OK, so I liked the Opening Report. Turns out that this is just about the only feature of working with an opening that I like in CB9. For example, when building a repertoire database, CB9 decides where the appropriate place in the tree is to add a particular game. This is a decided headache (I’m [...]

Study of the crosstables from the Western and similar events reveals some interesting patterns. There are several interesting observations one can make, but the most prominent one is, of course, the way top players rarely play against each other, even when paired. The draws are quick and lifeless. In the recent Western, for example, draws [...]

The 49th Running of the Western Open has completed, with a 5-way tie for this year’s first place between IM’s Kriventsov, Smetankin, Young, FM Stamnov, and NM Tennant. Top Expert prize went to Erik Santarius, while first place in Class A was another 5-way tie: Gary Aranovich, Patrick McElwee, Jeremy Lynch, Paul Fricano, and Mehmed [...]

I’ve been given a chance to review how CB9 works, and so far, I have to say, I’m not all that impressed. It has some opening study tools that seem quite useful, I’ll admit, and I’m taking advantage of the short time I have to work with it to get some value out of it, [...]

A lot has been written about the road to chess improvement. But the question comes: How much is accurate and how much is written to fill someone’s purse? How many books are necessary?
We’re not likely to be confused with a grandmaster any time soon, but that doesn’t stop us from having an opinion on this.
In [...]

There’s a lot of chess activity stirring in SE Wisconsin these days. It seems to be focused on the youngest set, but that’s good. We had lost that foundation, and MASCA seems to building that back up. We would like to take the opportunity the thank Bob and his crew for the hard work they’ve [...]