by scribe | May 21, 2013 | people, positions
Last weekend Mike Splane showed me a sensational game that he recently played at the Kolty Chess Club. It features a position where his opponent could have played a queen sacrifice, to which the best defense would have been a counter-queen sacrifice! The only slight...
by scribe | Jan 15, 2013 | 2012 world championship, endings, games, off-topic, people, ruminations, tournaments
I had to miss a few days because of work, specifically a math conference in San Diego where I was invited to give a talk and do a book signing for The Universe in Zero Words. Unexpectedly, at the book signing I met a fellow chess player! I’ve mentioned Simon...
by scribe | Nov 20, 2012 | chess clubs, games, people, positions
We had a great turnout at Mike Splane’s latest chess party (on Sunday, November 18) — thirteen people by my count. We were quite an international mix, too, with players originally from Brazil (Paulo), Poland (Milos), India (Praveen), Holland (JL), and...
by scribe | Nov 17, 2012 | chess clubs, current news, people
Yesterday Magnus Carlsen visited San Jose and gave a simultaneous blindfold exhibition at the Silicon Valley Bank. I only found out about this event three or four days in advance and decided not to go to it, because it seemed that space was going to be very limited...
by scribe | Sep 24, 2012 | chess clubs, people, positions
One of the most common mistakes in chess, from the beginning level all the way up to accomplished players, is to think that just because you can capture a piece, you should capture it. Perhaps we could call this “the checkers fallacy,” because in checkers...
