by scribe | Aug 14, 2014 | current news, tournaments
The last round of the Chess Olympiad is in the books and, no surprise, China won. They beat Poland, 3-1, making any discussion of tiebreaks academic. As I mentioned in my previous entry, they completed the event with only one loss out of 44 games, a truly dominating...
by scribe | Mar 29, 2014 | current news, ruminations, tournaments
As most of my readers probably know already, Viswanathan Anand, the former world champion who was dethroned last year by Magnus Carlsen, has earned a rematch with Carlsen by winning the Candidates in dominating fashion. The tournament isn’t even over yet, but...
by scribe | Dec 30, 2013 | current news, people, ruminations
Just over a year ago, Magnus Carlsen made his first appearance in the Bay Area, an (apparently) hastily arranged and under-promoted event that left chess players wishing for more. Well, our wish has come true. Magnus is coming to Silicon Valley in January, and he has...
by scribe | Nov 25, 2013 | Chess Lecture, current news, people, tournaments
I just had a conversation fifteen minutes ago with my next-door neighbor Dave, who has never shown any interest in chess previously but had heard something somewhere about a new world champion. This conversation reminded me of an obvious fact: more than anything else,...
by scribe | Nov 21, 2013 | current news, openings, ruminations, tournaments
Pigs could still fly, dodos could still walk the Earth, and Viswanathan Anand could still save his world championship match against Magnus Carlsen. But I wouldn’t bet on it! Carlsen now leads the best-of-twelve match by 6-3, and needs only one more draw to...
