by scribe | Jun 16, 2020 | current news, ruminations
I just heard from Mike Splane that there was a comment on my last post that did not display when he clicked on the link. Here is what the comment said, from Larry Smith: “A great post! I can only imagine how much time went into putting this together. Here are...
by scribe | Jun 14, 2020 | Chess Life, endings, games, literature
In the past I’ve mentioned the “Four Endgames of the Apocalypse,” the four supposedly “elementary” yet ferociously difficult endgames that even grandmasters screw up sometimes: K+Q versus K+R; K+B+N versus K; K+R+B versus K+R; and K+Q+RP...
by scribe | May 31, 2020 | current news, off-topic, ruminations
Thanks to Cathy Perlmutter for the groovy face mask! There will be a short-lived pause (which you won’t even notice) in this blog as I de-chessify. The reason is that I’ve gotten entirely too much sucked into playing against Fritz on my computer. My wife...
by scribe | May 23, 2020 | games, positions
I’m glad that I got a couple of comments on my last post, “What’s the Best Move?”, saying that my readers found the positions just as hard as I did. It makes me feel better, because most of them were positions where I was playing against the...
by scribe | May 9, 2020 | Chess Life, endings, games, positions
Old-timers like me can remember when every issue of Chess Life came with a Larry Evans column called “What’s the Best Move?” Evans would give you positions with three choices of possible moves. The idea, I think, came from a book of the same name...
by scribe | Apr 27, 2020 | endings, positions, Uncategorized
Here’s a challenge of a kind I haven’t seen before. I’m going to show you three very similar positions. In the first, it’s Black to play and win. In the second, Black has to play exactly the same first two moves, and you have to show that the...
by scribe | Apr 24, 2020 | games, positions, PRO Chess League
During the Pro Chess League season this year (which still has not ended, by the way — the finals have been postponed until September) Robert Hess made a comment that jolted me awake. “When I’m evaluating a position,” he said, “The first...
by scribe | Apr 19, 2020 | chess clubs, games, openings, ruminations
There’s a saying that I’m really starting to like: “Long think, wrong think.” In game after game, both against the computer and in tournaments, it seems as if my weakest moves are the ones I take the longest on. A long think is usually a sign...
by scribe | Apr 12, 2020 | current news, games, off-topic, people, ruminations
Coronavirus check-in! It’s Easter Sunday of 2020, and here in the U.S. the coronavirus epidemic seems to be near its peak. That’s both good and bad. It’s good because “peak” means that the number of new cases and new deaths should start...
by scribe | Apr 6, 2020 | endings, literature, positions
With nothing much going on the world of chess, I’ve been playing against my computer a lot. It’s a bad habit, really. But one somewhat unexpected benefit is that I’ve gotten to play a few interesting endgames recently. When I play against Fritz, I...
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