A bit about my chess “career”,

I learned to play chess from my father when I was about 7 years old in a Second Cup in Edmonton. We would play after piano lessons.

In 2005, I joined my school’s chess club and lost every game I played and wasn’t too thrilled about it. I picked up a book “Chess for Juniors” by Robert Snyder, and learned basic tactics such as Forks, Pins, and skewers. As well as some Ruy Lopez and QGD.

I wanted to win the youth provincials every year, but I couldn’t quite make it to first place, and took a two year hiatus after grade 12 (age 17).

I got back into chess at 19 years old, and was doing around 200-300 problems per day on chess.com, as well as “Complete Chess Workout” by Palliser. I only cared about tactics, and not much else.

I parlayed my tricky style into a couple of lucky wins and reached 2200 CFC at age 22, and 2300 CFC at age 23. Now, I’m trying to get back to my form before Covid happened, but it certainly is difficult given the chess popularity boom. I always enjoy the lifelong learning approach, and hope I still will calculate at a fairly high level.

My favourite books for calculating are Imagination in Chess by Gaprindiashvili, Calculation by Aagard, and for beginners, Complete Chess Workout Volume 1 by Palisser

IsaacWiebe