Leap Day Special

Leap Day gives me one more chance to write a blog post in February this year, and also one more chance to show a game from the U.S. Amateur Team West. Yesterday I recorded a ChessLecture about Todd Rumph’s game in round six of the tournament, where he saved a...

Team photo

I just got a comment on my previous post asking if I could put up a picture of my winning team at the USAT-W. It just so happens that Steven Gaffagan sent me an e-mail this morning with a picture! This was taken on his cell phone, so the quality is not too great....

More recap of an exciting weekend

I know my faithful readers want to hear more about my team’s victory at the US Amateur Team West this weekend. And of course you want games! I don’t have any of my teammates’ games, but I can show you my game in the last round that gave us the...

U.S. Amateur Team West — 1st Place!

This weekend I played in the U.S. Amateur Team West tournament, which was organized by Salman Azhar and held in Santa Clara. Curiously, it was my first time playing in this tournament, even though I’ve lived in California for nearly 16 years. It was worth the...

How to Steal a Point

Last week I said I was going to show you two interesting endgames. I want to keep my promise, but the second endgame I’m going to show you is not the one I originally intended! The change in plans is because I’m going to lecture on that one for...