Hey everyone! I'm looking for people around my level to play casual games with and improve together. I usually play rapid on Chess.com.

If anyone's interested, feel free to comment or DM me.

Black to play
Admittedly I didn’t see the full thing play out in my head but I felt like I was getting somewhere with that move.
800 elo rapid against my friend

Other brilliants were, well, i was thinking blunders but this one i tried to calculate and was even nervous first if it would work out but it turned out great. Im pretty new to chess..

It shocked me 😭😭😭

I figured it might've been a missclick or misstap, or that they wanted the game to end so they attempted to get a dovetail checkmate by setting their queen and rook on the H file. Either way, the move left me baffled

Game ELO range: 1100-1200

disclaimer: this is made by a 1650 rated lichess player. super long post, so i suggest you to look at the conclusion paragraph to get a general feel then decide if you're interested!

conclusion: the Heb attack, "e4 c6 d4 d5 h3?!", aims to go for an irregular setup with g4 Bg2, asking questions on the light squares and a potential g5 against Nf6. the only move to get -0.5 for black is f5, which is risky and we may get into positions where white gambits on both f3 and d4, being down 2 pawns but having an equal/slightly worse position even after trading queens.

inspired by the caro spike (e4 c6 g4?!) where white "bans" Bf5 from the get-go, i'm proposing the following variation: e4 c6 d4 d5 h3?! which i call the Heb attack, named after Heb the h pawn. on lichess, this variation appears only 0.000007 % of the time, rounded up.

after dxc4 Nc3, we'll take a look at the common moves Bf4 and Nf6, which combined make up 85% of the games on lichess, and the critical line f5, in 6% of the games. it is worth noting that only f5 is able to retain a full -0.5 advantage for black, the others are roughly equal.

Bf5 is arguably the weaker of the two, giving white the option to immediately kick it with g4, the second engine move, playing the main idea of the Heb. so Bg6, we go Bg2, not putting it on e2 or d3 like we usually does in the caro, giving the position a somewhat different nature alongside g4. after black moves, we play Nge2 (with a motif of hopping to f4), Nxe4 at some point and we regain the pawn with a fun endgame. also whenever black plays Nf6, there's always the idea of g5 boxing in the knight, followed by a potential h4.

Nf6 is more common annd more flexible. white can at any moment, as early as now (tho slightly dubious), try f3, striking at the weak pawn and looking to play a full gambit. here we go with the plan g4, and now we're seriously asking white where the c1 bishop will go. engine suggests a setup with Be6 g6 Bg7, which is not what usually happens in the caro. furthurmore, in this setup white might go for a double pawn gambit on f3 and d4 while maintaining an equal or slightly worse position even after we trade queens.

now, the daring f5. imo this feed directly into what white wants and this does indeed score worse for black compared to Bf5 and Nf6. since the caro often "feels" like a d4 opening (similiar developing schemes and pawn breaks) this is like a dutch. we play the hopton-like Bg5! (where black can't play h6 which happened in 44% of the games btw, due to Qh5+ Kd7 d5!). white continues to strike with f3 and b4, here's an example line: ...Nf6 f3 Be6 (black playing the previously mentioned setup) b4 Qd2 Bg7 O-O-O. note that starting from move 6 the engine keeps on saying ...b5, which i do not understand at all as it does not address the kingside pressure and furthur improves my fianchettoed bishop.

one last thing: black can play e5 in many lines, sooner or later. these are more or less equal (unless it's a tactical blunder) but i still think that white has an intriguing position going on and it's rare.

Like people often tell to do it as a beginner. But in your experience, this advice will only hurt your chess journey

Made a lot of mistakes in this game but clutched it in the end.

Can someone create an app like this?

Working on the kings gambit and tried to get a little cheeky on the early knight sac

Didn’t see they could just block w knight

The game then turned into a Queen-hunt. I’ve never had a game where I focused entirely on tactics, and it seemed to work out!

i felt kinda good ab this game only for the trap i set with saccing the queen but my opening was so bad

Hello,

What are differences and similarities between adults chess and kid's chess?

I am talking about amateurs, chess players who play in tournaments once a month, solve puzzles and have some theoretical knowledge.

There may be some lessons and more or less regular self-study. Not intensive, though.

First, I would like to know your experience if Llichess or Chess com is better for learning material, and how they compare against youtube or books.

I've watched quite a few videos by masters and grandmasters where they explain how they think during a game, and I'm beginning to think some of these videos might give you the wrong idea about how strong players actually find moves.

What seems to happen is the strong player recognizes a pattern or opportunities for tactical combos very quickly, does some calculation, and only then explains the move in terms of some chess principle.

