Names my teenage daughter has called me, within the span of one screenshot: • Bro • Girl

I texted two different group chats today about “when I start a chess podcast” so maybe that’s becoming less of a joke

My passport doesn’t expire until 2028 but maybe I should renew now before they expand this to all passports

People need some perspective on this. I’ve been using scripts, macros and spreadsheets to automate parts of various jobs I’ve had since 20 years before ChatGPT was released. Does that make me bad? I say no.

When I was 7 years old and collecting baseball cards I learned that some guys are named Lance and some guys are named Rance. (never heard of another person named Rance in my life)

Oh no, I can’t go. I have to play chess. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/24/n...

Hi from Boston

I know I’m not the only person who wondered about this

The US imported a huge number of people from the third world between 1880 and 1920, including a bunch of my ancestors, and instead of becoming the third world, we became the wealthiest country on earth.

I thought the world cup was going to be a nightmare, but I forgot that we actually love when people like us

I'm not really an AI business knower but two things I believe about Anthropic and OpenAI: 1. they do amazing, world-changing things 2. due to the combined forces of "long term there's no moat" and "government might arbitratily shut them down", as businesses they are worth very little.

Claude is asking for permission to grep. You can always grep, Claude. I will never get mad at you for grepping.

Were TV newscasts in 2025 opening with “Today was a great day, because the Strait of Hormuz remained open”? They were not. Because they didn’t know they were in the good old days.

This is a quote about the Strait of Hormuz being open

My total income in the first 12 months after graduating college in 2002 was about $5,000. Then I landed a job at a university for $25K a year plus health benefits. I was thrilled.

Four upcoming chess tournaments I'm registered for: Big Money Swiss, 6/20 at Boylston Chess Club in Boston World Open, 7/1 to 7/5 in Washington, DC Shenandoah Open, 7/31 to 8/2 in Charlottesville ALTO, 10/23 to 10/25 in Charlotte

Tic-Tac-Toe Grandmaster Devises Brilliant New Gambit

I will host the world championship at my house. Gukesh and Sindarov can stay in my guest room. There is a queen bed. www.fide.com/fide-extends...

Opponent accidentally played the Sicilian

Finally got Claude Code at work and had one of the most intense work weeks I’ve ever had. So that’s a data point on how AI affects demand for software engineers. The bosses found out how quickly we can get stuff done with this tool, and they want MORE

He hit the clock too hard while playing blitz, probably

White to move and equalize

This puzzle kinda stumped me for a while, which is funny because if I got this position in a game I would definitely play the right move.

Playing against the Winawer is SO much fun. I played 3. Nd2 for far too long before discovering this.

New Google Sheets icon looks like a mistake

Got my car’s oil changed before the motor oil shortage hits home

I laughed out loud when they showed the two week projected rating graph www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzG7...

There are over 100 teenagers in my house right now

We really don't have this trend where I live. Free-range kids all over the place here.

Does everyone’s iPhone autocorrect do this or just mine?

Happy Mother’s Day youtube.com/watch?v=X0De...

Game Review, but it’s just these guys coming out to sing a song about why you lost.

Black to move

I did three chess puzzles. Aced all of them. I’m the only chess player to do three chess puzzles. The first one was very hard. It was a back rank mate in 2. I solved it easily. They said it was an incredible achievement. Nobody had ever seen anything like it before.

Positional puzzle. White is up an exchange. What's the best move?

This position is in the Lichess database 213,000 times. White has played the #1 engine move (Nf3) 113,000 times and has played the #2 engine move zero times.

Gonna tell my kids this is the prisoner's dilemma

Hikaru saying he watched the Netflix doc on 1.5x speed is about the most insulting thing a person can say about a film. youtube.com/watch?v=q5PO...

I hate apps with streaks. I intentionally break the streak before it gets to ten days. But now Chesscom has streaks and it doesn’t let you break them. I go a day without opening the app and it still welcomes me back with “extend your streak!” I don’t open the app for a week yet I have a 22 day str

Two runners in history have run a marathon in less than two hours, and they were both this morning in London. www.nbcsports.com/olympics/new...

In chess, every move is either a Do Something move or a Just Chill move. At the amateur level, most games are decided when a player plays a Do Something move when they needed to Just Chill.

Thing I don't want to be true, but is: Dunkin makes the best coffee

Me at ALTO two weeks ago

My pet peeve about Lichess puzzles: the ones with unclear solutions. Yes the engine says it’s -3 at the end of this puzzle but if white plays Qd5 winning the material back, is that really clear enough to be a puzzle solution? lichess.org/training/qN0If

What Is Love

Sometimes a puzzle is extremely easy but I can't solve it lichess.org/training/ybqrY

The highest rated opponent I've beaten on Lichess in blitz is TN-2012, whose best win is against EmirSharshenbek, who has multiple wins against GM David Howell. Howell has not played any games against Magnus Carlsen on Lichess as far as I can tell, but has surely beaten him elsewhere a time or two.

I don’t think it occurred to me before today how much this one continent dominates top level chess.

Chess 2 will have a new piece called the Fabi. It doesn’t move, unless a player on the next board thinks for >10 minutes.