I have not posted for about a year. Not that there has been an outcry. But I do like to analyze games. And I do like to post them. So... In other news my latest novel is now available on Amazon, A World of Slanted Light by Marvin Brauer. ...
This morning I popped online and saw this game being played by one of my chess.com friends, S13. S13 has been away from chess for a space of time and now is back. Their play has moments of brilliance, but can miss some things as well. (Don't we al...
I was watching a game by a chess.com friend and decided I would analyze and publish a little blog. I do love analyzing games. The game was between my friend jwegil and sinner65. They were both about in the mid 800's to star...
I won a couple games this week. One was in 8 moves. The other where the player lost his connection. Those were my wins. Sad. On the other hand, I lost a game that I should have drawn. It was equal. The engine called it drawn, but I made one bad ...
First off before we dive into it, let me say that everybody makes mistakes. Yep, in chess, in life, everybody makes mistakes. Before you get too hard on yourself you gotta understand that. Mistakes in chess are Karma. You can't avoid karma. Howe...
I have three games to post. The headliner is a short one against chowlong. Chowlong has been And on Chess.com since 2016, but he only started playing rapid format last year. (At least according to what I could gather from the Chess.com archi...
First off, the title is a little pretentious, don't you think. Yes, it is ridiculous, but... Okay, here it is, I'm committing once again to improve my ratings at chess. My goal is within eight months to move above 1400 again. My rating as of J...
I played in the Pacific Open this last weekend. It was run by the Continental Chess Association. It is my third tournament that I have played with them, and I have three (or four... or maybe more) comments: Number One: The CCA runs a nice tourna...
That would be 2400 in puzzles! Which is not at all like 2400 in chess! Not at all. Still, 2400 in puzzles on Chess.com puts me in the top 98th percentile and that's pretty good. Really good. Especially since, you know, I am not a young whipper sna...
On October 10, 2020, I was rated 1074 on the Chess.com rapid rating. Three years later, on November 1, 2023, I was rated 1425. At that time, I looked at my percentile ranking on Chess.com and saw that I was at the 95th percentile, and I thought th...
For those of you who have not followed this blog before (and I assume that is most of you) I am a patzer who wants to improve. A couple of years ago I made a determined and industrious attempt to raise my ratings. And I progressed from 1000 to 140...
Recently, I noted, and I believe it was Lasker who when asked what the worst mistake was replied, "The last one." I have two recent games, which corroborate that comment. However, I am only going to show the one in which I WON. (I like those game...
If you're new to my chess ramblings I reached the 1400+ level about a year and a half ago and then I set chess aside. I calculated at that time I was in the 95 percentile on chess.com. That was good enough. But, you know, chess is a mistress that ...
There was a joke going around during the second Iraq war, or maybe it was the first, I don't know, but in any case the joke was "How many French men does it take to defend France?" And the answer was, "I don't know, it's never been tried." Which i...
Everybody knows that the Bowdler attack as white against the Sicilian is not the way to try get a point. Everybody knows that, with the exception that if you are playing me, go for it, because I am going to screw it up. I am a #$%^patzer! The g...
Well big surprise. If you take a couple years away from the game you don't do as well. Big surprise. So, to refresh the new readers I was 1425 at the 95 percentile in April of 2021 and I suddenly decided 95 percentile was good enough and I quit. D...
In the second week of my return to chess I've played three games. 1 win, 1 loss (basically demonstrating my rusty skills), and 1 draw. I keep working on my Chessable opening theory, doing some endgame theory, and playing a lot of games against a 1...
It has been over a year and a half since I last played a competitive chess game. When last we spoke, I had just reached 1425, and by my calculations I figured I was somewhere around the 95% percentile on Chess.com. And to get there I had been put...
Last May I was 1089. I'm now 1425. Along the journey I'm celebrating the small victories. I've been stuck here for about a month, as I recalibrate. I've temporarily placed games on hold as I savored reaching the 1400 plateau and reaching the 9...
First off, the news! I was awarded some bonus points by Chess.com as part of their fair play policy, and I went from... wait for it... drum roll... 1392 to ... a little anticipation please, let's not get hasty 1406! In other words, I broke the 14...
Maxime Pinard has been on Chess.com for about two years. He and I were both under 1100 last year. If you follow this blog, you know that I have had a good run of ratings over the last year, which I ascribed to a lot of time spent in study: Openin...
Why when so many companies have sanctioned Russia has Chess.com been silent? Why do we still see Russian players on chess.com? Personally, I love Russians. I've worked with many in my career. I like them. I love their literature. Russia was an a...
In my first live game since the over the board tournament, I was up against ByvalyjY. He has played only five rapid games on Chess.com. He joined chess.com yesterday. It was a Sicilian, and he was able to prevail. I played well, though in the end ...
On March 5 & 6 I played in my second over the board tournament. It was held at the Hilton in Irvine right across the street from Orange County Airport. The attendance was good. If you have been thinking about playing in an over the board tou...
Come Saturday morning I will be starting my second over the board tournament, The Western Class Champions in Irvine, Ca. and I have spent the week preparing. For those who follow this blog you know that I have been on a quest to improve in che...
