Perhaps… But if you play chess and your average competition is 15 years old and you can only score 50% while being a Grandmaster, you start to wonder…

Last week I decided to shake off some rust and played at one of the strongest tournaments in the US, Washington International in Rockville, MD.

In this post, I will share with you three lessons I learned from this experience.

Lesson 1 — Deep Opening Prep is a Myth

When you hear, “Oh, GMs will whip out 25 moves of opening theory” and “Of course, with modern engines, everything is analyzed out,” you may think that everyone at the top is booked up to the teeth. Yet, paradoxically, as the modern engines got better, it is less common to see deep theoretical discussions. The very simple reason is that both players know that you can’t argue with the engine these days. Therefore, it’s better to sidestep someone’s prep much earlier, and to have both players think at the board.

The other reason is that engines made most openings playable these days. So, that means if you’re a GM from 20+ years ago who only studied sharp Najdorfs and The Berlin, now you have to expect at least 5-6 flavors of the Sicilian and as many for each standard opening. For example, GM Cordova unleashed a new idea vs the Sicilian in this position (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 h5)

Black’s last move 5…h5!? was only seen in about 400 games.

It’s no surprise that a young 2300 player was out of book, made some mistakes and lost in 20 moves!

Here’s the complete game:

As for me, I was out of book usually between moves 5-10 in all my games. Here’s a very original Sicilian position that I got vs a promising youngster, who gained 100+ rating points in the tournament.

My opponent went for an early Qxd4 Sicilian (funny that it’s also my recommendation in the upcoming 1.e4 Lifetime Repertoire on Chessable). I reacted with an early …a6 to get him out of book and now we’re both in uncharted waters.

I correctly rejected the 6…g6 setup as after 7.Be3 Bg7 8.Nd5! the weakness of b6 is too much for Black to handle:

Instead, I chose an original way to develop my pieces with …Nf6, Bg4 and e6, achieving a Scheveningen setup:

Black is doing fine and I eventually started to outplay my young opponent, only to experience the classic symptom of rust that I call Calculation Fatigue, which brings me to the next lesson.

Lesson 2 — Calculation Fatigue Is The Real Deal

For me, this is probably the biggest issue in this tournament. It goes something like this: at some point in the game I have to do some deep and intense calculation for 10-15min. I finally double and triple check that my lines are accurate and play a good move. However, my level for the next 2-3 moves drops dramatically. This is the hallmark of calculation fatigue! My brain is telling me: “look buddy, I did all this work and I need to relax, I’m not 20 years old anymore.” The problem is that usually this happens in some complicated middlegame, where one slip is enough to lose any edge.

Fast forward past the opening from the previous game. We reached this classic Sicilian middlegame.

Black to move:

I was tempted by the idea of winning the b2-pawn using a tactic with 23…Nxb2 24.Bxb2 Qb6+! A nice intermezzo, followed by Qxb2 next. Of course, I had to go deeper and consider various Rb1 or Bg4 ideas, and eliminate them one by one. Yet, after double-checking my lines I noticed a powerful intermezzo: 23…Nxb2? 24.fxe5!

The point is that Black can’t take on e5 with the pawn as my knight on d7 hangs (after …Qb6+ and …Qxb7) while taking with the knight enables White to block on d4 with the bishop! And finally, …Nxd1 runs into another intermezzo exd6! threatening mate on g7 and my queen on c7. At this point, after thinking for at least 10 minutes I realized that Black is just busted! So, I played the correct move 23…Bf6! and after 24.b3 exf4 25.Qxf4, we reach this position.

Black to move:

Being tired from all the previous calculation and not wanting to get too low on the clock, I played the logical 25…Be5, trying to trade dark square bishops. The problem is chess is a concrete game, and while I ended up winning the dark squares and the d4-outpost after 26.Bxe5 dxe5, White was able to play c4 and bring the knight to d5 later via c3. Black has nothing, and the game eventually petered out into a draw.

Yet, Black has a beautiful tactic in the above diagram starting with 25…Bxc3 26.Nxc3

Black to move:

The key idea is 26…Qc5+ (26…Nb2! right away is good too) 27.Kh1 Nb2! (The knight is trapped on b2, but it works tactically!) 28.Rxd6 (better is 28.Na4 and trying to defend an ugly position after 27…Nxa4 28.bxa4 Ne5!) 28…Ne5! 29.Rd5 Qxc3 30.Rxe5

Black to move

And now the knight makes a deadly fork with 30…Nd3! and it’s lights out for White. Oh bummer, had I not wasted all my energy on trying to make 23…Nxb2? work, there’s a good chance I would have found this tactic and won the game.

Lesson 3 — Kids Make Eval Mistakes

As I couldn’t outplay kids in the opening or outcalculate them, I was pleasantly surprised that I can still evaluate certain positions better than them. Maybe it is thanks to the book that I co-authored with my friend FM Nate Solon, Evaluate Like A Grandmaster:

Here’s an example from my round 1 game vs a crazy strong youngster: Artemii Khabutaev.

White to move:

I’m playing Old Man chess, and we’ve reached a standard Catalan middlegame, where Black’s last move was …c5, challenging my center. The position is critical as Black is getting ready to trade on c4 and d4 and win my c4-pawn. However, I had seen it from afar and played 13.Nb5! not being afraid of the doubled pawns after BxN. My opponent quickly traded and played for c4 (13…Bxb5 14. cxb5 c4 15.bxc4 dxc4 16. Qc2 c3) to reach the position below:

At first, the pawn on c3 looks like a powerful passer, especially since we know the queen is the absolute worst blockader! Yet, White is clearly better! The reason is that I have the bishop pair and the center pawn duo. The engine agrees and gives White a clear +1. Needless to say that due to calculation fatigue I botched this one badly and had to escape with a draw.

In this next example, I borrowed a classic idea from the Benoni structure.

White to move:

White is up a pawn but I didn’t want to play a passive move like 23.Re1 as Black gets quick counterplay with 23…a4! However, I used the pawn sacrifice to drive a wedge into Black’s position and kill off the g7-bishop: 23.e5! exd5 24.f5!

In just two moves look how quickly the position has changed. Black’s bishop on g7 is totally dead and White controls all the key squares. I ended up converting a few moves later.

White to move:

White has at least 15 moves (!) that win here, needless to say Black is totally lost and resigned after a simple 34.Bxe5!

The Takeaway

Playing classical OTB chess after a long break is humbling, but it’s the best way to expose your weaknesses and actually improve.

If you are an adult improver, remember these three things:

1. Don’t waste hundreds of hours trying to memorize deep opening lines you will never see.

2. Manage your energy. If you overcalculate early, Calculation Fatigue will cost you the game in the middlegame.

3. Trust your evaluations. Kids can calculate like machines, but understanding structures and piece value comes with experience.

Here is a handy graphic that sums it all up. Feel free to save it to your phone or desktop to review before your next tournament!

If you want to save your mental energy in the opening so you can actually survive the middlegame without calculation fatigue, you need an opening system built on “Old Man” intuition.

When you upgrade to a paid membership of Grandmaster Secrets, you instantly unlock:

• The 1.e4 Traps PGN. Paid members get early access to the PGN file for the most common traps from my upcoming 1.e4 Chessable course right now in the Openings Vault.

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps as well as a new weapon: The Hungarian Dragon.

Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

As you probably know by now, I took on a massive project: coaching my buddy Mike aka "Chess Rocky" — a rusty Master who hadn’t touched a chess piece in 10 years, to play an 11-round blitz event featuring some of the best players in the world.

Javokhir Sindarov, the World Championship challenger, lived up to his incredibly high standards and finished 1st in both Rapid and Blitz, ahead of Super-GMs like Nakamura, So, Caruana, and many others.

Probably the biggest sensation of the event was the 17-year-old American teenager Ethan Sheehan qualifying for the top 10 blitz final and finishing 3rd ahead of many seasoned GMs!

Our Chess Rocky went into the tournament as a massive underdog, entering as the 90th seed out of 96 total players. Yet, he fought hard and finished with a highly respectable 3/11 score.

Mike even scored a big upset by beating the famous French streamer, IM Julien Song, using our prepped King’s Indian Attack (KIA) setup against the French Defense:

As you can see from the above diagram, White has a powerful e5-pawn and a nice attacking setup. The engine already gives a nice edge with +1 here. Mike was able to crash through and here’s the final position, where Black resigned:

Mike also played Mr. ChessBase India himself, IM Sagar Shah, and almost scored an upset there as well. Black knew the opening well and got a comfortable Botvinnik Setup vs the Symmetrical English:

Here, the correct 16…b5! keeping the tension was the way to go. After 17.bxc5 dxc5, it is Black who will take over the queenside and our knight on f5 has a nice blockading outpost on d6.

After some mutual mistakes, Chess Rocky got another chance to get an edge:

How would you take on b5 as Black?

Mike erred and took with the bishop. He ended up a pawn down in the endgame and lost. Instead, 22…Rxb5! was the correct recapture. After 23.Rxb5 Qxd2! Black gets two pieces for the rook and good winning chances, especially with an extra minute on the clock!

Towards the end of the tournament, the fatigue of 11 grueling rounds really took its toll, and several winning positions were spoiled. Yet, a draw against GM Ron Henley from a better position is absolutely nothing to complain about!

So, what lessons can we learn from this experience? How can adult improvers use Chess Rocky’s example to compete against the kids these days?

Here are my Top 5 GM Tips:

• Have a well-thought-out opening repertoire. As you can see from the two games above, Mike was comfortable in his KIA French and his Symmetrical English setups. When you know your plans, you save precious time on the clock.

• Play fast in the opening, but slow down in the middlegame. Hikaru Nakamura actually gave great advice in one of his recent interviews: treat the first minute of the game like a bullet game to get your pieces out, and then trust your instincts.

• Blunders will happen — accept it. We saw a huge number of crazy blunders in Charlotte, even from the Super-GMs. Don’t let one bad move ruin your mental state for the next round.

• Don’t be afraid to play up. Mike faced some very strong IMs and one GM, yet he cherished the learning experience. Playing stronger players exposes your weaknesses so you can fix them.

• Blitz is fun! Perhaps the most important lesson: don’t stress over your results, no matter how good or bad. Enjoy the battle, embrace the chaos, and have fun.

As a special bonus to wrap up this series for all my subscribers, here is exclusive video footage of the legendary Vassily Ivanchuk playing a casual blitz game against Chess Rocky! Chucky unleashes his secret weapon: the Schliemann Gambit and wins an instructive endgame.

As I mentioned in Tip #1, the biggest advantage Mike had in Charlotte was stepping up to the board with a solid, reliable opening repertoire.

