50 Years of Chess: The Santa Cruz Scene

Before I go too much farther in my chess chronicle, I should say a little bit about the chess scene in Santa Cruz, which was very lively when I moved here in 1996 and very moribund now. When I moved here, you could play 5-minute chess any day of the week at the Santa...

Ray Schutt Memorial

Today I played in a chess tournament with a difference — the 9th Annual Ray Schutt Memorial at the Mechanics Institute. It’s been a long time since I went to a tournament and just had fun. The Schutt Memorial is a blitz tournament, 4 minutes per game with...

Rip Van Winkle Returns

A few years ago,  Santa Cruz seemed to have more good players hiding in the woodwork than any other city its size. But this week, one of them has come out of hiding in a big way! I refer to James Tarjan, a grandmaster and frequent contender for the U.S. championship...