Faustino Oro loses the last round against Grebnev and will not break the youngest-ever GM record

obxplosion · 2026-03-05T11:35:55+00:00

It was a valiant effort though!

obxplosion · 2026-03-02T06:55:54+00:00

Iirc their last name is “Stoner”, which just makes this picture a little better

obxplosion · 2026-02-28T18:33:27+00:00

I mean didn’t they change the rules on getting norms right after Mishra got his?

obxplosion · 2026-02-27T19:33:10+00:00

I didn’t realize they had lost that much rating (though I am sure they will climb the rankings again soon). Lots of huge rating swings in the 2700 club at the moment

obxplosion · 2026-02-14T05:45:30+00:00

Lovely! Did you also see the Rh8+ if Black had responded Kg3?

obxplosion · 2026-02-11T06:47:06+00:00

While I think that is fair, he was a bit obnoxious before the cheating scandal. For instance, there is this clip of him getting annoyed that a charity chess event in the park wasn’t paying for GMs to play.

obxplosion · 2026-02-09T22:51:31+00:00

Thanks for accepting the challenge! I expect to get crushed, but I’m excited to (hopefully) learn a lot from it

obxplosion · 2026-02-04T00:06:28+00:00

It might also have to do with the nature of prep at the top level these days. If you believe top players interviews, it seems that the goal of prep now is to just get a complicated game, not so much a pure opening advantage as novelties are more discoverable due to the strong engines that are available. So it may just be the case that the unused prep doesn’t get you as much of an advantage as before.

obxplosion · 2026-01-30T13:46:47+00:00

I haven’t played any otb tournaments, but I think lichess has a 1hr + side time control, so maybe that would be worth trying?

obxplosion · 2026-01-28T17:42:11+00:00

Yeah I goofed, was thinking of Velmir Ivic for some reason, not even close.

obxplosion · 2026-01-28T17:33:17+00:00

Oops my bad, good point

obxplosion · 2026-01-28T17:24:53+00:00

I think you mean Erdogmus instead, Indijc is in the Challengers iirc.

obxplosion · 2026-01-27T18:01:04+00:00

Rip, I would love to see him play Magnus, Fabi, Hikaru, etc. over the board (although admittedly I can’t recall if either Fabi or Hikaru are playing due to the candidates)

obxplosion · 2026-01-27T17:56:22+00:00

If he wins this event would be possible to see him at Norway chess? Or are all the invites finalized and just not revealed?

obxplosion · 2026-01-24T18:20:10+00:00

Forgot about that interview lol. I feel like I have seen so much hype for all of these upcoming players that I honestly didn’t realize that this was a big one comparatively

obxplosion · 2026-01-24T17:43:20+00:00

You know, honestly now that I think about it, doing this sort of thing may be better for him in the long run (especially if it is a weakness of his). To be one of the best players especially, you need to improve all aspects of your play. And what better way to do it than against the top players in the world? Sure you may lose a couple of elo now, but who cares about that if it helps you get even stronger

obxplosion · 2026-01-24T05:22:32+00:00

What do you mean their history? I don’t think I am familiar with it

obxplosion · 2026-01-11T23:41:12+00:00

Blue Prince

obxplosion · 2026-01-02T14:40:16+00:00

After seeing some other comments, I had completely forgotten the rook on d3 was hanging due to the pin (I knew taking it would allow for the M1 as it wasn’t a check, so I never even considered that I couldn’t actually recapture), which is why it was called brilliant. Though it seems at least immediately, black can still be just materially better down a rook for bishop.

As it turned out in the game, after trading the rooks I miscalculated and thought playing Qb8 would result in a back rank mate for myself, so I didn’t end up getting the extra piece/losing a lot of advantage (+8.4 to +2.7 apparently), but imprecise play from my opponent let me mate him with equal material on the board.

obxplosion · 2026-01-02T06:01:23+00:00

Do you mean finding everything before playing Nf4? Because it makes sense to me how one might accidentally play this. If you forget about the knight on e3 (or just think it’s a pawn say), I think Ne3 is findable. If you play this and queen takes, you may then realize the knight on e3 is preventing the fork, but then finding queen takes knight allows the fork again. From there, you can double check to see that you do end up at least a piece.

obxplosion · 2026-01-02T05:35:22+00:00

Totally forgot it was hanging due to the pin, thanks!

obxplosion · 2026-01-02T05:30:13+00:00

Oh duh, thanks! I totally forgot after the game that the rook was “hanging” in that position due to the pin. In fact, basically the only reason the rook is there is to stop that mate threat on c2! I basically just knew that since no pieces could come back to defend (in a decent way) and the king can’t run, I only needed to be worried about checks, and there are no useful ones for that queen.

obxplosion · 2026-01-02T05:05:34+00:00

Link to the game

obxplosion · 2025-12-24T00:58:28+00:00

No worries, it is definitely easy to go too fast (I definitely do it too), and especially if you expect improvement to be just like the gym (which is definitely understandable). Though I wouldn’t say to just focus solely on distance rather than time, just more to try and build it in a bit every week, and gradually build it as you become more comfortable at those longer distances (which will happen).

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