by scribe | Jan 6, 2014 | chess clubs, Chess Lecture, current news, people, tournaments
We’re now entering the “European” phase of the Bay Area International, with just one game a day for the last three rounds. (It’s a week-long tournament, with 1 game the first day, 2 the second, then 1-2-1-1-1.) This is almost the first time...
by scribe | Jan 3, 2014 | current news, games, positions, tournaments
After three rounds of the Bay Area International, I have one loss and two draws. The loss was against John Bryant in round 1, not too surprising as he is over 2400 FIDE. The two draws were against masters in the 2200 range, Leon Piasetski and Hayk Manvelyan. In the...
by scribe | Dec 26, 2013 | current news, ruminations, tournaments
In one week the Bay Area International will start, and if this isn’t the most fantastic tournament ever held in this area, I don’t know what is. It will have 68 players, including 15 Grandmasters and 19 International Masters. In other words, half of the...
by scribe | Apr 7, 2013 | current news, endings, positions
A month ago I wrote a post called Rock, Paper, Scissors, where I posed the following problem: Can you come up with three half-positions (that is, positions for one player only, written in English Descriptive Notation), called “Rock,” “Paper,”...
by scribe | Jan 15, 2013 | 2012 world championship, endings, games, off-topic, people, ruminations, tournaments
I had to miss a few days because of work, specifically a math conference in San Diego where I was invited to give a talk and do a book signing for The Universe in Zero Words. Unexpectedly, at the book signing I met a fellow chess player! I’ve mentioned Simon...