I have noticed that political comments that support one side of the discourse are left to exist while the comments supporting the opposite view are deleted. The rule should be applied consistently.

Do not discuss politics in the comments. Just comment on the behavior of the moderation.

Wondering if a player at that level benefits from total abstinence from chess for a while to avoid burnout or stop a full on tilt. Or do they just play through it? Seems risky to just stop even for a couple weeks in terms of losing repetition of memorizing lines and staying tactically sharp.

Hans is having a terrible US Championship, he really wants to be considered one of the top players. Has in the past complained about invitations, constantly counts himself among the best youngsters but actually Hans has never been in top 10, in fact clearly the invitations he gets has more to do with the attention he brings with himself rather than his play. I’m always curious as to why Hans is in talks as one of the top young talents when he clearly isn’t. His recent rating fall is definitely in the worst place he’s been in years but really he has never shown incredible promise. Also the opportunities he has gotten is more than anyone at his rating level gets tbh.

Does anyone know what year this chess set is from and how much it might be worth? The pieces are huge, about the size of a fist, and everything is in excellent condition. The chessboard is also very large. When I tap on the pieces, they sound like they might be made of ceramic.

What are some good chess puzzle platforms for provides explanation? Or at least im able to utilise the engine to see if i play move B, whats the opposition response and why is that bad?

Currently im using chesstempo but the UI sucks and the engine doesnt seem to show you what would opponent play if you played another move instead. I mean i know there are comments but its not always explained.

I dont mind paying but i just want to improve my puzzles and have a nice place to do so.

Rating about 1200.

I remember once hearing Naroditsky didn't like this expression or phrase, anyone know why, or where he said thi?

Help

Hello,

What is you preferred opening style and what do you recommend for an adult improver (1900 lichess rapid)?

Right now I play a mixed bag for white (Italian, Nc3 against sic, fantasy, tarrasch) with black I play Gawain Jones e5 and KID.

I would like to hear your opinion and experience for improvement :).

we shuffled around a bit before agreeing to a draw in this position (both roughly 2k rating). I could not see how to make any progress. I play Sicilian a lot and feel like this is a position where I really struggle.

Judit Polgar, Hou Yifan, and Koneru Humpy (all in peak form) have to play a match of 5 classical, 5 rapid, and 5 blitz games. Who are the strongest male players (historical and current) that they would have a chance against? Which formats would they have advantages in vs disadvantages? Historical players don’t have access to modern resources so their strength remains the same but they can see and review the games of their opponents and prepare accordingly.

Added a black pawn on f4 for no reason, lol(doesn't affect the study).

Looking to change my opening repertoire at 1700 rapid. What do you guys think?

Hey everyone! I've been playing chess since 2020, when I started at around 700 Elo. I mainly learned the game through Levy's videos, which I've always enjoyed. For most of that time, I've played primarily for fun and haven't taken studying too seriously, as I was studying mechanical engineering until 2025 and didn't have much time to dedicate to chess.

Last month, I finally hit 1700 rapid, with a peak rating of 1754. Now that I'm no longer at university and have more time to study, I'd like to take chess more seriously and improve my game.

So far, I've mostly played the openings Levy recommends:

With White: Vienna Game

Against 1. e4: Caro-Kann

Against everything else: Dutch Defence, particularly the Leningrad Variation

Recently, I've been considering making a few changes to my repertoire:

Replacing the Vienna with the Ruy Lopez

Keeping the Caro-Kann against 1. e4

Switching from the Dutch to either the Owen's Defence or the Queen's Gambit Declined against 1. d4 and other non-1. e4 openings

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these choices, especially from players who are stronger than me. Are these good openings to invest time in at my level, or would I be better off sticking with my current repertoire?

I've seen quite a few comments on similar posts from stronger players arguing that openings don't matter all that much below 2300. I'm sure there's plenty of truth to that, and I understand that improving my tactical vision, calculation, and endgame knowledge will probably have a much bigger impact on my rating at this stage.

That said, I'm genuinely interested in learning new openings and building a repertoire that I can stick with as I improve.

What advice would you give someone around 1700 rapid who wants to start taking chess improvement more seriously? Would you recommend these opening changes, or would my time be better spent mastering what I already play?

I was reviewing one of my games and was surprised to see Stockfish recommend ...Bxh2+ after White castled.

I thought it was an interesting position worth sharing.

A new way to play chess. Only really works on magnetic board and pieces.

Full Quote:

Hikaru Nakamura on the top players in classical chess:

"If I were active and still studying all the time, which I have started doing in advance of Clutch Chess, I think I'm still in the top five.

A lot of people don't realize that the Candidates is a very different animal from other events. Everyone is juiced to the gills with preparation, so it's much harder to get an advantage. People see someone play badly at the Candidates and think they're completely washed and can't play chess, which is completely wrong, in my opinion.

If you ask me for the top five right now, I'd say Magnus, myself, Nodirbek and Sindarov, and then it's a free-for-all. Fabi, Arjun, Pragg, it's everybody. You can even put me in that same group with Fabi.

But again, it's hard to judge because classical chess doesn't happen that frequently. There just aren't that many classical tournaments, so it's very hard to judge."

Source Link

Game link: https://www.chess.com/game/185501998248?move=43

For me as 1700 the position is complicated with both sides having a potential say in terms of winning, yet engine evaluates it at a whopping +6.8 for white. At first, I thought there is a missing tactic, but engine line keeps playing normal seemingly balanced game for next ten moves at least.

I'd like a human eye to look at this.

Tomorrow will be a a year since Dayna left us. With Blitzstream (I'm french) he was my favorite streamer, his ability to explain high-level concepts and popularize his knowledge with a very colorful vocabulary being unmatched.

The content of the speedruns is so rich that I have always felt the need to have a support to maximize the knowledge I get from them, an index of the themes covered that cross-references the games is in my eyes the easiest way to anchor ideas and consolidate learning.

So here it is, I hope that others will find it useful and that Danya's knowledge will continue to "contaminate" more and more people :

https://senseidanya.com

(I was white btw)

I’ve played a decent amount of games now but I can’t seem to win any, I can’t really recognize when I can attack or when they can, and I don’t know how to set up a checkmate or anything, Is this fixable or is it just a skill issue

Find all the games & full standings on Lichess: https://lichess.org/tournament/oct26bta

Photo: Lennart Ootes / FIDE

I got lucky that it went exactly like what i planned, I think, but queen sac is queen sac.

From a recent rapid game. Black took a knight on c4. Three ways to recapture, engine suggests they are similar evaluation. Would be interested in peoples thoughts. Pros and cons from my perspective:

Qxc4

- Pros: C file remains open to target double pawns.

- Cons: D pawn remains a weakness

dxc4

- Pros: Gets rid of backward d pawn

- Cons: makes e4 weaks, closes C file

bxc4

- Pros: Takes towards centre

- Cons: Black would be first to take the now open B file

I ruled out bxc4 quite quickly, it just felt wrong. I ended up playing Qxc4 for the pro listed above and also because i felt I could defend the backward d pawn a lot easier than they could defend their double pawns, but I do feel dxc4 was perhaps more natural.

Thoughts? Im about 2000 rapid chessdotcom.

By the Platov brothers