What Our Masters Teach Us About Chess

Good morning chess players. The FIDE Candidates tournament began this weekend to decide who will face the open world champion and the women’s world champion. Sixteen of the best chess players alive are competing in a two week event to decide. You can check out yesterdays recap here. In addition, the annual Reykjavik Open in Iceland is also on it’s final day today, with Iranian GM Amin Tabatabaei on a perfect score of 7/7. So, what do the great chess players around the world have to do with our lil ol chess club in New York? Well, the likes of many great players have entered our doors, but it’s in our hometown heroes we can learn many lessons from.

Reminder! Tonight is the Bushwick Chess Women’s Championship at Nook. Players of all skill levels will compete in our annual tournament to decide the best Woman of 2026, with donations from club members to be added to the final prize pool. $20 entry, prizes for players of all levels.

Bushwick Chess is home to some of the most consistent and strongest players in the city, with FM Juan Pereya’s dominant performance continuing into 2026 as the top seed at our club with a current score of 37.5/40 across rapid and blitz. But I want to show off a specific game against fellow club master NM Danny Vulis, with a few small notes to help express what these stellar players can teach us even in a blitz game.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c6 4. Nf3… We start off in a QG: Semi-Slav, where black decides to play the London sort of, while white develops the best piece in the game twice. Wow!

4… dxc4 5. a4 Bb4 6. e3 b5 7. Bd2 Qe7 8. axb5 Bxc3 9. Bxc3 cxb5 10. d5 Nf6 11. d6 Qb7 12. b3

Now for most of us, playing seven move of theory followed by four best engine moves is already something none of us can comprehend. I for one find myself stumped no matter what my opponent plays. But alas we find ourselves in something chess dot com calls the Slav Defense: Modern, Triangle, Noteboom, Koomen Variation. Say that in one breath. This exact opening has been played by the likes of Etienne Bacrot and a bunch of other names I’ve never heard. White chooses to give up a pawn and allow a passed pawn for a slight lead in development and many questions asked.

NM Vulis took a new approach, aiming for Nd4 instead of the more common Ne4. This becomes a challenge later in the final moments of the game, but we have 17 move to go.

12… Nd5 13. Bxg7 Rg8 14. bxc4 bxc4 15. Bd4 Qb4+ 16. Qd2

The tension starts to break after white gave back the pawn. Each player made some slightly less accurate moves from the computer’s eye, notably 12… Nd5, 14. bxc4 and 15. Bd4. Now it’s easy to nod along when the computer gives us ideas but when you watch these two rockstars play it becomes apparent that even in blitz their tactical minds are sharp and calculating proficiently.

16… c3 17. Qc2 Nc6 18. Rb1 Qxd6 19. Bxc3 Bd7

Now, it was at Bd7 that things are starting to look suspicious. FM Pereyra has 1:11 minutes on the clock to NM Vulis’ 2:46, but the move leads to some intense trouble ahead. Let’s consider 20. Qxh7. The engine wants Kf8, ruining any change at castling queenside (just kidding, 20… O-O-O leads to Ba6+ Rb7 and that’s that). 20… Ke7 runs into a beautiful Bg7, closing out blacks chance at hiding on f8 later. All in all, if black doesn’t find a way to push white kingside, that castle is going to look pretty delicious soon.

20. Bd2 h6 21. g3 Rc8 22. Qb2 Ncb4 23. Be2 Nc2+ 24. Kf1

We’re closing in on the endgame here. White is having all the fun now. Kg2 is on the way, with the bishop pair, some light pressure on the queen hiding behind the knight and a very safe king. To be fair, it was three out of four great moves in a row for white. 22. Qb2 actually led to a potential trade of rooks with something along the lines of 22… Rb8! But by 24. Kf1 it’s become clear that white has some trumps cards in play.

24… Ke7 25. Kg2 Na3 26. Rbc1 Rb8 27. Qd4 f6 28. Rhd1 Bc6 29. e4 0-1

Now I’m a pretty intermediate player still, but the beauty of watching these two masters at work, even during a blitz game inspires me to become a better chess player, or at bare minimum ask a lot of really annoying questions until my opponent gives up thinking. Let’s take a brief look at the final move of the game. In this position, Black flagged. But things were looking intense. How did we get from a slightly worse position to a dead lost one in five moves? Well let’s look at the perks and downsides.

After a move like 29… Nb5 to kick the queen, white is looking to win the knight with 30. Qd3 Ndc3 31. Bxc3 Qxd3 32. Bxd3. White will emerge up a full knight, with black living the rest of their life with three pawn islands and no bishop pair.

Chess is hard. It’s even harder to analyze. I suggest you take this pgn file of the full game and spend some time today before the Women’s Championship at Bushwick Chess testing your understanding without the computer analysis. Think about what moves you’d make for each color in the positions above, or branch out and try to find some unique ideas of your own to bring to the board. Either way, don’t stop learning. See you over the board soon, chess player.

And that’s it for this week chess players! Join us tonight for more chess and be sure to check our socials HERE. Much love chess players, see you over the board soon. You can find your updated NYC Rating HERE.