If you want to stop guessing in the opening and start playing with practical “Old Man” structures that save you time on the clock, I’ve packaged my absolute best systems into the Tournament Starter Kit.

When you upgrade to a paid membership of Grandmaster Secrets, you instantly unlock:

• The 1.e4 Traps PGN. Paid members get early access to the PGN file for the most common traps from my upcoming 1.e4 Chessable course right now in the Openings Vault.

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps as well as a new weapon: The Hungarian Dragon.

  Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

“Ivanchuk is here.”

These three words made me look at my phone in disbelief.

“I’m sorry Paul, I have to run to meet a legend,” I told my student as I wrapped up my lesson at the Marriott and literally ran towards Eddie V’s down the street.

Five minutes later, I walked into a busy, upscale bar in downtown Charlotte. I spotted my buddy Mike and GM Steven Zierk. They looked at me with a sparkle in their eyes and pointed to the person sitting next to them: Vasyl Ivanchuk.

Ivanchuk was wearing a baseball hat sideways. His eyes were tired, and he looked anguished, staring somewhat outwardly. He had just made a horrible blunder to lose in the last round vs… the very person sitting next to him.

Yes, that’s right. Steven had just beaten Ivanchuk in the 10+5 rapid at the Daniel Naroditsky Memorial.

Somehow, the Ukrainian legend had walked into this exact restaurant — one of about 50 places to eat downtown. Not only that, but he agreed to sit next to my friends and the man who had just defeated him. Is this destiny? was going through my mind.

Why would Ivanchuk dine at such an upscale spot? He was clearly not interested in the prime cuts of steak or the live jazz band nearby. He graciously agreed to drink one beer on Mike, but only one. He wasn’t interested in the smoked Old Fashioned that Mike and I had enjoyed earlier, nor the friendly banter with the bartenders who were trying to guess the spelling of Mike’s first name.

Ivanchuk finished his dinner of sea bass and ordered hot tea with lemon. Maddy, the bartender, asked if he would like honey and sugar. Chucky said yes to both, not hearing exactly what she said over the loud jazz band.

“Vasyl, do you remember me?” I asked. “My name is Zhenya (the Russian version of Eugene), and you gave a lecture to me in Lviv around 1991 at the Beliavsky and Mikhalchishin school of chess.”

No, he said, he didn’t recall.

I reminded him that he gave the lecture in Ukrainian, a language only a few people spoke at that time. Most kids, including myself, only spoke Russian, as it was the dominant language in Ukraine during the time of the USSR. Yet, I vividly remember he called the pawn peshak — a slightly funny, localized version of the Russian peshka. During that lecture, Ivanchuk went over his famous victory over Kasparov from Linares. His analysis was completely over our heads, yet the energy and intensity kept us on the edge of our seats.

“No, I don’t remember you,” he said again.

I told him my life story about becoming one of the top juniors in Russia, moving to the United States, and meeting my coach, GM Roman Dzindzichashvili.

“Ah, Dzindzi,” his eyes lit up for a moment. “Do you live in Charlotte?” he asked.

“No, I live in Boston,” I replied. “I’m here to coach my friend Mike, who’s a Master.”

Ivanchuk looked at Mike at some point and asked in very clear English, “And what do you do for a living?”

“I’m a pharmacist,” Mike said.

Ivanchuk nodded and looked back at the TV screen above the bar. It was a soccer game between Messi’s Argentina and the unicorn team of the tournament, Cabo Verde. The score was tied, and Steven and I were chatting in disbelief about what would happen if the game went to penalties and Cabo Verde’s 40-year-old goalie made some more spectacular saves to upset Messi. Ivanchuk was wearing a German soccer shirt, but he told me he was barely following the World Cup. He said he liked Brazil, and the next day, he wore a Brazil shirt at the blitz tournament.

We asked Vasyl if he would be interested in looking at some chess back at the hotel.

“Do you have a set?” his eyes lit up.

We said yes and headed back to the Marriott. To our surprise, the playing hall was still open. There were about 200 chess sets set up, and not a single soul in the room.

We sat down at a board, and I asked Steven to show us one of his games, as he had a great Rapid event — beating Caruana and Ivanchuk, and drawing Wesley So and Bortnyk. We started looking at the Moscow Variation from his game vs. Wesley, and quickly got bogged down in the opening nuances.

Ivanchuk, visibly tired from a long day of chess and possibly still jetlagged, suddenly got animated and completely overwhelmed us with his chess ideas.

It was pure magic. It was something that I haven’t experienced since the engines took over. This is pure, old-school chess: the rapid flow of moves, hands flying across the board, ideas, thoughts, mistakes, takebacks, new ideas, deep tactics. The sheer volume of analysis overwhelmed me.

I looked around the empty room as two youngsters walked in, sat down at a table next to us, and started playing casual blitz. One of them casually suggested a brilliant ...Nb6 idea in some complex Dragon setup while playing his own game. Ivanchuk nodded and looked to his left.

It was a scrawny 16-year-old Andy Woodward. The winner of the Tata Steel Challengers, and one of the top juniors in the world. Perhaps the next Bobby Fischer?

We continued analyzing for hours. Suddenly, a visibly tired Ivanchuk yawned and said he was done. We thanked him, and he left.

I sat there, awe-struck for a few moments, the image still burning in my mind.

Ivanchuk is here.

Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

My buddy Mike — aka “Chess Rocky” — has been training for this big moment for months.

If you follow my Substack, you probably know about the project I undertook: coaching my rusty Master friend who hasn’t touched a chess piece in over ten years for the Daniel Naroditsky Memorial in Charlotte. (If you are new here, you can catch up on this Adult Improver journey here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

For the final phase of Chess Rocky’s preparation, I had him play a 10-game blitz match against my good friend, GM Bryan Smith.

The match started with a huge upset as Mike unleashed a powerful idea from my Chessable Grand Prix Attack course.

Black was afraid to take the piece, eventually got outplayed, and blundered in time pressure.

The glory was short-lived, as Mike went on to lose a few games in a row. Yet, we know that he’s as scrappy as Rocky Balboa. Later in the match, the Hungarian Dragon did its magic, and Mike was able to pull off another upset victory!

Black to move and win.

Mike won with a brilliant combo: 22…Rb1+ 23.Kc2 (if king takes the rook that …Qb5+ and …Qb2 mate) 23…Qxa2+ 24.Kxc3 Qb2 mate!

The final result was an 8-2 loss for Mike. But honestly, scoring 2 wins against a strong GM before the tournament even begins is already a massive victory in my book.

Live from Charlotte!

Now, we are officially in Charlotte, and the blitz tournament is currently underway!

As I’m writing this, Mike started with a tough 0/2, but just bounced back to score a HUGE upset by beating the famous French IM and content creator, Julien Song!

Let’s go!!!

Mike has drawn first blood, and he’s fully ready to take on the Super-GMs!

Here are some pictures from Charlotte:

Stay tuned for the next update after the event. Wish Mike luck in the comments!

The Power of Old Man Chess

How does a 48-year-old Master take a 10-year break and come back to beat an active International Master?

He does it by relying on intuition and practical, “Old Man Chess” structures rather than trying to memorize deep, stressful engine lines. The Hungarian Dragon and the Grand Prix Attack gave him positions he understood, allowing him to save his mental energy for the tactical brawls.

If you want a complete system that teaches you how to win with understanding rather than raw calculation, I’ve packaged my absolute best systems into the Tournament Starter Kit.

When you upgrade to a paid membership of Grandmaster Secrets, you instantly unlock:

• The 1.e4 Traps PGN. Paid members get early access to the PGN file for the most common traps from my Upcoming 1.e4 Chessable course right now in the Openings Vault.

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps as well as a new weapon: The Hungarian Dragon.

  Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

I was sitting in my backyard this morning with my wooden chessboard, enjoying a cup of tea and the weekend breeze. Many of you loved the photo of my outdoor setup from last week’s post, and I highly encourage you to try it. Studying on a physical board in the fresh air does wonders for your chess clarity.

And clarity is exactly what we need for today’s lesson.

I was reviewing a recent game from one of my adult students, and it perfectly highlighted the most common trap that holds club players back from reaching the master level.

I call it My-Move-Itis (also known as Main Character Syndrome).

This is a highly contagious disease among adult improvers. We spend so much time studying tactical puzzles and opening courses that we become obsessed with our own plans. You find a move that visually looks great. It supports your knight, it claims space, and it feels aggressive.

You play it.

And then, your opponent instantly plays a pawn break that completely dismantles your position, kicks your pieces backward, and takes over the game.

You didn’t lose because of a 5-move tactical miscalculation. You lost because you were suffering from My-Move-Itis. You completely forgot to ask one simple question: “What is my opponent trying to do?”

The “Look Good, Play Bad” Trap

Let me show you exactly what I mean. Let’s look at a critical middlegame position from my student’s game.

Black to move:

My student was playing Black. He has a very active position, with two beautiful knights parked on c5 and e4. He wanted to solidify his grip on the center with a very natural, aggressive move: ...f5.

Visually, ...f5 looks fantastic. It anchors the knight on e4, clamps down on the kingside, and prepares for an attack.

But in reality, it is a terrible mistake. Why? Because my student had a severe case of My-Move-Itis. He didn’t look at White’s moves.

What does White want to do here? White is feeling cramped and wants to push Black’s active pieces back. White’s dream plan is to play b4 (kicking the c5 knight away), followed by jumping their own knight to Nd4, and eventually playing f3 to kick the e4 knight away too.

By playing ...f5, my student would walk right into this buzzsaw.

For example: 14…f5 15.b4! (the c5-knight is kicked back) 15…Nd7 16.Nd4! (hitting the e6 pawn) 16…Qf6 17.f3! (now, the second knight is forced backwards) 17…Ng5 18.Nb5!

Suddenly, Black’s entire position is collapsing as they are about to lose the pawn. That “beautiful” ...f5 pawn push ended up being completely useless.

The Grandmaster Secret: Prophylactic Thinking

The difference between a 1600 player and a Grandmaster isn’t just calculation speed. It is the ability to anticipate the opponent’s best response before you touch a piece.

Let’s rewind to the original position. How would a Grandmaster handle this?

Before looking for my own attacking moves, I ask myself: “If I pass my turn, what is White going to do?”
I see that White wants to play b4 and Nd4.

So, I don’t play ...f5. Instead, I play the brilliant prophylactic move: 14...e5!

Look at how much this single pawn move completely shuts down White’s entire game plan:

1. By putting a pawn on e5, the d4 square is completely taken away from White’s knight. The Nd4 jump is permanently stopped.

