July Contest Feedback from Some Idiot

To the contestants:

• Use CTRL+F to find your name.
• You can blame an idiot for this.

Note that I didn't write the feedback in order of submission; it was a bit random. So, the layout changed over time as my process evolved. Given that I'm a bit lazy, I didn't go back to make everyone's feedback look and feel the same.

Why is some feedback longer? It just came out that way. In some places, I felt I could offer additional tips based on my own experiences. In those cases, I was easily tempted into some lengthy Idiot-splaining, probably to the annoyance of many recipients. In other cases, I felt a quick pointer was more than sufficient. Then there were instances where I could sense something wasn't quite right, but pointing at one of the help forums seemed more than sufficient unto the need. Then there were cases where I felt unqualified to suggest much, or the blog was short enough that there weren't many areas of opportunity for improvement. [Oh, and in at least one case, I felt my feedback was unnecessary, but might be welcomed as a bit of performance art. You'll know which one if you glance at all of them.]

To all readers: Research isn't a category yet, but it will be starting in August. Therefore, I'm pointing out examples I consider notable in some of the July posts. Why not all of them? Because I hadn't considered this until I was already part way done. Consequently, just because your feedback doesn't include any comments about research, doesn't mean it wasn't worthy of a comment. It just means I didn't go back and look at everyone's blogs a third time to think about any research aspects.

Blog Category: Analysis, Entertainment

GREAT potential, but there is stuff to work on.

Editing:

• The intro wanders and the paragraphs are too long (true throughout the blog). Adding a Table of Contents (with links in the best of all worlds) would assist the reader up front. The help forums show how to do that.
• Word walls and very lengthy paragraphs don't help the reader. A few more images, memes, quotes, or something to break it up please. It improved some once I got to the games, but the paragraphs were still too long.

The humor was a bit too obscure for me.

I found the selection of images for the chess pieces a bit annoying. It looked like something from a 1970s computer that had limited pixels and couldn't present images in full.

Some very brief notes in the games is an opportunity to have fun. You can say bad things about computers because there's no human being offended!!

There will always be someone who is offended so I suggest avoiding jokes about any of the "types" out there (ethnic, cultural, national, etc.) Better safe than buzzed by someone.

Blog Category: Satire

Great potential topic and some good humor.

The thumbnail cut off the text on the top and bottom. Reviewing the help forums on creating thumbnails that fit the chess.com format will solve that problem.

Probably ten reasons would have been more fun. Look at, for example, 101 Reasons I Hate Chess #1 - 12: Players, Bloggers & Streamers. That was part of a series that stretched out, but the key point is there were more than "three reasons" in just this one post. In your case, a longer post had the potential to be a better post.

Next, there were no images in the body of the text. That creates word walls. Your readers have the attention span of a squirrel, so keep them entranced with memes, gifs, quotes, games, or something besides pure text. For instance, where you talk about losing to kids you could have found some images where GMs lost to someone barely able to reach the board.

Blog Category: Entertainment

Good topic but I'm not sure the post ever allowed the reader to decide who they were. Instead, each section states who we are in each phase of the game--that was a bit of a disconnect for me.

The thumbnail simply looks blurred and there is no splash of color to attract the eye. Nor did I get a sense of Hindu mythology from the image.

Good humor for the intro.

Research: List the actual player names for something like that Paul Morphy Opera House game in the intro. This 1966 game was a duplicate of the original, but far too many people know the original game so inserting a NN version is disconcerting. Plus, referring to the stem game offers you an opportunity to put in an image of Morphy, the Count, and the Duke. You'd have done better to copy someone's notes for that game. You can find my analysis in this post Secrets of Trapping Pieces: Opera Mate - Chess.com. If you don't know where a game came from, ask someone like me who might be able to find it in my 10M+ games DB.

Writing:

• You have a tendency to make overly broad assertions, and assertions that are incomplete. For instance, the assertion that creativity and imagination are required in the opening runs counter to the ten or more opening books published daily around the world. There's not much room for creativity in the opening, truth to tell. It offers a nice sound bite to say there is, but computers have relegated most opening innovations to the ashbin of history. I do agree the opening sets the stage!
• In the Dissolution phase your writing got a bit slipshod. You state that "In this final phase, we try to checkmate our opponent or be checkmated by our opponent." I'm not really looking to be checkmated by my opponent...ever. Additionally, I would suggest that we try to checkmate our opponent in any phase of the game where it's possible. The impression from the way you wrote this section is that we only focus on mate in the endgame. Finally, if you're on the losing side, you might be looking to have your king stalemated, create a fortress, or find a perpetual against the enemy. There are many things to consider in an ending besides checkmate. Often, it's just squelching the last shreds of resistance, or finding a tempo-gaining triangulation that leads to a pawn promotion and the opponent's resignation, or a zugzwang that forces the opponent to make positional or material considerations. So, checkmate is a consideration, not necessarily a focus.

A point of accuracy--you said pieces protect from beside or behind. However, pieces can protect from in front. A black queen on b1 can protect the pawn on h7, and I've seen that in a game between super-GMs, let alone below that level.

Blog Category: Informative, Entertainment

Superb topic!

Minor point, but I try to avoid text repetition in the thumbnail and the title. I'd delete "FREE FOR REAL" from the title. Plus, the all caps is a trigger for some people who have to hear about politicians who use ALL CAPS for no reason. The transference mechanism should not be underestimated .

For the reader's benefit, I'd add a Table of Contents (with links in the best of all worlds). After all, there were five courses. It's salesmanship to see up front what the general/specific areas are.

Nice, light touches of humor, as always.

Very minor editing point: In section three, Typical Tactical Tricks, the opening paragraph misspells "affraid". Mildly surprised that the spell checker missed that.

Great job overall. Great research, well attuned to the chess masses in terms of useful material and their needs, good use of images.

Private feedback per request

Blog Category: Biography, Analysis

Blog Category: Biography, Entertainment

Thumbnail: Using two standard chess.com images is tricky. Because chess.com has such an influence (playing and blogging), I decided it was just right (a la Goldilocks).

Title: First of all, a good title for introducing the topic. That said, because you had "Chess & My Life" in the thumbnail (btw, the letters you crafted for the thumb looked great), I'd have been inclined to leave "Chess & My Life" out of the title. Shorter is usually better in a title. "My Lessons from 64 Squares" would have been sufficient.

