by scribe | Jan 11, 2011 | current news, off-topic, tournaments, US Chess League
Here’s my joke for the day. Q: What did Gilligan say when the other castaways fought over places on the raft? A: “Why can’t we all just get a log?” Somehow I think this is relevant to the current world of politics — i.e., if we...
by scribe | Oct 28, 2010 | current news, US Chess League
Everyone is delirious in San Francisco this morning after the San Francisco Giants took the first game of the (baseball) World Series over the Texas Rangers, 11-7. Everyone, that is, except for the chess players. Last night the San Francisco Mechanics lost to the...
by scribe | Sep 16, 2010 | off-topic, tournaments, US Chess League
§ 1. “Various and sundry” is an idiom my mother used to say a lot … I haven’t heard it in years and years, and then it popped into my head as a title for today’s post. It’s a phrase that probably started as a joke (because the two...
by scribe | Sep 3, 2010 | Chess Lecture, ruminations, tournaments, US Chess League
Tomorrow I will start playing in the Cal Chess Labor Day Open, which is a 3-day, 6-round Swiss. It also serves as the northern California state championship, which has been won by Sam Shankland the last two years. With Sam now “retired” (except for the...
by scribe | Dec 29, 2009 | Chess Lecture, ruminations, US Chess League
Today I had the chance to do something I almost never do, except at tournaments — spend the whole day thinking about chess. That’s one of the nice benefits of the holiday season, when there are no deadlines pressing on me. Mostly I was getting my thoughts...
by scribe | Nov 29, 2009 | people, tournaments, US Chess League
Your record 19-game winning streak is in jeopardy! Thadeus Frei, a 16-year-old player from Santa Cruz, went 6-0 in the class B section of the CalChess State Championship this weekend. He also won 5 games in a row in his last tournament, so he is now riding an 11-game...