by scribe | Sep 2, 2020 | endings, games, openings, tournaments
That was so much fun, let’s do it again! In my last post I started a year-by-year retrospective of my (almost) fifty years of tournament chess, with the year 1971. I called that Year Zero because I actually wasn’t quite into tournament chess yet. My chief...
by scribe | Aug 31, 2020 | games, openings, ruminations, Uncategorized
Recently it occurred to me that I’m getting very close to the 50th anniversary of my debut in tournament chess. There aren’t so many people who stay active in chess that long. Why not start a series of posts where I pick one game from each year to...
by scribe | Aug 20, 2020 | current news, endings, off-topic, positions, ruminations
Boy, if it isn’t one catastrophe, it’s another. First there was the coronavirus. Then the protests in many U.S. cities (though, thankfully, not very much unrest in Santa Cruz, where I live). Now there are fires in the mountains north of Santa Cruz, set off...
by scribe | Jul 29, 2020 | endings, games, positions
Here’s a position I reached in a recent rapid game against Shredder. I’m White, and it’s my move. The computer is set to a rating of 2321. One of the nice things about Shredder is that you can stop the clock even during a “rated game,”...
by scribe | Jul 26, 2020 | chess clubs, games, people, positions
Yesterday I played my first live, in-person chess game since the coronavirus pandemic started, in early March. To be precise, March 3 was the last date when the chess club at Aptos Library met. Most likely I played one of the kids that day, although I don’t...
by scribe | Jul 19, 2020 | Chess Lecture, endings, games, positions
For every good, instructive game that I play against the computer, there must be two or three really awful games. Here’s one that I played this morning that is so bad that it’s good. I’m playing White, Fritz (with its rating set to 2025) is playing...
by scribe | Jul 12, 2020 | games, positions, ruminations
Have you ever had a game that you won and you didn’t understand why? I call it a Billy Preston game, in honor of the singer who had a #1 hit in the 1970s called “Will It Go Round in Circles.” The lyrics go: “I’ve got a story ain’t...
by scribe | Jul 5, 2020 | literature, off-topic, people, ruminations
Going off-topic today, with apologies to my chess fans. I. Last night Kay and I had movie night, a family tradition every Friday. Sad to say, I can’t tell you what movie we watched last week, or the week before that, but I can tell you that last night we watched...
by scribe | Jun 30, 2020 | chess clubs, Chess Lecture, games
My computer issues have been taken care of, thanks to one of my readers, Marshall Polaris. Marshall is a Kolty Club member, a fan of this blog, and was also a participant on the Kolty Club team in the U.S. Amateur Team West tournament back in February. (Back in the...
by scribe | Jun 18, 2020 | chess clubs, games, openings
Just when I think I’m wasting my time playing so many games against the computer, along comes a game like this one! I’ll show you the end first. Position after 23. Qc5. Black to move. FEN: 2kr4/ppp5/6p1/2Q3P1/4PP2/5KN1/PPp4q/R4B1r b – – 0 23...
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