# The chess corner



## Proms Fanatic

Any chess players on here?

I'm a decent club player in my local leagues, I have a FIDE rating of approx. 2050.


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## Art Rock

I used to be. Played in the third Dutch national division in the mid 80s, ELO rating around 2000. Scalped a couple of minor grandmasters in exhibition games (Westerinen, van der Sterren, Ligterink). Have not played chess outside the family for a very long time though.


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## Weston

I played chess in tournaments as a teenager and worked my way just a bit above novice rating. That doesn't sound like much, but in chess that's pretty good. I also played for my high school chess team. We never got a letter jacket for it. 

(The letter jacket is an American thing, and maybe old fashioned. Is it still done? Do other nations do that? I have no idea.)

Chess is great way to train the mind to think ahead, but once computers came along I was smitten with those and chess became passing phase.


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## musicrom

Chess players unite! There's actually a chess group here on TC, although it's not really that active.

I don't have a FIDE rating yet - have only played 3 games that counted, I think I might need 5, but it says my rating performance was 1986. My USCF rating is currently 1705.


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## TurnaboutVox

I played for my school team in the late 70s / early 80s, very little since then. I do (attempt!) chess problems regularly to keep my hand in, though.


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## Proms Fanatic

I once heard that there was some correlation between chess, maths and musical ability. I've no idea if this is just an urban myth I heard but I'm not surprised that there's quite a few (ex) chess players on here.

There does seem to be more and more evidence that chess (as well as other mind activities) can delay the onset of Alzheimer's and keep you in better general mental health.


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## SixFootScowl

Absolutely wonderful game, perhaps the greatest board game ever. I have played, but am not that good.


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## GreenMamba

2050 FIDE is a lot better than decent, although the nature of the game is the better you get, the more you realize how limited you are.

I was around Musicrom's level USCF before I stopped playing OTB. I never played as a child, which put a large damper on my potential. I still like to read chess books, etc.


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## Xaltotun

I'd start playing and learning about chess immediately if I found a beautiful, big board and pieces.


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## Proms Fanatic

GreenMamba said:


> 2050 FIDE is a lot better than decent, although the nature of the game is the better you get, the more you realize how limited you are.


The more you know, the more you realise how ignorant you really are!



GreenMamba said:


> I never played as a child, which put a large damper on my potential. I still like to read chess books, etc.


Chess is all about pattern-spotting, it's very hard to be a good chess player if you learn as a late teen or an adult. You find that most GMs have started playing by the age of 10 at the oldest.


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## Krummhorn

I learned to play chess from my Dad in my very young years - the games would last up to a couple of hours at times. Later on, I taught my own Son the game - we played frequently years ago but seldom presently. Wife refuses to learn. 

I still have the chess pieces from the days my Dad was in the Merchant Marines in 1935, and the board (with inlays) that my Grandfather made.


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## Albert7

Yes, I play chess.

P-KR3. Just kidding.


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## MoonlightSonata

Yes, I love chess! My rating is nowhere near 2050, but I did manage to win a regional chess tournament recently.


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## Weston

Albert7 said:


> Yes, I play chess.
> 
> P-KR3. Just kidding.


When tournaments, at least in the US, switched from this notation system to some kind of weird F2-F3 alphanumeric thing, I couldn't make the transition. I think that had a lot to do with why I stopped playing.

I've toyed with the idea of having a nice chess board set up just for decor. It's the kind of ambiance I like in my life.


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## Art Rock

Weston said:


> I've toyed with the idea of having a nice chess board set up just for decor. It's the kind of ambiance I like in my life.


I have this Korean set for decoration in my study:


Ready for battle by Hennie Schaper, on Flickr


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## GreenMamba

Weston said:


> When tournaments, at least in the US, switched from this notation system to some kind of weird F2-F3 alphanumeric thing, I couldn't make the transition. I think that had a lot to do with why I stopped playing.


The US was a late adopter of algebraic notation. It's not weird at all (though playing f2-f3 often is ). Designations are absolute and not relative to each player.

Nowadays, you find people who won't read old chess books because they don't know the older (descriptive) notation. I'm comfortable with both.


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## SixFootScowl

Weston said:


> When tournaments, at least in the US, switched from this notation system to some kind of weird F2-F3 alphanumeric thing, I couldn't make the transition. I think that had a lot to do with why I stopped playing.
> 
> I've toyed with the idea of having a nice chess board set up just for decor. It's the kind of ambiance I like in my life.


Yeah, I know the old notation. Make your chess board life sized as a patio using two colors of square patio blocks and get statues for the pieces. It can be towards the end of the game with fewer pieces so you don't go broke buying statuary.


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## Ingélou

Maybe there *is* a correlation between chess (& maths) & music, since quite a few here seem to play, or have played, it to a reasonable level, and there's a chess group on the forum.

Myself, I know the rules, and that's about it. 
Could go for Florestan's fancy patio, though...!


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## SixFootScowl

Ingélou said:


> Maybe there *is* a correlation between chess (& maths) & music, since quite a few here seem to play, or have played, it to a reasonable level, and there's a chess group on the forum.
> 
> Myself, I know the rules, and that's about it.
> Could go for Florestan's fancy patio, though...!


Was there something like the life sized chess set in a movie, seems I recall something like that, or was it in Alice in Wonderland?

I like math, I like chess, I like music. Math and chess are very analytical. So is music when you look at the scales and stuff and the construction of a piece. But thankfully one can immensely enjoy music without needing to get into the analytical end of it.


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## GraemeG

I've never played seriously in any way at all, although at least I know the rules!
One day before I die, I'd like to take a pawn _en passant_. Never done that yet.

It amazes me how often I see people setting up wrongly; black square bottom right, and kings and queens apparently randomly-placed in the middle of the row.
At least my kids can set up the damn pieces properly! Even if they haven't got all the subtleties of the castling rules yet!
cheers,
GG


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## Proms Fanatic

Next time you see anything with a chess board in the media, check to see if the board is the wrong way round. I'd estimate it's 50/50 whether it's a white or a black square in the bottom right corner.


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## MoonlightSonata

Weston said:


> When tournaments, at least in the US, switched from this notation system to some kind of weird F2-F3 alphanumeric thing, I couldn't make the transition. I think that had a lot to do with why I stopped playing.
> 
> I've toyed with the idea of having a nice chess board set up just for decor. It's the kind of ambiance I like in my life.


TBH I could never get used to the old one. Probably something to do with the fact that I was already 'fluent' in algebraic notation before I saw the other one.


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## musicrom

Proms Fanatic said:


> Next time you see anything with a chess board in the media, check to see if the board is the wrong way round. I'd estimate it's 50/50 whether it's a white or a black square in the bottom right corner.


This! Whenever I see a chessboard on TV, there's always something wrong with it. Wrong orientation of the board, people moving with one hand and pressing the clock with the other, illegal moves, etc. etc. etc.


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## Proms Fanatic

I always find it funny when people act incredibly shocked when their opponent checkmates them, like they can't see a mate in one...


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## Weston

!? One of those a little before one minute in looked like he checkmated with a king. Can you do that? 

Oh, I guess it's what you call "discovered check" where the the king unblocks a check from another piece.


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## MoonlightSonata

Weston said:


> !? One of those a little before one minute in looked like he checkmated with a king. Can you do that?
> 
> Oh, I guess it's what you call "discovered check" where the the king unblocks a check from another piece.


Occasionally, one could even deliver checkmate by castling - what a strange game that would be!


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## GreenMamba

MoonlightSonata said:


> Occasionally, one could even deliver checkmate by castling - what a strange game that would be!


Morphy-Morphy (Paul against his father Alonzo).

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nxf7 Kxf7
7.Qf3+ Ke6 8.Nc3 Nd4 9.Bxd5+ Kd6 10.Qf7 Be6 11.Bxe6 Nxe6
12.Ne4+ Kd5 13.c4+ Kxe4 14.Qxe6 Qd4 15.Qg4+ Kd3 16.Qe2+ Kc2
17.d3+ Kxc1 18.O-O# 1-0

Back in the day, a losing player would often allow himself to go down spectacularly. I wonder about this one. It's bad enough for your King to get mated on move 18, but on your opponent's back rank?


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## bestellen

I very like chess. I play on chessclub. My rating is not high (near 1750-1850).


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## GreenMamba

Woah, bestellen's post count is zero at the time I write this. How does that happen?

Add: Ahh, Community posts don't count. Never noticed that.


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## Art Rock

It looks like we have a handful (maybe more) chess players on the site. Let's see whether a thread on the subject is useful. Post anything chess related here, stories, anecdotes, questions, and so on.


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## Art Rock

I learned the chess rules as a young boy in the mid sixties, and played once in a while at home against my father and grandfather, but nothing even remotely serious. In the late seventies, my father (a strong chess player) bought one of the first chess computers (Challenger), and that piqued my interest in the game for the first time. I was allowed to have a go against the machine at a regular basis, analysed games with my father, and gradually beat the higher levels. I started to look a bit at opening theory, combination, tactics, and end games - mainly over the board with my father.

In 1980 I moved to Delft to start working on a Ph.D. in chemistry. Opportunities to play with my father had of course decreased to the occasional weekends, and I was looking to play chess more regularly. I joined the strongest local chess club (DSC), started to play in the internal competition, and saw my strength increase. At my peak (around 1985) I played in the first team, in the second Dutch national division, with reasonable scores, and an Elo rating of around 1900. I also played a number of simultaneous exhibitions against masters and grandmasters, and defeated three of them. 

And then I quit playing chess to pursue other interests. In the nineties I tried correspondence chess for a while (encouraged by my father who had taken it up and later became Dutch national champion in it), but I did not like it.

The pandemic of 2020/2021 meant more time at home, and I searched for a site to play on-line chess. I found it in chess.com. I registered November 20th 2020, and first played lots of games against the various free computer programmes on the site. It confronted me quickly how much I had forgotten about the game, making rookie mistakes all the time, but slowly I picked up. It also became clear that these programmes at the levels I tried (1600-2000 Elo) were very good in tactics, but not in strategies, let alone end games. I decided that I could not further improve (aiming for my old level) this way, and that I needed actual human opponents.

