-upon rules.Driven by a persecution complex.Disdainful toward other people (“weakies”).Intolerant toward certain minorities.Demands complete loyalty from...
