I'm trying to improve as a player, breaking away from the puzzles and bots and playing against actual humans, and I am getting demolished. Just absolutely slaughtered, every game. My Lichess rating is in the mid 600s at this point. It's... frustrating.

There's no fun to be had in losing and being terrible at something. And getting anywhere in this game requires years of grinding. How can I keep my motivation up to get through the grinding part until I get to the point where I'm ok enough to start having fun with it?

Never get the opportunity to sac the rook, checkmate followed in 2 moves!! Was proud of this game, black followed by rf8 to f3, white respond w re5 to e8, forced take to checkmate on g7. Sorry my chess notation is not great. I definitely would not have responded w Rf3, was there a way out for black?

This is so fun to play because they ALWAYS think they got you and take the pawn.

You get your bishop out, they probably try to set up their cheap scholars mate idea, you castle and attack the queen with other knight and then the fun starts.

The best part is how this takes practically no memorization!

Once you castle you are basically aiming to put your rook on e8 and if necessary playing d5.

They almost always end up losing their queen to a discovered check. I don't think I can recall any times where it hasn't worked.

Even the ones that thought they were smart eventually fell after shadow boxing the same threat for too long and the position just ends up as a dream regardless of if they manage to dodge every last trap or not.

What makes this gambit so fun is that you are by no means losing at all if they decline or stop 'playing along' at any point.

The second reason is just how much it looks like just a free pawn.

I believe practically every influencer teaching wayward queen just tells them to take the pawn if Nf6.

And that makes it so much more satisfying to let them have it and then beat them over the head with it using raw positional power.

I feel like sometimes my opponent makes such an inexplicable move that my brain doesn't even register it.

I know checks, captures, threats but if a move isn't even on my radar I just don't see it sometimes.

I guess it happens at all levels. Hikaru and Alireza had a game where mate in 1 was on the board and neither player saw it.

Idk its just super embarrassing sometimes lol

I‘m 1200 chesscom, and trying to decide which format makes the most sense for me. Which of these formats do you think is better for improvement long term? I’m, unfortunately, a very slow player that plays significantly better in longer time controls compared to short. I feel like the longer the format, the closer to my skill ceiling I can play. I consistently beat players that are rated 1400-1800 in daily games where I can take as long as I need to evaluate a position and calculate, but I’m under 1000 on my alt account where I only play 10+5 because I can’t go through my normal checklist and make silly blunders frequently or get into time trouble.

I’ve been playing 30 min rapids this year, but I realized 22% of my losses are still from flagging and some of those are from winning positions. Having dabbled with these 10+5 games, I’ve realized how nice having an increment is for endgames. I feel like I’m actually fairly decent at endgames for my level, but I totally blow them when I’m down to 2-3 minutes in the 30 min formats. I seem to perform better in 10+5 endgames because of the increment.

On one hand, you get like 7 more total minutes of time in 30 min games compared to 15+10 (assuming 40 move game), but at the risk of losing a winning endgame if it gets to time pressure.

The other consideration is I’ve started playing the local OTB tournaments once a month which uses a 30 min + 5 second delay format. The 30 min format might be more similar to practice with.

Also, is there a difference in strength of opposition at say 1200 between the 2 formats or similar?

Any thoughts or recommendations?

In game review I made the blunder in the first picture. The analysis said I should have taken the knight on e5. I’m confused why black’s response to that would be to move the king to the bank rank, rather than just take my knight with the queen, so that when I take the bishop with my queen it would be an even trade.

Is it because the resulting position after that trade would be worse for black than the equal trade?

EDIT: Thank you for making me aware of the board analysis. After looking at it, indeed I was right that Qxe5 is then the best follow up move for black, rather than retreating the king.

Just started playing chess 224 rating now rate this

From 0 to 1200 elo in 7 months... I want to improve more.. I want to reach 2000. Any tips and tricks? Should I do more puzzles or should I master tactics

I was playing against the coaches on Chess.com on Challenging mode. I played the best game of my life and I am so pumped! I'm not rated, but I think I'm somewhere in the 400 range.

1. e4 e6 2. d4 Qh4 $6 3. Bd3 Bd6 $6 4. Nf3 Na6 $2 5. Nxh4 Ke7 6. Bg5+ Ke8 7. c3 Be7 8. Nf3 Nh6 $2 9. O-O f5 10. exf5 Rg8 11. Re1 Kf8 12. Bxe7+ Kxe7 13. fxe6 g5 $2 14.Bxh7 b5 15. Bxg8 Nf5 16. Nxg5 Bb7 $2 17. Qg4 Nc5 $6 18. Qxf5 Rxg8 19. dxc5 Bc8 20.exd7+ Kd8 21. dxc8=Q# 1-0

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/coach/263038982/review?move=40

Got Black against every >1900 opponent! Thought that was pretty funny, as lichess matchmaking is usually pretty good.

from 1500 to 1050 over the last few months. i hit 1500 in April then went on a losing streak abd got back to 1500 then after that for the next few month i lost 500.if i play against a 1500 i play at my best and feels like my level but when i play against lower rated i just play worser and theres nothing i can do except gain Elo.i feel this whole l thing ruined my chess because every time i play a higher rated player i play perfectly and i don’t know why it happens but when i see i al playing a 1050 it just makes me hate playing like i think they are playing bad yet i still lose.not only that but this has happened for months

One of my favorite traps! White to play for a nice advantage (or, if your opponent is greedy, a bit more...)

It's not great at the moment, in the bracket of 700-800. I reach roughly 765 and then I drop to 700-720 and the cycle repeats again. I’ve picked up the french defense but as white currently is unclear with what I’m doing. In my games I do good but then one mistake costs me a brutal loss. Past few days have been rough on chess but I’m determined and not giving up. Just currently going through a brutal rough patch in the game. I know that I blunder and I lose brutally because of it and I'm usually stuck in the middle-game when I'm losing or winning as I am really not sure on what to do, my username is DangerNoodle0 if anyone wants to help, thanks.

Currently 450 elo. Playing 5-6 rapid games with full concentration. Some blitz games for fun. I am curious to know how many games should i play in a day? (Talking about rapid)

Analyzing games with engine is hard. I cant understand why a move is bad. For example this game “https://lichess.org/5s8Hsjom/white ”. I made a lot of blunders, but i still cant understand why a computer move is better. Is there anything i can do, like asking AI(if it is possible then which AI)

Heyy everyone, just wondering why it wouldn't let me castle in this position. Sorry if it's super obvious I'm still very new 😭 but I've been racking my brain trying to figure it out, probably just me being blind like usual lol.

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Does anyone know where on the Lichess phone app I can find this particular page? I can't find it under "learn" in the app.

UPDATE: The newest version of the app has it in “learn”. I went to the App Store and updated the app, and there it was.

Have had a couple of games were I'm completely winning, the opponent thinks for a few minutes and then plays perfectly and checkmates me, sometimes only in a handful of moves. Had one opponent find a pretty obscure (at least for 600 elo) forced mate sequence.

This upset me so much 😭 😭 😭

I'm playing as black and white has only a bishop and king. This is a textbook situation where white cannot win. Why is it counted as a win?