John Bartholomew

In this continuation of the "Climbing the Rating Ladder" series I take on players of various ratings levels while pointing out typical mistakes and spots for improvement along the way (possibly my own!? :)). Here I commentate a 10+0 game against a player rated 2350 on Chess.com. For the past 8+ months I've been working on a course on the 3...Qa5 Scandinavian that I'll be … [Read more...] about Stalking Double Isolated Pawns in the 3…Qa5 Scandinavian | Climbing the Rating Ladder vs. 2350

In this continuation of the "Climbing the Rating Ladder" series I take on players of various ratings levels while pointing out typical mistakes and spots for improvement along the way (possibly my own!? :)). Here I commentate a 10+0 game against a player rated 1927 on Chess.com. For the past 8+ months I've been working on a course on the 3...Qa5 Scandinavian that I'll be … [Read more...] about Don’t Fear a Discovered Attack in the 3…Qa5 Scandinavian! | Climbing the Rating Ladder vs. 1927

Hey guys, hope your holidays have been going better than mine! This is a Scandinavian game I played on my Twitch stream on Dec. 26, 2023. It features a main line of the 3...Qa5 variation that I'll be discussing in my course, 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bf5 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bd2 Bb4. My opponent tries a savvy move order with 10.Qe2 and an e-file pin facilitating11.d5, but Black can … [Read more...] about Happy Holidays – here’s an instructive Scandi game!

In this continuation of the "Climbing the Rating Ladder" series I take on players of various ratings levels while pointing out typical mistakes and spots for improvement along the way (possibly my own!? :)). Here I commentate a 10+0 game against a player rated 1781 on Chess.com. The Reversed Stonewall - also known as the Stonewall Attack - is a sturdy system with a cadre of … [Read more...] about Breaching the Reversed Stonewall with …Nh6!? | Climbing the Rating Ladder vs. 1781

In this continuation of the "Climbing the Rating Ladder" series I take on players of various ratings levels while pointing out typical mistakes and spots for improvement along the way (possibly my own!? :)). Here I commentate a 10+0 game against a player rated 2210 on Chess.com. The Exchange Slav (1.d5 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5) is a line I've championed for several years on my … [Read more...] about Using the Exchange Slav as a Weapon | Climbing the Rating Ladder vs. 2210