The greatest chess players can think 5, 10, 15 or more moves into the future. So it makes sense that if I want to beat the best of them, I have to go beyond moves and think 5, 10, 15 or more years into the future. Yes, my ingenious master plan is...
(No spoilers) The Pale Blue Eye is a Netflix film based on a novel by Louis Bayard. It is a murder mystery set at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in the 1830s. It features Edgar Allan Poe, who was in fact a cadet at the time. Chess appear...
So I'm standing in line at my favorite coffee shop, waiting to order. As I'm opening my app to collect loyalty points, a move comes in from one of the two dozen or so games I'm playing. My opponent has just played Nxc6, with the idea that if I pla...
We don't get any chess playing in Werewolf By Night, the special presentation now available on Disney+, which is probably a good thing considering some of the illogical set-ups and moves we've seen on TV lately. But we do get a glimpse of a chess...
One of the great advantages of playing daily chess tournaments is the ability to scout your opponents ahead of time. But I've learned hard lessons that this has to go beyond just looking at their daily rating and proceeding from there. My most re...
Hotels.com is running a series of ads highlighting the different types of hotels available. The "Boutique Hotel" spot features a couple sitting at a posh bar playing chess with an ultra-modern chess set. The game has apparently just begun, with j...
I've been on Chess.com for almost two years but had never played a live tournament. The reason is pretty simple. My play deteriorates in geometric proportion to the reduction in time allowed for the game. Early on, I played 30-minute rapid games ...
As you probably already know, Resident Evil began as a video game almost 30 years ago, then a series of films starring Milla Jovovich, then a short anime series, and now an eight-episode live action series on Netflix. This newest iteration has re...
Back in July 2021, I decided to start playing daily tournaments. I entered one, but for some reason it didn't start on the start date, or the next day, or the next day. I was eager to begin, so I entered what I thought was a second daily tournamen...
A new Expedia ad called "Bubbles" is in heavy rotation. I spotted it several times during the Track and Field World Championships. There is a short clip of a chess game going on in a hot springs pool. Black is the midst of playing Ba4, leaving u...
Nike is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an ad directed by and starring Spike Lee. Though there are various edits shown on TV, they are actually cuts from a 4:42 ad, available on YouTube. The ad features Lee (as his Nike character Mars Black...
I was eliminated in Round 2 of the 2022 Chess.com Daily Chess Championship, but Round 1 was perfect and provided a victory of a different sort. I won one of three best blog entry prizes for this post. The check arrived today and I'm deciding on a...
You can read all about it on Collider, or CNET, or PC Gamer (which warns, "Move over chess dot com"), but here's the promotional video for the game. It will be available for no additional charge to every Netflix subscriber. What do you think? ...
[No spoilers.] Stranger Things needs no introduction, being one of Netflix's most popular offerings since 2016. Season 4 was released this week and the first episode features not one, but two instances of chess playing. The first occurs early on ...
It's official. I am the Monkey Unrated 4 champion. I will cherish this trophy forever. In other news: Knock Em Out Slow is living up to its name. I will advance to the 2nd round, but there is one game remaining in the first round, and it seem...
The eight-episode Hungarian drama A besúgó, or The Informant, is streaming on HBO Max and is described on the site this way: "A chess champion’s college year is upended when he’s blackmailed into spying on a pro-democracy rebel leader in 1985’s Co...
Over at Looper.com, they have posted "15 Movies About Chess You Should Watch Next." I keep reasonably close tabs on chess in movies, but I have to say that most of these were new to me. There is a nice mix of dramas and documentaries, including 2...
* I ended my run in the 2nd round of the 2022 Chess.com Daily Chess Championship with 16 wins and 6 losses. I'll almost certainly finish 3rd in the group of 12. I'm proud of my performance, and my hope is to improve next year by advancing into the...
There are still 3,125 players remaining in the 2nd round of the 2022 Chess.com Daily Chess Championship. Alas, I won't be one of them for very much longer. From the dizzying heights of a 22-0 first round, followed by a solid 6-3 start to the seco...
You don't get too many of these kinds of wins, so it was gratifying to work this little trap in a Team USA tournament game. White resigned. BTW, if White's bishop takes the queen, Black mates him in 2.
(Spoiler-free) Now streaming on HBO Max is The Tourist, a six-episode series about a man who, after a suspicious car accident in the Australian outback, awakes with no memory of who he is. "The Man" — as he referred to in the series synopsis — se...
For more than 8 months I have posted advice on how to beat me at chess. You can find a list of those posts here. They range from fundamentals to turning the tables on my favorite tricks and stratagems. But there is one thing you can do that almost...
I've completed two tournaments and still have seven active. Here's what's up: * Finished tied for 25th overall (out of 202) in 56th Chess.com Quick Knockouts (1600-1799). Got 35 tournament points. * Finished tied for 2nd (out of 24) in the Pumpk...
I've loved monster movies ever since I was a kid. On Saturday nights I would stop off at the bodega, buy some popcorn and orange drink, and settle in to watch Creature Features or Chiller Theater. Like many local TV stations across the country ba...
Archive 81 is a Netflix series that involves a man who restores damaged videos getting sucked into the mysterious doings he sees on the tapes. There is no shortage of creepy people, and when creepy people meet in the dingy basement of an old apar...
