Shelby Lyman on Chess: Practice, Practice, Practice?Sunday, September 21, 2014 (Published in print: Sunday, September 21, 2014) “Practice makes perfect” is an accepted truth, or at least a truism. But how much practice is really enough? In his book...
Chess or Golf?
Shelby Lyman on Chess: Chess or Golf, What Do You Think?Sunday, September 14, 2014 (Published in print: Sunday, September 14, 2014) Take your choice job-seekers: chess or a video game on your job resume. Of course there are the...
He beat his critics at their own game
Shelby Lyman on Chess: Fischer Found the Right MoveSunday, August 31, 2014 (Published in print: Sunday, August 31, 2014) In his early and mid-teenage years Bobby Fischer’s attire — dubious even by some middle-class standards — became an issue...
A once dominated sport by the Soviet Union
Chess / By Shelby Lymanon August 30, 2014 – 12:01 AM The recent fourth-place finish of the Russian national team in the World Chess Olympiad in Tromso, Norway, reflects the apparently downward spiral of Russian chess since the breakup...
Chess: Exhilarating and Fun
Shelby Lyman on Chess: Exhilarating and Fun Chess is a microcosm of life. The centrality of the decision-making process has resulted in the game being described as “the gymnasium of the mind” by observers as disparate as Blaise Pascal...
Microcosm of life
Chess / By Shelby Lymanon August 16, 2014 – 12:01 AM Chess is a microcosm of life. The centrality of the decision-making process has resulted in the game being described as “the gymnasium of the mind” by observers as...
Fischer: ‘I Don’t Believe in Heroes’
Shelby Lyman on Chess: ‘I Don’t Believe in Heroes’Sunday, August 10, 2014 (Published in print: Sunday, August 10, 2014) The notion of world champion has a magical quality. But it means different things to different people in different contexts....
Sports, Empowerment and War
Sports, Empowerment and Warby Shelby Lyman The idea of sports as a form of manly empowerment is an old one. Teddy Roosevelt, a future American president of Rough Riders fame, declared inProfessionalism in Sports (1890): “There is a certain...
Relentless, gradually overpowering opponents and never giving up
Chess by Shelby Lymanon July 26, 2014 – 12:01 AM Like many great players, Magnus Carlsen has few explicit secrets. In part, because his manner at the chessboard, his play and the games themselves are transparent. There is not...
Carlsen: “The plan is just to play well, win all my games”
Shelby Lyman on Chess: Every Move an EventSunday, July 20, 2014 Magnus Carlsen is the supreme monarch of the chess world. His recent victories in both the World Rapid Championship and the World Blitz Championship in Dubai confirm his...