Dear all, I'm pleased to announce that a couple days ago, part 1 of my new Neo-Catalan Repertoire was released on Chessable! I'm really happy with the final product. The premise of the Neo-Catalan is to open with 1.c4 and 2.g3, aiming to quick...
Dear all, I can't begin to express how happy I am to be writing this post and re-joining the Chess.com content community! I remember way back in the early days, I started recording video lessons for Chess.com in 2009. I enjoyed great relations...
I finally got my life back on track. One of my many shortcomings is being totally unable to fake a smile to show the world when I'm dying inside. Nobody likes a Debbie Downer, so I tasked my team to take over my facebook page and post my tournam...
Greetings to all, It's been a long time since my last blog- feel free to speculate as for the reasons. I was asked by some people to take the chess personality quiz and finally got around to doing it- probably the fad is over by now, but this is...
I just finished the Fagernes International with 7.0/9 and a performance rating of 2770, definitely my best result yet. Remarkably, it was not even enough for first as there was a huge swing in the final round where the other critical game went fro...
Having been an active member of the US Chess scene for many years, as a player of many different levels throughout my life, I've definitely come to notice those who inspire us and make the biggest contributions to our community. There are many big...
A couple weeks ago I finished the 2014 Northern California International with 6.5/9, resulting in a 6 way tie for first place. I had won this event quite convincingly in 2012, so after a year off in 2013, as the defending champion I had very high ...
When I was 14, I did some volunteer work directing tournaments at my local chess club. It was quite taxing work, and directing tournaments with 30 players was quite difficult- I can only imagine the challenge facing those who direct large tourname...
Well, that is that. New England has been eliminated from the US Chess League by the New York Knights. We had a good run, and my teammates all had very good seasons, but at the end of the day we came up short. To be honest I am not completely sure ...
While I don't have quite the USCL presence that I once did, it's still a nice place to keep myself from getting too rusty in the time between tournaments. Couple this with being a fan and feeling supportive towards the cities I live/have lived in,...
I remember not so long ago, going into a slump made me feel like the world was going to end. This displayed a lack of maturity on my part- any chess player knows that they will have swings, days and tournaments when they play great and days and to...
I just finished playing in the Yin Zhou Cup, a friendly match between the US and Chinese teams. The tournament was a lot of fun and my result was good, if unspectacular (2.5/5 in the slow games with 3 blacks, only losing to Wang Yue, and 6.5/10 in...
My first travels as a Samford Fellow took me to the East Coast of the United States for two tournaments: The New York International and the World Open. The former concluded last Sunday, and it was a very up and down event for me. I started out by...
Everyone has moments that will change their lives forever. Such moments are usually few and far between, often with years separating them, but they do happen. And when they happen, the person knows it. I myself have had many such moments, both as ...
This is me from last Friday, icing my face to help recover from losing the last 4 pieces of wisdom I had. While a few days of applesauce and no exercise or any kind of physical activity certainly did not sound appealing to me, in particular at a...
This is roughly how I feel right now. The US Championship concluded a couple days ago, and every now and then there are tournaments where absolutely nothing goes right. Things started off very poorly- I was playing Conrad Holt with black in roun...
We have a very big day ahead of us tomorrow, that will bring huge celebrations and sorrows among chess players and fans everywhere. The last 2 rounds of the Candidates tournament have been incredibly dramatic- Magnus finally losing a game of chess...
Recently I had a very interesting experience playing in the Pan-American Team Championship in Brazil. To set the stage for the most interesting moment in the tournament, first have a look at my first game: Definitely one of my better games in re...
At the end of every year, I look back at my progress and how that year went. 2012 was definitely not the kind of roaring success for me that 2011 was, but when I actually looked back at it, I don't think it was so bad. I started the year with a FI...
We all know that Kramnik and Topalov, 2 former world champions, have not had the best relation with each other in the past, largely stemming from the contraversy in their world championship match. However, what I've seen out of Kramnik recently is...
There are a lot of words in the English language that are considered taboo, and being a family friendly site, I don't feel the need to cite examples here. However, I will say what I think the worst word a chessplayer can use is, so brace yourselve...
After leaving for Europe on July 20, I never got a chance to head back to my native California until last weekend. 2 months away from home is nothing unusual for me- going to school 3000 miles away and being a part time chess professional has that...
The summer of chess is finally over. As a full-time college student I have limited time to play during the school year, but I always manage to squeeze in a few tournaments here and there. However, summer is a different story. I played a bunch of t...
I've just now learned that Olivier Breisacher, a great person who worked very hard to organize the Biel International Chess Festival and promote international sport in many different ways, drowned yesterday in a horrible accident. We will miss his...
Greetings to all! Hopefully this blog post finds everyone enjoying a lovely summer. I'm currently sitting in seat 32c of a Norwegian Air jet somewhere over Copenhagen, and I think it's totally awesome to have free wifi on board! Hopefully some US ...
