by scribe | Jan 9, 2014 | chess clubs, Chess Lecture, current news, openings, people, tournaments
The Bay Area International is now in the books, and it ended in a similar way to the North American Open the preceding week: with a huge logjam of people at the top. Six people — grandmasters Anton Kovalyov, Wei Yi, Sam Shankland, Bartlomiej Macieja, Daniel...
by scribe | Nov 21, 2013 | current news, openings, ruminations, tournaments
Pigs could still fly, dodos could still walk the Earth, and Viswanathan Anand could still save his world championship match against Magnus Carlsen. But I wouldn’t bet on it! Carlsen now leads the best-of-twelve match by 6-3, and needs only one more draw to...
by scribe | Sep 17, 2013 | Chess Lecture, literature, openings
At Mike Splane’s latest chess party, on Sunday, I saw Richard Koepcke lugging around a ginormous chess book that was about the size of a phone book, and I asked him what it was. To my surprise, it was a new book on the King’s Gambit! I refer to John...
by scribe | Aug 15, 2013 | current news, games, openings, positions, tournaments
It was just yesterday that I was watching a steady stream of queenside openings, flank openings, etc. and thinking, “Wouldn’t be great if just once I could see a King’s Gambit in this tournament?” Well, today Aleksandr Shimanov granted my wish!...
by scribe | Jul 4, 2013 | Chess Lecture, games, openings, people, ruminations
This morning I listened to one of Dennis Monokroussos’ most recent ChessLectures, entitled “Jobava’s Giuoco Piano Forte.” It was a nice lecture, going over a game where Georgian (as in Republic of Georgia) grandmaster Baadur Jobava crushed...
by scribe | Jun 2, 2013 | chess clubs, endings, games, openings, positions, translations
Last night I played in the first round of the June Saturday Knight Live Marathon at Bay Area Chess. Compared to most tournaments, I would describe this one as… intimate. There were only twelve players on six boards, split into two sections. If you do the math,...
