I haven’t yet heard a Volkswagen enthusiast object to this new car’s name. The Karmann Ghia (1955-74) is the most beautiful car ever made. So simply elegant, sexy and sporty-looking (with that lame but lovely 4-speed air-cooled engine that’s better suited to lawnmowers), the Karmann Ghia was a perfect blend of German engineering and Italian design. After the Volkswagen Beetle was a hit — cute, cheap, reliable — VW thought to make a sister for the Beetle that looked like a sports car. The Carrozzerria Ghia design firm in Turin was tasked with its looks, while VW engineers figured out …
Two triangulation compositions
Every chessplayer will remember being dismissive first than delighted at Reti’s famous 1921 composition. White to play and draw looks like an impossible task, because the black pawn is out of reach, while the c6-pawn can be captured. The triangulation scheme recurs in the second position, which I came across as a tactics puzzle (composition by Ernst Frederick Holm, Deutsche Schachzeitung, Jan. 1913). If Black plays …Bh3-g2, it’s a draw. First White obstructs the bishop.
On National Chess Day
For National Chess Day, I attended a community gathering at the Berkeley Chess Center (yes, it feels just like going to work in a Saturday). I had a conversation with Vinay Bhat, who is the most important player in the world as far as I’m concerned. No one listens to me about improving at chess, but they will listen to the grandmaster. Vinay is Richard Shorman’s greatest success as a teacher, a world-class player who is also an outstanding human being. He shared something US champion Lev Alburt said in one of his books. Alburt and Bhat had early chess …
The chess book I wanted to ban from the library (but didn’t)
I’m a librarian in a chess school. It’s Banned Book Week, so I’ll mention the one time I wanted to ban a book (but didn’t, and didn’t even shelve it so I could not find it later). A chap named Robert J. Richey hit some Bay Area chess clubs years back, promoting his first (there are more than one now, unfortunately) chess book, Blitz Chess Puzzles. I bought one, because if a chess book author is so desperate for sales that he’s going club to club, that dude either needs to sell some books, or be treated at the Burger …
Self-promotion
Chess writer and teacher Frisco Del Rosario talks from his book Capablanca: A Primer of Checkmate, and conducts a simultaneous exhibition 5:30 p.m. Oct. 13 at the Redeeming Grace Lutheran Church classroom, 2495 Cabrillo Lane in Santa Clara. Capablanca: A Primer of Checkmate is a sequel to the 1947 classic The Art of Checkmate, using games by the 1920s world champion to illustrate checkmating patterns categorized by Renaud and Kahn. A two-time Kolty Chess Club Players (Campbell, Calif.) champion, Del Rosario augmented The Art of the Checkmate by discovering Capablanca’s Mate — a checkmating pattern unseen by Renaud and Kahn …
Fuzzyologist Jane Goodall 1934-2025
Fuzzyologist Jane Goodall died at 91. She was not a relative of the great chess organizer Mike, but… Mike was in court on a possession charge. Judge heard Mike’s last name, said: Any relation to Jane? Instantly, Mike’s lawyer said: “They’re married, Your Honor”. Case dismissed. “You’re kidding”, I said. “He bought that?!” “That’s what I was paying him for”, Mike said about his counsel’s quick thinking, then shared a riddle. “What do you call a judge with an IQ of 50?” “What.” “Your Honor.”
Dutch champion Roebers wins FIDE World Junior Girls Blitz
Dutch women’s chess champion Eline Roebers, 19, won the FIDE World Junior Girls Blitz Championship held last week in Lima, Peru. Roeber finished with a 12-1 score, clinching the title with a game to spare. I’ve always been a fan, though Roebers plays less interesting chess as a top international player than she did as a rising talent. That happens to almost every outstanding master (unfortunately). She tied for 5th place in the FIDE World Junior Girls Rapid event, winning the following game in rd. 1 against one of those host nation’s representatives.
About a Reddit post with a misleading head
Historian Edward Winter included a bit tangentially pertaining to Go in Winter’s page about Edward Lasker: Edward Lasker I think that Winter included that chunk on his page about Lasker because it’s about a book Lasker wrote. I think the chunk itself is primarily Cecil Purdy’s notion that Lasker should remove an appendix about Go from the chess book. In short, I think that section of Winter’s page of Lasker history could be encapsulated as “Non-chess-related appendix to Lasker’s chess book should be removed, said chess writer Purdy”. Here’s where some trouble is in store: On a Go subreddit, a …
French Defense thinking
There’s the Fort Knox variation of the French: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bd7 plus …Bd7-c6 to get that bishop outside the e6-pawn. I had this thought: If you are a devotee of the Fort Knox (which Capablanca played once as a kid), oughtn’t you be inclined to deal with the Advance French 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 with 3…a6 4…Bd7 plus …Bb5 when appropriate? I consulted a database in which the Romanian master Dara has played the Fort Knox more than other players. Dara doesn’t go for 3…a6, but the …
Chess by mail / You can play from the moon, you can play from jail
My friend Ed Bogas, a musician whose work you’ve heard if you don’t recognize his name, wrote the subject head in his song “Chess by Mail”, for the album Deeper Blues by King Bishop and the Squares (highly recommended). When I was 14, I took up correspondence chess, because my best friend was doing it. I flamed out immediately. Correspondence chess was like my introduction to paying bills — an item without arrive in the mail, and it demanded my attention within three days. 40 years pass, and I’m playing tens of correspondence games per day, simplified immeasurably by Internet …