The Chess Blog of the Boylston Chess Club... The Boylston Chess Club (BCC) is a part of the Boylston Chess Foundation (BCF).
On your website, you have photos of various friends and family members modeling the same pink wig you wear on the cover of your book, and you sporting an assortment of other wigs. What's so appealing about wigs, and which one's your favorite?
Well, changing your hair changes your personality. My hair is naturally very curly, but I used to get it straightened a lot. I’d immediately feel like a different person. Neater, more organized, more together and ready to attack life.
Wigs can give you the same kind of feeling, but it’s not permanent and it doesn’t damage your hair like too many blow dries does.
Maybe my next assault on Expert/Masterdom should be accompanied by a new 'do?It's the age old question, naming your worst Christmas gift. 'Paintbrushes' was one response on the street Wednesday. As was 'having my truck burn,' or 'getting a Charlie Brown sweater in Grade 6' or 'getting a chess board'.Read "Bad gifts are very personal" from Thunder Bay's Source.
"I like to think out of the box," said Mastin as she gazed over the chess board looking for her next move. "It challenges me more than sitting around watching T.V."Read "Mates check-in at school chess club" from the Henry (County, GA) Daily Herald.
A chess coach at 10 schools in the Phoenix metro area has resigned from the U.S. Chess Federation executive board under accusations he manipulated tournament results to gain his title as a chess master....As distasteful as it is to agree with an
[Current USCF Executive Board Member Sam] Sloan's complaint alleges that [Robert] Tanner achieved the titles of master and "original life master" by playing repeated games in 1991 and 1992 within a closed group of friends that moved together among remote places such as Teton, Wyo., Wendover, Nev., and Ceres, Calif....
Sloan said the players in the group shared Tanner's home address, and none of the nine men except Tanner ever competed outside the group.
"They are quite clearly fake people," Sloan said. "They don't exist."
Tanner maintains he did nothing illegal. He said the matches actually occurred, and the ethics committee supported his claim that the opponents were real people.
However, Tanner acknowledges in his Sept. 15 response to the committee that he circumvented the "spirit of the regulations" in the early 1990s while working to regain the master title he held in the 1980s. None of the opponents, he said, were legitimate masters or even expert-level players.
But my favourite chess blogs are those similar to this (or at least what I hope this blog will become) – patzers chronicling their journey towards chess improvement. Three of the ones whose stories I follow are Rocky Rook, Chess for Blood, and Chess Improvement by Effort (ed: aka Temposhlucker).
Given this, I was surprised to read this post at NYChessKids about the DGT 2000 Chess Clock. Since this clock only offers time increment it has not been particularly popular in the states. However, the poster notes that:...the current (5th edition) of U.S. Chess Federation rules state that DELAY and INCREMENT are considered equivalent: not only do few players know this, probably the majority of tournament directors do not realize this either, given the lack of uniformity in training and qualifications of TDs who direct events.Hey tournament directors: Is this really true? Can I use time increment at the next tournament I play in where time delay is in use?
In summary: the DGT is the official clock of the International Chess Federation, and is perfectly acceptable in USCF-rated events.
Boras is extraordinary at what he does, at extracting a volume of dollars from places that you never would've imagined. He is like a chess master, and every negotiation is a match to be won.Hat Tip: Sports Media Review by Jonathan Weiler
And of the blogs to follow for chess enthusiasts? Visit Chess Lodge (ed: aka Chess News & Events) and The Closet Grandmaster for all things chess flavoured and add their RSS feeds to your MIX if you fancy a dabble at the risque game yourself.
deacsoft: After attending Suffolk University you had a career as a bankruptcy lawyer. What lead you away from that career and into the poker world?By the way, it turns out that Bryan is the current editor of Two Plus Two Internet Magazine -- some "legitimate", albeit part time work, to supplement his poker income.
Dan Harrington: I just got sick of that and just drifted into it. I’d always played backgammon, poker, and chess. I’d noticed that I had a natural ability for games, and I just got lucky. I drifted into it....
deacsoft: Prior to your success in the poker world you were a champion backgammon and chess player. There seems to be a number of successful poker players who were accomplished backgammon and/or chess players first. Are there skills that can be learned in backgammon or chess that can help in a players’ development in poker?
Dan Harrington: Yes, definitely. I think there’s cross-pollination between games....
It reminded me of every Tuesday evening, when I play chess with various people at a local pub. I am nearly always the only woman playing. Every time I play a newcomer, or when men (they are usually men) are watching my games, I invariably feel an intense pressure not to lose...
The pressure I feel is that if I lose, my opponent or the people watching won't think, "she can't play chess", but "women can't play chess". It's a very uncomfortable pressure and it annoys me that men don't have to experience it.
