Near the end of ’00s, University of the Pacific coach Lynne Roberts called me, after receiving a tip about sisters who were playing junior college ball in the Bay Area. “The Zasly twins”, I said. Laura and Katie were standouts at Aragon HS, less than a mile from here. “I knew you’d know”, she said. At the end of the conversation, I said: “They can help someone, but not us.” (The Zaslys went on to play at Notre Dame de Namur in the PacWest Conference.) Three or four years later, Pacific signed a post from nearby St. Mary’s HS in …
From never expected that
I’m playing in an online tournament — a “thematic” — in which every game must begin with the Danish master Severin From’s invention 1. f4 e5. I like these events because as White, I can transpose to a King’s Gambit with 2. e4!, and as Black, the fun is quickly evident: 2. fxe5 d6 3. exd6 Bxd6 threatens mate in 3. A time control of 3 days per move is leisurely, at which some opponents disappear, or don’t show up at all. One chap timed out from the white side, so the second game of the doubleheader began, and I …
Hello world
I said that I neglect my blogs because if I write or imagine something worthy of a book, I save it for a book. And if it’s not serious enough to keep, I put it on Facebook. Eventually, nothing gets blogged, because FB posts are so much easier to write than blog entries. On a social network, you’re connected to the readers somehow. Sometimes you tell people “how the hell do we know each other”, but there’s always something — even a friend of a friend of someone whose comment you liked shares a sliver of your experience. …