Happy New Year!

I realize that this blog has been around for so long and I haven’t updated it much. 
A few updates:
- My wife and I welcomed our son, he is almost 10 months old. 
- Panda Chess Academy is about 10 years old and I still love chess!

If I have anything interesting or useful to say, I will try to remember to share it in this blog (could be years for me to think of something!). 

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Panda Chess Academy 17th Annual Summer Chess Camps 2026

17th Annual Summer Chess Camps 2026 Panda Chess Academy For 17 consecutive years, Panda Chess Academy has hosted its summer camps at the same Westpark location in Houston. A structured, serious, and enjoyable chess training experience for scholastic players. Location Panda Chess Academy 9900 Westpark #252 Houston, TX 77063 Camp Director National Master Jeffrey Ashton Owner & Founder, Panda Chess Academy All instruction is taught and organized by NM Jeffrey Ashton. 2026 Camp Dates July 6–10 – Intermediate to Advanced July 13–17 – Intermediate to Advanced July 20–24 – Beginner to Advanced July 27–31 – Beginner to Advanced Weeks 1 and 2 are designed for students with prior tournament experience or established intermediate strength. Daily Schedule Full Day 9:00 AM – 3:30 PM Full Day campers bring a nut-free lunch. Morning Session (Half Day) 9:00 AM...
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The First Time You See a Puzzle — and How I (Waste?!) Spend My Time with ChatGPT

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  I’ve been coaching chess for a while, and there’s one habit I’ve considered changing: when I give a student a good puzzle and they get stuck, I usually end up giving away the answer that same day. When I was younger, I told myself that someday, when I’m older and wiser, I would change this habit. Today, I decided to try being old and wise. While waiting for a child to be picked up from chess camp, I showed a student one of my favorite puzzles. He couldn’t solve it (no one can) and asked me for the answer. I printed the puzzle, added this caption, and put my name and the date on it: “This is the only time in your life seeing this puzzle for the first time.” Then I laminated it and gave it to the student. By the way, this is the first time I’ve laminated a chess puzzle and given it to a student. I’m not really into laminating, but I have a laminator and hundreds of laminating sheets… After the student left, out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT if the caption was okay. I kind of liked ...
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New Biography!

Out of curiosity, I asked Google Gemini Pro (Deep Research 2.5) to generate a biography of “chess player Jeffrey Ashton,” and I was pleasantly surprised by what it produced. The profile was thoughtful, well-written, and even brought up parts of my chess journey I had nearly forgotten. For example, I had no real memory of serving as president of the UTDallas chess team   What impressed me most was how the biography stayed grounded in facts while still presenting a genuinely positive view. It pulled from over 20 sources that were not written by me, along with two that were—this blog and a couple of ChessBase articles. Overall, it was a nice reminder of the path I’ve taken in the chess world. Here’s the biography!  https://chessprep.com/3YN2hCO
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