Hobbies The Chess Thread

I just realized the existence of this threat.
Well, I'm not a good player but sometimes I do some clever moves in order to win complicated matches (Often it's just luck lol).The fact is that I don't have a solid theory about the game, that's why I'm searching where can I find the openings and the explanations. Do you know any yt channel or a website that explain all the openings and variations?
 
Openings really are the sort of thing where if you want to have a large repertoire you either need to have just played for years or devote a lot of time to specifically studying openings AND then in either case you still need to have an exceptional memory or at least exceptional general feel for the game/spider sense.

you can advance though with a very limited repertoire. I’m a d4 player so I inherently know most things I can play as black against d4 as well. I came to decide on d4 over e4 or c4 because I felt it gave the most relative control to white over what lines you get into. As an e4 player I feel like you need to know viable responses to dozens of responses. D4 set ups can tend to be much more similar against almost anything black plays.

I don’t know most things with white as e4, but it doesn’t hurt me too much as black because my preferred response is the French defense (I also played the caro Kann for a hot second years ago) which really only requires me to know a few particular setups to get into a playable middle game. Generally the exchange French is just comfortable, the advance usually plays out similarly and so is pretty easy to learn, and against nc3 or nd2 you have a few options and black kinda gets to drive which one they want to play.

Bb4 goes into the winawer which I’ve never preferred because it requires knowing more theory I don’t have time for.
Nf6 cedes the choice to white to some extent of Bg5 vs e5. I used to play this at one point but while I liked the positions I’d get with the mccutcheon vs bg5 I hated playing against e5.
Finally there’s dxe4, the Rubinstein, where in my opinion black is dictating what position they want to get into, with white really unable to generate sufficient immediate threats to stop black’s preferred next few moves. The main line rubinstein used to be my go to but now I prefer the Fort Knox.

of course this doesn’t mean you HAVE to play the French. It’s not for everyone. I just wanted to illustrate that if you want to learn a more minimal opening repertoire and just get yourself into middle games, you should try to pick a white and black repertoire that overlap nicely and don’t require you to need to know any more than you have to.

with white move 1:
Screen Shot 2022-03-19 at 11.27.13 AM.png


with black move 1 against e4:
Screen Shot 2022-03-19 at 11.28.33 AM.png


how i score playing the fort knox as black... no advantage to white:
Screen Shot 2022-03-19 at 11.32.43 AM.png
 
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Bughouse said:
Openings really are the sort of thing where if you want to have a large repertoire you either need to have just played for years or devote a lot of time to specifically studying openings AND then in either case you still need to have an exceptional memory or at least exceptional general feel for the game/spider sense.

you can advance though with a very limited repertoire. I’m a d4 player so I inherently know most things I can play as black against d4 as well. I came to decide on d4 over e4 or c4 because I felt it gave the most relative control to white over what lines you get into. As an e4 player I feel like you need to know viable responses to dozens of responses. D4 set ups can tend to be much more similar against almost anything black plays.

I don’t know most things with white as e4, but it doesn’t hurt me too much as black because my preferred response is the French defense (I also played the caro Kann for a hot second years ago) which really only requires me to know a few particular setups to get into a playable middle game. Generally the exchange French is just comfortable, the advance usually plays out similarly and so is pretty easy to learn, and against nc3 or nd2 you have a few options and black kinda gets to drive which one they want to play.

Bb4 goes into the winawer which I’ve never preferred because it requires knowing more theory I don’t have time for.
Nf6 cedes the choice to white to some extent of Bg5 vs e5. I used to play this at one point but while I liked the positions I’d get with the mccutcheon vs bg5 I hated playing against e5.
Finally there’s dxe4, the Rubinstein, where in my opinion black is dictating what position they want to get into, with white really unable to generate sufficient immediate threats to stop black’s preferred next few moves. The main line rubinstein used to be my go to but now I prefer the Fort Knox.

of course this doesn’t mean you HAVE to play the French. It’s not for everyone. I just wanted to illustrate that if you want to learn a more minimal opening repertoire and just get yourself into middle games, you should try to pick a white and black repertoire that overlap nicely and don’t require you to need to know any more than you have to.

with white move 1:
View attachment 413783

with black move 1 against e4:
View attachment 413784

how i score playing the fort knox as black... no advantage to white:
View attachment 413785
Click to expand...

