Chess in Israel

In the wee hours of the morning yesterday, while preparing a final exam for my students, YouTube recommended a video for me with the title "Best Opening for Black." I had been having disappointing results with the French Defense and the Queen's Gambit in recent games, so I was open to the possibility of phasing them out or supplementing them with new ideas. The video's creator, Robert Ramirez of Chesslessonswithrobert.com , is one of just four or five chesstubers whose content and presentation style resonate with me. The clickbaity title made me curious but also skeptical, and the opening's simplistic and nonconfrontational nature prompted further doubts. Nonetheless, I adopted the Czech Pirc for my next games as Black, and the results, small sample size notwithstanding, have been encouraging.

Last night was Game 1 of the NBA Finals, and I retired early with an alarm set for 4 AM to watch it live. A mosquito, however, kept me from falling a sleep, and in my frustration I turned on the computer and played a game on Chess.com. My opponent, one "stdfx," was a 1206-rated player from Armenia. He opened with e4, and the first five moves were book a-la the Advance Variation of the French Defense. Where I picked up my French was a 10-page PDF file randomly found online, apparently authored by Richard James of chessKIDS academy . I mostly credit that document and a similar one on the Queen's Gambit with elevating my Chess.com rating from the 1050s to where it is today. The page on the Advance Variation goes five moves deep, ending with three ideas for White and a warning to Black against blundering his queen on d4.