On the weekend of April 15, I competed in the Niagara Falls Open held in Niagara Falls, Ontario. As this was only my second time playing in Canada I was unsure of what to expect. This tournament, like many before it, had it’s trials and tribulations. There was drama and intrigue. It is unlikely that I’ll be returning to play… Read more →
Greetings everyone, today we have a special treat. FM Ben Dean-Kawamura has once again annotated a critical victory of his. This time over GM Bryan Smith. You may remember Ben from his annotations from the 2014 Marchand. In 2014, he defeated GM Kekelidze in a wild game. But that’s not all! Ben created a python script which changes changes chess annotation into beautiful… Read more →
I read a lot of articles that tell the reader to try and take “lessons” away from tournaments. For me the lessons sometimes come long after I’ve finished a tournament. Sometimes the lessons can be quite painful. There are times when I struggle to take a lesson away from a particular game or event. In the Marchand this year, I learned a… Read more →
Welcome back everyone; we’re happy you’re here. After the total roller coaster that was the World Cup we are back with another GM Spotlight. This month we are examining the games of GM Li Chao. Chao earned the GM title in 2007 at the age of 18. Since earning the title he’s climbed to a peak rating of 2756. He’s slipped… Read more →
Hey everyone, wanted to do a quick update so y’all don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, or this blog. I still plan on doing updates on a somewhat regular schedule (one update every one or two weeks). I still have some GM Spotlights to finish up, I’m aware, I’ve fallen way behind. For that I apologize. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ To use a… Read more →
It is with sorrow that I announce that, after a valiant effort, I have relinquished my crown of Central NY State Chess Champion. I look back on my time as your champion with nothing but happy memories. One day soon I hope to reclaim the title. For now, I am content in knowing that the crown rests with a formidable… Read more →
I competed in the 20th Arkport Open this past weekend. I’m going to take an excerpt from my previous post about the 19th Arkport Open: This tournament has a special place in my chess career because it was the first “big” tournament that I played in when I returned to chess SEVEN [sic. EIGHT] years ago. This year there was a four-way tie… Read more →
Apologies for the delay everyone; I was traveling yesterday. There were some exciting results yesterday. In one of the worst displays of sportsmanship I’ve seen in top-level chess in a long time, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi appealed his loss against Hikaru Nakamura after claiming that Nakamura castled with two hands. To his credit, Nakamura did use two hands to castle, but… Read more →
Round two is over and we’re at the stage of 32. Just 32 players stand in the way of earning one of two candidates spots. Technically less than 32 because a few remaining players have already reserved their spots in the tournament. Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana got spots via the FIDE Grand Prix. Today was quite dramatic. The tiebreaks… Read more →
The first round is over and we have some interesting results. There were some notable upsets in the first round. A few of the players considered to be the “old guard” have been eliminated. Before we get started with the upsets I just wanted to make the comment that the repartee between GM Emil Sutovsky and GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko is… Read more →