Not nearly as often as I should! 😅

@AV the ultimate Skooler often people play the same openings online as they do over the board. You likely won't know their online username, but it doesn't hurt to google their names anyway and see what comes up.

@AV the ultimate Skooler well, knowing their last name and location also helps. There are plenty of Sams who play chess, but how many are Sam so-and-so from such and such city? 🤔

@Kennedy Smith let's go! 💪 Feel free to post your reflections on each game in this thread. 👍👌

Had a hectic week, so wasn’t posting much, but still managed to study one GM game or more every day! I kept focusing on the QGD-Catalan hybrid, as I have a tournament in a few weeks and may test it out there. I studied around 15 games over the last week in the same QGD-Catalan hybrid, from White’s perspective, where at least one player was a GM (though the opponents were usually 2300+ as well). They were mostly in the same two mainlines, and really show that it is a nice, safe, two-results position for White (it is very hard to lose as White here, at least at higher levels). A couple notable games in the second mainline, which involves an early queen swap on d1, where White recaptures with the knight, which then goes to the e3-square, from which it can go to c4, etc. It is well placed there, and Black’s defensive task, even with an early queen trade, is far from easy. Sarin – Short I’m assuming this game fairly recent, as Sarin is a young player. Short – far from his prime – was still nearly 2600 FIDE here, yet despite that, really struggled to hold on here, and eventually ended up a pawn down for absolutely nothing. White went on to convert easily. Despite the rating difference of less than 100 points between the players, White won risk free, the way a 2600 might casually outplay a 2200, at least to my eye. Giri – Jakovenko This was another good one, where Giri first gave his nice Catalan bishop for the c6-knight (this can be hard to do psychologically), and then traded the dark-square bishops, leaving Black with a bad light square bishop and knight against White’s pair of knights. This, combined with White’s more active pieces and better structure, eventually allowed White to win a pawn, and later on, the game. Another risk-free win for White, where Black – a 2719(!!) player – was unable to defend. This encourages me to learn these lines well because if top players struggle to defend these positions as Black, I can only imagine how badly most of my opponents will defend.

Weird, I find it the opposite -- chess com is harder, but perhaps that has to do with it being more laggy as well. 🤔 My peak blitz and rapid ratings are quite a bit higher on lichess than chess com, and now, being a good deal worse than my peak (especially in blitz), my lichess ratings are still higher.🤣 There was a time when like 30% of my opponents in chess com rapid were cheaters as well. I remember going through my game history and seeing closed account after closed account, which didn't happen as much on lichess. It doesn't seem to be that way recently, however.

Great recommendations in the video. I ought to get some of them! Aagaard's famous book, "Thinking Inside the Box" is quite readable as well, and gives plenty of useful advice in the form of text, rather than moves. The exercises tend to be tough, but they can be skipped. Tactics books are good, too, as you just try to figure out the winning lines until you get tired and go to sleep. Works like a charm for getting to sleep quickly! 😁