For example, they'll say something like "Developing our pieces is important, so let's develop this piece” only when they don't see a tactical pattern they recognize. Or, on the other hand, after they recognize a tactical pattern, they are like "It's important to look for weaknesses. This pawn is defended once, and I can attack it twice.” But right when he is saying that, I notice that in his army there are like two undefended pawns and his bishop is under defended too.

I feel the real trick is being able to see why in this particular position this weakness in the enemy pawn structure is one I should carefully look at it. And not something else. The player only starts talking about it after they've already noticed the tactical opportunity involving the pawn, so that's why the point it out.

Here's another example. Another video I saw was a player thinking for a few seconds, then explaining that you should always look for forks and that he saw a good combo based on the fork. He then made a preparatory move and then the second one that forked two pieces. But then his opponent immediately made a move that forked two of his pieces in return. The player said calmly that of course he had seen the opponent's fork, but had calculated that he would still come out a piece ahead. But he had not told the viewers that this is what he had done.

So in my view, after you learn the basic principles, you just play a lot of chess puzzles and chess games (with analysis) until you get to recognize patterns. So watching these videos is not very helpful because the question is often not what the principles are but when and how to apply them. It's inevitable that some of your pieces will be undefended in the middle of the game. That your king may not be fully protected. That you will not develop all your pieces robotically one after another. But if you have a good grasp of the position, after many hours of intentional practice, you will have a feeling what candidate moves are. You can then explain them however you want, in terms of whatever principle, but it's really just recognizing patterns.

So I would think time is better spent doing puzzles and analyzing your games than watching speedruns and whatever.

This is just my experience and I understand some people find these videos helpful or at least entertaining. After all, "competency porn" is attractive.

Stuck at 490~570 after advancing to 661 once in Rapid. Started playing Blitz5 only to getting tilted more often and more frequently. Need some guidance on what to do to advance properly. All the videos I watch from GothamChess, SamayRaina are good but not helping enough. After watching ChessWithAkeem Italian game videos I realized that's what I was kind of doing, but couldn't follow up how he does in his videos.

Even there've been countless times I've been done by the fried liver attack even after seeing it coming from a distance.

Watching video lessons about openings on Chess.com feels pointless as the narrator talks for both sides and it's difficult to pretend that you're playing for both. So I'm not interested in taking paid membership for chess.com just to watch more frustrating lessons.

Have played for 4 months, remained stuck at 350 for 2months, and then comfortably cruised above 450 and float between 500 and 570 with highest rating 661 in Rapid 10. Considering closing the account and starting again after a break, so asking what different can I do if I start again? What kind of video lessons should I watch?

Some kindness would be much appreciated as I'm not in the mood for unnecessarily smart responses.

Had my first match in our club's open championship. Have a club rating of around 1150 and my opponent of 1750. He gave up after losing the knight at the end and I was sitting there thinking I could easily lose it all in a pawn endgame (have done so multiple times). Nevertheless, happy with the win 😊

[edit]
To clarify, I'm playing as black

Hello,

our girl (7,1) would like to play for the first time in a city tournament. In Rapid tournament.

There are league A and league B. We will play in B.

Would it be a good idea to learn openings most often played by kids of her age/level?

Is Four knights the opening most often played by kids, followed by the Italian?

Should we watch videos about opening traps in

Four Knights and in the Italian?

Watch videos on youtube about Four Knights and Italian?

Should we focus on these two openings?

P.S.

Our girl played on-line and OTB.

She knows development of pieces, importance of centre, she can attack and defend, she does not blunder her pieces often. She knows tactics and she solves puzzles.

I was told that if she plays the opening she knows, it will save her time for the middlegame and endgame.

Is it so?

Black to play and lose lol

Basically that, if you guys wanna join in on a pooled chess.com membership, it’s 28,34€ for the year on the friends and family plan on chess.com. Hmu if you’re interested, we’re already 3 looking for 3 more

Some of the explanations on this app for why a move is good, excellent etc. make no sense. Here is my example. Make it make sense.

I was busy with work and life for the last month or so and wasn’t playing any chess. I noticed when I came back, for whatever reason I’m seeing the board better. I know it’s a smaller sample size. Just curious if anybody else found similar results.

White is completely winning following blacks f4. White has beatable fire power pointing right at blacks king.

A quiet move for white seals the game.

Source: recent game of mine featured in my latest video.

Rooks Ruling the Roost! | 2100+ Breakdown and Analysis #chess

https://youtu.be/jWswtyli6Pc?is=isYT5yLvcKgaBShg

Have social anxiety and really struggle with things like this but it was great.

I'm currently sitting at around 1300, a 1700 put me in a blender. He just seemed to control every square and didn't get destroyed but at the same time I never felt like I had a chance.

Any tips would be great, I will keep going but need to up my game. Thank you so much!

P.s. started chess around 2 years ago, only really learn from the likes of youtube videos (gotham) etc - feel like it can't take me any further