Chess
The Promise of Move Nine: 9...a5 Against the Bayonet, and a DVD in the Engine's Shadow
The Block of Zero: Chess Data's Immutable Ledger and the Record Nobody Kept
5.e5 — The Opening Line With Plenty of Story, Few Receipts
Tsaghkadzor's Junior Crown and Purana Paltan's Steel Cupboard: How a Headline Lost Its Own Story
ChessThe Real Chess Question Buried in a Sales Pitch: Not a Session, but a Market StrategyI sat down last week when I saw the title 'Game of the Week #746: Xiong vs...
ChessLondon, Colle, Torre and Trompowsky: The Four-Front Prep Ledger Against 1.d4I began tagging White's third moves after 1.d4 d5 last week, and the moves...
ChessChess: The Silent Board That Remains Sport's Hardest Mental TestChess is a sport without a stadium, without the roar of thousands, without th...
ChessFrom SCHACH to CHESS INSIGHT: A Magazine's English Birth and the Ledger Behind Saint Louis's $400,000The date at the top of the file reads 10/2/2026. Read at a desk in Saint Loui...
ChessSixty Minutes of Scandinavian: One Headline, Another Text, and the Broken Links in the Chain of ClaimsTuesday night, Mumbai. I opened a link from the pile on my desk. The headline...
ChessSixty Minutes of Defence, and the Grandmaster Who Vanished From the HeadlineI clicked a link last week. The headline read: From quitting chess to becomin...
ChessThe Promise of Move Nine: 9...a5 Against the Bayonet, and a DVD in the Engine's ShadowThe DVD case has a coffee ring dried into it. No year of printing, no place o...
ChessTwo Names, One Course: The Advertisement Hidden Inside a US Championship HeadlineI opened the newsletter at half past eleven at night, my Delhi flat running o...
ChessFour Names in the Headline, Zero Scores in the Body: A Training Course Advertisement Wrapped in US Championship News"So and Liang remain perfect, Paragua beats Yip." Four names, one verb, zero...
ChessNot Chess News but Chess Advertising: Liang–Niemann, ChessBase #225, and a Mirror of an IndustryOn an evening last month, at my desk in Delhi, I was scrolling the score of t...
ChessCaruana in the Headline, an Ad in the Body: The Trust Arithmetic of Chess MediaLast night, sitting in my Saint Petersburg flat, my eyes stopped on a headlin...
ChessThe Block of Zero: Chess Data's Immutable Ledger and the Record Nobody KeptIt is half past midnight in Moscow. Open on my desk is an analysis document...
Chess5.e5 — The Opening Line With Plenty of Story, Few ReceiptsThe pawn on d4 has already been captured. What White has now is one move: 5.e...
ChessTsaghkadzor's Junior Crown and Purana Paltan's Steel Cupboard: How a Headline Lost Its Own StoryThe headline spoke of Tsaghkadzor. In that mountain-ringed Armenian town, the...
ChessSeven Systems, Six Videos, One Name: The 1.d4 d5 Sideline Market and Bangladesh's Unopened ArchiveLast December I sat in a club room in Delhi watching a game that was not a...
ChessThe 9...a5 Ledger: A King's Indian DVD, the Bayonet Attack, and an Unfiled ReceiptA DVD cover reads “ChessMom returns: Supporting mothers on and off the board”...
ChessFifty-Four Moves Back from the Edge: Gukesh's 'Houdini' in Samarkand and the Arithmetic of a One-Man Title DefenceMore than five hours. Five hours spent sitting in a position that was, for lo...
ChessSword of Damocles: The 60-Minute Scandinavian Course, Its Marketing, and the Arithmetic of ChessIn the Purana Paltan hall, everyone leaves after the round. I stay behind and...