by scribe | Nov 13, 2017 | current news, games, people, positions, tournaments
The Kolty Chess Club, a San Jose-area club where a lot of my friends play, recently completed its club championship, which ended in very dramatic fashion. Going into the last round, Henry Wang, a 15-year-old Expert who is surely headed for Master and beyond, had put...
by scribe | Sep 14, 2015 | current news, endings, people, tournaments
A couple days ago I asked, “What happened to Lawrence Trent and Susan Polgar?” For me, their witty and exciting commentary was one of the most enjoyable things about the 2013 World Cup. I missed that sparkle and that sense of excitement in this...
by scribe | Feb 9, 2013 | current news, off-topic, positions, ruminations
When people find out that I am both a mathematician (at least in a former life) and a chess player, they sometimes ask me if mathematics gives me an advantage in playing chess. The answer, alas, is emphatically no. There is a relation between math ability and chess...
by scribe | Sep 24, 2012 | chess clubs, people, positions
One of the most common mistakes in chess, from the beginning level all the way up to accomplished players, is to think that just because you can capture a piece, you should capture it. Perhaps we could call this “the checkers fallacy,” because in checkers...
