Chess: 107. Many People Have Stated They Do Not Like Me and Do Not Want Me Playing

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Chess: 107. Many People Have Stated They Do Not Like Me and Do Not Want Me Playing

«‹›3 »

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Spokes posted:

Yeah it�s kind of like� because chess is so accessible and there are so many great, educational streamers there�s this feeling that if you just put in some time you can be Magnus (or Aman, at least). Just make the right moves! It�s the same thing with esports�you can just boot up the same game Faker plays! I know I can�t play in the NBA but i definitely have the idea that I could grind some computer game and go pro even though that�s equally out of the question

anyway all this to say that it�s perfectly okay to just enjoy the games through Levy�s analysis or whatever without feeling like you�re missing out on playing at an expert+ level�99% of these players devoted years of their youth to it, it�s just hard to remember that

yes im trying to go from < 900 to 2000 in my mid-thirties, do as I say etc

The cool thing about chess is that anyone can play exactly like a GM! Or even a computer! Well, not for an entire game, but at least a few moves of any game.

Whereas with, say, basketball, I cannot make a single move like an NBA player. Even if all I did was throw a 3-pointer and it actually went in, my form would be all screwed up and it would be obvious that I had no idea what I was doing.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2021 12:14

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 15, 2024 09:57

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

tilp posted:

My 7 week old baby has a habit of waking up screaming in the midgame...

yep, I'm not fast enough for blitz and I don't get enough uninterrupted time for longer controls, so daily chess it is.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2021 04:59

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

The pain of daily chess: I've been waiting to analyze this game for three weeks. Hoping my opponent concedes and doesn't make me play out this endgame for another two weeks

# ¿ Dec 20, 2021 10:36

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

jesus WEP posted:

i hate when people deliberately use time to frustrate someone from a losing position. dirty flagging is fine, the clock is a piece etc, but just making someone stew over the remaining time to annoy them is really lovely

question about daily chess: the idea is that opening books are okay and computer analysis is not. so with that in mind, chess.com�s openings section, which shows the most popular replies to a position without showing any analysis of advantage, is okay? or no?

Yes, their openings are fine. It's even accessible with one click from inside daily games, along with an analysis board (no engine but you can just move the pieces around)

I don't think my opponent is a sore loser so much as lazy, we were getting in one move a day even when they had an advantageous position.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2021 12:09

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

chess.com please stop making daily puzzles with the solution being "black just loving blunders into M2". Thanks.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2022 05:43

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Maugrim posted:

If you're talking about today's "happy birthday Tatev" one, I'm not sure how they're supposed to avoid mate? You can delay it one move by saccing the queen I guess.

I was referring to the Sunday puzzle

The first move seems obvious, grab the hanging piece, but it's impossible to see the continuation from there because the continuation is black making consecutive blunders and throwing the game.

So I'm staring at this puzzle like "Ok white seems to be winning here but... what happens next... what's the trick... how is this a sunday puzzle :confused:

# ¿ Jan 13, 2022 12:58

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

GhostofJohnMuir posted:

gives new meaning to playing an explosive move

22. Rxf5385!? Sacrifices the rook and gives up control of the open f-file but may have been necessary to prevent a future threat

# ¿ Mar 13, 2022 03:17

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

I guess chess.com is selling NFTs now, or planning to

https://www.chess.com/legal/user-agreement

I've gone and closed my account, lichess is good enough.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2022 07:43

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

pugnax posted:

Hard to improve on the above guidance, but I'd add that picking up a book of annotated games (eg the classic Logical Chess, a chess 'bible', some wild Magnus games, a new book of Caruna games, etc.) can be a really good way to understand why and when certain moves or patterns are played.

I'm also a really big fan of the improvements that Chess.com has made to the post-game evaluation and analysis. It's neat to have the engine run through the game, find all the fuckups, and offer you a second chance to see the correct move. Basically, it serves you a set of puzzles based on the key moments of your game; I think it's really cool and helpful.

