Top all-time · #11674
Gautam Narula
Personal blog · gautamnarula.com · on HN as gautamnarulaculturewriting
Gautam Narula's personal blog at gautamnarula.com covers culture and writing. Since 2013, 6 different Hacker News readers have linked it 17 times, most often “How to Get Good at Chess, Fast”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-04-12, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Gautam Narula's chess posts on tactics, openings and how to get good at chess fast. The comments point to them as chess-learning resources.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Website of Gautam Narula, author and machine learning engineer
Most-linked posts?
- How to Get Good at Chess, Fast3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2013-11-24
- How to Get Good at Chess, Fast (2013)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-11-07
What Hacker News says?
Mine is www.gautamnarula.com (or, if it's easier to remember, www.gautam.city, since my name is pronounced "Gotham"!). My elevator pitch: I'm curious about many different topics and have had some unconventional experiences, and I share them through writing. A reader would hopefully learn many interesting things along the way. For example, my most recent post was a photo-essay showing what lockdown life is like in NY…
Comment linking /what-javier-taught-me/
on “Ask HN: What is your blog and why should I read it?”Submitted How to Get Good at Chess, Fast as a story · 326 points
HN discussionThey (Chess King) have many apps that overlap in functionality, it can be a bit confusing... I think that probably they have a separate app for every course, but all the courses are also available in a single app. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ct-art-4-0-chess-tactics/id113... https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chess-king-tactics-puzzles/id1... PS. This app is also mentioned in this article/HN post: https://www.gautamnar…
Comment linking /how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/
on “Chess tactics explained”Submitted How to Get Good at Chess, Fast (2013) as a story · 258 points
HN discussionFor those who already know how to play chess but want to get better (preferably quickly with minimal, targeted training), I wrote a guide called "How to Get Good at Chess, Fast" that hit #2 on HN: http://www.gautamnarula.com/how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/
Comment linking /how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/
on “Learn to play chess online”Submitted How to Get Good at Chess, Fast (2013) as a story · 12 points
HN discussionIn this scenario, chess's biggest advantage is it has an extensive, well developed rating system--Elo[1]. The tennis example given in the article isn't a good one, because the point system used to determine rankings is somewhat arbitrary. I wrote about this a little more in depth [2] while I was developing a free android app to bring elo ratings to any multiplayer game [3]. If we are going to stick with the title of…
Comment linking /rating/
on “The World Chess Championship is an anachronism”Submitted Openings for Rapid Chess Improvement as a story · 3 points
HN discussionKnowing your openings goes a long way in getting an upperhand in chess. Knowing the openings and end games can give you a lot of edge. Have a look at this http://www.gautamnarula.com/how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/ the guy explains how to get good at chess.
Comment linking /how-to-get-good-at-chess-fast/
on “Chess Opening Moves”Submitted New York in the Time of Coronavirus: A photo-essay as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe algorithm I used app is a simple modification of the standard elo formula, which I got from the US Chess Federation's rating estimator[1]. For two player games, the app uses the standard elo formula. For games with more than two players, it simply calculates the expected score as per a two player game and then divides it by (num_players/2). For instance, a two player game with player A and B rated 1200 would res…
Comment linking /rating/
on “Show HN: An Android app to create ranking ladders for multiplayer games”Submitted How to Get Good at Chess, Fast (2013) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Layoffs, AI Style as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Time Trouble Misery as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Imagining a Better Facebook (Feb 2014) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion