Max Harmonist
February 10 commemorated the 150th birthday of Max Harmonist. I first came across Harmonist in I.A. Horowitz's book, "The Golden Treasury of Chess" and was entralled by the included game: Max Harmonist2-10-1864 -...
Megamind
© 2014, José Diaz Links Interview with José Diaz José Diaz Official Website
Remembering Curt Brasket
FIDE Master Curt Brasket was a towering figure in Minnesota chess, having won the state championship a record 16 times. On January 24, 2014, he passed away in his sleep at the age of 81, having battled Parkinson’s disease for nearly 40 years. His ...
The Ricky S Story: A Chess Parable
When I was in high school, our school had no chess team, so I would frequently travel after school to our arch-rival high school and hang out with their strong team. One of the players on the arch-rival's team was Ricky S. Ricky was a year or so ...
The Mandarins of the Yellow Button
The Order of the Mandarins of the Yellow Button In the second half of the 19th century, a group of chess players in the Boston area formed a somewhat informal, yet exclusive coterie along the lines of the famous German...
The Wit and Wisdom of Louis Fogg
In mathematical logic there is a theorem which basically states "If you start with a false premise, you can prove anything." Back in the late 1960's and early 70's, the main attraction at the Penn State Chess Team meeting often was not IM Donald ...
New Year's Resolutions
© 2013, José Diaz Links Interview with José Diaz José Diaz Official Website
Chessmanian Devil
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First Saturday Budapest chess tournaments 7th-17th December 2013
A HUN FM Korpa, Bence reached his 1st GM-norm, the CHN player Li Bo reached his 2nd IM-norm and the INA player (16) FM Sean Winshand Cuhendi reached his 2nd IM.norm in the December event. The FIDE.com published our press release: http://www.fid...
Chess.com Player Profiles: GM gmfinegold
"GM Ben Finegold is really a comedian at heart; the problem is that most of the funny stuff he says can't be ON the record for obvious reasons... So I would say Ben is even funnier than most people know", says IM Daniel Rensch. Ben Finegold w...
What Now
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First Saturday Budapest chess tournaments 7th-17th December 2013
In the GM-event the IGM-s KOSIC (MNE), FARAGO, Ivan (HUN) and FODOR, Tamas (HUN) will play. We have some vacancies in the GM and IM group also. Our site is: www.firstsaturday.hu IO Nagy Laszlo
Chess King Croc
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IM Troff and IM Sevian plays in Budapest in a GM tournament
The two USA age group world champion plays now in a GM tournament called GREAT HOPES, from 16th until 26th Nov. The site about the event: http://chess-results.com/tnr115510.aspx?lan=1 The next GM IM tournament in these city: 7th-17th Dec. www.fir...
Sam Sevian's IM norm in Budapest
The U-12 world champion reached his IM-title in Budapest in the First Saturday November GM-tournament. www.firstsaturday.hu More info with correspondence: firstsat@hu.inter.net
Anand-Carlsen
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Magnificent Seven
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Ashes! Ashes! The Flag is Falling Down at Death Match 19
In 1882, Australian cricketers came to London and won a test match in England for the first time ever. "The Ashes" of English cricket tradition were transported back with the victors to the Southern Hemisphere. The two countries continue t...
Salo Flohr and the Fickle Winds of Fate
Salo (short for Salomon) Flohr was born 1908 in Horodenka, which was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Alas, 1908 was a bit close to WWI (which started in 1914), and when his parents were butchered during the war, Salo and his brother, suddenly...
Rudolf Spielmann, the Lethal Gentleman!
Rudolf Spielmann was born in Vienna on May 5, 1883, and he learned how to play chess at a very young age. Reti, in his classic book Masters of the Chessboard, said this: “He learned to play while still a boy and was exhibited in public as ...
Johannes Zukertort, Master of Dynamics
Johannes Zukertort was born September 7th, 1842 in Lublin, Poland. It’s always interesting to wonder what a person will eventually become — a life in the military perhaps, a businessman, will he struggle to survive, a doctor or lawyer, or will he ...
Mouret
During the first quarter of the 18th century when Deschapelles and Labourdonnais reigned supreme at the highest level of French chess, it's said that the next level was occupied by Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, Hyacinthe Henri Bon...
Chess.com Player Profiles: GM smurfo
David Smerdon from Brisbane, Australia is the fourth Australian to become a grandmaster. Smerdon became an International Master at age 14, won the Australian Junior Championship in 1999, and won both his Grandmaster title and the Australian Grand ...
Carl Friedrich Andreyevich von Jaenisch
Tschigorin had written in 1880: "In the chess world there are not a lot of names with such a wide and well-deserved reputation as the that of our compatriot Carl A. Jaenisch." Carl von Jaenisch (1813-1872) Jaenish, a railroad engi...