I picked the "rapid" (30 minutes per person per game, around 14 million active players) mode as a good compromise to play chess on-line - long enough to think about the moves, short enough to be able to set aside an hour purely for a game. The site had to assign me an Elo rating to pair me with players of similar strength - based on my own assessment of intermediate strength (given my background but also the frequent howlers against the chess programmes), I started at a 1200 rating. The rest of the year I played 52 games against human opposition in this format, some nice wins, some awful losses (including a defeat in 7 moves by blundering a piece in the opening). I did get the feeling that gradually some of my skills of the eighties were coming back. My rating increased and hit 1632 at year's end, and is 1749 now.


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## science

Ah, yes, I was just pointing out that 1. f4 avoids the French. 

But it's kind of a dirty bird.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

I was thinking we could start a TC chess thread, a correspondence game where people can input one move per post (I'd work out the specifics, one of which would be you could only play for one side). If there's enough interest and if people take it seriously I think it could be pretty fun. Otherwise if anyone would like to play online at some point feel free to PM me.


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## Art Rock

I used to play the Bird in speed chess (5 minutes games) to throw the opponent off balance. In serious games I have almost always played e4 as opening move.


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## science

Art Rock said:


> My rating increased and hit 1632 at year's end, and is 1749 now.


Nice!

1779 is the highest I've ever achieved and ... I don't want to admit what my rating is now!

I just started taking chess seriously again a few weeks ago because I decided to try to achieve 1800 (rapid; 10 minute games), and found that the chess world has really changed since the last time I paid attention to it.

I've been studying it a few hours each day. I'm done for today, but I looked at the Najdorf Sozin, the Sicilian Grand Prix (the 1. e4 c5 2. f4 lines; a lot of people call it something different now but I can't remember and it'll always be the Grand Prix to me), and the now-very-popular Stafford Gambit of the Petrov.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

Against the sicilian I usually play the Alapin (2. c3 to control the d4 square immediately) or, if I'm playing a lower rates player, the wing gambit (2. b4). Against 1. e5 I'll go for the king's gambit against pretty much anyone (unless I were to play someone strong enough). Despite these opening preferences I actually prefer closed, positional games in longer time formats (even 10 minutes). But they can be dreadful sometimes too.

The highest rating I achieved online is about 2000 on lichess and 1900 on chess.com.


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## Art Rock

What's a chess thread without a board?










From a game earlier this year. I had sacrificed a knight for the kingside attack, and now reaped the rewards:

27. Nf6+ Kf8 28. Qh8+ 1-0 (after Bxh8 white has two mating moves: Rg8 or Nh7).

A nice win against an opponent rated 100 points higher than me.


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## Jacck

We used to play in a pub which we frequented with some friends. I was once able to beat a guy with ELO 1850, though it was probably an accident. Among those friends / drinking budies was also one guy who was among the top20 players in Czech Republic. He had ELO way over 2000. I never played him but he said that he trains/studies chess playing several hours a day. It was then that I realized that at this professional level chess is likely no fun and I would not like to invest so much time into learning one silly game


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## Art Rock

The black defence against e4 that I struggle with is the French. I used to play the advance variation over the board, but recent games were not encouraging. Any suggestions?


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## science

Art Rock said:


> I used to play the Bird in speed chess (5 minutes games) to throw the opponent off balance. In serious games I have almost always played e4 as opening move.


It works very well in those situations. I LOVE playing From's Gambit too.

For tricks and giggles, I also enjoy the Orangutan and the Latvian Gambit. In fact, I have my own personal little innovation in the latter:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5 3. Nxe5 Qf6 4. Nc4 fxe4 5. Nc3 and here...









I (and, well, probably lots of people before me) discovered 5. ... Ne7.

I found this because I have a friend who knows the Latvian Gambit as white (which almost never happens), but I found out what lines he plays (thanks to openingtree.com) and just looked for something decent to surprise him with, and voila. The main move (and the better one, albeit only slightly) is 5. ... Qf7. The trap after 5. ... Ne7 is 6. Nxe4 Qe6, pinning the knight so that d5 will fork them momentarily. Not that the game is over, but you're out of the opening and approximately equal and that's about all a Latvian Gambit player has a right to ask for against someone who knows the lines!


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## science

Since we're showing off, here's this, from a 3+2 blitz game I played a few days ago:









Let's just all politely agree that I'd sacrificed the exchange and three pawns to reach this position, and as I result I got to play (for the 2nd time in my life, incidentally) 1. Qe6+ Kh8 2. Nf7+ Kg8 3. Nh6+ Kh8 4. Qg8+ Rxg8 5. Nf7#


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## Art Rock

Sweet. the classic smothered mate.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

Against 1. e4 I usually play the Caro-Kann. The most common reply I get is the advance variation, and I find it enjoyable to play as black trying to undermine white's central control.


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## Art Rock

I play the Alekhine against e4. I've got decent results with that over the board, and beat one IM and two IGM's in simultaneous exhibition games. More recently, at chess.com I've been doing pretty well with it - although many transpose by playing 2. Nc3.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

Do y'all have favorite variants? I like Ultima and giveaway chess.


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## science

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> Against 1. e4 I usually play the Caro-Kann. The most common reply I get is the advance variation, and I find it enjoyable to play as black trying to undermine white's central control.


How do you feel about the Bayonet Variation? I play advance and 4. h4 and I'm always happy to see 4. ... h5 so I can play 5. Bg5. I imagine you know the lines better than I do. So much fun. I once got to allow the ... Qb6, ... Qxb2, ... Qxa1 line, but my opponent slipped away. When I reviewed the game, it turned out his queen was actually trapped and I'd missed it.

For the moment I'm much less excited to see 4. ... h6.


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## science

Art Rock said:


> I play the Alekhine against e4. I've got decent results with that over the board, and beat one IM and two IGM's in simultaneous exhibition games. More recently, at chess.com I've been doing pretty well with it - although many transpose by playing 2. Nc3.


Alekhines make me really nervous, but so far I haven't lost enough games against them to study them. I'm sometimes tempted to adopt it so that I could play the Brooklyn Variation!


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## science

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> Do y'all have favorite variants? I like Ultima and giveaway chess.


I'm trying to arrange a game of 4-player chess with my friends....


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## Art Rock

I'll stick with the 'real thing'. I did play a variation on club nights in the eighties were you play together with your neighbour against two opponents and you pass on captured pieces to him/her to use on their board.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

science said:


> How do you feel about the Bayonet Variation? I play advance and 4. h4 and I'm always happy to see 4. ... h5 so I can play 5. Bg5. I imagine you know the lines better than I do. So much fun. I once got to allow the ... Qb6, ... Qxb2, ... Qxa1 line, but my opponent slipped away. When I reviewed the game, it turned out his queen was actually trapped and I'd missed it.
> 
> For the moment I'm much less excited to see 4. ... h6.


Oh... I should have mentioned, I don't actually play 3. ... Bf5. I usually play 3. ...c5, called the Botvinnik-Carls defense. Maybe it's not objectively the greatest reply  but it takes people out of theory, and I generally know the positions better than my opponents. I find that most people don't opt to take on c5 immediately and so the opening becomes a lot like the French defense.

I've only recently started playing the C-K though, and don't know too much theory associated with it.


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## science

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> Oh... I should have mentioned, I don't actually play 3. ... Bf5. I usually play 3. ...c5, called the Botvinnik-Carls defense. Maybe it's not objectively the greatest reply  but it takes people out of theory, and I generally know the positions better than my opponents. I find that most people don't opt to take on c5 immediately and so the opening becomes a lot like the French defense.
> 
> I've only recently started playing the C-K though, and don't know too much theory associated with it.


A guy just played this against me this today...

... and based on how that went, I should probably study that tomorrow!


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## WNvXXT




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## Conrad2

Art Rock said:


> ... you pass on captured pieces to him/her to use on their board.


That part sounds similar to Shogi, Japanese chess, where you can reuse your opponent's pieces against them. Though, there isn't multiplayer in the variant I played. It's an interesting game, where the rules it's a bit more complex than Western Chess. I'm just a beginner but advanced player games was very fascinating to watch.

Here's a Shogi board: 









For Western Chess, it's been a while since I played it or took it more seriously, so these posts about opening or counteract moves are reminding me when I was in chess club in school. I wasn't the strongest player, though. Perhaps it's time for me to take it up again.


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## Barbebleu

Art Rock said:


> The black defence against e4 that I struggle with is the French. I used to play the advance variation over the board, but recent games were not encouraging. Any suggestions?


When I played competitively with white I played the Tarrasch against the French, the Four Pawns against the Caro-Kann, the Exchange against the Ruy Lopez and the main line Bg5 against the Sicilian. I occasionally opened c4.

With black I played the Najdorf (Polugaevsky variation) against e4 and the King's Indian or Nimzo against d4.

Narrow repertoire but less to learn.


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## senza sordino

I learned to play as a teen. But I doubt that I am a good player, probably a weak player compared with all of you. And I have no idea what the notation of chess moves means. For example, this post is a foreign language to me.



science said:


> How do you feel about the Bayonet Variation? I play advance and 4. h4 and I'm always happy to see 4. ... h5 so I can play 5. Bg5. I imagine you know the lines better than I do. So much fun. I once got to allow the ... Qb6, ... Qxb2, ... Qxa1 line, but my opponent slipped away. When I reviewed the game, it turned out his queen was actually trapped and I'd missed it.
> 
> For the moment I'm much less excited to see 4. ... h6.


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## Art Rock

One of the things I've found since playing again is that my capacity for speed chess (5 minutes games) is shot. I used to be reasonably good at it when I was a club player, but now when I can think only 2-3 seconds on a move, I make the weirdest blunders.


