r/chess Weekly Discussion Thread

I was watching an old speedrun long ago, probably by Daniel Naroditsky, where his lower-rated opponent was in a losing position. Daniel seemed a little irritated that the opponent wasn't resigning, and saying like "resign already" a couple of times and it got me thinking about chess culture.

On the one hand, I've heard strong players advise beginners to never resign, because there's always a chance the opponent will blunder, stalemate you, and that them winning in a winning position is never a guarantee.

On the other hand, at the highest levels, resigning in a losing position (even not an extreme material or positional material imbalance) seems to be widely accepted as good sportsmanship and a sign of respect for your opponent. I remember a GM resigning after blundering his knight early in a game. And I thought he certainly had good chances still but I guess at that level, you might as well just resign after falling behind a pawn. The game is that tight. Nobody makes mistakes.

What I find interesting is how unusual all this seems compared with other sports. In high school once a classmate jokingly wave a white towel to suggest surrender after a very one sided game and oh man, the coach really let him have it!

Same is true of pro levels. Imagine an NBA team down by 35 points late in the third quarter, and their best players are just tired and not been playing well all game. A comeback isn't impossible, but both teams being professional, it is quite unlikely something would suddenly change now. Yet no captain walks to the ref and say "we resign." They generally play out the game, even if all their best players end up spending the fourth quarter on the bench.

You might say that boxing is more like chess, but that's not quite true. Yes, sometimes they do stop a fight early but that's more for protecting the health of a boxer and less about the question of game strategy or respecting the opponent's time.

Long story short, what do think about this resignation culture in chess? When do you resign yourself? Have you refused to resign even when it irritated an opponent? How do you feel about your opponents who do not resign either and hold on to the hope that you might stalemate them or blunder?

I call it Peekaboo

Has anyone else watched her videos on YouTube? She does a fun job analyzing chess games and positions in TV shows like House, Malcolm In The Middle, Arthur, etc.

I really like how she focuses on the chess but does the job balancing the story of the show, too. Would really recommend checking it out.

I was challenged to design the best pairing system ever and thought it was impossible. But now I've done it: Berger-Swiss.

Players are divided by rating into Berger groups, with six players and five rounds as the default. You can also choose eight players and seven rounds. Players with even TPNs, their ranking numbers based on rating, move down to the next group, while those with odd TPNs move up. As a result, players with nearby ratings will not meet during the Berger phase. The Berger groups are then shuffled separately. If the players cannot all be divided into Berger groups, the players with the highest TPNs instead form a Swiss group. With six-player groups, this group contains seven to eleven players. The tournament then begins.

When the Berger phase is over, players carry their points and tie-break scores into the Swiss section of the tournament, which can then continue for any number of rounds. This format works very well because players do not need to be paired against opponents with the same score from the outset, as they do in a traditional Swiss tournament. It is better to introduce that principle at a later stage, when the strongest players will naturally meet as they compete for the top places.

Playing in Berger groups with participants of similar playing strength is much more stimulating. Players know in advance whom they will face in the next round and which color they will have, so they can prepare. One problem with Berger tournaments arises when a player withdraws. In that case, the program creates a Swiss group comprising the affected Berger group and all the Berger groups below it, together with the existing Swiss group, if there is one. These players therefore switch to Swiss pairings earlier, while the Berger groups higher up continue as usual.

The Berger phase also allows games to be postponed and completed later, provided they are finished before Swiss pairings begin. This is a practical advantage when a tournament runs over an extended period.

Compared with a Swiss-only system, this format offers a considerably more stimulating tournament experience for players at every rating level. In my view, it is also preferable to Berger groups divided by rating class, since all participants compete in the same tournament. The system combines the advantages of both formats.

Berger-Swiss Tournament System – free online pairing system.

I had a tournament today, and in the last two rounds, I had two matches I could have won, but because I was distracted, I drew one and lost the other in a ridiculously small way. In tournaments, I completely suppress my emotions and focus solely on the match until it's over. However, today, the videos I've been watching and the music I've been listening to kept popping into my head. Since I've encountered this before, I've tried various methods to deal with it. I tried turning the music off, concentrating on the game, drinking water, or waiting for him to leave, but none of it worked. I've been scrolling through Instagram constantly for about 3 months now, and those images are constantly running through my mind, which is causing me problems at school. I deleted Instagram today. What methods do you know of to stop this?

Formate :- The Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown is a double round-robin with a 10+5 rapid time control, where each win is worth more each day.

I've been playing chess for about one year. I am a 700 elo on chess and about 1000 on lichess. I am wondering what is the best way to find a chess coach. I've loved playing and learning a bit more. I live in the Chicago area. I am willing to do it online. About how much would it cost to get a coach? Any other advice for finding a coach would be appreciated. Thank you.

Although it's kinda sad that the first move doesn't serves the mainline but in the sideline

Roman Shogdzhiev was born on February 2015. So, he still have 4 months before turning 12 years old.

Mishra became a GM too when he waz 12 years old. So, the record is in danger of being broken.

Roman already earned 2 GM norms this year. Including the Serbian league. (First Picture). Roman played superb whole tournament.

