Michael Aigner

@ChrisBirdIA Any experienced director or arbiter will point out the game should have been declared a draw and not a loss. The novice director didn't know and nobody raised the issue until a chess party several weeks later.

@ChrisBirdIA This reminds me of when a little brother of my student won in a K section with a bare K against Q and K. The opponent didn't know how to mate and raised hand, asking the floor director (a novice TD) to leave. "Do you understand that you lose if you leave the room?" Reply: "Yes."

Pos #2 (Bd 4082) Black claimed the position was stalemate whereas White said it wasn't and showed legal moves that Black could make. Of course this would normally resolve the issue, but in this case Black left the board and reported the result as a draw and never returned.

Javokhir Sindarov! This young kid is now the clear leader of the Candidates. youtu.be/2DtNF60z_5w?si…

@atwell_rose I looked at the US Chess Yearbook (2023 edition) and found zero girls who won or shared first at National High School. I think you made history! Congrats Rose!! (I would have thought Irina Krush or Carissa Yip, but no.) new.uschess.org/sites/default/…

@fpawn Thank you! 😃 I've been wondering when the last time might have been that a girl tied for first at High School Nationals. Any idea?

I just played an IM in the last round of High School Nationals. And I won! I was black, and I played the French, and I got in trouble in the early middlegame. However, he was inaccurate and I was eventually able to equalize. And then, in time trouble...

@atwell_rose You are simply amazing Rose! I see a bright future for you on those 64 squares. Go for it!

So I finished the event with 6.5 / 7 and I tied for first place. So this makes me National High School co-Champion along with IM Eric Liu. This was my main goal in coming to Chicago so I'm happy about that. 🙂

@TihonChernyaev @YouTube Welcome back! We missed you maestro.

CHESS. I am back! Lichess.org. 05/03/2026 youtu.be/vk00yDIwNog?si… via @YouTube

@atwell_rose @STLChessClub Congratulations! That's quite some company on that list. Plus you have plenty of room for improvement.

So I finished the tournament with 4 / 9 after playing 9 guys rated over 2500 FIDE (8 GMs and a GM-elect). I earned my 4th IM norm. It looks like my live rating is 2390, so I should need another 10 points for the IM title. Thank you to the @STLChessClub for organizing this. 🙂

I played a GM in the last round of the STL Masters. We got a draw. I played an opening I played earlier in the tournament, and he was well prepared for this. He surprised me on the 3rd move and I didn't handle it correctly. The game got complicated later, but it fizzled out.

“In chess, not everything depends only on you. It also depends on the people around you, the coach, etc. The decision to change coaches positively influenced my play.” - Nodirbek Adbusattorov

@davidllada I just did. Aside from vastly inflated rating (400 above other sites), I noticed only 2 higher rated players, neither who responded to challenges. Only Guests want to play. I miss my old account, stats, library, even account creation date. Sorry Puzzle Quest is meaningless to me.

@fpawn It didn’t pass! Log in again!

I'm ancient. Still it is nowhere near the age of my ICC account when it passed.

@anishgiri Henry Bird for the win!

Give me a chess hot take that will get you cancelled.

I just watched an absolutely brilliant documentary “ Queen of Chess” on @netflix about the greatest female athlete ever @GMJuditPolgar . It’s a story of an impossible dream of parents Laszlo and Klara and their brilliant children in a time when misogyny and government control was predominant. Part of a movie is much about that game against Kasparov in Linares 1994. I feel that it did change the trajectory for Judit because when your idol does something bad and then does not apologize and even stops talking to you it becomes a trauma that follows you around for a long time. I am in awe of Judit because the way she managed to face all the pressure and unfairness but remain beautiful , kind and resilient is incredible. Judit, you did not become a world champion, but you are one of the greatest women who ever lived!

From a fascinating upbringing to record-breaking prodigy to groundbreaker to my elite rival, and now a friend and a reflective fellow retiree, Judit's real life Queen's Gambit is far more interesting than fiction! Check out her new documentary on Netflix.

@Abumarwan261047 @chess24com It was an open tournament. You could have played.

@chess24com Meanwhile good players why aren’t violent are desperately looking for tournament invitations. Shame on Mechanic’s institute

Christopher Yoo is back in action after his suspension, playing two events at the Mechanics' Institute in San Francisco this weekend: chess.com/events/3rd-kus…

The final medical examiner's report for Danya: charlotteobserver.com/news/local/art… "The cause of death in this case is Probable cardiac arrhythmia due to Probable cardiac involvement of systemic sarcoidosis; methamphetamine and kratom ...are contributory. The manner of death is Accident."

Last weekend, I badly overestimated this pawn endgame for black and only drew. White to move. Afterwards I found the defensive ideas to be quite instructive. How did white save the game? Most critical variations are 10-15 moves deep and the actual game went another 18 moves.

@Dixit__Nikhil It is not the number of questions the parents ask, but the kind. Bad: What will you teach my kid? Good: What kind of homework will you expect from them?

There are two types of chess parents who are looking for a coach: Type 1: “Hi sir, let’s connect on a call.” “Okay.” Then they ask 10–12 questions and most of them need a demo class. Type 2: “Hi sir, when can we schedule the first class?” The second type is usually more decisive, ready to pay more, and often turns out to be one of the best clients to work with.

@chessfeels Thank you. Now I don't have to waste my precious time watching 14 rounds of boring classical chess. Who has time for that anyways?

Anish will win the candidates with an undefeated +4. I couldn't really follow what happened with the last spot for the women's but I'll take assaubayeva with a 2 loss +5 if she made it.

@atwell_rose Congratulations Rose! Steady progress leads to the IM title.

So I finished with 7 / 9 and earned my 3rd IM norm!!! This accomplishment feels pretty good. But I'm still not an IM yet because I've never reached 2400 FIDE. Hopefully I can do this in the next month or two. Thanks to Josiah Stearman for organizing the event! 😃

I played a GM in round 9 of my norm tournament. And I won! Below he played Rc6, vying for activity with Ra6. But I play Rh7 and after Ra6 Rh2+ Kd3 Bf2 I win both his g3 and f4 pawns. Instead he had to play Kf3 and defend passively, but it's already not easy at this point.

@ChrisBirdIA Did you pack some classy jeans?

On my way to Doha, Qatar, to be an arbiter at the 2025 World Rapid & Blitz Championships. Safe travels to everyone else traveling to the event and best wishes to all the participants, may the best chess players win!