Video Chess: When 128 Bytes Was All You Had I grew up in the 1980s, back when video games were in their infancy. Our first gaming system was Pong, which was a short-lived novelty. Then my dad brought home the most coveted console...
I'm a believer in serendipity. It was only after a frustrating search for a solution to my e-board's connection issues that I stumbled upon a piece of software that changed my online chess experience. That software is Chessconnect, a Chrome extens...
Ever wonder what the longest chess match in history was? It's a question I've been pondering myself lately, as my own Chess.com daily tournament is being held hostage by yours truly (and a few others). My opponent and I just began turn 39 an...
Have you ever heard the old stories about chess driving people mad? From tortured grandmasters to wild tales of hallucinations at the board, the game has long carried a reputation for pushing minds past their limits. Some countries even took the f...
Many of you probably remember a few years ago when a Kickstarter campaign was launched promising self-moving pieces and even ended up sponsoring a chess tournament. They collected hundreds of thousands of dollars before finally being exposed...
Like many of you, I too have eyed those tournament-sized DGT boards and thought they would be nice to play on. My primary chess computer these days remains my Millenium Exclusive which I customized. It isn't tournament-sized, but it ha...
Time to teach those Soviets a thing or two! You are the perfect candidate to put them in their place. After all, you used to be a citizen of the USSR! It is 1978, and here you are in Baguio City, the Phillippines for the World Chess Cham...
You heard the whistle on that cool morning in 1915. You grab the ladder and you are up-and-over the top of the trench as you have done many times before. But this time was different... You remember a loud explosion and then... something ...
When you give orders, empires fall. You've spent your entire life conquering nation after nation in Europe: Italy, Germany, Spain. Great nations fall under the weight of your well-disciplined army and your strategic brilliance. The mere me...
Okay, you knew it was just a matter of time before Bernie made his way over to Chess.com... you knew it would happen eventually. You are just smart that way. I love a good book on the history of chess and I've enjoyed a few about Bo...
I have never been so happy to ring in a new year as I have this year. What an absolute mess 2020 was. As I write this my arm is still sore from my recent COVID vaccine, which I am very thankful for. Unfortunately, it arrived a li...
"Senator Ely, sir, c'mon now!" your aide shouts to you. "We're going to be late!" You arise from the desk in your capitol office and wipe the sweat from your brow on this hot July morning of 1861. You gather your top hat and scamper out of...
You don't even remember the exact date anymore. Not that it matters. All of your days seem the same now. You are cold, tired, and hungry. You've been enduring some form of deprivation since you and your allies landed on the beaches of France a f...
A few months ago I had the good fortune to stumble across a fellow Chess.com user that started the Adult Chess Improver YouTube Channel geared at those of us who are adults and working to improve our chess games. In the past months, I have r...
Imagine for a moment that you are living in 18th century France and you are sitting across from a dapper American diplomat by the name of Benjamin Franklin. The two of you are enjoying a nice game of chess in a cafe and he is turning out to be qui...
The last several months have been such an eye-opening experience for this ole Patzer. First and foremost, to get better at chess you must have a plan. When I started out on this journey a few months ago (and at every point in the past ...
So if you are like me, you like playing chess both on a real chessboard in the real world (3D) and on the computer (most 2D). If you have followed my posts recently you might recall that I have been playing with my eBoard, the Millennium ChessGen...
So if you caught my last two posts about chess eboards, I recently purchased the Millennium ChessGenius Exclusive ($599). I found it lacking in just a few areas, so I decided to do a few "upgrades" to it. To recap, I added my own notation using ...
<NO SPOILERS IN THIS POSTING> Add my name to the growing list of patzers recommending Netflix's recent limited series, The Queen's Gambit. The Netflix series is based on the novel of the same name by Walter Tevis published in 1983. It is a...
So here is the blog post you all have been waiting for! (I say that jokingly) In my last post, I documented my journey that led me to my current eBoard: The Millenium ChessGenius Exclusive ... Wow, that's a lot to type. I will just call it my M...
If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, it meant that you got to play with some pretty cutting edge technology of the time. We saw our first personal computers during this timeframe and, most exciting for us patzers, our first real chess computers. Gr...
Like many of you, I've read a number of books about Bobby Fischer. I've seen all the documentaries and movies about him. And, like you, I've appreciated his genius; and have felt sadness for him as his mental illness took over his life. Every o...
So this past week after looking at my data and my performance with my coach, it is pretty clear that my tactical ability hasn't really improved; at least as demonstrated by my puzzle performance. That said, I can definitely still tell that I'm pl...
If you have been around chess long enough, you have likely heard someone refer to the Rook as "the castle." Usually, this is followed by someone with a higher ELO rating publicly shaming them for their folly. Interestingly, the rook has had many ...
Happy National Chess Day, everyone! National Chess Day in the United States was declared by President Ford on October 9th, 1976. It is recognized as the second Saturday in October. A great quote from President Ford regarding chess: "For both ...
I'm a 50-something, long-time lover of chess who has always been in awe of the complexity of this beautiful game. I use this blog to share the incredible history of chess and offer some commentary on current chess happenings around the world. Enjoy!
