Hi Friends! Welcome to this every-category extravaganza of a blog: #travel, #food, #chess, #music, #gaming, #sports, and #yoga! The Town Center at Lake Forest Park is truly my home away from home and my favorite place outside of my house. From I-5 N, take exit 177 and stay right to get to Lake Forest Park, the best city out there! You'll take a right eventually into the upper lot you see in the picture below. Coming from I-5 S, take exit 177 again and stay left to get onto Ba

Hi Friends! Hope you’re all having a lovely Wednesday. Welcome to my 30th Sarang's Blog | Prodigy Strats post! Today I will be showing you one of my favorite board games to play outside of chess, Wingspan! I’ll talk about the rules and how the game plays out, the expansions to the game, and why the game is so cool. Hang on tight and let’s take flight to the wonderful world of Wingspan! A reason why I like this game is because it blends a satisfying strategy puzzle with real

Hi Friends! Hope you're doing well. Many of you have asked for a surprising Music x Chess article, so here you go! Today I'll be connecting chess openings to songs. Much like songs, chess openings are super diverse, span many genres and styles, and play very differently. Both are ways to showcase your style, release emotion, and highlight who you are and how you feel. Whether you're coming to this piece from a music or chess background, I hope you get to explore some songs yo

Hi Friends! Like with most sports and games, you can win or lose in chess. Unlike most games, there is a third result, which is very common especially at beginner and master levels, a draw. In fact, draws are the most common result in games between grandmasters. This means it's a tie and both players score half a point. It's recorded 1/2 - 1/2. In the video below, you will learn the five most common types of draws, which I'll summarize afterwards. As you saw in the video, her

Hi Friends! The college football season is about to start, which means it's time for my Big Ten Football Preview! Before that, thanks so much for all your support of my blog, and for making Music x Yoga by far my most viewed blog, with over 1,000 views! Thanks too for all your comments, both online and via direct message. Back to football. The Big 10 this year is the first conference to have the top two teams in the preseason ranking (AP Poll) since 1987, the year my Dad, who

Hi Friends! The English Premier League (EPL) started this week and there's already been a ton of great action! Let's recap week one and preview the season to come. Be sure to check out Vivaan's Corner | Prodigy Strats for an epic quiz my brother made featuring a place I recently traveled to (Travel Intro) and a team I love in EPL! The league began when newly promoted Coventry took their talents to northern London to face off against the defending champions, Arsenal. Arsenal l

Hi Friends! Fair warning: This might be my best and most important blog yet. It could literally change your life for the better. There’s a lot of science here, which I’ll try to explain simply, with the goal of helping you heal, whatever your challenges might be. I can’t live without music. I can’t live without yoga. Together, they form the fibers of my well-being. I’m neurodivergent. I’m asthmatic. I have tons of superpowers as I’m sure you’ve read but I also struggle with m

Photo by Dad. Animated by ChatGPT. We didn't see an orca, but harbor seals! Hi Friends! This past weekend, I went on a road trip to Port Angeles, WA with my grandparents. It was a really fun time, and it was nice to get to sort of take a break, relax and enjoy life during this busy summer. Here is everything I did and ate! We drove an hour and a half from our home in North Seattle to my grandparents’ house in Bremerton. There, we played doubles on their newly cleaned and pain

Hi Friends! Hope you're all doing well this lovely Monday evening. If you haven't yet checked out Chess Endgames 101, please do! This is part two in that series and designed to help you master endgames. Remember what Capablanca said: "In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else." First, we're going to start with how to checkmate with just a King and a Rook. You know how to ladder mate with two Rooks from 101 so it's time to kick it up a no

Hi Friends, I may only be 12, but I have been fortunate to travel the world. Speaking of #travel, Prodigy Strats has only been around a month and has already been read in 15 countries and 18 U.S. states! That's epic, thank you! Today I will share my top ten favorite countries I've visited, all of which are amazing. Without further ado, let's hop on board Prodigy Strats Airways and get going! Photo by Dad. Animated with ChatGPT. India I last went to India when I was five, but

