Two Players. Same Rating. Same Goal. Different Paths.
Giving them the same training plan would be the obvious choice — and the wrong one.
How to Build Chess Competence
Why information doesn't make you stronger—but competence does.
Do Gukesh and Sindarov Play the Openings That Suit Them?
200 recent classical games suggest an interesting asymmetry before their World Championship matchCan AI See What Fischer and Botvinnik Saw?
How long will it take before trust overtakes suspicion? In an earlier article I argued that LLM-base…
What Happened to Engines Will Happen to Analysis
The next AI shift in chess is not better moves. It is better explanations. The really interesting pr…
Why Knowing More Chess Doesn't Mean Knowing What to Do
We chess players have never had such easy access to knowledge. Grandmasters explain openings, endgam…
Do the World's Best Players Play the Openings That Suit Them?
What 200 classical games reveal about Carlsen, Caruana and two very different ways to build opening …The Books Were Right. The Technology Wasn’t Ready.
Chess knowledge has changed remarkably little. Our ability to organise, personalise, practise and me…
You Don't Need More Study Time. You Need Better Direction.
Most players think improvement is mainly about finding more time. I think the harder problem is deci…
Beyond +0.34, Part Two: Silman Imbalances Give You Direction
The Center Control Score told you what was happening on the board. It never told you what to do abou…
Spassky controlled the center - Fischer won
On move 19 of one of the most watched chess game ever played, the engine evaluation read +1.0 in Fis…Beyond +0.34 — A Position Measure You Can Actually Read
Engine evaluations are precise and useless to most players. A new metric — the Center Control Score …Sixty Years of the Same Training Advice. Here's What's Changed.
Chess improvement advice has been built around the same model for sixty years — one designed for pro…Three Openings Where the Right Reply Depends on Rating
Opening preparation is usually built on a quiet assumption: that there's a single right answer to a …A Different Approach to Chess Improvement
Every chess improvement guide eventually tells you the same thing: solve tactics, study endgames, an…
Where Do the Pieces Go? A Different Kind of Opening Study
You have chosen your opening. You have trained the lines. You arrive at the middlegame with a reason…