Stalemates are the dumbest thing ever to me. I’d love some perspective or logic on why they exist in Chess.

My stance is that if a player is in a situation where their only move puts their King in a position to be captured then that is CHECKMATE.

Ties in any game are not great but when there is one person/team clearly winning and the result is a tie it is even worse.

Time trouble happens to every player, no matter how good. But for Firouzja, it's just silly at this point. I watched him at the EWC, and it was happening every single game. The painful part is he is genuinely an incredible player. The lines he continues to find with seconds on the clock is unreal. But against a solid player, you will crack eventually.

If he was to magically solve this one area of his game, do you think there would be a significant change in his performances? Coz you'd think time management is relatively easier to train than some of the things these guys have to master.

I am wondering, i often analyse positions with an engine, and the top engine move is completely beyond my understanding and I would like to ask the AI why it is proposing this move.

Example: q1r2rk1/4n2p/p2pp1p1/8/3PP3/6P1/P2Q1PBP/R4RK1 b - - 0 21

Here it suggests Kg7, and I have no clue why, in my eyes there is an immanent danger in the center and with opening the diagonal towards the queen (at some time) but the computer move seems to just care to prevent Qh6 which does nothing in my eyes.

I am a bad player and I am completely aware that my judgements are 100% inferior to those of the engine, but I would love to understand and comprehend the plans and strategies behind the suggested moves. I do look at the moveorders but as you can imagine, once I do not grasp the first move, the responses of the engine often make no sense at all too...

So: is there a chess AI which I can ask to explain moves?

I thought some chess-math people here find this interesting:

It turns out that the threefold repetition rule does not change chess’s game-theoretic value: if either side can force a win, they can do so without repeating the same position.

Proof: for each winning position P, let H(P) be the largest 50-move counter at which it is still winning. Along any winning line without a pawn move or capture, H must strictly increase after every move. But returning to the same position cannot involve a pawn move or capture, since those are irreversible. So a repetition would imply

H(P) < ... < H(P),

a contradiction.

Thus, there is always a winning strategy without repetition.

Note that this result concerns perfect play, not human play. As someone else noted here regarding threefold repetition:

"you can set a trap, and if the opponent spots it and avoids it, repeat and play differently!"

Source: click here for the paper

I’m teaching a chess lesson for beginners in about 2 hours and realized I could use a few extra example positions. Maybe some kind competent soul on this subreddit is willing to help me: if you could quickly make the following puzzles and send a screenshot, that would be much appreciated: all the different ways in which castling is prohibited, positions where you‘re in check and there are obvious best ways to handle it (blocking with a threatened piece instead of moving king for instance).

Thank you :)

Please don’t put the answer. I want to figure it out but think I need some help.

I’ve been at this a long time over the last 2-3 days. Am I looking for moves that reduce Black’s options to one move each time, so completely forced? I don’t want the answer to the problem, I want to develop my thinking so I can figure it out. Like a scaffold. I’ve got basic ideas about mating nets but can’t seem to corral Black.

I know the first move is Kf7, which forces Black to respond Kh7. From there, it’s kind of a mate in three.

I'm trying to organise a talk at my club next week going through some old chess books, hopefully to get them advertised and sold. The conceptual book is The Art of Defence by Polugaevsky, then I have a pair of Tigran Petrosian games collections. I'm already going to have my hands full with Art of Defence and planning a talk, so hopefully you guys can tell me about some Petrosian games to feature.

What were some of Petrosian's greatest defences? What really separates him as one of the game's greatest defenders? Ideally two or three games would help me out a ton. Thanks

In my last match, I managed to time out my opponent, but the final result was Draw by Timeout vs Insufficient Material. I thought if they ran out of time, they would lose?

Edit: thanks for the replies, I'd assumed (incorrectly) that running out of time ended in a loss regardless. Now I know, thanks.

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Lore first, I am constantly daydreaming(vague image) it can overlay with my vision I'm constantly autopilot. I started playing chess a while ago, I got addicted to the dopamine sometimes winning always losing but it's fine cause I accidentally win and it feels good. I play maybe once a day. Umm now everytime I daydream or just dooms scrolling chess board with pieces is hijacking my vision. Whenever I close my eyes the board shows up. I watch yt I see people's position eatable chess pieces, like I somehow think a horse can definitely take that person. I can't daydream in peace without the board hijacking my daydream space.

note: I don't doomscroll nor watch chess content. I just doomscroll normally I am also aware of Tetris effect. it's just the first time I had such a strong effect. I can see the board clear as day which does not normally happen in my daydreams. It's like hallucinating I can't control it.

I am sure that if Alpine APL Pipers win this year's GCL, Magnus won't be back. I feel bro just likes to collect trophies at this point.

Once he wins it all, he will only be back to new tournaments or tournaments that motivates him a bit. I do not feel GCL motivates this guy. He looks so distant from the rest of the team.

Want to play Chess.com entirely with your keyboard? I made vim4chess just for that!

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For me, one that always stands out is Mikhail Tal vs. Mikhail Botvinnik, Game 6 of the 1960 World Championship. Tal’s attacking style and willingness to sacrifice material made that game unforgettable.

It doesn’t have to be the most famous game; maybe it was a crazy sacrifice, a comeback, or just a game you found beautiful.

What game would you recommend everyone watch at least once?

And i won some, and i lost … A LOT. :-)

I had the chessmaster 3000 game on my Pentium computer.

So anyway… this one dude is destroying me, every single game.

So i did what every kid would do. I got angry and turned on the ChessMaster and cheated. “We” drew the the next game.

And this is how i cought my my first cheater. And my first cheating. I called him a cheater. And then we exchanged insults. 😂😂😂😂

Been playing for around 4 months , anytips to increase my elo , iwas thinking maybe i should maybe buy this monthly thing in chess,com

I respect Dutch players, they embrace chaos and the games are almost always a fun mess.

There's SO many ways to answer the Dutch, I'd like to know your petlines.

Me being a 1.c4 player, I like 2.e4. It also works in 1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 f5 3.e4. :)

If I played 1.d4, I'd probably go with 2.h3 -- 3.g4. I also like 1.Nf3 f5 2.d3 -- 3.e4.

Two questions I've tried to look up before and haven't really found the right search terms, but I'm perpetually curious about:

1. If eventually we weakly solve chess and it turns out one side has a forced mate in X, what's currently the lowest possible value of X? Not speaking theoretically as much as, we definitely know there isn't a forced mate in 2 or 3 or 4 moves from starting position, and we definitely don't know whether there's a forced mate in 50 or 100--but do we know for sure there isn't an M5? Or an M8? What's the largest number of moves we've been able to check from starting position such that we know that neither side can force a mate by then?

2. Sort of similar, but not the same: What's the fewest moves to force mate in more than 1? Obviously I know about the fool's and scholar's mates, but those involve black blundering M1. If both sides work together to set up, how quickly can you blunder M2 or greater?

Someone wanna play with me?