 Topic: Excellent. Lots of people are curious what others have learned from their exposure to chess.

Introduction:

• I loved this intro. It got me into the blog. Despite that, I have way too many suggestions. Your originality inspired me.
• The first paragraph is too long. The first paragraph should have been, "Welcome, my dear readers, to this blog."
• Delete the sentence on International Chess Day. Many of your readers didn't and won't read it that day. PLUS, save it for the second paragraph. I suggested a possible revision below.
• Then second paragraph then begins, "When I first started..." Introductions should be snappy and get your reader both interested, and into your topic quickly. I'd have revised this paragraph to read as follows, "When I first started playing chess, it felt different. It wasn't just about moving pieces; it was about thinking, planning, and learning from every single move – mine and my opponent's. And what better day to think about this than the day I published this, July 20th, International Chess Day! It’s a day to celebrate this amazing game. For many of us, it's a chance to remember that very first move or when we first got curious about chess." Then a new paragraph.
• New paragraph: "As a low-ELO legend, I'm always looking for ways to improve... and coincidentally, my annual 'opportunity for improvement' (aka birthday) is on July 25th. Over the years..." Note that I am simply suggesting it reads more smoothly if you do it this way. But that's only a few minutes thought on my part.
  
  

Editing:

• Great images. I'd add captions under them all. It gives you a chance to add more humor. I thought the chess pieces with the COVID virus was begging for a caption. For the caption on BC I would have modified it: BlogChamps Season 8 competition with pfps of the competitors! Read all about it (link to Vanessa's blog).

Writing:

• There's a good flow throughout. You kept things moving along and presented enough variety to keep the reader interested.

Blog Category: Informative

Thumbnail: Nice! But it sets a dark tone (almost film noir) that wasn't an underlying theme of the post.

Title:

• It doesn’t need a period.
• You could have dropped the word "Chess". If they can't figure that out from being on chess.com and the thumbnail, you probably don't want them as a reader.

Editing:

• Accuracy is important. The period covered is 88 years, yet the title specifically states 80.
• Add a Table of Contents. It assists the reader up front if they know how you are breaking your presentation down.
• Part 1: You mentioned three great players in one paragraph but didn't give sufficient details about any of them. An image and a paragraph for each (Lasker, Capa, and Nimzo) would have better served you.
• Excellent images.

Topic: The topic is very well-traveled (i.e., overdone). I would recommend writing a blog about other players besides the World Champions, who have been covered A LOT, and in far more depth. Unless you have something new to say about a certain World Champion’s games/play style/etc. these are topics we usually advise contestants to avoid.

Engaging: Ultimately, the blog failed to hold my interest; it certainly doesn't help that I already know a ton about all these players. Additionally, it felt like it was written in 10 minutes. Certainly, the brevity contributed to that sense. It was extremely short.

Research: This would not have remotely been in contention for best research if that category had been an option. There simply isn't the depth of investigation into the players. It was more a case of name-dropping with a single fact attached.

Overall; There is potential in a blog like this. But you are competing against masters of this blog form. If you have a real interest in these types of blogs, I'd suggest you do a web search on "famous players name + chess.com + blog" and see what some of the Top Bloggers are doing. That's what you are competing against when you pick a topic like this one.

Blog Category: Entertainment

The thumbnail was eye-catching! That said, I didn't understand it, and the caption underneath threw me completely for a loop as I wasn't sure what that had to do with the topic. Sure, it's your opinion about two graphic products, but how did that contribute to the blog?

The title was intriguing and made me want to read the blog out of sheer curiosity.

I would have centered the sections under the Table of Contents (ToC). It looks askew with the section headings left justified and the ToC center justified. Additionally, it would be useful to increase the font from 15 to 18 or 24 for all the Section headings under the ToC.

Within the main body of the blog the Section titles are like 48. More reasonable is something like 24. Otherwise, it's just a bumper sticker that distracts from driving down the blog's pathway.

Good humor. Good tone throughout. Good use of quotes, though I would have shown the quoter's name at the same font size as the quote itself. (No reason to make your reader shift their reading focus to a much smaller size.) Rating level appropriate analysis, if a bit too much trust in the computers assertions that a game is lost simply because a wing pawn was lost (that's Kevin's main complaint, so you know). "Pawn is pawn" only works above a certain rating level...and I'm not quite sure what that level is.

Blog Category: Informative, Biography

Overall: Excellent blog, a pleasure to read. Even enjoyed it on a second reading, and I'm not usually one for repeating something.

Thumbnail: The mystery effect is always a good hook!

Title: Combined with the thumb, this sets the stage perfectly for your topic.

Topic: Great! Avoiding the famous is a solid step away from the boredom of reading about Bobby, Capa, Alekhine, Carlsen, or one of the Ks for the thousandth time. Because I was a Keres fan at one time (before I stepped away from fandom of any kind), I will make allowances for blogs written about Keres. Be warned, I would expect a LOT out of a Keres blog.

Writing:

• Stating your selection criteria up front to set expectations was excellent.
• Explaining why they made your list was vital. All too often the question "why" isn't even asked, let alone answered.

Analysis: Agree with Vanessa that a game from each player could have been a great bonus. (The game from Episenko was a pleasure to revisit. I remember the shock and awe at the time.) Not necessary to have games for each, but it's like the cherries on top of a banana split, a nice topper. Wikipedia pages sometimes include a few "best" games for a player. I've got ChessBase so I can look for annotated games for a player when I think about it.

Humor: Loved the take on Radoslaw's last name!

Research:

• Good job summarizing highlights of each player's career!
• I know it's just me, but I always like to see peak FIDE ratings attached to players. You can get that from Wikipedia pages for most, and from FIDE pages for any rated player. For some of the older generation I jump to Chessmetrics Find A Player. That's particularly useful for folks born prior to 1960 because FIDE only instituted their rating system in 1970.

Blog Category: Informative, Biography

Solid thumbnail, but I'd use the caption for something more entertaining than citing the tools used to make it. We can tell it's not AI just by looking at it. I might have spaced the players out further across the bottom of the blog. It felt a bit claustrophobic with them bunched together.

