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Profiles of chess blogs and their authors

With the help of David Glickman, editor of the Boylston Chess Club Weblog, we are making another attempt to present the enthusiastic world of chess blogosphere to the wider audience. The first step was made in August last year, when we published an interview with David Glickman himself. Bellow are the profiles of chess bloggers who have answered our call via Boylston Chess Club Weblog, listed in order as we received them in our mailbox. Browse through their sidebars to find more chess blogs.

The Chess Of Edwin Meyer

Well, it is a chess blog. And it mainly deals with my own chess, my chess experiences (however few), about how I’m trying to improve by myself. The books or material I read/use, and I also sometimes post articles that may be helpful to others as well.

And for a few words about myself: My name is Edwin Meyer, I was born and raised in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I learned to play chess between the age of 29 and 30. It quickly became one of my main interests. Besides a handful of games (including the ones that taught me how the pieces moved), I only played chess over the Internet. So I do not have any official rating whatsoever. I have met and played several titled players both on the Internet and over the board. I started chess blogging mainly to document my training/study. I saw it as a helpful tool somehow on which you could discuss and receive feedback. I hope to become a FIDE master someday.

Edwin Meyer
The Chess Of Edwin Meyer

USCL News and Gossip

I began it last September to comment on the US Chess League. I was lucky enough to win USCL Blogger of the Year, determined by a vote of team managers. It covers the USCL (although that’s over now), my own chess tournaments and games, and various thoughts I have about issues in chess. I’m an avid tournament player with a rating of about 2150 FIDE.

Elizabeth Vicary
USCL News and Gossip

Getting to 2000

My original goal was to get my USCF rating up to 2000, by the Feb 2007 rating supplement from a floored out 1800 (June 2006). I didn’t make it, although I did get my rating up to 1885 at one point. My new goals are: learn more about the game (tactics/end game), play 5-10 rated games a month and to eventually get to 2000.

Ivan Wijetunge
Getting to 2000

Hardcore Pawnography

My blog is called “Hardcore Pawnography” and is at http://chessloser.wordpress.com. It’s mostly my sarcastic sometimes humorous writing about my struggle with chess, some book reviews, some of my games I’ve annotated, and interviews with chess people (so far, I’ve only interviewed GM Larry Evans and IM Danny Rensch).

I just started seriously playing and studying chess about one year ago, I’m now 39, and my goal when i started blogging was to become a rated master. I didn’t realize exactly how difficult that would be.

I started blogging for a few reasons. First, making my goal public forces me to see it through, blogging keeps an historic record of my progress, and I get tips and help from other chess people. Also I really love chess, and I want to make it “cool” again, I don’t want it to be seen as stuffy and boring and for old people. And I like to write.

Hendrix
Hardcore Pawnography

The Kenilworthian

“The Kenilworthian” may seem an odd name for a chess blog, but its primary goal was to promote the chess club in the small New Jersey, U.S.A., town of Kenilworth — named for the castle Kenilworth in England, made famous by Sir Walter Scott. As the name suggests, I am first a “citizen of Kenilworth,” even though chess inevitably makes us citizens of the world. The blog was designed to focus first on local events, at the club or in the state, and to use that relatively narrow lens to create a manageable perspective on the infinitely expanding possibilities of the game.

I teach at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, and one of our tag lines is “Jersey Roots, Global Reach.” That more or less sums up the perspective I have in my blog. At Rutgers, I am Associate Director of the Writing Program and coordinator of our main Writing Center (for tutoring students in college-level writing). I founded our Business and Technical Writing Program and I am involved in our Writers House initiative (about which you can watch a video on YouTube). I’ll be teaching a course this term called “Collaborative Writing Practices: Game Design” in the Writers House computer classroom (which we call the “collaboratory”), where students will work in teams to design games. So I may get to talk a bit about chess in the classroom this semester, which will be a rare treat for me.

Because of my busy academic schedule, I can’t post to the blog as often as I’d like. But I think I generally do quality posts. I certainly always try to be thorough in my treatment of any subject, as anyone who has read one of my bibliographies on the site knows! I think my blog is very eclectic, covering chess culture, recent events (especially U.S. or NJ related), chess history, teaching chess to kids, chess tourism, chess politics, chess in art… you name it, I’ve probably discussed it! I also like to post some of my opening analysis — which I’m often doing for myself anyway, so why not share it? I answered an extensive questionnaire over the summer that was going around the blogs, if anyone is interested in reading more about my relation to the game and to blogging. Check out the blog and let me know what you think.

