This weekend s Kentucky Open will be my first chess tournament since the Cincinnati Open in April. As of this writing 116 players are registered for both the Open and Scholastic sections, a new record number of participants in the KY Open previously set in 2007. Taking a look at the field comes with a pretty [ ]
Chess middlegames are hard to codify. When I was six years old I could’ve rattled off some rules for the opening: control the center, develop your pieces, castle early. But if I had the misfortune to play someone who also could play a reasonable opening, we ended up in a middlegame where there were no [ ]
These will by my main (Chess Dojo approved!) efforts: Less important studying, but will be around:
This weekend s chess tournament was a success. Travel to and from Cincinnati was smooth and uneventful. The event was well-run and all but the last round started on time. I was fortunate enough to meet up with a fellow Chess Dojo member, Carl, and we reviewed a couple games together and got to talk between [ ]
I m two days out from my first chess tournament of 2025, the Cincinnati Open. We ve been saving up all chess-related money since December so that I can play the three-day schedule with two hotel nights. I identified this tournament as a good one where I could have a weekend away without the travel expenses being [ ]
In online chess communities there s a common challenge to do 100 days of chess. Usually it s some program of tactics, studying a book, and some number of games that the player dreams up. The intent is always to work that program every day of 100 days straight. It wasn t my intention to do the challenge [ ]
Sales is difficult. Multiple times I ve started projects where success ended up resting almost entirely on sales. Each time I was confident that the rest of my marketing mix would be sufficient to overcome any selling problems. Each time I was wrong. Sometimes I ve even had the hubris to think I m good at sales despite [ ]
Five years ago, I still struggled with barbell math. I knew nothing about making a training program, but I appreciated being told the underlying ideas when I was given one. Most of my effort was still about just showing up. I was still coming to grips with the fact that even if I trained well, [ ]
Had the pleasure of attending a Squat and Deadlift seminar at Starting Strength Indianapolis, and a photo from that seminar was used for a recent article on StartingStrength.com. Strength Training Will Force You to Fix (Almost) Everything
Unlike 2020 I didn t have any goals around reading, but I did try to keep books around as much as possible. I listened to some audiobooks while running, always had a book in progress on my phone, and since we take our daughter to the library all the time I d make sure to pick a [ ]