Most people won't know what the Four Great Inventions are. You should list them yourself or offer a link to a page that explains it.

For the Table of Contents I would not capitalize everything. It's non-standard and, perhaps oddly, makes the text more difficult to read.

Too much content. You said the topic was four players, but immediately dove into chess variants. That's distracting and causes the reader to wonder what other surprises will happen. Plus, it suggests a lack of focus on the topic.

The Section "Chinese Players" appears to exist only to make a joke. Unfortunately, it comes across as a dad joke. And it contributed nothing to the topic. Like the section on xiangqi it was an unnecessary deviation from the main topic of the blog, four players.

You have an incorrect fact about Hou Yifan. Her peak rating was 2686 in March 2015. According to FIDE her current Elo is 2633 (you had that number but it is not her peak rating, just her current rating) since August 2024. Also, Hou is obviously not the first player to make the top 100. Judit Polgar reached #8. These incorrect facts are nettlesome for people who research these matters in depth.

The section on the Chinese Chess Championship is also tied only indirectly to the four players who were supposedly the focus of this blog. A separate post about the championship would have been an interesting endeavor.

Bottom line:

• Excellent topic but you brought in too much extra material. Limiting your focus would have improved this blog.
• Xie Jun was left out completely. She was supposed to be the fourth player. Had you deleted several sections that delved into matters not central to the topic of this post, you would have had time to include her.
• I thoroughly enjoyed this blog! Even though these players are famous, they deserve more attention. Good work!! (We all have room for improvement, and I hope these comments assist in your process.)

Blog Category: Biography, Informative

Overall: Excellent.

Thumbnail: Very straightforward, I liked it. The symmetry was perfect and the colors were all complementary (and complimentary). Textwise, I would have just written something like "The Young Hopes!" on the thumbnail. I prefer not to repeat the title word for word. Sometimes no text at all is necessary, but something like "Young Hopefuls" rounds out what would otherwise be empty space at the top of the blog.

Title: Excellent. Let's the reader know that the topic is.

Introduction: Awesome collage!! So many emotions expressed. I might have put a white border around the entire collage of the same width as the edges between the individual pictures.

Miscellaneous: Appreciated the music.🎶

Research: Nice job integrating materials from sources such as the FIDE website and integrating that in a very pleasantly viewable way.

Blog Category: Entertainment

Thumbnail: Good.

Title: Excellent!! Very intriguing notion that should draw in readers who are willing to place themselves in someone else's shoes.

The adventure: Perhaps there should have been a few more false paths. I got through on my first try and felt like I didn't deserve it. Part of the fun of these puzzlers is ending up in a room with no exits and having to start over.

Writing and editing were excellent.

Overall: Excellent. [I've no experience building one of these CHYOAs, but appreciate all the hard work that goes into it.]

VOB's note: I do have experience, and I know CHYOA blogs are VERY HARD to do. You did an amazing job with this one.

Blog Category: Entertainment

Thumbnail: Loved it! It felt like so many of my favorite characters from Grimm's Fairy Tales had gathered in one place.

Title: Very intriguing phrasing that is destined to draw in minds like mine. Stone soup is such a wonderful concept, just as one might find it difficult to squeeze blood from a stone (don't read this the wrong way @nova-stone!).

Editing:

• The double spacing between paragraphs leaves too much space on the page, imo.
• The paragraphs are too short. Almost all of them are single sentences. It's like a series of bullet points, but without the confounded bullets sitting on the side (as seen in my feedback). Paragraphs should vary, but three to five sentences per paragraph is a fairly universal standard. Occasionally throw in a one-liner to break things up and avoid monotony, but on the whole 3-5 sentences works just fine. Vanessa might disagree, but I'll suggest that there are occasions that a paragraph stands up and insists it receive six or seven sentences. Better to listen to your paragraph than to we judges, even if one of us is a Top Blogger.

Writing: Excellent.

Research: Excellent.

Blog Category: Informative (some have suggested, excessively so.😉)

Feedback from BC and a published, thoughtful self-analysis convinced me I had nothing to add...particularly since I'm lazy. 😁 And I try to avoid Idiot-splaining, even though it's a lifetime habit. BUT, okay, I'll say a few things since I was pinged in a blog comment. Take the following for what it's worth.😜

Thumbnail: I thought that was hilarious.

Title: A bit obscure for most. A simpler approach, but still potentially offsetting, would be, "Ever had a knightmare accompanied by a bishop?" Why? Well, posing a question is often a good hook.

Writing: Clear and concise. BONUS: Another person who correctly spells and uses the word "complement"! [The other person receives kudos as well. Good hunting! (Using Ctrl+F is cheating.🤣)]

Analysis: Excellent (duh). Did I really need to say it was excellent? Isn't it actually more than that? Yeah, but then I sound like a fanboy, when in actuality I am The GOM (Grumpy Old Man, for those who haven't encountered my acronym.)

Table of Contents: Any ToC that includes more than seven sections is prone to the flaw of boiling the ocean. If possible, it's not something I've played with in a ToC, I'd have underlined the parts, e.g., Part I: The Myth. Then 1, 2, 3. Also, because you had four parts, I'd have experimented with resetting the numbering in each part. Thus, Part III subsections would have been numbered 1 to 6. Might as well lull your reader a bit so they don't realize that there are not only four parts, but 18 subsections. Otherwise, it's like the Rodney Dangerfield movie Back to School where the annoying "villain" teachers says, "I have only one question for Mr. Melon, in 27 parts." I have only one question... (Enjoy the link, those who haven't seen this movie.)

Quotology: Excellent! Silman, Gibbon, et al. Leavens the reader's burden, particularly when accompanied by images. Didn't hurt that I used to play tens of blitz games against John Watson before life sent us in different directions.

Memes: Excellent. Many of our contestants could learn from you. As well as from @SheldonofOsaka. And a few other OGs from BC and the folks who were members of both TBAs.

Research: Oh, unlucky you. If we'd had this category in July, your post almost certainly would have medaled. Well, life is like that. You're thinking, what are the odds? Well, 1 in 4,000 to get this confounded B+N ending. Between the original TBA and this incarnation, there have been fewer than fifty monthly contests. So, it is far more likely a category would show up at the wrong time than that a single person will get to play this ending...unless we consider the millions of games played in the last three years. Maybe it's like birthdays. Put 50 random people in a room and there's a 97% chance that two of them share a birthday.

