Year In Review: Blog Edition

Hi!

I stumbled upon chess.com in January 2023. I'd played some chess before, mainly playing against my dad, but I never really got into it. Then, I decided to check out chess.com, played a few games, and that's when my interest in chess really took off. Now, I've boosted my Rapid ELO to 1000 and aiming for 1100. I've played some bots, solved many – maybe even too many – puzzles, played games, and even created some blogs — like the one you're reading now!

Now that it's December 31st, this would be my final post of 2023, reviewing the blogs I've written so far. I'll also rewind a bit and share why I started blogging in the first place. Let's dive into this blog!

MY FAVOURITE BLOGS

In 2023 I've written 19 blogs. Out of all of them, here are my top three favorite;

1. Martin vs. Martin: 4 blunders, 6 mistakes, 5 inaccuracies and 1 great move

On November 16th, 2023, I received a peculiar request to make the Martin bot play against itself. It turned out to be a delightfully silly and entertaining experience. Witnessing Martin make mistakes every other move was downright hilarious. I'm already contemplating making more bots face off in 2024, and who knows, maybe I'll even organize a chess bot tournament!

Read the blog here.

2. Chess Grandmasters IQ

December 16th, 2023, this blog came about simply because I wondered, "How high is the IQ of grandmasters like Magnus Carlsen and Bobby Fischer?" And, before anyone makes assumptions, chess has nothing to do with intelligence; I was just curious. In this initial blog, I found the IQs of four grandmasters: Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Bobby Fischer, and Wesley So. Looking ahead to 2024, I plan to explore the IQs of other chess players.

Read the blog here.

3. The Fried Liver Explained

November 19th, 2023, I posted a blog teaching the Fried Liver. This blog is one of my favorites because I like the opening. I love to play it. If you look at my games you'll see that if I get a chance to play the Fried Liver, I will. So that's why I made that blog. 

Read (and learn the Fried Liver) the blog here.

MY CLICKBAIT BLOG

So, it's March 16th. I was starting to make blogs just because I wanted to try it. I didn't care about views or anything, and I still don't care. And then I thought about something. What if I made a clickbait blog, to see how many views it would get. This would be my only clickbait blog, I was just curious to see how many views it would get.

So I posted a blog titled Forced Mate In 38 Moves. 

And it got 335 views. That's the most views I have ever gotten. But again, this was clickbait. The blog did include mate in 38 moves. But it's just from a GothamChess video. I will not take the blog down, but I will probably credit him now after this.

OPENING BLOGS

My first blog was titled Top 5 Best Openings For Beginners. It was posted on March 15th, the day before I posted my clickbait blog. I just found out you could write blogs. I sat down, made some research on what are the best openings to learn and wrote about them. 

Then I posted it.

The next day I made another blog about openings. That blog was titled 2 Most STRONGEST Openings. Again I sat down, made some research and wrote it. 

After that have I not made many opening blogs, except for the Fried Liver, and the Scholar's Mate.

WHY I STARTED MAKING BLOGS

I made some blogs in March but just to try it out. After March 17th I stopped. And didn't make another blog until September 4th. Then I made a blog titled Three Chess Puzzles Because I Have Nothing Better To Do. There were no other blogs posted by me the rest of September. Then came two blogs in November (there were more that I made in November but now I'm talking about the first two blogs I posted in November) that were just a joke. That were the blogs How To Lose At Chess and How To Win At Chess. These were just joke blogs. Because - like my clickbait blog - I wanted to see how many views a blog titled How To Lose At Chess would get.

And one person commented on How To Win At Chess. His name (not actual name) is @Chessasurus and he is the reason I started making blogs. Here is the story. I saw the comment and went on his profile. There I found out he wrote blogs, so I checked that out. There I saw that he made blogs that were funny, educational and more. I had always loved writing so I started writing blogs myself. After that @Chessasurus and I have played many games against each other and he is a great person. It's not entirely his comment that made me start writing blogs, but it is the reason I started writing more blogs and got into it. And plus, his blogs are amazing.

You can read his blogs here.

SOME PUZZLES FOR YOU

Now before you go, I have four puzzles for you.

That's everything this blog has to offer. This has been an incredible chess year for me and my first year of chess.com has been super fun. See you all next year.

Bye!

- @EythorPall

Want to read my other blogs? Click here.