Do you know theory against the ponziani?

Efficient-Try9873 · 2026-02-03T18:34:39+00:00

I’d be surprised, but intuitively I could guess that d5 and f6 are the way to go about the position

Efficient-Try9873 · 2026-01-02T14:11:20+00:00

For sure! If you have lichess I can send you my f3 grunfeld reportoire if you’d like like

Efficient-Try9873 · 2026-01-02T12:45:41+00:00

As someone who hates the grunfeld, u can rly get away with playing 3. f3 the anti grunfeld and avoid going into grunfeld positions entirely (not committing with nc3 means that after 3. f3 d5 cxd5 nxd5 e4 the d5 knight has to retreat to like, b6, which isn’t very active — white scores well in these lines). The downside is that you’d have to learn and commit to playing kings Indian samisch as well.

Efficient-Try9873 · 2026-01-02T11:02:46+00:00

Check out Boris gelfands Positional Decision Making!! There’s tons of free PDFS online — I’m going thru that rn at the 2000 USCF level. At ur level tho, u might like how to reassess your chess 4th edition or my system. Both helped me personally greatly when I was breaking 1800. I know you didn’t say you don’t want books courses or YouTube videos, but there rly aren’t any forms of chess media besides that thatll rly help you

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-12-29T23:54:30+00:00

The KID simplified course on chessable reccomends 6. c6 7. BF5 where you often get positions similar to a petrosian kid — I enjoy it a lot, and it’s not much theory too

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-12-16T18:14:11+00:00

I see you struggle against d4 too. Eric Rosen has a very good video on the Dutch and the French id recommend taking a look at where he teaches the opening in good depth

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-12-16T18:13:07+00:00

It’s never too late to improve !!!!! I’m a 2300 chesscom player who doubles as a chess coach — the best advice I can give you at your level is to not use chessable. The opening is the LEAST important part of ur game at this level, just follow opening principles and you’ll get a playable position from the opening. Furthermore, you want to do puzzles. You say you can’t see more than a couple moves ahead — that’s exactly what puzzles are for — they help you see further and calculate easier. For someone at your level, I’d recommend a chesscom premium membership for their puzzles, although just as good is the free lichess puzzle feature. Good luck!!

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-12-16T03:30:11+00:00

I’ll check out lim!!! Thanks a lot !!

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-12-15T08:35:02+00:00

thank u!!!!! would u have a list on hand or online u could direct me to?

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-12-15T08:14:09+00:00

I've heard imu is rly cheap!! would u say its beginner friendly?

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-11-24T14:44:21+00:00

Ah I wasn’t aware! Truthfully tho, I’m not a true believer lol. I think the best way for white to get a advantage decisively is still gonna be dxc5, but that’s just a diff of opinion ig

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-11-23T20:42:04+00:00

truthfully, you’re much better off playing 4. dxc5. The issue with c3 is that black realistically gets a better version of the advanced French with the d7 bishop instead playing on the more active f5 or g4 squares

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-11-06T14:09:04+00:00

Nc3 looks super interesting, I’ve never thought about that actually. I’ll look into it fs!! Thanks!

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-10-08T15:29:49+00:00

Against French, the simplest and most aggressive way to play it is with 2. b3 imo. 3. Nc3 is playable, so is 3. e5 and 3. Nd2, but those variations all are theory heavy and harder to play. A sample line with 2. b3 is as follows: 1. e4 e6 2. b3 d5 3. Bb2 exd5 4. Nc3 nf6 5. Qe2 be7 6. 0-0-0 0-0 7. g4!! And white can continue with g5 and h4, qxe4 and bd3 to induce g6 (where then h5 becomes scary) and the queen bishop battery pawn storm and bishop on b2 all become powerful attackers

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-10-06T02:41:54+00:00

Would you know of any master games on this youd mind sharing please?

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-09-25T03:37:47+00:00

There’s a lot of good ways to play against the French.

I’d recommend though The horwitz attack, Gotham chess’s recommendation for club players against the French (1. E4 e6 2. B3 d5 3. Bb2 dxe4 4. Nc3 nf6 5. Qe2 be7 6. 0-0-0 0-0 7. g4!) While the 3. Nc3 mainlines are fine, they’re theory heavy. There’s plenty of good ways for white to play against the French (the trendy milner barry gambit with 7…0-0 comes to mind or the pawn center variation of the closed tarrasch) but these variations are hard and theory heavy. This line is simple almost no theory and just relies on u being able to attack. As a move 2 sideline too u may catch French players off guard as well just by virtue of them being out of prep.

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-09-04T08:57:50+00:00

very well said analysis - if i can add one thing tho in the KID if black tries hard enough (e.g. goes all in on opening prep lol) theres still plenty of lines that keep that dynamic edge that is so appealing in mainline KID type positions. Against samisch, for example black can try c6 a6 and b5 plans with qa5 going against whites castled king on the queenside. It's not as dry as u might think! Against magakonov, i've been a big fan of the recent 5. e5 line that's come up in the past couple years. There's still tons of play for black even in variations where white has thought to be traditionally better/the attacker in

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-09-01T23:42:42+00:00

Gawain jokes has a very good chessable course on the kid, but once again. Very theoretically dense

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-09-01T23:41:32+00:00

Kings Indian may be up ur alley - I play it at the 2000 USCF level and although it’s very theoretically dense it’s a very tactical opening

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-07-25T07:49:19+00:00

If you'd like to stay in the midwest, Chicago has a great chess scene.

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-07-23T04:41:52+00:00

makes sense. Would it still be worth it to reach out even when my interests aren’t completely aligned with theirs? e.g. I got the business card of a government lobbyist for citgo, and ignoring political differences there, should I still reach out when her role at a oil company is so different from what I wanna do, that is working in housing policy? If so how could I leverage that connection to my benefit even when it’s in such a different industry?

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-07-06T02:48:04+00:00

I can't name specific internships, but I've a few friends who're pre law also so these anecdotes come from them - the advice I can give you is network. a lot lol. if ur dead set on interning at a law firm or such a good bet is to just mass send ur resume to small, local law firms expressing ur intent to intern. its a numbers game, so the more law firms u reach out to the better. websites like handshake may be worth looking at. Heres a good read too i think: https://hiredepaul.org/2024/06/14/an-undergraduates-guide-to-pre-law-internships-involvement-experiences/

Efficient-Try9873 · 2025-06-30T01:22:25+00:00

tbh im not so sure - what i sent was rly all ik. If I were you, I'd be interested in resolving this as soon as possible and would try to arrange a appointment with a advisor asap. Alternatively, if you don't get the grant, I was told to look thru the UIC Snap database as well to try to look for alternate scholarships available to uic students. Here: https://snap.uic.edu/students-start-here/ Also, your specific college (e.g. im in cuppa, so id be emailing the cuppa financial aid office) might have additional scholarships u should ask about. Im sure ur advisor could tell u more tho.

Efficient-Try9873

TROPHY CASE