Chess Reflections

Yesterday was the first time that I played a blindfold game to completion, where I actually won! I used the Blindfold Trainer on the "Dont' move until you see it" site. Granted the engine I was playing is weak. In fact it deliberately makes mistake. But I was proud of the fact that, not only did I mate the engine, I also didn't make a single illegal move. This was the game (I am white):

 I moved to Edinburgh in 2022 from the United States after having spent 12 years of my life there. I had naively assumed that Edinburgh would be very similar and I would get adjusted to my new surroundings fairly quickly. I was quite wrong. Our tenement apartment was cold, we had a mice problem, and it took some time to get adjusted to my new working hours (where I would start at 11 AM and finish at 7 PM to allow for overlap with US teams).  During this time, I wished for a magical undo button that I could press and get my old life back. I would spend time wondering how things would be different if I were only back in Colorado. Perhaps I wouldn't be struggling at work. Maybe I wouldn't worry about things like taxes, and electricity bills so much.  It took me a good two years to get adjusted to life in Edinburgh. Reflecting on my initial time I realized what I was doing. It was  living in the counterfactual .  Everyone does this. You imagine a hypothetical scenar...

I participated in the Livingston Allegro (rapid 20+10) tournament recently. Overall my performance was nothing to write home about scoring a 1.5/5. Securing a draw in the first round. A loss. A win. And two further losses. My last two classical games were losses, where the takeaway was that I didn't come up with my own attacking ideas when my opponent was pressing for theirs. So I thought I would try to play more aggressively in this tournament. My first loss came as a result of a straight up piece blunder in a somewhat equal position. I just hung a knight for no reason. There was a Bishop on e4, and I played my Knight on c6 (which was undefended). I had originally seen that move wasn't possible and then forgot about it. My opponent was playing reasonably quickly and he was around 5 minutes ahead on clock. So there was some sense of playing moves which actually make my opponent think, but this was premature. My second loss was again a blunder, but this time it was "only...

Yesterday night I learned of the news of GM Daniel Naroditsky's passing from our Chess club's Whatsapp group. I was quite taken aback.  Danya has been one of the dominant internet chess personalities, commentators, and educators of our time. I initially watched him on his Twitch streams pre-pandemic. He used to play the KID  and destroy opponents. Of course, when I would try to replicate him and try the KID myself I would be the one getting destroyed. When I picked chess back up this February (2025), I started watching Danya's speed run series . They were quite educational and much of my opening repertoire today is based off what Danya teaches in the speed run. Sicilian Accelerated dragon for black, Sicilian Alapin for white. Once after losing to a Stafford gambit, I watched his refutation video and now that's what I use when I play as white against the Stafford. I would watch his speed run in early mornings, while on the treadmill on the gym. If there was any chess ...

As you may have previously read , I am currently working through "Learn Chess Tactics" by John Nunn . It's a beautiful book and you should get it.  There is one game listed in the exercise section of the chapter on Discovered Attack, that I wanted to share for its sheer beauty. The position is from the game Anand - Lautier 1997 . Here is the position ( Lichess link ), with white to move. Remember the theme is discovered attack: In this position, I saw that the white and black queen were lined up and a check with the light squared bishop would win the queen. So I considered 1. Rxf7 as a possibility, because if 1... Kxf7 , then 2. Bg6+  wins the queen. However, Kxf7 isn't really forced, and black could instead just protect their queen. The solution, which Anand played in the game, was the incredible 1. Bg6!! . Black is unable to win white's queen, because if  1... Qxd1  2. Rxe6+ (f pawn is pinned) , Kf8  3. Bxh6+, Kg8 4. Bxf7# In the actual game, the continuation ...

I started reading  "Learn Chess Tactics"  by John Nunn . This book was pitched as a book for players rated between 1200-1400 in a recent Perpetual Chess Podcast with Stejpan Tomi ( Hanging Pawns ). I don't have any John Nunn books and I thought that this may be a quick read (since I am a 1700 FIDE rated player). Chapter 1 tackles Forks. While I am well aware of the concept, the actual tactics puzzles at the end of the chapter aren't as simple as one would think, and it definitely feels above the 1200-1400 rating range.  Regardless of my opinion on the tactics work, there were two real pearls in the Chapter text, that I had never really considered before.  The first one on directions: " The two pieces most effective at forking are the queen and the knight. The reason is that the queen and knight can attack in eight directions simultaneously and therefore have better chances of catching enemy pieces in a fork than the rook and bishop, which can only attack in fou...