I got 20 days till a very important tournament (to me), but uni is hammering me hard atm, so I will try to fit in abit of chess every day (1hr tactics and 1hr blitz opening analysis) to prepare. I'll try to get as many lines learnt as possible to patch the holes in my repertoire.

Puzzle rush at 38 now.

Was wondering if anyone know what the best line is against the Panov? I've been playing the endgame line with 6. Bg4 and it leads to quite an interesting endgame position after like 16 moves of almost forced variation. But the endgame is beyond my skill level to play, plus idk if I want to learn so much theory to play for a draw lul. Any suggestion guys? 6. ...e6, 6. ... g6 or 6. ... Be6!?

Panov-botvinnik attack? I don't even CaroKan but isn't move five the first decision black must make, not move six?

Sam Shankland just created a mastery course for Caro-Kan on Chess.com and the Panov attack is covered.

I think the course is using the videos he made from back in 2012, which I already watched. But I'll definitely rewatch them. Thanks.

Getting piled on by too many uni assignments and upcoming exams. Won't be able to work on chess for the next 1-2 weeks, I guess I'll have to wing it for the tournament. Disappointed but what can you do.

This was the game of the tournament for me, outplayed a 2270 FM only to spazz off at the end for no reason. I keep playing moves that I know don't work, even after seeing the lines, true degen imo. I've been way too lazy in my games in terms of calculation and I try to play intuitively even in highly tactical situations which is dumb.

1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. Nc3 O-O 5. e4 d6 6. Nge2 e5 7. O-O Be6 8. d3 c6
9. f4 Ng4 10. f5 Bc8 11. h3 Qb6+ 12. c5 Qxc5+ 13. d4 exd4 14. Na4 Qa5 15. hxg4
b5 16. f6 Bh8 17. Nxd4 bxa4 18. Bd2 Qb6 19. Bc3 Nd7 20. g5 Nc5 21. Kh2 Re8 22.
Nf5 gxf5 23. exf5 Ne4 24. g6 Qe3 25. Qh5 Qxg3+ 26. Kh1 Qxg6 27. fxg6 Ng3+ 28.
Kg1 Nxh5 29. g7 d5 30. Rae1 Ba6 31. gxh8=Q+ Kxh8 32. Rf5 Ng3 33. Rfe5 Ne2+ 34.
Kf2 Rxe5 35. Bxe5 Re8 36. Bd6 Re6 37. Be7 Nf4 38. Rxe6 Nxe6 39. Bh3 Kg8 40. Bf5
Bc4 41. Kg3 d4 42. b3 axb3 43. axb3 Bxb3 44. Kh4 Bd1 0-1

Most of this game seems pretty complex with many critical moves that should be calculated.

Although I'm not sure you outplayed your opponent given that you lost and it wasn't from some simple blunder, you ended up missing a couple of tactical chances and then went wrong while the position was still very complex.

Out of curiosity, about how much time did you have left for the game after you played 24. g6?

I had more than enough time after 24. g6 (maybe 20 minutes?) but I rushed it because of nerves. I didn't wanna burn time but I should've spent all my time finding 25. gxf7 which is winning because that should've been the first move to look at in the position. I have excuse for missing that.

The month of the epic grind begins...

Rest of month

1 Hour: Opening
30 minutes to 45 minutes: Easy Tactics --> To be done from Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations
1 hour 15 minutes to 30 minutes: Perfect Your Chess by Volokin Book and Aagaard Calculation Book
18 difficult positions to analyse
1 hour bball practice
1 hour playing or gym
1 hour 6max grind
1 hour HU grind
1 hour poker study
1 hour Netflix
1 hour food and shower

Rest for going out or cleaning the house

went 4/4 in a friendly rapid tournie. real wakeup call tho, i played incredibly trash and had to get lucky vs weaker oppositions. everything was real rusty.