Lichess does that too, they call it "Learn from your mistakes". It's great.

When I first started I struggled to complete 10 minute games, I'd spend too much time thinking in unfamiliar spots which was every spot. Now I can play 10+0 pretty well and only flag less than half the time in blitz.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2022 01:34

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

I would also like to join the discord.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2022 03:18

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Interesting sort of tactic from a game I played today. Black to find the only good move.

https://lichess.org/editor/r3k2r/pp2bppp/3p1n2/1N2p1B1/4P3/8/PPP2PPP/R3K2R_b_KQkq_-_0_12

I thought "Oh no, Nc7+ forks my rook" and played ...O-O. But that's a blunder, the correct move is ...Nxe4. If white insisted on Nc7+, after Kd7 Nxa8 the knight is trapped, so Black could take the hanging bishop instead and White is down two pieces for Black's rook. Obviously.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2022 08:01

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Zwabu posted:

Good reasons to look over even the games you win: Finding better moves than even the winning moves you made in the game.

In this game White had sacrificed a knight to start a withering attack on my king, which I wasn't sure I'd survive, but I found the critical move or two I needed to hold onto my king and the material. Then afterwards I had anticipated the fork that is the winning move here (Black to move), but if my opponent hadn't immediately resigned after I put him in check, I never would have found the continuation sequence that turns this from winning the exchange to a smashing easy victory.

Obviously after ...Ne2+ White has only one move that avoids mate, and I did consider following with ...Qf3+ to flush the king out to h3, but I didn't see an immediate way to mate or win White's queen by force, so if we'd played on I'd probably have settled for winning the exchange.

So after puzzling over it I asked Stockfish to take a look and it taught me something.

Cool. I saw Qf3+ was annoying but had no clear move after, and thought back to Danya's advice, looking for a way to bring another piece in, but I couldn't find it. I didn't see that Kf7 to prepare Rh8 is unstoppable.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2022 07:47

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

QuantumNinja posted:

Just shitposting, but am I the only one disappointed about Nepo winning again? He got facerolled by Magnus last year in boring ways, not particularly interested in seeing him do it again.

Obviously Hikaru would also get face-rolled, but the Fabi - Magnus games would at least be interesting. I really think Magnus' own suggestion that the world champ has to be part of candidates is really more-interesting, though. That's how it is done across most games. Imagine if DotA internationals was a massive bracket of contenders that had to play matches against last year's team.

Yeah, I'm not interested in seeing a Nepo rematch either. Although with the way he's played through this year's candidates, maybe it'd go differently (I wasn't really following chess during the last candidates)

# ¿ Jun 28, 2022 11:27

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

It seems to me that WC matches are an ungodly amount of prep followed by endurance.

Like last year it seemed like Nepo broke after the 140-move game that took 9 hours or whatever.

Which is certainly a valid competition format but understandable if Magnus feels that it's not really representative of what makes the world champion of Chess.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2022 09:18

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Salt Fish posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jit4VkyFtI

I watched about 50 eric rosen videos but I am only posting this one.

"Oh I missed mate in 1, I just saw push my pawn and make a horsey"

Wow, I think like an IM

# ¿ Aug 8, 2022 03:59

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Edly posted:

This thread inspired me to work on endgames more. I've been getting some good mileage out of chess.com's "Practice vs Computer" feature; if you click the little bullseye icon in the bottom right of the analysis screen, you can play against the god-mode AI from any position in one of your games. It's perfect for going back and retrying an endgame that you should have won, but with infinite time to think about each move, explore different lines, etc.

Lichess has this too (looks like a circle/bullseye thing?) I like using it in games where my opponent resigned so I can practice converting those endgames.

