The Reminisces of Top Bloggers - Part III
Greetings! Welcome back to the Hornet Editorial.
Welcome to the third installment of Reminisces of Top Bloggers! When I finished Part II four months ago, I didn't think I would be writing another one so soon. To my great joy, Chess.com gave Top Blogger status to bloggers who frankly have been deserving for a long time. This part is especially unique, not only because the participants are newly minted Top Bloggers, but because all of the participants are BlogChampions!
@KevinChessSmith won BlogChamps Season 6, @JustGettingThisOffMyChess won BlogChamps Season 8, @PokeGirl93 won BlogChamps Season 9, and @WinT0L0ss most recently won BlogChamps Season 10 (As of posting this blog, registration for Season 11 is still open!!).
All four of these bloggers have offered to share their experiences as other bloggers have done in the previous editions. As always, I will ask four different questions than from the previous edition. I hope you enjoy their responses.
(A note: All full sentences in bold are my commentary.)
Table of Contents
2. How Do You Respond To Criticism?
3. Best Feedback You've Been Given?
5. What Is The Most Important Skill A Blogger Can Have?
Hello, my name is Leticia Sobczak, and I'm from Brazil. I have played chess since I was five years old after my dad decided to teach me during some cold winter days. Although I have played consistently for years, it has always been just a hobby for me. My interest in writing and blogging about chess began by reading some articles from my friend @VOB96. She used to write some great stuff and I discovered that I actually appreciated reading it. One day, I decided to ask her if there were any other good bloggers that I should follow.
Instead of giving me names, she invited me to her blogging club, BlogChamps, and said I would find plenty of blogs there and could then decide my favorites. At the beginning, I used to only read others blogs, but after some time, it was impossible not to feel the urge to write my own. So, I decided to gather some data I had about the children I teach judo to and presented it to the world. It was fun to write and well received, so I began to do it more often and even joined the next seasons of the competition.
- @PokeGirl93
Hi, my name is Will, and I have been blogging on chess.com for almost 2 years now. I started blogging to learn how to communicate with others better because my English has always been worse than others.
Not being able to say what is in my head was really frustrating, so I started blogging to improve how I spoke and write. It ended up giving me a voice that I didn’t have, and opened up so many more opportunities for me.
- @WinT0L0ss
My name is Andrew. I’m a Performing Arts Teacher/Published Poet/and Spoken Word Champion. Writing has always been part of me, as has chess. I fell in love with chess because of my dad. I will always cherish playing with him. Furthermore, in primary school, I was bullied. The Chess Club became my safe space. It's a big reason I've run Chess Clubs at each school I've taught at.
When it came to blogging, I didn't initially plan to for it to go as far as it has. I just wanted to tick off the Chess.com achievement for writing 10 blogs. However, I didn't want to be the annoying type of person who spams 10 empty blogs, so I came up with 10 different ideas. Most of these blogs are gone now, and many I have forgotten myself. One that I still remember was a whole blog about the origins of stockfish, the food. Surprisingly, this blog didn't go down well, just like the food. Eventually, my ideas got better, as did my delivery, my presentation and my overall passion for blogging about chess.
- @JustGettingThisOffMyChess
Hello, my name is Kevin! I posted my first blog on April 19th, 2022 because I had found a brilliant move in a game (there wasn’t as much focus on brilliants at the time, but this was an obviously spectacular move) and felt like sharing it with others. 273 views and four years later it’s abundantly clear that few shared my interest! (The title was intended as click bait, but clearly failed.) A bit over a year later I had only posted three times, and my third post (14 Sep 2022) remains my least viewed post to this day, lol.
Then I published my first book on chessable.com, "Secrets of Trapping Pieces", and decided to post about that. A rather cursory blog. It attracted a few comments, but nothing that sticks in my mind these days. However, I did decide to write about some of those “secrets”. Between May 4th and June 13, 2023, I posted about a dozen blogs on trapping pieces. That must have caught the eye of some folks in BlogChamps and the initial version of The Blogger Awards (that initial club closed and was reanimated as version 2.0) because I was invited to join the clubs and participate in their competitions.
