I don't have time to write a regular full-length review of GM Dejan Bojkov's "Beating the English" repertoire on chessable.com (available here: https://www.chessable.com/beating-the-english/course/18011/). The first thing I have to say is that if...
Last summer, I wrote a blog post (https://www.chess.com/blog/Milliern/the-black-hole-of-chess-opening-study-and-my-hiatus) about how I never spent any time to study openings, and that now I had to figure out my opening problems, because I was gett...
I often use different analytical methods to determine what training has probably proven effective and to determine where I should be in the statistical population, i.e., theoretical OTB rating. One thing that's been strange is that the numbers ha...
I’ve been asked by a few friends to review chessable.com, and it seems I’m getting more and more requests, as people learn that I’m on there. So here goes. I came to chessable thinking it was a joke. It’s heavily points-oriented, like a vide...
I had the annoying task of having to go into my chess.com profile and update my peak USCF rating twice in one weekend: 1940, then 1952! It’s clear that GM Nigel Davies’ training program and coaching has been exactly what I needed in my game. Bas...
The Boston Congress went as well as I could have hoped, as far as the quality of play I was able to sustain. It didn’t go perfectly, in terms of result. That’s mostly my fault, accepting draws in positions where only I could be better. Lacking ...
For about two years, I’ve received numerous requests to do reviews for chess products I’ve tried. I occasionally do reviews for books on Amazon, so I felt occasionally doing a few on my blog for chess products that I can’t review for Amazon would...
I’ve had a few people ask me how close I am to hitting USCF 2000. They know how to check the USCF database, so they’re not asking whether my number is close to 2000 or not; they know the answer to that. I give them the answer that an unexpected ...
I don’t really know. Of what I wished to accomplish over 3 weeks away, I did only about 8%, though I spent way more than 100 hours –and as much as 190 hours, but I really lost count with continuous minor distractions. The questions become: wh...
A friend (1800-ish rated) of mine calls openings a "black hole," because of the massive content of opening ideas and move, and the complete time-suck that studying openings constitutes. Despite having never really entered into any openings study,...
After having all-time highs while not playing in the Boston player pool (again), I'm readjusting to the lull of playing in that pool. When floating in the upper 1700's (USCF), I enjoyed a one-tournament jump to 1850 at the Liberty Bell in Philly,...
About the only thing that went well at the World Open for me was a bunch of Q sacs. If, for whatever reason, you insist on writing the answers below, use white ink, otherwise I'll delete your post. This Q sac was from the second round of the ...
I think I posted the wrong games that ended in draws, because I caught some comments, as if I am just looking for draws. Not true. I'm so bad at openings that many of my games can be described as me making a few random, but reasonable looking mo...
My trip to Las Vegas was a success. It doesn’t look particularly great on paper, but a mental catalog of what I accomplished tells a different story. In either case, my trip was shrouded with fear and loathing; although GM Larry Christiansen pro...
“You’ll know you’re at the top when only heaven’s right above it.” This will be a simple and short update on my USCF standard rating progress. Last weekend, I cracked 1900. Even as you read this, I’ll probably be on my way back down below, b...
I’m constantly thinking about how to improve at chess, how to analyze metrics to determine improvement, and trying to understand how improving works. One of the world-shifting understandings I’ve come to has been the disjunction between logical t...
The start of every month at the Boylston Chess Club is marked with Quads. I have had some poor outings in Quads in the past. They are hotly contested, and it seems they make clear the relative difference in strengths between players in the 1600’...
I felt obligated to respond to this comment, especially since I’ve recently had a pretty poor experience with a very, very good chess analyst. When people make such remarks, I really don’t know what to think, because, not only is the in...
I have a big summer planned, as far as chess tournaments go. In my mind, we have a Triple Crown in the American chess scene –the triumvirate of the National Open in Las Vegas, Nevada, the World Open in Philadelphia, which is in the greatest state...
I’m a little shocked by my recent USCF rating progress. It’s already been a great past 12 months (2 wins vs NMs in blitz, 1 draw vs a NM in rapid, and a win and a draw vs NMs in the standard control, and one unrated win vs an IM), and my mathemat...
Some good things certainly happened to me at the Liberty Bell Open, but it was really the worst kind of good tournament I could have. Not only did I continue to suffer an ailment, I added two other issues that were true surprises that I haven’t d...
I don’t blog about my reflections often, but I do reflect. I know some of my friends mostly blog just to reflect, but I like to blog about adventures and travails more than reflections. Anyways, here is a little of my reflection upon 2016. The ...
I’ve had some pretty remarkable results in faster time controls in USCF OTB tournaments recently; and I’ve actually peaked significantly in every rating in the past month, e.g., tactics. Until the USCF gave me an artificial rating boost in blitz,...
If they ask where I live, point to the hills and say, “go all the way up!” --Fat Joe I’m all the way up! --French Montana Fulling expecting to reach or barely crack 1800, I didn’t quite do that. I did surpass 1800, but no mere crackin...
... CONTINUED What is the minimum rating difference that is ideal for a coach? I’m not one hundred percent sure about this, but I do have some ideas –and I don’t think it is a static rating difference, which I’ll explain in a minute. When I b...