# ¿ Aug 25, 2022 01:54

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

fart simpson posted:

yah me too

same

I watched the clips and it is pretty weird that Hans couldn't give coherent analysis without a visible evaluation or even explain his own lines after beating Magnus with black. Curious to see how this unfolds.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2022 03:56

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

fart simpson posted:

do you really think most super gms can give a basic coherent analysis of their own games without stockfish?

It sounds like in the interviews he was suggesting variations that lower-rated analysts immediately identified as blunders. Isn't that odd?

# ¿ Sep 6, 2022 04:02

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

today is a good day for that

# ¿ Sep 6, 2022 04:11

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Starsfan posted:

Yeah the delay I think goes a long way towards beating a variety of different types of cheating. at least I think it works fairly well for televised poker tournaments.. Then you're down to cheating in house by various methods which is obviously much easier for the arbiters to detect.

There was some scuttlebutt earlier about Hans supposedly performing much better in tournaments where spectators can view the games in real time vs. tournaments where spectators can not view the games in real time, but I don't think anyone in the chess world found it that compelling.. I do wonder though if you ran some computer programs that compiled results for grandmaster play sorted into whether outside help could view the games as they were happening or not if you would find any interesting outliers.. could be a good way to go.

I read that he gained rating at all USCF tournaments that had real-time video and lost rating at all events that didn't over a span of 19 tournaments.

Assuming this list is true and complete, that would be suspiciously unlikely. If gaining or losing rating is equally probable, the odds of that specific outcome would be 1 in 524,288.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2022 05:09

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

qsvui posted:

I rewatched the interview and technically he said he never cheated in money tournaments outside of the one time when he was 12.

I'm still having trouble imagining this goony dude being able to cheat OTB for years undetected or that he could even be disciplined enough to cheat only sparingly. But maybe he found a way or maybe security at these tournaments is really lax

The buttplug theory wasn't a joke. At least not completely.

All a GM would need to gain an advantage cheating is a device that can receive a single bit of information -- a buzz at the right moment. One could hide such a device anywhere.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2022 07:02

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

It's about a GM and the reigning world champion, there'd hardly be a more important scenario in Chess outside like Candidates/the WC itself being involved.

also even cynically it's good marketing for the chess dot com business to position themselves as an authority on the big issue that's crept into the regular news

# ¿ Oct 5, 2022 07:42

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Redmark posted:

An unfortunate game in the latest round of the US championship: https://lichess.org/broadcast/us-chess-championship/round-7/PVVXNTKT/raNgiAZF
I had to check a couple of tries in the engine like 11...Qf5 12.Nxe4 Qxe4 13.Re1 which is a pretty funny way to lose a piece. I can only imagine anyone losing this way to start channeling Bobby Fischer and yelling about theory.

Wow, that's nasty.

Retake with the queen, queen gets skewered and you lose the bishop. Retake with the bishop, Q+B get forked, move the queen, bishop is taken, and taking the knight with the queen results in the same skewer.

Stockfish says the blunder was castling instead of taking with the pawn in the first place, but it looked so safe, the pawn was protected by the queen!

# ¿ Oct 13, 2022 01:42

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

1024x768 posted:

I'm in my mid-thirties and just took and interest in chess in the last four months or so. Until June this year I probably played fewer than 10 games of chess in my entire life. I managed to make my way up to ~1000 on chess.com mostly by doing some puzzles daily and watching the Chessbrah Building Habits series. I'm interested in improving my game further, and I know that most improvement will be found in tactics training, but I often feel a little clueless about how to develop my pieces, developing a mid-game strategy, and playing with a plan in general. Moves that are seen as natural or intutitive to experienced players often seem sort of random to me. The concept of positional play is neat, but I don't really know where to start. I'd really like to find a coach to help me come up with a plan to improve. Any advice for how to pick one? There are a billion options on chess.com.

