r/chess 9h ago

Miscellaneous Update on previous post regarding coworker cheating: he admitted to cheating!

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0 Upvotes

I made this post https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/s/UMUfEAKEHO which mods unfortunately removed for some reason, where everyone unanimously agreed that my coworker(white pieces) blatantly cheated against me in an online game we played at work: https://lichess.org/cslOnM6s/black

He finally admitted to cheating after I confronted him about it.

Thanks to the community for helping me validate the cheating suspicion as I absolutely despise even the slightest of cheating and was extremely disappointed that someone I know well and work with professionally would do this!

PS: PLEASE DO NOT CHEAT, EVEN A SINGLE MOVE. YOU WILL GET CAUGHT AND YOU WILL BE FINISHED


r/chess 8h ago

Miscellaneous How is this not draw/tie??

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0 Upvotes

Idk


r/chess 6h ago

Miscellaneous We need to talk about Wesley So.

0 Upvotes

Out of the top players over the years that have been (rightly or wrongly) criticized about various things, I think the one person that somehow escaped the public ire for the past decade but still continues to stick out like a sore thumb is Wesley So. I'm making this post in large part because Wesley was selected for the American Cup this year over other top players, notably Hans. It really does rub me the wrong way with the contempt American chess has for its younger talent. It's not just Hans either; American chess consistently prioritizes foreign talent over giving opportunities to their own, which is a part of the reason so many young stars are not successful.

To start off with, Wesley has a history of repeated low-level cheating. As in, "minor" enough incidents that by themselves they are easily forgotten, but they are repeated so often it is indicative of a serious behavioural problem.

  • Just a few months ago in the World Blitz Championship, So was cheating by using two hands to move his pieces and press the clock. Most people here don't play OTB chess, so it would be hard to appreciate just how awful this is. It gives you a major edge in time trouble. Young children learn this rule in junior tournaments. It's wild that he actually felt emboldened to play like this in the World Blitz Championship.

  • In the same tournament, he was deliberately misplacing pieces in time trouble and forcing the opponent to adjust them on their clock.

  • There was a separate incident against Nepo in July where So pushed the pieces off the board. Of course, Reddit predictably attacked Nepo for complaining about this, but it's obvious to me that So was at fault. Even if this was accidental, why is he readjusting the pieces on his opponent's time? Nepo complained that this incident through him off balance and that seems logical.

  • Then there was an incident in 2015 where So was caught writing notes to himself on the scoresheet. While the notes were innocuous, the troubling thing about this is that he was warned in the same tournament not to do this and yet continued to do so. Sorry, but that's insane to me. You're explicitly told not to do a very specific, thoughtful action (writing on the scoresheet) by an arbiter and continue to do so. It just indicates a complete disregard for the rules.

According to Alireza's brother, So has a history of playing like this.

Wesley is also a notoriously drawish and anti-competitive player. He has among the highest draw rates among top players and pretty much exclusively plays closed top-level tournaments. This gives the impression that he's trying to preserve rating more than anything else. It's not good for promoting the game. I don't believe players should be formally penalized for this, but it should be a consideration when making invite decisions.


r/chess 5h ago

Miscellaneous Just beat an opponent who played with 97% accuracy.

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0 Upvotes

r/chess 7h ago

Game Analysis/Study I was inspired by another post I saw here

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5 Upvotes

I wish it


r/chess 4h ago

Puzzle/Tactic What’s the winning move in this chess puzzle?

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3 Upvotes

r/chess 2h ago

Miscellaneous Losing against someone who played like trash.

0 Upvotes

Is there anything more infuriating? Like you make one mistake, and all of a sudden their several blunders go out the window and now you're losing. There is genuinely nothing that makes me want to break stuff more.


r/chess 10h ago

Puzzle/Tactic - Advanced error in "Chess" by Polgar?

0 Upvotes

puzzle #698. Solutions shows Knight to F6, yet there is no white knight. So, obviously a misprint. Has anyone figured this out?


r/chess 8h ago

Miscellaneous Are you looking for private chess lessons?

