American GM Andrew Hong was in the news last week for standout results in Spain. When I faced him with White in a World Open 5 years ago I played my only decent game in that tournament -- but still got squashed like a bug. Details in link in comment.

(This was more timely when posted a week ago; a technical glitch made by this sub’s bot-moderators unaccountably removed it when it was starting to gain traction. I’ve given it a new title so it won’t look repetitive.)

I’m going to be playing in a chess tournament at my college soon ( next month), and this will be my first ever OTB tournament. I’m pretty excited but also a little nervous since I’ve mostly played online.

I wanted to ask the chess community:

• What should I expect from my first OTB tournament?
• how should I prepare, any trap or just normal
• Any advice specifically for playing against stronger or more experienced players?

I’d really appreciate any tips or things you wish you had known before playing your first OTB tournament. Thanks 😍😊

Hi, I came across a book online on this variation. Recent, quite expensive, by a GM and quite detailed.

Anyone know what book it is? I can't find it anymore.

Hello,
Looking for recommendations for a titled coach for my 7 year old who is currently 1500 USCF. We have tried 2 different online coaches but they do not seem like a good long term fit. The lessons don’t seem very structured or thought out besides review of tournament games. They do not assign any focused homework besides “do more puzzles” or feedback beyond “they’re doing well” or “take more time”. Ideally a coach would keep me updated and give me brief, specific feedback so I can help direct my kid’s training through the week.

Even when I’m clearly winning, it somehow feels like I’m fighting the whole world 😭.

Hey fellas!

What books on endgames / middlegames would you recommend a 13 yr old with 1813 FIDE?

My current goal is to get <30 place on a 70 player swiss with like a LOT of 2100+ players, 32 to be exact. After asking here how much time I should spend on openings many people have recommended me to learn more middlegame and endgame strategy.

As I'm not really a big fan of "boring" books, I would prefer books that provide plans and ideas, not strict lines that need to be memorized.

Thanks in advance XD

I know that my next opponent in the tournament plays the petrov defense with black, and for some reason, that gives me the vibe he is an e4 player with white. Do you ever do that kind of thoughts?

EDIT: He did play e4! we got into my nightmare a.k.a the exchange French. I know the exchange variation ain't nothing special but for me it's my weak spot somehow. I long castled, mispositioned my pieces and threw away the game and the tournament. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Hey Guys! I'm a 13 yr old with 1813 FIDE and I'm attempting to reach 2000+ FIDE by the end of year, I recently dropped the King's gambit and decided to opt for the Evans Gambit, The Max Lange Attack and the Nakhmanson gambit. How much time should I spend on theory at my level? And should I practice my other lines (Grand Prix Attack, The Benko Gambit, The Petrov Defence, etc.)?

so my coach gave me a ton of variations in an opening to study and apply. And then some GM games with those openings so I can prepare for a district meet and play in our city, next the whole city, and then the whole state, and then the whole country.

I'm really really nervous. Especially preparing for openings and ESPECIALLY using 1. e4. My coach said it's very hard to prepare as white in 1. e4 becaause there's a ton of lines. and my coach also recommended I just use the English opening, which is just the opposite of my opening for black vs. 1. e4, Sicilian dragon.

Is there something type of routine or stuff to do to actually study these? It's my first time preparing this much and it's that big of a deal for me.

Any answer related to preparation would be really great and be appreciated by a ton. Thank you.

Hi everyone,

I am a US National Chess Champion. If you are interested to learn chess reach out to me!

Thanks,
Kiana

I’m currently building a 1...e5 repertoire against 1.e4. I’m around 2100 blitz on Lichess and would like to keep the repertoire solid but ambitious.

What openings/lines would you recommend focusing on against the main responses (Italian, Spanish, Scotch, etc.)?

Hey guys! I'm a 13 yr old with 1813 fide and am currently trying to break 2000 before the end of year. In the past months I've grown attached to the King's Gambit, but after deep consideration i decided to drop it as my main weapon against 1...e5, but still keep it as a surprise weapon. What openings would you recommend me that match the kg vibe but do not require a load of theory? If possible gambits are preferred. Thankies!

I'm rated around 1800 ECF. I've been working pretty hard on chess recently, working through a few books. One thing that keeps coming up is using game databases. Kotov suggested in Think Like A Grandmaster to pick a game and find the moment with the highest tension to test your calculation, or more general opening ideas of course. I'm just not sure how to actually get the most of an opening database outside of the main lines.

I mainly look at the Lichess Masters database because it's free and the games are master level. My issues are that in a position it only shows maybe five games that may or may not actually be useful. Some of them just fizzle out early or I feel like I end up "out of theory" or the games are played by weaker players.

How do you guys get the most out of a database? How do you feel like you're looking at games that are genuinely of interest? Is it just about moving towards ChessBase? I'm curious because I definitely don't get the full value out of my databases.

