Blogs
All my Chess.com blogs can be found directly at http://blog.chess.com/danheisman
How did John Keir win 6-0 in his 2nd Tournament?
Answering a Question About Adult Improvement
When You're Way Ahead...
Young Fabiano's Weekly Regimen
"Bobby Fischer's move? Yeah, right!"
The Wise Adult Syndrome - You don't have to be a great player to try to analyze, especially if the position might be critical
The 95% Conjecture - The strong affect of not trying your best on every move
I Lost Because I "Didn't See" the Combination
The IBM Player Story
There's Not Always A Clearly Right Move or Idea
I'll Never Forget the Brilliant NM Alan Baisley
A Talk to Remember Coach Donald Byrne
The Mythical "Capture with the Least Valuable Piece" Principle
The Train Story
The Barack Shock
Playing Fast in Opponent's Time Pressure
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (7 of 7)
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (6 of 7)
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (5 of 7)
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (4 of 7)
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (3 of 7)
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (2 of 7)
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (1 of 7)
Middlegame Book Suggestions
The DATSCAN
Move Every Piece Once...
My Only Meeting with Al Horowitz
It Helps NOT to Know Opponent's Rating
A Guide to the Quizzes
A Guide to Chess Improvement (how the book was made)
The World's Most Instructive Amateur Game Book about to ship
Danism2 - My personally-created heuristics/principles
Hypermodern Development*
Classical Development*
The Ways a Move Affects the Board* - The comments are helpful, too
Rusty Fill-in Plays Game
Fischer and the Border-Patrol - another D.Byrne story
The Hustler Gets Byrned
Chess Skills are not Have and Have Not
Improving Requires Extensive Practice Looking for Better Moves - Stefan77: "This article is fantastic and helped me immensely."
What's a Good Opening?
Improvement Books vs. Thought Process Books
Joe Casey, Chess Player
Missing Zugzwang as an Endgame Weapon* - Shows the important technique example of how to win with Piece&P vs P
What's Worse? Missed Mate or Missed Trade?*
Missed Chance at Copycat Immortality
Quick Guide to Chess Improvement Column
A Very Clever Problem
My Personal Principles/Quotes
My Best Composed Problem
Danisms - my personally created chess terms
The Amazing Power of Board Vision* - IM Daniel Rensch's two-part video series on improving visualizing skills
Avoiding the BIG Mistake*
There is no Single Correct Thought Process*
2012 Chess Journalism Awards
Improving vs. Maximizing Performance
The First Game I Ever Had Published
Whatever Happened to Everyone's Second Chess Book?
Nitpicking the Author
Time Spent Evaluating
Strong Players Compare Candidates (Candidate moves)
Should Beginners Play an Opening System?
Howard Stern and the 1100-rated Opponents
danheisman.com (my website) re-designed
New Book "Is Your Move Safe?" Now Available
The First Time I Met GM Bisguier
Checking for (your move's) safety requires more than tactical vision - see also FM Solon's article on System 1 vs System 2 thinking (similar!)
Everyone's Second Chess Book 2nd Edition available soon
Ken Boehm 1949-2018
Losing On Time is Much Worse than Making Bad Moves
How Bobby Fischer Eluded Me :)
Move Every Piece Once... (sequel)
Playing Too Slow - A Professional's Opinion (written by T.Harley)
2020 Holly Heisman Memorial fundraiser chess tournament
How I Won More Games By Improving My Chess Thought Process (submitted by student Jason Murray)
Kramnik's Long Think
Two-Man, Five Board, Five Minute - rules for a fun chess variant
A Guide to my instructive YouTube Channel Videos
Articles
General Articles
Passive vs Basic Hope Chess
Good Traps and Bad Traps: The Maung Story
The 2014 Holly Heisman Memorial Chess Tournament
"Final Answer": Determining When to Make Your Move
A Gear I Don't Have - Try your best, or resign
The Ricky S Story: A Chess Parable - just being "smart" is not enough to make you a great chess player
The Wit and Wisdom of Louis Fogg - Anyone can play like a grandmaster in SIX minutes!
