A post about how chess lends itself to stubborn moves; on and off the board. “I believe most definitely that one must not only grapple with the problems on the board, one must also make every effort to combat the thoughts and will of the opponent” -Mikhail Tal The stiff shoulders of giants Some of […]
Author Archives: mishivanov
A post about moves that perplex, amaze, and blow our minds Chess Ageism When teaching kids, I sometimes mention how we grew up playing 2 hours for 40 moves, and an hour for the remainder. I even tell them how we would spent one hour on a particularly hard move. “What’s wrong with you people! […]
The Missing Puzzle-Piece Once when I was studying chess with my coach, I realized that most mistakes I made were because of insufficient will power. Both in training and over the board. At a 2300+ level the knowledge players have is similar, along with evaluations and understanding. Yet when it came to skills like finding […]
A post about the balance between objectivity and subjectivity in classical chess A week ago, I was preparing my girlfriend for her tournament games. Since most players have some level of tournament anxiety (congrats if you’re a cool-blooded unicorn), we were working on disassociation. “Remember, at the board, you’re not you” I said. “You’re a […]
Problems worth solving The first chess book I went through was the Soviet Chess Primer by Ilya Maizelis, which made me love the game. Even if it was hard at times, it had a sense of humour based on the studies of Sam Loyd, and other funny positions. https://lichess.org/study/Pz2NCuaY/rB5dAWBN The answer starts with 1.Bb6! […]
“There’s no remorse like the remorse of chess” ~HG Wells Every experienced player has had devastating losses. 6-hour marathons gone wrong, carefully constructed completely winning positions butchered by one reckless move, or opening disasters where you’re the deer in the headlights of your opponent’s gambit. Looking at my past losses as well as those of […]
It was 6 minutes before the start of the round and I was desperately looking at the King’s Indian Gligoric variation on my weak phone engine to find something, anything. It’s not like the line was likely to happen, as my IM opponent could play the English, the London, the Exchange King’s Indian or the […]
Many of us have heard, lived, shunned, or dodged the term ADHD—Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. We’ve all witnessed that energetic kid who disturbs the class and struggles to sit still and pay attention. We’ve all worked with an adult who falls asleep during meetings. We all know someone who despite trying so hard just can’t seem to […]