2. But what if White plays b4 anyway to attack our c5 knight?

3. No problem! Because we played ...e5, our c5 knight can now drop back to the amazing ...Ne6! square. The knight is perfectly centralized, eyes the d4 square, and Black maintains a nice central grip. We can then play for …f5 and …f4 push.

This is the secret to high-level chess: you find the move that improves your pieces while simultaneously ruining your opponent’s plan.

Let’s look at a recent example from another student’s game. My student is playing White vs the famous YouTuber Dina Belenkaya.

Black just played 26…Rc7, what is her idea?

My student didn’t pay much attention to this move and played his planned move 27.Rfc1?? that loses on the spot! Do you see Black’s devilish trap?

If you spotted 27…Rb4!, you’re definitely a strong player, as this is the only winning move for Black. The problem is that White can’t stop …Nb8!, trapping our queen. And just like that, the game is over, and he resigned a few moves later.

Yet, if you spotted Black’s cunning idea in the diagrammed position, the only saving grace for White is 27.e6! This pawn sacrifice gives us time to save the queen after 27…fxe6 28.Re1, and now Black has to be careful as a natural move 28…Kf7? loses.

White to move and win:

The solution is 29.Bf4! We hit the rooks with a simple skewer, while the bishop is untouchable due to 29…Qxf4 30.Qxe6 checkmate!

The 3-Step Cure for My-Move-Itis

If you want to start predicting your opponent’s moves and jumping your rating, you need to build this habit into your thought process.

Here’s a visual graphic to outline the 3-step checklist:

Rely on Understanding, Not Reflexes

This type of “prophylactic” thinking is the core of what I call Old Man Chess. You don’t need the 20-year-old reflexes of a junior prodigy to play like this. You just need a solid understanding of pawn structures and a reliable opening repertoire that gets you safe, understandable middlegames.

If you are tired of getting caught by surprise and want a repertoire built on intuition and strategic understanding, I built the Tournament Starter Kit exactly for you.

When you upgrade to a paid membership of Grandmaster Secrets, you instantly unlock:

• The 1.e4 Traps PGN. Paid members get early access to the PGN file for the most common traps from my Upcoming 1.e4 Chessable course right now in the Openings Vault.

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps as well as a new weapon: The Hungarian Dragon.

  Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

Welcome to my weekend chess laboratory.

I want you to imagine the scene: The weather is beautiful, there’s a gentle breeze, and I’ve just poured a fresh cup of tea into my favorite Knight mug.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the digital hustle of modern chess — swiping rapidly through puzzles on our phones, chasing dopamine hits on Chessable, and watching our screens filled with Stockfish evals. But true chess improvement requires us to slow down.

So today, I invite you to do the same. Sit back. Get your favorite hot beverage, enjoy the feel of the wooden chess pieces, and let’s explore an elegant, highly focused way to train your calculation.

The Grandmaster Workout

When I want to keep my calculation skills sharp, I step away from the computer and open one of the most brilliant, challenging puzzle books: Perfect Your Chess by GM Andrei Volokitin and his coach Vladimir Grabinsky.

This isn’t a book of simple checkmates. It’s a collection of deep, complex, messy variations — exactly the kind of beautiful chaos you encounter in a real tournament game.

When I set up one of these positions on my wooden board, I follow three strict, mindful rules:

1. Sit on your hands. I do not touch the pieces to see what a variation looks like. Everything must be visualized in the mind’s eye.

2. Find the candidate moves. I don’t just calculate the first forcing check I see. I take a breath, look at the whole board, and gather my options.

3. Calculate to the very end. I don’t stop when a position “looks good.” I use my notebook to commit to a line, calculating until I see a clear evaluation or a checkmate.

Let me invite you into my thought process. Let’s look at the exact puzzle I set up on the board this morning.

White to move:

Step 1: The Evaluation
Before calculating a single line, I take a moment to simply absorb the position.
White has a classic build-up in what looks like the Rossolimo Bxc6 setup. We have a nice pressure on the h-file, but Black’s knight on g5 seems to stop all of our threats.

Step 2: Finding Candidate Moves
Now, I scan the board for forcing moves and subtle ideas.
My immediate candidate moves are 1.Nxg6, 1.fxg6, or a tricky 1.Nf3. Let’s quickly take a look at them. Both 1.Nxg6? and 1.fxg6 accomplish nothing while 1.Nf3 at first looks like an interesting decoy tactic (1…Nxf3? 2.Rxh7+ wins) Black can actually insert an intermezzo 1…Rxh2! 2.Rxh2 Nxf3 3.Qh6+ Kg8 and I don’t see any mate as after 4.Qh7+ Kf8 the king escapes.

Step 3: The Deep Dive
This is where the deep focus begins. I try to prove my own ideas wrong or expand the candidates.
I’m struggling with the forcing moves as none of them work! So, now I’m trying to delve deep into the essence of the position and understand the key ideas. It looks like Black is about to play Reh8 and consolidate. The knight on g5 is such an eyesore…wait a minute! Who said that the solution has to be a tactic? So, maybe I can achieve a positional goal with 1.Ng1!? The idea is to trade off the knights with Ngf3 next and get a good N vs B structure. Double-checking some lines confirms White is just better. I write down my solution and the time usage.

The Solution:

Yes! The correct move is indeed 1.Ng1! The game continued: 28. Ng1 gxf5 29. gxf5 Kf8 30. Ng6+! fxg6 31. Rxh7 Nxh7 32. Rxh7 Re7 33.Qh6+ Rg7 34. Nf3 Be8 35. Ng5 and White won a few moves later.

Let’s look at another example.

White to move:

Step 1: The Evaluation
White has a major issue with …Bb6 winning the queen, but it feels like moves like 1.Kh1 are too slow. We also have some back-rank issues, luckily our knight stops …Ra1+. Black’s bishop is terrible on c6, it looks like a big fat pawn. Yet, it’s unclear how to get our knight on d4 with a tempo.

Step 2: Finding Candidate Moves
I want to start with forcing moves, but both 1.Bxf6 and 1.Rxf6 lose a queen after 1…Bb6. Also, 1.Ne3 is a natural move, but why would I allow a check on a1? Maybe 1.Qf4 is a safe move, the game can follow 1…Bb6+ 2.Nd4 Ra1+ 3.Bf1 but I’m a bit worried about 3…Ne4!? Is White just worse there?

Step 3: The Deep Dive
I’m struggling in this one again, I just don’t see any forcing moves that work. Let’s take a step back and try to scan the board deeper…I do have an unusual idea to play 1.Bxf6!? Bb6 2.Bxg7! Bxd4+ 3.Bxd4. White only has N+B and a pawn for the queen. But look at Black’s king: it’s quite weak and Black’s c6-bishop is still a pawn. This feels like I have good compensation, but not sure if it’s enough. Ok, I will mark this as my solution.

The Solution:

Yes! The queen sac idea is correct 1.Bxf6! The engine also confirms that White is better with a +1 advantage. Wow, what a cool puzzle!

Quality over Quantity

This is how you build profound chess understanding. Spending 20 minutes in deep, uninterrupted focus over a single, beautiful puzzle is infinitely more rewarding than rushing through 30 easy tactics on a screen.

When you train this way, you develop a quiet confidence. You learn to trust your intuition and your calculation when you are sitting at the tournament board.

To make sure you get the absolute most out of your next study session, here is a quick visual summary of the proper technique:

Save Your Mental Energy

Of course, this kind of deep, Grandmaster-level calculation is mentally exhausting.

If you are forced to burn this precious mental energy on move 10 of the opening just to survive, you will have nothing left in the tank for the critical middlegame and endgame moments. You want to save your deep focus for when it truly matters.

How do you do that? By playing solid, intuitive openings where you understand the ideas, rather than trying to memorize razor-sharp, stressful engine lines.

If you want an opening repertoire that allows you to play with elegance and understanding, I created the Tournament Starter Kit exactly for you.

When you upgrade to a paid membership of Grandmaster Secrets, you instantly unlock:

• The 1.e4 Traps PGN. Paid members get early access to the PGN file for the most common traps from my Upcoming 1.e4 Chessable course right now in the Openings Vault.

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps as well as a new weapon: The Hungarian Dragon.

  Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

I’ve played the World Open at least a dozen times. My very first one was back in 1995, where I managed to win the Expert section. The very next year, after working with my new coach, GM Roman Dzindzichashvili, I found myself playing the top boards in the Open section, ultimately losing a tough last-round battle with Black against GM Alex Yermolinsky.

I know firsthand how grueling these massive summer Swiss tournaments can be. If you are preparing for your own tournament schedule right now, you need to plug the annoying leaks in your repertoire.

One of the most frustrating openings for 1.e4 players? The Scandinavian Defense (1.e4 d5).

Popularized heavily online by my friend IM John Bartholomew, the Scandi is the ultimate “lazy” weapon for Black. Your opponent is trying to drag you into a dry, solid structure where they know the plans and you don’t.

If you aren’t prepared for it, you will burn 20 minutes on the clock by move 10 just trying to figure out where your pieces belong.

Against the Scandi, I want to show you a cool idea based on the early Bd2 setup: 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Bd2!

This bishop move is very natural as we break the pin and prepare a timely discovery with the knight. Black’s popular moves are: 5…Bf5, 5….c6, and 5…Bg4.

I have covered them in great detail in my upcoming Chessable 1.e4 course, and also present them to you in the video below. (Members can download the PGN from the Openings Vault).

When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:

• The 1.e4 Traps PGN. Paid members get early access to the PGN file for the most common traps from my Upcoming 1.e4 Chessable course right now in the Openings Vault.

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: The Scandi Bd2 PGN as well as the permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps.

  Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

This is the dilemma I faced when preparing my buddy Mike, a.k.a the Chess Rocky, for the Daniel Naroditsky Rapid and Blitz Memorial in Charlotte over the 4th of July weekend.

It’s one thing to play some friendly sparring blitz games over beers after work, but being thrown into the ring against the best players in the world to compete for 11 rounds is a completely different beast.

So, I decided to mimic the stress of the upcoming tournament in a single-day workshop.

Welcome to the Chess Rocky Bootcamp.

Phase 1: The Blindfold Warm-Up

I needed to get Mike’s brain sweating right out of the gate. We started with a warm-up of mate-in-two problems. But, to give him a real workout, there was a caveat: He had to solve them blindfolded!

Solving blindfold puzzles is one of the absolute best ways to improve your board vision and calculation speed. Here are a few examples of what I threw at him (answers at the bottom):

White to move and mate-in-two:1

White to move and mate-in-two:2

Phase 2: Finding the Candidate Moves

Once his brain was warmed up, I gave Mike a tricky test from a recent book I highly recommend: Find Your Next Move by Sipke Ernst and Karel Van Delft.

The puzzles in this book are fantastic for blitz training. They are only one or two moves deep, but they are incredibly tricky because you have to quickly identify your Candidate Moves. In a blitz scramble, you don’t have time to calculate deep variations, you need to instantly spot the 2 or 3 moves that actually matter.

Here are a few examples we worked through (answers at the bottom).

Black to move (easy):3

White to move (medium):4

Black to move (medium):5

White to move (medium):6

White to move and win (hard):7

White to move (hard):8

Phase 3: The Sparring Ring (Old Man vs. Prodigy)

Now it was time for the main event. You can’t simulate tournament stress without a real opponent across the board.

I put Mike into the ring with one of my most promising students — a 14-year-old kid who is currently ranked in the Top 30 for his age.

To mimic the fatigue of Charlotte, I set up a gauntlet: They played one long rapid game to get the serious OTB feel, followed by a 10-game blitz match.

Despite being rusty in some of his openings, Mike showed excellent, scrappy chess. He managed to completely turn around a few lost positions and score a big W.

I told him afterward: This is exactly the kind of gritty survival skill you are going to need against the big dogs in Charlotte.

The final score? Mike narrowly won the match 5.5 to 4.5.

Yay for the Old Guys!

The Aftermath

After a full day of blindfold chess, tricky candidate-move puzzles, an intense rapid game, and a 10-game blitz match, Mike was exhausted... but in a good way. He felt exactly the kind of burn you feel after a heavy workout in the gym.

More of this, and he’ll be ready. Charlotte is exactly one month away, and the chess journey continues!

Build Old Man Intuition

Mike is surviving these grueling training camps because he is relying on intuition and practical, “Old Man Chess” structures rather than trying to memorize deep engine lines.

If you want a complete system that teaches you how to win with understanding rather than raw calculation, I’ve packaged my absolute best systems into the Tournament Starter Kit.

When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:

• 🎁 EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK: The 1.e4 Traps PGN. Paid members get early access to the PGN file for the most common traps from my Upcoming 1.e4 Chessable course right now in the Openings Vault.

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps as well as a new weapon: The Hungarian Dragon.

  Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

In the chess world, we often talk about “chess culture.”

Having chess culture means you’ve deeply studied the history of the game, the classics, and the foundational ideas discovered by the great masters. Historically, the absolute best players in the world are the most “cultured.”

But what happens when you lack it?

Back in 2000, Garry Kasparov was at the height of his powers when he played a 22-year-old Grandmaster named Sergei Movsesian in Sarajevo Super Tournament. Playing White against Kasparov’s Najdorf, Movsesian casually allowed Garry to play a thematic, devastating Sicilian exchange sacrifice: ...Rxc3.

Black to move:

Garry unleashed: 13…Rxc3! 14.bxc3 Qc7 with a big attack.

Kasparov absolutely crushed him.

After the game, Garry was ruthless. He was genuinely shocked that a Grandmaster would allow such an obvious, well-known sacrifice. He claimed Movsesian showed a complete “lack of chess culture” and famously dismissed him as a mere “chess tourist.” (This was a sharp jab at the players who participated in the controversial 1999 FIDE Knockout event in Las Vegas that was called the “World Championship").

If you play the Sicilian Defense, you know exactly what Kasparov meant. Sacrificing the exchange on c3 to shatter White’s queenside isn’t just a tactic — it’s a pillar of chess culture. Just look at this famous example from the game Judith Polgar vs Igor Ivanov, New York Open, 1991.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I was watching the recent clash between Praggnanandhaa and Magnus Carlsen at Norway Chess... and Pragg allowed the exact same thematic blow.

Getting “Out-Cultured”

In their highly anticipated encounter, Pragg was playing White against Magnus’s Sicilian. By move 14, the position looked like this:

Magnus — possessing perhaps the greatest chess culture in history — didn’t hesitate. He played 14...Rxc3!, sacrificing the exchange, shattering White’s pawn structure, and dragging Pragg into deep, dark complications.

At first, it was obvious that Magnus is out of shape as Pragg was dominating the ensuing chaos. But around move 35, Magnus took over (in the endgame!) and was totally cruising to victory.

But then, the unthinkable happened.

Black to move:

Magnus played 39…Nxd6?, sacrificing a second exchange and complicating the game even more. This is not typical of Carlsen, whose famous motto is "Don’t rock the boat" (meaning: don’t take unnecessary risks). Instead, a simple 39…Bc6! maintains the winning edge. Needless to say, Magnus went on to lose the game after some mutual mistakes in a super-complicated position.

Magnus played 95% of the game at a 2800 level, yet walked away with a zero on the scoresheet.

The Single Point of Failure

Here is the GM truth: What happened to Magnus in that game is exactly what is happening to you at the club level.

In engineering, there is a concept called the Single Point of Failure. It means that a flaw in one specific part of a system will cause the entire machine to crash, regardless of how strong the rest of the parts are.

Think of your chess game like a million-dollar sports car. You might have a 1,000-horsepower engine and elite racing tires, but if the steering wheel is broken, you are going to crash every single time.

(Speaking of cars, did you see the Pope driving the brand-new electric Ferrari?)

Just like a Ferrari, your chess rating requires every part to be working together.

Most adult improvers think their rating is an average of their overall skills. It’s not. Your rating is tied directly to your weakest link.

You can spend 100 hours studying the classics to build your “chess culture.” You can unleash a brilliant ...Rxc3 exchange sacrifice. You can completely outplay your 1800-rated opponent for 35 moves.

But if your personal “Single Point of Failure” is your time management, your inability to defend complex positions, or your mental stamina in the 4th hour of a tournament game... the system crashes. You will inevitably blunder and lose.

Fix Your Single Point of Failure

If you keep entering wild complications in the opening and end up blundering a simple tactic in time trouble, your rating will keep going downhill.

To fix your rating, you need to simplify your life. You need a rock-solid, intuitive system that gets you out of the opening with plenty of time on your clock and energy in your brain, so you can avoid those late-game blunders.

That is exactly why I created the Tournament Starter Kit for adult improvers like my student Mike.

When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:

• 🎁 EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK: The 1.e4 Traps PGN. Paid members get early access to the PGN file for the 5 traps in this post (plus one bonus secret trap!) right now in the Openings Vault.

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps as well as a new weapon: The Hungarian Dragon.

  Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

One of the biggest struggles I see for adult improvers is trying to memorize hundreds of disconnected opening variations. You learn one setup for the French, a completely different one for the Caro-Kann, and yet another wild theoretical maze for the Sicilian. It is exhausting. Worse, it leads to massive time trouble when your opponent plays a move you haven’t memorized.

The secret to a truly cohesive repertoire? Overlapping pawn structures.

When you understand the underlying pawn chain, the opening doesn’t matter anymore. You inherently know where your pieces belong, where to attack, and how to restrict your opponent. This is the heart of "Old Man Chess."

Let me show you two structural setups from the new course that will completely change how you play 1.e4.

1. The “Kingside Arrow” Chain (b2-c3-d4-e5)

When club players face the French Defense or the Caro-Kann, they often get frustrated by Black’s solid setups. Our goal against both of these openings is exactly the same: establish the b2-c3-d4-e5 pawn chain.

This chain is an absolute nightmare for Black. It suffocates their pieces, robs them of central squares, and allows us to build up a deadly kingside attack.

Let’s look at the French Advance. Black almost always tries to attack our d4-pawn.

The Setup: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.a3!

We calmly maintain our chain and prepare to grab more space with b4. In online blitz, over 380,000 players make the strategic mistake of resolving the tension too early with 6...cxd4?. They think they are opening the position, but they are actually giving us the c3-square for free!

Watch what happens when Black tries to attack our center:

7.cxd4 Nge7 8.Nc3 Nf5
Black thinks they are winning the d4-pawn, but we have a simple expansion plan:
9.Na4! Qa5+ 10.b4! Qc7 11.Bb2 Bd7 12.Rc1

Look at our beautiful b4-a3 and d4-e5 pawn chains! White has effortlessly secured a comfortable edge. We have eliminated any counterplay, locked down the queenside, and established total board control. We will finish development with Bd3 and O-O while Black has to deal with an immediate b5-threat. Hello to the “French bishop” on d7 — maybe you’ll have more luck next game!

And the best part? We play the exact same b2-c3-d4-e5 pawn chain against the Caro-Kann! You learn the plans, the piece placements, and the pawn breaks once, and you get to use them against two of the most popular defenses in chess.

Here’s our setup in the Caro: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Bd3!? (a rare move at Master level games, but has a lot of venom) Bxd3 5.Qxd3 e6 6.Ne2! (this knight goes to e2, so that the other one hops to f3 via d2) c5 7.c3

As you can see the pawn chain is exactly the same. It’s true that Black no longer has the “French bishop,” but they are still cramped and will be attacked on the kingside.

2. The “Iron Center” Chain (g2-f3-e4)

Now, let’s talk about the open games. In my repertoire, we rely on a very rare, venomous early queen sortie with Qxd4 and Qd3 against both 1...e5 and the Sicilian Defense.

By keeping our pawn on e4 and castling queenside, we aim to build the g2-f3-e4 pawn chain. This “Iron Center” blunts Black’s counterplay and acts as the perfect launching pad for Gary the g-pawn and Harry the h-pawn!

Take a look at how this plays out in our Modern Center Game against 1...e5:

The Setup: 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.d4 exd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Qd3 Bb4 (the most common move in online games) 6.Bd2 O-O 7.O-O-O

If someone told you that in an 1.e4 e5 game, you could castle long by move 7 and launch a fun, Sicilian-style pawn storm, you’d be delighted!

Once Black develops and challenges us, we force favorable trades and solidify our structure:
7...Re8 8.Nge2 d6 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bxf6 Qxf6 11.Nd5 Qd8 12.Nxb4 Nxb4 13.Qd2 Nc6 14.f3!

This is White’s absolute dream setup. The g2-f3-e4 pawn chain completely neutralizes Black’s pieces. Now that our center is locked down like a fortress, we can seamlessly begin our kingside expansion with g4 and h4, ripping open Black’s king.

Now, watch what happens when we face the Taimanov setup in the Sicilian Defense:

1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qd3 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Bf4 Bb4 7.0-0-0 Bxc3 8.Qxc3 0-0 9.f3!

