Notes from the desk.
Short essays on training, tactics and chess culture — written around the board you play on.
FIDE’s rapid and blitz fee waiver: what it means for your next event
FIDE has extended its rapid and blitz rating-fee waiver through 2027. Separate that federation charge from tournament entry costs, then prepare for one manageable first event.
From Messi and Ronaldo to ChatGPT: why chess keeps capturing football’s imagination
Two campaigns, four years apart: the Messi–Ronaldo chess image and Messi’s ChatGPT opening lesson tell different stories about rivalry, curiosity and becoming a beginner.
The Immortal Game: the quiet pawn behind the queen sacrifice
Why can’t Black’s queen take the offered queen on f6? Revisit our Immortal Game video, trace the blocked diagonal and test both legal replies to the final check.
A world youth finish: count the back-rank defenders
A finish from the World U7–U17 Championships shows why two defenders can still be too few. Follow both legal replies and find the bishop that makes the final rook untouchable.
The Opera Game: why 16.Qb8+ clears the way to mate
Revisit our August Opera Game video with one precise challenge: draw the d7 knight away, open the rook’s path and explain why the final rook cannot be captured.
FIDE’s shorter classical proposal: when is a long think worth it?
FIDE’s 12 October explanation separates proposed time controls from current rules. Try a two-position exercise to make your next long think more useful.
The Journal returns: one idea, one board, one reason to play
The Journal returns with clearly dated retrospectives, a Tuesday and Friday rhythm, and one practical reason to play after every post.
October's Rating Movers: Turn the Headlines into a Training Habit
The October FIDE list highlighted strong Olympiad performances. Use the news to build a small, repeatable review habit of your own.
Uzbekistan and China Take Gold: A Team-Chess Lesson from Samarkand
Uzbekistan and China topped the Olympiad. Try a simple review exercise that turns an individual game into a shared learning session.
Poland's Olympiad Gold and the Work of Welcoming Every Player
Poland won gold in Samarkand. Our practical challenge: make your next chess session easier for another person to join and enjoy.
A chess lesson should leave you able to do something
FIDE’s September education summit announcement inspires a beginner lesson with one clear goal: explain a rook’s route and spot a blocker.
A chess film needs a question, not just a brilliant move
A September State of Chess recap prompts a simple storytelling exercise: pause, predict, explain and return to the board.
Praggnanandhaa’s Grand Chess Tour comeback: build a better reset
Revisit the 2026 Tour final, then try a practical routine for recovering after a loss and making decisions that fit the match score.
Wesley So’s third Sinquefield Cup: practise the art of staying in the game
A retrospective on So’s title, plus a simple exercise for finding defensive resources and discussing difficult positions with a friend.
The Board Is Open
On 12 August 2026, Vibe Chess 3D became a real public arena: playable, connected and open for its first members — with much more still to come.
The Soul of Chess
Strip a position to its pawns and it cannot lie. On reading skeletons — and the twelve shapes that decide most games ever played.
Train in Order
Chess skills stack — literally. Introducing the Curriculum: six stages, everything in the house, arranged the way a player actually grows.
Blindfold Chess Is a Skill, Not a Gift
Visualisation feels like something you either have or you don't. It isn't. Here is how the blindfold ladder actually builds the picture in your head.
Light or Dark: The Foundation Skill Nobody Trains
Knowing the colour of every square without counting sounds trivial. It quietly underpins bishops, endgames and every calculation you will ever make.
The Knight Moves in Curves
Knights are the hardest piece to see because they are the only one that does not travel in straight lines. Route-finding, trained properly, fixes that.
What Puzzle Rush Actually Trains
Timed puzzle formats are often dismissed as junk food. They train something specific and valuable — provided you know what it is.
Pacing Three Minutes
A sprint is not a race to move fast. It is a budget, and most runs are lost in the first forty seconds by people who are winning.
The Gauntlet Mindset
Survival formats punish tilt more than they punish weakness. Playing one well is mostly a study in what you do after a mistake.
The Opera Game, Read as a Lesson in Development
Morphy's most famous seventeen moves are usually shown as fireworks. They are better understood as the strictest development lesson ever played.
Streaks Without Burnout
A daily streak is a habit engine or a guilt machine, depending entirely on how you set the bar.
Memory Palaces and the 64 Squares
Chess memory is not photographic. It is structural — which is why the techniques that work for memorising positions look nothing like flashcards.
Why Playing Friends Makes You Better, Faster
Anonymous opponents give you games. A regular rival gives you a mirror, a rhythm and a reason to fix the thing you keep getting wrong.
The Ladder, in Plain English
What a rating number actually means, why it moves the way it does, and how to stop reading it as a verdict on your worth.
Choosing an Opening Repertoire Honestly
Most repertoire advice is aspirational. Pick openings for the positions you enjoy defending at three in the afternoon, not the ones you admire.
The Four Endgames Worth Learning First
Endgame study has a reputation for being infinite. It isn't — four positions cover the overwhelming majority of what actually decides club games.
The Etiquette of Playing Strangers
Online chess has manners. They are simple, mostly unwritten, and they make the difference between a club and a queue.
Leaderboards, and When to Ignore Them
A ranking is a good servant and a poor master. The trick is knowing which weeks are which.
The Arcade Is Training in Disguise
Pawn Storm and Knight Runner look like games because they are. Every one of them drills a specific piece of board geometry you will use tomorrow.
See What the Piece Touches
Blunders are rarely a failure of calculation. They are a failure to notice the quiet piece that was watching the square all along.
Forcing Moves First
Checks, captures, threats — in that order, every time. The oldest piece of calculation advice in chess, and the one most often skipped.
Why We Built a Board You Can Feel
An introduction to this journal, and to the argument underneath the whole project: that seeing a refutation played out teaches more than being told you were wrong.
First Edition: A Desk, a Board, and a Plan
The opening note. What this journal will cover, how often it lands, and the single idea holding the whole thing together.
New editions Tuesday and Friday. Retrospectives show their archive date and actual publication date.