by scribe | Sep 11, 2022 | current news, endings, people, ruminations
The latest news that has blown up the chess Internet came in two waves last week. First, at the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, world champion Magnus Carlsen lost a game to a young but rapidly improving American grandmaster, Hans Niemann. Hans grew up in the San...
by scribe | Oct 3, 2021 | Chess Lecture, current news, people, positions, tournaments
Okay, I admit that I have not been following this extravaganza called the Meltwater Champions Tour, which Magnus Carlsen has now won with two rounds to go. (Yawn…) Mostly I don’t care about it because it’s rapid chess (game/15 with 10 seconds per...
by scribe | Mar 28, 2021 | endings, games, people, tournaments
In the next year of my chronicle, 1999, I got the opportunity to play three present or future U.S. champions in one year: Hikaru Nakamura (champion in 2005, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2019), Roman Dzindzichashvili (1983, 1989) and Walter Browne (1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1981,...
by scribe | Oct 2, 2020 | 2012 world championship, people, ruminations
Chessbase had an interesting column yesterday about the ten highest-rated players of all time, in which they tracked down the exact games where they hit their rating peaks. It’s an interesting list, and I’ll give you the condensed version here (without the...
by scribe | Mar 4, 2020 | current news, PRO Chess League, tournaments
This week the playoffs got started in the PRO Chess League. As I wrote a couple weeks ago, the California Unicorns had a strong finish to the regular season and just barely sneaked past the New York Marshalls for third place in the Western Division. Ordinarily you...
