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I enjoy reading about chess and there is a number of blogs that I follow. And I do toy with the idea of starting a chess blog myself in a distant and uncertain future. So I want to tap your combined knowledge:

  • What are the best chess blogs you know?
  • What makes them so interesting?

(I know this is the kind of subjective question, stackexchange usually doesn't go for, but I think this could be a very worthwhile collection, possibly as community wiki.)

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7 Answers 7

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For players under 1800 USCF/FIDE, Dan Heisman's blog is an extremely helpful source. He has lots of information on:

  • Thought process: how Hope Chess can cause losses
  • Time Management: how to manage your time in order to be able to think as much as possible when the game gets complicated.
  • Practical tips for different situations: when you're way ahead, it's a different game; when you're losing, complicate the position to try to get your opponent to make a mistake; when your opponent is in time pressure, don't blitz him, etc.
  • Correcting misconceptions: player not recapturing because then he would get doubled pawns (safety is a 100, pawn structure is a 1), players loses because he didn't "see" something when in fact he didn't look out for it (thought process), player making a quick move in a critical position (hand-waving), Player playing a quick move because all moves look bad (acquiescing), Player rejecting move based on shallow or superficial analysis (quiescence error) . . . The list goes on, check out his blog!
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  • I would like to further recommend this blog. As someone who is pretty terrible (no USCF/FIDE games to my name), his blog has really opened my eyes to some ideas I had never even previously considered. Implementing them in my own games of course is proving to be more challenging...
    – NoseKnowsAll
    Commented Jun 3, 2015 at 16:43
  • Agree. Dan covers many topics that new players may not consider as part of chess improvement such as thinking process and time management
    – Michael West
    Commented Jun 7, 2021 at 20:30
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  • TheChessMind by Dennis Monokroussos. Pretty much the best alternative to the major chess news sites. Often a bit faster, commented games, interesting tidbits.

  • The Streatham Brixton Chess Blog. Different writers from one club, write about vastly different topics. You'll get deeply researched articles about chess in art, chess politics, endgames, openings and and and …

  • Dana blogs chess. A comparatively narrow view into the chess life of one enthusiastic amateur player. Often quite instructive.

  • GM Smerdons blog. Not that much chess and not particularly frequently updated, but a very strong player and good writer giving his opinion and writing about his experiences.

Edit: I'll add some discontinued blogs, because there is still great stuff to discover:

  • The Chessninja. Mig Greengard, journalist and Kasparov devotee, probably the most entertaining writer about chess, gives his take on current affairs.

  • The Kenilworthian. Chess blog by Michael Goeller. A lot of stuff about tricky openings.

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I would recommend Tim Krabbé's CHESS CURIOSITIES. It contains all sorts of interesting facts and stories related to chess. There are also many puzzles and interesting games, with comments, historical notes and curious details related to the games/problems/players. It is highly entertaining, instructive and well-written.

Majnu's blog is a great site for learning, especially for a beginner. In my opinion, Majnu is very talented in relating chess ideas in a clear, precise and easy-to-follow way. An excellent player and an excellent teacher, so his blog can hardly be anything else but excellent, as well.

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  • There is a lot of good chess stuff on that web site, but the only part of it that is a blog is Krabbé's Open chess diary. Although Tim Krabbé returned to it recently to mark the passing of Harry Goldsteen (d. 5 Jun 2021), he has unfortunately let it lie practically dormant for many uears.
    – Rosie F
    Commented Jun 7, 2021 at 17:40
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A few days back, I wrote an article called Top 11 Chess Blogs You Love to Read. I added 11 chess blogs for it. It will worth reading.

I will add two main blogs from that list to this answer and why they are good.

Chess.com blog: They publish around 100 posts per month. So it can be introduced as the most active chess blog. Most articles are written by grandmasters and international masters.

The Chess World BLog: The author of this blog started this blog when his rating was under 1200. But after 2 years his rating was more than 2200. So this blog will be very helpful for beginner chess players who have the plan to get a 2000 rating in just under 2 years.

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chess.com blog It is great blog with good few good articles written by chess masters (I read one for GM Hikaru this one)

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Also check out Greg Shahade's blog .

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    Can you tell us why we should do this? Or at least what kind of topics he writes about? The top three answers to this question are a good example.
    – Glorfindel ♦
    Commented Jul 31, 2016 at 9:56
  • Its a good blog - check it out. The dude is an IM and has interesting opinions. Bizzare downvoting of a perfectly good answer.
    – gobob
    Commented Jul 31, 2016 at 10:16
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My top two choices would be

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    That's only two :)
    – Dag Oskar Madsen
    Commented Jan 8, 2016 at 22:47
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    Can you tell us why we should read these blogs? Or at least what kind of topics he writes about? The top three answers to this question are a good example.
    – Glorfindel ♦
    Commented Jul 31, 2016 at 9:56

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