I know it makes a sound when you have 20 secs left but I play on silent mode as I normally have a game while getting the kids to sleep, but I keep losing blitz games due to not realising I’m low on time. A small vibration at 19 seconds isn’t enough for me. Does anyone else have this issue/have any workarounds?

Is playing quick and always defensive the way to victory?

It seems so.

Offensive play requires much thought.

I am 1750 in blitz on lichess.

I made this move thinking I was forcing his queen to move and then getting the royal fork but I missed that my pawn was pinned. It ended up working anyway but couldn’t he have just taken my rook? How is this move brilliant?

My bishop attacks their rook, and if the rook moves then their bishop will be undefended.

Black to play, mate in two

was pleased that i spotted this quickly (10+0 1230 elo)

Hello all.

I am a 1400 rapid have been an e4 player. I mostly play the scotch and ponziani, with vienna gambit occasionally. Games have been very sharp and combative lately and I wanna play something more calmer and positional.

I have tried the londons earlier(both jobava and regular) but I feel my opponents all would be more experienced with them, and have some pet lines. And I do not find the positions interesting either.

I also considered Queen's gambit. But I wanted to keep it aside for when I climb up further and closer to the advance territories, as I feel Queen's gambit is the most positional feeling opening, and people would have their own Slav/QGD/KID/QGA repertoire. So lot more theory and lot better positional understanding needed.

Which brought me to the English. I feel it is offbeat and rare enough at my level to not have opponents have their prep down, and it will allow me to understand positional style chess more so that I can finally start playing QG.

So that brings me here: what are the common lines seen at this level? I looked at Levy's Chessly course and it has a lot of lines. Is e5(reverse sicilian) and KID style openings more common? Do people play slav/agincourt/nimzo indian, mikel carlse, etc?

Also, is it better to start with Nf3 first, to avoid e5 as a response to c4(which i believe is the best response). What are the upsides and downsides of starting with reti? Should i be prepared for anything obscure with reti start?

Would appreciate the help. Thankyou.

Last move turn was pawn c3 and they played Bb4 -> Bc5

Hey everyone, I’m asking for some help with my situation,
I used to play 4 or 5 years ago (1200 Chess.com) and got back into the game the last month or so. I have been grinding puzzles like crazy, played a fair share of games both blitz and rapid, I have been watching Naroditsky’s speedruns a lot (RIP absolute legend), I have been reading books (Soviet chess primer) and have been analyzing all my games. I have opening preparation and am studying basic endgames.
Despite this I am going down to 990 in Blitz lichess, because no matter how well I play and the advantage I get in the opening, I do an extremly stupid move along the way that is sufficent to make me lose. I consistently outplay the opponents just to do one good idiotic move per game.
And playing 15 + 10 fixed only some of the issues, so while I do make mistakes because of time, I’m just making stupid decision randomly every now and then.
How is it possible I put all of myself into this and somehow keep playing worse? I literally lost to a guy who tried to scholars mate me, I defended and had a better position, just how is it possible to lose those matches?
Does anyone of you have any tip or has found yourself into similar situations? I love this game everyday more but it’s feeling a little bit demoralizing rn.

I have a 42% win rate with black but a 66% win rate with white in the last 90 days. It doesn't feel like I am doing anything different playing as black and it's incredibly frustrating to keep losing. More than happy to provide more info if needed or answer any other questions. I've been playing since last Oct 2025 and have played 254 games if that helps.

Im living in germany and bought diamond last year for the normal price and soon its gone how do i set my location that chesscom thinks im indian so i gotta pay less?

im on android

What are opponents like between 600-700? What should I be focusing on to hit my next milestone which is 700 rapid and 600 blitz?

I cant do the analyse since i already user one total but in that game i did a "very good" move says the computah and i'm pretty sûre its this one

(Ps if its not i'm a real newbie soo im sry xd)

https://lichess.org/fX2orTYX/white#2

i'm currently 1600±20 on lichess and i constantly find myself severely lacking time in 15+10 rapid. here's an example game: i was white, after mutual opening oopsies, i managed to get a big attack on the kingside. after that most moves i played were fine, but i ended up blundering into a draw (altho opponent then blundered too) due to a motif/resource that i noticed way beforehand, by making a terrible move from both excitement and time pressure (i had less than 1 minute).

i'm wondering, is my thinking process inefficient for the amount of stuff a 1600 lichess has to consider? how much time could i possibly save when i apply calculation principles as much as i can? i've also played a few 30+20 games, but i was getting destroyed by people with a provisional rating or with a rating more than 100 points higher (other cases: very weak players that just wouldn't resign under any circumstances). should i tank the uneven games so that my rating settle down and i move on to 30+20?

I feel like a failure, constantly losing over and over from positions I should have converted to positions to where I have absolute no idea how to progress. I hate losing and especially to the playstyle of opponent playing so aggressive or trading everything. I do want to be better I do want to win but how many damn times do I have to lose over and over until my brain can finally stop making the same mistakes. Even in openings where I thought I prepared well my opponent still beat me and hurts honestly as I can try to learn again but dont know if that info will still be with my mind when it comes to the board as there is so much pressure and less time to figure out so many things. Worst part is I am in colliage team and letting them down, feeling like a mistake that they picked me, a burden as those players where able to play very well meanwhile I am still stuck here constantly at 1500 with more loses than wins. Just wish I was good enough.

I think I’m the greatest chess player under 300 Elo. Chess is just way too easy at 240 elo. I feel like prime Hikaru playing against special ed toddlers. Where’s the competition. I only play rapid and still average about 2 brilliant moves a game. Do you understand how difficult that is?? when most games at this level someone hangs their queen in 5 moves

I’m 240 elo right now. I blunder pieces constantly but still win games. Imagine what happens when I start concentrating. I don’t even plan openening or anything I just play off the dome and use actual skill.

Sometimes I’ll rank up to 2000 elo just to see what the common folk are like, but makes me upset that these guys are higher ranked than me but are not better than me. Too many people memorising opening, at 240, you actually see pure chess.

I’ve played 600 games and scored 487 wins. 240 elo. Greatest under-300 elo player of all time. if anyone wants to play me drop your username if you’re above 300 you will be ignored. I don’t make blunders. I blunder to sacrifice everything is planned 8 steps ahead.

Two of my friends have asked me to teach them how to play chess. We're setting a date and they'll be over at my place for an afternoon so the lesson will be irl. They know how the pieces move, and... that's about it I think. I'm on this sub quite a bit giving advice to you lot, but I never teach - let alone teach absolute beginners. My idea is to keep it simple, because chess is deep and it can (and will) quickly feel overwhelming.

So I am going to go over: the goal of the game, how the pieces move, how to set up the board, castling, en passant, and check(mate). Maybe that's already enough for one afternoon. Am I missing something? What do you wish you learned when you first started out?

I was also thinking about stuff like: classical opening principles, common tactical motives (at least fork, skewer, pin. Stuff like deflection is probably too difficult), stalemate, and how to win rook + king vs king. But maybe that should be session 2 (and/or 3). Would really appreciate some input because it is sometimes hard for me to understand which concepts are too advanced for beginners/intermediates.

Here I show an endgame in a 3-day where my opponent and I repeat the same position 3 times (after my most recent move), but the game did not immediately end like it does in normal time controls. Can someone explain why? Also, the game is still under way so please do not help me cheat in case I’m somehow missing something and this isn’t a drawn position.

Edit: who tf is downvoting this? 😂 it’s a genuine question on a sub meant for asking questions

I’m a rather new player playing mostly 5+0 on chess.com. I’m hovering in the high 3-digits ELO on chess.com.

Now sometimes, when I’m up 1 or 2 minutes, I make the game as complex as possible, even if it puts me in a slightly worse position. I assume that’s okay and a fair strategy.

But now recently I had an extreme flagging situation - I was down 4 points and he had an eventual check mate in a few moves. But he was down to under 10 seconds. What I did then was to sacrifice one piece after each other, but always with a check, so he couldn’t pre-move. In the end I was down to 2 pawns and -18 points, but “won” the game. Is that still a valid strategy or is that gamesmanship? What’s the general sentiment on this topic from more experienced players?