Alex Banzea

@mennohagens Looks like some weird guy is hacking your chessable page 😂😏

@AlexBanzea I wish you had a Slav course, but I got my work cut out for me either way!

@jamonholmgren Lol🤣

@AlexBanzea He tried the Jobava vs KID trap on me. 😅

@GothamChess Anything below 30 minutes is pretty fast! (been running for 5 years) Ignore the fake athletes!

I started running a few months ago. Decided to try a 5K outside. 29 minutes on first try. Is that good? Bad? Average?

Can someone fix the name of this opening? For context, lichess names it 'Rapport-Jobava System' @chesscom

@sassuolotuitter good stuff, bro!

When u switch from english and sicilian to london and caro kann. @AlexBanzea man you are a hell of a teacher

@untimelysalts @44n1wjpg loooool

@44n1wjpg @AlexBanzea Bishops shot each other in a Tarantino style standoff

Satisfying checkmate with the Jobava London, move 17. Used kingside pawn push against the light squared bishop (learned from @AlexBanzea). The opening gets dangerous quickly.

@sassuolotuitter chessable.com/variation/2662…

@AlexBanzea Completely Off topic but : i have purchased caro kann course and i'm still studying advance and exchange variations, lemme make a question, is there something about how to face the alien gambit within next chapters?

Fun fact: the game is automatically drawn if you reach move 300 on lichess! R.I.P my extra queen

@Rok_Novak nice to see you at the office! (or outside the office perhaps?)

Tournament recap. Played some satisfyingly classy chess to obtain 8 winning positions & showed some very lackluster conversion to collect the bare minimum points. Performance overall: not great, not terrible. I'll call it a step in the right direction after poor showings in 2023.

@dev_daly I definitely covered that in the Caro-Kann rating climb!

@AlexBanzea i played an early f4 against a caro kann and absolutely crushed opponent with space...but im not sure if he just sucked. Is 2.f4 d5 3.e5 readily punishable? I havent seen it in the videos. Amazing content btw. just voted for your opening course on chessable

@5thApeReflects This is all possible, I never accused her of anything. It's just interesting how this plan that you mention took 30 seconds of thinking (on move 8) and then everything was flawless. Wish I could remember theory this well too during my own games, but I am just a washed Youtuber :(

@AlexBanzea It's harder to believe she's 1800. Having said that, it isn't difficult to believe that a candidate master looked into ONE plan for 8...Nb8 & looked at c5, Nd2 and f4. Are any of the moves after that are difficult to find? No. Easier to believe that her FIDE rating out of step.

never underestimate 1800 fide!

@stylebenderg ok bro, I listened

@AlexBanzea Quit complaining and drop a video bro it's long over due😂

@space_Amy Slay

@TampS44 they always ask me 'what is that queen doing on d3?!' well I guess here it shows :D

@ChessExplained @MeerMaurits He definitely saw b4 as the only pawn break available in the position. You gotta think backwards Chris!

@MeerMaurits How did he come up with Na2? A lost bet? It makes no sense at all?!

Yesterday I played another classical game at the chessclub. My final "training game" before I travel to Wijk aan Zee for Tata Steel Chess. #chesspunks Here my opponent just played the move Na2; what do we do?

@Rok_Novak that's literally one of the best games I ever played lol. 97% over 60 moves. I swear I am not hiding anything in unorthodox areas of my body...

White to move and win #chesspunks. @AlexBanzea got it right.😛

What about adding a filter for 'titled players only' when creating a game? @chesscom It would a nice way to avoid shady accounts while playing casual games :D

@Rok_Novak please make this happen lol!

@AlexBanzea Might be an interesting experiment to have a "verified" play zone, yeah. But then no sense in making it rating specific. You simply make an additional play zone and to be eligible to play in it, one has to verify their identity. Cheaters barred from making a new account.

Easy solution for cheating in online chess: -just make anyone who crosses 2500 blitz submit documents and stop allowing multi accounts After completing many speedruns, 2500-2800 feels to be the dirtiest elo... What am I missing?

@Rok_Novak I was mainly targeting the obvious cheaters in the casual games...it got to the point where 50% of the games are just meaningless (I think Caruana is right). Good cheaters are tough to catch in any sport, but should be 'ok' with some webcams for them...

@AlexBanzea Your proposed measure is sort of like what titled only events already achieve. And yet there is suspicion of cheating there... so, really, it doesn't address the main issue. Would just purge some "spam" from the server, but at a cost.