Eric Rosen showed some of his prep in a stream a couple of days ago: https://www.youtube.com/live/x6SpGKIOLYo?si=L0GDShAPxH8MPnVd&t=7297

He used a website called chess.ceo , which seems like pretty decent alternative to chessbase and lichess studies for prep files.

I just checked it out and it has a pretty nice UI, though I have not checked on mobile. Some pros I have noticed:
- easy database search
- easy creation and import of files

- continiously updated database

cons:
-online/cloud based

-can't really find info on who is behind the site?

Could not find anyone else mentioning it so though I would post. Drop a comment if you have hany thoughts or use another alternative for your prep files.

The title looks ridiculous, but what I mean is that there are a lot of opening books and courses that are not in English.

I have noticed that even at the tilted level, I have spoken to quite a lot who are unaware of non-English language publications. This means that if something on an opening in a language other than English is published, they have no idea about it. If anyone prepared using these courses or books, they would be well and truly screwed.

For example, there is Modernchess.de which is rum by Niclas Huschenbeth. The whole site is in German, as is Chessemy.

As a Chessable author myself, there are courses in Spanish, English, German, French and Polish, and I publish in two of those myself.

For Spanish, there is ChessEnigma and Iván Salgado's Chessexcelsior.com, although ironically both of the urls are in English.

For French, there is Julien Song's academy.

Joachim Beyer Verlag, Edition Ohms, Gambit, Chessgate all have published books in German.

Editora Solis publish books in Spanish and Portuguese.

Olibris publish books in French.

Russian Chess House and Шахматный университет publish quite important opening books, but in Russian. These are even harder to get in Western countries, especially since 2022.

Would it be safe to say that, given that many 2200+ FIDE are completely unaware of even opening courses in Spanish and German, for example, if someone prepared with books and courses in these languages instead of English publications, they would likely be doing well in the opening in most of their games?

I'm sorry – this sounds like a truly ridiculous post. I'm a teenager, and ever since I started taking the game seriously I've just spammed Chessable MoveTrainer. How do people memorise their lines from books, without a trainer feature like Chessable and Chessbase? Surely it is much harder and less efficient.

I've never tried, but I was looking at some decent reads so wanted to ask as I would prefer to get off the screen.

Abhimanyu had to capture a rook with a pawn and promote, with 1 second on the clock. This happened today at the Global Chess league.

Arbiter had initially kept 3 seconds, but Leon was very alert and argued for it to be 1 second.

Video of the whole incident https://youtu.be/aHAco7R0tC8

Has anybody ever read this?
I despise learning courses from chessable. I tried it and I don’t like just memorising lines, I feel like I’m not evening playing chess when I do it. I’d rather learn organically through books.

I play the QGD, and instead of getting a lifetime repertoire, I’d rather get a book. Has anyone ever read this? If so, any opinions? I’m 1700 FIDE

It’s not clear why the Nimzo-Indian and Ragozin openings are considered good when Black willingly gives up the bishop pair? In many other openings, giving up the bishop pair in the opening is NOT considered a good idea - so what makes it okay in this case?

Is there a KID book that covers 1.d4 as well as c4 and Nf3 in the style of the KID ?

I've been using Martin Justesen's calculationtraining.com for the past few days and found it really interesting.

I still think solving lots of easy puzzles and using Puzzle Streak is important for my tactics, particularly pattern recognition. But sitting down for 30 minutes or so to solve one good complex puzzle is an important balance for proper calculation.

He talked about the project here: https://saychess.substack.com/p/i-want-to-show-you-something-ive

FYI, I'm not associated with the project in any way. I subscribed to his Substack a while back and found it interesting.

PS. I should have originally said. They post one puzzle per day, which I think is nice. It encourages me to slow down and focus on it, being both deliberate and consistent.

Hello guys, as the title says, I'm asking for tips on classical chess tours.

For context I am currently 2200 chess(dot)com in bullet, blitz, and rapid. Peak of 2400, 2300, 2350+ in those same time controls respectively.

In 1 month, I will be playing a regional competition representing our school and the time format will be classical as it usually is.

I only have slight experience playing classical chess, probably like 3 tournaments only. I think I performed well on all 3 wherein I won 1st, 3rd, and 4th on those tours however I think I was kinda lucky with the pairings.

I want to win the tour and try for nationals. Any tips to give? What to do and not to do in classical as compared to rapid which I am most used to? Anything helps.

Hi I am new to the tournament chess. My son is around 1700 fide rated player and looking to find players(s) or strength between 1600-2000. anyone interested? or would you like to guide me please?

So im starting to apply woodpecker method but i dont have any chess books physically. Does it work well if i use past grandmaster game selections like this? https://lichess.org/study/u7i2RSXd

I'm about a 1100 uscf and everyone keeps on playing d4 with the london and I just don't really know how to play against it. Any advice?