4,000 SUBS! WOW! | What's coming on the channel in 2025 🤩 | Chess Chats #12
#channelnews
I’m super excited to announce that my YouTube channel has just crossed over 4,000 subscribers! Wow!
Thank you to all my subscribers of my channel, and regular readers of my blog! I thought that I would give a quick update of my plans moving forward. I’d noted in an article a month ago, “Romantic Chess | New Plans for the Channel” that I was thinking about making some major changes. I’ve now made some firm decisions, and these are some things to look forward to moving forward in 2025! 🤩
1. Blitz!
I’ve come to the realisation that the way I’ve been playing rapid recently — impatiently, knowingly trying wild, unsound, Romantic moves — has a better fit with blitz. Up until now, I’ve always played rapid, usually 15+10. I’d last played blitz in 2021, and as I was just starting out again then, I found it much too difficult and stressful. However, with my epiphany, I’ve had a huge amount of fun playing 5+5 blitz over the past week and this will be my new format!
2. New series Blitz Chess Chats!
I’m moving ahead with an experimental new series that I think is rather novel. I suppose we’ll have to see whether it’ll be popular… 😅 In this new series, I speak to medical academics and researchers about their field of expertise and program of research; and we start the interview under the pressure test of a game of 5-minute blitz! Come for the chess and stay for the interview! ♟️🤪👍
The first interview has already been recorded and edited, and I’m just finishing off the article. I played a cracking game of the Jaenisch Gambit and spoke to A/Prof Joel Rhee of the University of New South Wales, about providing medical care to older people living in aged care homes. I plan to publish it very soon.
3. Chessnut Move review coming soon!
I’ve been in correspondence with Chessnut, my favourite manufacturer of electronic chess boards. Some of you might be aware that the Chessnut Move is about to be released. This appears to be a full-sized board with a set of tournament-sized pieces that are fully self-moving! Unlike the rather slow Square Off boards with a magnetic arm under the playing surface, Chessnut has made the bold move of making every single chess piece a micro-robot! Videos of seeing the pieces scurry around the board (e.g., setting itself up for a game of Chess960) is incredible!
Chessnut have informed me that they will be sending me an engineering sample of the Move shortly, and I’m very excited to give it a go! When I was a schoolboy, the notion of a chess board with self-moving pieces captured my imagination, and in fact, I had originally assumed that the “chess computers” for sale at Tandy Electronics (the “Radio Shack” in Australia) did just that (I was very disappointed to learn of the reality 🥲). Stay tuned for my review!
4. Noob Plays JRPGs? 🤔
And lastly, I’m also taking a sidewards step! One of my other long-term hobbies is playing retro Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs) and I’ve built up a ridiculously enormous back catalogue of games that I have yet to play or want to play again! In the next week, I’m going to be launching a new Twitch stream and YouTube channel. The first game that I’ll be streaming/recording is one of the best JRPGs of all time, that launched a massive series that is still running now. I’m going to play The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, the original PSP (PlayStation Portable) version. If you like JRPGs with deep stories, then check it out!
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/vitualis
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@NoobPlaysJRPGs
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For inspiration on great opening attacks to play in blitz chess, check out my new book, “Become a Chess Assassin! Learn to play the best chess opening attacks“.
