Browne to be readBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 10:48 PM, August 25, 2012Posted: 10:39 PM, August 25, 2012 If there were a decathalon of table games, Walter Browne would take gold. Browne — dubbed “Six-Time” because that’s how often he...
No sure thing in chess
No sure thingBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 12:57 AM, July 15, 2012Posted: 10:03 PM, July 14, 2012 There’s an easy way to handicap a chess tournament: Find the highest-rated and/or youngest master on the pairing chart. That’s why Magnus Carlsen,...
One of the most impressive chess sideshows
Splitting hairsBy ANDY SOLTISPosted: 9:50 PM, June 16, 2012 When baseball has its All-Star Game each July, it’s accompanied by side events, like the Home Run Derby. But why did chess end up with “Blondes vs. Brunettes”? That was...
The art of chess bluffing
Buff up your bluffBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 12:47 AM, April 22, 2012 One of the reasons chess players make good poker players is that they’re such good bluffers. Yes, bluffers. Peter Svidler of Russia, the world’s 15th-highest- rated player,...
Better than ever
Better than everBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 10:15 PM, April 7, 2012Posted: 8:21 PM, April 7, 2012 Several years ago, an Australian researcher, Robert W. Howard, studied how the chess ratings of top players escalated over decades — and he...
Birth of brackets
Birth of bracketsBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 9:54 PM, March 24, 2012Posted: 7:13 PM, March 24, 2012 If you’re wondering where the NCAA got its bracket format, look back at the world’s first international chess tournament. London 1851, as it’s...
Teens on the move
Teens on the moveBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 7:07 PM, March 3, 2012 Nations used to develop chess talent the way Major League Baseball teams nurture future stars. The Soviet Union dominated chess for decades because it had the world’s...
Chess growth – 1,284 GMs
Population growthBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 7:58 PM, February 11, 2012Posted: 7:58 PM, February 11, 2012 Playing in an international tournament used to mean being a strong master and getting an invitation to a 12- or 14-player round-robin in Europe....
Mystery Chess Satire
Chess satire is wrapped in an engaging mysteryBy Harold Dondis and Patrick WolffGlobe Staff December 19, 2011 Agatha Christie awake and return! You have a rival in the chess world, one Andrew Soltis, a premier columnist for Chess Life...
The only American-born player to finish ahead of Kasparov in a tournament
Might-have-beenBy ANDY SOLTISLast Updated: 10:03 PM, December 3, 2011Posted: 6:55 PM, December 3, 2011 It takes enormous ability but also enormous desire to become world champion. Some people have one out of two — but not the one out...