Blog Category: Informative

Overall: Excellent material, but perhaps too much for a single blog.

Topic: This limits your audience to some extent, but even the beginners should start learning this stuff, imo.

Writing:

• Someone who knows how to spell "complementary"! Thank you!!
• Excellent explanations.

Editing:

• Many of your readers are young. I would have immediately offered a brief definition of "tandem." and "knight battery". A simple image of a knight on the same diagonal as its bishop at the very front of the blog would have worked wonders, imo. The image by CoachKane didn't serve that purpose imo, unless my browser was messing up...I looked with several browsers.
• Some of your more literal readers would have been picturing a battery-powered knight. 😉 You could even make a joke about a knight powered by batteries. I'm thinking of the 1970s US television show "Knight Rider" with the car Kit.
• Under the caption of the knights by Chess Empire I would have dropped the company name to offer a quote from some GM on why knights are the most difficult pieces to move. Your readers could always contact you if they're curious about the origins of those knights. On the other hand, a good quote serves to move the story along.
• The black text in a white box above the puzzles is very distracting. Part of the problem is that it looks like an ill-formed cut and paste. Until then your text had been white against a dark setting, and that worked quite well. There seemed to be no purpose behind this shift.
• I felt explaining the origin of the Arabian Mate was extraneous material. I'd have dropped it. It doesn't move the blog forward and isn't entertaining enough to merit inclusion, imo.
• I felt including the B+N checkmate was adding too much material and at a far different level than the earlier material. I suspect many readers skipped this entirely. Those who had already stuffed their brains full and didn't want to dilute what they had learned (Gary Larson, The Far Side, the kid who asks to be excused because their brain is full), and those individuals who already know the mating patterns

Puzzles are always fun for readers, imo.

Excellent examples.

Working backwards in puzzles to teach a pattern is EXCELLENT! Not enough books do this.

Blog Category: Biography

Thumbnail and title: I would have left "The Knight Battery" off the thumbnail. I have an aversion to that repetition unless it cannot be avoided. I felt that "Moving Your Army in Tandem" would have been sufficient.

Overall: Good blog.

Good thumbnail.

Topic: Ivanchuk a player who has been written about extensively. It's always difficult to be original when covering well-trod ground.

Writing:

1. Excellent introduction sets the reader on a good path.
2. Some run on sentences, for example, first sentence under "STYLE and Personality".

Editing:

• The Table of Contents (ToC) be better if were actual links; see tips forum. Also, you should increase the font size of the section headings for the ToC so they stand out from ordinary text. Similarly, I would have increased the font size of the section headings from 15 to 24 so they stand out more. Plus I would not use all caps for the section titles.
• Word walls detract from the reading experience. A word wall is a series of long paragraphs, uninterrupted by games, pictures, quotes, or what have you. I like to start each section with a picture. It cues the reader. Your occasional use of ALL CAPS is distracting and almost always unnecessary.
• A few typos got past your editing. For instance, the first sentence under "World Championship Candidate" starts, "In 1911...". Pretty sure he wasn't born yet. You meant 1991. Easy to slip and difficult to catch even while editing. Also, under "Life Outside of Chess" you said, "...he's become quite a competitive chess player." You meant checkers. Again, spell checkers won't catch this. It's a painful, manual, human process.

Decent amount of humor. I particularly enjoyed the IM definition.🤣

Analysis: Adding a few personal notes of your impressions of the Ivanchuk - Carlsen game would make it more interesting. The queen sac was, tbh, easy to see. In fact, I'd add personal comments throughout the games. It doesn't have to be deep analysis. It can be as simple as, "I wouldn't have seen that", "Isn't that cool.", "I've seen something like that before."

Blog Category: Informative

Good topic but lacking in personal details. Personal details are what holds a reader's interest.

Your thumbnail cropped the top and the bottom, indicating it did not fit into the 1600x900 block that chess.com allows. We have forums that talk about that thumbnail problem and how to fix it.

Usually Master begins at 2200, at least in most nations, so your title would confuse many. Also, we try not to have the thumbnail and the title use the exact same words. Given the thumbnail has limited room, something like "From Zero to Hero" would have primed the reader. Then the actual title would have filled in the blanks for them.

You should learn how to create a Table of Contents. That is also discussed in the forums in the club. It lets the reader see how your blog is organized. It should be built with links so they can skip around the blog if they want. You would have had seven sections in your blog. The introduction, followed by the six stages you propose.

Word Walls: A word wall means continuous text with no pictures to break up the monotony. Most of us suggest adding a picture or a game sample every three to five paragraphs. You can also throw in quotes occasionally to spice things up with titled player thoughts.

Writing: You essentially delivered a series of bullet statements but no personal thoughts about any of them. Or information where the reader might learn more about, for instance, the Fried Liver Attack, where to find annotated games, what you mean by "annotate a GM game" [and how to do that], what an opening repertoire is, etc. Some examples would make your words concrete, rather than vague abstractions.

Excellent conclusion.

Blog Category: Biography.

Good thumbnail. Solid title. The topic suffers only from the fact that ten million words have been written already about Petrosian, so it isn't very original for anyone who has been around chess a while.

To ease your reader into the blog I always suggest adding a Table of Contents (ToC). There are forums in the club to help with that.

Editing: Your test is central justified. That's an annoying format for most people to read. Perhaps you accidentally clicked this. Most people use left justification. Some prefer full justification (the words go from margin to margin) because that is how news papers and most magazine articles are written.

Word walls: You occasionally wrote a full page of text without anything to break it up, whether pictures or a game. That can wear on the reader who usually reads a blog partly for entertainment. Memes are a particularly good way to keep your readers amused and actively engaged. Game puzzles are another approach. For example, near the end you talk about the fact Petrosian was honored with his face on the 2000-dram banknote. That would have been a good place to find a picture of that banknote on the internet and paste it here to keep the reader interested.

The games: Even though it's not deep analysis, it's more entertaining for a reader if you put in your personal reactions to some of the moves in the game. Nothing fancy, just what you think when you're looking at a position. A game with chess.com symbols is a bit dull.