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## science

Art Rock said:


> The black defence against e4 that I struggle with is the French. I used to play the advance variation over the board, but recent games were not encouraging. Any suggestions?


No, but when I started taking chess seriously again, I found that the opening that I have the worst rating against (as white) is the French, so I've been working on it.

There is a line that I love to play called the Alekhine-Chatard Attack, so I basically try to play toward that and I have to learn the other things that black can play to as well as I can.


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## Art Rock

science said:


> ... the Alekhine-Chatard Attack...


That looks quite interesting. Link to come back to this later. From past experience though most French players went for 3 Bb4.


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## science

Art Rock said:


> That looks quite interesting. Link to come back to this later.


Wow there is some information there ....



Art Rock said:


> From past experience though most French players went for 3 Bb4.


That's true. That's what I've been working on lately -- not for the past few days, but a bit last week. IMO it's fun but I hope I do better against it in the future.


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## science

Somebody who hasn't had enough coffee today accidentally made two posts when one would do....


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## WNvXXT

I've always liked a well done chess movie (or series). Netflix' The Queen's Gambit was a good watch. My favorite is Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993).


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## Jacck

WNvXXT said:


> I've always liked a well done chess movie (or series). Netflix' The Queen's Gambit was a good watch. My favorite is Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993).


the only one I can remember is The Luzhin Defence


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## EdwardBast

As a child I first learned about senility when I tried to teach my paternal grandmother how to play chess. 

My friends and I played as teens. I was never very good, as far as I know. I always played queen's pawn openings when white because my friends seemed to be put off by it.


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## DaveM

I am a Chess enthusiast very much in the amateur category with an Elo around 1600-1650 at my best, but probably lower now though I have some good days. I have been a major collector of electronic chess boards specializing more on portables. I sold off the most valuable big boards a few years ago. I have played boards far more than humans. (I don't trust online games anymore.)

Some of the portables have increased in value over the years since they don't make them anymore and people are holding on to them. My favorite and one of the rarest is the Novag Jade II (elo circa 1900-2000).


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## HenryPenfold

DaveM said:


> I am a Chess enthusiast very much in the amateur category with an Elo around 1600-1650 at my best, but probably lower now though I have some good days. I have been a major collector of electronic chess boards specializing more on portables. I sold off the most valuable big boards a few years ago. I have played boards far more than humans. (I don't trust online games anymore.)
> 
> Some of the portables have increased in value over the years since they don't make them anymore and people are holding on to them. My favorite and one of the rarest is the Novag Jade II (elo circa 1900-2000).
> 
> View attachment 153235


That machine must have been good to have remained in production for 100 years. I bet the early models fetch a price.

I'm more of a drafts man myself, but I know most of the rules of chess, although I don't quite grasp 'castling' (sounds like a _double-entendre_, anyway).


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## GraemeG

My, what an erudite corner we have here. Let's hope you're not swamped by a mass of "List you top 5 favourite chess piece" threads...
I have a compulsion whenever I see a chessboard set up (in a shop, someone's house, a movie) to check whether the white square is on the right, and the both queens aren't on the same side of the king!


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## Art Rock

GraemeG said:


> My, what an erudite corner we have here. Let's hope you're not swamped by a mass of "List you top 5 favourite chess piece" threads...
> I have a compulsion whenever I see a chessboard set up (in a shop, someone's house, a movie) to check whether the white square is on the right, and the both queens aren't on the same side of the king!


A famous Dutch chess writer (and somewhat less famous player), Tim Krabbe, had amassed a stunningly huge collection of advertisement clippings in which the chessboard was set up the wrong way (mostly indeed with a black square on the right).


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## Art Rock

HenryPenfold said:


> I'm more of a drafts man myself, but I know most of the rules of chess, although I don't quite grasp 'castling' (sounds like a _double-entendre_, anyway).


Just wait until you come across the 'En passant' rule. At chess.com not a week goes by without a newbie posting an angry rant that their opponent cheated by capturing a pawn that way.


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## Art Rock

For those interested in Elo ratings, here is a site that can estimated yours: http://www.elometer.net//.

I like their approach: they give you 76 chess problems to solve as if you were playing the position over the board (no, it is not a 5 minutes questionnaire...). Based on the answers they estimate your rating: the programme has been calibrated by using the test results of hundreds of volunteers with established ratings (realized in large series of games). I found the 76 problems an interesting mix from simple to challenging to impossible, from opening issues, to combinations, to strategies, to end games. In the end, my result was an estimated rating of 1874 with a 95% confidence interval of 1747-2001. Remarkably close to my actual rating of three decades ago!


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## WNvXXT

Art Rock said:


> A famous Dutch chess writer (and somewhat less famous player), Tim Krabbe, had amassed a stunningly huge collection of advertisement clippings in which the chessboard was set up the wrong way (mostly indeed with a black square on the right).


It's amazing how many times I see a board set up wrong (before moves and in game!). Here's a recent one I screen grabbed.


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## WNvXXT

Art Rock said:


> For those interested in Elo ratings, here is a site that can estimated yours: http://www.elometer.net//.


that was tough.

Thank you for participating!
Based on your move choices, our estimate of your Elo rating is 1470, with a 95% confidence interval of [1308...1631].


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## GraemeG

Art Rock said:


> Just wait until you come across the 'En passant' rule. At chess.com not a week goes by without a newbie posting an angry rant that their opponent cheated by capturing a pawn that way.


See, I grew up with Bott & Morrison's _Chess for Children_ book (this would be mid-70s) and it covered everything very nicely, including even En passant and its very specific conditions. May things just stick in your head better at that age!


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## science

Art Rock said:


> For those interested in Elo ratings, here is a site that can estimated yours: http://www.elometer.net//.


I didn't notice that you'd linked to that site.

That site is actually one of the main things that inspired me to try to study chess more seriously. I took the test and got... I don't remember exactly, but something like 1900. Much higher than I've ever actually been rated. Of course I was trying harder than I'd try in a normal online game, but what that told me is that I need to try harder!

The other thing that did it is that I noticed the percentile scores on chess dot com and discovered that I'm much higher than I thought I'd be.


----------



## science

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> Oh... I should have mentioned, I don't actually play 3. ... Bf5. I usually play 3. ...c5, called the Botvinnik-Carls defense. Maybe it's not objectively the greatest reply  but it takes people out of theory, and I generally know the positions better than my opponents. I find that most people don't opt to take on c5 immediately and so the opening becomes a lot like the French defense.
> 
> I've only recently started playing the C-K though, and don't know too much theory associated with it.


One of the reasons I'm bad at chess:

I intended to have a look at this today, and for some reason I thought I was planning to look at a French defense with 3. ... c4, and I looked at it for about ten minutes and thought, well, I guess I've got that. It is basically as I remembered it being.

Turns out we were discussing a C-K with 3. ... c4. So I guess I will do that tomorrow!

Anyway, I spent most of today looking at Alapin Sicilians and some lines in the Scotch Gambit.


----------



## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

Art Rock said:


> For those interested in Elo ratings, here is a site that can estimated yours: http://www.elometer.net//.
> 
> I like their approach: they give you 76 chess problems to solve as if you were playing the position over the board (no, it is not a 5 minutes questionnaire...). Based on the answers they estimate your rating: the programme has been calibrated by using the test results of hundreds of volunteers with established ratings (realized in large series of games). I found the 76 problems an interesting mix from simple to challenging to impossible, from opening issues, to combinations, to strategies, to end games. In the end, my result was an estimated rating of 1874 with a 95% confidence interval of 1747-2001. Remarkably close to my actual rating of three decades ago!


I just tried this. I got 2037 with a 95% CI of 1913 - 2162. Probably an overestimate, unfortunately.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

science said:


> One of the reasons I'm bad at chess:
> 
> I intended to have a look at this today, and for some reason I thought I was planning to look at a French defense with 3. ... c4, and I looked at it for about ten minutes and thought, well, I guess I've got that. It is basically as I remembered it being.
> 
> Turns out we were discussing a C-K with 3. ... c4. So I guess I will do that tomorrow!
> 
> Anyway, I spent most of today looking at Alapin Sicilians and some lines in the Scotch Gambit.


Quite the speedy c pawn black has there 

My biggest problem is lack of attention, focus, and discipline, both on and off the board. My rating goes through peaks and valleys along with my interest in the game.


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## Conrad2

Art Rock said:


> For those interested in Elo ratings, here is a site that can estimated yours: http://www.elometer.net//.
> 
> I like their approach: they give you 76 chess problems to solve as if you were playing the position over the board (no, it is not a 5 minutes questionnaire...). Based on the answers they estimate your rating: the programme has been calibrated by using the test results of hundreds of volunteers with established ratings (realized in large series of games). I found the 76 problems an interesting mix from simple to challenging to impossible, from opening issues, to combinations, to strategies, to end games. In the end, my result was an estimated rating of 1874 with a 95% confidence interval of 1747-2001. Remarkably close to my actual rating of three decades ago!


Yikes. My estimated rating was 1527 with a 95% confidence interval between 1353 to 1707. I drop nearly 50 points from the last time I look at my ranking (couples of years ago).


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

For anyone interested, I (just) created a TC-specific account "ObjectiveMasterpiece" on chess.com. Feel free to friend or challenge.


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## Art Rock

I sent you a friend request (I'm HennieSchaper). Would love to play at a later date (busy these days).

Love the name by the way.


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## WNvXXT

Art Rock said:


> Just wait until you come across the 'En passant' rule. At chess.com not a week goes by without a newbie posting an angry rant that their opponent cheated by capturing a pawn that way.


My Dad taught all of us kids, and made sure En passant was included. Including the pronunciation! He had the neatest set. Pawns were full sized fighters with sword and shield, Knights were rearing mounted cavalry, etc. Bishops were like bald headed monks in robes. The queen was, a queen. All nicely done. Came in a box with cut out trays that held each piece, which were not heavy but well made. He also got me a copy of Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess.


