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Hand Knit posted:Here's one from one of my games this tournament. E: oh but black could just trade queens with ..Qd3?
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May 11, 2023 14:45
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jesus WEP posted:to my 3-digit brain, it opens up white to play Rc5 and then black’s queen has to stop defending the bishop Start with the most straightforward response and work out from there. What happens if white just takes the bishop on e2?
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May 11, 2023 15:00
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Hand Knit posted:Here's one from one of my games this tournament. Bxe2 Qxe2 then...let's see Qxe2 Rxe2 doesn't seem to do anything good for black? Bxe2 Qxe2 then...what's different, the queen is moved and no longer defending the b4 pawn. But that doesn't seem to help anything? Qxb4 Bxb4 Rxb4 and black is just down material? So I'm missing something.
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May 11, 2023 15:08
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CubicalSucrose posted:Bxe2 Qxe2 then...let's see The best line I found, you play d3 forking the queen and rook, and the best defence I found for white leads to black winning the exchange on b5
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May 11, 2023 15:10
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Hand Knit posted:Start with the most straightforward response and work out from there. What happens if white just takes the bishop on e2? 1. ... Bxe2 2. Qxe2 Qxe2 3. Rxe2 And we're down –2 in material and can Rbc8 and get an open file or ... something? Nc4 after Rbc8, trade on a3 and get on the back rank? None of that feels particularly good enough. I guess my thought is if the absolute most bloodthirsty zero-brained run of moves still ends with me worse, it's probably not worth considering. Opp doesn't even have to burn clock to get over on me. I put it in the computer after I thought about it a bit and never would have spotted it. I was right for the wrong reasons. My next idea after discarding Bxe2 was something like Bd5 trying to trade our two good bishops leaving me a Knight vs his miserable dark-square bishop and loosening up the King's defense. Seems fine. Also, my brain never even thought about baiting the Queen over for the pawn fork. No clue if that works ... maybe!
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May 11, 2023 15:24
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vyelkin posted:The best line I found, you play d3 forking the queen and rook, and the best defence I found for white leads to black winning the exchange on b5 Pawns can move, huh, imagine that. Maybe one day I'll be able to visualize that better.
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May 11, 2023 15:26
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vyelkin posted:The best line I found, you play d3 forking the queen and rook, and the best defence I found for white leads to black winning the exchange on b5 This is black's first idea, yeah. 31...Bxe2 32.Qxe2 d3, with the fork of the queen and rook. So what do we do from here? Is there a way to take the piece and hold it? Does white try something else? Give up the pawn and look for counterplay?
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May 11, 2023 15:36
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Hand Knit posted:This is black's first idea, yeah. 31...Bxe2 32.Qxe2 d3, with the fork of the queen and rook. So what do we do from here? Is there a way to take the piece and hold it? Does white try something else? Give up the pawn and look for counterplay? If white tried moving the rook to c4, pawn takes the queen, then RxB5 NxB5 White comes out slightly ahead in the exchange. Not sure that is right, but it is what I see. Above is wrong. This is why I suck at chess. Fixed.
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May 11, 2023 17:58
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Lichess updated their theoretical accuracy graph. I think it is saying that 2016 and 2018 were the most boring championships.
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May 12, 2023 21:53
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One thing I find challenging in blitz is converting winning positions in a timely manner. There's a tension between making moves which progress your position safely, and not spending too much time under threat of the flag. Here's an example I just played: https://lichess.org/Q5u0Ht6J. I'm pretty happy with how I played the opening against the Philidor which I don't see often, ending up trapping the bishop. But then the engine says that it was smooth sailing from there (other than one move where I miss a hanging rook). It didn't feel like it though! Even though I was up a full bishop for 60 moves I got way down on time and barely squeezed in the mate. It feels like there must have been an easier way but it's not as obvious as the engine telling you about a blunder. I have an inkling that maybe I should have been going for an attack rather than trading material, but not totally sure.
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May 15, 2023 04:44
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Redmark posted:One thing I find challenging in blitz is converting winning positions in a timely manner. There's a tension between making moves which progress your position safely, and not spending too much time under threat of the flag. To my untrained eye it looks fine up until around move 35 -- opponent loses the bishop but makes the most of it and forces you to be accurate. Then your king goes for a bit of a walk and you get into time trouble after a few failed stabs at the pawns. It looks like stockfish dislikes most of your moves from that point. Then at move 55 you finally ram a pawn through and it's over, hung rook or not. The endgame moves aren't labeled "inaccuracies", because in terms of engine evaluation nothing changes -- you are still crushing, your opponents pieces are still indefensible and you haven't hung anything -- but you are losing precious time with missed attacks when there's no increment.
