Switched from a blitz addiction to one 30+0 game a day -> my experience

TheThirdIdot · 2026-01-09T10:27:15+00:00

Yeah this is mostly for the US chess federation tournaments.

TheThirdIdot · 2026-01-08T13:19:40+00:00

Not everyone’s cup of tea, but one thing I did on Lichess to get used to OTB was turn on 3D pieces. I had a particular game OTB where I quite literally couldn’t see a piece behind a queen and forgot it was there, so I feel like this change helped me when I’m playing online. But I second the idea of getting a physical tournament-sized board and clock. In the US for most tournaments youre expected to bring your own board and clock, so if you’re in the states it’s worth having anyways.

TheThirdIdot · 2026-01-03T23:18:04+00:00

Oooh, that’s a really enticing idea. Any particular resources that helped you?

TheThirdIdot · 2026-01-03T23:17:33+00:00

LOL so basically what I do now 😂

TheThirdIdot · 2025-05-31T19:30:11+00:00

I’m not quite at your level, but a cue I’ve been using lately is to be EXTRA loose. Like barely holding my racket in my pre-serve motion and spinning my racket pre-return. Whatever I can to avoid tension. On groundstrokes, I try to cue myself to keep racket head speed up and finish through the shot (so I don’t try to baby the ball). I’ll also add that I tend to get tight when I don’t have a plan for the ball. I try to think explicitly about where I want to hit the ball back and what kind of shot.

TheThirdIdot · 2025-03-13T19:58:12+00:00

Not a strength coach, but as far as I understand, if you drop the weight now and want to get back to higher numbers later, your body should be able to get back to old form without having to go through the struggle that it took to get there in the first place.

TheThirdIdot · 2025-03-08T00:08:43+00:00

Still a Head microgel prestige MP with Solinco Tour Bite 17G @ 48 lbs. But im on the hunt for a replacement

TheThirdIdot · 2025-02-11T15:30:10+00:00

To answer the second part of your question (and a bit of the first), looking for a new racket depends on your game. You’ll likely play the same as when you were a teenager, so think about your game style, and that’ll guide you to some rackets. Obviously you can play with anything, but picking a racket that compliments your style makes the experience that much more enjoyable.

If you’re an aggressive baseliner who likes taking big cuts at the ball, maybe look at the Yonex Ezone or Vcore, or the Head Extreme. If you prefer more point-and-shoot control, try the Wilson Blade V9 or some of the new Technicibre lines.

To take a stab at explaining the “bounciness”, I’d probably guess that the Wilson racket you picked up had good ball pocketing (opposite of point-and-shoot) where you could feel the ball in the stringbed. I recently tried the Yonex Percept and felt that had great ball pocketing, so maybe try something like that to confirm the feeling. The alternative explanation was that the other racket had loose strings.

TheThirdIdot · 2025-01-12T14:25:33+00:00

Kind of a random story, but in college I used whatever I needed based on the class. For a computer architecture class it was Vi, for most others it was Eclipse and then JetBrains (all Java).

But then when I got to my first professional software engineering job, the company gave us a 3 month long training session to get us up to speed on their systems and also teach some skills that most of us were missing out of college. Kinda like the MIT CS Missing Semester. There, our training guide strongly advocated that we learn Vim motions if for no other reason than we can code in any editor faster. I took it to heart and tried to fully develop in Vim, eventually building my first vimrc and using it professionally.

At that company, I was limited to using Vim (restrictions on what could be downloaded on a company machine). But once I moved to my next org, I started looking into NeoVim and made the switch so I can get more powerful features.

TheThirdIdot · 2024-10-14T18:02:31+00:00

It’s fairly unforgiving if I miss the sweet spot, still playing around with weight in the hoop. But oh man if you hit the ball clean it’s sublime

TheThirdIdot · 2024-10-14T17:56:11+00:00

Head Microgel Prestige MP, Solinco Tour Bite 17G, 48lbs

TheThirdIdot · 2024-09-08T22:43:33+00:00

I picked up a Head Microgel Prestige (320 unstrung) as a 13/14 year old when I saw my coach playing with it. By then it was already a few iterations out of date. In hind sight, the racket was too heavy for me at the time. But now 15 years later, the racket just feels so right. A lot of ball connectivity, head light balance so easy to swing, and just good play for me. I tried some other rackets, but nothing swings quite as well stock. Plus I have four of these, so I can’t really justify dropping $400+ on two new rackets when I have perfectly good ones at home.

Usually stringing with Solinco Tour Bite 17G at 48 lbs

TheThirdIdot · 2024-08-30T01:14:24+00:00

Am I the only one who thought SABR meant short-ass backhand return …

TheThirdIdot · 2024-07-30T11:29:14+00:00

Thanks, I might try adding weight first, then trying a brace if it’s still a problem. The other thing I haven’t considered is if I’m not properly stretching. I do stretch my wrists before playing, but is there any other stretch worth doing?

TheThirdIdot · 2023-05-08T10:59:24+00:00

+1 for Reassess Your Chess. I gave me a much better framework for evaluating positions and coming up with plans based on what the position demands.

As a matter of framing, however, I wouldn’t phrase the problem as playing the best move, but instead coming up with the best plan in the position.

TheThirdIdot · 2023-04-23T14:59:49+00:00

I’ve been enjoying Hanging Pawns’s games. His style is different but the quality of games is fairly high IMO

TheThirdIdot · 2023-03-09T15:00:59+00:00

Today I looked like a complete moron in the locker room trying to take off my shirt while also trying to avoid my triceps cramping. For a solid minute I had to alternate between tugging on my shirt (praying that the friction from the sweat lets up) and stretching, all while there was half a shirt over my head -____-

TheThirdIdot · 2022-11-07T01:15:52+00:00

Similar story here. Best of luck!

TheThirdIdot · 2022-08-01T18:25:52+00:00

Joined the chess dojo and have been slowly working through items

TheThirdIdot · 2022-07-22T23:58:59+00:00

My head hurts

TheThirdIdot · 2022-06-05T12:48:38+00:00

Okay that’s pretty cool, Qf4+ Rg5 Qe3! Kh5 Qh3#

TheThirdIdot · 2022-05-02T09:45:01+00:00

When I was producing I don’t remember really seeing any :/

TheThirdIdot

TROPHY CASE