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## DaveM

This is another favorite portable mini electronic board: the Novag Star Opal. Again these only very rarely turn up on eBay and I doubt that there will ever be one new. I have 2 of them in play and one untouched new-in-box. (I won't be selling any of them.) The Star Opal was said to have an Elo of 1900 by the manufacturer, but players who have played it extensively put the Elo more like 1600-1650. I beat it occasionally if I play white and v-e-r-y slow. 

This board plays very much like humans and has a great opening book with a lot of variability in the openings played. Very fun to play!

The unit comes with tiny plastic pieces, but I have replaced them with heavily magnetized carved wood pieces. The king is 1 1/8 inch, the pawns 3/4 in. I've placed a typical teaspoon in the photo to give an idea of the size.


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## Art Rock

I just came across this miniature by Eric Rosen with live commentary. Awesome.


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## WNvXXT

Art Rock said:


> I just came across this miniature by Eric Rosen with live commentary. Awesome.


Cool - thanks. Learned something new today:

Lichess is an Internet chess server created by Thibault Duplessis, a French programmer.


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## Tikoo Tuba

Would Kx8a ooo indicate a suicide ?

Further-more , I think any pawn that achieves the opponent's first row should be a knighted Queen matriarch capable of both lady and horse moves . The pawn receives a special little hat .


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

An instructional video covering the Caro-Kann advance variation:


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## Art Rock

One thing I noticed the past few months playing 30 minutes games is that I tend to think longer than my opponents, and I get nervous when the clock drops to say 5 minutes for the rest of the game for me (with my opponent often still on 15 min or so). Also, because I've seen that when I played against the variously rated bots on the chess.com site I tend to do badly when I play quickly (simulating a 5 minutes game).

So I decided to focus on 5 minutes games for a while, and stopped playing the 30 minutes game for now. I did see my level in speed chess go up against the bots, and I'm now aiming to play one 5 minute game a day against another member of roughly the same strength. So far, so good. This should help me in 30 minute games as well, which for longer term still remains my top priority.


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## SeptimalTritone

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> For anyone interested, I (just) created a TC-specific account "ObjectiveMasterpiece" on chess.com. Feel free to friend or challenge.


Just sent you and Art Rock a friend request, feel free to play me.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

SeptimalTritone said:


> Just sent you and Art Rock a friend request, feel free to play me.


I'll probably have time later tomorrow or next week.


----------



## senza sordino

My students showed me the website chess.com a few months ago, and I played against the computer a couple of times then. I am not a very good player, more like a beginner actually. 

I finally got around to signing up for chess.com (the free account) a couple of days ago. I am able to beat the beginner-level computer every time on chess.com. I lost against the intermediate twice and beat it once. 

There is a rating of 800 next to my name, I'm not sure how that was assigned. How do I increase this? Do I have to play against actually higher-rated people, or can I continue to play against the computer at the intermediate level to improve my rating. 

I am nowhere near as good as you, I've never read a chess book or taken a lesson. I'm basically self-taught. I've known the rules since high school, but I've hardly played since.


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## Art Rock

Playing the computer does not change your rating. You have to play against other rated players. Your initial rating is an estimate by the system based on info you provided. The first games you play against rated players your rating will be adjusted by large amounts (but decreasing from game to game), later on it will be more like +/-10-20 points depending on results and strength of opponent.

As an example in recent days I played my first four speed chess games (5 minutes per player for the whole game), and managed to win them all. My rating went from the initial estimate of 1200 to 1392 after game one, then to 1522, 1604, 1669. If I lose the next game I will probably drop about 50 points, and so on until the system thinks I have levelled out (10-15 games), and changes will be more modest. For rapid games (30 minutes per player for the whole game), I 've played over 70 game already and levelled out a long time ago. My most recent rapid game was a win against someone rated 100 points higher than me, which gave me an increase of 14 points, to give you an idea.


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## Phil loves classical

Art Rock said:


> For those interested in Elo ratings, here is a site that can estimated yours: http://www.elometer.net//.
> 
> I like their approach: they give you 76 chess problems to solve as if you were playing the position over the board (no, it is not a 5 minutes questionnaire...). Based on the answers they estimate your rating: the programme has been calibrated by using the test results of hundreds of volunteers with established ratings (realized in large series of games). I found the 76 problems an interesting mix from simple to challenging to impossible, from opening issues, to combinations, to strategies, to end games. In the end, my result was an estimated rating of 1874 with a 95% confidence interval of 1747-2001. Remarkably close to my actual rating of three decades ago!


Tried out the test. Rating was 1380. Most of the time, I didn't really have any move to make other than a prayer for someone to make a mistake. I made a few bad moves which I realized just while clicking to the next problem. Basically I have no strategy, and am pretty passive, but oddly enough beat a few people I know are better than me, by leaving for them to make the mistake.


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## Art Rock

One of the features of chess.com is that you can have the computer analyse your games after you're done (one game per day is free). I usually do that as it gives you some key moves you (or your opponent) have missed - good learning opportunities. It also summarizes the performance of both players in what is called 'Accuracy', calculated in some way from how close the moves (after the opening book) are to what the program considers the best. I won my first five speed chess games (5 minutes per person), with an accuracy between 79% and 98%. Today I finally lost a game, and quite deservedly so - even so, a calculated accuracy of 9% was a bit of a smack in the face....


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## science

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> An instructional video covering the Caro-Kann advance variation:


I love that Tal Variation.


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## science

Art Rock said:


> That looks quite interesting. Link to come back to this later. From past experience though most French players went for 3 Bb4.


The 8. Nh3 lines are the only ones I've seen before. Interestingly (to me anyway), Lord Stockfish strongly prefers 8. ... Qh4 to 8. ... Qe7, which I think is more common, but it plans 8. ... Qh4 9. g3 Qe7 anyway, so that's some computer stuff. I might be missing it, but I don't see 8. ... Qh4 on that site. It's been played 4 times that I see on Lichess's openings index.

8. Qd3 is some deep stuff, but the fish seems to think both ... g6 and ... h6 limit the damage fairly well.


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## science

Any opinions about the fantasy variation of the Caro-Kann (1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 f3)? 

I haven't thought about that line in many years, but a friend of mine played it today. I used to like it.


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## Art Rock

It looks a bit off to me, but it is probably playable. I would not go for it as white because it limits options.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

I've been playing some games (bullet - although I'm much better at slower formats even relatively speaking) on that account. Started off pretty rough as I hadn't played in a while, but I've managed to get back up to 1800, which is close to where I was a few months ago. My goal is to hit 2100 bullet by the end of the year.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

I had a pretty nice little mating sequence in one of the bullet games today. Well it's nothing special, but in a bullet game I'm happy to have found it in only 4 seconds. Actually the whole game was probably one of my highest-level bullet games: the opponent defended pretty well and didn't make any obvious blunders, but I was able to keep pressuring them throughout and exacerbate the slight spacial advantage I had gained in the opening, ultimately creating a dangerous passed pawn. Rare to see that kind of clean play in a 1 minute game; it felt pretty good to win.

Here's the position:









(After Black plays Bh3 the only way to defend against mate is with Qf2. Then you can promote to a queen (or rook). Although White has 2 attackers to your one defender on e1, once the queen takes on e1 (which White has to do), g2 is no longer defended and it's mate.) *the board in the png is flipped as I'm showing from Black's perspective but forgot to change the coordinates accordingly


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

The FIDE candidates tournament recently resumed. Anish Giri is looking really impressive.


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## Art Rock

Art Rock said:


> One thing I noticed the past few months playing 30 minutes games is that I tend to think longer than my opponents, and I get nervous when the clock drops to say 5 minutes for the rest of the game for me (with my opponent often still on 15 min or so). Also, because I've seen that when I played against the variously rated bots on the chess.com site I tend to do badly when I play quickly (simulating a 5 minutes game).
> 
> So I decided to focus on 5 minutes games for a while, and stopped playing the 30 minutes game for now. I did see my level in speed chess go up against the bots, and I'm now aiming to play one 5 minute game a day against another member of roughly the same strength. So far, so good. This should help me in 30 minute games as well, which for longer term still remains my top priority.


Well, this did not work out as well as I had hoped.... Maybe time to give up on the 5 minutes game, go back to the rapid (30 min) and make sure I don't end up in time trouble.

ETA: just played a first 5 minutes blitz game at lichess (the main competitor of chess dot com). I won quickly, but I managed to overlook a mate in one before my opponent resigned. Sometimes I start to wonder whether I will ever get back to a reasonable (and consistent) level).


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

Art Rock said:


> Well, this did not work out as well as I had hoped.... Maybe time to give up on the 5 minutes game, go back to the rapid (30 min) and make sure I don't end up in time trouble.
> 
> ETA: just played a first 5 minutes blitz game at lichess (the main competitor of chess dot com). I won quickly, but I managed to overlook a mate in one before my opponent resigned. Sometimes I start to wonder whether I will ever get back to a reasonable (and consistent) level).


Yeah I switched back to longer time control (10 min for me) and am finding it much more enjoyable and educational. Currently at 1874.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

Just reached 1903 off the following game:

1. e4 c5
2. c3 (my usual response, the Alapin Sicilian) nc6
3. d4

and black resigns, and asks for a rematch. Guess he just didn't want to play the game when I have a massive center. LOL


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

But in all seriousness I highly recommend the Alapin for intermediate players who use e4.

Here's a game I just won against a higher rated opponent with this opening (2008):

e4 c5
c3 d5 (one of the two main lines along with nf6, and probably a better response than nc6)
exd5 Qxd5
nf3 nf6
na3 nc6 (the odd-looking na3 in this opening serves 2 purposes: (1) supporting bc4, and (2) rerouting the knight to c2 where it controls d4
bc4 qd8
O-O e6
nc2 be7
d4 cxd4
ncxd4 nxd4
nxd4 O-O
re1 a6
qd2 kh8 (you can see the pressure building up on e6 with some ideas of sacrificing a piece there; the opponent makes this defensive king move presumably to move out of the line of fire)
bg5 qc7
bd3 b5, which of course blunders ...
bxf6 bxf6
qe4 (double threats of mate and taking the rook on a8) g6
qxa8 ...

and the game continued for a couple of moves before the opponent resigned.

