Nova Daily - 17 June 2025: Not TB
Hi!
Since I started my blogging journey, every now and then I'm asked or encouraged to apply for Top Blogger. Much as I appreciate the compliment that this question implies, there's something that I feel I have to address at some point. The reason I'm doing it now is somewhat twofold, but one of those reasons is that I felt a bit drained after today and didn't want to write on any other topic in this state.
Not TB
It might not be obvious from the sheer volume of text that I write on a daily basis, but I've always been straightforward and transparent about my reasons for writing my blog. From the very first post I put out there, I indicated that I'd be using my blog to force myself to work on my play. I'm using my blog as a tool to work in a way that resonates with me. My main goal for doing this lies outside of writing. I consider myself a chess-player first and a writer second (at best).
Don't get me wrong: I love writing. I love coming up with ideas, thoughts, and ways to blend them together into a new type of text that I enjoy reading and writing. And I love to interact with the readers of my blog, and I love to read the reactions that you sometimes give. If an idea of mine strikes a chord with you, I see that as an honour. And I'm more than happy to reciprocate the honour if someone else's text does the same with me.
However, much as I enjoy writing and the reciprocal attention that this sometimes generates, my primary goal for writing is still the same: improving at chess. In the same vein, my motivation has never been to grow an audience, receive more clicks, get more reactions, or anything of the sort. I'm not saying that I don't appreciate these, because I really do, and it's always a happy spark to see that someone has taken the effort to leave a note below one of my texts. But it's not my main goal, and I don't want it to become my main goal either.
The most critical reason why I'm not a Top Blogger is quite simple: I've never applied for it. That's all. One of the reasons that I've never done so is that I don't see it having much added benefit for what it is that I'm aiming for with my blog, at least not now. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the greatest advantage of being a Top Blogger is the extra traffic to your blogs through (among others) exposure on the Top Bloggers page. I don't want to see that page flooded with my daily entries. I want to see that page filled with diverse and interesting topics.
I'm not after a larger audience. I'm after playing better chess.
Maybe I'll apply for TB in a distant future, when in order to force myself to work towards my goals I no longer need the unseen peer pressure that comes along with writing an open journal. But only then, and certainly no sooner.
Just to share. I love this idea.
One blitz game
Today I played a blitz game with black. It turned out well: even though it started as a Caro-Kann, it quickly became something else, something that's reminiscent of the g6-Alapin. My opponent succumbed very quickly, but I feel that there's something in the opening that I may want to have a look at.
It's a lovely line to study, both for my repertoire and from a more theoretical point of view. No matter what people might think about me (and they're usually wrong), I've neglected my opening play for far too long before I set out to chronicle my studies and my path through my blitz games, and my game needs a repertoire that's sound at high levels. No matter where I am at this moment, I'm looking up.