Overall, a good blog.

Blog Category: Entertainment.

Excellent thumbnail, title, and topic!

I found the all-italics in the introduction to be irritating.

Nice, humorous intro that maintains itself throughout. Good research, good writing, good editing, good use of images and games to break things up.

I'd add a Table of Contents (ToC) that lists the sections you'll cover. In this blog it was Damiano, Greco, Philidor, and the two Modenese masters.

The conclusion felt rushed. From a fun little game, the blog suddenly burst across an unexpected finish line. I'd suggest looking at some endings by @PokeGirl93 or @VOB96 for stylish endings. Because you're doing a series, you might prefer something like @KevinSmithIdiot's posts (mine) that are a series. I try to set the stage for the next post. Additionally, in the subsequent posts I offer links to all the prior posts in the series because some people always catch a series in mid-stride. Makes it easier for them to go back and catch up.

Blog Category: Informative.

Wonderful concept! Overall a solid blog. It could have been great, but you tried to do too much. It's what many describe as the "boiling the ocean" problem. Your topic didn't fit into a normal-sized blog You'd have been better served by making this a five-part series. In each part you would explore just one of the five ideas you presented. They each merit a blog of their own so you can explain nuances from beginning to end. Instead, every section feels as though you are rushing to get to the next section. And that means ideas and understanding get washed away.

The thumbnail doesn't tell a full story. Some text such as "We can't see the forest because of the trees"

Table of Contents: This is somewhat minor, but the titles should be larger. They appear to be about size 12, when 18 would be better. And the poor section titles look like they should be cowering in terror from the huge "Table of Contents". They're already almost hidden beneath that behemoth. Too much size differential confuses the eye.

Your explanations suffer from too much brevity--throughout. The problem is that you know what point you are trying to illustrate. But you leave out several steps between the initial thought and the final conclusion. It's like saying, today we will learn how to tie our shoelaces. Okay, put on your shoes. Place one lace on top of the other. Now pull the bow tight and voila, you have a perfectly tied shoelace. Some of the in-between steps are crucial for a beginner.

How would I solve this in a blog? One approach is to work backwards in baby steps. Start from the final position. Explain what they should do. Then make a puzzle that tests that "one" move. Then back up two moves. Give them a puzzle that clearly has all the outlines of the first puzzle but is a couple moves earlier. Their goal is to solve it and reach the position of the first puzzle. As a bonus feature, that enhances their visualization skills.

In the first diagram under "What Changed?" it would help if there was a comment or question after White's sixth move (6.Nc3) that explains what changed, or asks why this move changes something. I'd go with explaining what changed, given many readers won't come into this understanding that the b5 bishop is no longer a loose piece. You mention it in text further below, but if the text was directly tied to the move on the board, that visualization would reinforce your key idea.

Your definition of terms strikes me as a bit lax. Candidate moves are not a way to visualize what moves work and which moves don't. Candidate moves are ideas that you consider and perform analysis on. Visualization is a way to assist in the calculation process.

Your two Chandler book examples under "what if I do it anyway" were EXCELLENT!

Your definition of prophylaxis is far, far beyond the comprehension of less advanced players...and a bit inaccurate/confusing, but we'll ignore that for now. You should have started with the simple example of pushing a pawn to h3, h5, a3, or a6 to keep an enemy bishop or knight from landing on g4, g5, b4 or b5 square. Then explain why it is sometimes better to play c3 on the queenside to keep enemy pieces out of b4 and d4. But add that it is dangerous to push Freddy, the f-pawn, one square. First, because GM Simon Williams (the Ginger GM) says it's a bad move. But mostly because f2-f3 often weakens the h4-e1 diagonal or the c5-g1 diagonal, and vice versa for Black if they push their f-pawn to f6. Build from simpler concepts to your entire games.

Another problem with the prophylaxis section is that you never mentioned its application during the game. You need to be very specific with your examples. An entire game rarely achieves that. The forest is so deep that they miss the prohpylactic trees planted to prevent bad things from happening.

Explaining your choice of color for arrows is probably a waste of the reader's time. They aren't going to memorize your detailed, textual descriptions. Instead of saying "I use x to indicate why" just show some examples on a board and tell them how to get the color you used in the comments for a few moves. Then they're part of the visualizations journey, instead of reading some text.

Blog Category: Biography.

Thumbnail: Overall, excellent. That said, I'm not a fan of repeating the text of the title in the thumbnail. Maybe an image of a chess king with human features, crying and reaching out for a crown that is just out of reach.

Topic: This is well-trod ground but that doesn't mean there aren't new insights to bring to your readers. What might intrigue me more, because I know less about the individuals, is a history of female chess players who nearly grasped the women's crown but just missed out.

Introduction: A minor point. I would have made "Glad to see you reading my blog." a one sentence paragraph. Then a new paragraph that starts out, "Now think about it..." Why do I suggest that change? Because the way it is currently written makes the reader jump suddenly from a friendly greeting to, "Now think about it..." That's an abrupt change of pace. If that had been the start of a new paragraph it would have been easier on the brain.

Research: You could have added more material. For instance, you mention his 1907 game against Rotlewi and tell the reader to go watch it, but you don't provide a link or post the game. I've looked at a few versions, but one that is readily available is by NM Sam Copeland from chess.com The Greatest Chess Combination Of All Time?! - Rotlewi vs. Rubinstein, 1907 - Every Move Explained. It took me longer to type the last two sentences than it did to find this YouTube snippet. The same with Fine - Keres. In this case you might have changed the media and provided a link to 365chess.com Fine vs Keres (1938) AVRO. Such touches provide more depth for your reader.

Images: Excellent!!

Karpov--what a wonderful, surprise inclusion. Very nice touch!! Probably Euwe could be included in that grouping as the chess world was shocked when he beat Alekhine, and not very surprised when he lost the rematch.

Overall: A good blog, but more material would have better served your readers. With that crew of super-GMs I definitely think including information on at least one game from each would have improved this blog.

Blog Category: Recap.

Overall: A professional blog. Good editing, writing, focus on the target of describing key moments in the final round and the outcomes.

Thumbnail: A bit bland, tbh. The picture for the late-night blitz tourney was more interesting. I'd have included the names of the players in the picture.

