For fifteen years, this was the home of “Dana Blogs Chess,” a blog by Dana Mackenzie. (Hi! That’s me!) It began in 2007, when blogs were the latest and greatest thing on the Internet, and everybody seemed to be writing one. I kept going long after the fad wore off. In 2021, I won the award for “Best Chess Blog” from the Chess Journalists of America, and I like to joke that they gave me the award only because it was the last blog still standing!

Nevertheless, I decided at the end of 2022 that it was time to retire the blog, because I was no longer playing actively in tournaments (an unfortunate consequence of the pandemic). I also really felt as if I had said everything I wanted to say. See the last post (12/31/2022, “Anticipation of Things Future”) for a more detailed explanation.

However, everything on the Internet is ephemeral unless it’s actively maintained. In 2023, I started to ask myself if there was some way to preserve a more permanent record of the 1245 blog posts I had written in this space. Thus was born the concept of my new book, Did You Come Here to Play Chess or to Have Fun?

Of course, I quickly realized that I couldn’t publish a collection of all of my posts. It would have been thousands of pages long! So I selected about 40 of my favorites, edited them and improved both the writing and the chess analysis. A book is more permanent than a blog, and it has to be written to a higher standard. New in Chess agreed to publish my book (now a svelte 264 pages). You can read a couple of sample chapters and order it from their website. Also, of course, you can purchase it from Amazon.com or your favorite online retailer.

Whether you are an old reader coming back here to relive your favorite moments, or a new fan who has just finished reading my book and wants to read more, you’ve come to the right place! All of the old material is still here, in its un-edited and un-improved form, just as I first wrote it. Please pull up a chess board — or fire up your chess computer, according to your preference — and make yourself at home.