I got my chess games dissected by GM Sune Berg Hansen!
I submitted some of my recent games to GM Sune Berg Hansen, who has an up-and-coming chess YouTube channel (GM Talks) that you should check out and subscribe to. Sune is a 7-time Danish champion and has a peak rating of 2603, so I better listen to what he has to say about my chess.
My goal is to reach 2000 FIDE, and judging by Sunes video he was maybe a bit underwhelmed by my games. Even though I gained 40 elo points over the last tournament the play was maybe not that impressive?
My key takeaways from the video:
I need to learn new opening ideas and I swill have to park the London System in the background as my main opening with White and play more flexible openings.
I need to work on maintaining the advantage and improve my endgame play. Maybe strategy in general or as Sune wrote in a comment to the video “And the good thing is that some of it relatively easy - learn new openings and plans to expand your strategical understanding”.
I have a Stonewall-fetich..!?
My tactical vision seems to be okay.
If you watch the video please remember to give Sune a follow on YouTube. And also leave a comment if you have any observations about my OTB games.
I’m still thinking about how to best expand my strategic understanding, Maybe Hellsten?
A great new app has arrived. You can now read my newsletter in the new Substack app for iPhone.
With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for my Substack and any others you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never cut-off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.
The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here (hopefully it will be out soon).
If you want to add more great chess content to the app I can recommend Zwischenzug by Nate Solon. Nate writes about chess, data, and gives some interesting new perspectives on chess. Recently he wrote a really interesting piece about chess vs. puzzles.
While you are at it checkout Chessfeels by JJ Lang. JJ’s newsletter is centered around his work as a chess coach and the lessons and questions that arise during sessions. JJ has also just launched a new chess podcast together with Julia Rios about chess improvement and psychology.
Road to 2000 #3
I have entered a 5-round weekend tournament! It will be my first OTB chess in 2022 for me. The tournament will be played during the Easter in Svendborg (Denmark), so now I have something to practice towards.
The next game in ‘My Chess Career’ will be included in next week’s newsletter. Finally, I will soon start work on the next book in ‘The Tactics Ladder’ series.
First I had planned it to be the 1600 FIDE level, but I have made a Twitter poll to get an idea about what people think.
/Martin