So, the publication of my first book was what got me started, but membership in those two blogging clubs is what sustained my interest in blogging. That was because both clubs hosted blogging competitions and offered feedback on entries. Being new to blogging, there were innumerable tips and techniques to which I was completely oblivious. In fact, I was completely unprepared to compete well during a BlogChamps season. Fortunately, The Blogger Awards offered me a monthly chance to work on a particular aspect of blogging… somewhat embarrassingly and humorously, I only recently started to put more time into thumbnails. Fortunately, that aspect was well underway before becoming a Top Blogger.
- @KevinChessSmith
2. How Do You Respond To Criticism?
All my blogs left me satisfied after I published and I think there will always be people who enjoy them, even if the general acceptance is higher for some and not that big for others. I learned that people will usually prefer to read about personal experiences rather than general topics, so I try to focus more on things that are somehow related to me, which makes it easier to write with more passion too, making the process more enjoyable
In the end, while I do try to listen to my audience and write what appeals more to them, I cannot forget that it is my blog and that everything is for free, so I write what I feel like and makes me have fun My general advice would be to partially adapt and respect your audience, but above all, listen to yourself and write about the things you think are important to you
- @PokeGirl93
I think I agree with you there Leticia. I also find writing about my personal experiences far easier than say writing a biography about a chess player who died over a hundred years ago. My audience has never given me much of a preference of what they want to see, so I've stuck to my guns for some years now.
One of my favourite blogs to write were my "choose your own adventure" styled blogs. They were in the form of chess based escape rooms and hadn’t really ever been done before. My first one, "The Knightmare Escape Room was received very well. Many people commented and messaged me telling me how much they loved the idea, the puzzles, and the blog as a whole. However, my second blog after that “The Grandmaster's Heist” wasn’t as well received. These blogs took me longer than any other I had done before, they were so complex and difficult to write that I ended up trying to speed up the process for my second one, and it came at the cost of it not being all that great.
It got way less views than my first, way less comments, way less positive messages, and the feedback I got from people whom I asked wasn’t as positive. At the time, I didn’t have any ideas for how to make another like it and drifted back to my regular style of blogs. I learned that to make a commitment to a blog that difficult needs real commitment. There could be no trying to cut corners or skip steps. I needed to just knuckle down and do it to the best of my ability. In the future I will probably write another but as of now, The Grandmaster's Heist was my last and I am not as proud of it as my first.
- @WinT0L0ss
I actually can relate to that myself. I made a blog called "YOUR Chess Pieces Are YOUR Army". It was super well received and in my haste I rushed Part Two. I didn't like the result and neither did my audience.
I once wrote a blog that I believed was hilarious. It was about me facing several people from Chad while playfully acting like a "Gigachad". Afterwards, a Top Blogger replied that I personally wasn't good enough of a blogger to succeed. Their words weren't constructive at all. These types of comments don't make people grow; in fact, they often make people shrink. Words like this could have made me give up blogging altogether. However, instead, I began writing blogs the best I could, initially to spite this Top Blogger and prove them wrong. Clearly, I achieved this goal.
They have sincerely apologized and we are now on good terms. Looking back, the blog I wrote wasn't very good and I have deleted it. I also reacted poorly to them, which I regret. This Top Blogger has since been a positive influence and a huge supporter. Words can carry a lot of weight. Bloggers should know this. This situation also further solidified my belief that it's better to see and guide someone's potential, rather than to attack their weaknesses.
- @JustGettingThisOffMyChess
My older posts also received a lot of criticism. I thought some of the feedback was harsher than it had to be and I reacted accordingly. Looking back, the "harsh" feedback I received was 100% correct and I wish I had handled it all better. Nowadays I keep myself open to criticism and always think before I respond.
