My First Hook!

Last weekend I played a 7-minute game that combined three of the things that I am best known for: the Bird Variation of the Ruy Lopez, the Hook and Ladder Trick, and … losing on time. Although I have written about the Hook and Ladder Trick many times and...

And the challenger is…

In case you didn’t see it on any of the zillions of other chess news sites on the Internet, the Candidates Tournament in Moscow ended today with a clear winner: Sergei Karjakin. Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana entered the final round tied for first with 7½ points...

Penultimate Round in Candidates

Let me start with an apology. I haven’t been following the Candidates’ Tournament in Moscow very closely — in particular, I haven’t been watching the live broadcasts, although I have been reading about the games on Chessbase.com afterwards. I...

50 Ways to Beat Your Computer

I’ve been playing my computer a lot recently, in case you haven’t noticed. And if you have noticed, and you’re tired of seeing me write about meaningless games against my computer, I apologize. I alternate between thinking it’s a useful...