Postmortem: What Adult Improvers Can Learn From Chess Rocky
5 GM tips to survive a grueling tournament (and exclusive video of Ivanchuk!)
Two weeks have passed since the unforgettable experience of being at the Daniel Naroditsky Memorial in Charlotte.
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.
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