Hi Friends! Hope you're doing well! Today I'm super excited to tell you about my new favorite chess variant, a truly beautiful game called Paco Ŝako (pronounced Paco Shako). It was a cool autumn morning in October and I was enjoying a breakfast sandwich and herbal tea at halftime of my morning walk at my absolute favorite coffee shop: SKOG Haus Coffee. I got a message from Dad with some links about Paco Ŝako and a message saying he'd ordered it and wants to try it out! The re

Hi Friends! Hope you're doing well. Happy Halloween! Today I'm going to teach you about a spooooooky chess opening: The HALLOWEEN GAMBIT! Before that, check out my little bro's pumpkin! Do you see the spooky punchline? Let me explain. BOO is the famous scare word... O-O means to castle Kingside, or short castle in chess, switching the King and Rook. The Os are basketballs because Vivi loves basketball and just won his first u10 title with Dad coaching! The carved chess pieces

Hi Friends! Hope you’re doing well. Today I’m going to teach you a bit about one of the most important techniques in chess: CANDIDATE MOVES! One of the hardest things in chess is figuring out what to move when. Luckily candidate moves offer us a method to address this challenge. Candidate moves are the moves in a position that look promising enough to calculate seriously. Instead of trying to analyze every legal move, you make a shortlist, work out your opponent’s strongest r

Hi Friends! Hope you’re doing well. Today I want to share an awesome initiative that my buddy Aayan Hetamsaria designed that I got to play with, ideate, and beta test a bit: ChessMasti.com! It started with a dream to provide valuable chess coaching and tips to anyone in the world with access to the internet, free of charge. It’s evolved into an amazing dynamic AI designed coach who personalizes the chess experience to exactly what you need and provides an accountability buddy

Hi Friends! Hope you’re doing well. Do you know that awesome Jo Dee Messina country song Heads Carolina, Tails California, from 1996 or maybe the Cole Swindell 2022 version? "Heads Carolina, tails California; Somewhere greener, somewhere warmer; Up in the mountains, down by the ocean; Where it don't matter, long as we're goin'; Somewhere together, I've got a quarter; Heads Carolina, tails California." This past weekend, our quarter landed heads and we took a trip to North Car

Hi Friends! The final five rounds (Rounds 7–11) turned both sections into real medal races: Uzbekistan recovered from its only Open loss to win at home, while China built and then protected a narrow lead to take the Women’s title, as predicted in Chess Olympiad Part I. For our #TLDR readers, the final podiums were Open: Uzbekistan, India, Germany; Women: China, Kazakhstan, India. There were tons of great stories from the second half of the tournament, and we'll share a few of

Hi Friends! Hope you're doing well. Today we're going to take you on a journey to Samarkand, Uzbekistan for the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad, an amazing global get together that happens every couple years with the best chess players from all around the world, representing over 200 federations. Six rounds have passed and tomorrow is the rest day. The way this works is it's a team Swiss, meaning you get paired with another team at your score and your board 1 plays their board 1, bo

Hi Friends! Welcome to the sequel to the ever-popular Chess Opening Songs. Inspired by my choir friend Rachel, welcome to Pokéchess, where chess openings meet Pokémon from the Kanto region (think gen one OG 151)! Chess x Gaming! Let's get to it! Created with ChatGPT Danish Gambit x Gengar Sneaky traps, offensive pressure, high risk, high reward Bongcloud x Magikarp Splash around, weaken your own position, hope for the best French Defense x Chansey Defensive shell to start, co

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 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! 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

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

Hi Friends! If you've been following this blog (I know I'm posting super often and it's hard to keep up), you've learned how the pieces move and some basics in Chess Intro, how to beat the most common beginner's opening in Scholar's Mate? Think Again!, and how to mate with some common combos of pieces in Chess Endgames 101. The next step in your chess learning with me is how to set yourself up for success in the opening phase of the game. The three major principles the video

Hi Friends! Continuing our Introduction to Chess series, I've made two videos to help you finish your games. In my opinion, endgames are the foundation of chess. As the great World Champion José Raúl Capablanca said: "In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else." In most beginner games, the game will come down to a situation with very few pieces left. The person who promotes a pawn to a queen first usually wins. To do that though, you need

Hey Friends! Now that you know how to move the pieces (if you need a refresher, check out Chess Intro), let's learn about a common opening checkmate trap and how to stop it! You won't believe how many games between beginners end like this! Scholar’s Mate, also known as the four-move checkmate, is where White uses the queen and light squared bishop to attack Black’s weak f7 square and deliver checkmate before Black has finished developing. It’s very common among beginners and

Hi Friends! "Cariwch eich calon yn eich llaw." This is a Welsh quote literally translated to “Carry your heart in your hand” meaning travel free and embrace new experiences. Over the last week and a half, July 4-12, 2026, I had the opportunity to travel with Seattle Children’s Chorus to the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Buckle up folks, it’s going to be an epic journey! The journey began at Sea-Tac airport on July 4th. Happy 250th USA! After clearing security, our au

Hey Friends! One of the fun things I'm doing this summer is working for Pawn to Queen Chess Coaching, by kids for kids! I was recently promoted and now serve the roles of Advanced Coach as well as Director of Curriculum, where I get to design many exercises and videos to help folks learn chess. Below you'll find my video "How to Play Chess" designed to help someone completely unfamiliar with the game playing in no time! Now that you know how to play the game, check out a ches