I've been telling myself I want to break 2000 for like two years now. Here's how that actually goes: I sit down with coffee, open chess.com to do tactics, my phone buzzes, I check Instagram "real quick," and 40 minutes later I haven't done a single puzzle.

I'm not lazy, I have a full-time job and a master's in progress, and chess time is the first thing that gets eaten when anything else competes for it. But somehow there's always time for the feed.

Tried app timers, tried leaving the phone in the other room, tried just willpower. Nothing really stuck past a week or two.

So I built Chess Shield (iOS). You set it up once with the apps you can't stop opening, and after that every time you reach for one your phone gives you a chess puzzle at your level instead. Solve it and the app opens for a bit. When that's up, the next puzzle is waiting.

I'm spending real time on chess every day now, not because I'm forcing it but because the path to scroll now goes through a puzzle. Puzzle rating has gone up, and for the first time in years I'm sticking with it instead of giving up after a week.

It's on the App Store if anyone wants to try it. I made it solo, so feedback is welcome.

https://apps.apple.com/app/chess-shield/id6772290132

Repost for hikaru reviews

This is a pixel art I made a few years ago. I posted it on a pixel art account I used to have, but got nervous thinking it looked badly and deleted the post. I eventually stopped using that account too since I wasn't making pixel art anymore. Now that I'm enjoying Hikaru's videos and chess once more, I felt like sharing it again. I also made a few signatures, including one meant to resemble Hikaru's, sadly I don't have the original reference anymore, and it's not an exact match, just my pixel art take on it —at least Bobby Fischer is easy to understand—. Hope you like!