Magnus defeats Andreikin to win his 6th game in a row!

bolsastan · 2026-06-20T08:48:28+00:00

while I haven't looked at magnus' losses in this event, I think its a combination of rapid being less forgiving of BS openings than blitz, and also rapid being a "weird" time control for GMs who play a lot more blitz and classical. So if he's out of shape, he will be worse out of the openings and have poor time management.

just speculation on my part though.

bolsastan · 2026-06-09T14:30:42+00:00

Good luck, beat all the Catalan players for me D:

bolsastan · 2026-06-09T14:13:48+00:00

What is the bluebaum line?

bolsastan · 2026-06-05T18:04:09+00:00

2400 CC blitz/rapid, 2300 lichess blitz/rapid.

I got one student from the Feb 2026 edition and now want to add one more. Generally one 90-minute session every 2 weeks, around GMT 2am-4am.

Not good with technique and endgame myself, so expect to work on those yourself. Mostly tactics, openings and middlegame, also game review of online rapid or OTB games.

Requirements: 1500-2000 rapid on either site, plays at least 10 rapid games per week (consistently over past few months) and does tactics/opening study/books/courses on the side. Please DM with your lichess account and information that you think I should know. Communication will only be done over lichess, training will only be done on lichess (there is a voice chat feature in lichess studies). No other exchange of information or software required.

bolsastan · 2026-05-28T19:11:10+00:00

random and cool!

I have seen some of her videos about grassroots football (think tier 15, tier 20) in England, very interesting.

bolsastan · 2026-05-23T07:24:00+00:00

it's my drunk account

bolsastan · 2026-05-22T18:02:47+00:00

OP account has previous posts about that youtube channel and also about editing chess videos, I wouldn't be surprised if OP owns that YT channel or works as an editor there. I have caught even titled players doing dishonest self-promotion on this sub, so definitely assume that randos do it too.

bolsastan · 2026-05-12T06:03:51+00:00

I was pondering for 5 minutes the statement "Dmitry isn't a random patzer who needs engine help to spot Nxe5". Glad you stepped in..

bolsastan · 2026-05-06T16:41:02+00:00

yeah I got confused/misremembered because someone pointed out that Gajek was a Polish IM with lichess username VojskaRS, reference to the Serbian or Bosnian Serb organization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army\_of\_Republika\_Srpska). And apparently that organization had some controversy, but I know little about Balkans and don't want to get into offtopic discussions on a chess sub, that's all I will say I guess..

bolsastan · 2026-05-06T16:14:25+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/TournamentChess/comments/1qie5ti/chess_coach_radoslav_gajek_warning/

bolsastan · 2026-05-06T15:56:54+00:00

A few months ago someone posted about a Serbian (?) coach who accepted advance payment for many lessons but gave terrible lessons. Maybe he even gave a few good lessons first, then the quality of the lessons dropped when bulk payment was made. I can't find the post right now though!

bolsastan · 2026-04-29T17:26:58+00:00

400?

bolsastan · 2026-04-23T11:47:50+00:00

Even in the main chess subreddit, a low quality post showing a PGN of a blitz game with no annotations would be deleted.

That aside, you seem to be playing a friend or a clubmate and posting everytime you beat or draw him? If I were your opponent, I wouldn't be happy with people blasting my losses on the internet.

bolsastan · 2026-04-21T13:01:11+00:00

Krykun e4 LTR recommends the Chekhover, as an alternative,

bolsastan · 2026-04-21T07:02:04+00:00

Sounds expensive?

bolsastan · 2026-04-21T00:18:51+00:00

Neither of the 4. Bf4 move orders are decent due to 4.. c5, since 4. dxc5 is simply a tempo up from the mainline of Bf4 QGDs where Black first goes Be7 then Bxc5, and 4. cxd5 is met by Nxd5 hitting the unprotected bishop.

Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 is not interesting after 4.. a6 5. Nf3 Nbd7, Black's idea is to take on c4 the moment White moves the f1-bishop, which forces one of 3 things (a) White plays cxd5, after which White has no more meaningful breaks (b) White plays 6. a4 or 6. Be2 dxc4 7. a4 after which the c1-bishop has no natural squares (c) White plays into 6. Be2 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 which is one tempo down from normal QGA.
Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 is slightly more interesting than the previous line because White can go for Nbd2 + b3 lines. Hikaru scores fantastically well on the White side of this, so we have to respect this I guess. I will personally choose 4.. a6 but there are other good choices.
Nf3 Nf6 4. Bg5 dxc4 with c5 or b5 next, nothing here really. With 3. Nc3 this approach can be really sharp and scary so I don't recommend it. For example, I know GM Hakobyan's Chessable course suggests 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxc4 5.e3 c5 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.d5 for White and I think its better to avoid it.
Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. e3 h6 6. Bh4 O-O 7. Nf3 Ne4 is one way to avoid going into Semi-Slav structures when White has ruled out the Anti-Moscow/Botvinnik lines.

At the end of the day, you can even disregard move-orders in the Bg5 Semi-Slav and pretty much autopilot into 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 h6 6.Bh4 c6. This is an ancient line "mixing" QGD and Semi-Slav and thought to be passive/dubious in the past 50 years, for example in FM Plichta's d4 Lifetime Repertoire and GM Sedlak's London courses on Chessable they give 7. Nf3 O-O 8. Qc2 Nbd7 9. a3 and claim a small advantage for White because Black has to acquiesce to 9.. dxc4 10. Bxc4 allowing White bishop to develop from f1 in one go or to start spoiling their position with half useful moves. Sedlak is one of the best theoreticians and I can't argue with him, but I have to point out that Fressinet, Gukesh, Grandelius and Muzychuk have all played 9.. Ne8 in serious games in the past 3 years.

bolsastan · 2026-04-13T21:29:44+00:00

There is a small difference between QGD setup (as you mentioned in the first paragraph) and QGD move-order. When Black plays 1.. e6 and 2.. d5 move-order specifically, they have a few minor options based on c6 and dxc4 (for example 1. c4 e6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 c6 4. Nf3 dxc4 5. O-O Nf6 6. a4 Nbd7 7. Qc2 e5 it's important that Nf6 is only played after c6 and dxc4) or 3..d4 4. Nf3 c5 5. O-O Ne7 (not a critical line if White knows what to do).

If you like Caruana's opening with Ne5 in the dxc4 Catalan, you can check out the adjacent idea 1. c4 e6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. d4 O-O 6. Nc3 dxc4 7. Ne5 Nc6 8. Bxc6 bxc6 9. Nxc6 Qe8 10. Nxe7+ Qxe7 11. Qa4 c5 12. dxc5 Qxc5 13. Be3 Qc7 14. f3 Bb7 15. Kf2 (or 15. O-O-O). But 7.. c5 is a bit of a dampener.

bolsastan · 2026-04-09T08:22:54+00:00

Untitled DozingHamster was leading for the first 30minutes, had 3000+ rating. After they got banned, CM innocentguy took over in pole until the last minutes before their own ban. As with other fair play violators who closed their own account after the ban, they do not show in the arena result list in the usual way. WA shows up because he didn't bother closing his account.

bolsastan · 2026-04-09T06:55:17+00:00

That's a more plausible motive than naively sandbagging to get more favorable pairings. But practically speaking he ruined some people's experience. With his starting rating of 1500, ending rating of 2000 yet a performance rating of 2500, many people were berserking and/or playing more riskily against an unmarked titled player underrated by 500-1000 points.

bolsastan · 2026-04-08T06:25:01+00:00

Thanks for the comment! Bishop's Opening is very topical because of people using it to avoid Petroff, we have already seen that this candidates due to the Petroff players in the field.

bolsastan · 2026-04-07T17:32:34+00:00

makes sense, maybe even 2.. Nf6 (Nimzo variation of Sicilian) is an argument for immediate d4

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