About me

I'm a technologist and chess fan based in London. I play for London, Kent and my local club where I coach junior players.

I've also created a Twitch Channel to share my approach to training and discuss chess or anything else.

Coaching

After many requests for help and feedback, I recently created the Chess-Ninja discord to help players of all levels improve (now using discord). Feel free to join to start a conversation.

Playing etiquette

I do not tolerate verbal abuse or insults. I will block players that are abusive, rude, disrespectful or communicate opinions that are derisive to any minority, ethnic group or country.

You are welcome to your opinions but also welcome to keep them to yourself!

Be respectful and have fun!

Answers to common questions (FAQ)

You're cheating aren't you?
1. No, I don't use computers during games because this is only cheating myself. If I beat you, it's because I played better or made less mistakes than you. I work quite a lot on my game so I often beat people rated much higher than myself. Sorry if you are one of those. Chess is tough
Why did you block me?
1. I block people to avoid behaviour I don't want to spend time around. This includes violating playing etiquette (see above), but mainly for verbal abuse, rudeness, derisory comments and bad sportsmanship like abandoning games.
2. On a bad day it might simply be 'looking at me in a funny way'
How can I improve? That's a tough questions and is dependant on your level and goals;
1. Treat improving at chess like you would anything else - consider if how you are approaching chess would translate to other things like a martial arts, dancing, the piano or woodwork
  1. For example, if all you are doing is playing lots of blitz or faster controls and wondering why you don't improve, consider if you would become good at playing the piano by banging on the keys as fast as you can!!
2. In general, improving is linked but not restricted to;
  1. 1. Play - you need to play to improve. The weaker you are the more improvement you will see simply by playing
    2. Reflection: Look over your games with a coach to spot weaknesses. Everyone has access to a great coach these days because computers will at least show your tactical blunders. They have their limitations but are a great starting point. The chess.com analysis mode and game reviews are great so I would recommend choosing a plan that includes these features.
    3. Learn from others - Pick a grandmaster you admire and look through their annotated game collections.
    4. Study - you need to study to improve. I found it best to do this in this order;
      1. Start with tactics. This will make you aware of tactical situations and remove your worst blunders. It's best to get a book of 1000 puzzles and to go through them a few times.
      2. Study basic endgames - The endgame is well understood and the theory does not change so its the second easiest thing to fix in your game.
      3. Study the middle game - it much harder to fix this than your endings but if you don't have the right plan then you will squander any advantage gained beforehand.
      4. Study some openings - Make sure you know the common plans and traps in your openings. For players below 1700 I'd spend no more than 10% of your study time on openings,
    5. Be honest with yourself - We all make mistakes. The road to improvement is about recognising and removing them. Don't be tempted to make excuses for them.
    6. Mental and physical preparation - Being fitter both mentally and physically will improve your performance
    7. Join a club - meeting and talking to others is a great way to advance your knowledge. This is why I started a free slack channel during the Covid restrictions.
3. How do you study?
  1. I look through at least one grandmaster game a day (or a few over the weekend if I've had a busy week).
  2. On top of this I then spend at least 1 hour a day studying one aspect of my game that I am trying to improve - currently studying middle games.
  3. I review my games, checking for mistakes and missed ideas. Rated live classical games I will annotate in some detail. I use lichess.org studies for this as chess.com does not have anything comparable.
  4. Aside from checking a few moves deep and the basic plans I don't do any opening preparation as I don't find it a good use of time.
4. Why don't you advocate opening study?
  1. Grandmasters spend a lot of time on openings because they have learnt the fundamentals and are looking for a slight advantage to take into the middle game.
  2. Studying opening theory for hours will at best give you a slight edge (that will then be squandered in the remaining moves).
  3. Most players will see a more significant improvement by working on their fundamentals (tactics, end-games and middle-game play) and following basic opening principles (develop pieces, control the centre, castle before attacking your opponent etc.).
  4. I get enough opening analysis by looking at the first few moves, and going over grandmaster games for that opening.
5. You seriously don't know opening theory?
  1. I know a fair bit of theory. However, I don't spend a lot of time on it directly. I gain most of my opening theory indirectly by going over grandmaster games and reading their notes. I also watch chess commentary on youtube and invariably the commentators discuss the opening theory.
  2. I don't think I will need to study opening theory directly until I am beyond 2100 (currently 2000 OTB) as I have lots to improve before it will be useful to me.
6. What do you find annoying?
  1. Abandoning games when you blunder or the game is obviously lost
  2. Draw offers in completely lost positions (when your opponent still has time on her clock to convert the win)
7. What do you find funny
  1. Higher rated players being abusive or rude when they lose (see my games against Michael Wright). I reported him as I find it disappointing that good players are not ambassadors of our game.
  2. Lower rated opponents accusing you of using computers when they lost easily - I have no idea why people would cheat at a game with no stakes but if you are 800 points lower than your opponent its not computers that are beating you
8. What books can you recommend to improve?
  1. Here are some great books I have read. The later books are more advanced
    1. Combination Challenge by Lou hays
    2. The Amateurs mind by Jeremy Silman
    3. Reassess your chess by Jeremy Silman
    4. Reassess Your chess workbook by Jeremy Silman
    5. My System my Aaron Nimzowitch
      1. I recommend this book because it was my first step along the path of chess improvement. It is a seminal work in chess literature but there are many books that cover the same topics and are more up to date (this book was published in 1935).
      2. See Jeremy Silman's 'Reassess your chess' for a more up to date treatment of the middle game.
    6. 60 memorable games by Bobby Fischer
    7. Best games by Tal
    8. Fire on the board by Shirov
    9. Tactical Chess Endings by John Nunn
    10. All the lessons on chess.com for middle game and endgames
    11. Comprehensive chess endings by Karsten Muller and Frank Lamprecht
    12. The reassess your chess workbook by Jeremy Silman
    13. Chess Structures - A grandmaster guide by Mauricio Flores Rios
    14. Grandmaster Preparation series by Jacob Aagaard

Tech stuff:

Discord id: chess-ninja#0411

ChessNinja