Day 5

Leave a Comment / Climb To 2000 /

Rating 1713

Puzzle Rush 28

Today I started to learn a bit more about the Caro-Kann. I generally find that I get quite equal positions against the Caro-Kann and fare well against it as white, but I wanted to learn more about the different variations. I have also been interested in learning more about the French as well and these openings sometimes share similarities. Another similar opening is the Queens Gambit Slav which is a line I play and so I thought it could help my play in some of those positions too.

On chess.com Sam Shankland has a video series, so I am making my way through that. The Fantasy Variation was the topic of focus for today. Sam mentioned a game he had played in the Fantasy Variation against Roy Robson in the 2010 USA Junior Championships. This was the playoff game that earned Sam Shankland the title.

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Day 4

Leave a Comment / Climb To 2000 /

Rating 1688

Puzzle Rush 27

I have never loved playing against the French and have usually opted for an exchange variation which leaves black fine out of the opening. Today I watched a video on an opening line that white can adopt against the French and wanted to test out some of the ideas. Click here to see that video.

In this particular game it may have just been better to recapture the pawn in the center as black has taken time to manoeuvre his knight rather than the more immediate Qb6, but I wanted to test out some of the ideas I had learnt about in the video lesson.

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Blitz Game

Leave a Comment / Blitz, Sicilian Defense /

Well the following game was a shocker on a number of levels. I had an accuracy rating of 40% as did my opponent and I made a huge opening misstep, yet somehow I managed to win the game?! Lots to take away from this game though as I continue to grow and develop my chess skills.

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2021 GCT St Louis Rapid & Blitz

Leave a Comment / Blitz, Hikaru Nakamura /

A few weeks ago Hikaru Nakamura won the GCT St Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament. Hikaru is an insane blitz player. He is great at finding solutions in fast time formats. He won the event without a single loss which is pretty incredible seeing that he played 27 rounds against some of the best players in the world. Even crazier is that his rating actually went down a little due to the number of draws he had and so he lost his number one rating spot to Magnus Carlsen who did not play in the event.

Here is a great win over Fabiano Caruana. I often reach the same position after 7… d5 and so I found it interesting to see how Hikaru responded in this game.

There were some exciting exchanges with the queens and two knights coming off the board and then Hikaru played the sophisticated 13. Nd2 which I was surprised by. The idea is to develop his knight, bringing the piece into the action and maintaining the pressure on black’s position.

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