To Exchange or Not to Exchange?

The title is a question that comes up in every single chess game. While we tend to pay more attention in our studies to brilliant tactics — sacrifices, forks, pins, removal of the guard, etc. — many games are won or lost by the humble skill of exchanging...

More Silly Computer Chess

Ordinarily a twelve-move draw isn’t something I write a blog post about, but this was kind of a surprise to me. I was playing Shredder again yesterday, which usually wins about twenty (or fifty?) games against me for every draw it gives up. We played a familiar...

First win against Shredder 12!

Well, this is really nothing to get excited about, but last night I finally won against Shredder 12 (full strength) on my Mac. The conditions were game in 10 minutes, with no time increment. You might say, “Wait a minute! Aren’t you the guy who wrote an...

I’m a … a … a Mac

As I reported in my last post, I made the big move from the PC world to the Apple world this holiday season. I took the iMac out of its box on the day before Christmas. For my wife Kay, who has campaigned tirelessly for years to bring me over to the “light...