My thoughts on chess and life...
I was delighted to receive my Chess.com T-Shirt recently and look forward to becoming a walking billboard for Chess.com! My wife managed to stop laughing at how excited I was long enough to take a photo of me! The back view, fe... Read more »
Today marks the start of the Melody Amber chess tournament, being held this year in Nice. Melody Amber often throws up interesting games because instead of standard time controls, half the games are rapidplay games and the other half are bli... Read more »
Do you access Chess.com from the internet while at work? Count yourself lucky. Until recently my employer's policy on personal internet use was very clear - you couldn't do it. At all. Forget it. ... Read more »
Fritz is a great piece of software, but new users are often frustrated by the very slim paper manual (more of a leaflet, really). This is a shame because the answers to most questions about the program are usually easy to find a... Read more »
Chess is a game of perfect information - all the information about the game (the position) is available to both players. No pieces are hidden, no dice roll will determine how you can move next. Despite this, chess is so exponentially c... Read more »
We all know that chess is a difficult game, so it is somehow reassuring when a top player makes a mistake - and they don't come any better than World Champion Vishy Anand from India. In his second round game at the current Linares tournament, ... Read more »
When you play a competitive OTB (over the board) game of chess, do you shake your opponent's hand at the start of the game? Yes, of course you do. It's a common civility that is extended to your opponent. What if you don&... Read more »
In one of my previous blog posts I wondered whether the pain of losing a chess game is greater than the joy of winning (or vice versa). It seems that scientific research has provided an answer. Apparently humans are naturally risk averse and... Read more »
Are chess improvement and chess enjoyment mutually exclusive? Improving one's ability at any game of skill takes dedication, study, practice and application. Where's the fun in that? I'm half joking here of course - I recognize that if... Read more »
My latest completed game at chess.com really made my brain hurt. I played the Tarrasch defence to the Queen's Gambit and won a pawn on move 20 due to an oversight by my opponent. Despite this good start, I felt on edge for the whole game... Read more »
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SonofPearlWales, United Kingdom
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Blog highlights
Too Old For Chess?
Ban The Chess Simile!
The Art Of Losing
The Good Old (Descriptive) Days
Why chess is the best game in the world...