While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me. If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and that’s why I’m flattering, and not stealing. I heard FM James Canty mention in this podcast: in this podcast at the 50:45 mark that he does something called “The Clean 50” on his streams where he does Puzzle Rush Survival and is not allowed to move to the ..read more

While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me. If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project. I mentioned in an earlier post that you have to be honest with yourself.  That doesn’t mean part of the time or some of the time. It means all of the time. Today I come across this position: You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess diagram visualization. First, take a minute and calculate what you would ..read more

While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me. If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project. Some lessons really stick with you. For me, this game is one of the most efficient lessons I have ever received. You must activate JavaScript to enhance chess game visualization. I just now put this game, played only seven months into my comeback after an 18-year layoff, into Chessbase. I didn’t remember some of ..read more

While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me. If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project. One of the almost universally accepted pieces of advice that improvers get it to analyze your own games. I will be the first to admit that many times in my life I have “analyzed” my games by simply turning on the engine and turning off my mind. I also have fallen victim many times to the idea that “I ..read more

While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me. If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project. In a word – yes! In two words, which you should read in the voice of Jesse Kraii, “Yes, boss.” One of my continuing chess goals for 2024 will be an extension of what I did in 2023, and that is to trust the process. I joined the Dojo Training Program a couple of months ago, and so far, I have to say that it’s help ..read more

While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me. If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project. These days, when you’re looking up games, you need to pay special attention to whether or not the game was played online. Let’s take the game Donchenko-Malek played on 11/07/2023 in the early Titled Tuesday. Since this game is in an opening I play (the Caro), I decided to look at it since I often look at games in ..read more

While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me. If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project. Recently, I joined the Chess Dojo training program. The program is a very detailed and thought-out training plan. Please note that this is in no way similar to having a coach, and in fact, you should still keep working with the coach you have, even if you join. The program is a detailed list of tasks that players ..read more

While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me. If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project. Last Thursday, I played against Allen Becker, a local 2000 player. Typically, when I have White against Allen, I play the 6.Be2 Najdorf. I planned to compile a file of all of the games in this line from 2023 in which both players were 2500 minimum, then work through them in preparation for this game. My Chessbase ..read more

While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me. If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project. A common theme that I continue to see in adult improvement content is that, for some unknown reason, many people have decided that improvement cannot be fun and must be a grind. From my point of view, neither of those are necessarily true statements. The internet is full of folks who are several hu ..read more

While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me. If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project. This past Thursday, I had a chance to play someone I hadn’t played before. Since then, I have analyzed the game pretty thoroughly. I believe that if I analyze all of my games like this and do the work they show me I need, then improvement will continue. Here is the game: You must activate JavaScript to enhance ch ..read more