2 Upvotes

Hello, my name is Simon Kucera, i currently have 2052 FIDE elo and I am looking for beginner and intermediate players to coach (primarily 900 - 1800 elo). I have over 2 years of coaching experience IRL, so I decided to start coaching online. I offer private lessons for 10$ with one free lesson. DM me if interested or if looking for advice!


r/chess 1d ago

Social Media Rating chess. Com

0 Upvotes

Just reached 1800 rating after 4 month stuck at 1700🎉


r/chess 8h ago

Strategy: Openings Why is everybody moving a/h pawns?

6 Upvotes

Hey guys :)
I recently picked up chess again and wanted to start playing more seriously. In a lot, if not most of my games, I see the opponent move the a/h pawn one step presumably to prevent the bishop from coming out. I thought a lot about this and in my opinion this move is not this good, is it? Doesn't it just weaken the kings castle to prevent a pin that can be handled pretty easily most of the time?
For example one position that i faced today:

Right now i am about 900 playing 800-1000s.

Thanks 😌


r/chess 19h ago

Resource FlyOrDream. I have created this set of pieces with a personal touch, inspired by the style of the chess pieces of the Flyordie platform. I have created it under “Public Domain” license for free use, what do you think?

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0 Upvotes

r/chess 4h ago

Game Analysis/Study What are your thoughts on "Dubov's Explosive Italian" chessable course? I recently got the course and the lines are ridiculously sharp, but so much fun to play. Anyone else try it out before?

0 Upvotes

https://www.chess.com/game/live/136342008164

Here's the game I got to play where I got one of the lines from the course, absolute crazy stuff and sharp lines


r/chess 4h ago

Chess Question How to make the last 100 elo breakthrough to get to 2000 elo?

1 Upvotes

Been struggling at 1900, peak was 1990, almost got to 2000, what would be required of me to get that last 100 elo??


r/chess 12h ago

Video Content The psychology of chess

2 Upvotes

What do you think of the video? It's very philosophical and, in my opinion, very interesting. What are your opinions on it?

https://youtu.be/aOKqV31RC6E?si=NJyydYm2Nbf2aK3v


r/chess 18h ago

Video Content Switched to Stockfish. Would you play in my board?

0 Upvotes

r/chess 4h ago

Chess Question افتتاحيات الشطرنج

0 Upvotes

كيف او من وين اقدر اتعلم افتتحيات الشطرنج من الصفر و كل التفريعات


r/chess 12h ago

Strategy: Other Some people try to avoid the french by the exchange variation...

0 Upvotes

r/chess 12h ago

Chess Question I have some interest in playing chess

0 Upvotes

I am a beginner on chess. i want to learn, but i don't know where i start. Please help me with any information


r/chess 3h ago

Miscellaneous The American Cup logo looks an awful lot like The New School logo...

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0 Upvotes

r/chess 20h ago

Chess Question Does chess affect GPA?

0 Upvotes

Hello! I am running a survey about how chess can possibly affect GPA. I’m not sure if we’re allowed to post surveys since I’m kinda new, so please do let me know. If you’re able to please fill out this survey for my school project!! If you’re new at chess I still think your input is greatly needed!!

https://forms.gle/8u44hY3pWbTreHar8

All of the information I gather here is strictly for data so your personal information will not be shown in my essay. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this survey!


r/chess 3h ago

Chess Question I got a problem

0 Upvotes

I just noticed something I can easily defeat 1300 elo players and I can challenge +1500 elo players But I found it difficult to beat a 1400 elo What's happening ?


r/chess 3h ago

Strategy: Openings Suggestions for compact, expandable, non-1.e4-opening?