Now of course the game was ultimately decided by a blunder by the opponent, but I was still advantageous according to the engine and putting on a lot of pressure in practical terms well before that, due to gaining an advantage from the opening.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

And here's another link to an Alapin rapid game I played where the idea of sacrificing on e6 (and actually double-sacrificing with bxh6) did pan out, even if it wasn't the cleanest way to convert the position...

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/12976467119


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## science

I believe chess will drive me to drink. 

Or, perhaps more precisely, my inability to stop doing stupid effing things with my pieces will drive me to drink. Hard liquor in large quantities.


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## Art Rock

This afternoon I wanted to play a blitz game against the computer at li-chess - as exercise. I did something wrong and suddenly was playing a real person, rated 100 points higher than me. I was gradually outplayed as black, made some critical errors when time left dropped below 1 minute, and was at a certain moment the equivalent of a full piece down according to the post mortem Stockfish computer analysis. But with about 30 seconds to go I went all in for a king-side attack, sacrificed a knight and a rook, my opponent missed the right move, and ended up being mated. I now have an 1869 blitz rating at the site, which is probably at least 200 points too high.


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## Ingélou

Art Rock said:


> This afternoon I wanted to play a blitz game against the computer at li-chess - as exercise. I did something wrong and suddenly was playing a real person, rated 100 points higher than me. I was gradually outplayed as black, made some critical errors when time left dropped below 1 minute, and was at a certain moment the equivalent of a full piece down according to the post mortem Stockfish computer analysis. But with about 30 seconds to go I went all in for a king-side attack, sacrificed a knight and a rook, my opponent missed the right move, and ended up being mated. I now have an 1869 blitz rating at the site, which is probably at least 200 points too high.


Wow - well done! :tiphat:


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## science

Art Rock said:


> This afternoon I wanted to play a blitz game against the computer at li-chess - as exercise. I did something wrong and suddenly was playing a real person, rated 100 points higher than me. I was gradually outplayed as black, made some critical errors when time left dropped below 1 minute, and was at a certain moment the equivalent of a full piece down according to the post mortem Stockfish computer analysis. But with about 30 seconds to go I went all in for a king-side attack, sacrificed a knight and a rook, my opponent missed the right move, and ended up being mated. I now have an 1869 blitz rating at the site, which is probably at least 200 points too high.


Lichess ratings are all inflated by about 200 to 300 points. Math math something something math. I looked into it for about an hour once and decided I didn't actually care.


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## Art Rock

After a win this afternoon, my Lichess blitz rating is now 1952. It was a nice miniature game - in a good position I decided to sacrifice a rook calculating that I would at least get a perpetual with every chance that black would go wrong (the computer analysis deemed it a blunder, because the perpetual would be the correct result). Black did go wrong and I ended up winning the game in 25 moves.
Game link.


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## MrNobody

Art Rock said:


> I play the Alekhine against e4. I've got decent results with that over the board, and beat one IM and two IGM's in simultaneous exhibition games. More recently, at chess.com I've been doing pretty well with it - although many transpose by playing 2. Nc3.


Have you tried the Mokele Mbembe variation (2. e5 Ne4)? I think the name refers to a Congolese Loch Ness or a kind of brontosaurus


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## Art Rock

I played it in blitz games at the chess club in the eighties - it has surprise value mainly imo.


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## MrNobody

I may be a closet masochist – can I somehow play chess with you?


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## Art Rock

Become a member at chess.com or lichess.com and let me know your 'handle' - I'll send you a challenge there.


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## MrNobody

Art Rock said:


> Become a member at chess.com or lichess.com and let me know your 'handle' - I'll send you a challenge there.


I am already at both as KingKongChessosaurus


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## Art Rock

I sent you a friend invite on chess.com (hennieschaper)


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## MrNobody

Art Rock said:


> I sent you a friend invite on chess.com (hennieschaper)


I don't see it but I'll be in touch. But I must prepare first, drink less, walk etc. May I ask what is your quickest win? I once won a game on chess.com by checkmate in 6 seconds


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## Art Rock

I don't measure quick wins in time but in moves. Quickest mate this year in rapid games was a mate with the knight at move 19.










19. Ne8 checkmate.


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## MrNobody

Any favorite players? Mine are deceased wizards like Fischer, Tal, Alekhine. I played some chess as a child in 1970s then I stopped playing for decades after a family tragedy. Last year I started to play again with some minor success, but as Mike Tyson put it, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face".


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## Art Rock

My style is more tactical than strategic - something I picked up from my father. The usual suspects like the ones you mentioned. I did not follow at all what happened in the chess world the past three decades. I love the streams of IM Eric Rosen on Twitch - especially his blitz games, in which he bamboozles opponents with unsound gambits.


----------



## Radames

Art Rock said:


> The black defence against e4 that I struggle with is the French. I used to play the advance variation over the board, but recent games were not encouraging. Any suggestions?


The master level player at my local club played the Winawer French to devastating effect. I tried lots of stuff, even the Milner Barry Gambit. I recently found a book with some games with the Wing Gambit. Might be interesting if I ever play again. I stopped years ago because club night was Thursday and that's $10 Boston Symphony night. I do not play online because it's too easy for people to just use a computer.

My Evergreen game:
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Qe2 Ngf6 6. Nd6

I did it to people twice. lol.


----------



## MrNobody

May I ask are you familiar with Fischerandom chess (Chess960) and do you find it interesting?


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## Art Rock

MrNobody said:


> May I ask are you familiar with Fischerandom chess (Chess960) and do you find it interesting?


I've seen it play a couple of times, I have zero interest in it.


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## Art Rock

Amazing game from the current World Cup Chess:


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## WNvXXT

> board set up wrong


This one is a continuity error. Queen was in the right spot. Then it wasn't a few cuts later (House series season 3 episode 23 _The Jerk_):


----------



## WNvXXT

Same episode, a few scenes later. Unlikely for the white Q and K to end up there. larger pic


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## Art Rock

From a casual blitz game I played a few minutes ago. I was attempting to win this end game, and just played Nc3. I did not see black's response coming at all.... c5+, bxc6 e.p. (only move), Nxc6 mate. Kudos.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

Anyone else feel suicidal when they blunder?


----------



## Art Rock

There's worse. Fortunately I was not on the receiving end of it - from a blitz game I just played:










Black is slightly better. I saw a simple combination: after white played Kc1 I won the queen with Nb3+. White resigned in shock a few seconds later - sufficient time for me to realize I had blundered. Stockfish actually rates the position after my move as +12 pawn equivalents for white...

After axb3 the queen capture Rxd2 is another blunder because white exploits the back rank with Re8+ followed by Qc8 and Rxc8 - with forced mate following.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

Amazing (end)game yesterday from women's world cup championship.


----------



## science

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> Anyone else feel suicidal when they blunder?


I feel suicidal after some of the games I win too.

But seriously, I can't play chess around my family because I always want to hit myself in the head -- and believe me, I deserve to be hit in the head pretty often -- and it upsets them.


----------



## science

Fifteen game losing streak in blitz tonight.

I hate myself so much.

Pulling even now -- something like 20-23 for the past two days, and I don't feel quite as bad now. Perhaps life is worth living. You have to appreciate babies' laughter, flowers in unexpected places, the memories of pretty girls who smiled at you when you were young, the times when your opponents hang back-rank mate, and rainbows.


----------



## Portamento

One of my recent games was a simul on lichess against an International Master as white. We ended up reaching this interesting position:









And here I decided to unleash my inner Mikhail Tal and play Bxg6. Couldn't help it! :lol:

Of course the computer tells me that this was a mistake, but I actually got a decent attack going.









Then my nerves got to me and I messed up. Badly. What a shame...


----------



## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

science said:


> I feel suicidal after some of the games I win too.
> 
> But seriously, I can't play chess around my family because I always want to hit myself in the head -- and believe me, I deserve to be hit in the head pretty often -- and it upsets them.


I think that's almost worse than blundering: when you come up with a good / creative idea, execute it nicely, and then miss a simple rebuttal or tactic that your opponent also overlooks which would've invalidated your whole plan. For a minute, you feel great about your win - like you've created a masterpiece - and then you review the game with an engine and realize once again just how bad you are. It especially sucks when the general strategy you had was actually correct but your execution (e.g. move order) was off. If you had just seen that one stupid thing the game could've been something to be proud of...

Or when you have a great attack going and are able to convert it to a slightly advantageous (but probably theoretically drawn) endgame, but you missed mate in 4 on move 25.


----------



## Portamento

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> If you had just seen that one stupid thing the game could've been something to be proud of...


If "masterpieces" are the only games you'll be proud of and you're not a titled player, then I'm afraid you're not going to be proud of much. Learn from mistakes but don't be too hard on yourself if you're simply not at a certain level; that's what I try to do, anyways. I played a bullet game yesterday where I was able to "win" an endgame on time after blundering my queen by shuffling a knight back and forth. A horrible game by any metric, but damn it felt good.


----------



## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

Portamento said:


> If "masterpieces" are the only games you'll be proud of and you're not a titled player, then I'm afraid you're not going to be proud of much. Learn from mistakes but don't be too hard on yourself if you're simply not at a certain level; that's what I try to do, anyways. I played a bullet game yesterday where I was able to "win" an endgame on time after blundering my queen by shuffling a knight back and forth. A horrible game by any metric, but damn it felt good.


Bullet is different haha.


----------



## science

Portamento said:


> A horrible game by any metric, but damn it felt good.