I never received particularly scathing criticism for any of my blogs. However, I did receive one sharp, rebuking review for my first book. The reader noted that he was rated in the mid-1700s FIDE OTB, but found most of my puzzles too difficult, even for some puzzles rated a two out of five, and he sought more structure and explanations in the book. After several chats with the reader, I started trying out different ways to present material (diagrams, explanations, puzzles) in blogs and seeking his feedback. That ultimately led to the publication of my second book, "Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Foundations". Bottom line, my blogging and my writing improved, the type of synergy I’d hoped for when I got more interested in blogging.
If we consider number of views as a measure of performance, then the first three I posted performed quite poorly. It’s obvious that there wasn’t much to those early efforts, either qualitatively or quantitatively. Then again, they were just some random one-offs and I wasn’t particularly concerned with value or viewership, they were just writing experiments in an unfamiliar format. The best blogging feedback was from the competitions in the two clubs mentioned previously.
- @KevinChessSmith
I'd say generally if you get a lot of positive comments on your post it performed well, but nice comments don't necessarily reflect a good post.
3. Best Feedback You've Been Given?
Yes, most of the feedback I received were in the BlogChamps competitions, and they were usually very helpful. I am lucky to have many great bloggers as my readers and they will usually share some interesting insights. @VOB96, @KevinChessSmith, and @nova-stone provided some statements that really helped. However, there was never any specific feedback that was more memorable than others. It is a sum of different pieces that made me slowly get better.
After all, I think that's the most important. There will be no magic formula or only one thing to get better at. So I try to use everything that I am told, weigh each of them and understand how important they are to make me improve.
- @PokeGirl93
I completely agree with the last bit there. For me personally there were bigger moments of breakthrough where I would receive feedback and improve a certain area of my blogging. Everyone has their different path.
I talked about this in a lot more detail in my blog “Finding Inner Piece”, where I spoke about my journey through chess and blogging. All of the feedback and comments I have gotten from readers have been greatly appreciated. I never expected people to find my blogs and I never expected to win BlogChamps Season 10 or get the Top Blogger badge, but throughout all my ups and downs, many users from the BlogChamps community have been by my side commenting on my blogs and giving feedback to help me improve. I am incredibly grateful for everyone who commented or even just read my blogs.
If I had to choose one piece of feedback that had always stuck with me it would be from @VOB96, where she wrote, “Wow!! Great blog! Amazing research and use of different sources. Everything organized and well explained! One can feel the effort and passion while reading. I thoroughly enjoyed it!” It just summed up all the work, all the research, and all the effort and passion I put into it. I am glad that people picked up on this and realized how much I have put into my blogs. It seemed to stay with me weirdly for the last year.
- @WinT0L0ss
I think I can relate when you say some feedback just sticks with you. For me, feedback or comments I received years ago still swirl around in my mind. It shows that a helpful tip or nice word can go a long way.
I am lucky and grateful to have received so many beautiful comments over these past few years. The one that stands out the most was for my blog, "Chess of the Wind: The Lost Chess Film". I had researched tirelessly about Muhammad Reza Aslani's missing film, and the efforts his daughter Gita, and son Amin went into miraculously finding it.
After posting this blog, I received a message from Gita, thanking me for the article and wishing me the best. It was really touching, as, while I spent a few months researching, they had spent decades on their quest for their dad. This is something that I truly admire, so to hear from them was special.
- @JustGettingThisOffMyChess
And that's the type of result bloggers strive for. In the end, the goal of writing is not to impress people but to reach people, teach people, and sometimes even caution them. Having read your blog whilst in the process of writing this I can certainly say that was a magnificent article.
The most memorable feedback was from IM Attila Turzo (my long-term chess coach). He had some excellent suggestions on puzzle presentation that allowed a reader to solve the problem in discrete steps and then see if they could put all the pieces together in an aggregated puzzle at the end. While working through his suggestion, I determined that some puzzles should be presented with the end point first, some with the starting point first, and some with the starting point in the middle of the calculations. That approach figured heavily into my second chess book and was well-received there.
The judges in blogging competitions offered some useful tidbits, but nothing that I remember triggering any spectacular changes. Recently, I have come to appreciate the comments of thumbnail experts regarding the importance of making images versus using only AI. That led me to change my thumbnail approach starting in 2026 and much of my work is now clearly more human-authentic… in my opinion.
