If you only got into this site by chance and have not yet had a lot of opportunity to explore the world of chess blogs, it would be remiss of me to not let you know about the gems that are out there in the chess blogosphere.

A great way for any tyro to start their chess blog tour is through Mark Week’s About Chess blog. It contains a truckload of useful information for the common chess patzer including an extensive coverage of some of the most common chess openings, chess improvement features, and a bazillion links to a whole heap of other chess resources. If something chess-related is important enough for a patzer to know, it can likely be found somewhere in this blog.

Two club-based blogs that I have found to not just be useful but also pleasurable to read are those by the Boylston and Kenilworth chess clubs. Both of these clubs are US-based, though, so there would inevitably be some local content there that may not mean a lot to external readers.

If you’re after a celebrity blog (in a patzer’s world, that means a reasonably popular titled player, not some Hollywood star), a really good one is GM Susan Polgar’s chess blog. GM Susan Polgar is a multiple women’s world chess champion and is currently the highest rated female chess player in the US; she is one-third of the famous Polgar sisters.

But my favourite chess blogs are those similar to this (or at least what I hope this blog will become) – patzers chronicling their journey towards chess improvement. Three of the ones whose stories I follow are Rocky Rook, Chess for Blood, and Chess Improvement by Effort. There are others, most of which seem to be following Michael de la Maza’s chess improvement methods.

If you’re interested to explore further, have a look at the other blogs I have listed in my sidebar (I don’t want an overloaded list, so it’s a random selection of seven from my blogroll). I trust you’ll enjoy the journey.