Michael Goeller
The Kenilworthian

Castling Queen Side

I’m a 53 year old female chess player who has been playing in tournaments since 1972. I teach chess to young kids. I write primarily about my experiences being part of the New York City chess scene. I share stories from my earlier chess playing years and games from recent tournaments. I ignore the seamy chess political scene, and try to entertain with amusing stories from my observation and participation over the years, both as player, teacher and tournament director.

My blog heading says, “Looking at the Game of Kings from the Queen’s point of view”, but actually it has ended out being more of a view from a very active player, and doesn’t have much to do with being a woman. I’ve always enjoyed keeping journals about my various interests so I started writing a triathlon blog a few years ago. I enjoy recounting my adventures as a competitive athlete, so I decided to do the same for chess. I don’t think my triathlon blog got much traffic, and I haven’t worked on it since the fall. In the meantime I’ve developed a decent following from the Knights Errant on my chess blog.

Polly Wright
Castling Queen Side

The Knights of Castle Kimbark

I began it a year ago mainly to provide fast news to parents of the kids in the Ray School Chess Club, an elementary school club in Chicago. “Castle Kimbark” refers to the school, a huge fortress of a building on the city’s South Kimbark Ave. I soon discovered, however, that the club by itself didn’t generate enough news to properly fill a blog, so I started adding news about scholastic chess in Chicago more broadly. I have since expanded the scope further still and now permit myself to write about almost anything chess related, though I still focus mainly on Chicago and to some degree our school and the Hyde Park neighborhood, where chess is very popular, I’m happy to say.

Why did I start blogging? I guess I just like to write, have an ego of unseemly size, and I can’t resist the temptation to publish my every thought instantly, even if know that my audience is but a few dozen on a good day.

Tom Panelas
Ray School Chess Club
The Knights of Castle Kimbark

The Chess Mind

My name is Dennis Monokroussos, and I am the author of the blog called “The Chess Mind”. The blog is a mixture of super-tournament coverage, general chess news, a little bit of advertising for my ChessBase and ChessVideos.tv presentations, the occasional commentary and instructional article, and a chance to share with a larger audience whatever beautiful fragment of the game I’ve happened across that day. I’ve been at it since January of 2005 (April 2005 at the current web address), and what motivated me to begin was a general love of chess and a sense that the general chess public has an overly pragmatic approach to the game. I want to improve and win as much as the next person, but the time I’ve spent with the game over the past 30 years is the due to its aesthetic dimension, not my competitive drive. Even before starting my blog, I’d often show friends attractive games or beautiful combinations or studies whenever I could, and it wouldn’t matter who won them: it could have been me or my opponent, or a famous grandmaster or a little known player. Starting a blog gave me the chance to share attractive moments in chess with a larger audience, and to communicate my vision and feeling about the game with them.

About me: I’m a USCF master who has been in and out of competitive chess the past 20 years (currently in); I also give chess lessons and have worked in academia teaching philosophy.

Dennis Monokroussos
The Chess Mind

Streatham & Brixton Chess Club

Who is Geoff Scorebook? What’s the worst move on the board? Can I
have a puzzle please? What about some television? What’s going on in
the south London chess scene? I’m bored – show me something new &
interesting today? What’s your favourite move? Who are Streatham &
Brixton Chess Club? & did their blog really win The English Chess
Federation’s Website of the Year award in 2007?

If these are the questions you regularly ask yourself – then the
Streatham & Brixton Chess Club blog is the one for you!

Our blog has three authors:

ejh – real name Justin Horton – is 42 and recently emigrated to Spain
where he works in a children’s bookshop. A penniless author, he is
known in the chess world as a contributor to the English magazine
Kingpin, and is currently trying to write a book about chess.

Jonathan B – Jonathan Bryant is 39 years old and enjoys playing chess
but is not very good at it. The same can be said for writing chess
blogs. He never knows what to say when asked to write a brief bio
about himself.

