Musings on chess, and lesser things
As we approach the first set of exams for the graduate program, it’s fair to say that almost all of us first-years are going a little crazy. Upwards of 70 hours per week with our heads buried in crazy mathematical formulaes and indecipherable microeconomic texts has created the hardest working (and most unnatural) environment I’ve …
Another birthday has come and gone, and I’m now four-fifths of my way through the continuous string of non-prime-years in my twenties. (In non-geek speak, I’m 27.) Another birthday in Amsterdam, too, to follow the 2006 extravaganza. Despite being a newly christened Amsterdammer, it wasn’t a lonely birthday. By chance, the Tinbergen Institute had organised …
Hearty congratulations to Russian grandmaster Peter Svidler, who today won the final of the World Chess Cup against compatriot and friend Alexander Grischuk.
After a tenacious month of cut throat knockout chess in the tiny Siberian town of Khanty Mansiysk, Svidler emerged as clearly the best player of the 128-strong event. And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
Proof that you don’t need to worry too much about opening theory to succeed in chess. Proof that you can, in fact, win with the black pieces at top level. Proof that nice guys don’t always finish last.
But, most importantly, proof that you can love cricket more than chess and still get away with the odd million or two in chess prize money. There’s hope for us Aussies yet.
A very quick note to say that I’ll be one of the Chess.FM commentators for tomorrow’s semi final matches in the World Chess Cup in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. Feel free to chuck the online radio stream on in the background to add a little ambience to your day as I wax lyrical about all things vaguely chess-related.
Games start at 10.00 am GMT on Tuesday 15 September. Jump on board!
(http://www.chessclub.com/chessfm/ and click the big ‘radio’ button on the left. If you don’t have an ICC account, you can watch the live stream of the games on various websites, with the official one being http://chess.ugrasport.com/?page_id=996).
(EDIT: I should throw a bit of a shout-out to our new ChessVibes readers. The best chess-news website on the planet has undertaken a revamp and somewhat naively decided to include davidsmerdon.com in its new chess grandmaster blog section. Fortunately, the editor has agreed to tolerate my very non-chess musings, so you’ll still be getting …
No, it’s not what you think. Amsterdam is quite a city, and although it’s been over five years, I’m gradually remembering all the reasons I love this place. Of course, you’ve got your museums, canals, tulips, art galleries and clogs, but we all know the real reason to travel to Amsterdam: The chess. There are …
Two years ago, I printed out a big colour map of South America, stuck it on my office pinboard and put a large pin through Lima. “Someday”, I told my work colleagues and manager, “I’m going to go there and teach chess to the kids.” My daily workplace mantra was met with the scepticism it deserved by …
It’s been a wild and woolly couple of weeks for international markets and economies ever since the surprise downgrade by S&P of the US credit rating to AA+ on August 5. Whoa. Does anything in that sentence make sense to you? If not, read on. There’s been a lot of economic-jargon thrown around since then, …
I’m sitting at the breakfast table of the volunteer house on my last morning here in Peru. Once again, I’m the first one awake and enjoying the unique tranquillity of personal space in our quarters, but I’m not alone – the new house manager, Mariel, has definitely risen to the early-morning challenge and we usually share …
It’s been an eventful week in the volunteer house since the Cusco sojourn. I’m sitting at the breakfast table at 8am as I do almost every day here, but today is the first day I’m alone. Sarah, our stalwart house manager and the only other early riser in the house, finished her term here and …