The year was 1989. The city is Wijk aan Zee. This was when my sisters and I first met the young Vishy Anand. We were both around 19 years old then. At that time, what stood out was the...
Chess and politics can be dicey at times
SANDS: Politics can make for some dicey chess pairingsBy David R. SandsThe Washington TimesTuesday, March 18, 2014 With more than 170 member nations, the Paris-based chess federation FIDE is one of the largest sporting organizations in the world. Which...
Players more creative and stronger
Shelby Lyman on Chess: Creative and StrongerColumn c2161 for release March 3Monday, March 17, 2014 We are increasingly learning of the brain’s flexibility, for better or worse. My impression is that fewer analysts think IQs are constants. Poor environments...
Chess by Stephen Dann
The Gus Gosselin Grade Championships last Sunday in Marlboro had 122 students and clear winners in all eight sections. The vast majority of the field were under age 12, but the Grade 8-12 section was won by Siddharth Arun...
Chess by Stephen Dann
Chess — Stephen DannSunday, March 9, 2014 It was a victory for the average amateur chess enthusiast, courtesy of Alan Rodenstein of Texas, writing last Thursday about Tim Brennan of Colorado in Chess Life Online at www.uschess.org. It was...
Chess by Stephen Dann
February has proved that chess ultimately wins over the worst of winter weather as a hobby, sport and educational endeavor. Forty state players and almost four dozen others from New England made the trek to Parsipanny, N.J. for the...
Chess by Stephen Dann
Tournament chess players tend to be loyal to their favorite traditional events. Despite recent weather, this is very true of President’s Day, formerly called Washington’s Birthday. Last weekend, 1,167 attended the World Amateur Team event in Parsippany, N.J., as...
Chess: It is not DNA
Shelby Lyman on Chess: It’s Not DNASunday, February 16, 2014 (Published in print: Sunday, February 16, 2014) There is a strong tendency to explain extraordinary prowess in chess, as in other pursuits by the possession of innate aptitudes and...
Chess by Stephen Dann
The Barry S. Spiegel Memorial Cup, the state’s scholastic singles championship, honors one of Worcester’s most hard-working chess volunteers, who died in 1992. This year the event in Marlboro produced multiple winners “from A to Z” in three of...
Chess by Stephen Dann
The greatest asset of chess in the United States during the past 50 or so years is diversity. It was almost as if the Internet was designed to highlight this, from local chess clubs, regional tournaments and live international...