I have round 4-6 of a rapid on wednesday, classical weekenders every 3 weeks or so till a china trip at the end of november, so i really need to get started. if i do well, i will think about travelling and playing FIDE tournaments next year

1 Hour: Opening
30 minutes to 45 minutes: Easy Tactics --> To be done from Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations
1 hour 15 minutes to 30 minutes: Perfect Your Chess by Volokin Book and Aagaard Calculation Book
18 difficult positions to analyse

1 hour 30 minutes Exercise: gym or basketball

40 minutes videos or gto trainer work
1 hour grind


Roughly 6 hours of quota every day, gonna stick to mostly vegetable diet

Altered it abit...

1 Hour: Opening
30 minutes to 45 minutes: Easy Tactics --> To be done from Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations
1 hour 15 minutes to 30 minutes: Perfect Your Chess by Volokin Book and Aagaard Calculation Book
18 difficult positions to analyse

1 hour 30 minutes Exercise: gym or basketball (if for whatever reason I can't exercise, I'll work on chess)

1 hour grind
40 minutes videos or gto trainer work (Only if chess is done)


Theses are bare minimums

Was gonna do a Vlog, but decided to leave it after the tournament this weekend... Also going to try to live on a low budget for food...

Heading to china to play an invitational in late November. Going 100% chess mode for the rest of the year.

how do u find the $$ to go to china

Happy New Year everyone! I'm going to try to play 20 tournaments this year (hopefully primarily classical events).

3/5 in the first tournament of the year. Not the best result. I played this game particularly poorly (I was black), didn't know how to make progress after development and didn't pay attention to tactics, should be working more on this variation so I don't get hacked like everytime, seeing how much I still don't understand is actually very motivating for me.

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 dxe4 4. fxe4 e5 5. Nf3 Bg4 6. Bc4 Nd7 7. O-O Ngf6 8. c3 Bh5 9. Qe1 Bd6 10. Bg5 Qc7 11. Nbd2 O-O 12. Qh4 Bg6 13. Rae1 Rae8 14. Kh1 Re7 15. dxe5 Bxe5 16. Nxe5 Nxe5 17. Rxf6 Nxc4 18. Rxg6 fxg6 19. Bxe7 Rf4 20. Qg3 Nxd2 21. Bc5 Qf7 22. Be3 Rf1+ 23. Bg1 Qf4 24. Qxf4 Rxf4 25. Be3 Rf1+ 26. Rxf1 Nxf1 27. Bc1 1-0

Decide that 3. ...Qb6 might be a solid alternative for me to adopt against the fantasy line, at least from a practical standpoint it doesn't give white what they want, a clear hack on the kingside like that above game...

Was planning to play a tournament today, but given certain circumstances, among which include my sleep cycle problems and that getting there entails longer than three hour train ride up north of the city early in the morning, I decided against playing it, especially since it is a 2 day open, which probably mean I would have to book a hotel or train ride back for another three hours then repeat the cycle the next day...

I will try to rebuild my grind routine with 1 hr tactics minimum a day for a while first, starting today, and see how many days I can keep it up without missing a day.

Seems like tactics should be a strong point for you, since you play blitz and score reasonably well on Puzzle Rush.

I understand why it seems that way, but it's probably the opposite... I think my past coaches generally tell me that my main flaws are in deep calculation and concrete analysis, which make sense because I wasn't really into chess as a kid seriously and didn't develop strong tactical intuition. It's probably the main problem holding most adult improvers back - that they don't have a strong tactical background. It doesn't matter how many karpov or petrosian games they studied and how many themes they learnt, they are still just gonna get blown apart from some 2400 kid with mad calcs. I've let too many solid defense or positions where I had pressing advantage fall apart simply because I missed an idea, a move or some zwischenzug that just tears the position wide open.

Online blitz is inflated and puzzle rush doesn't really reflect caculation strenght, I still struggle alot with the Aagard books and my score on puzzle rush isn't that spectacular anyway.

You probably shouldn't judge your tactics progress by the Aagard books, the problems in his books are ridiculousy difficult, even for GM's.

^ they are indeed ridiculously difficult XD