Blog highlights

In this survey of my favorite posts, I indicate my favorite with asterisks and my very favorites with two asterisks. The survey is broken up into several categories.

Some of the best content is in the comments, so a big thank you to all contributors to the blog.

Practical chess improvement

• A chess improvement plan for beginners (**): for the true beginner, a program for improvement.
  
• Things to remember before I play (*) : a practical list of simple principles to follow in games. I read it before every slow game. Contributions welcome.
• Revised Fine's rule: (*) a twist on the old slogan "If you see a good move, look for a better one." The new slogan is, "If a move looked good when you imagined it N moves ago, look for a better one on the board in front of you!"
  
• Lessons from blitz (*): an enthusiastic description of important things I learned about patzer chess during a month of playing blitz.
  
• Blunderstanding: don't just smack your forehead when you blunder: take the time to understand the reason for the blunder. Includes a list of positions in which I tend to blunder.
  
• How do you play when ahead?: a reminder to continue to play aggressively, not like a timid mouse, when ahead.
  
• Analysis of data from chess tactics server: examines whether more problems at CTS improves performance at CTS. Data is interesting, conclusions are speculative.
  
• FOVEA (**): a method for quickly learning a large set of tactical problems. This is perhaps the most helpful thing I discovered while doing the circles. I discussed an additional component of the method here.
  
• The importance of positive reinforcement and analyzing wins: I argue that at patzer level, analyzing wins is important, and also that positive reinforcement should be considered an important component of chess improvement. Follow-up here.
  
• Piece activity: (*) A practical definition of piece activity that breaks it up into three components: mobility, freedom, and coordination. I have found this quite useful in practice.
  
• Accidental and coordinated threats: Describes two types of threats you can make. One, basic tactics, the other a coordinated attack against the King.
  
• Combinations and narratives(*): I discuss the nature of combination classification, and more importantly discuss a cool experiment that reinforces the practical importance of constructing narratives (or to normal people, 'explanations') about positions.
  
• Guided pattern recognition: on finding tactical patterns. In theory it's a cool practical tool, but in practice I haven't worked it into my games too much.
  
• How to increase your rating fast: if you are rated less than 1400 at ICC, read this.
  
• Who should do the Circles, and how? (*): there is this strange method of doing tactical puzzles over and over again. Who will it help most, and what is the best way to approach the tactical circles?

Thought process

• What good is a thought process?: a summary, after much debate, of what a thought process is good for. I asked Heisman and he agreed.
  
• Chessplanner thought process: (*) My chess thought process for use in the middle game. The detailed description of Chessplanner can be found in PDF form here (**) and the abridged (two-step) version can be found here.
  
• Why start by looking at threats: (*) A justification of having the hunt for threats be the first thing you do after your opponent moves.
  
• Analysis: when and how much?: (**) GM advice on the types of positions that call for deep visualization and those that don't. Very useful in practice.
  
• Four visualization techniques: a summary of Soltis' views on various candidate move analysis techniques from his book 'How to Choose a Chess Move.'

Chess Theory

• Tactics: space, time, or spacetime?: defining tactics as moves that will gain material unless your opponent is given extra moves.
  
• Error probabilities for combinations of various lengths: a semi-mathematical analysis of how easy it is to make mistakes when thinking through long combinations, with practical consequences.
  
• Pins are not tactics: an argument that pins aren't really tactics, but only increase the potential for tactics.
  
• Counting rules: an algorithm for solving counting problems, in which a series of exchanges at one square must be settled.

Scientific studies of chess

• Eye movements in chess: some interesting things I noticed about eye movements while solving problems led me to discover an interesting paper that tracked people's eye movements during games.
  
• Psychology of chess improvement: reviews techniques that psychological research suggests is best for chess improvement. Some of the conclusions are surprising.
  
• Learning patterns as planting seeds: discusses the psychology of pattern recognition as it applies to learning chess tactics problems.
  
• Confirmation bias and chess memory(*): a description of two studies, one a comparison of thought processes in beginners versus masters, the other a study of the limits of human memory.

Book reviews

• Cheng's Practical Chess Exercises (**)
  
• Silman's Endgame Course and Greet's Ruy Lopez (*)
  
• Stean's Simple Chess: not really a review but a beautiful excerpt on when someone should start studying positional ideas.
  
