Profile
Welcome to Dana Mackenzie’s chess blog! I am a national master, two-time former champion of North Carolina, and a regular lecturer at www.chesslecture.com. Don’t let all of that stuff impress you, though. Deep down inside, I’m just an ordinary player. I don’t play chess for money or glory, just for the love of the game.
In “real life,” I’m a freelance science writer. My latest book, The Universe in Zero Words, a history and celebration of 24 great equations in math and science, was published in April 2012 by Princeton University Press. I also wrote The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be (Wiley, 2003). Because this is a chess blog I won’t say any more about them here, but please visit my main website if you want to learn more. I may write a chess book someday, too. This blog is actually a small step towards that goal.
Other irrelevant information:
- I’m now into my second half-century.
- I’m left-handed.
- I don’t wear the glasses you see in the photo any more. (I started needing bifocals. Sigh.)
- My favorite writer is P.G. Wodehouse, and my favorite poet is Hayden Carruth.
- My favorite openings are the King’s Gambit and Bryntse Gambit as White, the Two Knights Defense and the Bird Variation of the Ruy Lopez as Black.
- My lifetime record against world champions is 1½-½. Yes, really. Here are the particulars:
Dana Mackenzie 1, Belle (World Computer Champion) 0. 1983 US Amateur Team Championship.
Gustavo Hernandez (World Under-18 Champion) ½, Dana Mackenzie ½. 1988 Continental Open.
If you’d like to read even more about me (why??), click here to go to the chess biography on my main web page. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the blog!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve written three articles for Chess LIfe, which were all more or less based on ChessLectures (but offer some additional material). You can find them online at http://www.uschess.org, by clicking on “Chess Life Magazine” and looking them up in the archive. But there’s a catch… you need a subscription to actually see them.
In case you do have a subscription (or can find a hard copy) here’s where they appeared:
“Sac Your Queen on Move Six! (A New Anti-Computer Variation)”
Chess Life, March 2007, p. 30
“The Hook & Ladder Trick”
Chess LIfe, July 2007, p. 44
“Don’t Just Reassess Your Chess — IMPLODe It!”
Chess Life, May 2008, p. 37
I’ve deleted 12 comments that were previously in this space (leaving only the above comment that I wrote myself, which may be a useful reference for other readers). Most of the ones that I deleted were actually intended as comments on other posts. In the future, if you submit a comment here, please make sure it is actually in response to something on the “Profile” page.
Dana, my friend:
Carlsen is a notorious introvert. Just like me… Look, at least his last name does not begin with a “K.” LOL I observed you on the History Channel. Great job? However, there are a couple of complaints that I wish you would pass on to the editors. At least 6 of their “experts” have incorrectly used the word “decimate?” Decimate does not mean to annihilate or completely destroy? It literally means to “kill every tenth soldier; (you know; deci) generally to make sure that a captured army’s numbers do not exceed your own! Please see to it that they make that correction. Yeah, right!!!
Also, amateur astronomer that I am, everyone on the channel seems to be talking about an eclipse! However, in their thorough explanations, not one of them has used the descriptive word, SYZYGY? How ignorant are these people? Dude. Enlighten them!
If you ever come to Charlotte, NC, check us out at the Charlotte Chess Club http://www.charlottechess.com (you might enjoy reading my brand of friendly messages!!?)
Warmest regards,
NM Leland Fuerstman
Charlotte, NC
704-965-8931
Hi Leland,
I’m always glad to hear from you! Um, I would not have thought of you as an introvert, in fact I always thought of you as someone who really likes being around other people. Maybe you’re an introvert who does a good impression of an extrovert!
It’s cool that you saw me on the History Channel episodes of “The Universe.” But here’s how much influence I had/have on them: ZERO. Well, maybe not quite zero, but pretty darned close. In the two episodes I appeared on, I got a chance to see a rough cut or a script. Both times there were huge mistakes — like, for example, Earth and the moon rotating in opposite directions. I think that one got fixed. But in the second episode, I had a huge battle over the fact that the producers were determined to say that the giant impact (which formed the moon) broke up Earth’s crust into pieces and started plate tectonics. I don’t know where they got that idea from, and I don’t know any planetary scientist who says so. No matter how many times I told them no, it kept popping back up in the script. “The higher-ups want it there,” the director told me. And it did make it into the final version, although thankfully only for about 30 seconds and they didn’t find a single talking head to corroborate it.
Lesson learned: the History Channel cares about entertainment first, the truth second.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the experience of being on the show, and I thought the episodes were overall not too bad. In fact, the second one, about what Earth would be like if we had no moon, was much better than I expected. By asking questions that were outside the usual bounds of science, they really got the talking heads to say interesting things. I think it was valuable to see how a scientist approaches a question like that.
Oh, by the way. In the episode of the History Channel where aliens come down and spray some kind of fog from which these genii think the plague was spread??! Any chance those altruistic alien engineers could have been spraying DDT to get rid of the fleas?! I can’t imagine that I am the only person who has considered that? But, that would assume that I believe in prehistoric human-like visitors… which I do. In fact, I believe they brought chess with them, too!!!
Keep having fun!
Leland
Hello, I stumbled on your website looking for information about Rich Delaune. To avoid a long story suffice it to say that I saw his picture in my high school year book. We were in the same class at Hampton Roads Academy (Class of ’73). Our class had all of 28 people in it so everyone knew everyone else. Rich had a place of his own. An original geek, chess player, tall and gawky, ready grin and quick wit. He was one of my favorites as I was a new comer to the class in the junior year and he was one of the first to try and make me feel welcome in a class of 25 other people who had been together since 7th grade. I’ve since found the memorial sites and was stunned to learn he had died at 49 from a heart attack. Rich was a devoted Christian Scientist when I knew him so whatever was wrong was probably never detected and certainly not treated. My favorite memory of Rich was showing up with 3 other girls from our class to cheer him on at a local chess meet in high school. While Rich was embarrassed to have us jumping around as quietly as we could behind him he was still smiling. Unfortunately I didn’t keep up with Rich after his graduation from UVA although I know he landed in the DC/MD area, married and Bruce Hornsby (of Bruce Hornsby and The Range) sang at his wedding (Bruce was also in our class for awhile at HRA). From what little I can find on the internet he had a wonderful life, a loving wife and a strong family life. Thanks for your story of July 1, 2008 about Rich. It certainly hit home for me as it appears Rich’s character had not change over time. By chance do you know what work he did after graduating?
thanks again,
Sally
Sally, Thanks for your wonderful comment. No, I don’t know about Rich’s professional life. Unfortunately it often happens that chess players know each other deeply as competitors without knowing much at all about each others’ lives away from the chessboard.
I liked your story about the quiet cheerleading! Reminds me of the recent Super Bowl commercial about a fight in a library where people are throwing stuff around, knocking over bookshelves, etc. — but everyone is whispering (including the police who come in with a bullhorn) because, after all, they’re in a library.
I know the one – being a librarian at the NASA Langley Technical Library in I noticed that one right away. We were having a small super bowl party and I was in the kitchen when suddenly everyone in the room was calling me to come and look! Then I cringed at the thought of having to put all the books straight again.
So, thanks for the memories, for confirming the his character. I’ve thought about him so many times over the years but never looked him up. What a shame.
Dana:
I’ve got a group of 6th graders from SLV middle school (in Felton) who have just started playing chess in class (with varying levels of ability). I’m going to see if they want to participate in the Aptos library chess tournament this spring. What do they need to do to sign up, what day is it, and how much is it?
-Thanks, Karin Gallagher