Best way to pick up a new opening: learn the bare minimum, and then immediately start playing it. Don't fall for the fallacy that you can purely "study" your way to opening understanding. Gotta get your hands dirty. Build your own roadmap, and worry about the details later.

I've been mentioning this on stream for the past two years. If you're at all unconvinced about Hans Niemann's strength, I'd encourage you to watch his interview with Sagar Shah of ChessBase India at the 2019 World Youth Chess Championship: youtube.com/watch?v=4wBLmw… At the time,

To play devil's advocate to my own post, I (like many) thought Hans's post-game analyses of his games vs. Carlsen and Firouzja from the 2022 Sinquefield Cup were a little off. His demeanor, cadence, and voice are clearly different compared to the 2019 interview. He's frequently

If you're a chess coach, it's crucial that you give your students time to formulate their own thoughts about a game, position, or tactic. Even if they're wrong. Actually, especially if they're wrong! Many coaches are too quick to interrupt and correct a student as soon as the

People crave narratives and emotional connection. We want to invest in the experiences of our fellow humans. AI will try really hard to make that investment indistinguishable. So long as we can tell the difference (gulp!), the authentic human experience remains undefeated.

WOW, this young man is crushing it!! The future of US chess is in good hands. So many strong players coming up.

🙌

Visited the top-class Reykjavik Chess Club (Taflfélag Reykjavíkur)! Honored to play the first move (1.a4! 😅) in the club's weekly tourney. Thanks to club management, The Chess Viking and Gauti Páll for their hospitality. Make sure to drop by Tues-Thurs if you're in Iceland 🇮🇸

I heard you test positive for dawginem

Best chess interview I've seen in a hot minute 😅

The 2024 Chess Olympiad is barely past the halfway point, but India has looked like the most poised team. The experience and consistency of their young core (ages 18-21) is hard to beat. This is the first Olympiad where it's abundantly clear who the new sheriffs in town are.

FIDE could solve this by creating a policy stating that teams who repeatedly field players unwilling to give good-faith efforts may be banned from future Olympiads.

❤️