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May 15, 2023 10:08
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 Black to play and mate. I liked the geometry in this one; I should have found this in the game but didn't by reason of blindness.
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May 17, 2023 04:53
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Redmark posted:
Qa8+, Kc5, Rb5+, Kd4, Qd8+, Kc3, Qh8#?
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May 17, 2023 05:02
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CubicalSucrose posted:Qa8+, Kc5, Rb5+, Kd4, Qd8+, Kc3, Qh8#? Need to flip those coordinates. After Kf6 Qe1 White has Kxe6. According to the engine it's still mate in 4 after that but there is a faster way. Redmark fucked around with this message at 05:42 on May 17, 2023 |
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May 17, 2023 05:08
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Redmark posted:
Qh1, Kf4, Rg4, Ke5, Qe4, Kxe6, Ra6 Once you get the first move, it falls into place quite nicely.
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May 17, 2023 05:28
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Sataere posted:Qh1, Kf4, Rg4, Ke5, Qe4, Kxe6, Ra6 Pretty much right, but the end is not legal 
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May 17, 2023 05:43
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Redmark posted:Pretty much right, but the end is not legal Lol I was looking at that and going uhhhh Anyway my version Qh1, Kf4, Rg4, Ke5, Qe4, Kf6, Qf5#
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May 17, 2023 06:52
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got this position a million times in puzzles and now exactly once in a game
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May 17, 2023 08:16
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jesus WEP posted:got this position a million times in puzzles and now exactly once in a game d8 is defended, it's fine 
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May 17, 2023 10:53
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Redmark posted:Pretty much right, but the end is not legal how is rook from a8 to a6 not legal? What am I missing? Edit, nevermind. I'm dumb. That wasn't the illegal part.
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May 17, 2023 15:01
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I think I'm learning that the most important skill to enjoying chess—not winning or improving necessarily, but enjoying—is being able to recognize early when a day is not a "Chess Day."
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May 17, 2023 16:45
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Huxley posted:I think I'm learning that the most important skill to enjoying chess—not winning or improving necessarily, but enjoying—is being able to recognize early when a day is not a "Chess Day."  i realised i should not play blitz or bullet games if i’ve had a stressful work day
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May 17, 2023 17:38
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Last night after losing two games I tried to play a London with 2. f4  still won
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May 18, 2023 03:03
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i just won a fun over the board game where i was down a full piece, but managed to sac a rook to get a mating attack going with two connected advanced pawns
fart simpson fucked around with this message at 16:55 on May 18, 2023 |
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May 18, 2023 16:36
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it was about an hour and a half ago but i think i have the position correct here. i was white and this is objectively losing but the game went fxg6 Qxh1 Nd6+ Ke7 Nf5+ Kf8 e7+ Bxe7 Qf7# i had fun with it but he probably shouldn’t have gone Kf8, i think that was the losing move for black
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May 18, 2023 16:55
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Very nice. Also a good reminder to never resign. e: I want to start analyzing and posting my games from the tournament but in the mean time here's a fun small tactic from Sharjah just now: Black to move. 
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May 18, 2023 17:03
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Hand Knit posted:Very nice. Also a good reminder to never resign. I guess it starts with Rb4 to defend against g4#. The bishop and knight have the black king trapped so it is stalemate if the rook is taken. After that the rook runs around either checking the king (where the knight can't take it, or where the bishop can't come off d8-h4 to take it) or parking itself on f4 (because gxf4 1/2-1/2).
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May 19, 2023 02:40
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fisting by many posted:I guess it starts with Rb4 to defend against g4#. The bishop and knight have the black king trapped so it is stalemate if the rook is taken. After that the rook runs around either checking the king (where the knight can't take it, or where the bishop can't come off d8-h4 to take it) or parking itself on f4 (because gxf4 1/2-1/2). Yeah, that's absolutely it. White's threat is 107. g4#. Black stops it with 106...Rb4. Now 107.g4+ Rxg4 108.Nxg4 is stalemate, as is 107.Bxb4.