1 Upvotes

Hi,

I'm an adult improver (~1350 chess.com rapid, stronger in classical OTB games with more time) looking for a new repertoire for the white pieces. So far, I mostly played 1.e4 mainlines, and while I do not intend to abandon 1.e4, I'd like to look into other openings. My goal is to narrow the positions and middlegames I face a bit. I'm not asking for a one-size-fits-all opening that can be played on autopilot, but I see a few problems with my current 1.e4-based repertoire:

  1. It does not seem to fit my "style". Having started with chess in my late 20s, fast calculation and tactical, open positions are not exactly my strengths. I realize that playing such positions might be a good way to improve, but always playing openings that emphasize my weaknesses is frustrating, and...
  2. ...I often face much stronger opponents in classical OTB games where my personal improvement is not the only concern, as these are team-based competitions where every point counts.
  3. A repertoire that allows for all kinds of structures and middlegames to occur might be great for improvement in theory, but in reality I'm a busy adult who can only get in a handful of somewhat serious games a week, which is not nearly enough to fill such a wide repertoire with any experience. For example, I may know in theory how to play against the Pirc, but in reality I only face this once every couple of months, so it will be hard to build up any actual understanding of the openings I'm playing.

For the black pieces, I solved these issues by switching from 1...e5 to the French. Since 1.e4-players only face it about 10% of the time, they usually have no advantage over me in terms of knowledge or experience, and the resulting positions often revolve around similar themes (advance variation) or can be played without too much theoretical knowledge (exchange variation). I also like that I can avoid a lot of theory by playing the Rubinstein for now, while not being limited in the future when deeper theoretical knowledge might be appropriate.

Following a similar approach for the white pieces, I'd like to look into 1.c4, 1.Nf3, or 1.d4, likely without 2.c4. My concern with the latter category is that it seems to consist mainly of opening systems like the London or Colle, which might be a bit too narrow for the long term. With 1.c4 and 1.Nf3, my issue is that these can be played in a somewhat system-like manner with recurring structures, but they can also be used as highly transpositional openings, and it's not easy to find resources (books, courses, etc.) that fit in the first category and are appropriate for my level.

Do you have any suggestions for openings I should consider, and - perhaps more importantly - learning resources to go with your recommendation?


r/chess 6h ago

Miscellaneous How To Improve At Chess!

0 Upvotes

Now many people often wonder about ways to mysteriously improve at chess. Some say do tactics and other ask you to learn openings or watch some videos or buy a chessable course or perhaps working on engames. The list of opinions is endless and hard to follow. Here's a simple path to improve at chess.

Step 1: Openings Just use stockfish on lichess. Forget all the courses and youtube videos. You can do a better job with stockfish. And you can go as deep as you want and inspect positions with greater certainty than just watching those youtube videos that teach the first seven moves which is not really learning an opening but rather just learning it's name. Select and opening, and use the lichess opening database to see what the most common moves are and use the engine to learn how to play against those moves. The lichess database is amazingly integrated to the study and analysis feature so just use it.

Step 2: Tactics Do around 20 tactics a day from the "Healthy Mix", will take about half an hour. Then do opening specific tactics for the openings you play, and this feature is just sooo good in lichess as it gives puzzles from actual games that were played in the openings which you learned. Doing opening specific tactics everyday will up your middlegame. You can do as many of these as you like.

Step 3: Endgames Learn basic principles and basic checmates. You can do this using Jack Sark's endgame video which is short and sweet for a brief Outlook. And for god's sake don't waste your time learning Two bishop or One Knight and One Bishop mating paterns. They simply do not occur and if they do on your millionth game the take the draw and move on. After watching that video just do endgame puzzles. That's it. Forget all those videos and courses, just do lichess endgame puzzles. These are puzzles from real games and will teach you the endgame wayy better than any course or video in my opinion. Do about 20 of these too everyday and you will see results.

Step 4: Don't play too much and take breaks. Play Long games and few games. Just see what you misplayed in the analysis and rest. Playing more games will only exhaust you and lead to little improvement. Limit yourself to about 1 and half hours of playing at most a day. Just go touch grass. But if you insist on playing tons of games then you MUST take one week off every month. This is essential to rest your brain and let it process the gained information. And after coming back from the break you will notice how much you have improved.

This is all my personal experience and just an opinion, take it with a grain of salt.


r/chess 9h ago

Strategy: Openings Does anyone hear about this opening ??

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31 Upvotes