Well, the Delegate’s meeting has come and gone with (surprisingly) no more than the usual amount of fuss and bother. Some rule changes were hotly debated (more on this later) but I feel I have to lead with the laugh, as always.
We had great and serious agreement that we need to raise the image of [...]

Got involved in a debate last night where I was accussed of dismissing the bill of attainder the USCF was contemplating passing by saying “It’s just chess.”
I didn’t say, that particular phrase, but it’s a convenient enough distillation of what I did say, that it started me thinking: What is it we were actually deciding [...]

Chessbase knows why I won’t run large prize tournaments. I don’t care to play hi-tech detective against the cheats those sort of events bring out of the woodwork.
Bill Goichburg was quoted as saying this was taking cheating to a new level, but the truth is this is nothing new. A player was caught several years [...]

I’ve read some things (from Susan Polgar and by extension Jeremy Silman (can’t find his original comments on the web, so no link). While completely wrong on some of the more minor points (Mr Silman, for example makes much of forcing GM’s to pay for the opportunity to make a living — as in entry [...]

There are days I really wonder why I do this. The following story is true (I have the documentation to support it). But I’m removing all identification because, well, you’ll see why.
The story begins when a friend contacts me wanting a special arrangement for some tournament experience for some of his students. I agree. There’s [...]

It was shaping up to be a real Cinderella story. Young Erik Santarius was standing toe-to-toe with the best in the region, and hadn’t blinked.
Round one saw the top of the tournament in no trouble at all. But then came round two, and the story began. IMs Smetankin and Young handled their opponents (Smetankin beating [...]

The leaders ‘in the barn’ for this year’s Western are IM Stas Smetankin and NM Alex Betaneli, both with 2.5 points. Two other players, including IM Angelo Young have a chance to overtake them with decisive results in this round. NM Steven Szpisjak and Rene Glen Ancheta are the others in the field still playing [...]

Here I sit between rounds at the Western Open, watching the same scene play out once again. Short, quick draws as the players jockey themselves into position to share out the prizes.
It’s a problem in chess, but it’s a problem that really cannot be solved with any practical effect. Banning draw offers simply opens the [...]

The new USCF ballots are mailed, and we received ours a little while ago. USCF still can’t figure out how to count. (WI gets two delegates, yet the ballot says ‘vote for four.’)
The Executive Board also lists its candidates, such as they are. Your choice is your choice, and I urge you to make one. [...]

I normally don’t note things like this here, but since Chess Cafe provides no way to either:

Link directly to the review for more than a month
Post a comment to the article or forum

I’m not left with many alternatives.
In a review of Maxim Blokh’s excellent book Combinative Motifs, Eugene Manchester makes the claim that it is [...]