Maximizing Learning per Unit Time - diminishing returns on study time, especially reviewing annotated games
Not "White to play and win"? Worthless?!
Being a Good Tactician Requires Analysis AND Pattern Recognition see also FM Solon's article on System 1 vs System 2 thinking (similar!)
How USCF Rule 29L1 got Changed
Slow Chess and More on Chess.com at the Dan Heisman Learning Center
Students Demonstrate Subtle Analytical Mistake
When Is Brilliance Helpful?
The Greatly Misunderstood and Potentially Challenging Counting Tactic*
My Game Against the Hustler
In Defense of Chess Instruction - interested in lessons but not sure? This should help...
The Michael de la Maza Story - this turned out to be controversial! Some thought Michael cheated (I don't think so - see my comment below the article)
Articles on "Q&A with Coach Heisman" - notes highlight a central paragraph/idea but there's always much more at the linked article!
Aug 3, 2012 Show - questions about openings - why playing computers not always as good as playing humans
Aug 17, 2012 Show - Szabo-Lloyd Hastings 1960-61; reading (and understanding) books that are too advanced for your current level
Aug 31, 2012 Show - Finding and using chess books
Sep 14, 2012 Show - Bringing out the queen "too early" - comparing the Center Game and the Scotch; generic thought process
Sep 28, 2012 Show - Break moves examples, study-buddies, some of my background
Oct 12, 2012 Show - Developing your chess skills, switcheroos and non "play and win" problems, etiquette: shaking hands and resigning
Oct 26, 2012 Show - Getting to 1800 without a lot of book knowledge and strategy, measuring the best players
Nov 9, 2012 Show - Enhancing your first tournament; Tal vs Alekhine; What's a good opening?
Nov 23, 2012 Show - Some positions are just unique & you have to analyze with an open mind; Open-ended questions; Why playing a bunch of 10-20 minute games may not be optimal;
Dec 7, 2012 Show - PGN time stamping; pawns vs pieces; Elo rating pools; "unrated" vs "non-rated"
Dec 21, 2012 Show - Claiming illegal move vs touch move; Counting tempos in the endgame; Why is chess considered a nerd game with a negative association?
Jan 4, 2013 Show - The helpfulness of getting an opening advantage vs the ratings of the players; the steps to determine if a candidate move is safe.
Jan 18, 2013 Show - addresses troll question about my ability to do show & coach
Feb 1, 2013 Show - Can Carlsen get to 2900?; Pawn Power in Chess by Kmoch; The Improvement Feedback Loop
Feb 15, 2013 Show - Which game in history is most instructive; instructive anthology example; What would I have done differently as a beginner? Good opening for beginners?
Mar 1, 2013 Show - Solving a tough puzzle in "real time"; Analyzing "in your head"
Mar 15, 2013 Show - Why you can't just use a player's rating to answer a generic question; Beating GM Ziatdinov; Doing a Stoyko exercise; why the same rating in two different pools may indicate a totally different strength.
Mar 29, 2013 Show - Analyzing a random position; avoiding questions for which they write entire books (or at least chapters)
Apr 12, 2013 Show - The over-emphasis on acquiring chess knowledge as opposed to developing skills; 130+ Novice Nooks free before Jan 2013; 30 0 is a fast time limit; triangulation
Apr 26, 2013 Show - My roles at the Kasparov-Deep Blue matches; What did I do to improve when I first started; DHLC; How the 3 chess-playing goals affect your activities; Helpmate in 2
May 10, 2013 Show - How can computers be rated over 3000? What do I first think about when analyzing a position?
May 24, 2013 Show - Contains the story Friend Fritz and the Doubled Pawns; A simple endgame choice and studying endgames.
