Bluesky Chess Starter Pack

It’s been over two weeks since I decided to leave Twitter (and chess Twitter). Most responses were positive and supportive, though about 30 readers unsubscribed from my newsletter, disapproving of the decision.

With a bit of distance now, I can say I’m glad I made the choice. I’ve found I don’t need to keep up with a feed full of extremes and violence to stay well-informed or on top of the latest news. Just today, I read that The Guardian has also left Twitter, citing “disturbing content” on the platform, including racism and conspiracy theories.

It seems I’m not alone in this shift, and many of you suggested I try Bluesky instead.

credit: ft.com

At first, I was reluctant to join, having glanced at it some time ago and not finding much of interest. However, it seems that every day more people from chess Twitter are joining, and Bluesky’s user base has now reached 15 million.

After a week or so of activity, I’m beginning to feel those old Twitter and chesspunks vibes I’ve missed. So here is a quick starter guide if you want to join:

1. Go to https://bsky.app/ and create an account

2. Scott Rose, who you might know from chess twitter, has made a chess on Bluesky starter pack of chess people to follow.

   

   The Bluesky chess starterpack

3. Now you can start posting. Worth knowing is that you cannot share GIF’s on Bluesky with your chess games and videos cannot go over 60 seconds. To fix this I have made a quick tool to help make pgn to mp4 with a 60 second limit.

4. Finally, remember to follow me: bsky.app/profile/saychess.bsky.social
   I just posted a quick update of what I have been working on.

Hope to see you over on the other side.

/Martin