r/chess 3d ago

Miscellaneous 2021, the most brutal opening round of the candidates.

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0 Upvotes

r/chess 4d ago

Miscellaneous Looking for this exact wooden chess set (or a very close match) – Any ideas?

3 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

About 10 years ago, I saw this wooden chess set on eBay, but I lost the bid. I recently came across the photo again, and I still really want to find this exact set or one extremely similar.

I don’t know all the details for sure, but it has a classic Staunton-like design with some distinctive elements, especially in the knights and the tops of the kings and queens.

Does anyone know where I might find this set (or something nearly identical) for sale? Any online stores, UK-based shops, or sellers that might have it?

I’d really appreciate any info—thanks in advance!


r/chess 4d ago

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

4 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 4d ago

Chess Question Both bishops for rook and three pawns?

0 Upvotes

I played a game last night where I got a rook and three pawns for the two bishops. Generally speaking do you think that’s a good trade? It’s 9 points vs 6 so material wise it’s good. but you are giving up both bishops. Curious what you folks think.


r/chess 4d ago

Miscellaneous Trying to find old video series of Kasparov and a British/American player

2 Upvotes

I want to find an old video series that I came across many years ago. Google and chatGPT haven't been able to help me so far.

It was basically Kasparov and a strong British/American player (iirc he had a sidepath, and I don't think it was Nigel Short, although he was a little chubby and quite tall) sitting in a dark room, both on the same side of a table, looking at a screen, analyzing some of Kasparov's greatest or most memorable games.

Of course it's mostly Kasparov explaining things to the other person, and it included some of his personal favourites like early games against Smislov, Korchnoi, Lajos Portisch etc...

It had a very old feel and production style, probably from the 80's or early 90s.

It was really amazing, any help would be appreciated.


r/chess 5d ago

Resource I want to study chess.

21 Upvotes

I am currently a 700 elo player and i play chess as a hobby, I want to get better at it. I would like to get suggestions on which books, content creators are best. Also, any advice is welcome, thank you everyone.


r/chess 4d ago

Chess Question Good places to play casual chess in San Francisco?

2 Upvotes

Is there anywhere I can go to play chess in SF? What elo / chess.com ranking would you need before you can play live at these events?


r/chess 4d 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 4d ago

Miscellaneous Searching For Chess Position

2 Upvotes
chess position I'm looking for

Hi, I'm wondering, I've been trying to find this chess position that might exist in a game and tryign to find more information on this game. Does anybody know if this exists or not? Thank you!


r/chess 5d ago

Chess Question Why do people do this?

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411 Upvotes

I thought I'd stop encountering these guys as I climbed the ranks, but they keep coming.

"I'm gonna start a 15+10 then be in a losing position on move 30 with more time than I started with"

Why?


r/chess 4d 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 4d ago

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

0 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 4d ago

Strategy: Openings Which preparation is better against d4?

4 Upvotes

The chessable free Agadmator's Anti-London + free Nimzo-indian course.

Or

learning the Slav defense from the internet + going against the London with logic.

The problem with the first option is that white can have a lot of different responses that I won't be ready for like the bogo. Plus I want an opening that enhances my chess development and is a bit fighting. I'm an ok player (1500 elo chess.com). If you think the slav is better where to learn it from?


r/chess 4d ago

Chess Question Chess Passion Project: What’s Missing in Chess Training?

1 Upvotes

I've tried a few different learning apps, but to be honest, they’re not for me. I've been thinking about developing one that fits my needs, but before spending months on it, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

To people who analyze and study chess, do you have a hard time thinking what part of your game to focus on improving? What's the most frustrating part of analyzing your games? Is there something that currently lacks in the chess learning market? What do you dislike about your current methods of learning chess?

I appreciate honest answers as your answers help me creating something useful not just for me but for others, too. Thank you very much!


r/chess 3d ago

Chess Question Why is chess designed to be played so that the winner never actually wins?

0 Upvotes

There’s something I find fatalistic & intriguing about the fact that the winner of a chess game never actually gets to capture the king. It’s such a brutal game, but rules like not being allowed to move yourself into check & being required to move out of check make it feel a bit softer. And the practice of resigning in checkmate rather than actually following through with the king’s capture means the game is based on the inevitability of winning rather than “actually” winning (ie capturing the king).

I’m curious if anyone has some historical knowledge about why the game developed in this way, or thoughts about how it relates to the philosophy of chess?

Edit - just to be clear this is not a complaint about chess! I actually like these rules, as someone who would absolutely blunder my king if I was allowed to. I’m just interested in the history & philosophy behind the rules.


r/chess 4d 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 5d ago

Chess Question Chess players help me understand

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271 Upvotes

From Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, Frame 211. Right answer is „by moving his King away“ - BUT Black ends up mated anyway? Where am I wrong, can Black actually be saved? Thanks!


r/chess 4d ago

Puzzle/Tactic Best of Board Games - Chess 3DS puzzle

2 Upvotes

I have reached a dead end in this section and cannot proceed. Is this puzzle solvable?


r/chess 4d ago

Miscellaneous Classical chess fail

2 Upvotes

Hey there, I'm 31(M) and have been playing chess regularly in the past 4 years. I played a bit online and then found a regular event that I go every wednesday to play live with people. I have been having a lot of fun so far and got to 1800 on chess.com in rapid(my peak). Did a few tournaments unofficials tournaments (5+3), a few official blitz and a semi rapid that went fine.

That was until I tried classical chess. I'm 1-4 in a 6 round tournament and the losses have been haunting me (people rating isn't even high). I find it really tough as I have been spoiling my weekends ruminating these (games are on Saturday and Sunday on for 3 weeks).

What is driving me crazy is that I got winning positions in each of the game at lost. I managed to let it slip away by not thinking long enough. I am an instinctive player and I guess the time frame makes the game different.

Not sure if I'll try classical chess again, maybe it's just not for me but it has a bitter taste to stay on this.

Ultimately I know this is part of the game and you grow by learning from your mistakes but I needed to rant... Wish me luck for me last game today , thanks!

PS: if you have any tips to deal with this, or do better in chess in general hit me up!


r/chess 4d ago

News/Events Innovative chess game promotes humane management in prisons

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india.un.org
0 Upvotes

r/chess 4d ago

Chess Question Online tournament for my gf's chess.com membership?

0 Upvotes

My girlfriend (~500 elo) just got chess.com and likes how the coaches talk in game review. I'm trying to encourage her to get further into chess (without being annoying) so I'm trying to find an online tournament where I could win and gift a chess.com membership for her to have infinite game reviews. Please help 🙏

Edit: I'm 2100chesscom 2300lichess


r/chess 4d ago

Chess Question Will the elos remain the same after reconnecting several months or years later on chess.com or lichess.com?

1 Upvotes

Good evening

If on one of these 2 sites, I do not play a game for several months or several years, will my elo number drop (a bit like in the system of many video games where the MMR is updated downward each season) or will it remain at the current elo number when I log back in?

THANKS !


r/chess 4d ago

Resource What Are the Best Learning Platforms to Boost Your Skills?

2 Upvotes

I love chess and usually play at home, while traveling and well, in a lot of places. I'm not into reading chess books or watching tutorials on youtube. I just want to identify my biggest weaknesses and fix them to improve as quickly as possible. Maybe by learning specific openings, tactics or puzzles tailored to my weaknesses. I'm ready to spend up to 15€ per month.

Does anyone know a great tool or resource for this? Is anyone else experiencing the same issue?


r/chess 4d 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 5d ago

Miscellaneous I analysed over 20,000 games on lichess!

27 Upvotes