I created this set of 14 problems. The goal is simply to answer whether a position is a win for white, a win for black, or if it should be a draw: Link to problem set I do not plan on posting the answer key. Feel free to send me a message if y...
I created this set of 30 problems. The goal is simply to answer whether a position is a win for white, a win for black, or if it should be a draw: Link to problem set Most of them are endgame positions, and most of them are fairly simple. I us...
It's been a while since I created a chess video. I recently created two of them. Hope you like them.
My 7 year old son, Jared, created this game which I’ll call Jared Bughouse. Well, I helped him refine the rules a little, but the basic idea is his.I decided I’d share the game in a blog entry so others can enjoy it. Without further ado, here ar...
What a difference a year makes. Yesterday, I played in the 2012 US National G/30 Championship. For those of you who read my blog (all 5 of you), you know that last year I played in the 2011 US National G/30 Championship and had a horrendou...
Earlier this week I played a simul against 14 kids, mostly first graders, at my son's school chess club. This was by far the most people I've ever played at once. If I recall, the only other simul I played was against 4 kids in high school (I wo...
I made another video, a tutorial video on checkmate with King and two bishops vs. King. Click here to watch the video. Feel free to let me know what videos you'd like to see in the future.
Two weeks ago, I played in the US National G/30 Championship held in Santa Clara, California. These were my first USCF-rated games since a quick-rated quad in 1998, and my first standard-rated games since a quad in 1993. But really, I haven't ...
In a previous blog post, I described a trap arising after my standard opening as white, which begins with the moves 1. d4 d5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bf4. In that blog post, I described a trap which beginning players may fall into, but there are many other ...
I made another videos, a short video on pins. It's pretty basic stuff, geared toward beginning players. Click here to watch the video. Feel free to let me know what videos you'd like to see in the future.
I thought it would be nice to cull some tactics problems from my own Online Chess games. Partly just for fun, and partly because I think I could use these as a teaching tool, since I can describe my thought process behind each one. If I have tim...
My son didn't show much interest in chess at an early age, and I didn't push it on him. But there's a chess club at his elementary school, and he joined it in October, as a first-grader. The club only meets once a week for an hour, with instruct...
I finally started playing Online Chess on chess.com, after only playing Live Chess (blitz games) for the first several months. There's a reason I didn't try it for so long. I've played the game Lines of Action (give it a try if you haven't playe...
So, last night I played a blitz game (8 | 0 time control). I unleashed a kingside attack and after 22. Rxf6 I had a couple choices. I could play the obvious 22. ... Be5+ which wins not only the rook, but also the knight as well after 23...
My 6-year old son has just started learning chess the past few months. At the same time, I've also discovered some good chess videos on YouTube. I have not found a lot of great beginner chess videos, so that's one of the reasons I decided I'd tr...
Last night I played two blitz games (8 minutes per side) for the first time in a month. The rust showed, and also my lack of opening study. The first game: http://www.chess.com/livechess/game.html?id=6784450 The game started out with the Sicil...
A few weeks ago I played a blitz game on chess.com that made me swear not to use a time increment anymore. Since starting to play blitz games at chess.com I had come to the realization that I don't play 5-minute blitz games on the computer very w...
Now that I've finished my blog posts analyzing my old USCF games, I thought it would be a nice time to summarize and look back. I played a total of 103 games in the following years: 36 played in 1986 43 in 1987 16 in 1988 2 in 1992 3 in 1993 3 i...
Really. Having other ways to spend my time, I had already started to wonder what I was getting out of spending so much time playing chess. So I was already thinking about taking a break. But this game really pushed me over the edge. So, one...
Here I drew against a player rated 2154, my best draw in terms of rating. However, I should have won instead. My opponent lapsed into time trouble and I emerged with an extra pawn in the rook-pawn endgame to follow. Unfortunately I made a mi...
Here is my one and only one rated game played against a USCF master. I didn't appear to make any major mistakes, but fell into a lost endgame. If I had to do it again, I'd take back move 38. Nc7 and instead play 38. Ng7. To avoid repetition ...
Here's another game I played with an interesting rook pawn ending. The rook pawn ending starts after 32. Rxc3. The rooks get traded off after 43. Kxc3. Look at the position after 44. ... h6 and see what you think is white's best move.
A week after my first win against an expert, I faced another expert and ended up losing this time. On the other hand, I played much better in this game than the one that I won. I kept things fairly even, reaching an endgme I probably should hav...
This, as you'll see, is far from my best game. However, since my opponent Robert Drane (2026) was the highest-rated opponent I've beaten so far, I feel compelled to blog it. My opponent battered me in the opening and unleashed a damaging ...
Recently, I've been helping out with my son's elementary school chess club. Many of the games there end in stalemate when one side has an overwhelming material advantage but doesn't know how to checkmate without first stalemating the other side. ...
