You are staring at two boxes in your shopping cart. Both promise to teach your child chess without the tears and frustration you remember from your own childhood. One uses cards. The other uses stories. Both claim to be the best way to introduce chess to young learners. After spending three months testing both No … Read more
Choosing the right chess board material can make or break your club experience. After visiting dozens of tournaments and talking with club players across the country, I have learned that board selection is more important than most beginners realize. The three main options for club play are vinyl rollup boards, mousepad-style boards, and traditional wooden … Read more
Choosing the right tournament chess clock can make or break your competitive experience. After testing dozens of digital chess clocks across tournaments, club nights, and casual sessions, I’ve narrowed it down to three models that consistently come up in player discussions: the DGT North American, DGT 2500, and Zmart Fun. This is my honest comparison … Read more
You are standing in the game aisle, holding two boxes. Your child is tugging at your sleeve, eager to play something new. You want to pick a game that will challenge their growing mind without causing tears or frustration. The question arises: should you reach for chess or checkers first? This is one of the … Read more
If you are an adult trying to get better at chess, you have probably asked yourself whether you should spend your limited playing time on blitz or rapid games. It is one of the most debated questions in online chess forums, and for good reason. Most adult players have maybe 5 to 15 hours a … Read more
Suicide chess, antichess, and losers chess are three names for the exact same chess variant where your goal is to lose all your pieces or be stalemated. If you have stumbled across these different names and wondered whether they are different games, you are not alone. I spent years thinking they were separate variants until … Read more