Hey Impressive Chessers! As a chess coach I get asked lots of questions and get to hear my student comment about chess improvement. Some memorable ones that apply to this blog are: "I heard chess is 99% tactics, should I just do tactic puzzl...
Hey Impressive Chessers! It’s been awhile* but for very good reasons! Last week, my wife Traci and I welcomed our first baby into the world! I think she’s very cute, so be warned, I’ll be sprinkling photos throughout this blog ...
Hey Impressive Chessers! Chess teaching and chess playing are actually surprisingly different skills. Some of the most influential chess teachers like NM Dan Heisman*, NM Bruce Pandolfini*, GM Jacob Aagaard* and arguably the most famous chess co...
Hey Impressive Chessers! One of my favorite pastimes is to think. I know, this probably isn't that surprising because I'm a chess player. But I’m not just talking about thinking in the “I’m calculating 5 moves ahead” kind...
Hey Impressive Chessers! This blog is going to go over the phrase that I’m sure you’ve heard from chess teachers/coaches/content creators/etc. say: “Just Don’t Blunder.”(JDB, as I’ll call it from here on ou...
Hey Impressive Chessers! And to my fellow Americans, Happy 4th of July! My high school friend, Jon and I at a Fourth of July parade this morning So let’s start out by not sugar (or red*) coating anything: chess is a really hard gam...
Hey Impressive Chessers! I hate to be that guy…but please, for the sake of your chess future, stop playing "hope chess". If you are a returning reader, first of all thanks! Secondly, you know that I always try to give advice that’...
Hey Impressive Chessers! I get asked all the time, "How do you become a National Master?" My answer is usually something like: “Develop good habits. Be ready for a mountain of painful losses. Learn to assess your games honestly; even your ...
Hey Impressive Chessers! As some of you may know, I've taught chess in the Southern California area since 2002! The current company that I work for, part time, is Strategic Kids. Strategic Kids is really good about making learning to play chess ...
Hey Impressive Chessers! In this blog, we’re diving into a classic “do as I say, not as I do” moment. You’ll see exactly what I mean when I break down my tragic (but instructive!) game against GM Enrico Sevillano. Along t...
Happy Cinco de Mayo, Impressive Chessers! In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate an impressive figure in chess history. The first Mexican Grandmaster (GM): Carlos Torre Repetto. While Torre wasn’t officia...
Hey Impressive Chessers! In this blog we are going to time travel back to the prehistoric ages of the early 2000s. So as some of you know I’ve been teaching/coaching chess for almost a quarter century! I started teaching chess in 2001, a f...
Hey Impressive Chessers! You may have seen my last post: www.chess.com/blog/NMChesstoImpress/want-to-play-impressive-chess-do-these-5-things and thought this NM has no idea what he’s talking about… and you’d be right! That...
Hey Impressive Chessers! So, you want to be an impressive chess player? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Follow these five foolproof strategies, and I guarantee you’ll stay on the path to greatness. These are battle-tested techni...
Hey Impressive Chessers! How many of you have played a great game, maybe it ended with a beautiful Queen sac for mate, but somewhere in the game, you played an inaccurate move in the opening or had a non-ideal strategy? What does our brain usual...
Hey Impressive Chessers! You’ve probably heard the idiom: “A jack of all trades is a master of none.” In modern times, this phrase often carries a negative connotation. While I may disagree that this should be seen as ...
Hey Impressive Chessers! You’ve heard it all before, “Don’t study openings, just develop your pieces, control the center and get your King safe by castling it to a safe side” - A ton of content creating titled ...
Hey Impressive Chessers On Thursday, February 27th, we lost the chess legend Boris Spassky. I never got the chance to meet the man, but I’ve heard countless stories of what a fine gentleman he was. I’m not the right person to write ...
Hey Impressive Chessers! This blog is all about pressure, and boy, do people have a lot to say on this subject! We all know these words are all just a ruse to sneak in your games and puzzles without appearing narcissistic.Click --> Puzzle...
Hey Impressive Chessers! When I first got into chess, we had to fend off velociraptors... okay, sorry, too many dad jokes. What really happened was that the "four-move checkmate" was all the rage. As White, I either checkmated my opponent b...
Hey Impressive Chessers! How many times has this happened to you? Let’s say you’re “Katie.” Katie is playing a higher-rated opponent, and she’s managed to trick them—now she’s up two pawns. Woohoo! But no...
Hey Impressive Chessers! Most of us get into chess because we see all of these brilliant sacrificial games from Tal, Morphy, Kasparov, or my personal favorite: Nezhmetdinov. Maybe later we might appreciate the subtlety of a Capablanca, Petrosian...
Hey Impressive Chessers! I'm sure something like this has happened in your chess career-You've developed all or most of your pieces, you've castled your King, you have good central control, basically you've done everything "right". But, your ins...
Hey, Impressive Chessers! Let’s set the stage. You’re playing a game you’re sure your coach will be proud of. You’re not only looking at all the cool moves you can play but also countering everything your opponent throws ...
Hey Impressive Chessers! I'm back and ready to keep you impressive in 2025! Today, I want to share a position that could’ve easily arisen from a 3|0 game I played on chess.com. Even in blitz, where the time is always ticking, certain criti...
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