Daniel Naroditsky's speedrun series. There are three, each with different time settings. I'm going through the Master Class (10 minute games) and finding it very informative. There is enough time for him to explain the position and his plan at any point. I agree it's hard to find chess content that explains mid-game and planning well.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2022 02:52

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

stratdax posted:

I've played on both websites and apps and I prefer chess.com. There's something really subtle I prefer about the experience, I don't even know what it is but there's something about lichess that turns me off. I know you can change the piece set and sounds on lichess but it's not enough. Either the speed at which the pieces move or something, but I have a hard time focusing on the board on lichess.

I used to feel like this, then I switched to the lichess theme that was closest to the chess.com default and after a few days I was used to it

# ¿ Jan 15, 2023 07:28

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Leperflesh posted:

I feel like it's an issue, that you know it's a puzzle and therefore solvable and therefore you're going to study it till you find the solution you know exists.

If like at least 50% of these puzzles were intentionally unsolvable and you had exactly one chance to either solve the puzzle or declare it unsolvable and then that's your answer, that'd probably be more "realistic" training?

A puzzle that never actually ends and just throws you into a game against Stockfish 14 from an equal midgame

# ¿ Jan 25, 2023 02:27

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

former glory posted:

Nice progress, that rules!

Ooh, nice one.

1. Rb1 and the queen is trapped? (...Qa4 2. Rb4)

# ¿ Feb 7, 2023 04:58

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

AnacondaHL posted:

You have to go further because 2. Rb4 blocks white queen's line of sight to a5. So

1. Rb1 Qa4
2. Rb4 Qa5
3. Rb8, offering queen for a back rank mate!
(if Queen does anything: 4. Re8+ Rxe8 5. Rxe8#)
otherwise
3... Rxb8
4. Qxa5

I had a feeling the back rank mate threat was important, but missed that our rook blocked our queen.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2023 06:58

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Aggro posted:

Once you take the bishop, Rf4 sets up a nearly unavailable mate on the h file because the Queen is too far away to help defend. The only move that saves the game is pretty unintuitive.

Oooooh.

I found it after realizing the threat that needed to be stopped, but yeah that's an unusual puzzle!

# ¿ Feb 22, 2023 03:45

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

greatZebu posted:

Black�s rook is tied down defending your h pawn, you can then push the g pawn and win.

Also hard to spot at a glance but white's rook combined with the black pawn block in the black king from all directions. It takes black too long to reposition the knight or the pawn and king to stop the pawn push.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2023 14:00

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Carbolic posted:

Playing in an OTB tournament and was running very low on time in this position as White. While I take consolation in finding the only drawing sequence, I am extremely bummed not to have spotted the only (super fun) winning sequence.

That is delightful.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2023 05:25

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Huxley posted:

It's weird to me that my blitz rating is lower than my rapid. Like, obviously I'm worse with less time, but isn't everyone else? If rating isn't some true test of skill but just your average skill vs a particular pool, aren't I playing the same people at 800 blitz as I am 1000 rapid? Why aren't we all around 1k in every format?

I feel like around 800-900 blitz there are a lot of people that have studied one opening trap. They're 800 because they don't know anything else (and often end up punting the advantage anyway), but it's certainly hard to win with time pressure and being in a bad position early.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2023 03:10

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

It is genuinely frustrating that people at my level resign so quickly because I end up with no endgame practice whatsoever. Converting a material advantage in the endgame is a skill that needs training (and likewise, fighting a material disadvantage is also a skill).

If the win is trivial I'll resign but otherwise I'm playing it out. I'm nowhere near a high enough level that +3 or +5 is an automatic win.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2023 03:59

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Salt Fish posted:

I love these patterns where if you've seen it the puzzle is just trivial, but its highly rated because for whatever reason other people don't have the same pattern on lock. This one is 2042 on lichess https://lichess.org/training/yX8uS

I failed this one

I thought it was obviously promote with double check but I missed the simple Kxd8

# ¿ Apr 20, 2023 02:57

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

L.H.O.O.Q. posted:

