by scribe | Mar 9, 2010 | chess clubs, games, positions, ruminations
Gjon Feinstein, my friend who makes his living teaching chess, has a great way to get kids over the hump of not wanting to put their pieces next to the opponent’s king, even if it would win the game. He calls it the “in-your-face” checkmate. Today,...
by scribe | Sep 22, 2009 | chess clubs, Chess Lecture, openings, tournaments, US Chess League
I’ve been kind of quiet since my last post, “Blogging from 32,000 Feet.” No particular reason, except that I haven’t had a lot to blog about. So this is going to be a kind of random grab bag of news. Feel free to send in a random response! The...
by scribe | Aug 24, 2009 | chess clubs, endings, games, tournaments
I got back late last night from Fresno, where I spent the weekend playing in the first Central California Open! This was a Continental Chess (i.e., Bill Goichberg) tournament, which means that it had a substantial prize fund. There were four sections (Open!, U2000,...
by scribe | Jul 26, 2009 | chess clubs, games, tournaments
Last weekend four people from Santa Cruz went to San Francisco to play in the Bagby Memorial at the Mechanics Institute. This was a one-day, five-round tournament with a fast time control, something like game/45. I would never be crazy enough to play in a tournament...
by | Jul 13, 2009 | chess clubs, games, positions
Yesterday I met a “new kid in town,” whose name is Pablo Pena. There are a couple of Pablo Penas in the U.S. Chess Federation database, but I suspect he is probably the one from Oregon who has a USCF rating of 2082. The occasion was the second Sunday...
by | Jun 29, 2009 | chess clubs, Chess Lecture, games, openings, positions
Yesterday Jim Parker organized a blitz tournament at Round Table Pizza in Capitola. This is yet another idea for keeping the chess “scene” going in Santa Cruz now that the Borders Chess Club is no more, and I think it was a big success. We had eleven...