Tom Chivers regularly blunders whole rooks on e3, and overlooks wins
featuring the move g5. When he manages both feats in one game, he’ll
probably give up trying all together. He is 31 years old, or as he
prefers to call it, twenty-&-eleven, and lives with his girlfriend
Sarah in London where he also has an office job.

We initiated the blog for more than one reason. Certainly to
promote the club & attract new members – something the blog has helped
to do. But also to give those of us with a writerly persuasion a place
from which to reach a wider audience, to keep members of the club in
touch with one another, to keep us up to date with our goings on, to
join in the general conversation in the chess blogosphere, and so on.

Streatham & Brixton Chess Club
The 2007 English Chess Federation’s Website of the Year award

A Personal Chess History

What is it: A Personal Chess History.

Games, stories, humor, analysis, rare photographs. Many of the games are not (yet) electronic; pre-Chessbase and other databases, versus the likes of Larsen, Spassky, Dzindzi, and other greats of the 70’s, 80’s, and onward until the present.

Time periods: from the 1970s to the present. This is a great era to talk about – the very dawn of the computer era, from pre-PC with scribbled papers (Polugaevsky’s notebooks!) to the modern day 3100 Rybka assistants and the like. Electronic game collectors will like it; so will people interested in anecdotes, photos, and stories of tournaments in days past.

The advantage of “recent history” is that most of the principals are still active and alive; thus the readership can chip in with their own recollections, corrections, and opinions!

IM Mark Ginsburg
A Personal Chess History

Rook House Chess Blog

I started playing chess just within the last three years and
quickly became fascinated with both the game itself as well as the
history of it all. I play online when I can find the time and I have
also played in a few OTB tournaments, in which I unfortunately did not
perform very well. My chess game will improve as I find more time to
study and play.

My contribution to the game is my historical chess website and my blog
that I post to at least three times a week. The blog was designed to
provide instant interaction with chess enthusiasts all over the world.
It covers many topics such as chess news, chess history, chess polls,
and the occasional chess puzzle.

I additionally submit various chess facts for Susan Polgar to post on
her blog as I come across them, knowing that her significantly higher
volume of readers will get to see and enjoy them. I heavily regulate
postings to ensure that my site only portrays positive things for the
game of chess, as opposed to some of the many blogs and newsgroups
that I have seen.

Kevin Marchese
Rook House Chess Blog

ChessUSA

Introduction:

Back in 2003 the United States Chess Federation, the organization that
is the governing body for chess in America, decided to embark on a new
course regarding governance. Before 2003, members of the Executive
Board and its predecessor, the Policy Board, had been chosen by the
delegates appointed by the 51 or so state chapters. In 2003 the USCF
sent out ballots to all adult members to vote for the Executive Board
under a new system called “One Man One Vote” or OMOV.

Whether or not OMOV is better than the previous methods of electing
governance is debatable. What is not debatable is that the new system
has created a substantial need for informing the now enfranchised
regular membership of the USCF. Since the implementation of OMOV
informing the voting members has been extremely spotty. A great number
of members do not even know they are supposed to vote in the biannual
and special elections. The USCF has fallen woefully short of creating
the necessary means of informing the voting membership.

The USCF Forums is one method of creating an environment of
information and interaction between the membership and governance that
the USCF has tried. While there has been some success with the Forums,
severe problems regarding the politicizing of Forums management and
negative interference from governance have hindered a free flow of
information between membership, management, and governance.

It is the intent of this blog to try to help bridge the gap that
remains in the necessary flow of vital information to the membership
and to present information, news, and other items of interest to the
American chess public and help support the mission of the USCF.

About the author:

My name is Steve Owens. I’m known as “Steve in TN” to most of the
USCF chess community. I started blogging in early 2007 primarily
about Correspondence Chess.

How it all started:

When I started I was just blogging as a personal impetus device to
continue playing and analyzing correspondence chess. Soon my first
blog evolved into a sort of correspondence activist venture. In
September it evolved into a new blog at ChessUSA.

Steve Owens
ChessUSA

Chessdom wants to express gratitude to all the bloggers that have sent their profiles. We will continue to popularize chess blogosphere on our pages.