Hi readers, and thanks for following along. I’ve got a lot of changes happening with Kids & Chess, so I’ll need to take a short break from posting daily, as you probably saw already! My most exciting new element is the tagline I created: “Changing the World, One Checkmate at…

How can I get my message out to as many kids as possible? How can I teach kids to play better chess, as well as teach them important things about life like the value of hard work, the need to have a plan, the need to understand that every move…

As a single dad to a soon-to-be 7-year-old daughter, and as someone who is always interested in things I can learn and do to improve myself, I read books on parenting from time to time. It’s been a little while since I read the book Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, by…

Just a quick post tonight to say thank you to anyone and everyone who has impacted my life and helped me grow as a person. From dear friends who always have my back to family members both distant and close, and even to those people who have come into my…

Calculation is the chess term for figuring out what’s going to happen next. It’s the process of thinking to yourself: “If I go here, he goes there, then I can capture and he can capture back, but then I can check with my queen…” and so on. If you don’t…

Along with chess, one of my other constant pursuits and huge loves is personal growth and development. …

I’m a big movie guy, and though I love all kinds of movies, from comedy to sci-fi and musicals to horror, some of my favorite movies of all time are inspirational stories. They don’t have to be true stories, although they often are, but I love a good “against all…

Chess can teach us a lot about life. Most people, when they think of how chess relates to life, think of ‘applications,’ as in, “How can the skills used by a chess player be applied to real life situations?” Certainly there are many of those: creative problem solving, understanding consequences…

I have an old friend I used to play quite a bit of chess with who was able to use his chess skills in a variety of ways away from the board, which really is the ultimate use of chess skill. Since I teach my students to use their chess…