This is Gurgenidze versus Spassky, 1959. The opening is the Bird Defense to the Ruy Lopez. I like how Spassky acquits himself here. I’ve made some annotations, since I’m an aficianado of the opening. Spassky is one of my favorite … 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
“There were also less elevated spells such as to ‘put down fear or anger’ which involved writing a magic sign on a laurel leaf and showing it to the sun, saying ‘I call on you, the great god in heaven, … Continue reading
A great many chess games end without displays of brilliancy. These unmemorable struggles get filed in the back of our brains where we put irrelevant data. Today I recalled the difference between a eukaryote and a prokaryote, after someone walking … Continue reading
This is a thirty minute game in which I’m playing white. I am going through some of my old games to see how my analysis now compares to my analysis then. It seems to be a mixed bag. I make … Continue reading
Here is an unrated chess game I played against a player, “QuantumMan” on Chess.com. I play him regularly and score just over 40% in our games. We engaged in a a friendly debate about the value of efficiency in choosing … Continue reading
Over the weekend the vultures got into the palace by pecking through the screens on the balcony windows and the flapping of their wings stirred up the stagnant time inside, and at dawn on Monday the city awoke out of … Continue reading
This is a pretty interesting game. White, played by Robert Chen, is a 1600-something player and appears to be pretty solid. The time control was 40/2 plus an hour for sudden death. The evaluation is even for a good portion … Continue reading
You should read this piece by Atul Gawande, a surgeon who somehow finds time to write for The New Yorker, yet if I didn’t have tags on my shirts I promise they’d be worn backwards. Gawande’s seminal commencement address, delivered last month, pertains … Continue reading
This is a game I played on Chess.com today with an up-and-coming player. I thought it was good chess, yet we each missed golden opportunities. Both players saw better moves at the critical junctures but did not fully appreciate their … Continue reading