Only the very best victories feel good enough to justify most of the losses. I've just about given up trying to win. My only goal is not to hang any pieces, mates, or simple combinations. I can't even do that. Every six or seven games I find a combination that I'm proud of, while two out of every three games I make some mistake that makes me want someone to hit me in the head with a bat. I think I need to quit chess for my own mental health.


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## Art Rock

The last few weeks I have started to play anonymous blitz and bullet games on Lichess. It's a bit of pot luck in terms of strengths of opponents (from beginners to pretty strong players - and you can only guess from the playing), but it is a great way to try out different openings, and being forced to win won end games because resignations are less common. And it does not affect one's rating (I wonder why I find that important, but I do).


----------



## Art Rock

Of course, just after I post this, I accidentally played a blitz game while logged in. With black against a 2000+ rated opponent I had an advantage after 6 moves, a winning advantage (over 4 pawn equivalents according to Stockfish!) after 9 moves, which I managed to convert in a completely losing position 2 moves later.

1. e4 Nf6
2. Nc3 e5
3. Nf3 Bc5 (going for a delayed Stafford gambit)
4. Nxe5 Nc6
5. f4 0-0
6. Bc4 Nxe5
7. fxe5 Nxe4
8. Nxe4 Qh4+
9. Kf1 Qxe4
10. Qe2 Qf4+
11. Ke1 Re8?
12. Rf1 Qxe5
13. Bxf7+ 1-0


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## Art Rock

I just came across this chess meme and it struck a chord....


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## Art Rock

From a blitz game I just won - one of the cutest mates I ever had on the board.










I was white, with a position that came from a Scandinavian transposed into a Blackmar-Diemer gambit. After black's Kc8, white wins by force - in post mortem analysis the engine gives a mate in 13...

16. Qd2 b6 (black cannot protect the mating square on d8 and has to create a place to flee. But it won't work...) 17. Ncxe4 (setting up a deadly battery - black can only delay the inevitable, and chooses to end it quickly) Ne8 18. Qd8+ Kb7 19. Nc5# (double check and mate).


----------



## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

I just had one of the wildest games I've ever played. Blunders, mistakes all around. We played a dubious opening which I rarely opt into if I'm playing an opponent say 1600+ - the Traxler counterattack (a response to the Fried Liver), and ended up at this position after 20.5 moves:



I found the best move (the only move to theoretically maintain equality), Rf3. Due to the threat of sacrificing the rook on h3, white's best response is to sacrifice the exchange with 22. Rxf2. I took back on f2, and he played Bc3 (he needed to play Re1 apparently). The resulting position looked like this:

Here, it is likely that the only winning move is Nf3. The knight cannot be taken with the pawn, and the dual threats of Qh6+ (followed by Rh7# after the queen is taken) and Qg6 (followed by mate threats on g7 and h7) cannot be prevented simultaneously unless white sacrifices material. every square along the D file is defended except d6, which he has no way of accessing.


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## Art Rock

Wow, not only the pieces, even the board had vanished by move 20!


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

I can't upload images from my computer for some reason.


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## science

Two wins and 14 losses in bullet today. 

It's a good thing you can't get guns in South Korea. Today would be my last day.

Edit: I got over it. Took me a few hours, but I did it. Now I need to take a few days away from chess....


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## science

How do you guys cope with losing? I know I'm not the only one who loses nearly half my **** games!


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## Art Rock

I play most of my games anonymously nowadays. You get paired to other anonymous players, and the majority are weaker than me. It's a good opportunity to try out openings you're less familiar with.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

Fck this game. Just fck it. I'll play with friends in real life, but I'm done online. It only gets more painful as you improve too, so what's the damn point?


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

science said:


> How do you guys cope with losing? I know I'm not the only one who loses nearly half my **** games!


I don't cope. Surprised the neighbors haven't filed a noise complaint yet, and surprised I haven't seriously injured myself. You might think I'm kidding but ...


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## science

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> I don't cope. Surprised the neighbors haven't filed a noise complaint yet, and surprised I haven't seriously injured myself. You might think I'm kidding but ...


I'm in the same boat. There's a lot of games where it's a good thing I don't have a gun in the house.


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## HerbertNorman

science said:


> How do you guys cope with losing? I know I'm not the only one who loses nearly half my **** games!


I do swear ever so often , but it gives me the impetus to start again and get a victory tbh!


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## science

I don't know whether I ever really win games or just manage to sometimes find people on the internet who are even stupider than I am.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

LOL I've been playing bullet and trying to get to 2000. Here's how a session will go:

First couple of games, warmup. Lose about 20 points on average
Next 10 or so games I'm playing well. Choosing openings I know (lately I've been playing the King's Indian Attack as white King's Indian defense as black to avoid a lot of complicated variations), coordinating pieces, getting an initiative, trading off to favorable endgames, and most importantly managing time well. Gain about 50 points or so.

Then I just get bored of winning and decide to mix it up. Play an opening I don't know (or that just isn't good enough at my level) or go for some stupid sacrifice. Go on tilt, lose a few games, end up where I started.

Yeah, enough is enough.


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## Art Rock

The danger of pre-moves...

A recent bullet game, I was black:

1. e4 e5 2. d4 exd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Bc4 d5 5.exd5 Nf6 6.Nxc3 Bb4

A stupid blunder which I regretted immediately. Not everything is lost how ever.

7. Qa4+ Nc6 and white, expecting a black piece to go to d7 had premoved:

8. Qxb4 Nxb4 Thank you and goodbye. 0-1.

:devil:


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## Art Rock

Art Rock said:


> ... I accidentally played a blitz game while logged in....


Oops, I did it again. Just now, only after the game was finished, did I notice that I had played it logged in. Fortunately I had just beaten my opponent (1907 Lichess rating) in 19 moves, raising my rating to 1988....

Game here.


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## science

This post was supposed to be about chess, or at least how much I suck at it, but it was probably inappropriate for a "not so serious" place. 

Have a nice day, good people of the world.


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## science

I such at chess.


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## Art Rock

Anyone else following the World Championship match Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi (move by move on Lichess)?

The first seven games saw six straightforward draws and a Carlsen win in game six, where he pushed home a minute advantage, grinding for 136 moves.

The eighth game is live right now and Nepomniachtchi played a stunning blunder at move 21:










b5 loses a pawn. We're currently (live) at move 42 in a Queens' end game with Carlsen two pawns up. Can't see him not winning.


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## arpeggio

Although I love the game, I am a very weak player.

Funny that you should mention Lichess. The best I can do is at the second level.


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## Art Rock

Aarghhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I was black, had a clear advantage, and plenty of time.










I played Ke4 immediately and after Rd4 it took me some seconds to realize why I could not move anymore.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

science said:


> I such at chess.


I have put myself in Chess Rehab for the time being. I watch about 20 minutes of chess videos a day and keep up with the best in the game (the world championship), and occasionally I'll play a 10 minute game just to remind myself how bad I really am. My ELO has already dropped along with my interest; it must be working.


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## Art Rock

This just happened on Lichess. Good thing it was a game played anonymously - otherwise drawing by checkmate would be very disappointing.


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## science

Does anyone know any nice side lines after 1. e4 Nf6 for white? Obviously anyone at my level -- let's say 200 Elo because I hate my chess -- who plays the Alekhine as black is going to know the main lines better than I do, but I wouldn't mind learning a trick or two to spring on those dirty mocha fixers.


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## Art Rock

You could play d3 followed by Nf3, g3 and Bg2, and go for a King's Indian Attack set-up. That's a pretty generic opening, so you would not be at a disadvantage.


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## science

Art Rock said:


> You could play d3 followed by Nf3, g3 and Bg2, and go for a King's Indian Attack set-up. That's a pretty generic opening, so you would not be at a disadvantage.


That is a good suggestion.

Apparently there's a four pawns attack in the Alekhine, so I will explore that a bit too. That's the kind of thing an Alekhine player wants but I kind of like playing like that anyway. Kind of calling their bluff.

That's the way I like to play against people who do a lot of slow moves as black. Those guys usually seem to be really good at spotting little blunders and picking up a pawn, so they just want to sit back and wait for someone like me to make a mistake. They'd easily be a hundred points better if they weren't so lazy, but they just want to pick on people who aren't as good as them. So I like to try to see their tricks coming and mow over them.

If a bully is going to beat me up, I'd rather go down fighting. One win against a guy like that means more to me than two or three losses because I imagine how frustrating it is for someone that much better than I am to lose to someone like me.


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## Triplets

My nine year old grandson has taken up chess recently and beats the pants off me. He then gloats annoyingly. I have added a chess app to my phone to try and become more competitive


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## Art Rock

science said:


> That is a good suggestion.
> 
> Apparently there's a four pawns attack in the Alekhine, so I will explore that a bit too. That's the kind of thing an Alekhine player wants but I kind of like playing like that anyway. Kind of calling their bluff.
> 
> That's the way I like to play against people who do a lot of slow moves as black. Those guys usually seem to be really good at spotting little blunders and picking up a pawn, so they just want to sit back and wait for someone like me to make a mistake. They'd easily be a hundred points better if they weren't so lazy, but they just want to pick on people who aren't as good as them. So I like to try to see their tricks coming and mow over them.
> 
> If a bully is going to beat me up, I'd rather go down fighting. One win against a guy like that means more to me than two or three losses because I imagine how frustrating it is for someone that much better than I am to lose to someone like me.


I am an Alekhine player and I don't recognize myself in this.


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## Art Rock

A casual anonymous blitz game (5+3) I just won. I was black, my opponent fooled around in the opening (1. h3, 2. a3), but then won a pawn, only to let me trap and win a knight, and then allowed a rare type of mate I had never had on the board:










23. ... Qd6+ 24. f4 (only move) exf3 # en passant checkmate.

Full game.


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## science

Art Rock said:


> I am an Alekhine player and I don't recognize myself in this.


Probably different at your level since people know the openings better.


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## Art Rock

The anonymous playing mode is starting to get ridiculous. Just now I won a blitz game in two moves as black: 1. e3 Nf6 2. (premoved) Qh5 Nxh5 and white resigned. I will probably bite the bullet and start playing logged in only, and just accept what happens to my rating.


