It's not surprising that Betsy Dynako is the wonderwoman of American Chess photography. She has a clear, concise, and yet completely absorbing way of communicating with a reader.

Take for example her recent article on her blog about the armwrestling match between Sam Shankland and Dean Ippolito.

Check out this great action shot Betsy took:



Also, as a quick note, I'd like to mention that Dean Ippolito is planning on breaking a World Record check out the details at ChessWorldRecord.com

I listened to Nigel Davies opinion recently on a chessplayer that had become notorious in the news as a thief ... see my brief google search here. It seems that in the news this man, who by my understanding is only of average strength maybe a bit above, has suddenly taken on the character of a grandmaster at the game.

To those who pay attention this is nothing new. In local newspapers the best player in elementary school is referred to as "Chess Champion" and similar stories abound. I don't mind the local embellishments when it comes to school kids but I think the chess community needs to educate the lay-journalists that over-characterize pseudo-patzer thieves, murderers, and con-men. What do you think?

This video is the first in a series (I won't post the whole series). As chessplayers we should be willing to explore all methods of developing good health in order to play better chess

I know I mentioned this once before but I think this information can't be spread enough!

It is very apparent that GM Nigel Davies has some righteous anger concerning chess teacher charlatans that charge exorbitant fees for sub-par instruction. That's the subject of his recent Tigerchess Blog article.

In that article GM Davies says the following about selecting a chess coach:

"First off the guy should be able to walk the walk and not just talk the talk, so you should look for decent PLAYING STRENGTH from someone who has ACTIVELY PARTICIPATED in tournaments. Ideally they should still do so; when players stop playing they get all sorts of unrealistic notions.

Also note that anyone who claims that mastery of chess or any other art form can be achieved via some quick fix is a charlatan. Watch out for too much sales patter, manufactured qualifications (for example attempts to show linkage with well known PLAYERS), use of puppies to show how nice they are or a focus on players who will improve just by virtue of getting older (the young!). Also watch out for the teaching of opening tricks starting with Scholar’s Mate (for the under 8s) and progressing on the Fried Liver Attack. This stuff may achieve short term results but at the cost of a player’s long term development."

I couldn't agree more!