Category: chess

130 posts

7/29/2016 The powerful e5 Pawn break against the Benoni: using it as White, neutralizing it as Black
1/23/2016 On finally achieving the US National Master chess title at age 45: part 1
1/9/2016 If you were this old man playing chess against a young boy, what would you have done?
11/30/2015 Clever chess tactics that were not what they seemed
6/17/2015 The importance of stalemate in chess: how chess is completely different from life
12/15/2014 Thoughts on giving up an old project to make room for the new
11/25/2014 Report on my second day of Stoic Week 2014: mindfulness
11/12/2014 My predictions after Carlsen and Anand are tied after round 4 of the World Chess Championship
11/6/2014 My predictions and hopes for the 2014 Carlsen-Anand world chess championship rematch
11/5/2014 Things look different from the perspective of the professional and the spectator
10/30/2014 The Chess Improver: The common problem of following a pattern without understanding it
10/23/2014 The Chess Improver: Learning through comparing similar but different situations
10/16/2014 The Chess Improver: Basic endgames teach how to tie together mathematics and logic
10/9/2014 The Chess Improver: The temptation to play safe can prevent improvement
10/2/2014 The Chess Improver: Your Pawn is threatened: do you defend, advance, or trade?
9/18/2014 The Chess Improver: Accept the sacrifice if the alternative is to lose anyway
9/11/2014 The Chess Improver: The difference between a Knight developed at c3 and at d2
9/4/2014 The Chess Improver: Fianchettoing your King's Bishop may weaken your c4-Pawn
8/28/2014 The Chess Improver: What not to do if you have the isolated Pawn
8/21/2014 The Chess Improver: For the love of doubled Pawns
8/14/2014 The Chess Improver: Beware of trying to win poisoned Pawns
8/7/2014 The Chess Improver: When weaknesses didn't matter (and when they did)
7/31/2014 The Chess Improver: An instructive ending with Bishop up for a Pawn
7/24/2014 The Chess Improver: How do you play against 1 h3?
7/17/2014 The Chess Improver: Pawn moves in front of Black's castled King: looking at h6 and f5
7/10/2014 The Chess Improver: Completing my first tournament: 7th round and summary of what I learned
7/3/2014 The Chess Improver: My 6th tournament game: an error that reveals an attempt to learn
6/26/2014 The Chess Improver: My 5th tournament game: lessons from an uncomfortable miniature
6/19/2014 The Chess Improver: My 4th tournament game: first time I attacked in the middlegame
6/12/2014 The Chess Improver: Lessons from my 3rd tournament game: the nature of endgames
6/5/2014 The Chess Improver: Lessons from my 2nd tournament game
5/29/2014 The Chess Improver: Is it worth studying your own games from thirty years ago?
5/22/2014 The Chess Improver: You don't have to be who you think you are
5/15/2014 The Chess Improver: Which Pawn would your rather live without and why?
5/8/2014 The Chess Improver: Try loving your Knights more than your Bishops
5/1/2014 The Chess Improver: Black takes control of the dark squares by grabbing the Bishop pair
4/24/2014 The Chess Improver: Is it OK to play a losing move in order to win?
4/17/2014 The Chess Improver: Ten reasons my winning game turned into a loss
4/10/2014 The Chess Improver: Development: doing it and disrupting it are sides of the same coin
3/27/2014 The Chess Improver: Back to basics: mere development
3/20/2014 The Chess Improver: A scrappy example of psychology and luck in an ending
3/13/2014 The Chess Improver: Two positional Pawn sacrifices: one accidental
3/6/2014 The Chess Improver: A fantasy game, move by move: White opens with fifteen pawn moves in a row!
2/27/2014 The Chess Improver: The human problem of not mentally switching gears during a long game
2/20/2014 The Chess Improver: Your mission, should you choose to accept it: total restriction of activity
2/13/2014 The Chess Improver: A tale of three discovered attacks: a Zwischenzug feast!
2/6/2014 The Chess Improver: How not to play with the Bishop pair
1/30/2014 The Chess Improver: 9 lessons to learn from Bill Gates' 9 move loss to Magnus Carlsen
1/23/2014 The Chess Improver: Giving up a fianchettoed bishop to win a pawn may not be worthwhile
1/16/2014 The Chess Improver: What if your opponent just gives you twelve free moves?
1/9/2014 The Chess Improver: The subtleties of time-consuming knight maneuvers
12/26/2013 The Chess Improver: Imagining how a game position arose
12/19/2013 The Chess Improver: Making up fake games to improve understanding of themes
12/5/2013 The Chess Improver: The most beautiful opening trap ever, with its tempo twin
11/28/2013 The Chess Improver: Imagining that you can play ten moves in a row
11/22/2013 World Chess Championship 2013 round 10: Magnus Carlsen is the new world champion
11/21/2013 World Chess Championship 2013 round 9: I correctly predicted Anand's aggressively opening choice but he blundered horribly again to lose
11/21/2013 The Chess Improver: The power of White's Pawn on e6
11/19/2013 World Chess Championship 2013 round 8: the most boring game in the match so far
11/19/2013 World Chess Championship 2013 round 7: Anand catches his breath with a quiet game
11/17/2013 World Chess Championship 2013, round 6: Carlsen wins the second game in a row when Anand blunders again in a drawn ending
11/16/2013 World Chess Championship 2013, round 5: Carlsen wins in a tense positional battle when Anand blunders!
11/14/2013 The Chess Improver: Whether an interesting opening idea is good or bad depends on context
11/14/2013 World Chess Championship 2013, round 4: who said the Berlin Defense was boring?
