Hey everyone, I am back from a one-week hiatus, and we are awash in chess improvement posts! Lots of top chess news happened as well, although to me, Hikaru winning Norway Chess and Anna Zatonskih winning Cairns Cup already feels like ancient news. Meanwhile, a big tournament is under way in Las Vegas, and GM Hans Niemann and many others are in action. Without further ado, please enjoy this array of chess posts.
Book Reviews
New in Chess Magazine made one of GM Matthew Sadler’s book reviews from the magazine available on their blog. Rock Solid Chess is definitely on my “to read” list! (New in Chess Blog)
Richard James reviews IM Willy Hendriks’ The Ink War The book “gives a wonderful impression of the 19th-century chess world and the birth of modern chess.” (British Chess News)
Speaking of Book Reviews- dedicated improver Nick Visel has been writing detailed and helpful book reviews on Amazon for a long time. He made a substack blog, so now we all need to subscribe to it in order to pressure Nick to publish the reviews separately! (Nick’s Blog)
Chess Improvement
Dr. Nick is back, and this time his blog has a name! In this post he shares some thoughts on how to review your games. (Chess in Small Doses)
Dan Bock built a cool Chrome Extension (The Chess Improvement Lab)
Martin Justesen shares a bunch of data about the Effects of 2 Weeks of Puzzle Rush on Your Chess (The Say Chess Blog)
Interesting post by GM Alex Colovic about designing “your own opening theory,” although FYI in the comments he suggests this advice is best suited for the FM level and up. (GM Alex Colovic’s Blog)
Very insightful post from IM Junta Ikeda on the Challenges of Identifying Critical Moments in Chess (Infinite Chess Blog)
FM Nate Solon identifies Parallels Between how Kamryn Hellman (started chess from scratch at 21) and GM Matthew Sadler approach Chess Improvement (Zwischenzug Blog)
IM Jacob Pfreundt is still working towards his GM title, and solving absurdly hard puzzles along the away! (Lichess Blog)
Sam Asaka takes on the Misconception that “All Endgames are Drawn” (Road to Infinity)
Chess News
Al Lawrence tells the story of Alice Lee, Now the youngest female IM in US History! “ Alice wasn’t always a champ. When she was in first grade, she started going to the school chess club as a “tag-a-long” with her brother, who was in 5th grade. “I lost to everyone,” she laughed, “hundreds of games.” But she kept playing and got better.” (Chess Life Online)
More on IM-elect Alice Lee from NM Vanessa West (Chess.com News)
Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam has revealed that GM Jakhongir Vakhidov was also on #teamding (New in Chess Blog)
The FIDE World Cup is Less than Two Months Away, and Magnus is Playing in It (Shahid Ahmed for Chessbase India News)
Faustino Oro is 9 years old, started online chess in March of 2020, and is rated 2300 FIDE!! "The teacher put mate problems in four, and Fausti took them out so quickly that the other boys didn't even have time to see the pieces. I spoke with my wife, and we found him a private teacher," he said.” (Tarjei Svensen for Chess.com)
R.I.P.
Peter Doggers looks back on the life and career of GM Vadim Malakhatko “His friend Oleksandr Prokhorov estimates that Malakhatko won over 90 classical tournaments, while visiting 93 countries in his career. ” (Chess.com News)
IM Anthony Saidy memorializes the recently deceased Ukrainian/American FM Orest Popovich. FM Popovich was accomplished at and away from the chess board! (Chess Life Online)
Misc.
Fun post by SheldonofOsaka of the Top 5 Chess Movie/TV Scenes. Admittedly, I haven’t seen a few of these, but I’d have a quite different list! (Chess.com Blog)
That’s all for now, have a good weekend everyone- Ben
Thanks for the shout-out, Ben!
Great list as always Ben. Thank you.