Look familiar? It’s the exact same g2-f3-e4 pawn chain! We control the center, our e4-pawn is perfectly secure, and we are getting ready to launch the attack with g4 and h4 next.

Why Cohesion Matters

Why does this matter so much? Because as an adult improver, you don’t have the time or energy to memorize 15 different setups.

If you know the pawn structure, the opening basically plays itself. Facing the French or the Caro? Easy: build the b2-c3-d4-e5 pawn chain. Got the g2-f3-e4 chain? Castle long and push g4 and h4. Simple chess.

Instead of burning your clock trying to remember theory, you save your mental battery and drag your opponent into structures you understand better.

Stop Memorizing, Start Winning Today

While we wait for the 1.e4 course to drop, you don’t have to wait to start upgrading your game. If you want a complete system that teaches you how to win with intuition rather than calculation, I’ve packaged my absolute best systems into the Tournament Starter Kit.

When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:

• 🎁 EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK: The 1.e4 Traps PGN. Paid members get early access to the PGN file for the 5 traps in this post (plus one bonus secret trap!) right now in the Openings Vault.

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps as well as a new weapon: The Hungarian Dragon.

  Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

I’ve recently submitted all my analysis to Chessable, and after they finish their beta testing, I will start recording the video part of the course. Hopefully, it will be out sometime mid-summer.

For this article, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite traps from the course, and how surprisingly common it is for players to fall into them by playing natural moves.

One of the biggest weaknesses I see in adult improvers is that they love playing chess on “autopilot.”

They watch a YouTube video, memorize the first 7 to 10 moves of the Caro-Kann, the French, or the Sicilian, and blitz them out without thinking. But what happens when you drag them out of their comfort zone early on? They inevitably play a “natural” looking move that turns out to be a massive blunder.

My upcoming 1.e4 Chessable repertoire is designed to do exactly this: take your opponents out of book early, create maximum practical problems, and punish their autopilot moves.

Here are 5 devastating traps from the new course where thousands of online players played natural moves and completely fell apart!

1. The Pterodactyl Family Fork (2,200+ Victims)

In the Modern Defense: 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7, Black will sometimes try the tricky “Pterodactyl” setup with an early ...c5 and ...Qa5. We happily sacrifice a pawn to fast-track our development and plant a monster knight in the center.

The Setup: 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c5 4.dxc5 Qa5 5.Bd2 Qxc5 6.Nd5!

The Autopilot Mistake: 6...e6??

This is the most natural move in the world. Black feels annoyed by the knight on d5 and kicks it away. Over 2,200 players made this exact move in the online database!

The Punishment: 7.Bb4 Qc6 8.Bb5!

White hits Black with a gorgeous bishop sacrifice to set up a devastating family fork. The queen is lost, and the game is over.

2. The 3.Qxd4 Dragon Slayer (800+ Victims)

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know I recommend a venomous anti-Sicilian weapon popularized by GM Shimanov: 3.Qxd4!?. If Black goes for a Dragon setup, we reach a position where Black thinks they’ve found a clever tactical sequence.

The Setup: 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qd3 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Nf3 d6 7.Be2 Nf6 8.O-O O-O 9.Nd5 Nxd5 10.exd5 Bf5 11.Qd1 Nb4 12.c3!

The Autopilot Mistake: 12...Nc2??

Black happily jumps into c2, attacking the rook on a1 and expecting to harass our rook.

Even GMs and IMs have fallen for it in blitz/rapid:

The Punishment: 13.g4!

Surprise! We happily sacrifice the a1 rook to trap the knight. After 13...Nxa1 14.gxf5, Black’s knight is completely entombed in the corner on a1. We will round it up at our leisure while completely dominating the board positionally. Old Man Chess at its finest.

3. The Caro-Kann Bishop Trap (727 Victims)

Against the Caro-Kann, we go for the Advance Variation. When Black tries the trendy 3...c5 line, we quickly challenge their light-squared bishop.

The Setup: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 cxd4 5.cxd4 Nc6 6.Nc3 Bf5 7.h4!

The Autopilot Mistake: 7...e6??

Black plays their standard, autopilot Caro-Kann setup, completely ignoring the threat of Harry the h-pawn.

The Punishment: 8.g4! Be4 9.f3! Bg6 10.h5!

And just like that, the pride of the Caro-Kann — Black’s light-squared bishop — is trapped and lost on move 10. Simple chess!

4. The Scandi Portuguese Mate (1,600+ Victims)

If Black tries the tricky Portuguese variation of the Scandinavian Defense, we can set up an incredibly humiliating checkmate right out of the opening.

The Setup: 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Bg4 4.Bb5+ c6 5.dxc6

The Autopilot Mistake: 5...Bxd1??

Who can resist a free Queen? Black gets greedy and snaps it up, thinking White has blundered. Over 1,600 players grabbed the bait!

The Punishment: 6.c7+! Qd7 (after 6…Nc6 or Nbd7 we take the queen with check and pick up the bishop on d1) 7.c8=Q#

A beautiful discovered check that leads to checkmate on move 7!

5. The French Advance “Positional Squeeze” (123,000 Victims!)

Traps don’t always have to be checkmates. Sometimes, the trap is purely positional. In the French Advance, there is a very specific move order Black must know to stop our queenside expansion. But club players almost always play generic developing moves instead.

The Setup: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bd7 6.a3 Qb6 7.b4 cxd4 8. cxd4

The Autopilot Mistake: 8...Nge7?!

Here, Black absolutely must play 8...Rc8! to prevent White from developing the knight to c3. Instead, they play the autopilot French knight maneuver in 123,000 games!

The Punishment: 9.Nc3! (the key square for our knight) Nf5 10.Na4 Qc7 11.Bb2

Because Black missed their window, we easily secure our center. We lock down the queenside and take complete control of the game. White scores an incredible 67% win rate in blitz from this position!

Ready to take your opponents out of book?

These 5 traps are just a small taste of my brand-new 1.e4 repertoire. I built the entire course around this exact philosophy: taking your opponents out of their comfort zones, avoiding massive theoretical main lines, and putting immense practical pressure on them from move 3.

The full course drops on Chessable sometime in the summer. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, if you want a complete system that teaches you how to win with intuition rather than calculation, I’ve packaged my absolute best systems into the Tournament Starter Kit.

When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:

• 🎁 EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK: The 1.e4 Traps PGN. Paid members get early access to the PGN file for the 5 traps in this post (plus one bonus secret trap!) right now in the Openings Vault.

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps as well as a new weapon: The Hungarian Dragon.

  Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

Lindsey Vonn is 41 years old. She’s a former Olympic Gold medalist with a highly successful career who retired in 2019.

Yet, she came out of retirement to train for the Olympics in Italy this past year. She tore her ACL, got patched up, and just 9 days later, raced downhill for the Gold.

However, 13 seconds into the race, she crashed...

She was airlifted to the hospital with a badly damaged left leg that required multiple surgeries. Recently, speaking to the press, she said:

“I’m like Rocky. I’ll just keep getting back up.”

When I heard that quote, I immediately thought of our very own “Chess Rocky” — my 48-year-old friend Mike.

As you know from the first three parts of this series, Mike is coming out of a 10-year retirement to face an absolute gauntlet of Super-GMs at the Daniel Naroditsky Memorial in Charlotte on July 4th.

Now, Mike isn’t risking a torn ACL at the chessboard. But anyone who has played competitive chess knows that the mental exhaustion of a tournament can feel like physical pain. You aren't battling gravity — you are battling time pressure, blunders, and your own ego.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve overhauled Mike’s opening repertoire and given him the “B+ Rule” to survive the endgame. But all the chess knowledge in the world falls apart if you falter game after game… after game. This begs the question: How resilient are you to losing?

To survive in Charlotte, Mike doesn’t just need good moves. He needs a bulletproof mindset to “keep getting back up” after a tough loss.

Welcome to Phase 4 of training: The Mental Game.

Losing Hurts

We all know that losing hurts — especially if you lose to a nose-picking, fidgety 8-year-old. I’ve counted, and I have lost approximately 200 games in my chess career. That is more than the total number of tournament games Mike has played in his entire life!

I’m still learning how to deal with losses, but sheer experience puts everything in perspective. I’m much better at it now than I was 30 years ago!

Even Carlsen is still learning how to deal with a bad loss.

Luckily, he handled a recent defeat to his friend and former second, GM Jorden van Foreest, much better at the recent TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament.

Many adult improvers struggle with facing higher-rated players and play it “safe” to avoid losing. Yet, this is exactly the wrong strategy. As I explained in an older post, when I faced Magnus back in 2017, I went all-in with an enterprising 2-pawn sacrifice right out of the opening.

Mike, however, is built different. As he mentioned in his recent interview with Ben Johnson, he cherishes the opportunity to face strong GMs. Mike said that he can take 100 beatdowns, but if there’s one good win — it’s already worth it! Other than Rocky Balboa and Lindsey Vonn, who else wants to endure such torture?

The worst thing that can happen is he loses and learns from his mistake. No torn ACLs required.

This is the exact mindset I want him to have for the tournament. Just like Rocky: if you get knocked down, get up and fight again!

Here’s an example from a game that Mike played vs a 2300 FM sparring partner.

Black to move:

Black is up a piece and White’s f7-pawn acts as a shield against any attack against our king. The engine agrees with a -3 eval. Mike played a nearly flawless game for 30 moves to reach this endgame.

Black to move:

Now, Black is up two pieces and White’s central pawns are easily stopped. The eval has climbed to -5 at this point. However, with seconds on the clock, anything could happen. And Mike lost due to a few terrible blunders…

How do you recover after a game like this? You played great, but the stupid clock makes you want to toss a few chess pieces at the wall. But there’s no time to recover, as you have to play the next round. This is exactly the type of mental training I want Mike to experience.

Mike’s resilience was excellent, as he was able to rebound in a big fighting game as White:

So, if Mike were to ask me, “Eugene, how do I make sure my mental game doesn’t crack in Charlotte?”

Here is my GM Recipe for bulletproof resilience:

• Avoid the tilt: Don’t enter the next round desperate to “win back” the point you just lost. Desperation leads to bad moves. Forget the last result and just play the board in front of you.

• Play the position, not the rating: A 600-point rating gap is intimidating on paper, but in a 3+2 blitz scramble, anything can happen. Don’t play “safe” just because they are a Super-GM. If the position demands an attack, you attack.

• Redefine “Success”: If you lose three games in a row, remind yourself why you are there. Just showing up to the board after a 10-year break is a massive victory. Treat every loss as a learning opportunity.

The Best Cure for Anxiety is Preparation

Mike’s mental game is going to be tested in Charlotte, but one thing he won’t have to worry about is surviving the first 15 moves.

