How Frank Can Win PogChamps
Frank is a hilarious Chess YouTuber and streamer who was once 100 elo but has now worked and battled his way up to a rating of 850. Recently, it was announced that this cheeky player will be participating in PogChamps 5, which is a tournament for content creators that features $100,000 in prize money.
So, how will Frank stand a chance at winning this competition? Well, below are a number of tips for ways he can improve his game and chances of obliterating his opponents!
1) Expand Opening Repertoire
Anyone who consistently watches Frank knows that when possible, he will almost always go for the Fried Liver. This isn't bad... Normally. In PogChamps however, this will be a liability for a number of reasons.
The first is that it is easy to study the Fried Liver and study against it, because the attack is really just a two trick pony. More importantly, however, Frank's opponents may be able to prepare countergambits or retaliatory attacks - such as the deadly Traxler - to trick him and get a winning position or victory early on.
With all this out of the way, it's most advisable for Frank to research more openings that he will be able to play, especially with the White pieces. Some examples of viable openings include the King's Gambit or the London System, which are both excellent openings that can lead to a number of interesting games.
2) Practice the Time Control
Frank mostly plays 10 minute games with no increment. However, PogChamps 5 will reportedly revolve around 10 + 5 minute games, with 3 + 5 games for tiebreakers. Typically, Frank plays 10 + 0 games, as well as a small amount of 3 + 0.
Needless to say, these time controls are wildly different, so Frank should play games with the same time settings as the ones present in PogChamps so that he'll be more prepared on how to handle the clock when it starts ticking.
The longer rapid games will likely be beneficial for him, because Frank often seems to struggle with spending too much time at unimportant moves, though I believe that he has been getting slightly better at that of late.
3) Work on Endgames
Frank clearly does not know a number of important endgames. While this is common among players who are mostly self taught, this can be a major issue in competitive Chess.
Just 2 days ago, Frank seemed to have no idea how to win a King and Queen VS. King endgame.
In this game, Frank - who had the black pieces - followed no known and functional method on how to checkmate here and instead just checked the opponent a lot until he was able to find a move that led to mate.
Another example of Frank struggling in an endgame is in the following match that Frank also had the black pieces in.
Here, Frank simplified to a drawn endgame where he had a better chance not doing so, and then blundered both of his pawns. The game was drawn only because the person on the other side of the board blundered and failed to convert on a clearly winning position.
A lot of people struggle with endgames, and I am not pointing this out to beat up Frank for not knowing everything about everything. My point is that, if Frank wants to succeed in PogChamps, this is something he needs to prioritize learning. For this purpose, I would recommend Chess.Com's Endgame Practice.
My belief is that, if Frank follows all of the principles outlined above, he will destroy all competition and dominate PogChamps 5. He is already better than a number of contestants, and I have no doubt that his chance of winning the tournament will increase significantly if he follows this advice.
