Kostya Kavutskiy

Hey folks, in this video I provide my recommendations for what 1.e4 players should do against all of the major openings. These are clips taken from a longer stream I did with GM Jesse Kraai, GM Eugene Perelshteyn, & IM David Pruess. Check out the full discussion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE7iY-ilRXM 0:00 - Intro 0:16 - 1.e4 e5 2:41 - Why is the 6.Bg5 Najdorf … [Read more...] about Kostya’s 1.e4 Recommendations for White

So I recently participated in a panel discussion stream all about openings, ranking my top 5 choices for Black against 1.e4/1.d4, for both professional and club players. Enjoy! (0:00) - Intro/opening philosophy (1:30) - Openings for Professional Players against 1.e4 (3:43) - Openings for Club Players against 1.e4 (9:21) - Openings for Professional Players against 1.d4 (11:17) … [Read more...] about What Openings Should You Play As Black?

Hey folks, this is a clip taken from a class I did on-stream for the U.S. Chess School a couple weeks back, where I went over an instructive loss and what I learned from it. In this clip, I show an important win that helped me earn my final IM norm. If you want to check out the whole video, catch it here: … [Read more...] about A Key Win That Helped Me Reach IM

Diagnose Your Chess is a brand new show where IM Kostya Kavutskiy will work with a different student every week, assessing their strengths and weaknesses while breaking down their recent games. At the end of the lesson Kostya and his student will form a training plan, with the goal of checking back in after a few months. Episode 3 features Andrew Post a dedicated online player … [Read more...] about Diagnosing A 1500 | Diagnose Your Chess: Ep. 3 – Andrew Post (1500)

Diagnose Your Chess is a brand new show where IM Kostya Kavutskiy will work with a different student every week, assessing their strengths and weaknesses while breaking down their recent games. At the end of the lesson Kostya and his student will form a training plan, with the goal of checking back in after a few months. Episode 2 features Scott Harkema, a 28-year-old chess … [Read more...] about Diagnosing A 1670 | Diagnose Your Chess: Ep. 2 – Scott Harkema (1670)