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May 20, 2023 01:04
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Okay, I want to start posting up my games from the big tournament. I’m going to format them for readability of the forums. If you want something to copy/paste into a pgn reader lemme know. Game 1 offers a lesson in how to win a win where you make sure your opponent gets absolutely stone cold nothing. [Round "1"] [WhiteElo "1932"] [BlackElo "2082"] [ECO "A45"] Chaotic start to the round. The organizers had forgotten to add me to the 'active' tournament list so I was initially not paired. After running around for an hour I finally got added, manually paired against another non-paired player. The result is that I only learned my pairing 5 minutes before round time. 1.d4 Nf6 At this point the arbiter informed us that our board was set up in the wrong location and asked us to move. 2.Bg5 e6 3.e3 c5 4.c3 b6 I’ve been playing this sort of setup against London/Torre systems for a while now. I’m not thrilled with it, as I’ve decided it’s a bit too passive. I’d like to learn Nf6-d5-c5 but there’s quite a bit to catch up since I’d have to change how I play not just those openings but also the Trompowsky and the Colle. The idea here is quite simple. Black wants to be solid and flexible while not giving white any obvious targets for attack. 5.Nf3 Bb7 6.Bd3 Be7 7.Nbd2 cxd4 8.exd4 d6 9.O-O Nbd7 10.Qe2 O-O 11.h3 Re8 12.Rad1?  I think this is a mistake as it misplaces the rook, as it no longer supports the a-pawn. 12.Rfe1 Nf8 13.a4 a6 This looks like a normal game where black goes for a minority attack on the queenside. 12...a6 13.a4 Qc8 This is the start of a manoeuvre to line up the bishop and queen on the long diagonal while also supporting pushing b5. 14.Ne4 Bc6 The punish for Rd1. Now white either loses the pawn or moves the rook back to a1. 15.Ra1 Counterattacking the pawn on d6 does not work. 15.Bf4 Nxe4 16.Bxe4 Bxa4 17.Ra1 Bb5 15...Qb7 16.Bxf6 Nxf6 17.Nfg5 Nxe4 I had another option with 17...h6 but I thought the best case scenario for that line was transposing to one particular line of the game line. 17...h6 18.Nxf6+ Bxf6 19.Ne4 Be7 This would be like playing 19.h6 in the game line. I decided that I did not want to do that so I went for something else. 18.Nxe4 I would like to find a way to exploit the light-squared diagonal by pushing f5 but the problem is the e6 pawn is hanging. 18...b5 19.a5 Bf8 First having the rook defend e6 so that I can push f5. Second with the idea of playing g6-Bg7-e5 in case white plays b4. 20.Qg4 White simplifies things by simply hanging a piece. 20.f3 f5 21.Nd2 g6 Black will play Bg7 and e5 to take control of the centre. 20...f5 21.Nf6+ Kh8 22.Qh5 gxf6 23.g4 Be4 Starting by negating white’s bishop. Now that I am up a piece, I just need to make sure white doesn’t find some kind of dynamic attack for compensation. 24.Rad1 Qg7  I prioritize addressing white’s queen. Note that trading bishops helps activates white’s rook. Black’s still winning in that scenario, but suddenly there’s room to screw up. 25.f4 Qh6 26.Qxh6 26.Qf7 Re7 26...Bxh6 27.Bxe4 fxe4 28.Rde1 d5 29.Rf2 White starts a plan of trying to completely close the position but it can never work. Despite all that’s happened, black still has the concept of the minority attack break by pushing b4. However, I don’t have to rush so I start by making sure all my pieces are absolutely optimal. 29...Rac8 30.h4 Bf8 31.g5 f5 32.Re3 Rc4 33.h5 Rec8 34.Rg2 Kg7 34...Bd6 This is more precise, since it forces the rook back to defend f4, though that doesn’t matter so much now. 35.g6 h6 36.Kh2 b4 37.Ree2 Bd6 38.Rgf2 Rb8 Prioritizing making sure white does not get an open file for their rook. 39.Rc2 Rb5 40.Kg3 bxc3 41.Rxc3 Rxc3+ 42.bxc3 Rb3 43.Kg2 Ba3 All the way to the end, prioritizing the rook trade over the pawn. 44.Kf1 Rb1+ 0-1
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May 21, 2023 00:10
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i'm still like 1300-1400 in rapid but i'm happy having hit my highest puzzle elo ever twice today
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May 22, 2023 19:28
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kumba posted:i'm still like 1300-1400 in rapid but i'm happy having hit my highest puzzle elo ever twice today NGL, 2008 was a better year than 2021. (Congrats)
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May 22, 2023 20:00
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Hand Knit posted:Okay, I want to start posting up my games from the big tournament. I’m going to format them for readability of the forums. If you want something to copy/paste into a pgn reader lemme know. This was interesting but I had a hard time following some of your comments because you didn't say up front whether you were playing black or white. Also, "12...a6" I wasn't sure if black advanced the a7 pawn or moved the b7 bishop, but maybe I don't understand chess notation that well and if you don't specify, it's always a pawn?
