A Chess Dad | Random musings on chess and life

This year, after taking the CalChess “state champion” title, Daniel really wanted to have another shot at the nationals. So we flew down to Texas to attend the tournament, and had a really fun weekend.
Daniel was a bit disappointed after losing game #1 to Akira from NYC, but was able to recover and continue playing, ending with a total of 4.0 points for the tournament. I was very proud of him showing the traits of a real “athlete” that can recover...

Recently I realized that I lose many chess games only because I’m desperately trying to win.
“Isn’t that a good thing? Shouldn’t one always try to win?” you might ask. Well, yes, of course you should. But many chess games reach a state where winning is not possible anymore, but getting a draw is a very reasonable outcome. However, if winning...

In the last few months, I’ve been working with Daniel to establish in his chess discipline the principal of: “work hard on every move”.
We know that chess is non-linear, and a wrong move, as small as it maybe, can cost you the game. A chess tournament is quite challenging, both physically and mentally, and it’s easy to think: “I’ve worked hard in the previous game. I should relax this...

Human beings are wired to think linearly about the world around them, expecting that small incremental changes can only result in small incremental outcomes.
Nature is full of non-linear phenomena. As a simple example, consider a block of ice; when you raise the temperature, it heats up but nothing seems to change; eventually it reaches the critical temperature, and then melts....