This Bay Area prodigy helped pioneer the digital world of chess. It came to torment him The 29-year-old chess grandmaster, who died this month, brought the game into a new streaming era, with sometimes toxic consequences.

Excellent story about Danya Naroditsky in the San Francisco Chronicle, with background details I’d never heard (e.g., Dana MacKenzie’s role in editing Danya’s first two books). www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/d...

Boris Spassky, Chess Champion Who Lost ‘Match of the Century,’ Dies at 88 When Mr. Spassky, a Russian, played Bobby Fischer, an American, in Iceland at the height of the Cold War, the media attention reduced them to pawns in a wider drama.

Sad news

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/w...

1.Ng4-h6+ Kg8-f6 2.Qc3-h8#

1.Rd7-d8 (double +)
(A) 1…Kc8xRd8 2.Qh3-d7#
(B) 1…Kc8-b7 2.Qh3-c8#

1.g2-g4+ Kf5-f4 2.Rd6xf6#

1.Qh5xg7+
(A) 1…Kg8xQf7 2.Nf5-h6#
(B) 1…Kg8-h8 2.Qf7xg7#

1.…Qa5xc3+ 2.b2xQc3 Be7-a3#. What I always find cute about this pattern: 1…Qc3+ works even if there is no c3 pawn and therefore no capture.

Simply 1.Rb1-g1 followed by 2.Rg6xh6#

Slower but also works, with its own prettiness: 1.Qc4-g8+ Rf8xQg8 2.Ne7-g6+ h7xNg6 3.Re3-h3#

Thanks for that link!