Skill Building Project #2: Cooking in Italian (Week 1) Tiramisù
I started cooking my own meals in 2010. In October 2010, I took part in a plant-based cooking course for beginners. That’s how I got started. In 2011, inspired by my teacher in that course, a few documentaries, and books, I decided to become vegan. Since then, I follow a plant-based diet with no animal […]
Chess in Italian (Week 12) Playing Blindfold Chess
This was the last week of the chess skill building project. The initial idea for my last lesson with Andrea was to play a couple of blitz games and then analyze them together. We did that, but decided to added something else: we would play the games without seeing the pieces (blindfold chess). There’s a […]
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 […]