Alex Colovic

THE METHOD is live. A practical guide to chess improvement built from how I actually trained: • Studying games for intuition • Puzzles for calculation • Online play for discipline (without numb clicking) Includes the PDF + a downloadable PGN database covering the last 3 World Championship matches (commented by me). Get it here: alexcolovic.com/TheMethod

@NagyDavidErvin Already sounds like progress from the last tweet!

@GMAlexColovic Well, that's an other option. It depends on the position a lot. I generally hate IQP positions with White, but in some lines I'm happy to have one.

"Who is afraid of the isolated pawn, shouldn't play chess." Siegbert Tarrasch and Magnus Carlsen

@NagyDavidErvin Or become fearless!

@GMAlexColovic I guess I'll have to stop playing chess then 😅

The Method was not created as a theory. It came from three crises in my career: being stuck and having to rise my level, avoiding the real work because it was too hard and suffering from online addiction. It was written from problems I had to solve. #TheMethod

In my @chessable course 1.d4 Simplified I always tried to develop the light-squared bishop on the more active d3-square. Gukesh chose to go to e2, which is also fine. The point was not to get an advantage, but to get a playable and fairly non-theoretical position. Mission accomplished!

Gukesh uses my proposed 3.Bf4 from my @chessable course 1.d4 Simplified to avoid Nimzo, Bogo and QID against former second Keymer. Curious to see how deeply they follow my lines.

@jaltucher Thank you James!

@GMAlexColovic loving your Fischer endgame book. eye opening

The board exposes your weaknesses. If you trained passively, you will hesitate. If you trained by guessing, you will guess. But ii you trained by calculating, comparing and deciding, that also shows. The Method is built to make the right habits visible in your games. #TheMethod

The small poll about Carlsen winning Norway Chess showed 77% of people voting for it. But here comes a trickier poll. Who will in the match between Niemann and Nepomniachtchi?

@Belco3791 @EndgameaiChess By that logic, if we take away the loss by default, it was 5-2 after game 11 in Reykjavik. So still a moot point by Karpov. And if we take away the default win, Reykjavik in total was 7-2.

@GMAlexColovic @EndgameaiChess I think that his reasoning is that if their match was as long as theirs,that he wouldve won more. It was only 1st to 4 wins,so he wouldve had to beat him 4-0 just to be tied. 4-1 is 400% 7-3 is 233% 400>233

🇷🇺 Anatoly Karpov in an interview with TASS Sports on becoming World Champion after 🇺🇸 Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title in 1975: “Robert Fischer became World Champion by defeating Boris Spassky, and two years later I defeated Spassky by an even bigger score. I defeated all the strongest chess players except Fischer. He didn’t show up for the match, what could I do? I remember he had until April 1 to announce his acceptance, and I gave him two extra days. And while I was waiting, I decided that I should continue preparing as if the match were going to happen. And the news reached me when I was in Novogorsk playing tennis. Suddenly, journalists rushed in: ‘You are World Champion!’ And I was standing there with a racket in my hand.”

I just discovered the only thing I have in common with Hikaru. We both stopped being professional chess players in 2019.

Many players want confidence at the board, but confidence cannot be downloaded. It grows from repeated iterations where you check a move, compare it honestly to the alternatives and learn why it fits or fails. The Method is built around those iterations. #TheMethod

A simple question: Will Carlsen win Norway Chess?

@PeterDee67 That would be a logical assumption, but they would not. Chess is a tricky profession. They had invested all their lives to make it to 200 best in the world and only to accept a "normal" 9 to 5 doesn't quite look right, in spite of making financial sense.

@GMAlexColovic I would assume the 200th ranked chessplayer would have a 9 to 5 job. Not an easy life if they are a professional player.

Luckily nobody mentioned the chess players in this context yet.

It's always good to keep in mind Rafael Nadal's words of wisdom: “if, if, if… doesn’t exist”.

@GrandChessTour @VincentKeymer04 @chess24com @ChessbaseIndia @Kasparov63 @STLChessClub Always cheering for Vincent, such a great guy!

Vincent Keymer: "There are many people to thank. First of all organizers of GCT and also this event has been done amazingly, playing conditions and everything! And then, of course, Peter Leko, he's been here. He's always there with full energy and everything. I guess quite a few sleepless nights or at least nights of very little sleep. So, yeah, big shout out to him! Of course, he always has a big part in my performance and the level that I'm able to show. Then, of course, also thanks to my father who's been here. You know, he's been with me at tournaments for a long time and it's always great having that support here. And, of course, also to all the fans who've been cheering me on here!" #grandchesstour

As I posted earlier about the domination of players whose surnames start with the sound /k/, congrats to Vincent Keymer on his win in the Bucharest Chess Classic! He is the only one of the new generation of elite players who has the scary surname starting sound of his great predecessors!

The dangerous part of vague study is that it feels harmless. You understand a little, remember a little, enjoy a little and get little as nothing seriously changes. Improvement requires a sharper standard than that. The Method is meant to provide it. #TheMethod