11/14/2013 The exact moment I fell in love with the Berlin Defense for Black in chess
11/13/2013 World Chess Championship 2013, round 3: a fighting game worth studying
11/10/2013 World Chess Championship 2013, Round 2: declining the sacrifice
11/9/2013 World Chess Championship 2013 Round 1: how to understand the short 16-move Carlsen-Anand draw
11/7/2013 The Chess Improver: How to watch the Anand-Carlsen World Chess Championship to improve your own game
10/31/2013 The Chess Improver: The double-edged nature of computer-based preparation
10/24/2013 The Chess Improver: The computer plays the exchange sacrifice
10/18/2013 The Chess Improver: The strange pleasure of drawing a lost game
10/10/2013 The Chess Improver: the difference between accepting reality and making excuses
10/4/2013 9 things you could be doing in Pittsburgh on Saturday, October 5
10/3/2013 The Chess Improver: the psychology of losing a drawn game
9/27/2013 First rehearsal for my first ukulele gig: dealing with anxiety
9/26/2013 The Chess Improver: the psychology of not winning the won game
9/19/2013 The Chess Improver: remember the importance of development
9/15/2013 Saying No: on not playing in the Pittsburgh Chess League this season for the CMU Tartans
9/12/2013 My first post on The Chess Improver: The Value of Thematic Complete Games Against a Weaker Opponent
8/24/2013 Another unexpected life change: one month of learning to play ukulele
7/31/2013 I miss playing chess at the Pittsburgh Chess Club
7/5/2013 More summer musical partying, and another ten-year-old dream fulfilled!
4/30/2013 Celebrating the victory of the CMU Tartans in the 2012-13 Pittsburgh Chess League season
4/15/2013 RIP Robert Byrne, American chess grandmaster and columnist who gave my childhood meaning
4/6/2013 A comeback from Pittsburgh Marathon overtraining
3/18/2013 My second ever blindfold chess game
3/18/2013 Finally doing some Latin music jamming on flute; also Irish and French
2/20/2013 Pittsburgh Chess Club Championship 2013, Round 6: Winning as Black like a madman!
2/15/2013 Pittsburgh Chess Club Championship 2013, Round 5: Surprised at move 4 of the opening!
2/6/2013 Pittsburgh Chess Club Championship 2013, Round 4: fascinating attacking-defending game!!
2/4/2013 Pittsburgh Chess Club Championship 2013, Round 3: attack, defense, and sacrifices
2/2/2013 An unexpected afternoon tour: 9 miles of running, 1 Cathedral of Learning stair climb, 2 chess tournaments
1/31/2013 Why and how I am going to run the 2013 Pittsburgh Marathon
1/23/2013 Pittsburgh Chess Club Championship 2013, Round 2: surviving time trouble
1/19/2013 Modern chess: computers shutting down opening theory, part 2
1/16/2013 Pittsburgh Chess Club Championship 2013, Round 1: the art of swindling
1/15/2013 How the best player won the last Pittsburgh Chess Club Tuesday night tournament
1/13/2013 The special bond between children and their fathers, through chess
12/18/2012 Round 6 of Pittsburgh Chess Club tournament: playing pragmatically
12/11/2012 Round 5 of Pittsburgh Chess Club Tournament: psychology of losing another won game
12/4/2012 Round 4 of Pittsburgh Chess Club tournament: the agony of losing a won game against the difficult opponent
11/28/2012 A short note on the use of chess opening books
11/27/2012 Round 3 of Pittsburgh Chess Club tournament: the difficult opponent, and revenge of the Bishop
11/20/2012 Round 2 of Pittsburgh Chess Club Tournament: Very short game with a note on psychology
11/13/2012 Round 1 of Pittsburgh Chess Club tournament: revenge of the Knight
11/11/2012 Pittsburgh Chess League Round 3: back to chess after a month off
10/14/2012 Pittsburgh Chess League Round 2: natural moves are often bad
10/9/2012 Final round of Pittsburgh Chess Club tournament: clawing back from a terrible position to draw and tie for first
10/2/2012 Round 5 of Pittsburgh Chess Club Tournament: On Benoni "Emasculation" and Learning
9/26/2012 The worst chess move I ever played: why did I do that?
9/24/2012 A fact of modern chess: computers shutting down opening theory
9/19/2012 Round 3 of Pittsburgh Chess Club tournament: another approach against the Sicilian: squeezing with the Bind
9/16/2012 Excited by the new season of the Pittsburgh Recorder Society
9/15/2012 Déja vu in chess: recognize this Sicilian pattern?
9/12/2012 Round 2 of the Pittsburgh Chess Club tournament: winning in the Sicilian Defense; the philosophy and psychology of struggle
9/4/2012 Round 1 of the Pittsburgh Chess Club tournament: the Greek gift sacrifice
8/30/2012 Why I do not play chess online: chess as a human activity
8/21/2012 Returning to chess, a lifetime sport: playing in the Pittsburgh Chess League
8/2/2012 The paradox of practice: it's harder to go slow than go fast
6/3/2012 Why I am grateful that my father never let me win a chess game against him
6/2/2012 They published my brilliant chess game, hinting it was not so original, but was it?
6/1/2012 Life lessons I learned from a lunch recess chess game at age seven: the prequel with a classmate
5/31/2012 Some pretty attacking chess at a party last weekend
5/30/2012 Life lessons I learned from a lunch recess chess game at age seven
3/30/2012 A delayed St. Patrick's Day party: playing tin whistle and alto recorder
2/23/2012 Saying No in order to say Yes
2/7/2012 On playing my first games of chess in a year
1/27/2012 A new friend's very musical birthday party changed my life
10/18/2011 Disagreement on the use of time?