Board 1 (2nd Team) - "This was a more difficult decision for the judges. Boston's GM Larry Christiansen had a higher performance rating, but Josh was the one who came through huge for his team in the playoffs, with a key win over GM Serper in the SemiFinals and the tiebreaker win over GM Charbonneau that gave San Francisco the League Championship. Friedel is also over 100 points lower rated than Christiansen, which may have given San Francisco the extra points to use on the lower boards that helped them win the Championship."
Board 2 (2nd Team) - "Other candidates were William Kelleher, who also had a high performance rating of 2595, but he only played 5 games and thus couldn't reasonably get the nod over Bhat."
Board 3 (2nd Team) - "Charles Riordan was also a very serious candidate with a very nice performance rating of 2534 after 6 games. Again his lack of games played was what held him back.... An extra half point for ... Riordan ... would have almost surely given [him] a place on the All Star Teams."
These two antagonists have reappeared over and over in history and the result of their clashes is overwhelmingly in favor of the chess-master.
It's quickly clear area playwright Noah Sheola has great respect, and a fondness for his subject. When he's done with you, you'll feel the same. Morphy, an American, was a chess prodigy in the mid 1800s. He is considered one of the greatest players of all time, the first ever American to be given this distinction.
It's a tragic story of a man who most likely found his talent trivial, perhaps simply unchallenging.... His portrayal of the man is subtle yet deeply moving.
"Morphy," is an incredibly clean premiering script, needing little more than a touch of the pen for refinement. Its dialogue is clear, at times approaches poetic -- without the side of syrup. There's also a lot of humor, both sweet and broad, giving balance to the angst, insecurity, and sadness.
Abstract Chess is a game of collaborative, competitive art-making.Play consists of two players sitting on opposite sides of a canvas (usually an index or recipe card) taking turns making abstract marks until they are both satisfied with the result.
Ever wonder the real reason running back Mike Hart decided to come to Michigan?The NCAA has promised an investigation into how Hart went 1-4 in three games.
Ask Leon Hall, and he'll point to a game they played when Hart visited Ann Arbor on his recruiting trip.
Chess.
"(When Leon pulled out the board) I thought he was real smart, but then I learned he didn't really know how to play," Hart joked at Michigan Media Day. "He thought it was checkers."
Hart emphasized the fact that he beat Hall. But the cornerback spins a different tale from their first match.
"He beat me once, but I won the series," Hall said. "We played three games. I know I won the series. He beat me. He's not lying to you, he beat me, but if he was 1-4, what was that? He won a game, but he lost the other four."
Former Lowell High School Math Department Chairman Severine Wamala has been indicted by a grand jury on 34 counts of felony sexual-assault charges involving three women.From The Nashua Telegraph:
Wamala, 45, was scheduled to be arraigned this morning [ed: December 1st] in Hillsborough County Superior Court in Nashua. He is currently being held in the Manchester House of Correction on $1 million cash bail.
Wamala was arrested Sept. 12 and charged with 30 counts of rape and incest after three young women, ranging in age from their teens to early 20s, accused him of sexually assaulting some of them over a period of seven years.
One set of charges involve a 15-year-old girl who accuses Wamala of raping her at least twice a month from October 2005 to August 2006....
Wamala is currently on paid administrative leave, but that status will change to unpaid leave with his indictment....
A skilled chess player, Wamala coached the LHS chess team and boosted its membership from 10 members to 150. The team has done well at tournaments, and Wamala's own children are nationally ranked players....
Wamala was indicted last week on 34 felony sexual assault charges, including 23 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault. Each of the 34 charges carries a maximum of 10 to 20 years in prison....Related Post: Severine Speaks
Most of the charges against Wamala involve a 15-year-old girl. Wamala is charged with raping the girl at least twice a month from October 2005 through August. He also is charged with raping two older women, each repeatedly.
Surely vegetarians will be disgusted, but even a protein-lover like me thinks this is pretty weird. It's a sculpture entitled "cutting board."Two butchers play an unusual game of chess [on] a board made with steaks sliced into squares. The steak is cut into 2" by 2" pieces, with 64 pieces cut total, 32 of them kissed by a frying pan and hence enhanced in color. The meat is then arranged on a 16" x 16" platform of clear acrylic and placed on top of a podium. On either side of the sculpture are LCD panels hung from the ceiling in portrait orientation. Each panel plays a 20-minute loop of a butcher contemplating his next move.Be sure to check out the video clip.
Orrin C. Hudson has been traveling the country teaching children love, honesty, respect, responsibility and patience all by playing a simple game of chess.Read "Chess Prepares for the Game of Life" from the Cedar City Review.
Hudson was an Alabama State Trooper who saw one too many kids killed. He finally turned in his gun and badge and examined ways he could make a difference. Rather than deal with the effects of bad choices, he decided he needed to teach children to make the right ones from the beginning. He wanted to do something that would encourage children to do something positive with their lives instead of doing nothing at all.
