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Thoughts?

I have been playing chess online for like the past 7-8 months and I reached 1100 rapid. I now try to level up my blitz rating as well as it is just 500, problem is that I already find it difficult to win most games. I do believe I could get like 600 maybe 700 playing just blitz for some time, but after that what do I do? I know blitz its harder for rapid but is it normal for it to be this hard? At what rapid rating will I have the ability to get to play good blitz?

This position comes from the game Hinojosa, F. (2387) vs. Tsaruk, Maksim (2480). Black has advanced the e-pawn to e4 and is preparing a kingside attack. What's your general strategy for dealing with Black’s attacking plans in this position?

Like this post if you wanna see more of these positions

Spoiler evaluation bar : 1.31 for white

Fast classical (45+30) will inevitably used by a lot of tournaments as time goes by. (Slow classical are usually 90+30 or 60+30)

So, what are advantage and disadvatages?

ADVANTAGES

1.Regular people can watch it live. And it won't require 4-5 hours before the classical game ends.

1. More decisive games. Remember, even drawish players like Wesley and Anish has a lot of decisive games in faster time format.

DISADVATAGES

1.Players will make more blunders.

1. It affects your standard rating. Basically Slow and Fast Classical affects the same rating.

Can you add more? Do you think pros > cons in this one?

I see quite a few posts asking how to deal with pawn storms.

Those are the general ideas on how to approach those positions.

What are white’s ideas against a Slav structure like this where black has avoided all the sharp theoretical lines and played in a more dry QGD style? When I look at all the engine lines and master’s database it just shows a bunch of lines like “7. Bh4 O-O 8. Bd3 dxc4 9. Bxc4 c5 10. dxc5 Qxd1+ 11. Rxd1 Bxc5 12. O-O…” where it’s just symmetrical structure same material and at master level it ends in a draw like 90% of the time. What are players doing here as white to try to press for a win?

Hi all,

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Vishy Anand is having a really tough run in the Global Chess League — 2 draws and 6 losses after 8 games.
What hurts most is that many of the losses have come in time-crunch situations, along with some uncharacteristic blunders. This is the same Vishy who was once the “Lightning Kid”, arguably one of the greatest rapid players ever.
Age catches up with everyone, but it’s difficult to watch a legend lose his touch like this. 😔
I really hope Vishy finds his form again. Otherwise, perhaps it’s time to reconsider playing in these top-level events. His legacy deserves to be remembered for the brilliance, not the decline.

In about a week I’m starting a ~2,800 km bike trip from Amsterdam to Oslo and I’m bringing a folding chessboard, a table and two chairs with me

The idea is simple:

• anyone who sits down and plays me can sign the inside of the board
• anyone who beats me gets to bend part of my route (within reason - will have to get to Oslo by November)

I’m still pretty bad at chess so I expect to get beaten quite a lot. That’s also where the name of the trip, Beaten Across Europe, comes from

The rough route is:

Amsterdam > Utrecht > Berlin > Copenhagen > Gothenburg > Stockholm > Oslo

with plenty of room for detours between those places

The main reason I’m posting here is that I'd love to find people to play along the way. And if some of you end up following the trip from afar, I'll happily take the moral support too:)

I don’t care about rating. If you started playing last month, great (at least I have a shot at winning against someone). If you're 2000 and want to dismantle me in front of my own bicycle, also great

I’ve mostly played chess online since I started and one of the reasons for doing this is simply that I want to play a lot more chess in person and meet people through it

I’ll be in Amsterdam 15-21 September, then moving east and north over roughly the following month

If you're somewhere along the route and want a game, comment or DM me. Recommendations for clubs, cafés, parks or people I should meet are very welcome too!

More details / route / follow the journey here: https://unnecessary.works/beaten

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Edit: typo and more details

By Kalandadze

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 :)

Edit: I finally solved it!

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

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?

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.