Now I see that it's a lot of information, all my knowledge in early game is:
(white) start with e4 and then make short castling.
(black) pray.

That's because I always played with friends and usually pick white. I hope I'll be able to improve soon.
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/1583175494090256384

That's a lot of zeroes...

There's no way he wins this, right?

Also wtf does Hikaru have to do with anything? (Genuine question btw. Is there smth I don't know about or is he just being sued for reading articles about it on his stream?)

Edit: I wonder if the point of these numbers is with the end goal of a settlement out of court? Without knowing much about how things are valued in law I genuinely don't know why he thinks whatever damage this may have caused is valued at $400M+. Does he expect some of the counts to fail and want to cover his bases?
 
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Hi, I'm looking for chess games
My fide is around 1700 but I haven't been playing chess seriously otb since a bunch of years. Online I'm > 2000 blitz / rapid on chess.com
If someone is interested, my dms are open. I'm mostly looking for USCF / FIDE rated players about my level or stronger

For openings, even if the discussion is a bit old: globally it is not far from being optional before a certain level, roughly before 2000F (so probably around 2200 CC online). The important thing is to have solid principles in the openings and to apply them, as well as good strategic bases. You can play almost anything (including OTB) before 2000 and probably even higher (2300-2400F) if you are gifted enough at the game (not my case)

I think the best thing is to not spread yourself too thin in your openings and to avoid playing too complex mainlines. For example, play small lines of known openings, with relatively simple plans to understand. I think it's better to work on endgames for one hour than spending three hours on an opening.

But if you really want to work on the openings: firstly I think you have to think about a coherent repertoire with black, for example which allows transpositions. The Caro-Kann and the Slav/Semi-Slav for example have a good synergy and potentially similar pawn structures. The same goes for the French and Orthodox. I'm obviously not saying that the plans are perfectly similar but there are connections between these openings. For the choice with white, it depends a bit on strengths and weaknesses. If you are strategically strong, d4 is probably the best choice. If it's more tactical/aggressive, e4. Obviously this is to keep it simple. The English and Reti are a bit different, they are openings that require a very good knowledge of transpositions and pawn structures for me, the English being probably the trickiest one. I find them globally very difficult to start with and you need to build a very solid experience before getting results with it. All the other first moves are for eccentric players with an unconventional playing style

Another question that may arise is what you want to do with your openings. If you plan to play only in bullet online or in tournaments with a slow OTB time control, it is not the same thing. The shorter the time control, the more you can afford aggressive or "exotic" openings. Finally, there are two ways of approaching openings I think at amateur level: play an opening that matches our strengths to get better results, or build up our repertoire to improve our skill in different aspects of the game. To make it clearer: experienced e4 players are likely to work more on tactics and attacking play, an English player is likely to be comfortable with pawn structures and the concept of transposition, Petrov or Berlin players are likely to be stronger on average than their opponents with equal elo in the endgame, etc. So we can also work on an opening to better understand an aspect of the game that we lack

Studying the openings in depth is quite long, and in my opinion, rather boring: a lot of work for relatively few results. A chess player who works mainly on his openings is like a pole vaulter who only works on the run-up and not on the jumping technique. So I think it's a good idea to decide on a repertoire and stick to it without changing it too much afterwards, even if the results aren't there at first. So you can focus on improving other aspects of your chess technique, and get better quickly. But that's only my own opinion
 
I have been playing chess for almost two years, and I honestly love it as it is so easy to play bullet or blitz games on your phone or a long-winded OTB game at my local chess club. With every chess game, I always learn something new, and it is one of the few games where it is "pure" skill with little to no luck involved. If I lose, it is because I made a mistake somewhere, and finding that mistake and learning from it is what makes chess so fun.

