And I’m back! Finally after a two month break, I am back in action over the board. At the beginning of July, I moved to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, and the chess in the area is lacking to say the least. Casting a wide net, I found a ...
By now, the chess world is floating down from the absolute madness that arose during the final Candidates game between Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi on Sunday. I am still heartbroken. No matter who they were rooting for, every ches...
It’s easier for me to write about losses. Something about the drama, the heartbreak, and the lessons of a loss bring me to the keyboard. My fingers find life through tragedy. My ideas tap dance into words when agonizing over a setback. With a w...
Malcolm Wooten is the former president of the Howard Chess Team, a chess enthusiast, and a member of the Black Knights Club. He is also a good friend of mine. I first met Malcolm when the Howard team worked with the team I coach at EL Haynes High ...
Right before I resigned, I wanted to scream. I wanted to flip the table and fill the room full of gentle clock taps and windy sighs with the purity of my rage. I went to the bathroom and slammed my hat against the wall as if trying to communicate ...
I am always wary of trap openings that you see all over Youtube. Play this series of dubious moves, and if your opponent isn’t paying attention, you’ll end up with a quick win. It isn't good chess and is just a way to steal quick points. The click...
The story: Making a blunder in a chess game is an exercise in living with regret. It is an exercise in pain and self-hatred that lasts for hours(if you’re playing in a classical tournament). As your clock ticks away, you become existential: Why...
Game 1 Opening theory matters - Even though I’ve been playing the Caro-Kann for a few months now, my understanding of the opening is still shaky. I need to do a better job studying the major variations, but clearly even the lesser played lines....
One way that I want to improve this year is to develop my tactical vision and ability to calculate during the middle game. The game below is one of my top wins of the year - taking down an 1800+ rated player. However, I realized after analyzing th...
I always tell the high school volleyball players I coach that when they feel nervous, it's a good thing, because that's the feeling of really caring about something. And that feeling is what life is all about. However, I learned that this truth d...
After finishing the first day with 2/2 points, I started with the Black pieces against a player rated 1564. Overall thoughts: I played too passively at key moments in the game. In the 6...e5 variation of the King's Indian, it's important that...
On Sunday, I became the 2022 DC State Amateur Champion after I scored 3.5/4 points in the DC State Championships run by the DC Chess League. I shared the title with another player that earned that score as well (we drew in my third match, which I ...
I've played the King's Indian Defense against 1.d4 for years at this point. I'm not sure why exactly I settled on the hypermodern attack other than the fact that it was one of the first experiences stumbling into an ocean of theory via one of the ...
The first time I played Testarossa12 in the spring of 2016, we played a 21 move Sicilian that ended quietly. My close childhood friend KingFisherBStrong connected me with his dad, who also played chess, after I reunited with the game following a ...
In Never Let Me Go by Kazoo Ishiguro, the narrator reflects on the pains of a sudden mistake with a comparison to chess. She says, “As soon as I said this I realized I’d made a mistake; that until I’d mentioned these two, I’d had Ruth in a cor...
Note: I'm going to try a new series called "Blunder and Mate of the Week" in which, as the title suggests, I showcase one of my worst mistakes and best finishes of the week. One of my main goals with this blog is to have a place to document my gro...
The worst blunder and the worst feeling in chess is one in which you have a completely won position that you fail to win. It is an absolute gut wrenching feeling that every chess player experiences more times than they would care to admit. Howeve...
