First rated game of the season, last Sat: strong middlegame edge from Sielecki‘s anti-KID (6. b3) line, but I stumble and let my opponent force me into desperate defence. I hold on by my fingertips and lo, he misses the critical line. Draw accepted. Not quite robbery, but undeserved.

If you ever want a task to put you off both chess and life itself, volunteer to arrange a club’s league fixtures. Four teams, three divisions, a thousand regrets.

In Amsterdam. Didn’t take many photos at the Max Euwe museum. But this little paperback set is cute.

Second in the Essex U1600 Rapid (4.5/6) and a rating prize in the Essex Blitz (3.5/7) brings my lifetime chess winnings to around £150. A lucrative pro career beckons.

Spend time learning openings if 1) poor opening play is costing you games, which can happen at any rating level, or 2) you feel like it. Chess is optional. Do what makes you happy.

If Apple AI can actually answer this question then it must be better at chess than Stockfish, which requires the whole board.

Black has 20 legal moves after 1. e4. Eighteen of them have names. The only two that don’t are the best move and the worst move.

I’m helping start a chess club here in Walthamstow. Anyone in North or East London, you’d be most welcome at our monthly meetup next Sunday 2–5pm (Lord Palmerston, E17 5JN). I’d be grateful for any shares too – we’re eager to ensnare new people in the clutches of this maddening game, etc

So… does this belong on my chess shelf or my philosophy shelves?

After my final classical game of the season, I’ve ended up 25 ECF points higher than in September. Not huge progress, but given my dreadful start (three losses) I’ll take it. Hopefully I can push on next season. Bit of rapid and blitz until then.

fuck yes lichess

LCL Weekender rd2 and 3: two wins with Black. The first, a prolonged (metaphorical) strangulation of a small child. The second, a pleasing technical win, winning a pawn with a nice zwischenzug and picking my way through an awkward knight and pawn ending. Joint leader overnight.

'A nice even game.'

Gave the Duolingo chess course a go. Awful font, awful AI voices, awful prompts giving the puzzles away. Awful.

Another loss last night. Rating deficit versus my last ten opponents: 127, 130, 256, 170, 296, 549, 319, 6, 123, 134. Being constantly outranked is good for learning, I guess, but it’s demotivating… really want to smash up some 1200s right now.

Had to decline a free ticket to see Xiu Xiu tomorrow because I’m playing top board against Enfield 3, chess is pain :( :( :( youtu.be/kKF3DF-TvrQ?...

fighting is like a game of chess. each blow yiou land on your opponents head is like a chess piece (Knight, bishop, etc) and then he dies .

Promoted to the club’s second team only to find after a long journey that our opponents hadn’t arranged a team for the match. On the plus side, a night off meant I could whale on some club regulars instead.

This is spot on, and took me way too long to figure out for myself. Could have really used this video eighteen months ago. (In short, …Qc7 then …Nbd7. But watch the vid. 10 minutes to neutralise the generic London setup is a great investment.)

Been working hard on tactics: 1001 Chess Exercises for Club Players (*superb* book for my level), Common Chess Patterns, tons of Polgar mates. Just been rewarded with a new Puzzle Rush Survival PB of 50. And definitely feel my calculation has improved.

The Chess content mills continue to be both embarrassingly dumb and concretely harmful. "Lie detectors" are a scam. They've been used to both convict innocent people and exonerate criminals, and now Hikaru et al have used their gigantic platforms to contribute to the problem.

Is that… a Philidor? *zooms in* Oh.

I watched the BBC chess thing. Obviously frustrating for actual players, but there’s a certain joy in watching (the charming) David Howell’s struggles to debase his analysis on the producer’s obvious insistence he avoid all notation and/or excitement about the French Tarrasch

Respectable draw vs 1676-rated player in tonight’s league game. Strong initiative from opening (Sielecki’s queenless middlegame), won weak a-pawn but lost momentum in technical bishop ending and couldn’t convert. I’ll take it.

Probably the best Lucena and Philidor explanations I’ve seen, covering the theoretical lines but also the quicker wins against suboptimal defence (which a lot of books and vids ignore). Recommended for 1300-1600 folks.

Rewatching Twin Peaks and you’d better believe I’m going to give a disappointing and unnecessary analysis of the chess plot points from late season 2!!

As an out trans sportswoman, I can no longer get a visa to travel to the USA, because Republicans think I have an unfair biological advantage. My sport? Chess.

Haven’t these children suffered enough?

Burned out from this game right now, probably from having to repeatedly play people 200+ points higher. Another loss today to a kid who’s gained like 150 in four months. No fun.

I haven’t thought about Kramnik for weeks.

only 64 squares, no fog of war, no tech tree

Golders Green Rapid, playing up in the U1900s. This could be a long, long day.

Insta has finally learned I’m into chess and now I’m getting advertised some of the most ostentatious and ugly rich-guy sets known to humanity.

New ratings day means I get to update my bio. Now gained 61 ECF and 104 FIDE in last two months. Trust the process, etc.

As an almost pathologically non-competitive guy who thinks the worst part of chess is that you have to defeat another person, I welcome a split title. It’s between the players and I’m happy they’re happy.

hoping to continue 2025 the way I left 2024: dedicating a bewildering amount of time to this daft game to the extent it affects my sleep and overall wellbeing

Well, Ivanchuk crying has ruined my new year, hbu?

trivia time When is the last time magnus had a bad (equal or negative score with at least one L to a sub 2700 player) otb tournament where he finished the event and made no comments about any opponents' attire or behavior

As someone who remembers the PCA/FIDE debacle and whose other passion (g*lf) is stranded in a years-long civil war, let me tell you: splits *suck* and the people who lose out the most are fans.

Ju Wenjun is playing Tan Zhongyi (!) but no, we have to listen to the CHESS DAVOS guy talking about his Wall Street Journal article

For a while I imagined FIDE might at last run a tournament with positions streamed accurately and lag-free. Maybe next year.

On the beers all day, then arrived at my club to find NO ONE had heard of bughouse. Fun was had.

11-round open FIDE blitz to finish the year off. I’ve avoided GM Shreyas Royal in the round 1 pairings but inevitably we’ll have to clash somewhere along the line.

yeah chess will fit right in as an esport if the chat is any indication

impossible to watch a chess tourney live on youtube without turning the chat off. put a woman on a microphone and they start barking howling throwing slurs shrieking frothing at the mouth

Weteschnik’s Chess Tactics from Scratch is so fun. Introducing Levitsky-Marshall (the …Qg3!! game): ‘Most likely you have seen this game before, but it is illegal to omit this position from a tactics book.’

New Substack post by me open.substack.com/pub/chessimp...

If you need proof that you don’t need to be intelligent to play chess, look at… like, all those dudes