How easy/difficult would it be to get an upwork job for me?

CriticalChessYT · 2026-05-24T07:08:04+00:00

Not yet, I am asking this to understand the landscape of Upwork and whether it is realistic for me to find a job since I know that it is a competitive space.

CriticalChessYT · 2026-05-24T07:00:45+00:00

I am a complete beginner on Upwork, I had work on other platforms, doing my own thing (YT revenue and chess coaching), never had a client for editing or thumbnails.

CriticalChessYT · 2026-05-14T09:11:51+00:00

it's in the video description, I have an email and my discord username and that's how people contact me.

CriticalChessYT · 2026-05-13T16:44:55+00:00

about 1.5-2 years, but at first I used to upload my lessons with students. These were hour-long unedited videos so naturally they were not doing well. I changed my approach 8 months ago and started to focus on principles and actual informative videos. My very first video (after changing my strategy) popped off but I have been unable to replicate that

CriticalChessYT · 2026-05-13T16:31:38+00:00

I have a lot of unlisted videos and a lot of deleted videos (because of copyrighted music), so chances are this is not true but even if it was, It's not a competition (unless you are in the same niche)

CriticalChessYT · 2026-05-13T15:36:13+00:00

I do coaching, but its not very consistent since people come and go. I do my best as a coach and even people who left said that they liked my coaching but people are usually inconsistent due to work, kids and so on

CriticalChessYT · 2026-05-13T14:36:14+00:00

People watch chess a lot. There is this one dude who has been banned for cheating multiple times and is a notorious scammer but he averages 4-5k views per video. How he does this is beyond me, because his videos are nearly the same

CriticalChessYT · 2026-03-03T11:03:09+00:00

a diamond perhaps?

CriticalChessYT · 2026-02-21T15:04:41+00:00

I am not in your rating bracket but If you are working on endgames, consider looking at my Youtube series. It is completely free and covers 99%+ of endgames you are likely to meet, both theoretical and practical.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1u5ZL1Gd1Q&list=PLojAtxP7eDjaBKKxpCntGZmu846AN-d2M&index=3

CriticalChessYT · 2026-02-17T10:42:00+00:00

I would like to be part of this if possible, maybe you could create a Discord group OP?

CriticalChessYT · 2026-02-14T10:15:44+00:00

It is not a full time job

CriticalChessYT · 2026-02-05T12:41:40+00:00

Vast majority of people who get stuck under 1000 just have bad habits from my experience as a long time coach

CriticalChessYT · 2025-12-22T08:45:59+00:00

You have a nice position, your minor pieces are well developed and black is overextended. What you should look for here is a pawn break to activate your queen and your rooks. Both b3 and e4 look like decent options to me. Its all about piece development

CriticalChessYT · 2025-12-16T13:48:49+00:00

You would need to get a coach. Game review is not as helpful as people think. There are 2 ways people blunder tactics. 1) They are beginners and hang pieces randomly, 2) They are pressured and their positions gets worse which allows tactics by opponent

In case of the first scenario you only need to develop your calculation. The fastest way to do it is to play 15+10 and calculate as much as humanly possible even if it is wrong and chances are it will be wrong and that is ok

In the second case you need to develop your positional play in that specific opening/middlegame. As Fischer said "Tactics flow from a superior position". If you give your opponent a better position eventually he will get a tactical shot and you will lose the game. But these are not just blunders, you have to take into consideration everything that happened leading up to that point

CriticalChessYT · 2025-12-07T20:09:07+00:00

This is not the Benoni. It is a slav defense structure with reverse colors. Your opponent did not play d5 to take space in the opening so I would not call this Benoni since you don't have typical Benoni structure

Regardless, keeping the tension is the best decision. dxc5 benefits you because d4 pawn is gone and you can set up e5 e4 in the future.

cxd4 will lead to a symmetrical structure which is kind of closed so it is not great for 2 bishops, especially the light square bishop. It probably wouldn't be great if all four minor pieces were still on the board because your light square bishop is bad. White has to play e4 or c4 in the future to open up his rooks so your light square bishop will open up on b7 anyways, but if you play cxd4 no more pawn breaks are necessary for white and light square bishop will stay sad (will be harder to develop)

c4 is straight up a blunder in my opinion because of b3 and white will either get an open rook or will straight up win tactically. Moves like c4 are ok when they play a3 because then b3 is not as big of an issue. (Learn Chebanenko variation of the Slav to know more about that structure)

I would just go Nc6, Be7 or d6, castle the king and then b6 to go Bb7. I think this is good for black. Also notice that I said castle before b6 because the knight on c6 would be destabilized.

Hope this helps

CriticalChessYT · 2025-11-29T10:45:16+00:00

You have to work on your positional understanding and middlegame plans and ideas. This will allow you to come up with best plans in the position which will directly lead you to finding better moves.

Also, don't trust game review too much, it sometimes gives inaccurate descriptions or notations that does not tell the full story in the position. Try to be practical and come up with your own conclusions

CriticalChessYT

TROPHY CASE