by scribe | Mar 9, 2017 | current news, endings, PRO Chess League, tournaments
Yesterday I watched the PRO Chess League for the first time since week 2. (By the way, I finally found out that PRO is an abbreviation for Professional Rapid Online. That’s why it is obnoxiously capitalized all the time.) Naturally, I jinxed the team I was...
by scribe | Sep 10, 2015 | current news, tournaments
Tomorrow the FIDE World Cup chess tournament begins in Baku, Azerbaijan, the birthplace of former World Champion Garry Kasparov. I’ve gone from being a detractor to a fan of the World Cups. I hated them when they were masquerading as a world championship. I...
by scribe | May 22, 2014 | current news, positions
Thanks to Mike Splane for pointing this one out! On Tuesday Gata Kamsky won the United States Championship, in a pair of 25-minute playoff games. Here is the position in the decisive game, Kamsky playing White against Varuzhan Akobian: FEN:...
by scribe | Jun 28, 2011 | Chess Lecture, people, US Chess League
Last weekend I had an opportunity to attend a class for masters (and a few experts) that was led by grandmaster Varuzhan Akobian. Akobian was teaching kids at the Berkeley Chess School last week, and my friend Robin Cunningham, who also works at the Berkeley Chess...
by scribe | Nov 25, 2009 | Chess Lecture, games, people, tournaments
Yesterday Jesse Kraai gave his usual excellent ChessLecture, which this time was called “The Panda Loses to Wang Hao in the First Round of the World Cup.” It was about his friend/housemate/training partner Josh Friedel, who qualified to play in the 2009...
