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 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...
by scribe | Jun 3, 2013 | literature, ruminations
Last August I wrote a post called My First Chess Set/Board/Clock. But for some reason I didn’t think of writing the obvious sequel, about my first chess books. What does a player’s first chess book say about him or her? What kind of impact does it have on...
by scribe | Jun 2, 2013 | chess clubs, endings, games, openings, positions, translations
Last night I played in the first round of the June Saturday Knight Live Marathon at Bay Area Chess. Compared to most tournaments, I would describe this one as… intimate. There were only twelve players on six boards, split into two sections. If you do the math,...
by scribe | Apr 19, 2013 | current news, people, ruminations
This week TIME magazine published its annual list of “the 100 most influential people in the world,” and guess who was on it? Oh, I guess the title of this post gave it away. Magnus Carlsen made the list, and got a nice one-paragraph bio from Garry...
