The Full Spectrum
This is from the final round of the Virginia State Champs. I had 2.5 points and was fighting for first. My opponent was Caijun Luo; he was rated 1700 USCF before this tournament. He was not in top form during … Continue reading
This is from the final round of the Virginia State Champs. I had 2.5 points and was fighting for first. My opponent was Caijun Luo; he was rated 1700 USCF before this tournament. He was not in top form during … Continue reading
Some ghosts serve their creators as carriers of transcendental truth, as visible or audible signs of Spirit. Other ghosts carry the burden of tradition and collective memory…ancestral apparitions often act as correctives to the insularities of individuality, as links to … Continue reading
I was rereading Beowulf the other day and I found a kenning I really liked. This literary convention, ancient in origin, replaces a single noun with a compound one; arguably the most famous kenning is “whale-road,” meaning the sea. The one that … Continue reading
You probably expect that I’m moralizing and self-righteous in real life, judging from the amount I go to the “civilization depends upon us being nice to one another” motif. Sandy Koufax had his four-seamer and I guess have my go-to … Continue reading
The last time I wrote, the material concerned Gurgenidze-Spassky from the fifties. I’d like to follow up that effort by showing you a game of my own, and one that I think is already being spoken of in hushed tones … Continue reading
This one is a bit of a stinker by any technical standard; it does feature several creative flourishes in the notes however, found afterward by the silicon genius. The lesson for today is short and simple: be situationally aware at … Continue reading
I have been notoriously inconsistent with the second part of any blog I divide into parts. My whimsical nature means new fancies and a new indentured servitude to this moment’s fashions. Nabokov told us, “Existence is a series of footnotes to … Continue reading
“Nomothetical” is an adjective used to describe an approach given to the formation of universal laws. “Idiographic” is its antonym, that is an approach revolving around individual cases. Related to chess you might ask, “Why am I losing so often?” … Continue reading
Vishy Anand won the 2012 Chess World Championship and already ranks among the strongest players of all time. The chess community knows him as a fantastically consistent competitor. This is due in part to his excellent preparation, evidenced by the … Continue reading
It snowed from the north/ rime bound the fields/ hail fell on earth/ the coldest of seeds – Anonymous, 9th century But nowadays when we read this there is an added poetry. There is the poetry of a nameless Saxon having … Continue reading