Title: Perfect. Plus, you filled a gap that the chess.com staff leaves vacant. These smaller tournaments have a dynamic all their own and it's great to see stuff like this!!

Analysis: Would have been fun to see some very brief analysis of the Tari - Andersen game that determined clear first.

Private feedback per request

Blog Category: Informative.

Blog Category: Entertainment.

The thumbnail and title offered no suggestions that chess would be on the menu, so I was immediately disconcerted. Then the green and orange text hit he like a hammer, causing a visual migraine. Our helpful forums suggest that bloggers take it easy on their poor, benighted readers and stick to a simple color palette of white text or black text, preferably on a background where it's legible.

Analysis outside of the chess box should be more general in nature. Talking about your general thoughts during the game (at first I was ecstatic but then I blundered; my opponent was an idiot/brilliant/no better than me; about move thirty I offered a draw because I had to go to the bathroom; or some such stuff) and post-game (below the chess box). The post-game is still a bit generic, but might say, "What started out as a slow-looking game looked a bit spicy after we castled on opposite sides. I went for a piece attack against their king, while they tried a slow-rolling pawn avalanche where my king rested. Well, we know how the game ended, but it wasn't because of either of those factors. Nope, lost on time in a totally winning position." Make the pre-game and post-game analysis fun. (Doesn't have to be fun, but fun is one way to keep readers engaged.)

Final thought: There's not enough content here to be competitive in most categories, but this is a FUN blog!

Sections: I know some judges and TBs who think every section should start with a picture. I've started doing that myself. It does help make the section breaks very distinctive. Consider it a nicety and do it if you can, is my suggestion.

Excellent humor.

Blog Category: Entertainment.

Excellent blog!

Thumbnail: Ghosts usually imply fear, but the image of the player is excellent. I might have dropped the ghost.

The introductory paragraph felt too long. I'd have found a way to break it into two paragraphs.

Blog Category: Satire, Informative, Analysis.

Thumbnail: Seeing her left arm cut off (as in the original photo, so not much to be done about that except castigate a photographer from 1998) reminded me of the American surfer. Poor Bob had a serious crewcut problem. But the roo distracts from those forced miscues. A possible solution to the amputations: Switch the individuals. Place her on the right (in the right) and Bob on the left (in the wrong). Then it's the sidewalls cutting off limbs and not front and center.

Introduction: We immediately know we're getting a dose of special humor a la JGTOMC! Love the BIGs!

Humor:

• Very punny! The double entendre famously flew fast and furious.
• Loved the section titles "Bobbing for Scapegoats", "Pigeonholed", etc.

Analysis: Well, I'm biased. It was Tony the Tiger quality (for those who have seen the frosted cornflakes commercials).

Editing/Writing:

• Excellent overall.
• I'd have added links for the Table of Contents (ToC), and a return button at the end of each section. Part of this comment is just a whine on my part 😢 because while judging I wanted to go back and just compare all the section titles to each other.
• Final thoughts provided an excellent balancing mechanism.

Analysis: I'll bet nobody notices that in the notes to move twenty of Game One, it is stated that "Black should not be looking to trade queens with the white king exposed." Hey, wait a minute. I thought the purported exposure was over the board (OTB), not on the board, and the queen, not the king.

Research: Okay, I'm impressed that you found the games. It can be incredibly difficult to dig up youthful game scores of some famous players, let alone those who didn't enter the world before the internet saved everything (and doomed us all to infinite scrolling.)

Blog Category: Biography, Informative, Entertainment.

Thumbnail: Solid execution and no surprise that you avoided the trap of using the title for text in the thumb...it would never have fit!🤣

Title: Maybe you could have stopped at "Gears of Glory!". I'd have been worried a bit that most people are hesitant to read a chess clock history but would be too intrigued by the simple, promising "Gears of Glory" to hesitate even briefly. Plus, the shorter title serves as a hook because the reader's brain says, "What? I think I know what this is about from the thumbnail, but what's Vanessa's take on this?"

Topic: Time flies, but clocks never seem to get their moment. This was a great way to rectify that!

Editing/Writing:

• Excellent.
• Loved the cog in the machine as the narrator. A miniature deus ex machina, but one that didn't feel contrived.
• Great images as separators.

Humor: Light-hearted and helped move things along sprightly.

Research: Excellent!! (Obviously I wrote your feedback after I realized I should start beating the drums on this new aspect of the August contest.}

Private feedback per request

Blog Category: Informative.

Blog Category: Informative.

Picture-perfect thumbnail! It was a pleasure watching this evolve from the initial good concept to a grand conclusion.

Great concept, but a few errors in execution that blemished the final product.

Tbh, the text underneath that first puzzle left me flummoxed. Yes, it was a refreshing puzzle, but the assertion that it effectively taught you to be flexible in planning your moves left me baffled. And the concluding sentence, "Don't just act, also react" left me outside of your stream of thought. You clearly knew what you meant, but I didn't! POTENTIAL SOLUTION: If you had immediately finished with, "Now, let me explain what I meant by those two statements!", then I would have been in full concord with the approach. Instead, I sat there for a few minutes trying to ascertain what I had overlooked in this simple puzzle. You want to tease your reader along but not leave them behind you scratching their head like Stan in a Laurel and Hardy movie (I was Stan in this instance).

I suspect the lesson to be learned translates more easily with a diagram that shows the wrong move(s). Also, I suspect you meant that at first you followed up with ...Qe5+, not ...e5+. Such typos/miscues will cost your lower-rated readers painful moments while they try to discern what you meant. That is why I try to avoid listing moves in text. It's harder to make such typos in the diagrams than in text.

Textual error. Below the diagram where the white queen captures on c4 and then Black delivers mate on g2 there is an error. You indicated she was on the file to prevent mate. More accurately, the white queen was on the second rank to prevent mate. The fact she was simultaneously on the e-file is irrelevant because only the e2 square on that file allows the queen to prevent mate on g2.

Blog Category: Informative, Entertainment.

Overall: An impressive amount of research and effort went into generating this one!

Thumbnail: Well, it was innovative. But I cannot say I found it enticing enough to make me want to read the post. I didn't gain any sense of the purpose of the blog from the thumb.

