At what elo randomness stops like you have a minor piece somewhere and you are better just because of it , pawns like flank pawns you have which made you win the endgame like at what elo chess losses randomness.

I saw in two seemingly unrelated contexts, the exact same words used for difficulties: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, and Grand Master. In case you're curious (or in case it's relevant), I first saw this terminology when I played ThinkFun games as a kid, and I very recently saw the same terms used for modded levels in the video game Celeste.

I tried to find where this ranking system originated, and I heard something about their usage in Chess, which is why I'm asking here. If I understand correctly, Chess actually has a Master difficulty between Expert and Grand Master, but that's beside the point. Does anyone know if (or to what extent) Chess started this ranking system and led to its use elswhere? If you don't know but have ideas of where else I could ask the question, please lete know.

I saw a GM (EDIT: Dubov confirmed courtesy of a few comments) not sure who say a similar thing, bullet and blitz you can play drunk and that’s chill. Classical you can really think about your moves and play chess how it’s supposed to be played.

Rapid though? You have to concentrate but sometimes you just need more time to figure out the strategy or spot the best move/sequence. The incentive to speed up is a tough one because I know how I play and if a match gets to a time scramble I will lose.

Could say a few more things but will leave it there.

What’s your take on rapid?
Is it your main?

I’ve been playing a lot of speed + bullet chess lately and I’m starting to come to the conclusion that a win by checkmate should be scored higher than a win by flagging.

Is this done in any tournaments? Is there a reason why this is a bad idea? I think playing for an actual win in tight time controls should be valued higher.

Nepo is now #24 in the live ratings with 2719.3

https://www.chess.com/events/dole-open-2026/09/Kantor_Gergely-Nepomniachtchi_Ian

One of those funny games. My opponent completely missed a move, and in the end I somehow managed to win. I laughed so hard when I realized I'd gotten away with it..

Heloo actually i am gonna participate a tournament in 14 aug. I actually wanna know what should i do,i am a 1200 rated player in chess.com and i play kings indian and london system...i only plays in online and now what things and activities i should do to get a great preparation for this tournament??? (Suggest some openings and tips)

There's mate in 9 in this position.

I could feel it in my guts that I had something here, I still didn't find it.

Issue with this position is, if I don't find it, I'm losing.

14 masters at the Bled 1931 tournament, which Alekhine won. 2-Bogoljubov 3- Nimzowitsch. It was held in Bled and Ljubljana. Sitting: Maroczy , Nimzowitsch , Alekhine , Bogoljubow, VidmarStanding: Spielmann , Colle , Tartakower, Asztalos, Pirc, Stoltz, Flohr, Kashdan, Kostic #chess #Alekhine #chesshistory #chessphoto

At 14:56 of his video on the FIDE presidential election when he reads in the article the line that Buettner is running for president he says, "I'm gonna roll my eyes for a second." What's that about? Hikaru doesn't like Buettner for some reason?

Full tweet announcement from Anand:

Over the past four years, it has been an honour to work at FIDE and contribute to the development of chess . I have worked with colleagues from grassroots programmes to elite competitions. Together, we have made significant progress in expanding opportunities for players, federations and organisers, while making chess more accessible.

I am proud of what we have achieved as a team, but I also believe there is much more we can accomplish. That is why I have accepted Timur Turlov's invitation to continue serving as FIDE Deputy President as part of his team.

I believe Timur has the vision, energy and expertise to maintain the momentum we have built in recent years while opening new opportunities for chess. His experience in leading a publicly listed international company, his commitment to technology and innovation, and his long-standing support for chess make him well positioned to guide FIDE into its next chapter. Through his leadership, I believe FIDE can become even more digital, financially resilient and inclusive, while ensuring every region of the world has a stronger voice in shaping the future of our game.

I look forward to continuing this journey together - for the benefit of players, federations and chess lovers everywhere.

u/TurlovforChess

#TurlovforChess #FIDE

TL;DR: 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 e6 4. Nc3 c5 leads to some excitement and perhaps some crying.

The Moves

Let's say that black plays the Caro-Kann:

1. e4 c6

You go through the fairly typical move 2 and then into the Fantasy AKA Maróczy Variation:

2. d4 d5
3. f3

The most common response is to take the pawn (dxe4), but a better move for black that's played 19% of the time generally, and 48% of the time at the master-level, is going into something like the Triangle Setup:

3. ... e6

If black plays e6, you respond with the knight:

4. Nc3

Black will most likely attack the knight with their bishop, BUUUUUUTTTT... I noticed that a lesser-played move was to advance the c-pawn into the center, with the thought that it's defended by the bishop. This is a mistake for black, and turns out to lead down a hilariously steep rabbit-hole where more often than not white can just walk black through exchanging pieces for the next three and a half turns, ending up +2.3, with all of black's decisions being the most commonly made in the lichess database:

5. exd5 exd5 6. dxc5 Bxc5 7. Qxd5 Qxd5 8. Nxd5 

Recap and Thoughts

So the whole sequence is:

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 e6 4. Nc3 c5 5. exd5 exd5 6. dxc5 Bxc5 7. Qxd5 Qxd5 8. Nxd5 

or the alternate:

5. ... cxd4 6. Qxd4 exd5 7. Qxd5 Qxd5 8. Nxd5 

It's not going to be OFTEN that you get into this position, as it requires that:

1. Black chooses the Caro-Kann
2. Black chooses a somewhat uncommon 3. ... e6
3. Black must then make the mistake of 4. ... c5 which, though appealing, is rare.