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May 22, 2023 20:15
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Leperflesh posted:if you don't specify, it's always a pawn? correct
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May 22, 2023 20:16
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Leperflesh posted:if you don't specify, it's always a pawn? 
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May 22, 2023 20:16
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Leperflesh posted:This was interesting but I had a hard time following some of your comments because you didn't say up front whether you were playing black or white. Sorry. I omit the names for reasons you can guess. I usually count on it being obvious which one is me because it's the rating that's the same across each game but that doesn't work here because it's just the one. You can infer that I have the black pieces from the comments after move 4. With that said, on to round 2: This time I did get the chance to prepare a bit. I could tell my opponent played the Slav, and there are two things I play against it. One is to exchange, which can get white some okay positions but it tends heavily towards a draw because it’s a symmetrical pawn structure with one open file. If I was playing for a win I’d go with the c4-Nf3-e3-Nc3 structure. It’s a bit shakier and white has to know a few more things, but it lets you play for an imbalanced pawn structure which increases winning chances. Since it’s early and I’m playing up, I decide to go with the exchange. [Round "2"] [WhiteElo "2082"] [BlackElo "2338"] [ECO "D10"] 1.c4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Bf4 Nc6 6.e3 a6 7.Be2 e6 My prep file only covered Bf5, and I didn't have time to check these lines online because the internet here is not good enough. However, I'm confident that this is not threatening. Black would usually play Bf5 before e6 so the bishop is outside the pawn chain, but I assume my opponent wanted to deviate from theory. (See how this is similar to what I wrote above the game: my opponent sees me as a weaker player and wants to unbalance the game, even if that means accepting a weakness.) However, e6 like this with a6 also played is a very passive structure for black. 8.Nf3 Be7 9.O-O O-O 10.Ne5 I don't have a deep understanding of this structure but I think Ne5 is usually good. My other goal at the time was to play Rfc1. Having had time to review this structure online, Nc3-a4-c5 is a standard strong idea. 10...Bd7 11.a3 I'm not very sure about this move, but I couldn't find anything better than playing for a3-b4-Qb3. Other alternatives, which I considered, seemed to have trouble contesting the c-file. 11.Qb3 Na5 12.Qc2 Rc8 11.Qc2 Rc8 11.Nxc6 Bxc6 12.Qb3 Bd6 13.Bxd6 Qxd6 14.Rfc1 Rfc8 11...b5 12.b4 Qb6 13.Qb3?! I played Qb3 quickly because I was only thinking of drawing. Later I found 13.Nd3 with the idea of getting the knight to c5 as quickly as possible. I think white is better here though I'm also not really sure how to attack. 13...Nxe5 14.Bxe5 Bc6 15.Rfc1 Ne4 16.Bd3  16.Nxe4 dxe4 I want to think that the pawn structure favours white, but I couldn't get over being worried that black was going to be able to activate his bishop well by bringing it to d5 and c4. Looking again now, it looks like white’s able to line up the rooks on the c-file in time, meaning black can’t fix the bishop. This means the pawn structure should give white a slight but steady advantage. 16...Rfc8 16...f5 17.Nxe4 fxe4 18.Bxe4 dxe4 19.Qxe6+ The planned trap. White wins. 16...Nd2 17.Bxh7+ Kxh7 18.Qc2+ Ne4 19.Nxe4 dxe4 20.Qxc6 is there to stop Nd2-c4. 17.Bxe4 Because I’m happy with a draw I release the tension. White is left with a space advantage that shouldn’t turn into anything if black defends reasonably. 17...dxe4 18.d5 exd5 19.Nxd5 Qb7 19...Bxd5 20.Qxd5 Qg6 21.Qd7 20.Nxe7+ Qxe7 21.Rc5 At this point I felt that white was better and, while the game was probably objectively still a draw, white could push. 21...Bd7 22.Qd5 22.Rac1 Qxe5 -+ 22.Qc3 f6 23.Bc7 Be6 24.Rc1 Bc4 Here I felt black stabilizing the bishop on c4 killed the position. 22...Qe6 Trading the rooks seemed quite good for white. 