Topic: Some of your potential judges do not like variants. So, there is a downside risk. Heck, I even wrote a satire about variants. That said, I'm willing to listen in the hopes of entertainment...up to a point. A perhaps more important issue here is that it's a smaller potential audience when you discuss variants.

Intro:

• I liked it! Well, the opening "WARNING". Then things went a little sideways with multiple introductions. It begs the question, why not just move on to the topic? At some point, I simply fund this irritating. Then again, I am the Grumpy Old Man (The GOM).
• Introducing yourself: As I learned to my dismay writing a paper for a very technical course in Combat Tactics several decades ago, you don't need to waste your audience's time introducing yourself. Your readers will assume you know what you are talking about, until you prove otherwise.
• More importantly, a blog is supposed to limit its scope. Instead, you boiled a lake on your way to boiling an ocean (there is material in this blog for a series...a single blog should seek to limit its scope).

Editing:

• As I say with over half the submissions, add a Table of Contents [TOC] so your reader is prepped up front for what they're about to encounter. (I'm making up that 50% number. It might be right, it might be wrong. It remains relevant.)
• Boiling the ocean (trying to cover "everything" in one blog) is a recipe for failure. I can't say it more simply than that. People try this all the time because their topic is that interesting to them. Nonetheless, it's a pitfall, one that's easy to stumble into.

Writing:

• An intro to the intro? Well, as a humorous aside, perhaps it has merit. But as technique? High risk, low reward. Why bother, tbh. And it wasn't actually an intro to the intro, imo.

Research: Excellent! Too bad this wasn't a category yet. You did a great jog providing links to relevant material. August competitors beware, Vish has demonstrated some excellent skills in this area!!

Blog Category: Informative.

Very decent effort!

I would probably have broken it into two blogs. One that talked about some easy to learn opening systems (surprised you didn't mention the King's Indian Attack) and a separate blog about common tactics. It's a bit much to expect lower-rated players to absorb all the information you included in one long blog.

Typo that a spell checker won't catch. The introductory sentence says, "Welcome back to part to...", but should read "Welcome back to part two..."

Thumbnail was a bit boring tbh. Further, the text doesn't align with the title. The thumbnail says "Complete", but the title says, "Part 2". Something isn't complete if there is a part somewhere else.

Editing: You had some problems with formatting. It's a common chess.com glitch. For instance, the paragraph under the London System (and Danish Gambit) is center justified instead of left justified as your other paragraphs are. You should be able to fix this by playing around a bit with the editing tools. Often just hit "Enter" a few times, put a single letter on each line, then left justify the paragraph you care about. Then go back and carefully delete all those lines you entered to fool the chess.com editing system.

Slight opening inaccuracy: Your description of the KID fails to note that White could force you into the Pirc. Your 1.e4 d6 solution does not prevent that. The Pirc can be similar to the KID, but there are distinctive differences. Also, it is sometimes possible to transpose to a Caro-Kann against 1.c4 and even 1.d4.

Blog Category: Entertainment.

Overall: Great addition to your portfolio of movie posts! Thoroughly enjoyable ride even if I've only seen about half these movies...the older ones, no surprise there.

Thumbnail: Excellent, but one detracting features The frames around the movies are different. If they came that way, I'd crop them and then add your own frames that are all the same size.

Title: You repeated the same text in the title and the thumb. In general, we try to avoid that, but nothing occurs as a solution to me in this instance.

Editing: For the first two pictures I'd use the caption feature to list the title of the movie. Your reading audience is generally going to have seen far fewer of these films than you have. Help the readers out!

Most readers are looking for a bit more text. This felt like a coffee table book (do they still make those atrocities) of great pictures but minimal dialogue.

Blog Category: Biography, Informative.

Excellent thumbnail and title, very intriguing, draws the reader in. Well, readers like me.

Have to admit, I was hoping to see one of his games. That said, the video of him opening the SCC with the bongcloud as ceremonial moves for Magnus was outstanding!

Blog Category: Informative, Entertainment.

Bottom line: Outstanding blog.

Thumbnail: I'm not sure why, but the color of the text didn't quite work for me. And I wish there had been a Sam Spade like, film-noir scene that formed a background against which the guns and the tournament hall scene had been overlaid. The gray mat works well relative to the guns (perfect colors), but otherwise served no evident purpose in framing the rest of the thumbnail. [The colors in the picture for cigarettes and liquor worked much better...maybe it was the color of blood and the mood of the story.🤔]

Title: Okay, definitely intriguing!!

Humor: Steely and fun, imo.

Blog Category: Informative.

Topic: Great concept, but too much to cover in a single blog. I was left a bit confused in too many instances on what I was supposed to take away from a given chapter.

Thumbnail: The text in the thumbnail confused the writer in me but intrigued the reader in me.

Title: Excellent, a great hook to catch lazy readers. Particularly appreciated the alliteration of Secrets, Sagas and Strategies.

Editing:

• Intriguing structure for your blog! Almost revolutionary. Had my interest immediately.
• Preferable if the reader's never have to switch viewing modes. I know I'm too lazy to do that. Probably a good thing I wasn't a judge in July.😁
• Quantity seems a bit excessive. Any time a Table of Contents shows more than six or seven items my enthusiasm starts to flag. Plus, as an editor I begin to grow concerned that the author tried to boil the ocean when a blog is little more than teapot sized.

Analysis:

• Minimal within the game boards, yet a lot of games were shown. That will frustrate all your readers.
• The Queenless Opening...uhm, what was with the game where Black played the Botez Gambit? (Tactician99 v SolidSnake)
• There were other games that seemed to serve no purpose. In Chapter 4 White gets an exclam on move 5 and is mated on move 7. Was there a point? Certainly, no comments were added to explain this one.

Blog Category: Informative, Entertainment.

Thumbnail: lol.

Good, light-hearted introduction.

Editing:

• Word wall introduction. Needed an image. I would have put an image where you introduced the substitute teacher into the text.
• I would have placed your Table of Contents way up front to orient the reader as to what you will cover. Instead, it's several pages in. That means your intro was too long. But that extended intro could easily have served as two sections in the Table.
• Word walls throughout the blog. I'd advise never going more than four or five paragraphs without putting in an image of some sort. You had multiple points there the paragraphs screamed out, "You can create an image here!" For instance, the driving scenarios you described under four different goals.