- @KevinChessSmith
I think the feedback related to thumbnails is important. AI is really good at making or customizing images, but the creativity of the human mind is still a lot more impressive to me. Besides all that, I honestly enjoy making thumbnails and those I know who have just started switching from AI are as well.
I think discipline is always more powerful than motivation. It is true that sometimes we don't have ideas or don't feel like writing, but the best way to overcome this is to force yourself to start, and once you do, the rest flows more naturally. At least for me, that's how it works. Last year, I decided that I would publish one post per month on average, and it was this promise to myself that made me write all of them. Sometimes they took longer because I was not that excited to to work on them, but the readers will rarely notice it while reading.
However, it is also important to point out that blogging is not anyone's job here. If you don't feel like writing or have no time, it is also ok to take a break and wait until the motivation comes again. Once a writer, always a writer. Sooner or later you will feel the urge to tell your readers something cool.
- @PokeGirl93
True enough. I often blog in spurts. I had a stretch not too long ago where I didn't blog for over a year. Then, suddenly I was posting left and right. I find the urge to blog to be a light switch you can't turn off or on.
I have always been motivated to blog because helps me outside of chess.com, but sometimes I do hit a bit of a blogger’s block. Usually I just go to my secret vault of blog ideas, which I add to when I get a random idea, but even occasionally the vault runs out. I usually read other people’s blogs during these “dead zones” and hopefully spark ideas from their blogs. Sometimes I get ideas from questions I had while reading or interesting parts of their blogs that could be a starter for one of my blogs. I also use The Blogger Awards club to motivate me sometimes. It gives me a deadline and forces me to work on my blog, even when I don’t have 100% motivation at a given moment.
- @WinT0L0ss
In these "dead zones" as you call them, I've never really searched for ideas, so that's very interesting. The only time I search is as you said during competition. I can't wait for inspiration to strike naturally during a two week round (surely an excuse Vanessa would not accept either...).
Stephen King once said that "Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration". I couldn't disagree more. Inspiration cannot be forced. I write when I feel like something needs to be written. I would love to write a copout of "It's just for fun", which isn't entirely untrue. I do genuinely enjoy writing, and learning. However, I also love setting myself goals, and then achieving them. My first goal was small; winning a season of BlogChamps. I achieved this in Season 7. My second goal was to become a Top Blogger, and my third was to be part of a Reminisces of Top Bloggers Blog 😉.
I considered joking that now my goals are complete, my motivation is gone, so it's time for me to find a new hobby. However, there's always more that needs to be written. Also, the blogging community on Chess.com is so lovely and engaging. There is a sense of belonging here that I wouldn't ever want to lose. This means that I need more goals, so my next goal will be to be awarded the Blog of the Month from Chess.com. This would be really neat.
- @JustGettingThisOffMyChess
I couldn't agree more with you there. When something needs to be written in my mind, the text just flows. It doesn't feel like a drag or overwhelming. Setting goals for yourself helps provide this inspiration. I can't say I've accomplished mine yet, but you certainly have.
Amusingly, I wrote a blog about that. Blog Tips #1: Beating Blogger's Block. Later, we added that to the Blogging Guides and Resources links in BlogChamps and The Blogging Awards. Oversimplified, I do something else for a while. Exercise to free my mind is one of my favorite approaches when I’m feeling blocked on anything, from blogging, to solving a problem around the house, to doing my taxes.
On occasion, I’ll be inspired by an outside event. For instance, the BlogChamps April Fools’ Day contest inspired me to take on two things: April Fools and a Choose Your Own Adventure blog. Though I’ve enjoyed those, I always felt there weren’t enough side paths, different end points, and ways to get back on track. So, although I was going to be a judge, not a competitor, the existence of the contest inspired me to take on something that had been on the fringes of consciousness for quite some period of time.
