If Only Magnus Read My Blog…

It’s extremely thrilling when the World Champion plays your favorite opening. However, it’s somewhat less than thrilling when he loses with it. So it was both exciting and discouraging to read that Magnus Carlsen had played the Bird Variation of the Ruy...

Impulse Control

After my epic fail yesterday against Josiah Stearman… number two 10-year-old in the country Josiah Stearman, that is… I just had to go over the game and see what I did wrong. It’s actually a very complicated question. But let’s get to the...

Training with Shredder

Lately I’ve been playing more frequently against the computer program Shredder, with a purpose. After my last tournament I had a feeling that I was not getting enough practice in winning superior positions. In fact, playing against Shredder set at its maximum...

What Might Have Been

Last week Gjon Feinstein asked me, “Can we go over a couple of my games on your computer?” This request was a surprise to me. He is a chess teacher, so he knows full well that computer analysis can be fool’s gold. I don’t think he even owns a...

Tabiyah Time!

A “tabiyah” is an opening position that arises when both sides play their “most natural” moves, or a position that can arise from a multitude of different move orders. In many cases it is arrived by mutual consent, although this doesn’t...