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## Art Rock

Well, I bit the bullet. Just played a 5+3 blitz game logged in as black. I outplayed my 2100+ rated opponent in the opening (Alekhine transposing to Italian Four Knights game), and won an exchange on move 14, which I increased to a rook's advantage by move 27 with a nice combination. I was down on time (a lot) so I can't blame my opponent for continuing. I made heavy work of the remainder of the game. We both made two new queens, but only my second one of the four survived. I won but it was not good for my heart. Anyway, I broke the 2000 barrier (at Lichess, a bit inflated compared to Elo).

Link to the game.


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## arpeggio

I have finally defeated a level three opponent on Lichess.


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## science

For some reason in the past year I've started hitting myself in the head when I lose too many chess games or blunder too badly. Today I've lost 13 out of 20 of the games I've played and I've hit myself so hard that both of my hands hurt and my neck hurts from absorbing the impact. Of course my head hurts too. I've rung my bell and seen stars a few times today. 

I'm afraid that if I keep it up I might even have some kind of brain injury issues. I also know that I need to not feel this way when I'm in the US where I would have access to a gun. 

I've always been a bad loser, not only at chess. I got in a lot of fights back when I played sports. Now I'm a useless weak old man but once upon a time I could take care of myself. I never minded losing a fight because when I lose I feel like I deserve to get hit anyway, but I didn't always lose and I had to be pulled off some guys a few times. I'm lucky I didn't get in some serious legal trouble. If I'd been in a middle class neighborhood I probably would've wound up in prison or something. 

Obviously there are some underlying issues, but nothing in my life right now except chess causes me to feel this way, so I need to stop playing chess. I need to find a different thing to do when I want to take a break from whatever I'm doing.


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## science

Seven game losing streak interrupted by a draw. I broke a cutting board and a spatula over my head. You wouldn't think things are so easy to break.

Update: I made it nine and I stopped the bleeding with a game with only one inaccuracy, no mistakes and no blunders, which was especially satisfying because the guy played a closed Sicilian fianchetto and I don't know that opening at all. Now I have to do the laundry and try to forgive myself for not being able to play like that all the time.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

I've gotten better recently. It's a strange thing, getting better at chess. It's so subtle that you don't even really notice it at first, but then you see your rating go up and you catch yourself thinking about nuances in positions that you may not have noticed before, or coming up with maneuvers which may have eluded you a week ago, or playing an extra move or two of theory in the opening to avoid nasty positions you got yourself into in the past. Or sometimes maybe you just care a little bit more and blunder less.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

science said:


> That is a good suggestion.
> 
> Apparently there's a four pawns attack in the Alekhine, so I will explore that a bit too. That's the kind of thing an Alekhine player wants but I kind of like playing like that anyway. Kind of calling their bluff.
> 
> That's the way I like to play against people who do a lot of slow moves as black. Those guys usually seem to be really good at spotting little blunders and picking up a pawn, so they just want to sit back and wait for someone like me to make a mistake. They'd easily be a hundred points better if they weren't so lazy, but they just want to pick on people who aren't as good as them. So I like to try to see their tricks coming and mow over them.
> 
> If a bully is going to beat me up, I'd rather go down fighting. One win against a guy like that means more to me than two or three losses because I imagine how frustrating it is for someone that much better than I am to lose to someone like me.


My recommendation for intermediate & advanced players - even more than for beginners (where the opening probably doesn't matter much) - is to know a few openings, maybe systemic openings, but know them very well. This means not just memorizing specific moves in the beginning but understanding the middlegame and endgame principles hidden underneath the opening, the basic coordination of your pieces, long term offensive and defensive ideas, etc. Flexible systemic openings like the London and the King's Indian are great for this purpose. I switched from playing 1. e4 as white to a mixture of 1. d4 and 1. Nf3 because I found that - for my liking - there are simply too many variations in e4 lines that are fundamentally different from each other, which was taking away from the aspects of the game I find most enjoyable. Similarly I play ...e5 against 1. e4 because the Sicilian is just too sharp and theory-intensive at my level (openings like the King's Gambit are no longer worrisome) for my liking and as I climbed up the rating ladder I began to find myself in troublesome positions more and more often.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

I also find that playing lines or systems that you know well (and whose variations you understand in depth) also helps to protect against blunders. And I personally find it more fun to enter the middlegame with (more often than not) an initiative, as white at least, than to try to trick my opponent but feeling completely lost when they don't play into the variations I know.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

science said:


> For some reason in the past year I've started hitting myself in the head when I lose too many chess games or blunder too badly. Today I've lost 13 out of 20 of the games I've played and I've hit myself so hard that both of my hands hurt and my neck hurts from absorbing the impact. Of course my head hurts too. I've rung my bell and seen stars a few times today.
> .


I relate to this way too much. I've made it a hard rule (no exceptions) for myself that if I impose any kind of self-harm due to any game, or if I actively have to restrain myself from doing so, I'm done with that game for the day. It's actually been surprisingly easy to follow this rule.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

I usually just have to say aloud "Don't hit thyself" about 10 times and my Id gets the message.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist said:


> systemic openings.


The word is "systematic". Living in the Bay Area will do this To you ...


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## hammeredklavier




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## Luchesi

We had a member who had just made grandmaster. I haven't seen him posting recently.








Originally Posted by *En Passant* 
 
Oh wow I'd love to hear those stories sometimes maybe even play? 1900 is a very respectable rank not everyone has the luxury of playing Chess 24/7. I'm currently 2460 outside the top 100 but I was able to play Hikaru and win (non tournament). I do prefer the faster games these days but I to answer your question no I think it's much easier. Every important game is recorded and with a team of people and a good engine the top players will break someone down within days. Everyone is better prepared before it even begins.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist

Yeah I wonder what happened to him. He and his girlfriend disappeared mysteriously from TC.


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## Johnnie Burgess

Played as white.

1. d4 e6 2. e4 d5 3.e5 Qf6 4. Bb5 Bd7 5. Bd3Qf5 6. BxF5 exF5 7. Nf3 Bb4 8. c3 Ba5 9. b4 d4 10. Bxa5 Nc6 11. O-O resigns.

Game I played tonight.


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## Art Rock

This game is not good for my nerves.

A blitz game (5 min +3 seconds increment per move) I played yesterday at Lichess against a 2100-rated opponent. I had white in a Sicilian Grand Prix, and got a winning position after move 36:










Time was going to play a major role from now on (we were down to 7 and 11 seconds). My next move throws away the advantage completely, and the remaining moves were full of time pressure blunders resulting in a continuous seesaw between drawn and winning for white.

37. Ne6 (Ng2 wins) Bf5 (d3 draws) 38. N8xg7 (Nxc5 wins) Bg6 (Bxe6 draws) 39. Re1 (Rxc5 wins). After my move, we both had just over 3 seconds on the clock (I had come within one second of flagging) and that turned out to be insufficient for black who flagged in a drawn position. 1-0.

My blitz rating went up from 2039 to 2082 (still provisional).


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## Art Rock

We're not supposed to forget how pieces move, right?

From a casual blitz game just now:










I'm up a piece at move 12 because white played an unsound combination. After 12. f4, I was convinced that my knight is pinned to the king, and that I'm losing back a piece so I played Kg8. To add insult to injury, I managed to overlook a mate threat in one a few moves later. Sometimes I think I'm getting back to a reasonable level, sometimes stuff like this happens.


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## Art Rock

My weirdest win:










This was a 3+2 casual game, played without logging in. White (playing from top to bottom) had outplayed me, and with the 2 seconds increment per move should have won the end game easily. But then (s)he mouse slipped on the promotion at h8, and seeing a bishop materialize there instead of a queen was so confusing that (s)he flagged. What's even worse, Lichess rates this as won for black, because white can apparently get mated in a K/KN end game by reckless play.


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## Luchesi

Art Rock said:


> My weirdest win:
> 
> View attachment 168591
> 
> 
> This was a 3+2 casual game, played without logging in. White (playing from top to bottom) had outplayed me, and with the 2 seconds increment per move should have won the end game easily. But then (s)he mouse slipped on the promotion at h8, and seeing a bishop materialize there instead of a queen was so confusing that (s)he flagged. What's even worse, Lichess rates this as won for black, because white can apparently get mated in a K/KN end game by reckless play.


Wow. Surprising, thanks. Black is going watch the pawn AND mate the king? 

We used to play 5 minute chess for quarters. Reckless playing indeed.


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## Philidor

Anyone looking at the Candidates Tournament 2022?


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## Art Rock

Philidor said:


> Anyone looking at the Candidates Tournament 2022?


Not yet. By the way, I did not find the old thread when I started a chess thread last year, so I merged the two now.


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## Barbebleu

Philidor said:


> Anyone looking at the Candidates Tournament 2022?


Yep. Looks like it’s going to be a rematch of the last catastrophe. Another stroll in the park for Carlsen, that is if he can actually be bothered. I feel that his heart isn’t really in it these days and hasn’t been for a year or two but he’s still too good for the rest of the opposition, particularly in match play.


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## science

Barbebleu said:


> Yep. Looks like it’s going to be a rematch of the last catastrophe. Another stroll in the park for Carlsen, that is if he can actually be bothered. I feel that his heart isn’t really in it these days and hasn’t been for a year or two but he’s still too good for the rest of the opposition, particularly in match play.


Do you think he really might choose not to defend?


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## progmatist

When I was in Junior High School, I joined the chess club so I wouldn't have to sit in study hall. The school had 2 lunches. The half of the student body not at lunch had to sit in study hall. I didn't think about where I was moving pieces, I just did so randomly. Unsurprisingly, I was the second worst player in the club.


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## Barbebleu

science said:


> Do you think he really might choose not to defend?