When you have a solid, dependable opening system, you remove half the stress of a tournament game. You don’t have to panic or burn your clock trying to remember the lines. You can just play chess.

If you want to step up to the board with the same confidence we are building for Mike, I’ve put my absolute best systems into the Tournament Starter Kit.

When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Endgame Practice Vault: Download the exact PGN of the endgame positions Mike is drilling so you can practice them against the engine.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps as well as a new weapon: The Hungarian Dragon.

• The Tournament Survival Guide: My 1-page PDF of gold nuggets from 35+ years of OTB play.

Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

P.S. I’d love to hear from you in the comments: What is the hardest part of the "mental game" for you during a tournament?

The clock reads 9 seconds…

You have a winning, but complex endgame…

You only have a 2-second bonus increment…

Your heart is pounding as you’re full of adrenaline…

Can you convert under pressure?

As we enter week 3 of training with my rusty 48-year-old "Chess Rocky," Mike is going through the most difficult part of our training yet: endgames.

The Endgame Struggle

Yes, endgames are hard for him. Heck, endgames are hard for everyone — unless your name is Magnus.

If you missed Part 1 and Part 2 of my story, I introduced you to my friend Mike, a Master who hasn’t touched a real chess piece in 10 years. Mike decided to jump into the deep end by signing up for the Daniel Naroditsky Memorial — an 11-round blitz gauntlet over the 4th of July weekend packed with Super-GMs like Hikaru Nakamura.

Mike asked me for the impossible: Can I coach him to survive among the world’s elite, and act as the “Mickey” in his corner?

Last week, we discussed his opening repertoire and how I overhauled his 20-year-old opening knowledge. Using the power of spaced repetition, I have Mike drilling my Chessable courses (like the Grand Prix Reloaded and my Nimzo/Bogo repertoire). I also created a personalized Hungarian Dragon course for him as our secret weapon against 1.e4.

But while anyone can drill openings on a computer, how do you actually improve at endgames? Specifically, how do you get better at converting winning positions under extreme time pressure?

Practical Endgames

There’s no need for Mike to memorize 100 theoretical positions or read Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual cover to cover. There’s simply no time for that in 3+2 blitz, where instincts and practical skills dominate.

Instead, I curated a custom database of practical endgames. Mike’s task is to convert these positions under pressure against my friend (a 2300 FM) in sparring matches.

Let’s look at a few examples.

White to move:

White is up a pawn on the kingside, and our b5-pawn completely fixes both of Black’s queenside pawns. This is a won endgame if you apply Botvinnik’s famous principle: Knight endgames are essentially Pawn endgames.

Meaning, if you remove the knights from the board, it’s an easy win for White. All White has to do is prevent Black from playing …Nc7 and …a6, which would generate counterplay. Thus, the easy move is 1.Nd4! Simple centralization. If Black tries 1…Nc7, it is met with 2.Nc6+ and Nxa7. Black is cramped and will eventually lose.

However, Mike failed to convert this one. He got too low on the clock, panicked, and allowed a knight fork.

Here’s another one. White to move:

White has an exchange for a pawn in an open position with pawns on both wings. With best play, this should be a win (the engine evaluates it at +2). Yet, it’s incredibly hard to actually convert under pressure.

White doesn’t have a clear, forcing plan and constantly needs to adjust based on Black’s reactions. The correct strategy can be broken down into 3 parts:

1. Activate the king! (This is a universal endgame principle you must know). Play moves like 1.f4 and 2.Kf2.

2. Create weaknesses. Use the rook, king, and pawns to create targets in Black’s camp (easier said than done!). Right now, Black has no clear weaknesses and can comfortably play …a6.

3. The Breakthrough. If …a6 is played, White’s king can make a dash towards the b6-square, timing a rook sacrifice for the bishop and b7-pawn to transition into a winning King + Pawn endgame.

Imagine trying to calculate all of that with just seconds on the clock! Once again, Mike failed to win this one.

Let’s look at a success story. Black to move:

Black is up a pawn with a highly active rook and a monster knight on d5. Moreover, White is totally paralyzed with a poor king on g1. What’s your winning plan?

Mike handled this one brilliantly! He won easily by pushing his f-pawn, activating his king, and using the K+R+N trio to weave a mating net around White’s king. This is a great example of how attacking skills still apply in the endgame!

(Note: If you are a paid member of Grandmaster Secrets, I’ve added a link at the bottom of this post to download these exact endgames and many others so you can practice them against a weaker engine like Maia Chess or Stockfish!)

The Clock Problem

When Mike is trying to convert a better/winning endgame, he’s looking for the best moves. I call these the A+ Moves.

The problem? In the above endgames there’s no need to spend 40+ seconds looking for the best move. Even if you get a winning position but leave yourself 9 seconds to convert, the 2-second increment will not prevent you from blundering away the game.

This is not just a problem for a rusty Master — players of all levels make this exact mistake!

But don’t worry, I shared a GM secret with Mike to fix this.

The B+ Rule

The secret to elite blitz is making good moves quickly, and making non-committal decisions. I call it the B+ Rule.

What is a B+ move? It’s a move that doesn’t blunder anything, slightly improves a piece and keeps the position solid.

The Math: Playing ten "B+" moves in a row (taking 3 seconds each) is infinitely better than playing one "A+" move that takes 40 seconds.

When you have a winning position, the pressure is actually on the defender to try and complicate things.

My GM advice to Mike:

• The Trap: Mike, your biggest trap right now is trying to force the win, which requires deep, time-consuming calculation.

• The Fix: Instead, make non-committal, shuffling moves. Move the Rook from c1 to c2. Move the King from g1 to h2.

• Why it works: It takes you a few seconds to make a non-committal move. But the moment you do, the tension is passed right back to your opponent. Now, the FM has to burn his clock trying to figure out what you’re doing. You want his clock to bleed, not yours!

Hopefully, this advice will click, and we will see a brand new Rocky emerge from this training!

Catch us on YouTube and Podcasts!

Mike and I were guests on Ben Johnson’s Perpetual Pod recently. We talked all about this crazy David vs. Goliath journey. You should check it out here!

I also analyzed one of Mike’s wins for Ben’s YouTube channel:

Stop Searching for the A+ Move

Mike’s biggest struggle right now is trusting his intuition instead of trying to calculate a winning sequence with only 9 seconds on his clock.

This is the exact same problem I see with adult improvers in the opening and middlegame. You don’t need a 40-hour Chessable course to find an “A+ Move” on move 12. You need a solid, intuitive system that gets you to the endgame safely with plenty of time on your clock.

I designed the Tournament Starter Kit so that any adult improver can reach comfortable, strategic middlegames where your understanding — not your raw calculation speed — wins the game.

When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Endgame Practice Vault: (New this week!) Download the exact PGN of the endgame positions Mike is drilling so you can practice them against the engine.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps as well as a new weapon: The Hungarian Dragon.

• The Tournament Survival Guide: My 1-page PDF of gold nuggets from 35+ years of OTB play.

Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

P.S. I’d love to hear from you in the comments: What is your biggest struggle when trying to convert a winning endgame?

You too can train like Rocky! This is my permanent library where I will be adding GM-curated endgame positions to practice converting under pressure.

Here is the list to the Lichess study. To download the full PGN, click here.

To practice, once you’re inside the lichess study, bottom right under the moves, click on the circle (Practice…

Read more

The showdown is happening over the July 4th weekend in Charlotte at the Daniel Naroditsky Rapid and Blitz Memorial. Did I mention that Mike is currently ranked 76th out of 77 players?

This tournament is a rare opportunity to celebrate Daniel’s love for chess and blitz. It’s open to anyone rated over 2200, and an absolute gauntlet of top-level GMs have already signed up:

We also have some famous content creators signed up to honor Daniel’s special gift for chess teaching:

Opening Survival Guide

Mike is a natural attacking player. In fact, he’s a big fan of my original Chess Openings for White/Black Explained books. However, just like those books, his opening knowledge is about 20 years old. And unlike a good bottle of wine, opening theory doesn't get better with age.

Step one of our training was to completely overhaul his repertoire. I needed to equip him with the freshest, meanest, and trickiest lines that suit his aggressive style without requiring him to memorize endless theory.

Let’s dive in.

The White Repertoire

As White, Mike is a natural 1.e4 player. He loves the Grand Prix Attack (1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7).

However, the traditional 5.Bb5 has been analyzed to death. Instead, I am teaching him a new, tricky approach with the rare 5.a4!?

The point is to invite Black to play the logical-looking 5…e6, which walks right into my prep after 6.e5! I have recommended this in my Chessable course, and you’d be surprised how many titled players walk right into this setup. Here’s a nice GM game:

Against the Caro-Kann, Mike is very comfortable playing the Exchange Variation (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3). While these days I’m personally a big fan of the Advance (3.e5), my golden rule as a coach is: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There is no need to overwhelm him with heavy theory when we can focus on the low-hanging fruit. Here’s a recent sparring game against my 2300-rated friend where Mike showed a great feel for the position:

Against the French, Mike likes the King’s Indian Attack setups (1.e4 e6 2.d3 d5 3.Nbd2 or 3.Qe2). This is a “system” opening, meaning your plans are mostly known in advance regardless of what Black does. For anyone interested, there’s a legendary KIA article by the late IM Jeremy Silman on this exact setup.

Here’s a famous Bobby Fischer game that illustrates the power of White’s attack.

Against 1…e5, we will play the Ruy Lopez but avoid massive theory by using early d3 setups. Our hero here is Magnus Carlsen, who I believe plays these positions like a god. Here’s a great example of Magnus working his magic against a strong GM:

The Black Repertoire

As Black against 1.e4, Mike has already started experimenting with the Hungarian Dragon that I wrote about recently — and he’s loving it! Here’s his miniature win against a 2300.

Against 1.d4, we are focusing on positional Nimzo/Bogo setups. I feel like this area needs a bit more work, but luckily, I’ve completely reworked and updated all these lines as part of my recent Chessable Course.

Here is one exceptionally cool idea from a Bogo chapter that will be our secret weapon — Black actually castles long!

Magnus Carlsen recently used a similar idea against Alireza Firouzja in the Speed Chess Championship to win a model positional game:

What’s Next?

It’s easy to stare at a computer screen or click through move-trainer software and feel like you “know” your openings. But in my opinion, nothing comes close to actually having a stronger player test you on a physical board.

To prep Mike, I arranged for my 2300 FM friend to test him in these specific opening lines via sparring blitz sessions.

