All in Life

Does it Track my Every Move? Reviewing Kickstarter-backed Connected Chess Board Chessnut Air

Life-Sparring is not a Chess website; it is a self-improvement project disguised as a blog and a podcast. However, I shared my love-hate relationship with Chess not so long ago in a blog post called "My Personal Queen’s Gambit," and Chess is for me not just a game but also a way to assess and challenge my mental capabilities.

If you follow Life-Sparring, you also know that I am a sucker for connected (smart) devices and have been multiple times dubbed into backing promising devices on Kickstarter with very mixed reviews.

My most recent Kickstarter acquisition was the Chessnut Air, a smart Chessboard connecting via Bluetooth to an iOS or Android device, and from to the two biggest online chess providers, Chess.com and Lichess.

After receiving my Chesssnut, I did a well-received spontaneous "dirty" unboxing video. The views and reactions encouraged me to follow up with a more thorough review. I try my best to cover as much ground as possible and answer any questions posed as a reaction to the unboxing video. Enjoy!

Food for Thought 2021 - The Life-Sparring Books of the Year (now also as a Podcast)

If 2020 was the year that turned life upside down, 2021 was probably the year where we settled into the new normal. At least for me, it sure feels that way.

2021 was a year of routines and consistency. And it is without saying that in a year of routines, I am not breaking with the tradition of the annual book review. After all, this is already the 7th consecutive edition of Foods for Thought.

Read about my top five Life-Sparring books of the year, or alternatively tune in to the first Food for Thought Podcast Special.

Why Settling For One Career, If You Can Have Two? How a Dual Career can Keep You Sane!

Follow your passion, and success will follow you! If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.

We have all heard it thousands of times! And every day we spend on LinkedIn or Instagram, we get bombarded with memes motivating us to leave our cushy corporate jobs to find and follow our one and true passion.

But guess what, it’s not that easy! Suppose you are 40 and you are a passionate triathlete training for the Ironman in Hawaii. Your chances of making a living following your heart are about as good as mine, turning my costly podcasting and blogging habit into a media empire of the likes of Tim Ferriss or Joe Rogan.

Luckily the world is not just black and white, and there is a smart alternative to tell your boss to love himself while storming out of your office to become a Yoga instructor in Bail.

Follow your passion AND keep your job! Basically, treat your hobby or passion project as a second career while maintaining your breadwinning job.

Read how a dual career can keep you sane and what you can learn from medical Rockstar Henrik Widegren.

My Personal Queen's Gambit - How I Fell In and Out of Love with Chess and Needed 20 Years to Come Back

One of the surprise TV hits of Fall 2020 was Netflix’s miniseries series The Queen’s Gambit.

The show was (like most things on Netflix) well-produced and got a lot of things right about the “Game of Kings.” And it achieved something almost impossible; it made Chess look cool. I binge-watched the show, and it brought back a lot of memories of my own chess-playing youth.

Food for Thought 2020 - The Life-Sparring Books of the Year

In a year that brought a lot of changes and turned many things upside down, I wanted to uphold at least one little tradition: the annual "Food for Thought" blog post, reviewing the best books I read in the past year.

Please imagine a dramatic drumroll, as here come the five Life-Sparring books of 2020! Enjoy!