Jun 7, 2013 - contains question of whether there's inflation or modern play is that much better
Jun 21, 2013 - Can you cram for an event? "Bishop's Away" from Mad Magazine
Jul 5, 2013 - How many legal moves? Developing board vision
Jul 19, 2013 - evaluation criteria; playing Mike Shahade; why teach beginners "Counting" before other motifs, like pins/forks
Aug 2, 2013 - What separates the great players from the nearly greats?
Aug 16, 2013 - Compares early development Qxd4 in Scotch (good) vs Center Game (bad)
Aug 30, 2013 - How authors use the term "opposition" differently; forcing moves
Sep 13, 2013 - include a section on "What's good for my chess?"
Sep 27, 2013 - includes an overview of why Deep Blue did not cheat against Kasparov
Oct 11, 2013 - playing the Riga as Black
Oct 25, 2013 - includes a section on why its difficult to generically compare player at one class with another of the same class
Nov 8, 2013 - playing better with Black instead of White?
Nov 29, 2013 - One of my best-received articles, with ideas like: not hand-waving endgames, playing with aggression, and using my website's articles for general improvement
Dec 13, 2013 - making tactics study fun; Fried Liver vs Lolli
Dec 27, 2013 - knowledge vs abilities; good at book problems but miss in games.
Jan 10, 2014 - Most followed principles (and discussion of principles) - How to beat Magnus Carlsen
Jan 24, 2014 - How to play worse chess - Alekhine and the Nazis
Feb 7, 2014 - Best defense to Scholar's Mate; Game with Tim Lee; how to find the auction to host the show
Feb 21, 2014 - Dealing with nerves and rating fear. Is there a good opening for a beginner?
Mar 7, 2014 - Legal's Mate; Dr. Glickman's observation about rating "spread"; Candidate's Tournament Forecast; Looking for Trouble 2nd Ed
Mar 21, 2014 - How can you tell if a book is too advanced? de la Maza's quote on HTRYC; Kasparov on analysis
Apr 4, 2014 - Why you should not worry about your opponent cheating during online chess games - link to sign up for DHLC
Apr 18, 2014 - Triangle of improvement; What's more important: opening, middlegame, endgame?; Fun with Caro-Kann; Opening repertoire with less study; Why you lost the queen
May 2, 2014 - Meeting Kasparov but not Fischer - Why is Ruy better than Italian since, in both, bishop can be forced to a2-h7 diagonal?
May 16, 2014 - Chess ratings vs IQ; Using a study-buddy
May 30, 2014 - Knowledge vs Abilities; a good opening for beginners?; the three columns only found in A Guide to Chess Improvement
Jun 27, 2014 - I did X and gained Y rating points; Ratings are not absolute
Jul 11, 2014 - Playing openings not popular at the GM level; Howard Stern's "Riga Variation" experiment
Jul 25, 2014 - Why you should not be worried about playing in sections that include players hundreds of points higher rated
Aug 8, 2014 - The 1600 that was surprised that Counting was so critical and potentially difficult
Aug 22, 2014 - Fabiano story; Carlsbad pawn structure; "Slidey Rook" concept in R&K vs K
Sep 12, 2014 - Chess and moods - Those chess "epiphany" Aha! moments
Oct 3, 2014 - Which is better for chess: reading minds or seeing the future?
Nov 7, 2014 - "How do I get that 1800 into a Fried Liver"?
Dec 5, 2014 - Gotta Get That Feedback!
Jan 2, 2015 - Biggest Mistakes of a New Coach
Feb 6, 2015 - To Some Extent, Chess IS Your Thought Process
Mar 6, 2015 - What's Black's Plan After 1.e4?
Apr 3, 2015 - What's the Main Idea in the Exchange Gruenfeld?
May 1, 2015 - Who are the Best Players not to be World Champion?
Jun 5, 2015 - What's the Secret Behind Chess?
July 3, 2015 - Why Don't Super GMs Play the Morra Gambit?
Aug 8, 2015 - How do We Get Better?
