50 Years of Chess: Year 26

And now let us begin the downward half of my chess chronicle! I jest, of course. The last 25 years, since I moved to California, have been the best of my life, both in chess and otherwise. On July 29, 1977, I wrote in my diary, “Daddy asked me what I thought...

50 Years of Chess: Year 21B

In my last post, I gave up on trying to pick a “best game” from 1992 because there are three high-quality, or at least high-interest games that I wanted to show you. Today, I’ll show you my favorite single move ever. A few years ago, I picked it as...

The Cup and the Fly

A fly is buzzing around your table and generally making a nuisance of himself. What is the best tool for getting him to leave you alone? (A) A flyswatter (B) A machine gun (C) A cup The answer is (C). A flyswatter won’t work, unless he is unusually slow or you...

Failure Modes

In my latest Matrix Chess game against the computer I failed in an interesting way that actually involved winning the game. See what you think. Position after 15. Nb5. Black to move. FEN: rn1qk2r/pp4p1/3bb1P1/1N1p1p2/3Pp2p/5P1P/PPP1N1K1/R1BQ1R2 b kq – 0 15...