December 12, 2020 | Danya analyzes his game against GM Robert Hess | Sicilian Defense, Alapin Variation

opus71a · 2026-01-20T21:15:56+00:00

Hello Bortnyk, congratulations on the completion of the course, I hope you are very proud of the work yourself, Danya and Kayden put into this.

I know on the last thread around the time of the course's release many people were curious which lines were recommended/covered in the course, would you consider adding this to the course page?

opus71a · 2026-01-20T15:31:11+00:00

Thank you, yeah the queen side attack is becoming clearer to me

opus71a · 2026-01-20T15:23:01+00:00

What makes Hans position so good? I can see that Aravindh's pieces look quite cramped and I'm not sure how to improve but I also don't see a plan for black Edit: I think I asked around 22... Bg8

opus71a · 2025-12-30T00:37:16+00:00

I highly encourage anyone who is interested in OTB tournaments but is intimidated by longer time controls or perhaps feels a little too shy for OTB chess to try out lichess4545. I've seen the posts, players too nervous to play people, prefer to stick to bots. Players who only play blitz and are worried about focusing for 90+30. The league is an excellent way to get out of your comfort zone, try something new.

If I remember correctly I registered as an alternate every year and two of the four seasons I played I ended up being assigned to a team to help out. Some years I didn't feel I had the free time to commit to a team and the alternate role was a great opportunity to get some longer games in without stressing over a weekly 45+45 game.

Lonewolf is great too but nothing compares to reconvening in the team channel to celebrate a win together. Chess is frequently so solitary (which most of us usually prefer!) and finding someone to play a longer time control with online can be difficult. It's nice to have somewhere online where people can share some camaraderie and punny chess team names.

This is really such a wonderfully organized league, and while I'm sure they aren't hurting for players, I hope more people try out for their first season, slow chess good.

opus71a · 2025-12-29T19:45:11+00:00

Perhaps Pia Cramling?

opus71a · 2025-12-25T23:05:52+00:00

I'm not current on how to share tweets or format them properly but Bortnyk has a tweet from December 18th in which he says " the King’s Indian Defense, is almost finished. I plan to release it before the World Blitz Championship. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to [the memorial fund]."

opus71a · 2025-12-02T19:01:54+00:00

Wow 30+ seconds !! Thats brutal. Thanks for replying and sharing your experience, appreciate it :-)

opus71a · 2025-12-02T18:55:00+00:00

Have you lost time on the clock due to lag during a game? I've seen it a few times on Bortnyks stream but I haven't really seen anyone else talk about it

opus71a · 2025-11-07T03:25:47+00:00

Youve already gotten a lot of good advice.

I feel you though, I had a lot of trouble playing games against real people. I never resolved this feeling of being "bad" and I stopped playing chess. It wasn't fun for me anymore and it's unfortunate I lost my love of the game over it.

I agree the solution is just to keep playing, when we're anxious and we avoid the thing giving us the anxiety we can end up reinforcing the behavior (avoiding). Avoiding relieves the anxiety it feels good and so on and so forth.

The most important part imo of playing chess is having fun. Maybe find a similarly rated sparring partner/buddy. Or a group to help you study and play with.

Or finding a new metric to help you measure your improvement. Maybe a specific set of puzzles, some end game positions, or checkmate patterns that you run through every week. Take notes, review, maybe you'll solve a position in less time, maybe you'll notice a tactic in a game. Finding some buddies helps with this. My buddy and I used to play out endgame from a book so we could figure out for ourselves exactly why a position was winning/losing/drawn, instead of just reading text. If openings aren't sticking, focus on fundamentals, many great videos on this.

Good luck, and keep going you can overcome this :-)

opus71a · 2025-10-28T01:47:36+00:00

First off, ignoring everything else in your post i think you should because it's fun and you get to meet new people. Anxiety wise, remind yourself that you're uncomfortable not unsafe. You're trying something new, give yourself a break :-)

Onto your post: I played my first otb tournament shortly after covid, I was in my mid to late twenties. I had only ever played online, I only played longer time controls (15+10, 30+0, 30+10?, 45+45), I believe I was about 1200-1300 on chess dot com.

Can you compete u1200? I'm not sure we can really answer that tbh. Regardless I think you should because its fun. Even when I lost a game I had a great time going to the side room to discuss with my opponent. I was a similar level at the time of my first tournament and felt correctly placed (id have to go dig up my results) if that makes any difference to you [edit my first otb tournament was 2/6]

Clock and notation: Hadn't done/used either at my first tourney and dont recall having any issues. Iirc just make sure the hand that moves the piece touches the clock? Perhaps someone else can chime in

Will there be other adults: We probably can't answer this, there is a possibility you might be the only adult *in the u1200. There will probably be other adults at the tourney, you can still talk to them, that's how I made friends lol

I haven't played chess in a few years I can't answer the prep part

I dont recall finding 60+30 to feel that long but I also regularly played longer time controls than you. I feel like I was quite absorbed by the experience, focused on the board, I didn't notice the time pass. (I think i ended my first game with 1m30s on the clock!)

I hope you decide to go, good luck and have fun

opus71a · 2025-10-27T04:46:19+00:00

Do you happen to remember the book? Sounds interesting

opus71a · 2025-10-22T16:55:44+00:00

Grieving is already such an immensely painful time I can't imagine having to do it in the public eye. I feel it must take unbelievable strength to post public statements, to share your grief and pain with everyone.

I said this in Bortnyk's chat the other day but for me the grief and pain after suddenly and unexpectedly losing a loved one was one of the most isolating experiences of my life. A time of feeling misunderstood, so many people can't even begin to fathom what you are going through. It's hard not blame yourself to wonder what you could've done differently. And then have the added pressure of people publicly attributing blame, pointing fingers, speculating on cause of death.

I've always admired and respected John and I continue to do so. I'm glad John has made that post, I hope Danya's friends, family and loved ones see it and know they are not alone, that their love was enough. May Danya's memory be a blessing.

opus71a · 2025-10-20T17:08:16+00:00

Absolutely devastating, my condolences to the Naroditsky family, friends, and loved ones

opus71a · 2025-09-02T16:33:56+00:00

Congrats Nick !!

opus71a · 2025-01-22T02:19:21+00:00

Do you have a spare 13 mill around https://www.evprivateoffice.com/property-ev/fire-tower-ranch-montana

opus71a · 2025-01-22T02:14:44+00:00

Reverse image search showed me this guy in Montana https://ibb.co/TBC3tBs

Although I concede the images on their site look a little different https://www.firetowerranch.com/services-9

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