I have a friend who is much stronger than me, maybe 400 points stronger than me. The first time he played blindfold he could get through the whole game without making an illegal move, while I get lost once the middle game hits. Recently he is taki...
I just re-read the reflections I wrote after my first year playing chess. I came across it again because, despite it being old and having only two comments, someone made a nice comment on it recently. Time flies and now it's three years since ...
I just lost my third game in a row in the Maya Championship, but I'm happy with the result. Round 1 I was happy with my tactical play but turned a blind eye to some key strategic features. I felt like it was big progress for me because I was lo...
It may surprise you to learn that chess is not my full time job. Long story short, the other day whilst bored in the audience at an awards ceremony I had the unusual pleasure of playing a game where the biggest lessons were for my opponent rather ...
Today was the day for round 2 of 9 in the Maya Championship. It's a league for Shanghai players below master level to get some exciting, longish games OTB using a 50 10 time control. Let's get right to it and...oh no wait...what's happening...oh ...
Tonight the first Shanghai Competitor League kicked off. It will be 5 rounds of swiss format follwed by 4 rounds of elimination. Out of the field of 20 players, give or take, I may be dead last. I will consider it a big success if I take 1 or 2 ...
This afternoon I faced an Old Benoni, which I really never see at my level. My problem though was that I couldn't cool off and let go of some ideas so I could make reasonable moves that I was rejecting unsoundly. I played "tactics" that I couldn't...
This morning I had a game against a guy who chose the Tarrasch variation (Nd2) against my French (e4 e6 d4 d5), but then he immediately exchanged when he saw my reply, immediately neutralizing. The opening remained bizarre throughout and I thought...
A few observations from my first year of playing chess: PSYCHOLOGICAL 1. Whenever my rating starts to get higher than I view myself as being, I start to get greedy to move up, and my play suffers as I start to have different attitudes about winn...
It started just like any other China day, i wrote as i passed an old lady dressed like an extra from an 80's post apocalyptic film, complete with red hair, red boots and some kind of weird 80's Madonnaesque denim thing, i dunno, lady clothes. Bu...
It was a crazy night at Time Passage this week. We had a full crew, and crazy bughouse was flying on one side while people were inventing new ways to drink Canadian Club on the other. Between the new drinks and the games with "the President", the ...
Sometimes when I'm walking around Shanghai with a particularly friendly look on my face (read: When a Chinese girl is with me so they think I must know the town or at least can ask her), tall visitors ask me (they are always over 6 foot, and weari...