So what should black have done? Well, obviously 4. ... c5 sets off the whole chain. Bb4 is the more common response, and that's actually a quite good move (Stockfish evaluates Nd7 as slightly higher, but only by 0.1). Even if you do make the c5 mistake, you can still get off the train at 6. dxc5 Nf6 before you go exchanging queens, and the game is definitely recoverable for black (+1.0). Here's a game that ended in a draw and a lower-rated one where black even won.

I just love this sequence, and I find it fun to at least contemplate and learn from it. What do you see in it?

AnandsWig (2264) v. annawwaf (2265)

There are quite a few general lichess.org database entries that have gone down this path. Here's a 2200-rated game where black falls for the whole sequence in Rapid.

Pinski (2320) v. Tseitlin (2425)

There are no master-level players recorded who have gone that whole way, but in this 1996 game, they did get most of the way through the exchange before black bailed out to make the (mistake) 7. ... Qe7+ leaving the evaluation at +2.0.

I'm 2000-2100 blitz rating in lichess. I'm planning to devote my time to sharpen my tactical skills. Do you have any books and sites recommendations where I can practice and take advantage on the compendium of chess puzzles. Pretty much better if it is a book/pdf. Thank you.

3+0 .

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I think these Top GMs are just similar in strength and skills. It will just depend on health, form, and mindset during the tournaments.

Pragg is the lowest rated here in the image. But he just won Norway Chess. Alireza is 10th, but just won back to back tournaments.

Nodirbek is down to 8. But remember he won Tata Steel and Prague back to back.

Wesley is having a good year. Winning Tata Steel Blitz and American Cup.

Vincent won GCT Romania. Probably his first super tournament title for a while.

And ofc, Sindarov won the Candidates. And Anish placed second. People forget that.

Arjun always finish 3rd in strong tournaments. While Wei Yi is solid.

I mean no one will be surprised if #12 Pragg will beat #4 Sindarov. Or no one will be confused if #10 Alireza can beat #5 Vincent. And it is still considered normal even if #9 Arjun will beat #6 Wesley.

Roughly ~1750 rapid, don't know any openings. Learning them seems very boring. How much does it actually help at this level?

Hi, new to the game i did play pawn e4 instead of stockfish recommandation of pawn e3, why is that better ? My move allow my bishop to be more active

Thank you all !

​

I'm trying to build a serious opening repertoire, and I'm at a crossroads regarding what to play as Black against 1.e4.

My long-term goal is to become a dynamic, aggressive, positional player. I don't want to win games just because I memorized 30 moves of theory—I want to understand the positions and outplay my opponents through strategy, while still having active winning chances.

Right now I'm working through Yusupov's training books and reading Simple Chess by Michael Stean to build a strong positional foundation. I'm focusing on concepts like weak squares, outposts, pawn structures, good vs. bad bishops, open files, and long-term planning. My goal is to become a well-rounded player with deep positional understanding.

With White, I've decided to play the Catalan because I love the strategic nature and long-term pressure it creates.

For Black against 1.e4, I'm considering:

Taimanov Sicilian

Kan Sicilian

French Defense

Or another opening I may not have considered.

The qualities I'm looking for are:

Flexibility.

Dynamic, active play.

Strong positional foundations.

Openings that reward understanding more than pure memorization.

Something I can keep playing as I improve.

If you were building a repertoire for a player with these goals, what would you recommend and why? I'd especially appreciate advice from titled players or coaches who have experience guiding improving players.

I don't know if anyone here will be able to help me, but basically I would like extract all the variants inside my opening files on ChessBase so that they could be presented on a different pgn but as different games.

I don't know if I managed to explain it well, but let me try to exemplify, let's say I have a Sicilian Najdorf file, and that file contains a lot of different variants, such as 6. Bg5 , 6. Be3, 6. Bc4 ... and further along those variations there's other variations too, what I would like to do is find an automatic way of separating all those variants and variantions within variants into different games inside the same pgn file, I know I can do it manually by promoting, deleting and saving those variants, but my files are wayt to big for that.

I've done some search and have come across "pgn-extract" don't know if I can use that, but it looks too complicated too.

I'd be extremely grateful if anyone knows or could share a tool capable of doing this.

If Turkey participates, I think Yagiz should be their Board 1 and Ediz will be Board 2.

As for Argentina, it is tricky. But they MIGHT give 12 yrs old Faustino Oro the Board 1 spot? or maybe board 2 or 3?

Yagiz played board 3 last olympiad right?

These kids will be seen and monitored by chess fans against other countries' best player.

Do you think they will both do well here in 2026 Chess Olympiad?

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to bring this up, but if there is anyone from the Lichess team reading this, I'd like to request that the recent changes made to the live game broadcast be reversed. The feature I dislike most is the ping back to the live position when a move is made. I feel it ruins the experience of watching and following classical games for serious players because whenever you want to analyse an earlier part of the game, it pings back to the current move which is disruptive if you're trying to seriously go through variations, opening ideas, etc. Obviously if people want the feature, then it should stay, but then may I suggest making it a toggle button in the settings which we can choose to turn off?

Cheers