I have been posting at thechessmind.net for many years now, but the combination of the expense and the technical difficulties that have cropped up from time to time have me searching for a different location.
Substack, for now, will be the place. Many of the writers I read have migrated to this platform, which seems to work well for them and for their subscribers (myself included). Let’s give it a shot and see how it goes—I look forward to your feedback, and hope that the change will give the blog a shot in the arm.
For now and possibly/probably through the Candidates, I will post both here and on the old site. If it goes well here, I will stop posting there; if it doesn’t, I’ll stop posting here.
One question some of you may have, if you’re familiar with Substack, is this: will I start charging for my posts? The answer is that I may in time put some posts behind a paywall, but (a) not right away, (b) it will only be some of the posts, and (c) I will think of some perks for those who do subscribe. Some of you may be unhappy that content I have been offering for free for 17 years will now come at a price. I hear you, but would ask you to think about it the other way around: it’s not unreasonable for me to hope for some generosity after 17 years of free (and ad-free) work on your behalf. (Or rather, free for you. I’ve had to pay for the domain and the domain name.)
So, I hope there won’t be any hard feelings about this, and remember, even at worst you’ll still be able to see a substantial chunk of my forthcoming work for free. I hope you’ll continue to follow my work and to contribute as you have over the years with your comments, suggestions, and alerts about chess news and articles that escaped my attention. Thanks to you all, and I hope to see you all over here for years to come!