Currently, I am around 1400 Rapid and 1200 Blitz on chess.com and would love to play anyone around my level to play and analyze games to help both of us improve. I play better with more time as I often make careless mistakes, and more time allows me to think about my idea and think about the long-term consequences of it, while in Blitz, I find the shorter time format often forces me to make short-sighted attacks. As I found, when I play with someone around my level who wants to improve, I improve at a rapid rate which I have not been doing for the last six months since I have not stopped by my local chess club. Does anyone else go to chess clubs? I have been to five chess clubs and found the most enjoyable ones that encourage beginners to participate and play. The ones that take chess too seriously are the clubs I do not attend, as most people will not become grandmasters, so why not have fun and play some chess and maybe learn something new?

One book series that helped me rapidly improve was Playing Winning Chess by Yaseer Seirawan, as Seriawan presents information in a simple and precise manner that allows a beginner to understand the fundamentals of chess.

In terms of YouTube, I find most of them not helpful in drastically improving my chess since their primary purpose is to entertain. I enjoy GothamChess, Eric Rosen, and Hikaru, but I do not actively go to YouTube to learn chess.

In terms of openings, I am not a big fan of memorizing openings but rather learning specific structures and ideas. While it is fantastic to remember a "trap," it is much better to know why that "trap" works and is beneficial; I might be able to execute the ideas in a similar position. My favorite aggressive openings are the King's Gambit, Evans Gambit, Fried Fried Liver, etc. I often do not pay attention to the theory but rather try to play ideas that make sense, and if it doesn't work, I do not want to know the correct idea; I want to understand why my idea was incorrect and why the other idea is better so I can apply the knowledge universally.

If anyone wants to play chess, please let me know, as I am always looking forward to playing someone new, regardless of your level, so that we can improve.
 
Vid said:
I have been playing chess for almost two years, and I honestly love it as it is so easy to play bullet or blitz games on your phone or a long-winded OTB game at my local chess club. With every chess game, I always learn something new, and it is one of the few games where it is "pure" skill with little to no luck involved. If I lose, it is because I made a mistake somewhere, and finding that mistake and learning from it is what makes chess so fun.

Currently, I am around 1400 Rapid and 1200 Blitz on chess.com and would love to play anyone around my level to play and analyze games to help both of us improve. I play better with more time as I often make careless mistakes, and more time allows me to think about my idea and think about the long-term consequences of it, while in Blitz, I find the shorter time format often forces me to make short-sighted attacks. As I found, when I play with someone around my level who wants to improve, I improve at a rapid rate which I have not been doing for the last six months since I have not stopped by my local chess club. Does anyone else go to chess clubs? I have been to five chess clubs and found the most enjoyable ones that encourage beginners to participate and play. The ones that take chess too seriously are the clubs I do not attend, as most people will not become grandmasters, so why not have fun and play some chess and maybe learn something new?

One book series that helped me rapidly improve was Playing Winning Chess by Yaseer Seirawan, as Seriawan presents information in a simple and precise manner that allows a beginner to understand the fundamentals of chess.

In terms of YouTube, I find most of them not helpful in drastically improving my chess since their primary purpose is to entertain. I enjoy GothamChess, Eric Rosen, and Hikaru, but I do not actively go to YouTube to learn chess.

In terms of openings, I am not a big fan of memorizing openings but rather learning specific structures and ideas. While it is fantastic to remember a "trap," it is much better to know why that "trap" works and is beneficial; I might be able to execute the ideas in a similar position. My favorite aggressive openings are the King's Gambit, Evans Gambit, Fried Fried Liver, etc. I often do not pay attention to the theory but rather try to play ideas that make sense, and if it doesn't work, I do not want to know the correct idea; I want to understand why my idea was incorrect and why the other idea is better so I can apply the knowledge universally.

