by scribe | Sep 13, 2017 | current news, endings, people, tournaments
People who know I have a Ph.D. in math often think that mathematics must help me in chess. But I have to tell them: not really. Having a mathematical mind is somewhat useful: in both subjects, it’s good to be able to hold in your mind long strings of “if...
by scribe | Sep 11, 2017 | current news, people, ruminations, tournaments
The 2017 World Cup fashion show… er, chess tournament… has now finished three rounds, and the upsets continue! Fabiano Caruana went down to defeat at the hands of Evgeny Najer, and both Levon Aronian and Anish Giri lost games to their lower-rated opponents...
by scribe | Sep 10, 2017 | current news, off-topic, people, ruminations, tournaments
The FIDE World Cup is going crazy with upsets! Just look at the world’s top players on the September rating list and how they are doing so far, after the “classical” part of round 3. Carlsen — OUT Vachier-Lagrave — Tied, 1-1 Kramnik...
by scribe | Sep 9, 2017 | current news, games, people, positions, tournaments
In a fairer world, we would all be talking about Xiangzhi Bu today. At the World Cup, he just defeated the World Champion, Magnus Carlsen, in a game straight out of the nineteenth century. Bu played a daring bishop sacrifice on move 15; Carlsen accepted his challenge...
by scribe | Sep 8, 2017 | current news, endings, positions, tournaments
The playoffs of round 2 in the World Cup happened today, and as you’d expect with closer matchups and faster time controls, there were a few upsets. Probably the most notable one was Hao Wang over Boris Gelfand. Even though the rating difference wasn’t so...
