What Jesse Missed, What I Missed

 A couple weeks ago I got a really cool surprise in my e-mail. A chess player named Frank Brown, whom I didn’t know previously, sent me a photograph that he had taken in 2009, when I played against grandmaster Jesse Kraai on one of the top boards at the Western...

Xiong Enters Chess Stratosphere!

Today Jeffery Xiong of Texas completed one of the greatest accomplishments ever by a U.S. junior chess player, winning the World Junior Championship by a full point and doing it at age 15. Xiong clinched the title with a round to spare and coasted in with a draw in...

Three Blind Mice

The title describes me, Gjon Feinstein and Mike Splane, although in truth Mike should get credit for being only half blind. Yesterday afternoon we got together for some rare weekday chess (usually we meet on weekends), and Mike wanted to show Gjon the two challenge...

Walking on the Wild Side

Well, it was inevitable. Ever since I started playing what I call “Matrix chess” against the computer (i.e., games at a 40 moves/10 minutes time control with one timeout per game where I can take unlimited time), it was inevitable that a game would come...