This past weekend I played in the 20th annual Bradley Open. It was a strange event for me and was quite the roller coaster. It was a smorgasbord of a tournament. Generally there is a theme to the way I play in a given tournament. This tournaments theme was potpourri; everything that could happen did happen. Let me explain; in… Read more →
This month we are going to be examining the life and games of GM Petar Drenchev. GM Drenchev has a FIDE rating of 2465 and is the 18th highest rated player from Bulgaria. He earned the IM title in 2007 and the GM title in 2011. Drenchev received his GM title later in life than you usually see. This gives… Read more →
A few weeks ago I played in the 61st Maryland Open. As usual the conditions were fantastic. Mike runs a fantastic tournament. My readers should make an attempt to play in his events. He works hard and we need more progressive minded people in the chess world. I did my new routine leading up to this tournament. My results were… Read more →
Welcome back, this month we are going to be examining the games of GM Berge Ostenstad. Ostenstad has a FIDE rating of 2456 and is the 11th highest rated player in Norway. He was the sixth person awarded the GM title from Norway. He earned the IM title in 1987 and he earned the GM title in 2003. Ostenstad is… Read more →
This month we are going to peruse the games of GM Emil Sutovsky. Sutovsky has a FIDE rating of 2626 and is the 5th highest rated player from Israel. He earned the IM title in 1993 and earned the GM title in 1996. Like GM Azarov he is still active and plays frequently. In 1996 he won the World Junior… Read more →
A few months ago I managed to complete my 800th over the board chess game. We can say a lot about playing 800 games over the board. First of all; think of all the time I’ve wasted! Consider that each game is roughly 120 minutes long. Based on that calculation, I’ve spent 1600 hours playing chess. That’s ~67 days of… Read more →
I want to give a shout out to Official Staunton (not to be confused with House of Staunton). They have a fantastic website and frequently update their social media. If you follow me on twitter, you’ll note that a last month, I won an online giveaway. I’m generally somewhat cynical about giving strangers on the internet my address; I thought… Read more →
Welcome back everyone, this month we are examining the games of GM Alon Greenfeld. Greenfeld has a FIDE rating of 2546 and is 14th highest rated player in Israel. He earned the IM title in 1983 and the GM title in 1989. He is still somewhat active and plays a couple of rated games a month. According to Wikipedia, he… Read more →
I had planned on starting this post with that banal quote from Julius Caesar. Repeating that stale idiom would only serve to beguile my dear reader with hackneyed intrigue. So I won’t do that. The Marchand took place last weekend in Rochester NY at the Strong Museum of Play. There were a few upsets, and a couple of notable draws.… Read more →
Hello everyone! In a few days the Marchand will be well underway. I figured I should give you an updated list of GM’s that have preregistered this year. Last year we had a strong field led by current US Champion GM Gata Kamsky. This year we have another star studded field featuring some returning players and some new faces. Rumor… Read more →