• Pandolfini's Russian Chess: a strategy-focused annotated game collection.
  
• Two books on how to respond to 1. d4: Aagaard versus Rizzitano
  
• Two excellent tactics books from the Brits: Nunn's 'Learn Chess Tactics' and Littlewood's 'Chess Tactics', the best beginner tactics books out there IMO.
• One hundred chess book reviews (**): a portal into my eight Youtube videos in which I reviewed every chess book I owned.
  
• Chess visualization course (Book 1): a unique method for improving visualization skills.

Humor

• Blogotypes (**): A sarcastic analysis of the different personality types you find in the chess blogosphere. Still quite relevant. Which one are you?
  
• Howard Stern's take on the Kramnik blunder: A recording of Howard's take on the blunder of the century.
  
• An unbeatable new gambit: A comic.
  
• Cigar manufacturer caters to knights: A Knights Errant cigar!
  
• Openings, thinking, and time management: a dialogue between Sensei Dan Heisman and a patzer.
  
• Just Say No to blitz: (*) A public service announcement from Nancy Reagan.
  
• Monday funnies: another comic strip.
  
• A letter to the Knights Errant from Michael de la Maza: it turns out de la Maza is now doing the Circles with Tic Tac Toe!
  
• Zombie chess: the most insane post on my blog, written when I was incredibly sleep deprived.

Openings

• Grand prix attack: assets and liabilities
  
• Scandinavian analysis (*): an analysis of the common responses in the 2...Nf6 Scandinavian.
• The Soller Gambit: a fun gambit line for black against 1 d4.
  

Circles training and progress

• Dante's discontents: (*) a compilation of all the criticism of the original Circles technique from the early Knights. Basically a list of links to such criticisms, sorted by Knight.
  
• First day on program: starting with knight vision drills. A prescient quote that day in April 2005: 'I feel as if I've started to fall into a deep well.' Little did I know...
  
• My regimen: a description of my entire training program, which ended with the Circles.
  
• Done with precircle 1. Post when I finished the first 1500 problems in TCT with at least 90% correct. It feels like so long ago!
  
• Starting the circles
  
• Changing way of doing circles: A change in my approach. I decided to do mini-circles of 300 or fewer problems. Also contains little discussion of pattern recognition in chess.
  
• Sick of Circle 1: glad I didn't give up.
  
• I suck at chess: one of many posts discussing how much I suck at this game. Oh, the ups and downs of chess!
  
• Intense tactics: near the end of Circle 2, doing 200-300 problems a day, unique kinds of errors come up which I documented here.
  
• Circles Done!: What a relief it is.

Rating milestones
These posts are really fun to read, as when I started I was so earnest about hoping I could reach 1200.

• Hitting 1000: I was all scared that my rating was inflated. I said, "I feel my rating is too high as many of my wins have been lucky." 1000 too high? Wow.
  
• Hitting 1100: 'Someone call Pat Robertson, I'm in the 1100 club.'
  
• Mistakes get me to 1200: I didn't believe it was accurate (too high!), but did have hope, saying 'I now feel fairly confident that when these circles are over, and I reliably use my thought process, I should be a solid 1200 player.' I was right.
  
• Breaking 1300: not a lot of fanfare.
  
• Hit 1400: from the post, "I feel very happy, as my goal when I started this was to reach 1200."

Knights Errant related

• Reflections on the Knights Errant: this was right after a big explosive conflict erupted over at J'adoube's blog and someone left the Knights Errant.
  
• Seven Circles Software list: list of software that people might consider using in their Circles madness.
  
• Passing on the scepter: lots of reflections on the Knights Errant, how they were, what we're becoming.
  
• How I got my name: J'adoube dubs me Blue Devil Knight.
  
• Knights errant FAQ: originally a post on my blog, before I finished in my role as Secretary Knight I turned it into its own free-standing blog.
  
• Chess in Don Quixote: chess is mentioned once in our favorite novel. The quote, slightly modified, is here.
  
• Questionnaire answers: answers to a reader's questionnaire about my experiences with the Circles.

On blogging

• Getting people to read your blog: how to get blog cred.
  
• Rotating blogroll: code my wife wrote so I could have blogs randomly selected and listed on my sidebar. Helps keep down sidebar clutter.
  
• Making a pretty button: more code my wife wrote me. It makes a prominent clickable button.