It’s been six months since my first blog, detailing my journey from a total beginner at Trivia (44/150 correct answers in LearnedLeague), to making it to Group B. Apologies for the spoiler in the title, but I made it to Group A!!! When I first started doing Trivia my gut feeling was that it would take many years to get to Group A level. Like how could I ever make up the knowledge gap that I had. And how can I just learn everything about everything? But it turns out if you study nonstop every day like a psychopath, it’s not as hard as it looks. My Progress I am super happy to have completed the ..read more

I knew it was one of those Ninja Turtles, but how was I to know if it was Leonardo, Michelangelo or Raphael? I have always hated trivia. I don’t know things. Unlike chess, no amount of talent or creative brain power is going to help me figure out who was the king of England in 1200. So when friends of mine tried to convince me to join an elite trivia league called “LearnedLeague”, I was skeptical. “It’s fun” they said. “There are levels for all different types of players, and even if you’re a total Trivia beginner, you’ll get matched with people your own level.” The way that LearnedLeague work ..read more

Everyone close to me has known that I’m polyamorous for at least a few years, and plenty of people who aren’t close to me know as well. But I’ve been increasingly feeling that it’s important to make this clear to the entire world and to explain more about what polyamory means. Polyamory can mean lots of different things to different people. But the main idea is that you aren’t restricted to one romantic relationship at one time. That idea never seemed groundbreaking to me. Like many social norms, monogamy is simply self-reinforcing: it’s common and normalized, so often people do it without del ..read more

Whenever anyone tells you that you’re going to get worse at something as you get older, it’s bullshit. I know that sounds simplistic, but for the most part it’s true. Let me explain why: We are used to seeing famous superstar athletes get worse as they age. Eventually their skills erode to the point where they retire. This happens to everyone, whether it’s Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant or Roger Federer. For some athletes it happens a little earlier, and for some it’s a bit later, but it’s usually sometime around the age of 35-40. The same thing happens in chess. Sometime around the age of 40-45 ..read more

The PRO Chess League is about to start again, and the 2018 season is going to be AMAZING! Here are ten reasons why you should definitely call in sick from work on January 18th and stay logged on to chess.com for 14 hours straight: Even more of the top players in the World are in the league: Last year we had 11 players rated above 2700 in the league. This year we have 17, with the potential for more to join throughout the season. Here’s a list of some of the big stars, and the teams they represent, in 2018: Magnus Carlsen: Norway Gnomes Fabiano Caruana: Saint Louis Arch Bishops Maxime V ..read more

I have no idea why I’m telling this story, but it’s pretty demented so that’s a good reason. When I lived in Philly with my mom, me and a friend would occasionally play Scrabble (Ben Johnson, host of the International Sensation: Perpetual Chess Podcast). While we played my mom would be going about her business, but occasionally peek over to make fun of our plebian words and tell us how bad we were. In some families this might be considered child abuse, but in ours it’s another way of showing affection. Mom: “Did you seriously just use an S to play the word CATS?” I would ask to play her ..read more

I think there’s almost nothing more important in this world than not being racist, not being sexist and not being a total asshole. So when someone suggests that you are racist, that person is doing you a favor and pointing out the specific things that are stopping you from reaching those goals. It feels bad at the moment, and will probably be followed by a lot of defensiveness, but what you do next is what matters. Are you going to defend yourself to the death and insist that there is no way that anything you said was even slightly racist, or are you going to stop and think for a minute that m ..read more