Month: December 2017
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The Chess Drum
The Chess Drum’s Highlights of 2017!
The year 2017 was an interesting year showing that chess is becoming more universal with the steady rise of China and India. Viswanathan Anand won the World Rapid and took 3rd in the World Blitz, a sign that he is still a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming…
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Media Stories
“Triple Exclam” wins joint honor for “Best Author”
Chess Club Live, a large social media organization announced their awards for 2017 via Twitter. There were various categories and followers were asked to vote in several categories. The vote was conducted via Twitter poll and there was a limited window of time. In a year when an number of…
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Drum Majors
Webster’s New York chess crew makes history
Four young men from New York have continued their ambitions in chess at Webster University under the tutelage of Grandmaster Susan Polgar and Paul Truong. Shawn Swindell was the first to enter Webster and he also plays on the basketball team. He was followed by FIDE Masters Joshua Colas and…
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Drum Majors
Kenneth Clayton, chess pioneer (1938-2017)
“When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.” ~ African Proverb The chess world lost another pioneer the other day when National Master Kenneth Roger Clayton passed away on December 26th. The 79-year old Maryland resident was a person of consequence: a scholar, chess master, loving father/husband…
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Media Stories
Revisiting Baraka Shabazz
Baraka Shabazz at Dupont CirclePhoto by Washington Post Recently on Facebook, BJ McCurdy of Los Angeles raised a question on the whereabouts of Baraka Shabazz (unrelated to this writer). For the uninitiated, Baraka was a teenage sensation who experienced a meteoric rise in the late 70s. She was the subject…
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Europe
Will there be a FIDE election in 2018??
The chess horizon has been quiet since capping off a busy year with the Grand Chess Tour. Last week, I started wondering about 2018 chess year. Apart from the Alpha Zero buzz and the firestorm over the World Championship logo, there hasn’t been much in the way of chess news.…
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Media Stories
2018 WCC logo design creates firestorm
We’ve all heard the numerous puns concerning chess. They dot the tournament halls on t-shirts and many are very catchy and humorous. In this season, we will hear blitz players sing any number of holiday songs adapted for chess. Instead of “chestnuts roasting on a open fire,” my high school…
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Jamaica
Deborah Richards-Porter at 2017 Zonals!
Deborah Richards-PorterPhoto by Jamaica Chess Federation Jamaica’s WIM Deborah Richards-Porter played fantastic Chess, winning three of her last four games to end on a bang at the Women’s Zonals in El Salvador. Her final score of 5½ points was good enough for 4th position, 5 places ahead of her starting…
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England
2017 London Chess Classic (London, England)
The last event of the Grand Chess Tour will culminate with the London Chess Tour and perhaps will be the last major event of the year. There is still the Tata Steel Chess January 12th-28th, the World Candidates tournament in March to be held in Berlin, Germany and the World…
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Matches
Chicago-St. Louis rivalry on chessboard!
IM Angelo Young will lead the BlitzersPhoto by Nathan Kelly Chicago Chess Club has been keen on igniting the chess scene with spirited cage matches. However, the club is back at locking horns in a city vs. city battle and there is no matchup more fierce than Chicago-St. Louis. The…
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