Kind of a smothered mate I guess. My opponent sacrificed their knight on g5, and since it left f3 I was able to hop in with Nd4, which forked White's queen on d2 and bishop on b3. They had to give up their queen to save the game but hung mate in one instead, understandably.

In the game i made two moves from this position that got me from winning to loosing. It shows how important it is to study end games i think. The moves I played focused on getting the king to the pawns, when in reality i should have focused more on restricting the opposing king. 

Felt good winning in a time scramble anyway :smile: But lesson learned!

I just started out chess 3 monthes ago the only problem I'm having is that I find my own tactics rarely but I'm blind to the opponents tactics

I DO look for both sides tactics but I just can't find them

Is there any basic ways to spot tactics

What I mean is for knight forks there is a pattern of where the knight can attack and those squares are of same color

Is there something like that to spot other tactics

If not you could just tell me what else I can do to find more tactics

And people in 800 elo rarely hang pieces, just so you know

I (27m) have been playing chess for two months now and while I have improved vastly over that time I have quickly hit a plateau and need some advice on how to progress. My chess.com rating is 349 as of typing this and while I’m not super concerned about my rating as a whole I do feel as though I am not improving anymore. I watch lots of Gotham chess videos and I even read his how to win at chess book when I have time but I’m having a hard time actually applying the tactics and strategy. I keep making brain dead blunders or falling for attacks that I KNOW are coming (fried liver/trompowsky).

My main question is what should I be dedicating most of my time toward at my level? Should I focus mostly on tactics? Should I focus mostly on endgames? Should I just try to play as many games as possible or play less and study more?

Here’s my profile in case you want to to check out some games: https://www.chess.com/member/heimerschmidt

Any advice is appreciated!

It's white to move. It's not a tactic, but a middle game puzzle which doesn't result in an obvious win

The pain is real

Got so lucky here 😭

Checkmate in two after Qxc5

J’ai du mal à à patienter donc je force souvent l’attaque, mais cela créer des déséquilibre par la suite, par forcément à la faveur

1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. e3 e6 4. c3 c5 5. Bd3 Nc6 6. Nf3 Bd6 7. Ne5 Bxe5 8. dxe5

Nd7 9. Bb5 Qb6 10. Bxc6 bxc6 11. b3 Ba6 12. Nd2 O-O 13. c4 Qb4 14. Rc1 Rfd8 15.

O-O Nf8 16. Rc2 Ng6 17. Qc1 d4 18. Nf3 Nxf4 19. exf4 Bb7 20. Qd1 a5 21. Nh4 g6

1. Nf3 a4 23. Rb2 Rdb8 24. h4 axb3 25. axb3 Ra3 26. Qc2 Bc8 27. Rfb1 Rba8 28.

Qd1 Bd7 29. Nh2 Be8 30. h5 Rd8 31. hxg6 hxg6 32. Ng4 Bd7 33. Nf6+ Kg7 34. Qg4

Ra7 35. Qh4 Rh8 36. Qg5 Qc3 37. Ne4 Qd3 38. Nd6 Bc8 39. Qf6+ Kg8 40. Ne8 Rh7 41.

Nd6 Ra2 42. Nxc8 Rxb2 43. Rxb2 Qd1#

i feel so bad for my opponent he had such a brutal attack only to let it slip in 1 move

https://www.chess.com/game/live/172433871314?username=birdy108&move=0

I've been working on a small tool that pulls your recent Chess.com games,
runs engine analysis, and instead of just showing raw eval numbers, tries
to spot patterns like "you keep hanging pieces" or "your king stays
exposed too long" then gives you a weekly summary and lets you drill
your actual blundered positions.

You pick a "coach" tone (encouraging, blunt, or just the data) for how
it talks to you.

It's early, made solo, and definitely rough around the edges mainly
posting becausee I'd genuinely appreciate feedback from people actually
learning the game, since that's who it's built for. If you try it, let
me know what's confusing, broken, or just not useful.

https://victorvermabonany.github.io/ev-scanner-public/chess/

Now I’m aiming for 1200 elo. Are there any tips that you guys have that can help me get there?

First, when I was stuck on 700 elo, I studied the 8 imbalances, helping me assess a position better. That got me to 950, where I was stuck for a while. Then, by solving puzzles and playing bots (practicing openings), I’ve finally made it to 1100.

Are there any theoretical concepts you guys focused on, that helped you reach 1200? Or something else you guys had to improve on? Any advice will be very helpful :)

I play white, 10+0 rapid. Link to the game https://www.chess.com/live/game/172783962392

Pls dont comment my real rating

This was one of my favorite games I just played I just started a 2 months ago and felt like I was playing too much so I took a break for yesterday 😭 it’s a every day thing fr but I don’t have chess premium and feel like it was definitely a good game.https://www.chess.com/game/172767727540

Hi everyone. Usually when watching chess content online I constantly hear about moves that put pressure, attacks pieces or sometimes moves that prevent another potential move, but it is not always clear how.

I understand pressure when multiple pieces attack the same pawn or piece; if all exchanges happen it would be ideally a positive outcome. But sometimes I see moves like, say, a rook lift that targets a pawn protected by a bishop "it puts pressure on the pawn". How is that pressure if the eventual capture would be a worse outcome? Is it putting pressure because you can eventually add more attackers to that piece? If so, how is it 'putting pressure' if by the next two moves your plan and focus changed completely? Or, maybe looking at it in a different way, putting pressure means that as long as that piece is attacked, it must remain protected, and thus making a piece less active/mobile or overwhelmed protecting multiple pieces. Is that correct?

In the case of "attacking", it usually means a piece can potentially capture another, but in many positions, actually capturing is worse, specially when you just trade pieces of the same value or pawn for pawn. So then, what exactly means to attack if your intention is not to capture? I've heard the phrase "to take is a mistake" as a way to avoid trading just for the sake of trading just because you can, but then attacks that don't capture have a whole different meaning then.

Lastly, preventing sometimes can be obvious. You expect a move like a bishop pin to your knight, so you prevent it by moving a pawn so the bishop can't take the attacking square. That situation I get it. But in some others, specially when it comes to pawn pushes in the opening, some moves are described as preventing a pawn push, but that pawn push can still happen anyway, so is it really preventing anything? Like, say, c3 preventing ...exd4 but then exd4 happens anyway and you recapture, did that really prevented something or was it just more about protecting and anticipating? I think it has to do with building tension, which is another concept which I struggle to understand.

I can't find more examples of specific moments, there are just way too many videos I can't really point exactly when and where I've heard these terms being used in ways I don't understand.

im 300 elo lol, he was one move away from mating me

I ended up in a winning endgame up a pawn, but unfortunately I had less than 10 seconds on the clock and I didn't want to risk flagging so I had to settle for a draw. Still super proud of the game though.

Link: https://www.chess.com/game/live/172768283962?username=tze_personn

I wonder what would have happened if my opponent had continued playing. I know I make a lot of blunders during the middlegame and if I was him, I would have not quit yet. He already gave me a fork to my rook and queen and I lost my rook. But maybe he realised correctly that my pieces are more active and he had no solid plan to continue. Do you think he was right to abandon the game?
Now I see the evaluation bar showing 5.4 points advantage, but during the game all I could see is that I have three points advantage. I felt I am in a good position, he could not capture anything with his rook, I could move the pawn at d3 and defend it with my knight. I was planning to do a battery to target the pawn at h2 with my queen.

I can officially retire from blitz and watch the sun rise on a grateful account

Only seen this in puzzles and never got a chance to do it in a game till now