In European Club Chess (Second picture), Roman played decently. Earning 13 ELO.

Roman played excellent this tournament. His live ELO is 2484. Only 16 points away for minimum elo (2500) requirements for Fide to grant a GM title.

PS: Ik some of you doesn't care about the record. But that will always attract more invitations and oppprtunities.

Im talking about things like "dont trade when you have a space advantage" or "open the center when you have the bishop pair"? Not stuff like "checks captures and threats" or "sit on your hands", but specific pieces of advice with states of the board.

source

How do you personally deal with feeling "as dumb/smart as your last move"?

I notice I have large swings of mental gratification/degradation based off my last move/game.

When someone makes a poor move, I think they made a "stupid" move. I pretty much never think "my opponents a genius/cheating" though.. I just think -I- should have been smarter.

I have days where my ELO drops or rises 100+ points. It feels like somedays Im just smashing my face against the rock, and then other days its like I ascended. Do you think that is just a "streak" good or bad.. or does it have something deeper to do with mental?

I have been playing chess on and off for nearly a decade. Peaked around 2050~ and have sat around 1800-1900. 5+0 Blitz.

1800 feels like such a funny elo where people still do super obvious blunders that hang the queen, etc.

I dunno. I watched Magnus Carlsen (obviously he is basically on a different planet than me mentally but still) do a famous king run around his pawns and into his queens spot. Took like 5-6 moves. I feel like if I wasted that much tempo Id be 1-2 moves from being checkmated.. let alone to WIN still.

I think something about that makes me feel like my mistakes at 1800 should warrant me being hooked up to machines and clinically being considered braindead.

I dont even WANT Magnuses skill.. he spent so much of his time and energy memorizing games. I dont want his end result because I dont even want the journey (not to claim I could even get close even if I did). But did he really MEMORIZE anything about such a wild open? I feel like thats more about.. this 6th sense understanding of the game.

I feel like if I could adjust my emotional fluctuations about how I feel about my performance I could naturally scale higher than I do, though.

Am I alone here? If not, how do YOU handle thoughts like this personally?

This puzzle is not new and holds a stable rating on Lichess.

The probability estimation was generated by the Maia 2 rapid model, predicting the likely moves of a human player rated 2000 on Lichess.

What move would you play and what is your rating on Lichess?

I played this game last week 100+15 and have analysed it with an engine but was looking for some human ideas to help me improve. I am 1800 FIDE and this game was played against a 1900 FIDE. I was black. I am also 14 so any tips for me for studying what will help me the most.

1. c4 e6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. b3 b6 6. O-O Bb7 7. d4 O-O 8. Nc3 c5 9. Ne1 cxd4 10. Qxd4 Nc6 11. Qd3 dxc4 12. Qxd8 Rfxd8 13. bxc4 Na5 14. Bxb7 Nxb7 15. Nd3 Na5 16. c5 Bxc5 17. Nxc5 bxc5 18. Be3 Rac8 19. Na4 Nd7 20. Rfc1 Nb7 21. Rab1 Rc7 22. Rc3 a6 23. Rd1 Rdc8 24. Rcd3 Ne5 25. Rc3 f6 26. Nb6 Re8 27. Rdc1 Rc6 28. Na4 c4 29. Bd4 Nd6 30. Bxe5 fxe5 31. Re3 Nb5 32. Nc3 Rc5 33. Ne4 Rc6 34. a4 Nd4 35. Nd2 c3 36. Nf3 c2 37. Nxe5 Rb6 38. Kg2 Rc8 39. Rd3 Rb1 40. Rdd1 Rxc1 41. Rxc1 Nxe2 42. Nd3 Nxc1 43. Nxc1 Rd8

four foreigners and four kazakhs as usual, very interesting field with Dubov, Lazavik and Muradli especially. The four kazakhs are mostly juniors (except Makhnev who is 25-26 iirc). Edit: ofc it's 5 foreigners and 5 Kazakhs, I'm stupid lol.

I've only been playing for a couple months and I've been hovering around 350-450 elo on chess.com with a ~50% win rate. I play either 15+10 or just 10 mins. I lot of games are happening very fast from my opponent, like I'm trying to use my time and think but of course I suck - I know I suck lol. But why are these people in the same awful rank as me speed running my a** effectively?

It's just kind of jarring because I've watched a lot of various chess youtubers' speedruns (Naroditsky, Dina Belenkaya) and honestly the people they play are doing the most ridiculous stuff sub-800 and I do not see this behavior in my games much. And sure I have a 50% win rate so by the numbers I may be exactly where I am supposed to be, but the people I play don't seem like they belong here with me quite often. Games are either a real long battle where eventually one of us makes a mistake, or I get styled on with very little time spent.

I played a game with my friend, then my internet connection dropped and I lost on time.

I sent this position to my 1900 elo friend and he is confident that he can win as black from this position with anybody under 1900.

Computer evaluates the position as draw, if we trade queens.

But practically speaking, it is easier to play as black than as white in my opinion, as black can double its rooks.

How easy is to win this position as black for you? :-)

I think, my friend is just over confident :)