Chess in Italian (Week 11) Deep Dive in the French Defense
At the beginning of this skill building project, Andrea (my chess coach during these months) suggested I picked one opening to play with Black versus e4 and one against d4. For some reason, I’ve always enjoyed more playing king’s pawn games (those starting with e4). That’s why I looked forward so much to focus for […]
Chess in Italian (Week 10) Humor in Chess
Perhaps the most important trait a player needs is a warped sense of humor.GM Tony Miles The first time I read there was humor in chess I was skeptical. How could it be funny a silent game that required concentration, calculation, and was usually played by quiet (and maybe also serious) people? It didn’t make […]
Chess in Italian (Week 9) The Art of Unlearning
A good part of how to learn something is unlearning our old ways. This is especially true with skills you learned many years (or even decades ago) in a not-very-effective way. We realize there are tons of things we could be doing better in a specific domain. That happened to me many times in my […]
Chess in Italian (Week 8) Talking to Your Pieces
How do we know what to play next in a chess game? How can we tell which ones are the good movements? An interesting idea I recently learn about on ‘The Seven Deadly Chess Sins’, is talking to your pieces. It might sound strange and even a bit wacky, but stick with me for a […]
Chess in Italian (Week 7) Emotional Thinking in Chess
I always knew that chess is not a purely intellectual game, even though it looks like that: patterns, positions, variants, technical skills, etc. But there’s much more to that. There is a big emotional part that very often tends to be overlooked. If you have ever played online you know what I’m talking about. When […]
Chess in Italian (Week 6) Chess Psychology & Dvoretsky Endings
A couple weeks ago Andrea recommended me the book ‘The Seven Deadly Chess Sins’, by Jonathan Rowson. It’s mostly about chess psychology. Here’s an except from the book description: In this thought-provoking and entertaining book, Jonathan Rowson investigates, in his inimitable style, the main reasons why chess-players sometimes go horribly astray, focusing on the underlying […]