All my Chess.com blogs can be found directly at http://blog.chess.com/danheisman
How did John Keir win 6-0 in his 2nd Tournament?
Answering a Question About Adult Improvement
When You're Way Ahead...
Young Fabiano's Weekly Regimen
"Bobby Fischer's move? Yeah, right!"
The Wise Adult Syndrome - You don't have to be a great player to try to analyze, especially if the position might be critical
The 95% Conjecture - The strong affect of not trying your best on every move
I Lost Because I "Didn't See" the Combination
The IBM Player Story
There's Not Always A Clearly Right Move or Idea
I'll Never Forget the Brilliant NM Alan Baisley
A Talk to Remember Coach Donald Byrne
The Mythical "Capture with the Least Valuable Piece" Principle
The Train Story
The Barack Shock
Playing Fast in Opponent's Time Pressure
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (7 of 7)
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (6 of 7)
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (5 of 7)
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (4 of 7)
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (3 of 7)
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (2 of 7)
1973 Greater Philadelphia Invitational Championship (1 of 7)
Middlegame Book Suggestions
The DATSCAN
Move Every Piece Once...
My Only Meeting with Al Horowitz
It Helps NOT to Know Opponent's Rating
A Guide to the Quizzes
A Guide to Chess Improvement (how the book was made)
The World's Most Instructive Amateur Game Book about to ship
Danism2 - My personally-created heuristics/principles
Hypermodern Development*
Classical Development*
The Ways a Move Affects the Board* - The comments are helpful, too
Rusty Fill-in Plays Game
Fischer and the Border-Patrol - another D.Byrne story
The Hustler Gets Byrned
Chess Skills are not Have and Have Not
Improving Requires Extensive Practice Looking for Better Moves - Stefan77: "This article is fantastic and helped me immensely."
What's a Good Opening?
Improvement Books vs. Thought Process Books
Joe Casey, Chess Player
Missing Zugzwang as an Endgame Weapon* - Shows the important technique example of how to win with Piece&P vs P
What's Worse? Missed Mate or Missed Trade?*
Missed Chance at Copycat Immortality
Quick Guide to Chess Improvement Column
A Very Clever Problem
My Personal Principles/Quotes
My Best Composed Problem
Danisms - my personally created chess terms
The Amazing Power of Board Vision* - IM Daniel Rensch's two-part video series on improving visualizing skills
Avoiding the BIG Mistake*
There is no Single Correct Thought Process*
2012 Chess Journalism Awards
Improving vs. Maximizing Performance
The First Game I Ever Had Published
Whatever Happened to Everyone's Second Chess Book?
Nitpicking the Author
Time Spent Evaluating
Strong Players Compare Candidates (Candidate moves)
Should Beginners Play an Opening System?
Howard Stern and the 1100-rated Opponents
danheisman.com (my website) re-designed
New Book "Is Your Move Safe?" Now Available
The First Time I Met GM Bisguier
Checking for (your move's) safety requires more than tactical vision - see also FM Solon's article on System 1 vs System 2 thinking (similar!)
Everyone's Second Chess Book 2nd Edition available soon
Ken Boehm 1949-2018
Losing On Time is Much Worse than Making Bad Moves
How Bobby Fischer Eluded Me :)
Move Every Piece Once... (sequel)
Playing Too Slow - A Professional's Opinion (written by T.Harley)
2020 Holly Heisman Memorial fundraiser chess tournament
How I Won More Games By Improving My Chess Thought Process (submitted by student Jason Murray)
Kramnik's Long Think
Two-Man, Five Board, Five Minute - rules for a fun chess variant
A Guide to my instructive YouTube Channel Videos
Articles
General Articles
Passive vs Basic Hope Chess
Good Traps and Bad Traps: The Maung Story
The 2014 Holly Heisman Memorial Chess Tournament
"Final Answer": Determining When to Make Your Move
A Gear I Don't Have - Try your best, or resign
The Ricky S Story: A Chess Parable - just being "smart" is not enough to make you a great chess player
The Wit and Wisdom of Louis Fogg - Anyone can play like a grandmaster in SIX minutes!
