“Alas, there are very few chessplayers who train. The majority of them merely process information.” ~ Mark Dvoretsky

(linkablez.info likes to steal material from here and claim someone else wrote it, so expect this to be showing up there, soon.)
“Don’t believe it if someone tries to convince you that they know the only correct method of improvement. Such a method does not exist, and such claims are at best self-deception and at [...]

I get asked questions about learning how to play, by parents asking for their kids, and by adults asking for themselves. “Is there a book you’d recommend?” is frequently the “opening gambit” of the conversation.
I don’t like to recommend books without knowing the person I’m recommending them for, because there are several choices and every [...]

I’ve written a couple of times comparing the merits of Chess Assistant and ChessBase. Since I’m no GM and so don’t get my copies for free, I can only afford to keep one database going and up to date, so which one is will it be?
(drum roll, please)
Chess Assistant.

A story that’s always impressed me is the one about how Richard Feynmann prepared himself for an Exam. He bought a blank notebook, entitled it “What I don’t know” and over the next few weeks completely organized everything he knew about physics. He reconstructed it, reconnected the parts of it into the whole. When he [...]

How do I get better? That’s the question students ask more often than any other question. And then wait with bated breath, expecting me to reveal the secret move or idea that will guarantee good results. They know there’s a simple secret that will win game after game for them.
And my answer always disappoints.

Since I’m now retired, I think I should probably dump some of my experiences here. Perhaps some of you can learn from my mistakes and improve on my results as an organizer. I’d like to think I did a pretty good job, but I made mistakes and failed to solve some problems at all.
So let [...]

The Popeye moment has arrived: “That’s all I can stands, I can’t stands no more!”
All things must pass. This decision wasn’t easy for me to make; in fact it’s overdue. I feel like I’m letting Fred and Marshall and Pearle down. But I just can’t do it anymore. The game has changed. The players have [...]

Bobby Fischer is dead.There’s a lot that could be said at this point, both good and bad. There’s the brash young kid who wanted to be the youngest world champion ever. There’s the bitter old man, spewing invective at everyone.
People will tell stories. And, in the end, we’ll all remember what we choose to remember.

We’ve all heard the saying, “No combination exists without a positional advantage.” I’ve struggled with implementing that for years, and I’ve given up. While the statement is quite probably true (at least I’m not going to dispute it) I’ve come to the conclusion it’s also quite useless as advice.
It’s a lot like the adage “there’s [...]