Hi Friends, We just returned from a wonderful week in the Midwest with family and friends and competed at the 126th U.S. Open Chess Championship! In this blog we'll touch on all seven categories: #travel, #chess, #food, #sports, #gaming, #yoga, and #music, so whatever you're here for, read on! First, let's shoutout Port of Seattle and their epic SeaTac airport C concourse expansion! There was lots of space to sit, quiet areas to chill, a yoga room, nice views, and amazing foo

Hi Friends, It's football season again! NFL teams are doing training camp, preseason games have begun (shoutout Panthers and Cardinals for a great opener), and fantasy football drafts are happening constantly! Thanks for all the love on the DVOA and the 2025 Seahawks sports peeps and thanks to all who read Surya Namaskar: A Yoga Flow, my first blog here that surpassed 500 views! We just returned from the US Open Chess Championship in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which was a great

Cartoon graphic created with ChatGPT Hi Friends! Today we will continue our yoga journey by doing a flow that I do every morning. I learned this early on in my yoga journey from my teacher Komal and continued to master it with my teacher Nidhi. Thank you for all the wonderful feedback on my Just Breathe... A Yoga Intro article and I'm thrilled to hear it has been helping you. Surya Namaskara, or Sun Salutation, is a great thing to do in the morning, shortly after waking up. I

Photo by Dad at Lumen Field animated with ChatGPT Hi Friends! On Saturday evening, August 1st, 2026, we got to go see the Ed Sheeran Loop Tour at Lumen Field in Seattle! It was an incredible experience! I hope to share my reflections not only on the concert itself, but how I prepped for it as a neurodivergent kid who knows my strengths and challenges and made the most of it! Any readers out there who are sensitive to noise, heights, smoke, smells, crowds, or any anxieties abo

Photo by Dad in Diamond in the Mall (great card shop in Lake Forest Park, WA) with ChatGPT Hi Friends! Do you want to learn how to play the Pokémon TCG? Well, you’ve come to the right place. The Pokémon Trading Card Game (or TCG) is a fast-paced showdown where you build decks with pocket monsters (a.k.a. Pokémon), attach shiny energy cards on them, and fire away at the opponent. It is part intense chess match, part nostalgic art collection if you’re collecting, and part adren

Hey Friends! Today we're going to kick your chess training up a notch. This video is nearly 15 minutes long but I encourage you watch it all the way through. Evaluating positions is critical to your growth as a chess player and a valuable skill for players at ANY level, including grandmasters! Sit back. Relax. Lock in and let's watch the video! Enjoy! To summarize, the four steps I recommend when evaluating any position are: Count the material (Remember pawns are 1, knights a

Hey Friends! This is a long one filled with sports, math, and history, so grab some popcorn and let's get to it! Data is a huge part of sports today and advanced analytics help players and teams understand their strengths and challenges even better. Defense-adjusted Value Over Average or DVOA is an amazing metric used in the NFL. Here’s a breakdown of how it works. The specific details are more involved and proprietary so even if we wanted to we couldn’t share them. What is

While visiting my great uncle and aunt in Albuquerque, about to eat an enchilada, I was asked a question I will never forget: "Red or Green?!" It turns out that this is an iconic question in New Mexico in reference to their fabulous chile options, and if you want some of both, the correct response is “Christmas”. The theme of today’s blog, though rooted in that question, takes us to a different part of the world, namely Italy. I love cooking Italian food and pasta is a stap

Back in 2023, I nearly died. It was a Thursday evening, and I was struggling to breathe. As my Dad carried me to the car, I said in my muffled voice: “Dad, I can’t breathe. Am I going to die?” I vividly recall what he said: “Just breathe, baby. Slow and steady. You are a fighter and you will get through this. We got you.” In the days that followed in the ER at Seattle Children’s Hospital, I learned more about asthma, what triggered the attack I had suffered, the root causes o

Hi Friends! In light of the morning LeBron James news (in case you missed it, he's a 76er), we had to post an updated NBA post free agent move madness power rankings. Bringing in my bro Vivaan (a competitive basketball player) and my Dad (a basketball coach) Siva for their rankings as well. In the interest of time, we'll each pick our top 5 NBA teams who we believe will be in the mix for the NBA Championship in June 2027. We acknowledge this is WAAAAAAAY too early but here it