March 2026: Progress You Can Trust March wasn’t a perfect month. There were strong wins, frustrating losses, and more time trouble than I’d like to admit. But when I step back and look at the full picture, this month represents some...
February 2026: A Quieter Month, but One of My Strongest Yet February was a lighter month for me in terms of classical competition, but somehow it became one of the most meaningful months I've had in a while. Even though I only played one quad nig...
Back to Playing Humans On February 4th, during my lesson, my coach FM Mees van Osch told me something I kind of already knew… but didn’t really want to hear. “James, you need to play real people online.” And I immediately...
Catapult to 1642: Quads, Tunnelvision, and a Month That Finally Clicked January wasn’t just a good month it was the month where everything stopped moving sideways. After two years of grinding, tinkering, studying, and trying to figure out w...
November 2025 Recap: Sharp Lines, Long Drives, and Early Mornings Tournament Hall of The Columbia Club If October was about getting back in the ring, November was about seeing whether I could actually throw punches again. Over the course o...
National Chess Day Spotlight: Tamaghna Roy October 11, 2025 – Columbia Chess Club Tamaghna Roy representing South Carolina at the 2025 Tournament of Champions When I first met Tamaghna Roy in 2023, I directed his very first over-the-...
The State Championship: Back In The Ring (For Real This Time) Trophies and Club Awards Three weeks after writing Back In The Ring, I found myself lacing up the metaphorical gloves again — this time for the 2025 South Carolina State Cha...
Tunnelvision XXXVI: Three Years, Fifty Players, and One Surprising Win Three years ago, Tunnelvision was just Brandon, me, and a stack of folding tables in a church hall.No livestream. No team of TDs. No custom pens or scoresheets, not even a pla...
Back in the Ring: My Inaugural Post as a Chess.com Top Blogger Well, this is new. I get to type the words “Top Blogger” next to my name, and it feels a bit surreal. Thank you to Chess.com, the Blog Champs community, and to all of my f...
