Musings on chess, and lesser things
Posts on chess
There are many expressions and phrases peculiar to the chess world, which, when combined with opening names and the use of chess notation, often make overheard conversations between chess players completely unintelligible to the average member of society. Terms like “patzer”, “kibitzer”, “zugswang” and the oft-misinterpreted “prophylaxis” frequently adorn the chess enthusiast’s vocabulary, much to …
It’s a well-established ritual to spend ANZAC Day in Melbourne for the traditional grudge match between the Essendon and Collingwood football clubs. But this year I’m heading to Melbourne for a slightly lesser known tradition: the Melbourne Chess Club ANZAC Day Weekender. Chess organisers love a long weekend. It allows them to adopt longer time …
Today is one of those days when you just don’t want to play chess. Well, that’s not strictly true: you just don’t want to be cooped up in a chess hall for the daylight hours. I’m writing this on my lunch break in between rounds at the Sydney International Open, and it’s a glorious day. …
The goddess of chess, Caissa, is a fickle woman, and sometimes being a chess player is a bit like being married. For the most part, it’s a loving, caring relationship, full of laughs and cheer. And really, if given a choice, wouldn’t we all rather be playing chess all day? But alas, like every successful …
I come to you briefly during an ad break in the original Alice in Wonderland, courtesy of free-to-air. It’s glorious! I really had forgotten how entertaining being a child is. Not only is one free of worries and responsibilities, but the stories are so much better. Nowadays the stories filling my ears usually consist of …
Besides chess, obviously. Recently, the Sydney Morning Herald published an article on ‘The Sulky Mozart of chess’, our very own world number one, Magnus Carlsen. The article delighted in quoting quirky facts illustrating the freaky intellect of this prestigious prodigy, including Magnus’ ability to quote the area, population, flag and capital of every country in …
I’ve just finished watching an absolute ripper of a Twenty20 cricket match between Australia and Pakistan. After the lead changed a dozen times throughout the three hour game, the Aussies clinched victory on the final ball to secure a breathtaking victory. Sixty thousand spectators at the ground and millions more around the world were treated to …
The Australian championships are over for another year, with top-seeded grandmaster Zong-Yuan Zhao winning by a full point with a record-equalling 10/11. But what a championship it was! Unfortunately, work commitments in Canberra relegating me to the role of online spectator, but the live games and even livelier online discussions on ChessChat kept us pundits …
The final blitz tie-break was actually reasonably exciting. Gelfand, the top seed, came through by winning three of the four blitz games in the tie-break. Not a bad performance from the Israeli, and good to see him getting a tournament victory under his belt. Overall, however, the games in the London tournament were far more …
So, the shock of a decisive victory in this finals match (to Gelfand) is already less than the shock of how badly Gelfand is playing in game three. Maybe he tried to play *too* conservatively, but blundering as early as move 10 in such a harmless position is very uncharacteristic of the Israeli. Ponomariov should …