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. https://www.chessdojo.club/signuphttps://www.chessable.com/pro/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=benjohnson&utm_campaign=proAnd you can check out their new offerings here:https://www.chessable.com/courses/all/new/Mentioned: Alex’s Interview with Dylan Quercia- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIK2jjnpwcM&list=PLXZjuvMCiLW0Ae7nNr5dvJk80neTe4Jvz&index=1&t=1975s&pp=iAQBAlso mentioned: GM Arjun Kalyan, Elizabeth Spiegel, Brooklyn Castle Mentioned: NM Matan Prilleltensky Mentioned: GM Andy Woodward Mentioned: Keith Espinosa More info at: https://nycchessnorms.com/Mentioned: EP 421 with FM Donny Ariel and GM Jan GustasaffsonDonny Ariel: The Road to Chess Grandmaster:https://www.youtube.com/@DonnyArielChessMentioned: GM Darwin Yang, GM Daniel NaroditskyThanks to Alex for joining me, you can reach him via his website. https://www.alexchess.com/If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess via Patreon,(and unlock benefits like ad-free listening and joining Zoom hangouts), you can do so here:https://www.patreon.com/c/perpetualchess Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices