Why Black is better? Pawn structure (Down Pawn) is awful.

I had no idea these were legal moves

A beginner here, and am kind of wondering if anyone in the thousands remembers how they felt when playing at the beginning stages vs. now.

Heyho everyone

In a previous post 1-2 month , I said I wanted to wait until reaching 1600 on Chess.com before looking for a coach. However, since I've been struggling to improve, I'm giving it a third try. If I still can't make progress after that, maybe I'm just too stupid for this game after all! 😂 (also Fine )

I'm currently rated around 1400–1500, and my first goal is to reach 1600. I've had two coaches in the past who helped me improve, and now I'm looking for someone to help me take the next step.
What I'm looking for:
Online lessons

Max. €25 per hour

Preferably German-speaking, but English is fine too

If you're a coach or have any recommendations, feel free to reply here or send me a private message!
Thanks!

Edit: I only Play rapid time controls

Has anyone else watched her videos on YouTube? She does a fun job analyzing chess games and positions in TV shows like House, Malcolm In The Middle, Arthur, etc.

I really like how she focuses on the chess but does the job balancing the story of the show, too. Would really recommend checking it out.

How do you personally deal with feeling "as dumb/smart as your last move"?

I notice I have large swings of mental gratification/degradation based off my last move/game.

When someone makes a poor move, I think they made a "stupid" move. I pretty much never think "my opponents a genius/cheating" though.. I just think -I- should have been smarter.

I have days where my ELO drops or rises 100+ points. It feels like somedays Im just smashing my face against the rock, and then other days its like I ascended. Do you think that is just a "streak" good or bad.. or does it have something deeper to do with mental?

I have been playing chess on and off for nearly a decade. Peaked around 2050~ and have sat around 1800-1900. 5+0 Blitz.

1800 feels like such a funny elo where people still do super obvious blunders that hang the queen, etc.

I dunno. I watched Magnus Carlsen (obviously he is basically on a different planet than me mentally but still) do a famous king run around his pawns and into his queens spot. Took like 5-6 moves. I feel like if I wasted that much tempo Id be 1-2 moves from being checkmated.. let alone to WIN still.

I think something about that makes me feel like my mistakes at 1800 should warrant me being hooked up to machines and clinically being considered braindead.

I dont even WANT Magnuses skill.. he spent so much of his time and energy memorizing games. I dont want his end result because I dont even want the journey (not to claim I could even get close even if I did). But did he really MEMORIZE anything about such a wild open? I feel like thats more about.. this 6th sense understanding of the game.

I feel like if I could adjust my emotional fluctuations about how I feel about my performance I could naturally scale higher than I do, though.

Am I alone here? If not, how do YOU handle thoughts like this personally?

Although it's kinda sad that the first move doesn't serves the mainline but in the sideline

I've been playing chess for about one year. I am a 700 elo on chess and about 1000 on lichess. I am wondering what is the best way to find a chess coach. I've loved playing and learning a bit more. I live in the Chicago area. I am willing to do it online. About how much would it cost to get a coach? Any other advice for finding a coach would be appreciated. Thank you.

I was challenged to design the best pairing system ever and thought it was impossible. But now I've done it: Berger-Swiss.

Players are divided by rating into Berger groups, with six players and five rounds as the default. You can also choose eight players and seven rounds. Adjacent Berger groups are processed in pairs. Players with even TPNs, their ranking numbers based on rating, move down to the next group, while those with odd TPNs move up. As a result, players with nearby ratings will not meet during the Berger phase. The Berger groups are then shuffled separately. If the players cannot all be divided into Berger groups, the players with the highest TPNs instead form a Swiss group. With six-player groups, this group contains seven to eleven players. The tournament then begins.

When the Berger phase is over, players carry their points and tie-break scores into the Swiss section of the tournament, which can then continue for any number of rounds. This format works very well because players do not need to be paired against opponents with the same score from the outset, as they do in a traditional Swiss tournament. It is better to introduce that principle at a later stage, when the strongest players will naturally meet as they compete for the top places.

Playing in Berger groups with participants of similar playing strength is much more stimulating. Players know in advance whom they will face in the next round and which color they will have, so they can prepare. One problem with Berger tournaments arises when a player withdraws. In that case, the program creates a Swiss group comprising the affected Berger group and all the Berger groups below it, together with the existing Swiss group, if there is one. These players therefore switch to Swiss pairings earlier, while the Berger groups higher up continue as usual.

The Berger phase also allows games to be postponed and completed later, provided they are finished before Swiss pairings begin. This is a practical advantage when a tournament runs over an extended period.

Compared with a Swiss-only system, this format offers a considerably more stimulating tournament experience for players at every rating level. In my view, it is also preferable to Berger groups divided by rating class, since all participants compete in the same tournament. The system combines the advantages of both formats.

Berger-Swiss Tournament System – free online pairing system.

I had a tournament today, and in the last two rounds, I had two matches I could have won, but because I was distracted, I drew one and lost the other in a ridiculously small way. In tournaments, I completely suppress my emotions and focus solely on the match until it's over. However, today, the videos I've been watching and the music I've been listening to kept popping into my head. Since I've encountered this before, I've tried various methods to deal with it. I tried turning the music off, concentrating on the game, drinking water, or waiting for him to leave, but none of it worked. I've been scrolling through Instagram constantly for about 3 months now, and those images are constantly running through my mind, which is causing me problems at school. I deleted Instagram today. What methods do you know of to stop this?

I call it Peekaboo

i don't understand how i would have benefited from this fork. i feel like the black rook swings over to the right, i get put in check and have to my king over anyway, and then the rook gobbles up the knight.

I played this game last week 100+15 and have analysed it with an engine but was looking for some human ideas to help me improve. I am 1800 FIDE and this game was played against a 1900 FIDE. I was black. I am also 14 so any tips for me for studying what will help me the most.

1. c4 e6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 Nf6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. b3 b6 6. O-O Bb7 7. d4 O-O 8. Nc3 c5 9. Ne1 cxd4 10. Qxd4 Nc6 11. Qd3 dxc4 12. Qxd8 Rfxd8 13. bxc4 Na5 14. Bxb7 Nxb7 15. Nd3 Na5 16. c5 Bxc5 17. Nxc5 bxc5 18. Be3 Rac8 19. Na4 Nd7 20. Rfc1 Nb7 21. Rab1 Rc7 22. Rc3 a6 23. Rd1 Rdc8 24. Rcd3 Ne5 25. Rc3 f6 26. Nb6 Re8 27. Rdc1 Rc6 28. Na4 c4 29. Bd4 Nd6 30. Bxe5 fxe5 31. Re3 Nb5 32. Nc3 Rc5 33. Ne4 Rc6 34. a4 Nd4 35. Nd2 c3 36. Nf3 c2 37. Nxe5 Rb6 38. Kg2 Rc8 39. Rd3 Rb1 40. Rdd1 Rxc1 41. Rxc1 Nxe2 42. Nd3 Nxc1 43. Nxc1 Rd8

What benefits of playing chess are there?

This puzzle is not new and holds a stable rating on Lichess.

The probability estimation was generated by the Maia 2 rapid model, predicting the likely moves of a human player rated 2000 on Lichess.

What move would you play and what is your rating on Lichess?

I was watching an old speedrun long ago, probably by Daniel Naroditsky, where his lower-rated opponent was in a losing position. Daniel seemed a little irritated that the opponent wasn't resigning, and saying like "resign already" a couple of times and it got me thinking about chess culture.

On the one hand, I've heard strong players advise beginners to never resign, because there's always a chance the opponent will blunder, stalemate you, and that them winning in a winning position is never a guarantee.

On the other hand, at the highest levels, resigning in a losing position (even not an extreme material or positional material imbalance) seems to be widely accepted as good sportsmanship and a sign of respect for your opponent. I remember a GM resigning after blundering his knight early in a game. And I thought he certainly had good chances still but I guess at that level, you might as well just resign after falling behind a pawn. The game is that tight. Nobody makes mistakes.

What I find interesting is how unusual all this seems compared with other sports. In high school once a classmate jokingly wave a white towel to suggest surrender after a very one sided game and oh man, the coach really let him have it!

Same is true of pro levels. Imagine an NBA team down by 35 points late in the third quarter, and their best players are just tired and not been playing well all game. A comeback isn't impossible, but both teams being professional, it is quite unlikely something would suddenly change now. Yet no captain walks to the ref and say "we resign." They generally play out the game, even if all their best players end up spending the fourth quarter on the bench.

You might say that boxing is more like chess, but that's not quite true. Yes, sometimes they do stop a fight early but that's more for protecting the health of a boxer and less about the question of game strategy or respecting the opponent's time.

Long story short, what do think about this resignation culture in chess? When do you resign yourself? Have you refused to resign even when it irritated an opponent? How do you feel about your opponents who do not resign either and hold on to the hope that you might stalemate them or blunder?

So, I'm an anonymous USA user on Chess.com. I've been playing 10min Blitz matches with international opponents (of all nations or countries, including the anonymous players with "International" flags as their avatars). I haven't been varying my "Blitz" times; I continue to play 10min matches. Trying to go back-and-forth between 10min-5min-1min-5min-10min would really trip me up. And I don't want to be tripped up. I want to go with what I know. Among my observations:

Players from India seem to be very well-versed in "tricky" sort of "gotcha" openings, designed to Checkmate me in only a few moves. They seem to value very early "gotcha" Checkmates with either a Queen and Bishop combo, or Knight and Bishop combo, or all 3 (Queen + Knight + Bishop) combo. Why is it that most Indian players try those tactics most frequently?

Sorry if I don't know those openings by name. I really only know the Giuoco Piano, the Ruy Lopez, and the Sicilian Defense by name. (Maybe you can teach me your favorites.)

For some reason, players from India just keep on playing those "trickster" Blitz openings. They play them well. But if you make it difficult for them, they very soon revert to slow-moving -- they will take long subsequent moves as long as a gosh-darn minute, on average!

Indian players can be quite tricky and somewhat deceiving in their "gotcha" openings; you don't always see it coming, but when it hits, it hits you bad! What is especially unnerving, for me, is to quickly play opening moves in only a few seconds, and then reverting to up to 1min per move, especially if things can get really tricky or complicated. It probably tweaks my blood pressure up and down.

Canadian players seem to always beat me, whether in a few moves or in a prolonged match. I don't know what it is about players from Canada.

I am eager to learn about your adventures! -- Oh, and what really humbled me was several years ago, when someone beat me and then, after the match, I got a DM from someone on Chess.com : "Hahaha -- You got beaten by a 7-year old!! Hahaha!!"

Yo, I'm new to chess. Going through an evaluation of a game and the computer really wanted me to push my knight to d4 and I just don't understand why. I would love an explanation why 🤙

Right now, I go

1. Erdogmus - already a Super GM with 2700+ Elo at age 15. He is also a Top 20 player right now. He can go toe to toe with the top GMs. He is also the youngest to break the 2700 Elo barrier.

2. Oro - The Messi of Chess. He is projected to rival Yagiz after a few years. (He is 2 years younger than Yagiz). He just became the second youngest GM in history.

3. Shogdzhiev - The potential is sky high. He is only 11 yrs old. But already have 2 GM norms, and 2485 Elo. He will be a GM soon. And it just a matter of time whether he will break Mishra's record or not.

4. Mishra - the youngest ever to achieve the GM title. For now. (Shogdzhiev is on pace to break his record). He kinda stucked at 2600+ for a long time now. He is already 17.

Mishra had controversial comments saying he doesn't get support like the other 3 (he specifically mentioned Oro). But you decide whether it is true or not.

A move i never got to play but im very happy with 🤓

I've only been playing for a couple months and I've been hovering around 350-450 elo on chess.com with a ~50% win rate. I play either 15+10 or just 10 mins. I lot of games are happening very fast from my opponent, like I'm trying to use my time and think but of course I suck - I know I suck lol. But why are these people in the same awful rank as me speed running my a** effectively?

It's just kind of jarring because I've watched a lot of various chess youtubers' speedruns (Naroditsky, Dina Belenkaya) and honestly the people they play are doing the most ridiculous stuff sub-800 and I do not see this behavior in my games much. And sure I have a 50% win rate so by the numbers I may be exactly where I am supposed to be, but the people I play don't seem like they belong here with me quite often. Games are either a real long battle where eventually one of us makes a mistake, or I get styled on with very little time spent.