If anyone wants to play chess, please let me know, as I am always looking forward to playing someone new, regardless of your level, so that we can improve.
Click to expand...
that series by seirawan is indeed excellent. I used those a lot earlier in my chess career.

If you're looking for any more books, How to Reassess Your Chess by Silman was probably the single most impactful to my advancement. I also strongly recommend Silman's Complete Endgame Course.

Art of Attack in Chess by Vukovic and Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual are similarly useful books once you're at a higher level.

I also really love the Chess Training Pocket Book series by Lev Alburt.
 
Myzozoa said:
im a bad beginning player who has never really learned any openings (like I feel like if I'm honest I know 1 part of the mainlines of queen's gambit for white+how to avoid the fried liver w black, and nothing else. like sure, I "know" the move order for some lines of the italian game, but being real I should not really be going for the italian game at my level).

How do you learn openings? and what openings do you recommend for black? I'm kind of too dumb to ever become actually good at chess, so mainly looking for lines that lead to favorable end games or at least clear end game plans. Like, how did you come to understand an opening beyond just memorizing some move orders? I just feel so lost trying to understand the positions im trying to get w openings and what types of plans I have in those positions.

Is there a certain lichess.com study or free youtube video that was particularly helpful for you to finally understand what types of positions to play for from a certain opening? repost it at me if possible plz.





I am not a even a good chess player, but ime: Until you develop the mental aspect of your game to the point where you no longer think about/are affected by whether your opponent is weaker or stronger than you, you should try "pretending" that your lower rated opponents are actually higher rated and youre the underdog, possibly in addition to "pretending" that your stronger opponents are actually lower rated. I know it sounds crazy, but if you want this aspect of the mental game you may need to practice dumb mind tricks like this on yourself. I used to have a similar problem in a different sport and this is sort of like what I did to overcome it only applied to your case (my problem was that I went easier on my opponents when I was winning, so I would pretend my opponent's score was my score when I was winning so that I wouldn't 'let up').
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cityscapes' post on this is pretty good but the main thing that caused me to jump a lot in rating was learning structures (pawn structures and piece placements). you should know the basics of openings but a lot of stuff you can't really memorize past move 10--there's too many sidelines and stuff and at higher levels being outprepped is pretty much gg if your opponent knows what they are doing. try sticking to something that does not require too much theory (like d4 openings for example will still require theory but are a lot more theoretical and structural than e4 openings, small missteps are less game-ending in the queen's gambit than the sicilian), learn to play with your pieces (position them better, maneuver, etc). if you can get to the middle game without losing you can win so many more games by just having more game intuition and knowledge, and this stuff you don't lose as much as the opening memorization that you will have to keep coming back to.

I have used a lot of chess resources when I got back into it and I think making significant improvement is hard without a lot of intentional effort, but you can always look at the st. louis chess club or chess24. i'd try going through free resources before something like chessable or what others have mentioned before me.

If you use lichess a lot look under "Learn -> Studies"; there's some inbuilt theory. I remember I used one of the Najdorf studies from some NM while prepping for an open tournament to brush up.

i'm always down to play as kingler12345 when i have time cuz i love the game so you can add me on there

edit: hikaru also has an excellent suggestion that doesnt require you to actually play a full game: improve your tactics
 
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Did you know that I'm a better chess player than FIDE's official policy writer?

When you're so pro-women that you think literally everyone AMAB is automatically smarter than you. Gimme a fucking break.
 
Two questions!

Is anyone following the world championship? I am really rooting for Ding Liren. I like the underdog, people have been doubting Ding too much, and I also just instinctively root for the older players.

And, do people here enjoy any chess variants, and if so, which ones? I am a huge fan of these. Some of my favorites are Grand Chess, Chak, and Shogi. Maybe Shogi is more of a regional 'sibling' of chess, rather than a variant, but I feel the need to mention it because of how unbelievably great it is.


1733460411011.png


(Grand Chess)
 
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I’m slowly getting back into chess, I’ve been playing since July 2022. I started a chess club in my city last year, and hosted a few unrated tournaments. I got burnt out, and didn’t love the crowd I’d attracted after awhile. I eventually handed it off to someone else who made it worse, still not happy about that lol.

