IM Alex Ostrovskiy is a former Scholastic National Champion, New York State Champion, and accomplished coach who has earned one GM norm, and reached a peak USCF rating of 2560. In addition to his coaching work, Alex is a regular commentator on GM Hikaru Nakamura's Twitch channel, and a tournament organizer who runs frequent invitational tournaments in New York City (where he has lived since the age of 5.) Alex and I discussed the following:
Alex’s three main tenets of chess improvement- tactics, opening prep, and playing consistently
Lessons from a couple recent tournaments, and why Alex has scaled back his GM-title ambitions
The origins of Alex’s longtime friendship with Gotham Chess, and whether he is surprised by Levy's success.
This was a fun conversation with a lot of good advice. Timestamps of topics discussed are below.
00:00- ChessDojo special offer! If you try out Chessdojo 4.0 you can get a 40% discount by using the code “Ben40” at checkout.
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02:00- Alex joins the show!
Mentioned: Alex’s Interview with Dylan Quercia-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIK2jjnpwcM&list=PLXZjuvMCiLW0Ae7nNr5dvJk80neTe4Jvz&index=1&t=1975s&pp=iAQB
Also mentioned: GM Arjun Kalyan, Elizabeth Spiegel, Brooklyn Castle
0:08- Alex’s students are known for deep opening prep- what is his approach as a coach?
Mentioned: NM Matan Prilleltensky
13:00- How important are openings below the 2000 level?
16:00- Alex’s report on two recent tournaments in Spain.
Mentioned: GM Andy Woodward
21:00- How do the logistics work of going to youth championships to coach students?
22:00- What is the origin of the Norm invitational tournaments that Alex helps run in NYC?
Mentioned: Keith Espinosa
More info at: https://nycchessnorms.com/
24:00- Will Alex be able to convince the famous Chess YouTuber FM Donny Ariel to play in a norm invitational?
Mentioned: EP 421 with FM Donny Ariel and GM Jan Gustasaffson
Donny Ariel: The Road to Chess Grandmaster:
https://www.youtube.com/@DonnyArielChess
30:00- Alex is longtime friends with IM Levy Rozman- what is his first memory of him?
36:00- What was it like to do training sessions with Kasparov as a kid?
37:00- Who were Alex’s main rivals as one of the top US players for his age?
Mentioned: GM Darwin Yang, GM Daniel Naroditsky
40:30 -Did Alex study chess a lot as a kid or primarily learn by playing?
45:00- Has Alex worked with adult students?
48:00- Alex’s training advice
54:00- How did Alex get started commentating on Hikaru’s channel?
56:00- Alex’s closing advice
Thanks to Alex for joining me, you can reach him via his website.
https://www.alexchess.com/
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