Play the Vienna Game like Hikaru (Blitz Repertoire Series - Hikaru Edition)

Introducing the Blitz Repertoire Series

This is the first installment of my Blitz Repertoire Series where we will be covering the blitz repertoires of notable masters who frequently crush their competition in online blitz and bullet. One of my goals is to deliver a full blitz repertoire for the masters we choose to cover. Where better to start than with Hikaru, the most famous online blitz player on the planet?

The Study - Play the Vienna Game like Hikaru

Cheers to GM Gordima for his excellent blog post on Hikaru's Blitz Repertoire. For those of us inspired by GM Gordima's fun analysis, how do we go about actually learning Hikaru's blitz repertoire and in particular his Vienna Game?

The below study is my first installment of a "Play like..." Interactive Lesson series which can be best enjoyed with the LiChess Tools browser extension installed. The idea of the below study is to learn Hikaru's repertoire in the Vienna Game with a spaced-repetition philosophy.

The study includes many of the 1600+ blitz games that Hikaru has played in the Vienna Game up to move 20, which were downloaded, merged, and then I separated out the lines. In each chapter, I present a Hikaru main line up to a certain point (typically when there's ten or so games left in a particular line so we can learn his middlegame plans from actual blitz games). After that, you are playing through his games in that line up to move 20.

Here is the study:

LichessTools

To get the most out of this study you should add the incredible LichessTools browser extension. LichessTools allows you to play through all the lines in an interactive lesson (rather than just the single main line). So if you decline to add LiChess Tools then you are only playing 10% of the study. Hats off to TotalNoob69 for developing this amazing tool and for starting the "Play like..." series. Available here:

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/langlhlcknngldkeliapahbhbcmlcbcj

Cheers,

Dsoul20