My ex also messed it up for me, she always complained when I went to club and would try to distract me when I was playing, frequently losing me games by hitting the board and making me blunder.

Before the last rated tournament I went to, I stayed up most of the night partying with her and tanked the tournament. But I’m still a little annoyed they took too long to get started, so I got an abridged lunch, without being told our next round wasn’t delayed, so I ended up losing time on a game where I needed it.

Idk, a lot of it’s still on me, and I’m putting in work to get back into it. I was beating my friends so badly they quit playing lol. Not that I’m that good or anything, but it’s frustrating to come back and be rusty.
 
I've bought a few chess books here, and there, seen a ton of openings, and chess is REALLY deep and cool, I'd love to learn it...but I've got a question, how the living hell does one learn it's notation? there's a ton of ways I've seen it taught, but I'm often lost in the teaching of it.
 
FireBlaze said:
I've bought a few chess books here, and there, seen a ton of openings, and chess is REALLY deep and cool, I'd love to learn it...but I've got a question, how the living hell does one learn it's notation? there's a ton of ways I've seen it taught, but I'm often lost in the teaching of it.
Click to expand...
honestly just play online, whether you're doing actual games, puzzles, or analysis, this is what really ingrained it for me. when i push the pawn in front of my queen 2 squares and the move list next to me says i just played d4, this built the association in my brain piece by piece. eventually it just becomes completely intuitive

anyway to not just make this a one liner, i've been playing more correspondence chess on lichess recently and have honestly been having a great time with that. i quite honestly think short time controls are lame as hell, and that the best way to truly test your understanding of the game is to jump into a long game and test your calculation and evaluation skills.

as for a question i have, i'm genuinely not sure how to study openings at this point. i know pretty much all competitive openings at a decent level (starting few moves and the basic ideas), but i don't know how to proceed past this. like let's take the najdorf for instance (though there are others like the ruy lopez, the scotch, some queen's gambit lines, catalan). now the najdorf is widely regarded as highly theoretical and not something you should get into if you don't know what you're doing, but i also think it's a fucking cool opening and i don't want to just disregard it on the basis of it just being "hard to learn".

i know there's like a massive amount of learning material online for this sort of thing, but not all of it is equal. what i want is someone who will tell me "these are all of white's approaches after 5. ...a6, here's the possible positions they lead to, here are the plans for both sides". i think at this point it's possible for me to study master-level games independently and make out what each side is really trying to do, but being guided by someone more qualified would be a huge help. for instance, black playing e5 in the najdorf always looks so counterintuitive to me because of how much of a long-term target d6 will be, so i want explanation as to why it's actually chill.

for reference im like 1900-2100 on lichess depending on time control and on how much i give a fuck about the game. also please don't suggest stuff that costs money, i do not have very much of that currently
 
Yea I've got those books that show openings, otherwise known as (Chess Movies.) I guess I'll review them and just practice a bit, Thank you!
 
fen.gif


Fun blitz game today.

White has just played the c4 central break, to which I responded d4, and white played exd4. White was considerably better/maybe even winning if they had played Bxc6 instead of exd4, but exd4 looks very appealing. Why is it bad?

Spreek
 
https://lichess.org/Zm7E4Cb7
Earlier today I played a *perfect game as black in a king's indian type setup. This might not be cool to the better players here but I'm 1000 rapid and usually play at least 2 blunders so this was a big step.

*lichess says 1 "inaccuracy" on turn 11, but it had no bearing on the game at all

I learned this style from this video just a couple of days ago, would recommend to anyone who's not familiar with the opening. It makes it super easy by just highlighting the main ideas and typical moves instead of diving too much into long variations like other chess videos. At first, I had trouble figuring out when to attack the center but I figured it out after a few games.

I know this thread doesn't get a ton of traffic, but hopefully I can help someone around my skill level who stumbles across this in the future.
 
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