Finally, I’ve currently got two blog series ongoing. Those are research intensive, but not particularly heavy lifts in terms of creativity. I can sometimes knock one of those out in a day just to get another draft in the queue. Just getting something done in a more mechanical process can free the brain to deal with blockages in more creative efforts. I completed a half dozen blogs in one of my series while working on the April 1st blog that required far more creativity than I sometimes felt capable of at a specific moment.
- @KevinChessSmith
I think I can relate to the exercise bit. I enjoy many activities outside of blogging, and physical activity helps get me back to the editing suite.
5. What Is The Most Important Skill A Blogger Can Have?
The most important is to be able to connect through your readers with the text. Everyone will have different styles and different audience tastes, but no matter what niche you choose or what kind of communication works better for you, it is very important that the readers feel like you care about your blog and about them. So I would say this communication skill is the most important. Not communication in the common meaning of the word, but this connection with whoever is on the other side of the screen.
A good blogger must be able to keep the reader interested, and the easiest way to do it is to make sure that he feels like what he is reading is special and written with care. That, and dedication. This skill is very important too. When writing, always bring the best version of yourself and dedicate that time fully to the text, so it will be the best you can deliver
- @PokeGirl93
That's probably what I would say. Niche topics that you know a lot about can be very rewarding to write, but can end up not being impactful or useful to the reader.
I think the most important skill a blogger can have is to put your ego aside and ask for feedback, and when you get it, actually take it on board and try to implement it into your next blog. For me, this was a key part of my blogging and how I progressed. After each round of the fpur BlogChamps seasons I have participated in, I would ask the judges for further feedback on my blogs and then try to use each bit of feedback to change my next blog. In my opinion, if you can’t do this then it is very difficult to improve because we as humans can sometimes not see the faults in our own writing if we are so invested in it. So getting a reader’s feedback is incredibly helpful.
If you read my first blogs, you’ll see how far I have come since then, I haven’t written many blogs in comparison to other Top Bloggers, but I see this as proof of how quickly you can progress and learn when you use other’s feedback to improve your blogs. I see this as the only reason why I could progress from being knocked out in the first round of BlogChamps Season 7, to winning in Season 10, and then later being awarded the Top Blogger badge in this time frame. I will always be forever grateful to those who gave up their time to write feedback for me and read my blogs in detail as without them, I would not be where I am now.
- @WinT0L0ss
I have seen countless users just completely rage quit blogging because judges or other bloggers wouldn't commend their work, whether it was AI generated or just beginner level. Feedback can be hard sometimes, but a tree needs to be pruned before it bears fruit.
It really depends on your goal. Some might consider that having any remance of chess skills would come in handy, however, the best players in the world aren't coaches for a reason. Personally, I always ask myself questions like "Is this blog fun/Is it interesting?" or "Would I and others want to read this?", because in the end, it comes down to engagement.
It is okay to write for yourself, however, if it's purely for you, the audience will end up feeling alienated. My suggestion is that a blogger writes about something they are fascinated in while also keeping their readers in mind. Passion is contagious, so share yours with others and see how much it catches on.
- @JustGettingThisOffMyChess
Of course, that's the same thing I just mentioned with Leticia. It's easy to blog for yourself when you're trying to blog for others. Good advice to follow.
Excellent writing that showcases empathy. If the writer does not present some abiding interest in their topic, it dilutes the effort because they offer an impression they are just going through the motions.
- @KevinChessSmith
Short and succinct. I like it and completely agree. I thank you for your wise words for the rest of us youngsters lol
Thank you for reading this post! I hope you all enjoyed. I'd like to thank especially Leticia (@PokeGirl93), Will (@WinT0L0ss), Andrew (@JustGettingThisOffMyChess), and Kevin (@KevinChessSmith) for agreeing to participate in this blog! I had a great time writing it. I highly recommend checking out their blogs if you would like to learn more about their writing.
If you have a question for me about this post, please leave it in the comments below! If you have a question for one of the participants though, I would suggest leaving it in their DMs.
For now though, that's all I got. See you in the nextt edition of the Hornet Editorial.
