GM Gil Popilski

I am Gil, I currently live in Austin, TX and I am a Software Engineer. You are welcome to visit my chess website to learn more about me: chess.gilp6i.com.

Don't let the following stop you from reaching out:
- ASD, social anxiety, or any other form of anxiety: I assure you that it will work out just fine
- Insanely busy, unpredictable work schedule: I completely understand and won't get frustrated over it.

I have been a chess player most of my life, as of writing this about 25 years, and a grandmaster since 2013.
My highest FIDE rating was 2572 and my best results are:
- Shared 2nd in Isle of Man 2014 (2750 perf)
- Shared 1st in US Open 2016 (but lost in the armageddon, unfortunately)
- Shared 1st in World Open 2016
- I made several draws against 2700+ players but unfortunately never got to beat one over the board.

I used to work part time in an afterschool for about three years so I am pretty comfortable working with children.
I have not coached too much so far. I helped one student get to candidate master after being a 1st category for a few years.

I am absolutely an intuitive player who likes calculation much less generally speaking. I especially enjoy attacking and counterattacking but like most of the aspects of the game.

I believe it is very important to learn from our mistakes. Students can do that by analyzing their games throughly. This is probably one of the things I found most helpful for my growth as a player. We associate games we played with much more than random positions we have seen before so understanding them better is meaningful.
I also typically like going over relevant topics in the middle game and endgames that are most likely to appear in students games, and I try to assign homework as well.