by scribe | Dec 6, 2017 | current news, literature, openings, ruminations
Today, like many people, I was shocked by the news in my Facebook new feed. AlphaZero beats Stockfish! For those who (like me) had never heard of AlphaZero, let me explain that it is a new deep-learning algorithm created by the same folks who gave you AlphaGo, the...
by scribe | Oct 9, 2016 | games, openings, positions
One of my favorite ChessLectures ever was called “Double Queen Sacrifices,” in which I talked about the ultra-rare games where one player sacrificed a queen twice in the same game. Many chess players don’t even sacrifice two queens in their whole...
by scribe | Dec 24, 2015 | openings, ruminations
Of course this is a rhetorical question, but really. Earlier this year I wrote a series of posts called Grading the Openings looked at the winning percentages of each of the ECO opening classifications in master play. There’s a small but undeniable difference...
by scribe | May 28, 2012 | 2010 world championship, 2012 world championship, Crestbook, current news, games, positions
In the 2010 World Championship match, Vishy Anand went into the final game deadlocked with Veselin Topalov. It seemed as if the best he could hope for was a tie and a playoff… but then he unexpectedly ended the match with a stirring victory as Black! Could...
by scribe | Apr 16, 2009 | Chess Lecture, openings, tournaments
Continuing my recap of the Far West Open … I will write at least one or two more posts going over my games from the tournament after I have had a chance to analyze them more carefully. But for the openings buffs out there, I will do a quick recap of the openings...
