The Content Struggle
Maia, Charlotte, Sitges
It’s been three tournaments since my last post, and I’m about to play two more, so it’s probably time for another update. Honestly it’s been hard to get back to it. I wanted to write a recap of the Maia Open in August, but whenever I considered writing, I would hesitate because I felt the time could also be spent working on chess.
And then the news broke that Daniel Naroditsky was found dead. And since then I haven’t felt like writing much at all. It’s still really tough to think about. Danya was one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met. Just an 11/10 person. So smart, so quick, so fucking funny, so articulate, and so so good at chess and everything to do with it. Every nice thing that people have said about him over the past two months is 100% true. And I’m still very much processing it. It’s just such a huge loss for the chess world. The more I think about it the more upset I get. And I used to believe in bright sides. I guess this was the first tragedy that really hit me.
I was fortunate enough to meet Danya a handful of times, even once visiting him at his Charlotte home. He was always quite warm to me—though I think we knew each other more through our work than anything else. I first heard of him as an incredibly gifted junior from Northern California. I grew up in So Cal, but for a time we shared a coach, Armen, who during our lessons would occasionally rave about Danya’s talent, while sharing some of his games with me. I and others always expected him to cross 2700, but perhaps going to Stanford and becoming one of the absolute top chess creators isn’t such a bad thing either.
I faced Danya in a classical game many years ago, in fact we played in the Spice Cup in St. Louis on October 21, 2014, almost 11 years to the day he passed. We also played a couple Chess960 games in this fun event in Utah a few years back. And I had a couple casual blitz games with him, both OTB and online. I don’t think I ever made a draw in any form of chess. I can’t remember even being close, other than this one blitz game we had during my recent speed chess crusade in September of this year, after which he—true to his character—came into chat and complimented me on my play, along with an apology that he couldn’t play more. Of course this is just one of many many stories exemplifying his class.
I think Danya’s legacy will last for a very long time in the chess world.
So yeah, I can’t say my motivation the last two months has been stellar. I’ve been spending time on chess, but not as much I would have liked to during my 2-month break from tournaments. Last month I played the U.S. Masters in Charlotte over Thanksgiving weekend. My performance was…bad, but I still enjoyed playing and even had a decent game or two. At first I wanted to compete simply because the tournament was just so strong, but then it became more about getting a chance to visit Charlotte.
From there I had a very short break before traveling to Barcelona/Sitges in early December for the 12th Sunway Sitges Chess Festival, a tournament I first played two years ago to escape winter in St. Louis. It would be the start of yet another Eurotrip that I’m currently in the middle of. In fact I’m writing this from Stockholm 🇸🇪, where they celebrate Christmas on the 24th (!) of December.
The trip has been very enjoyable so far. To be honest I feel a bit guilty whenever I catch myself having fun. But at the same time it also doesn’t make sense to wallow and hide. And being around chess players has never felt better as of late. Perhaps due to all of the catharsis. In any case I’m still on my journey. I haven’t given up. If anything I’ve never felt more connected with the game. Like truly feeling that the chess world is where I belong. So the hunt continues. Let’s recap some tournaments.
Maia Open (Aug 22-30)
After winning the 2025 Vigevano Open in early June, I earned an invitation to play Maia, a strong open held outside of Porto, Portugal. I had a great time last year and of course was eager to return. But after a rough start I was sitting with 2/4, having lost twice as Black while playing down, including a massive blunder where I sacrificed my queen for a rook and two pieces but only ended up with rook and knight.
I was pretty down, and relied on friends to pick me back up. I became keen on the idea of a comeback, and focused my efforts on playing solid chess for the rest of the event. I then scored 4.5/5, winning the last three to end with 6.5/9. That was good enough to tie for fifth place (13th on tiebreaks) and salvage my rating.
I was very happy to bounce back, and was satisfied with the quality of (most) of the games. I also ended my year-long drought of beating a GM, defeating the senior GM Daniel Campora from Argentina in the final round:
You can find recaps of each game on my personal YouTube channel:
U.S. Masters (Nov 26-30)
I’ve played the U.S. Masters in Charlotte many times, I even remember the Greensboro days! It’s one of the best and strongest events every year, and this one was no exception. In fact it was the only classical tournament I played on U.S. soil all year.
I knew it would be tough, but I didn’t expect it would be “lose in the 1st round” tough. I then drew in Round 2, again facing one of those pesky juniors, to start the event with an abysmal 0.5/2. From there it was a game of catch-up. Once again I had to dig deep down to try and recover. I then won my next three games (with reasonable quality) to earn a chance to play up in Round 6. That game went…poorly, but I managed to do something I never did before—resign in a drawn position:
After this (trauma) I ended up losing in Round 7 as well, effectively ruining the tournament. I picked back up the pieces of my shattered chess ego and won in round 8, before finishing with a fairly quick draw in the final round.
Sunway Sitges
After Charlotte I had a short break to recoup some energy before flying out to Barcelona for the annual Sunway Sitges Chess Festival. It was an amazing event, filled with chess activities and lots of content creation. It’s still a bit too early to reflect on the tournament, so I will save it for the next update after the upcoming Rilton Cup (starting today!) and Sevilla Open in January.
This trip has been a blast so far, although every day it does feel like I have to balance the work of a serious chess player and that of a creator. For instance I’m writing this now instead of preparing for possible opponents.
And that’s what’s been my general struggle these days, choosing between chess & content. People always say “make content about the chess”, but that’s a lot easier said than done. The stuff I need to do to train is not very entertaining. I’m either sitting motionless calculating at a board, or quietly playing through games and variations. Or sometimes working on openings, which would be a bit foolish to share openly. But I think the issue goes a lot deeper than that. The key question is whether I consider myself a player or a creator first. It’s a question I don’t like thinking about. When I wake up in the morning, sometimes my mind goes to chess, and sometimes it goes to content. But deep down I don’t really believe I can make it unless I go all-in on the chess.
Of course, I’m grateful for the spot I’m in. I have a lot of things to be happy about and look forward to. In fact that’s maybe part of the issue. I remember speaking to a chess player from Ukraine who’s around my age, who became a GM as a teenager. And what he said was that there was nothing else to do where he grew up, only chess, and that had he grown up in Los Angeles, for example, there was no way he’d be a professional chess player now. Too many other opportunities. That talk was years ago but I still often think about it. I’m pretty sure I was an FM at the time.
So I have two tournaments left in this trip — Rilton Cup and Sevilla Open. As usual my goals have been pretty consistent lately: I just want to play some good games. Games worth showing others. Wish me luck!
-Kostya
Hi Kostya, really resonated with your struggle choosing between chess and content, also as an IM in my 30s creating content. Just watched some of your ChessBase interview where you talked about it in more detail.
I feel like the playing level has increased now compared to pre-2020, and you see many GMs sub-2500 and many IMs sub-2400. Our egos have to adapt in this climate, and you just have to be relentless in your training and knowing what you need to work on.
It's incredibly tough aiming for GM (and in your case, very publicly) but I for one am inspired by you doing so while creating content, and wish you the very best with it.
Kostya, you have been such an inspiration to me in the dojo! Thank you for all the content you have created. Focus on yourself GM journey and these upcoming tournaments. Best of luck! All my support, Brian (skierbrian2)