Maximizing Learning per Unit Time - diminishing returns on study time, especially reviewing annotated games
Not "White to play and win"? Worthless?!
Being a Good Tactician Requires Analysis AND Pattern Recognition see also FM Solon's article on System 1 vs System 2 thinking (similar!)
How USCF Rule 29L1 got Changed
Slow Chess and More on Chess.com at the Dan Heisman Learning Center
Students Demonstrate Subtle Analytical Mistake
When Is Brilliance Helpful?
The Greatly Misunderstood and Potentially Challenging Counting Tactic*
My Game Against the Hustler
In Defense of Chess Instruction - interested in lessons but not sure? This should help...
The Michael de la Maza Story - this turned out to be controversial! Some thought Michael cheated (I don't think so - see my comment below the article)
Articles on "Q&A with Coach Heisman" - notes highlight a central paragraph/idea but there's always much more at the linked article!
Aug 3, 2012 Show - questions about openings - why playing computers not always as good as playing humans
Aug 17, 2012 Show - Szabo-Lloyd Hastings 1960-61; reading (and understanding) books that are too advanced for your current level
Aug 31, 2012 Show - Finding and using chess books
Sep 14, 2012 Show - Bringing out the queen "too early" - comparing the Center Game and the Scotch; generic thought process
Sep 28, 2012 Show - Break moves examples, study-buddies, some of my background
Oct 12, 2012 Show - Developing your chess skills, switcheroos and non "play and win" problems, etiquette: shaking hands and resigning
Oct 26, 2012 Show - Getting to 1800 without a lot of book knowledge and strategy, measuring the best players
Nov 9, 2012 Show - Enhancing your first tournament; Tal vs Alekhine; What's a good opening?
Nov 23, 2012 Show - Some positions are just unique & you have to analyze with an open mind; Open-ended questions; Why playing a bunch of 10-20 minute games may not be optimal;
Dec 7, 2012 Show - PGN time stamping; pawns vs pieces; Elo rating pools; "unrated" vs "non-rated"
Dec 21, 2012 Show - Claiming illegal move vs touch move; Counting tempos in the endgame; Why is chess considered a nerd game with a negative association?
Jan 4, 2013 Show - The helpfulness of getting an opening advantage vs the ratings of the players; the steps to determine if a candidate move is safe.
Jan 18, 2013 Show - addresses troll question about my ability to do show & coach
Feb 1, 2013 Show - Can Carlsen get to 2900?; Pawn Power in Chess by Kmoch; The Improvement Feedback Loop
Feb 15, 2013 Show - Which game in history is most instructive; instructive anthology example; What would I have done differently as a beginner? Good opening for beginners?
Mar 1, 2013 Show - Solving a tough puzzle in "real time"; Analyzing "in your head"
Mar 15, 2013 Show - Why you can't just use a player's rating to answer a generic question; Beating GM Ziatdinov; Doing a Stoyko exercise; why the same rating in two different pools may indicate a totally different strength.
Mar 29, 2013 Show - Analyzing a random position; avoiding questions for which they write entire books (or at least chapters)
Apr 12, 2013 Show - The over-emphasis on acquiring chess knowledge as opposed to developing skills; 130+ Novice Nooks free before Jan 2013; 30 0 is a fast time limit; triangulation
Apr 26, 2013 Show - My roles at the Kasparov-Deep Blue matches; What did I do to improve when I first started; DHLC; How the 3 chess-playing goals affect your activities; Helpmate in 2
May 10, 2013 Show - How can computers be rated over 3000? What do I first think about when analyzing a position?
May 24, 2013 Show - Contains the story Friend Fritz and the Doubled Pawns; A simple endgame choice and studying endgames.
