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Chess Life Online Jennifer's Blog Valentine's Day Box of Chess Links
Chess Life Online Jennifer's Blog Valentine's Day Box of Chess Links | Valentine's Day Box of Chess Links |
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| By Jennifer Shahade | |
| February 14, 2011 | |
 Lots of exciting news and projects have been drawn to my attention this week, so here's my box of Valentine's Day links, completely unrelated of course, to love and dating :)  The Full English Breakfast-Tata Steel Chess Special Multi-media journalist Macauley Peterson is the producer of the funny and incisive podcast "The Full English Breakfast" with IM Lawrence Trent and GM Steven Gordon. The latest episode featured exclusive audio from Tata Steel Chess in Wijk Aan Zee, where GM Hikaru Nakamura prevailed. To stay updated, add The Full English Breakfast on facebook, twitter and bookmark the official website.  Michael Aigner in the New York TimesOne of America's most inspiring chess promoters, Michael "f-pawn" Aigner was just profiled in a New York Times piece by Dylan McClain. Some well-deserved coverage for fpawn! Keep up with Aigner on his blog and follow him on twitter. A Blast From the Past CLO is almost five years old! Four years ago we posted Top Ten Chess Pick-Up Lines in honor of Valentine's Day. Two of my favorites: I lost my queen last round, but I think I just found her and Your father must have been a Grandmaster to steal the passed pawns he put in your eyes.  Checkmating Violence and Pawn Promotion It's also been a busy time for me. My newest book, Play Like a Girl! Tactics by 9 Queens (Mongoose Press) is hot off the press and I'm involved in a lot of exciting projects to promote it, including a video, coming up later this week. You can watch a lecture I gave earlier this winter at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis on Pawn Promotion where I also touched on some of the themes of Play Like a Girl!  I also participated in a 22-board clock simul last weekend in conjunction with one of my favorite yearly chess promotions, the After Schools Activities Partnerships' "Checkmate Violence" 24-hour chess marathon. I gave copies of my latest book to a few players who fought particularly hard at this event including the kid in the photo below, who was the "Last Player Standing in the Simul." He certainly deserved a prize for withstanding such a look by me!  Overall, I scored my personal best at this event with 19 wins, two draws and one loss. Previous years I had lost many more games, mostly on time since I only had 45 minutes to complete them all (my opponents had 25 minutes each.) This year, I used a new strategy of trying to finish certain games very quickly rather than giving equal attention to all the games at the start. Daniel Gurevich and CL4k  Chess Life For Kids has a new columnist: the precocious writer and chess master Daniel Gurevich. Check out his first column in CL4k, Tactical, Positional and Opening Mistakes and his Best of CLO honoroable mention on Breaking 2200. Email questions for Daniel to CL4k editor Glenn Petersen at [email protected]. Playing Duchamp I'm very excited about an art project by Bay area based Scott Kildall on turbulence.org, Playing Duchamp . It's an artificial intelligence program that emulates artist and chess master Marcel Duchamp's specific style, skill level and opening tendencies. I should mention that Scott consulted with me on the project, having read my annotations in Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess. Register to play and let me know how it goes at [email protected]. The Keys to Memphis The #1 rated US player and the Tata Steel Champion Hikaru Nakamura will be receiving the keys to the city of Memphis on Tuesday night. Congrats! On twitter, GMHikaru expressed his enthusiasm about the honor: "In Memphis and receiving a key to the city tomorrow!! Thanks to everyone out there who continues to support my chess career!" Nakamura will also be making an appearance at a local tournament on Sunday, February 20th. See more details on memphischess.blogspot.com. Sundance I hope you caught GM Joel Benjamin's article on his trip to Sundance in conjunction with the World Chess Hall of Fame and Museum and the film, Bobby Fischer Against the World. The following HBO Buzz clip on the Sundance Film Festival includes footage from the World Chess Museum reception at the Thomas McCarthey gallery, as well as a cameo by yours truly! The Bobby Fischer Against the World section starts at 1:35. Happy Valentine's Day and feel free to keep me posted on fun links and chess projects at [email protected]. |