I firmly believe that the emotional factor of these sparring games, combined with the physical hand dexterity of touching the pieces, is what will actually help him internalize the ideas when the clock is ticking down in Charlotte.

Now that we have the openings locked in, it’s time to focus on endgames. Specifically, we need to work on his endgame technique and conversion under serious time pressure.

I have some specific exercises in mind for Phase 3, but before next week’s post, I’d love to hear from you:

Let me know in the comments: What helped YOU the most when trying to master the endgame?

If you aren’t preparing for Super-GMs but still want a low-theory repertoire to dominate your local club, I’ve packaged my absolute best systems into the Tournament Starter Kit.

When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps.

• The Tournament Survival Guide: My 1-page PDF of gold nuggets from 35+ years of OTB play.

Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

P.S. I have some exciting news! Mike and I will be interviewed by the famous chess podcaster, Ben Johnson, from the Perpetual Chess. If you have any questions for Mike (or me), please post them in the comments below. Ben also has a weekly chess news recap that I highly recommend on his own Substack page.

I’ve been playing and teaching chess my whole life. Yet, I’m about to take on a project that is the ultimate David vs Goliath story, and I need your moral support.

My buddy, Mike, asked me to prepare him to face Super-GMs, the likes of GM Hikaru Nakamura.

The problem? Mike is a 48-year-old Master who hasn’t played OTB chess in over 10 years. Right now, he’s your average adult improver who casually plays online bullet while drinking beers.

Yet, when Mike told me he wants to compete in the Daniel Naroditsky Memorial over the July 4th weekend in Charlotte — and that he’s the literal 75th seed out of 75 players — I couldn’t say no. After all, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him to face absolute monsters like Sindarov and Hans Niemann, as well as legends like Boris Gelfand.

The list of pre-registered players is quite impressive!

Once I said yes, my next task was to design the training regimen that will get him ready for the grueling 11 rounds of blitz.

I need to overhaul his openings, his tactics, his technique, and pretty much everything else… Except maybe his choice of beers.

Luckily, I’ve got 30+ years of experience teaching and playing chess. In fact, I’ve faced Nakamura at least 9 times according to my database. And somehow, I still have a plus score against him!

Phase one of training was to put Mike across the board against my friend — a 2300 FIDE Master who’s of a similar age and also somewhat rusty. I needed to build Mike’s confidence while diagnosing his weaknesses.

He passed the test by winning the match 5.5 to 3.5! But looking closely at the games he lost gave me pause…

Loss #1 as White:

White has two minor pieces for the rook and is totally winning. The engine evaluates this at around +3 and says pretty much any move wins. So, how did Mike lose this in just 10 moves? He was trying too hard to checkmate Black’s king, got super low on the clock, and went for a dubious sacrifice that completely backfired.

Loss #2 as White:

As you can see, White is up a pawn and completely dominating the game. He found the winning shot 10.Nb5! Black has to lose the exchange due to the Qxd7 checkmate threat. Yet, somehow Mike started to drift. He took too long on every decision, walked into a simple tactic, and lost.

As you can tell, I have my hands full. Yet, despite the obvious rust, poor time management, and horrible technique, I saw a spark of genius as well.

Black to move and win:

Many players would rush to recapture with 20…Rxf8, which is perfectly fine. But why not finish the game on the spot? I was so proud to see Mike slow down and play the brilliant intermezzo 20…Qh3!! White has some spite checks on f7, but the mate is unstoppable. Let’s go!

Towards the end of the blitz session, Mike started to get his groove back and played some really good games.

This is one of my favorites, with a nice checkmate at the end:

He also showed some endgame spark in this one:

Here, Black is about to take on h3 with dangerous counterplay. Yet, Mike found a brilliant way to activate his bishop with 46.c4! Black took on h3 anyway, but ended up losing a piece after 46…Rxh3 47.Bxe5 fxe5 48.Rd7+ Kf6 49.Nxg7. From there, Mike converted with ease by bringing his king to e4 and eventually checkmating Black’s king with Nh5#.

The Road Ahead

So, the foundation is there. Mike has the tactical vision and the endgame chops, but we have a literal mountain to climb when it comes to time management, technique, and stamina.

Next week, I’ll be sharing Phase 2 of our training: The Opening Survival Guide. I’ve already started teaching him the Hungarian Dragon that I introduced in my last post. He’s loving it and hoping this will be our secret weapon for Charlotte.

You don’t need to be a Master playing in the Daniel Naroditsky Memorial to use these tools. I designed the Tournament Starter Kit so that any adult improver can reach comfortable, strategic middlegames where your intuition — not your calculation speed — wins the game.

When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps.

• The Tournament Survival Guide: My 1-page PDF of gold nuggets from 35+ years of OTB play.

  Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

Let me know in the comments: If you had to sit across from Hikaru Nakamura with the black pieces tomorrow, what opening are you playing to survive?

Make sure to subscribe to follow Mike’s journey to Charlotte. It’s going to be a wild ride!

Ever since I was a kid, I was enchanted by the Sicilian Dragon. I don’t know if it was the name or the beautiful simplicity of the setup, but the opening captured my imagination and became my favorite weapon as Black.

Over the years, I’ve developed a deep love for the g7 bishop as my Dragon evolved into the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6) under the influence of my former coach, GM Roman Dzindzichashvili. Dzindzi was a former top 10 player and one of the most renowned theoreticians in the world.

We recommended the HAD in my original book, Chess Openings for Black, Explained.

A few years ago, I came up with a move order to stop the dreaded Maroczy Bind, where White puts their pawns on e4 and c4, creating a powerful bind in the center. After the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4, we play 4…Nf6!? to reach this position:

White’s e4 pawn is attacked, and they will likely play 5.Nc3 (no more c4 bind!) This now gives Black an opportunity to either try to get to the Accelerated Dragon with 5…Nc6 or play the Dragondorf with 5…d6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 a6 8.Qd2 h5! I’ve covered both of these options in my Chessable course.

The Hungarian Dragon

The subject for this post is the new type of Dragon variant, called the Hungarian Dragon. I’m not sure where the name came from, but I’m guessing it was named after SuperGM Richard Rapport, who was the first to use this setup at the highest level.

The setup is somewhat similar to the Dragondorf but with two major differences: Black keeps the bishop on g7 and plays Nc6 instead of a6.

The position below could be reached via several move orders. My HAD move order: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be3 Nc6 7. f3 h5! or the conventional Dragon move order: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Nc6 7. f3 h5!

The point of …h5 is to forever stop White’s expansion on the kingside and meet 8.Qd2 with 8…Nxd4 9.Bxd4 Bh6! This is the fundamental idea of the Hungarian Dragon.

After analyzing this setup, I can confidently say it's an absolute powerhouse for club players. That's why I’ve turned it into a full repertoire for my members, starting from the position above! You can watch my breakdown of the main concepts and some killer attacking ideas in the free video below.

Paid members can download the full PGN files from the Openings Vault right away.

The video above covers the core concepts. But if you want to crush the Yugoslav Attack in your next club game, having the exact moves ready to review is the ultimate shortcut.

To add the Hungarian Dragon to your repertoire today, become a paid member of Grandmaster Secrets.

When you upgrade, you instantly unlock:

• The Openings Vault: The Hungarian Dragon PGN, plus my permanent library of “Gambit Killers.”

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes.

• The Tournament Survival Guide: My 1-page PDF of gold nuggets from 35+ years of OTB play.

  Upgrade to Grandmaster Secrets

My Dark Horse prediction is surprising even myself. The youngest player in the Candidates, GM Javokhir Sindarov, is leading the Candidates with a record-breaking score of 5.5/6!

What’s even more impressive is he totally outprepared the two Americans, Fabi & Naka, crushing both of them back-to-back. Just take a look at the time usage by Sindarov in these positions:

Black to play:

Black to play:

How does a 20-year-old youngster who loves videogames (Counter-strike is his favorite) outprepare the #2 and #3 seeds and very experienced GMs? Why isn’t he intimidated by the names of Caruana and Nakamura? How does he play so well under pressure once he gets an advantage?

Just as I’m writing this article, he outplayed Wei Yi in a complex middlegame. The Chinese GM used up 46 minutes on move 18, made a series of bad decisions and blundered on move 30 to lose the game. Perhaps Fabi, Naka, and Wei Yi should read my post about time management.

All of this begs the question: did Sindarov solve chess?

I guess it’s a bit early to try to answer this as the Candidates still have 8 more rounds to go. We’ve seen Gukesh do it in 2024, being the youngest winner at 17. Will Sindarov cruise to victory and meet the Indian superstar for the title?

While it’s too early to crown him, the secret to his current success isn’t magic. Kids like Sindarov grew up with neural-network engines. They don’t fear legends like Fabi or Hikaru because they trust the machine. They have the infinite time, energy, and memory required to memorize 25 moves of razor-sharp computer lines.

But here is the hard truth for adult improvers: You are not a 20-year-old chess professional.

You cannot play Sindarov’s game. If you try to memorize 20 moves of sharp, theoretical opening prep while balancing a full-time job, a mortgage, and a family, you are going to get crushed by the “whiz kids” at your local club. You will forget the move order, burn your clock, and blunder.

If you want to beat the kids, you have to drag them out of their computer preparation and into a position where experience and understanding matter more than memory.

For example, Pragg did this in round 1 vs the best theoretician in the world, Anish Giri, by playing my beloved Grand Prix Attack! By the way, Chessable is running the Candidates sale now. And if you haven’t already, you can get Grand Prix Reloaded or my other courses here.

Position after 10.f5:

Even though the engine doesn’t think highly of White’s setup, you can clearly see that Black would be uncomfortable facing the attack. Giri defended well for a while, but got low on time, misplayed the endgame and lost without a fight.

The GM Recipe: How to Handle the “Booked-Up” Kids

• Avoid the Engine Battles: Stop playing directly into sharp, main-line theory. Use “Old Man Chess” structures to force your opponent to think for themselves on move 4, not move 20.

• Let Them Burn Their Clock: Kids play fast when they are in their prep. The moment you steer the game into a quiet, strategic middlegame they haven’t studied, they will start burning their time.

• Take Away the Chaos: If there are no fireworks on the board, young players get impatient. Play quiet, maneuvering chess and wait. They will almost always overextend and give you the game.

Stop Memorizing, Start Winning

You might not be playing in the Candidates, but you still need a bulletproof repertoire for your next weekend tournament.

I designed the “Old Man Chess” system to help busy adults reach comfortable, strategic middlegames where your intuition — not your calculation speed — wins the game.

When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps.

• The Tournament Survival Guide: My 1-page PDF of gold nuggets from 35+ years of OTB play.