Overall: Quite enjoyable! The human element of how you felt during multiple phases made a powerful statement. However, it felt too long and a bit disorganized. Part of that was because of the endless word walls of text, unrelieved by any breaks with images, quotes, games.

Bottom line: This was almost a stream of conscious blog. You could have streamlined it to achieve a better flow.

Blog Category:

Thumbnail: Nailed it.

Topic: Excellent. One of the less covered areas. It's more original that most blogs on standard stuff such as openings, famous players, and tactics.

Writing:

• In the intro I'd have dropped the phrase "I was just playing around." You'd already said (JK) above, so that felt extraneous.
• More text would have been better, imo.
• The writing is a bit clumsy in places (overall it's excellent). For example, in the section "Intro" you wrote, "...sometimes we come across a point...". That phrasing could be slightly improved if written this way, "...sometimes we reach a point...". That is more concise and means the same thing.
• Some sentences are too long; run-on sentences was how my English teachers diagnosed this (I do it all the time). Any sentence that is more than ten or twelve words is at risk of becoming a run-on sentence. For instance, under Chess Obsession the first sentence would be better as two sentences. Here's a rewritten version, "For many chess begins as hobby. Others just decide to give it a try. That's what I did, inspired by a friend's idea. But sometimes, the game of chess becomes an obsession." One sentence converted into four. They're easy to read, they keep the reader moving along, and it helps us avoid problems with too many commas and run-on sentences.

Editing:

• For that introductory, up-front, four-sentence bit, I'd probably have placed it in quotes. First, it adds some variety. Second, it lets the reader know something different is going on. In this case, you were just goofing.
• Any paragraph that is more than four or five sentences is almost always too long. That happened multiple times. Just break those long paragraphs into two or three paragraphs! Also, it's visually appealing to have some breaks.
• You needed to select the text under Bobby's picture, convert it to 14 px, and center justify it. That way it's a caption. The way it is presented it looks like a paragraph that got started but was left incomplete.

Research:

• Good quotes!
• Since this becomes a category in August, I'll bring something up. By doing a web search "chess.com Carlsen versus Niemann blogs or news" you could have pulled up some images of these two. Your caption underneath the current picture indicates you didn't take that extra step. The board clearly isn't from the tourney where Magnus resigned after one move as you can see that multiple pieces have been moved on the board. NOTE: For this blog, I did not consider your caption a negative. For some reason it amused me. 🙂
• Again, not an issue for July. But if you did the research to find links on the cheating incident, you might have wanted to include one or two of those links in case the reader wanted more. It's not your job to recreate the whole story. You're like a guide, helping the reader along.

Blog Category: Informative.

The thumbnail is intriguing. The wing on the pawn is a cute touch.

Title: Sounds like a textbook. Apologies, but that's an immediate doze-pill for most readers.

Intro: Snarky and enjoyable!

Rando thought: I'd have found a suitable Rudolf Spielmann quote to place before your warning that this opening is for attackers. I've got at least twenty Spielmann quotes in my files (after all, he made my QuoteMasters Hall of Fame list), and some of them can be found at http://www.chessquotes.com/ I have a broader selection, but theirs might be adequate.

Editing/Writing:

• You leapt into a board position without explaining why you started with that chapter. I suspect that's because you took the material from your book into the blog directly. I've converted some of my chessable book materials into blogs, but always felt that a lot of preliminary explanation would best serve the reader who would otherwise be ill-prepared to keep up with the teaching goals of the material.
• More text in general is my main thought. I love analysis, but blogs generally seek to focus on some of the human elements that make a topic relatable to the everyday reader, not just attack-minded players.
• Solid editing job.

Analysis worth of a lifetime repertoire on chessable. Perhaps a little too deep for a blog for some, but you won't find me complaining!

I'd have turned that first Tactics test into a puzzle. Everybody would try the Trojan sac, but could they finish it off? Puzzles are fun in blogs.

Good job, Kevin! I added the link to this forum in the main announcement!

Are the order of the blogs the rankings or just random

It is just the order they were submitted. Not a ranking

Exactly what Vanessa said. After all, it's difficult enough for me to rank a top three, let alone build a ladder with 38 clearly defined steps. [Plus, what are the odds that the best blog for the month would have fallen to #27 on my list.😉]

So Happy for the feedback.

This is great news and a welcome surprise.

Thanks for the review, I'm very pleased ☺️

Very nice work! Thanks!

can i get feedback?

You are #24 on the list above.

ok thank you

Use Ctrl+F to find yourself is the easiest way to navigate there. Meant to say that. Got distracted.

any tips on how i can make it more full?

@DocSimooo has taken stories and turned them into fuller, chess-laden blogs. For instance, look at Checkmated by the Mountain - Julius Perlis' story as an example.

Basically, you need to find ways, and the time, to collect one long story from your life, or a selection of short stories, and then share parallels to chess stories that have happened to you or others.

Thanks for the feedback; I really appreciate it. Unfortunately, for this daily blog experiment, I had to prioritize quantity over quality, publishing between the end of the round and going to sleep. Hopefully, I'll be able to prioritize quality again for my next blog.

It was a great set of posts for reporting!!! Incredibly impressive!

Other folks could focus on a single post because they weren't doing daily, lengthy posts while playing for good results, cheering on friends, and probably a million other balls you were keeping in the air that week.

@emateu26 I am sure the daily updates were much better for the tournament than if you had made one only big post, so it was worth it! Keep always bringing us updates about Andorra!

If we had a category for reporting, you'd have won gold, silver, and bronze. That's something we haven't thought about as a distinct category because we get so few entries along those lines.

i will say i only used like one or two variations from my WIP chessable, and the rest i wrote up for the blog. I intentionally made the title like that as an homage to classic chess books from the romantic era where they were named like this, more a personal touch for me. I did make it into a puzzle and at some point must have accidentally disabled it. I didn't realize it had seemed like I jumped into it because when i was writing my original pgn file, i went about in the order or 5. a3, 5. d4, then sidelines, but organized it this way either by accident or because often authors DO NOT put the mainline in the first parts. I made the 5. d4 really short because it wasn't a focus and as one of the annotations noted, not a line I like nor would recommend, but was willing to show some of the merit to be found within.

makes sense!