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Article 3 Nov 2026 6 min Gaming Gear

How to choose a gaming mouse pad: Cloth, hard and hybrid surfaces, size and thickness Control or speed, cloth or glass, how many millimeters and what size? What to look for in a gaming mouse pad, with data from Logitech, Razer, Artisan, SteelSeries and Corsair.

Article 2 Nov 2026 8 min Guides

International draughts strategy: The center, tempo and turning forced captures into traps Holding the center, advancing supported pieces, counting tempo and turning the majority capture rule into combinations in 10×10 draughts: a strategy guide based on the FMJD training series.

Article 2 Nov 2026 7 min Guides

Pip counting in backgammon: Who is ahead in the race, and when should you hit or run? A guide to what the pip count is, where the opening 167 and the average roll of 8 1/6 pips come from, how to count quickly and what to do when you are ahead or behind in the race.

Article 2 Nov 2026 9 min Guides

AI Engineering Orchestrator: Getting more out of an expensive AI model in game development How does an open-source tool that keeps the expensive AI model for decisions and review, and hands the coding to a model you can access more cheaply, stretch a game developer's usage limit?

Article 2 Nov 2026 8 min Guides

Keeping groups alive in 9×9 Go: Two eyes, false eyes and basic life-and-death shapes A guide to why a group in Go needs two eyes, how to spot a false eye and which eye spaces live, from the straight three to the square four.

Article 2 Nov 2026 7 min Guides

Domino strategy: Counting tiles, doubles and the blocked hand Using the 28 tiles and 168 pips of a double-six set to count tiles, decide when to play your doubles and work out your opponent's hand when a round is blocked.

Article 2 Nov 2026 9 min Guides

Pawn endgames in chess: The opposition and the rule of the square The rule of the square, key squares, the opposition and the rook-pawn exception that separate a win from a draw in king and pawn versus king endgames, with examples.

Article 30 Oct 2026 6 min Gaming Gear

How to choose a game controller: Hall effect, TMR, polling rate and back buttons Platform compatibility, drift-resistant magnetic sticks, 2.4 GHz vs Bluetooth, back buttons and battery life: what to check when choosing a game controller, based on manufacturer specs.

Article 29 Oct 2026 6 min Guides

Card counting in Pişti: When should you play the jack, and how big is the pişti risk? A strategy guide that uses the numbers to explain where the points in Pişti come from, which card to lead to an empty table and when to play your jack.

Article 29 Oct 2026 5 min Guides

Basic checkmates in chess: how to mate with two rooks, a queen or a rook Three basic ways to checkmate a lone king: the two-rook ladder mate, queen and king, and rook and king. Step by step, with the stalemate trap and the fifty-move rule.

Article 29 Oct 2026 5 min Guides

Batak bidding strategy: how many tricks to bid, and when to pass A Batak bidding guide that uses the numbers to show how to count your hand, why the scoring rewards a conservative bid, and when you should pass.

Article 29 Oct 2026 3 min Gaming Gear

PlayStation Prism Collection: transparent DualSense and PS5 covers, pre-orders November 10 Sony's transparent Prism Collection comes in three colors: the DualSense is $84.99 and the PS5 covers $74.99. Pre-orders open November 10, sales start February 4, 2027.