Thought the puzzle in the article here was super neat https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/apr/21/chess-ding-misses-wins-and-his-prep-leaks-as-nepomniachtchi-keeps-the-lead

I didn�t see the whole thing it even when I worked out it all had to do with the black g pawn. What�s the best way to set up boards online to play through lines? I get muddled picturing five moves in my head

As lichess alluded to in their tweet, running your own private instance of lichess (which is open source) would be an option. sure, you need a bit of technical know-how to do that, but surely a team of people preparing for a world championship with a EUR 2m prize purse could contract someone.

or wait if you mean like for yourself and not for world championship prep, get the chessvision.ai browser extension. it captures the screen and then spits out a link to an analysis board.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2023 03:17

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Huxley posted:

Two things I'm learning as I start taking the game more seriously:

I am like, 200 points worse on my phone than I am on a computer. I have an old ipad floating around, I'm interested to see if that splits the difference.

I paid for a year of dotcom, which makes my dotcom rating feel very serious and sweaty. So I started using Lichess for "practice" because it was a place I felt free not to care about my "actual rating." And now 99% of my playing is on Lichess because not really caring is what makes it fun. I'm 100% aware of how this is all just my brain playing a trick on itself, so maybe what I need to do now is go get a FIDE rating, so THAT feels like my real rating.

Brains are funny things.

yeah, I used to try at rapid and use blitz for screwing around

Then I wanted to improve my blitz rating because I became able to play 5+3 competently, so now I try 2+1 bullet for screwing around.

Was tempted to reinstall chess.com to have a new screwing around outlet but ehhh that's too far.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2023 06:17

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

I did not enjoy the WCs where it was draw after draw. I did enjoy the classical games this year when Ding was doing off the wall stuff.

I would like if the World Championship incorporated multiple time controls, so that there is some ultra-prepared classical, because after all that is probably the pinnacle of human chess, but I do not want to see 14 games of it.

Exercu posted:

I strongly agree with this. A grandmaster from my home country complained about the level of chess in the tournament because it was lower than when Magnus played. I agree with that in a limited sense - if we define good chess as how closely we hew to the best stockfish line. But why should that be the metric? Why not play moves that are hard for humans to refute (because they haven't prepped this line), even if a machine thinks it's easy to refute (because when you can calculate into like, 40 depth or whatever, every move is easily refutable)? Like, stockfish would say you're playing a bad and inaccurate game. But is it, tho?

that WC was some of the best chess I've ever seen. if you want to see computer moves they have engine tournaments for that. nerves and the human element are as much a part of the game as strategy. it owns that the world championship was won on a psyche-out

# ¿ May 2, 2023 03:29

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

Anias posted:

Agreed to disagree. There are innumerable other events where gamesmanship is prized. There are many faster time control tournaments and matches. Having one classical time control event where humans grapple with interesting positions (even if it means 20 moves of theory to get there) is not a big ask. Compromising it via rapid tiebreaks and anemic play is disappointing. Maybe it�s time for me to just stop posting. I�ll check back in later. Enjoy your sport, and may your games be interesting.

They should change the world championship to chessboxing.

# ¿ May 3, 2023 02:49

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

GhostofJohnMuir posted:

had a game with an opposite side king attack i actually felt good about

black played e2, white to play and win

one of those positions where i'm sitting there telling myself i have to be winning since my attack is a hair faster, but having to calculate very hard to prove it. normally i feel like i let the pressure get to me and blunder the advantage (and in a position this delicate, the game), but i was actually able to grind it out this time

Wow, it does not seem like mate should be that much work from that position, and yet. Like you'd think after double check with two queens and two rooks in the attack it has to be over.

# ¿ May 10, 2023 02:33

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 15, 2024 09:57

fisting by many: Dec 25, 2009

No wonder the queen looks so happy

# ¿ May 11, 2023 10:35

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Chess: 107. Many People Have Stated They Do Not Like Me and Do Not Want Me Playing

«‹›3 »