  Unlock the Starter Kit

P.S. I’d love to hear your predictions in the comments: Can Sindarov hold onto the lead, or will Fabi catch him?

I was recently rereading Garry Kasparov’s brilliant book, How Life Imitates Chess. While it’s written for a mainstream audience, the chess stories and reflections inside are worth their weight in gold for any competitive player.

While gathering material for his epic My Great Predecessors series, Garry made an interesting discovery.

You would think that after a game is finished, analyzing it in the quiet comfort of your study—with no opponent, no ticking clock, and no distractions—would naturally yield better moves than the ones played over the board.

Yet, looking back at the pre-engine era, Garry realized this often wasn’t true! The game-time intuition of the best players in the world was frequently superior to their deep analysis afterwards.

How is that possible? I wondered the same thing, and yet, intuitively (pun intended!), I completely agree with Garry on this one.

The critical factors that bring out the absolute best in us are extreme focus and the immense pressure of facing a live opponent. No opponent, no ultimate focus.

Many adult improvers study chess mostly on their own. You might watch YouTube videos, solve tactics online, or read a book on the couch. But let’s be honest: this is nothing compared to the raw intensity of a real-life tournament game.

In the tournament hall, there’s dead silence. Just you, the ticking clock, and the person sitting across from you trying to crush your position. Under those conditions, you reach an extreme level of focus that is nearly impossible to replicate at home. There are no phones, no house chores, no distractions. This is the crucible where a player’s instinct is sharpened. In these moments, intuition is king.

However, many adult improvers — and even Masters — struggle to actually trust that intuition. Instead of going with their gut on a critical decision, they second-guess themselves. They overthink, overcalculate, burn the clock, get into time pressure, and ultimately blunder. Then they wander away from the board wondering, “What just happened?”

To show you exactly what I mean, here’s an example from my own career where I failed to trust my intuition, and paid the price.

White to move:

I’m White in a comfortable position vs a young 2100 player. The bishop on b7 is terrible and Black’s knights are stepping on each other’s hooves. My intuition told me that White should have a killer idea before Black gets to finish development. I briefly considered the correct 19.Rfc1 but didn’t quite trust myself to give up a piece for two pawns after 19…Nc6 20.Nxb5. Instead, I played a poor move 19.Bg5 and quickly lost all my edge, blundered later and almost lost the game…

However, had I trusted my intuition, after 19.Rfc1! Nc6 20.Nxb5! (no fear!) axb5 21.Bxb5 White gets a dominating position:

Black’s extra piece is meaningless against the a+b pawn duo, for example: 21…Rc8 22.Qa4! Ndb8 23.a6 Ba8 24.a7 and Black is lost.

Here’s a game from the Reykjavik Open 2017 where I faced Pragg’s older sister, Vaishali, who is a strong chess player in her own right (shout-out to my student who’s playing there right now!).

Black to move:

I took over the initiative and executed the standard …f5 break earlier. Black has nice f5 & e5 pawns with a strong knight on b4. I felt like I was better, but couldn’t quite find the correct plan. I wasted too much time trying to connect my rooks with 25…Qe7, which I correctly rejected due to a strong piece sac 26.Nxe5! And I played the game move 25…Qd7? instead. Unfortunately, I completely missed 26.Nh4! after which my kingside collapses as both Rh3 and Qh5 are coming. The game didn’t last long and she finished me off without any chances. Later, the analysis confirmed that my intuition was indeed correct and the best way to activate my rooks was 25…Ra7!! The idea is to drop the bishop to c8 so the rook could be activated on the 7th rank. The modern engine confirms and gives Black a slight edge!

Conclusion: Trusting Your Inner Radar

In both of these examples, my initial feeling about the position was absolutely correct. My inner radar was pinging, telling me exactly what the board demanded. Yet, instead of trusting my Grandmaster intuition, I let fear and over-calculation take the wheel. I played it “safe,” and I paid the price.

This brings us right back to Kasparov’s discovery. Through years of solving puzzles, reading books, and playing games, you are building a massive mental database of chess patterns. In the heat of a tournament game, under the intense focus we talked about earlier, your subconscious often spots the truth of a position before your conscious brain can calculate all the variations.

Over-calculating is often just fear disguised as deep thought. We see ghosts. We worry about our opponent’s replies instead of trusting the initiative we’ve built.

So, my advice to you as an adult improver is this: Start honoring your intuition.

If your gut tells you there is a killer blow in the position, or that a deep positional maneuver (like ...Ra7!!) is required, don’t immediately talk yourself out of it. Spend your valuable clock time figuring out how to make your intuitive idea work, rather than desperately searching for reasons why it won’t.

Stop Memorizing, Start Playing with Intuition

If you want to stop second-guessing yourself at the board, you need a repertoire that relies on understanding the position rather than memorizing 20 moves of engine theory.

I designed the “Old Man Chess” system to help adult improvers reach comfortable, strategic middlegames where your intuition—not your calculation speed—wins the game.

When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps.

• The Tournament Survival Guide: My 1-page PDF of gold nuggets from 35+ years of OTB play.

  Unlock the Starter Kit

P.S. I’d love to hear from you in the comments: Have you ever lost a game because you "talked yourself out" of your first instinct?

We are all excited about the upcoming 2026 FIDE Candidates.

Will it be one of the American veterans, Hikaru or Fabi? Will Pragg use his 2024 Candidates experience to win it all and challenge his childhood friend in a historic all-Indian World Championship match?

Or will one of the dark horses steal the show?

In this post, I’ll break down the strengths, weaknesses, and X-factors of each Candidate, and reveal my personal pick to win it all. Let’s dive in.

Hikaru Nakamura

Strengths: Experience. Hikaru has competed in the last two Candidates in a row, narrowly missing the win each time. In Madrid 2022, he easily equalized against Ding Liren in the final round but ended up losing; a draw would have made him Nepo’s opponent for the World Championship. In 2024, a win against Gukesh in the final round would have secured him a match vs. Ding. If this tournament comes down to a rapid/blitz tiebreak, I would put my money on Hikaru against anyone.

Weaknesses: He hardly played classical chess last year — unless you count the “Mickey Mouse” tournaments he played strictly to secure his qualification spot. His opening prep wasn’t particularly impressive in the last Candidates either, notoriously losing to Vidit with White in under 30 moves.

The X-Factor: Hikaru, just like Magnus, is a newly-minted dad. How will this affect him? We all know what it’s like to try and calculate deep variations when you’re grumpy after a poor night’s sleep and changing diapers!

With all due respect to his incredible streaming second act, I consider Hikaru less of a favorite than my top 3.

Fabiano Caruana

Strengths: Caruana has established himself as the greatest player in the world after Magnus. If you can believe it, 2026 marks his 6th Candidates appearance. He gave Magnus a run for his money in their 2018 World Championship match, and last time out in Toronto, he was crushing Nepo in a dramatic showdown that would have tied him with Gukesh for first (though Nepo defended tenaciously to stop the American). In a grueling event like this, I choose experience over youth.

Weaknesses: Fabi plays non-stop. While it yields great results — like winning the Grand Chess Tour last year — the massive drawback is fatigue. He may simply be too tired for a grueling 14-game marathon.

The X-Factor: The mental block. Hikaru seems to have Fabi’s number, having beaten him in their mini-match during the last Candidates. Hikaru’s recent head-to-head record against Caruana is so lopsided that this psychological hurdle is probably Fabi’s biggest obstacle. At the same time, Fabi knows he’s the best player in the field when he’s on form. If he is sharp, he has to be the favorite.

Anish Giri

Anish definitely surprised me when he made a comeback to the Top 10 after briefly dropping out last year. After all, being a dad of three and an “aging” player at 31 makes it incredibly hard to compete against a young generation that studies chess 24/7. Yet, Giri is probably the best theoretician in the world, and this is precisely the type of event where he can spring his deep opening surprises.

The X-Factor: Anish recently launched a new product, chessmonitor.com. Will his business and social media empire distract him from the main goal of winning the Candidates?

Praggnanandhaa

Pragg qualified by scoring the most FIDE Circuit points from his numerous tournament wins last year. This proves he is incredibly consistent, which is a massive bonus in a round-robin. Lately, however, he hasn’t shown anything spectacular, mostly finishing just outside the top 3 in elite events.

The X-Factor: Pragg is from the golden age of Indian youngsters, growing up and competing directly with Gukesh. The experience of playing the 2024 Candidates and learning from his mistakes is his biggest trump card. I’m sure he would love nothing more than to win it all and meet his childhood friend on the biggest stage in chess. After Caruana, he’s my #2 favorite.

Matthias Bluebaum

Bluebaum came out of nowhere, qualifying by placing second at the FIDE Grand Swiss. Yet, he proved himself as a very strong contender at the recent Tata Steel, taking down Keymer, Giri, and Gukesh!

Despite the great form, I don’t believe he has high chances to win the Candidates simply due to a lack of experience in these ultra-elite pressure cookers.

Wei Yi

Wei Yi qualified for the Candidates via the FIDE World Cup. He was always an incredible talent, but for a long time, he was overshadowed by his countryman Ding Liren. Interestingly, even Ding considered Wei Yi to be the more talented player, once famously predicting: “I am just a rock in the stream. The water will eventually flow past me.” Let’s see if the water finally breaks through.

Andrey Esipenko

The young Russian reminds me of Anatoly Karpov, but with a much more aggressive opening repertoire. He first made global headlines years ago at Tata Steel by taking down Magnus Carlsen in style.

He is incredibly dangerous, but I feel like Esipenko still needs one more cycle of experience before he is ready to win it all.

Javokhir Sindarov (The Dark Horse)

Sindarov is one of the youngest players in the field at only 20 years old (the same age as Pragg). Yet, his trajectory to the top reminds me of Mikhail Tal. He is playing non-stop, and he is improving non-stop!

I actually think he has more chances to win this event than Hikaru does. Because of his fearless, dynamic style and his rapid ascent, I am officially choosing Sindarov as my Dark Horse to win the 2026 Candidates. After all, winning the FIDE World Cup speaks for itself.

Who is your favorite to win?

Let me know your predictions in the comments below!

While you might not be preparing for the Candidates, you still need a bulletproof repertoire for your next weekend tournament. If you want to stop getting caught in opening traps by the “young generation,” I’ve built a system specifically for you.

When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:

• The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.

• The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps.

• The Tournament Survival Guide: My 1-page PDF of gold nuggets from 35+ years of OTB play.

Unlock the Starter Kit

P.S. If you’re a paid member and would like me to analyze your game for a future post, please share your Lichess study link in the comments below!