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 →
It took me a while to create this post. I wasn’t sure what I should write. Did I play well? Eh, sort of. Did my opponents help? For sure. I suppose I should start at the beginning, a few weeks ago, I played in the first ever, “Central New York” Open. The tournament took place in Syracuse University (GO ORANGE!)… Read more →
A few weeks ago, I competed in the 19th Arkport Open. The Arkport Open is a small four round tournament held in Arkport, NY. 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 years ago. Fred Harris who is also responsible for… Read more →
I recently competed in the fifth Hartford Open located in Windsor Locks Connecticut at the Bradley International Airport. I played good chess and attribute a lot of my success to my diet choices. I believe the main contributing factors were the English breakfast tea (which I’ve started drinking) and honey crisp apples. I don’t ordinarily drink tea but find that… Read more →
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of once again playing in the 136th New York State Championship. I did a bit worse than last year and lost rating points but I felt I played well and was a few moves away from winning in both of the games that I drew. In one particularly painful example, I outplayed… Read more →
On Fourth of July weekend, I had the pleasure of playing in my first international tournament held in Canada. My play was poor and I lost many FIDE points but my experience in Canada was quite positive. I corresponded via email with the organizer Graeme, who was helpful and organized. I was able to do a bit of sightseeing in… Read more →
I recently competed in the 60th Maryland Open in Rockville, MD. As usual the tournament was well run and the playing conditions were wonderful. The nice thing that keeps me coming back to Maryland to play is the way they run the tournaments. The time controls make sense, they provide boards and clocks and they even provide a continental breakfast.… Read more →
This past weekend was the 36th Marchand Open tournament. We hold the Marchand every year in Rochester, NY to honor the memory of Dr. Erich Marchand, who was a prolific author and player in his time. In my previous post I mentioned that there was a chance that GM Gata Kamsky would be playing. Gata did end up playing and… Read more →
Before I begin my discussion on the Chesapeake Open it is with sadness that we note the passing of Vugar Gashimov who passed this weekend. Vugar was a very strong player who was known for his dynamic play especially in the Benoni (one of the few top players who regularly incorporated it into his repertoire). Here is a Benoni game… Read more →
I recently played in the 2013 University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Championship. The tournament was quite nice and there was some very strong players there. It was nice that at UMBC they require players who wish to be on their team to play in the open section. I’m of the opinion that UMBC is one of the few universities… Read more →