ChessDoofus

Today I'm releasing a project I've been working on for a while: Five Setups to Fight the London System! As part of this project, I made an overview video on YT, as well as a study with all relevant lines over on lichess. I'll give you a little taste of this project here (1/7):

“One more win and I’ll be done for the evening” is a 100% guarantee of at least 2 losses in a row. Usually more like 6

@thestrongchess @natesolon I wrote the article that image was sourced from, so I double checked to see if I did anything wrong. Nope, AI just thinks you’re one and the same 😂

Look at me. I'm the @natesolon now.

Link to the complete study, with much, much more detail on all these approaches (as well as PGNs!): lichess.org/study/V02ElNCS Full YouTube video: youtu.be/5uWVKRjG2AE?si… Let me know what you think!

Setup # 5: The KID The final approach I examine is King's Indian-based, ideal for players who start with 1...d6, 1...g6, or just all those who love the KID structures. This one is so flexible that black can choose between all sorts of plans, and I analyze three of them!

Today I'm releasing a project I've been working on for a while: Five Setups to Fight the London System! As part of this project, I made an overview video on YT, as well as a study with all relevant lines over on lichess. I'll give you a little taste of this project here (1/7):

@BishopPair This is my favorite pet line in the Scotch! Didn’t know it was named after Tartakower

Thread on the Scotch Tartakower Variation: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.Nd2!? 6.Nd2 is played only about 3% of the time, but has found favour with Van Foreest, Vidit, Ivanchuk, Sarin, and others.

@natesolon Woah what, that’s no good. I thought I was the chess doofus!

Every Pogchamps I find out about like 10 more guys with names like Doofus69 who are more famous than Brad Pitt.

@thestrongchess @thechessnerd I played him, back when I was 1800. He got me. We analyzed it afterwards which was very kind of him as the much higher-rated player at the time

@thechessnerd He's a dude in his 60s from Virginia, Robert J Fischer even. Nice guy, talked to him many times and saw him in lots of tournaments since I grew up in MD. We never played though

Someone in US Masters is named Robert Fischer 😬

@chessmensch @natesolon Never looked at it but I’ve seen 1. f4 h5 before so maybe I should 👀

@ChessDoofus @natesolon I like to play 2.h4 because it looks dumb, yet White is still better.

1...f5 is one of the worst legal moves in this position. The "playability" of the "Dutch" says less about any positive quality of this move and more about the size of the drawing margin in chess. Please don't do this to yourself.

@sammywohl @PHChess Aw thank you! I hope you’ve been doing well lately

@ChessDoofus @PHChess Leave it to Dennis with the best take

Caruana, a natural attacking player, played the passive 3 c3 here yesterday. It would be impossible to imagine Fischer or Kasparov playing such a passive move. A thread 🧵 on how modern computers change chess in a bad way, and why I prefer Freestyle:

Most important rule in chess: NEVER put pressure on someone else (other than perhaps yourself) to achieve results. Never send anything other than support and understanding about their chess journey I’m talking not only about coaching but also (especially) chess parenting

@thestrongchess wait until you learn what échec/échecs means outside of a chess context :D

Learned recently that the French word for bishop is fou, meaning "fool," which is amusingly apt for this guy

I wrote this tournament recap, go read it if you want to :)

Time passes and life gets tough sometimes, but I try never to forget the greatest moments. Ten years ago today, I had one of the greatest tournaments of my young chess "career" and won the greater Baltimore HS championship with a perfect score. I still have the trophy today!