Jun 7, 2013 - contains question of whether there's inflation or modern play is that much better
Jun 21, 2013 - Can you cram for an event? "Bishop's Away" from Mad Magazine
Jul 5, 2013 - How many legal moves? Developing board vision
Jul 19, 2013 - evaluation criteria; playing Mike Shahade; why teach beginners "Counting" before other motifs, like pins/forks
Aug 2, 2013 - What separates the great players from the nearly greats?
Aug 16, 2013 - Compares early development Qxd4 in Scotch (good) vs Center Game (bad)
Aug 30, 2013 - How authors use the term "opposition" differently; forcing moves
Sep 13, 2013 - include a section on "What's good for my chess?"
Sep 27, 2013 - includes an overview of why Deep Blue did not cheat against Kasparov
Oct 11, 2013 - playing the Riga as Black
Oct 25, 2013 - includes a section on why its difficult to generically compare player at one class with another of the same class
Nov 8, 2013 - playing better with Black instead of White?
Nov 29, 2013 - One of my best-received articles, with ideas like: not hand-waving endgames, playing with aggression, and using my website's articles for general improvement
Dec 13, 2013 - making tactics study fun; Fried Liver vs Lolli
Dec 27, 2013 - knowledge vs abilities; good at book problems but miss in games.
Jan 10, 2014 - Most followed principles (and discussion of principles) - How to beat Magnus Carlsen
Jan 24, 2014 - How to play worse chess - Alekhine and the Nazis
Feb 7, 2014 - Best defense to Scholar's Mate; Game with Tim Lee; how to find the auction to host the show
Feb 21, 2014 - Dealing with nerves and rating fear. Is there a good opening for a beginner?
Mar 7, 2014 - Legal's Mate; Dr. Glickman's observation about rating "spread"; Candidate's Tournament Forecast; Looking for Trouble 2nd Ed
Mar 21, 2014 - How can you tell if a book is too advanced? de la Maza's quote on HTRYC; Kasparov on analysis
Apr 4, 2014 - Why you should not worry about your opponent cheating during online chess games - link to sign up for DHLC
Apr 18, 2014 - Triangle of improvement; What's more important: opening, middlegame, endgame?; Fun with Caro-Kann; Opening repertoire with less study; Why you lost the queen
May 2, 2014 - Meeting Kasparov but not Fischer - Why is Ruy better than Italian since, in both, bishop can be forced to a2-h7 diagonal?
May 16, 2014 - Chess ratings vs IQ; Using a study-buddy
May 30, 2014 - Knowledge vs Abilities; a good opening for beginners?; the three columns only found in A Guide to Chess Improvement
Jun 27, 2014 - I did X and gained Y rating points; Ratings are not absolute
Jul 11, 2014 - Playing openings not popular at the GM level; Howard Stern's "Riga Variation" experiment
Jul 25, 2014 - Why you should not be worried about playing in sections that include players hundreds of points higher rated
Aug 8, 2014 - The 1600 that was surprised that Counting was so critical and potentially difficult
Aug 22, 2014 - Fabiano story; Carlsbad pawn structure; "Slidey Rook" concept in R&K vs K
Sep 12, 2014 - Chess and moods - Those chess "epiphany" Aha! moments
Oct 3, 2014 - Which is better for chess: reading minds or seeing the future?
Nov 7, 2014 - "How do I get that 1800 into a Fried Liver"?
Dec 5, 2014 - Gotta Get That Feedback!
Jan 2, 2015 - Biggest Mistakes of a New Coach
Feb 6, 2015 - To Some Extent, Chess IS Your Thought Process
Mar 6, 2015 - What's Black's Plan After 1.e4?
Apr 3, 2015 - What's the Main Idea in the Exchange Gruenfeld?
May 1, 2015 - Who are the Best Players not to be World Champion?
Jun 5, 2015 - What's the Secret Behind Chess?
July 3, 2015 - Why Don't Super GMs Play the Morra Gambit?
Aug 8, 2015 - How do We Get Better?