Oh I think he’ll defend it alright and he will probably win again. If it’s Nepomniachtchi, which is looking likely, then psychologically it will be hard for Nepo to forget the kicking he got last time. I watched a very interesting documentary about Carlsen a couple of years ago on Amazon and like most elite chess players he is extremely odd. You could I suppose say that about all those who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of being the best there is. The documentary I felt showed his ambivalence towards the game and I got the impression that it wouldn’t take much for him to chuck it in particularly if he doesn’t feel motivated. IMHO.


----------



## science

Barbebleu said:


> Oh I think he’ll defend it alright and he will probably win again. If it’s Nepomniachtchi, which is looking likely, then psychologically it will be hard for Nepo to forget the kicking he got last time. I watched a very interesting documentary about Carlsen a couple of years ago on Amazon and like most elite chess players he is extremely odd. You could I suppose say that about all those who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of being the best there is. The documentary I felt showed his ambivalence towards the game and I got the impression that it wouldn’t take much for him to chuck it in particularly if he doesn’t feel motivated. IMHO.


I guess he has less and less to gain and more to lose from every successive championship. If he doesn't feel motivated to prepare properly, I could understand him walking away.


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## Luchesi

science said:


> I guess he has less and less to gain and more to lose from every successive championship. If he doesn't feel motivated to prepare properly, I could understand him walking away.


Especially as he gets older. The stress should be avoided. The Mozart of Chess won't be 32 until November.


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## science

Luchesi said:


> Especially as he gets older. The stress should be avoided. The Mozart of Chess won't be 32 until November.


No, no, I might've filled out a form wrong or something but I'll be a full 46 by then.


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## Barbebleu

Luchesi said:


> Wow. Surprising, thanks. Black is going watch the pawn AND mate the king?
> 
> We used to play 5 minute chess for quarters. Reckless playing indeed.


The position is a dead draw unless either player has a death wish! The logical end is king and two black squared bishops v king. Don’t think you’ll find this in Keres’ endgame book.😂


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## Luchesi

science said:


> No, no, I might've filled out a form wrong or something but I'll be a full 46 by then.


I'll challenge Magnus 
... if I can stay at home and use a chess engine. No clocks, no time limits.


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## science

So I'm up a bishop and a pawn but very low on time, and I see that the guy's queen is overloaded. Good for me. Easy win. 

1. ... Rd8 and i.e. 2. Qe2 Rxd1+ 3. Qxd1 Qxh2 wins so 2. Qxd8 Rxd8 3. Rxd8 Qxh2 and my opponent resigns. 

It turns out that 3 ... Qxh2 was a horrible blunder and that my opponent was an idiot for resigning. It's not hard to find actually so I'll give you the pleasure.


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## Barbebleu

Oh dear, there’s no avoiding those perpetual checks is there? Even giving up the dark squared bishop doesn’t help.


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## EvaBaron

I sometimes play chess with my grandpa but never had any formal training or whatever. My grandpa used to teach me and my sister every Sunday how to play chess


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## Art Rock

Just now I had a cute mate on the board in a casual blitz game (3 minutes, 2 seconds added per move):










The game:
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. c3 dxc3 5. Nxc3 Be7 6. Bc4 Nf6 7.O-O Nbd7? 8. Bxf7+ Kxf7 9. Ng5+ Kg6 10. f4 h6 11. f5#


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## Barbebleu

No disrespect Art but I’d have a question mark after every one of black’s moves apart from 1……..e5. Clearly development not his/her strong suit! 😂
I’ve been working my way through Andrew Soltis’ book, Soviet Chess 1917-1991. I’m at the forties just after the war and the WCT at the Hague and Moscow 1948. Terrific book with some brilliant little-known games.


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## Nate Miller

I would have taken the knight on g5 with the pawn on move 9, but by that time his position is nearly hopeless. Still, it is still a cute mate. A variation on the "smothered mate". The black king only has 3 possible squares to move to and the knight takes away two of them. Then the mate is delivered by simply advancing a pawn

but even if he had managed to save himself there, Art has space and harmony with his pieces and some great attacking lanes with his king neatly tucked away, so even though the opponent could have done alot of things better, I think Art had a good attack going and would have been 1-0 before too much longer

Like barbeleu said, though, I hope I wouldn't get myself into that position. Black is cramped, both bishops are blocked, the black King is practically the most forwardly deployed piece...but Nbd7? I think that sealed it. He blocks his queen bishop, so it will now take several moves to connect his rooks, which he has to do if he is going to exploit the backward pawn at e4, which is his only real hope


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## Eramire156

barbeleu - I love Soltis' Soviet Chess not only a great chess book but a great history book, I’m currently playing through Jimmy Adams' Gyula Breyer.


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## Barbebleu

Eramire156 said:


> barbeleu - I love Soltis' Soviet Chess not only a great chess book but a great history book, I’m currently playing through Jimmy Adams' Gyula Breyer.


That looks interesting. I’m also ploughing my way through Jimmy Adams’ book on the 1935 Second International Tournament in Moscow. Again history as well as chess.


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## Eramire156

I have the 1925 Moscow, in a Olms reprint and t1936, I’ll have to keep my eyes open for the 1935. About 70% of my chess library is chess history, biography and game collections. I have no burning ambition to become a good player, but love playing games of the greats and not so greats of the past.


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## Barbebleu

Eramire156 said:


> I have the 1925 Moscow, in a Olms reprint and t1936, I’ll have to keep my eyes open for the 1935. About 70% of my chess library is chess history, biography and game collections. I have no burning ambition to become a good player, but love playing games of the greats and not so greats of the past.


The Adams 1935 book was published by Caissa Editions in 1998. I’m not sure if it’s still in print. I found this on Amazon.com



https://www.amazon.com/Second-International-Chess-Tournament-Moscow/dp/B000OLKJ2Y


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## Eramire156

I’m interested in other chess players set up, so here is what use to play through games this my current board and pieces


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## Art Rock

Interesting, never seen that variation. Over the board, I use(d) standard Staunton pieces, but all my chess of the last 10 years has been on the computer. I do have a beautiful Korean set (a gift from my father from one of his business travels in the seventies).


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## Eramire156

It’s a Vienna coffee house set from Chessbazaar, the board is by Colorado Woodworker, I have a number of sets including a set I’ve had close to 50 years, when I was in high school.


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## Barbebleu

My playing set is a Jaques Staunton set (3 and a half inch kings, red crosses on the king side knights) from the forties that I found in an antiques store in Ayr, Scotland in 1970 and got for a very reasonable price. Normally just use Fritz for playing through games and analysis.


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## Bwv 1080




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## Barbebleu

Bwv 1080 said:


> View attachment 175186


Except it’s not! Surely Ne4 mate!


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## Bwv 1080

Barbebleu said:


> Except it’s not! Surely Ne4 mate!


Well maybe it’s Black’s move


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## Barbebleu

Bwv 1080 said:


> Well maybe it’s Black’s move


Then it would be …Qd1, Nd1, Qc1 mate. But that would be totally unfair. Much better to lose a game with 8 Queens.


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## Luchesi

It's an interesting image. How does every pawn get queened.. hehe

Yes, Queen takes Knight and there's no more threats from White.


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## Art Rock

Just now I had a rare mate on the board in a casual blitz game (3 minutes, 2 seconds added per move): 










Rxc8 mate - the bishop is not defended because of two simultaneous pins.


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## Philidor

A cool one! I like it if omitting castling is punished.


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## Eramire156

Congratulations, nice mate


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## Luchesi

Art Rock said:


> Just now I had a rare mate on the board in a casual blitz game (3 minutes, 2 seconds added per move):
> 
> View attachment 175830
> 
> 
> Rxc8 mate - the bishop is not defended because of two simultaneous pins.


What was Black's move before this?


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## Art Rock

Luchesi said:


> What was Black's move before this?


Qd8-d7 (last move is indicated by colours in lichess.org). Black could have prevented mate by Bc8-d7, but that loses the queen of course.


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## mmsbls

I don't know if anyone has followed the Hans Niemann (grandmaster who recently defeated world champion, Magnus Carlsen) cheating allegations. There is a report from chess.com that is fascinating. They use a cheat detection system that is remarkably sophisticated. The system includes

• Comparing the moves made to engine recommended moves
• Removing some moves (opening, some endgame)
• Focusing on key/critical moves
• Discussing with a panel of trained analysts and strong players
• Comparing player past performance and known strength profile
• Comparing a player’s performance to performances of comparable peers
• Looking at the statistical significance of the results (ex. “1 in a million chance of happening
naturally”)
• Looking at if there are behavioral factors at play (ex. “browser behavior”)
• Reviewing time usage when compared to difficulty of the moves on the board

A few things from the report of interest:

Several grandmasters stated that a grandmaster would only need 1-3 cheat moves per game to be essentially unbeatable. Sometimes simply a yes/no answer to a tough combination might be enough. 

One person stated that Niemann made a particular move in 10 seconds that others would have thought much longer on (5 minutes or more) because of the complexity. 

The most powerful chess engine, Stockfish, has an estimated rating of 3500, and chess.com believes that Carlsen would lose every game played with it (no draws, no wins).


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## bagpipers

Art Rock said:


> Just now I had a rare mate on the board in a casual blitz game (3 minutes, 2 seconds added per move):
> 
> View attachment 175830
> 
> 
> Rxc8 mate - the bishop is not defended because of two simultaneous pins.


If Black King moved to D-8 wouldn't that solve blacks problem.I don't know I never was good on Chess


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## Art Rock

bagpipers said:


> If Black King moved to D-8 wouldn't that solve blacks problem.I don't know I never was good on Chess


It would help - if it would be black's move. It is white's move though. And one move earlier, the queen was on d8.


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## Luchesi

Art Rock said:


> Qd8-d7 (last move is indicated by colours in lichess.org). Black could have prevented mate by Bc8-d7, but that loses the queen of course.


Thanks. We must find time to castle.

Here's a history of chess with interesting details;

----https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2aCK1yT8Ms


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