With retirement looming, I’ve added chess to my short list of guilty pleasures. OK, maybe the list isn’t so short. I learned to play it while in grade school, but only learned how the pieces moved and ran with it. I did pretty well against my peers but never learned any theory. I had no idea such a thing existed.
I joined chess.com in June 2026 and am taking chess quasi-seriously. Here is my chess.com profile if you are interested. I won’t post my ELO because it’s very low, but it’s rising slowly. I’ll share a few resources I’ve found on learning the game and other pertinent sites here. I chose “kiamanawanui” as my profile because it means “be patient” in te reo Māori, and it’s something I am challenged to be while playing. So it is a reminder.
My Chess Learning Resources:
- GothamChess – he’s got more followers than any other chess teacher on the web, has great content, and shares a YouTube video at least once a day. He has a chip on his shoulder, but, hey, he’s a New Yorker and he has the skills to back it what he puts out. I truly enjoy his content.
- Chessiverse – I have impulse control problems – I’m Mr. “Move, Click, Look.” One of chess.com’s weaknesses is that when you are playing bots, it doesn’t have a “confirm” button that you need to press before you actually move your piece. You click and drag it, and your move is done. They do have it for live games, but I need it for bot games too. Chessify has that button, so I use it more for bot games, and chess.com for live games.
- Lichess.org – An awesome site with tons of learning resources. I often import my own games from chess.com and chessiverse for review and analysis. I have also built a Chess Brain (details forthcoming) with Claude Code (based on Nate B. Jones’ “Open Brain” project). Alongside Stockfish, it helps me analyze wins and moves, and has helped me improve my game. I’ve not yet used it directly, but intend to learn how to do it.