Spaced Repetition Training

I’ve been working on improving at chess for a few years now, and early on in the process I was introduced to a very interesting technique for learning and memorization called Spaced Repetition. The idea of spaced repetition is that after we learn something, we immediately start to forget it. Let’s say we’re trying to […]

Accomplishment in the New Year

A great life is nothing more than a series of days well lived strung together like a string of pearls. — Robin Sharma I’ve always struggled with new year’s resolutions. And I know I’m not the only one. A year is a long time. Along with the fact that it can be hard to stick […]

Growth vs Comfort

At work recently I was reintroduced to an interesting quote: Growth and comfort can’t coexist It kinda puts a name to something I’ve been feeling about myself lately. In a lot of ways, life is pretty comfortable. And in some areas I’ve been finding myself prioritizing comfort over the discomfort of growth. This concept is […]

Chess Game Analysis – Nova Scotia Open Round 3

It’s round 3! I won my first game on Friday night, and I lost my second game on Saturday morning. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect next. This game was the second game on Saturday, and although I had just lost one, I went into this one with a positive attitude. Anything can happen! […]

Biking Cape Split

Sarah and I got out biking tonight, and we decided to ride Cape Split. It’s a beautiful hiking trail which takes about 2 hours to walk and ends up at the top of an impressive point which sticks out into the Bay of Fundy. Although it’s much more common to hike it, we really enjoy […]

Chess Game Analysis – Nova Scotia Open Round 2

Round two of the Nova Scotia Open was on Saturday morning, the first of two games for that day. I was happy with my win from yesterday, and my opponent in round two was rated 1431, about 100 points higher than my round 1 opponent, and less than 100 points lower than me. It could […]

Chess Game Analysis – Nova Scotia Open Round 1

The Nova Scotia Open was the first classical tournament I had played for a while, and I was very happy with the result! In this 5-part series, I’ll walk through each of my games, the lessons learned, and at the end, the tournament results! (spoiler) Kudos to my coworker Michael who helped me to analyze […]

Chess Game Analysis – A Queen and Pawn Endgame, and The “Second Mistake”

It’s the second mistake that gets you. This is a game that I played at my local club against a strong opponent. He and I have had some good games in the past, and most of the time I lose. On this night, we had just played a very complicated game which ended in a […]

South Africa Part 6 – Addo and Schotia

The activity today was a full-day guided safari which was included in our stay at Chrislin. It was done by their sister company, Criss Cross Adventures. It’s a family business: the woman who owns Chrislin, her son owns Criss Cross Adventures. We had breakfast at Chrislin and then met our driver/tour guide at 08:30. His […]

Chess Game Analysis – some lessons about pawn breaks

This is a club game that I played against a very strong player. I didn’t expect to win, but I was happy to have a reasonable position for much of the game. I’ve been learning about pawn breaks, and there are some lessons here about how to use them well, which I did not do! […]