22...Rxc5 23.bxc5 Rc8 24.Bd6 Qe6 ( 24...Qf6 25.Rd1 ) 25.Qb7 23.Rd1 Now I’m starting to be more conscious of keeping play in the position. The game is probably still a draw, but white is “playing for two results.” 23.Qd4 f6 24.Bc7 ( 24.Bg3 Rxc5 25.bxc5 Bc6 ) 24...Bc6 23...Qxd5 23...Rxc5 24.Qxa8+ Rc8 25.Qxc8+ Bxc8 26.Rd8+ mating. 24.Rdxd5 Be6 25.Rd4 f6 26.Rd6 I saw Bc7, which the computer recommends, but this reduces into what I’m pretty sure is a drawn OCB endgame.26.Bc7 Ra7 27.Bb6 Rxc5 28.bxc5 Rd7 29.c6 Rxd4 30.exd4 {Despite the advanced c-pawn I think this is still a firm draw. 26...Kf7 I spent a long time looking at black playing Rxc5 and I couldn’t figure it out over the board. Fiddling around now, I think the line I was looking at was a win for white. 26...Rxc5 27.bxc5 fxe5 28.Rxe6 a5 29.Rb6 b4 30.axb4 a4 31.c6 Kf7 32.Rb7+ Ke6 33.c7 Rc8 34.b5 a3 35.b6 a2 36.Ra7 Black has an improvement, but it’s still probably winning for white. Not clearly winning, though, because rook endgames have strong drawish tendencies. 26...Rxc5 27.bxc5 fxe5 28.Rxe6 a5 29.Rb6 b4 30.axb4 axb4 31.g4 Rc8 32.Rxb4 Rxc5 33.Rxe4 White is up a pawn but all the pawns are on the same side of the board. I would have to check with Dvoretsky for whether he considers this set up winning, practically winnable, or easily drawing. 27.Bd4 a5 28.h3 axb4 And here I missed my last chance to get a winning/winnable position.  29.axb4 29.Rxb5 bxa3 30.Rb7+ It’s Rb7+, winning black’s bishop and so letting white sacrifice the bishop on a1, that I had missed. White now gets to double the rooks on the 7-rank. 29...Rxc5 30.bxc5 While the game is a fairly straightforward draw now, taking with the pawn lets white preserve some active ideas. However, black can easily manoeuvre the black rook behind the white c-pawn. 30...b4 31.Rb6 b3 32.g4 Ra2 33.Kg2 Trying to force play does not work. 33.g5 fxg5 34.Rb7+ Ke8 35.Bxg7 Rc2 36.Bd4 h5 33...Rc2 34.Kg3 34.g5 fxg5 35.Rb7+ Ke8 36.Rxg7 h5 37.Rxg5 b2 white has enough pawns that the computer still calls this drawn, but there’s obviously little reason to play into this. 34...Bd5 35.Rd6 Be6 36.Rb6 1/2-1/2
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May 22, 2023 21:12
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Is there a way on Lichess to see what the most common responses are to my moves? Like, since I've played 100 games on 1. Nf3, is there way to show what % of games I see 1. ... Nf6 vs d5 vs like b6 weirdness? Or an actual number of times I see QGD vs QGA?
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May 23, 2023 21:36
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Yes, you can use the opening explorer and choose the “Player” tab next to “Masters” and “Lichess.” You can mess with the settings to filter by white/black and time control.
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May 23, 2023 21:44
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Baronash posted:Yes, you can use the opening explorer and choose the “Player” tab next to “Masters” and “Lichess.” You can mess with the settings to filter by white/black and time control. This is really useful because you can also set the player rating and if it's a rapid/classical/blitz/etc game. I use it to not only see what's played against me but what players at my low rating (1080ish) or slightly higher are commonly playing.
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May 24, 2023 01:41
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Endgame question from one of my games: White pushed a pawn, but it was the wrong one. Which pawn move is significantly better? Bonus: explain why. (I looked a few moves deep in the engine and couldn't truly figure it out.)
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May 24, 2023 03:27
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| # ? Jun 4, 2024 17:55 |
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My instinct is to go f5 to try to force a passed pawn by going e6 fxe6 f6 or fxe6 and then bring the bishop to the a3-f8 diagonal to stop ...Kd6 unless black goes ...Kd7 before I finish the setup. If they do, Kc5 followed by e6 should be a strong sequence.
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May 24, 2023 04:39
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