50 Years of Chess: Year 21B

In my last post, I gave up on trying to pick a “best game” from 1992 because there are three high-quality, or at least high-interest games that I wanted to show you. Today, I’ll show you my favorite single move ever. A few years ago, I picked it as...

50 Years of Chess: Year 21A

As we move to 1992 in my retrospective look at my chess career, I face a dilemma. In 1990 and 1991 I had trouble finding any good games to show you, but in 1992 I have the opposite problem — too many good games. There’s one that, in my notebook, I call a...

50 Years of Chess: Year 20

My second year in Ohio was a great time in my life, but not such a great time for my chess. Some of the good things: Kay and I had bought our first house, which was an easy one-mile walk from my office on campus. She was absorbed in sprucing the place up, repainting...

Jessica Lauser, U.S. Champion

Two days ago I hinted at a piece of good news that I had to keep secret for the time being. I can now reveal what it is. This morning, the New York Times published my article about Jessica Lauser, the U.S. Blind Chess Champion. For people who like print, the article...

50 Years of Chess: Year 18

The last year of the 1980s was a time of transition for me: from single to married, and from North Carolina, where I had lived very happily for six years, to Ohio. As I mentioned in my last post, I had fallen in love in 1988 and proposed to Kay at the end of the year....

50 Years of Chess: Year 17

In choosing a game to show you from 1988, I have a problem. My biggest tournament success that year was the Georgia Congress, which I won with a 5-0 score, my first-ever win in an open tournament and indeed my first time ever with a 5-0 score in any tournament (even...

50 Years of Chess: Year 16

The year 1987 was one when everything started coming together for me in chess. Even now, going over my games and results from that year, it’s gratifying to see the years and years of effort at improvement starting to bear fruit. Of course, there was plenty more...