From private lessons in homes to school clubs, I present each chess student or group with the same problem sets, the same curriculum. I leave plenty of time for individualized work tailored to specific needs, too. But, one new lesson that I must...

Yesterday, I ran a small scholastic chess tournament--the fourth annual Black Knights' Joust--with seventy-nine players in three sections (K-3, 4-6, 7-12). As I was starting to pair the first round, a message popped up in SwissSys 8 telling me that I...

In Breaking Through: How the Polgar Sisters Changed the Game of Chess (2005), Susan Polgar mentions a game she played with her father when she was starting to learn chess. After introducing the chess board and the pieces, for some time we only played...

This position originates in Stocek-Cifka, Pardubice 2008, and was published as Chess Informant 103/302. I played it against Hiarcs 12 beginning with a move given in the annotations. It required twenty-four moves and two take-backs to force the...

Here's a dirty little secret: I have not been doing my tactics training the past few months. Summer was busy, and the constant activity has not let up. I attempted six problems on Chess.com's Tactics Trainer this morning, failing three. Here are two....