Musings on chess, and lesser things
2017 was a pretty big year for me: A wedding, a degree, a new country, a new job, then a new continent… Looking back on all the changes, I was moderately successful with my major 2017 New Year’s resolutions (such as “working out which country to move to”), but wholeheartedly unsuccessful with pretty much all the minor …
Over the past few months, I’ve had to ask myself a lot of tough questions about my chess. Am I past my peak? Is my priority performance or enjoyment? Should I keep working on trying to stay above 2500? Is it even worth trying to improve now? And if so, how can I best maximise …
A couple of months ago, I received a curious email: Hello, Mr. Smerdon, I recently published an innovative book on chess knowledge/evaluation, ‘The Secret of Chess’. It is written very much in the vein of Nimzovich’s and Kmoch’s works, but is of much larger scope and accuracy of assessment… Please, try to take a …
I’ve started collecting chess swindles for a new book [so if you have any good ones, please send them to me!]. Over the weekend, I visited a great little weekender on the Gold Coast and saw first-hand a fantastic swindle take place – or, rather, nearly take place. Liu-Wohl was played on board 2 in …
As I’ve previously mentioned, last year I went to the economics job market. The job market is an incredible annual event that sees thousands of newly-minted PhDs and young researchers from around the world pitted against each other in a global battle for careers at hundreds of universities, government agencies, international NGOs, banks, start-ups and …
I don’t know how I ended up becoming a chess book reviewer in my spare time, but it’s certainly a fun hobby. It’s gotten to the point that every now and then, I randomly receive a new chess book in the mail to take a look at – which, as any chess addict can appreciate, …
One of the cool things about studying economics is that it teaches a new and exciting way of thinking about things. This means we can look at all sorts of topics in a whole new light, spot problems that we never knew were even there, and come up with efficient solutions. And THAT means every …
When you play often enough on an online chess server, you start to see the same usernames popping up as your opponents. It makes for a weird social network. I recall a story where some Australian chess players met the famous Hikaru Nakamura at a tournament. Among them was a shy, timid junior called Moulthun …
I’m a dreamer. Literally; I dream almost every night, and I recall them vividly. They are often bizarrely creative, including the odd chess dream, though occasionally, during stressful work periods, more boring topics sneak in. But last night’s has left me with goosebumps all day. It was a hot, moonless night in Milan. I remember …
In the provocatively titled “Can Anand Be The Federer Of Chess?“, Chess.com’s Mike Klein brings up the question of whether chess players can really keep performing at the top level as they age. Proponents of this view typically note that chess is not subject to intense physical stresses, that it depends a lot more on …