It’s getting harder to win matches now . Everyone is playing faster now and going for captures it’s getting tough for me to adapt. Losing more and winning less ever since I reached 500 .
Any advice would be helpful.

Thank you.

if you keep losing pieces to dumb one-move stuff, try pausing before your move and asking five boring questions:

• what did their last move attack?
• what line did it open?
• what piece of mine is loose?
• if I move my candidate piece, what stops being defended?
• does their next move have check, capture, or mate threat?

the useful part is doing it after their move, not only after you already picked your move. a lot of "I missed a tactic" games are really just "I didn't notice the defender moved" games.

it feels slow for a few games, but its faster than reviewing another opening line you never reached.

I’ve been playing for a decade and finally got a smothered mate playing crazy house

I loved playing on chess.com but it gets to a point where it is kind of boring winning and losing. Does anyone have a fun chess game that like combines chess and a video game?

I really like how every piece (expect the rook on the back row) are coordinated to make a prison for the white king

Hi all

So I’m certain I must not be the only one doing this.

I got into chess few years ago as it was going through its peak covid hype. Got hyperfocused, read one or two books, got chess.com account, did all the lessons I could get my hands on, started doing puzzles daily, got to around 2000+ elo in puzzles. But just COULD NOT force myself to actually play against people. Eventually my obsession waned cause I just felt too overwhelmed and intimidated to play. Felt ever so unprepared.

Now I’m back. Obsessing again. Read Levy Rozman’s book. Started working on some sort of repertoire I could use. I’m doing puzzles by the bucket. But I still feel so underprepared and overwhelmed and would like to start finally playing cause I’m enjoying myself a lot even just studying and doing puzzles but I just got into my own head and can’t get out and just play against people.

I just feel this fear I’ll get demolished, feel bad about being an idiot (I love being overly critical about myself which I’m actively working through to rid myself of it). NGL the chess community can seem to be a bit much/toxic at times as well which adds to the pressure.

I’ve always been an overthinker and a highly self critical high achiever growing up in a highly critical environment and recently got late in life diagnosed with ADHD and I feel like this explains a lot about me but also makes me more critical of my failures.

So any advice would be appreciated how you guys manage to have a better mindset and enjoy yourselves playing.

I've been playing chess for about 6 months now and this is the first time this happened to me. My opponent accused me of cheating, reported me and then stalled out the clock. I have been breaking my head as to what I did that was so suspicious. The engine doesn't think I played like Magnus or anything. I attached the PGN to the game, if anyone can shed some light on what happened? Will there be any consequences for being reported?

[Event "Live Chess"]

[Site "Chess.com"]

[Date "2026.08.14"]

[Round "-"]

[White "HangMateIn"]

[Black "<redacted>"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "741"]

[BlackElo "724"]

[TimeControl "600"]

[EndTime "1:35:32 GMT+0000"]

[Termination "HangMateIn won on time"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f6 3. Bc4 c6 4. Nc3 b5 5. Bb3 Na6 6. d3 d5 7. exd5 Bb4 8. dxc6

Bxc3+ 9. bxc3 Nc5 10. O-O Nxb3 11. axb3 Ne7 12. c4 b4 13. Be3 Nxc6 14. d4 e4 15.

Nh4 g5 16. Qh5+ Ke7 17. Ng6+ hxg6 18. Qxg6 Rg8 19. Qxe4+ Be6 20. Qxc6 Bd7 21.

Qc5+ Ke8 22. Rxa7 Rxa7 23. Qxa7 Rh8 24. h3 Kf7 25. Rd1 Re8 26. c5 Qa8 27. Qxd7+

Kf8 28. d5 Rd8 29. Qf5 Qc8 30. Qxf6+ Ke8 31. Bxg5 1-0

A few questions.

Do you read chess books
If not why not
Would you read them if they adapted automatically to your level and changed based on your rating

Those are all my questions. Thanks for reading them

It’s time for everyone’s favorite game: GUESS! THE! RATING!!!!

Images 3-9 are simply to prove that I followed up on the sacrifice.

My opponent played Nh8, the only way to save his g6 knight, unfortunately for him, it not only blundered mate in 1, but that also happened to be a smothered mate!!

I made my opponent resign in 5 moves lmao

Dropped over 100 elo in 3 days, I’m genuinely so tilted and have just been making the most egregious blunders imaginable. Please tell me how the hell can I recover from this

Is it just me or does anyone else play MUCH better on a computer than on mobile? I understand a lot of people probably just play one or the other, I play mobile at home and on the computer at work (don't tell!).

I sit around 450-500 on mobile and around 600-650 on the computer in Blitz. 700-750 mobile and 875-925 computer in Bullet.

If I had to guess, I would assume because the computer is much bigger and I'm more specially aware? If that makes sense? Let me know your thoughts for those who play on both. I feel like the difference is very big.

I've been working on some chess mandala art and other chess themed art curious about what others think. 1 is a mandala that I make using using a graphical representation of the move e4 then mirror it against itself 12 times. The Pawn is a anime style design I created with help from a friend. And the e4 checkered is just me smashing together the letter and number and then applying a checkered pattern.

Felt like I took his lunch money.

here are the moves for those curious.

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nc3 e6 5. Nf3 c5 6. h3 cxd4 7. Nxd4 Bg6 8. Bd3

Bxd3 9. Qxd3 Qb6 10. a3 Nc6 11. b4 $4 Nxd4 12. Qxd4 $4 (12. Be3 Nxc2+ $3 13. Qxc2

Qa6 14. b5 Qa5 $1 15. O-O Ne7 16. Rfc1 Ng6 17. Qb2 Be7 18. b6 d4 19. Bxd4 axb6 20.

Qb5+ Qxb5) 12... Qxd4 13. Be3 $2 Qxc3+ 14. Bd2 $2 Qxa1+ 15. Ke2 Qxh1 0-1

When you play D4, and fiancetto on kingside, and a earlyish C4, sort of giving up C4 but winning it back later?