by scribe | Nov 29, 2012 | chess clubs, current news, literature, people, ruminations
Yesterday I finally had my chance to go to San Francisco and watch the movie Brooklyn Castle, which I have already blogged about a couple times before (here and here). There are a few spoilers below — hopefully small ones — and I will flag them for any...
by scribe | Nov 20, 2012 | chess clubs, games, people, positions
We had a great turnout at Mike Splane’s latest chess party (on Sunday, November 18) — thirteen people by my count. We were quite an international mix, too, with players originally from Brazil (Paulo), Poland (Milos), India (Praveen), Holland (JL), and...
by scribe | Nov 17, 2012 | chess clubs, current news, people
Yesterday Magnus Carlsen visited San Jose and gave a simultaneous blindfold exhibition at the Silicon Valley Bank. I only found out about this event three or four days in advance and decided not to go to it, because it seemed that space was going to be very limited...
by scribe | Oct 12, 2012 | chess clubs, current news, literature, people, US Chess League
I’ve posted about this before, but I think it’s worth another mention. Next week, on October 19, the documentary Brooklyn Castle will open in two theaters in New York: Lincoln Center and the Landmark Sunshine. (I’m not a New Yorker, but even I have...
by scribe | Sep 24, 2012 | chess clubs, people, positions
One of the most common mistakes in chess, from the beginning level all the way up to accomplished players, is to think that just because you can capture a piece, you should capture it. Perhaps we could call this “the checkers fallacy,” because in checkers...
by scribe | Aug 1, 2012 | chess clubs, ruminations
Last week I rather unexpectedly was waylaid by a math problem, which I spent 5 days working on to the exclusion of everything else — eating, sleeping, studying chess,… A college friend of mine sent me the following question, which he discovered 25 years...