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jiggerypokery posted:does anyone use chessable? I got an account but I have no idea what to do or where to begin (1050 blitz) I do think that John Bartholomew's 1d4 free course is one of the best free opening guides on the internet. The newer free stuff is less useful because they seem to focus on a few deep lines. The site does tempt you memorize to much openings, which can be a waste of effort. Try to grab as many endgame books as possible. Personally I think that SRS is not really useful for middlegame studying. The only time I payed for the site is when I bought that Russian endgame book, and I am still unsure if it was worth it.
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Nov 3, 2021 13:57
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The endgame stuff is great and the short and sweet series is a good beginning overview for whichever opening. John Bartholomew's courses all seem pretty good, his endgame bootcamp is great for rook/pawn endgames, at least at my low level. I haven't got any of the paid courses but most of the free ones have been pretty good
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Nov 3, 2021 14:11
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Very happy I saw this checkmate. (A little unhappy that the computer saw how to do a similar idea in 2 moves guaranteed instead of my 5 move non-guaranteed setup shhhh) Editing in a very aesthetic checkmate. 
Artelier fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Nov 4, 2021 |
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Nov 4, 2021 03:38
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I felt like I was kind of in a rut with Bullet recently, but then I did a poo poo load of puzzles in the past day or two and I started winning a lot more. I guess puzzles help in terms of 'seeing' the tactics via pattern recognition without needing a lot of time to think/calculate.
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Nov 4, 2021 20:18
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What's the best way to learn from puzzles? I just do them on chess tempo or chess.com but often just play the obvious move to find the computer do something surprising which I react to. Is there a way to get more out of them? Systematically doing them at a lower rating for example
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Nov 5, 2021 05:20
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Put the effort in to calculate the lines as best you can. If you can’t do it in your head, put the position on a board so you can play the moves. If you get the puzzle wrong, spend time analysing why you were wrong. Not that I do any of things, but I’m pretty sure that’s how you get better.
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Nov 5, 2021 08:25
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Yeah all the experts I watch say do like 10 puzzles a day max but think through the lines as thoroughly as you can manage, even if it takes you like 20 mins to solve one that way. If your brain is hurting you're learning! 
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Nov 5, 2021 09:11
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jiggerypokery posted:What's the best way to learn from puzzles? I just do them on chess tempo or chess.com but often just play the obvious move to find the computer do something surprising which I react to. Puzzles help by developing your recognitional capacities for certain patterns. A lot of books on tactics try to focus on positions that are, in one way or another, fairly typical. This is so the particular position you're studying is most likely to be similar to other positions you'll naturally encounter in your own games. With that in mind, does chess.com allow you to choose your puzzles by theme? I know that lichess does. It might help to choose do you all your puzzles on "forks" or "queen sacrifice." That'll help to build up your recognitional capacities around one particular theme.
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Nov 5, 2021 13:16
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Hand Knit posted:Puzzles help by developing your recognitional capacities for certain patterns. A lot of books on tactics try to focus on positions that are, in one way or another, fairly typical. This is so the particular position you're studying is most likely to be similar to other positions you'll naturally encounter in your own games. With that in mind, does chess.com allow you to choose your puzzles by theme? I know that lichess does. It might help to choose do you all your puzzles on "forks" or "queen sacrifice." That'll help to build up your recognitional capacities around one particular theme. It does have puzzles by theme. Though I think you're still constrained to the daily limit with that. I like doing puzzles on both sites -- I like that lichess has no limit and that the puzzles are from user games so it's not as predictable, but I also like that chess.com puzzles are designed. Yes, guessing one move at a time is the wrong way to do puzzles! Try to see the whole line before making the first move. (Although I do notice that on chess.com puzzles the computer occasionally makes a weird move, or at least one that is not optimal according to stockfish at a shallow depth...)
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Nov 5, 2021 13:23
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Yeah, chess.com has categories for puzzles. One absolutely crucial thing when training with puzzles is to go through the solutions if you get it wrong. Not just once to see what the answer was, but several times to reinforce the technique or motif that you need to learn to recognise. Take the puzzle to analysis with stockfish (in chess.com there's a button to do this) and play out your incorrect guess and see the line that the CPU uses to refute your idea. It's not a pop quiz where getting it right is the be and end all, whether you get the puzzles right or wrong is almost irrelevant as long as you internalise the patterns.
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Nov 5, 2021 13:29
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I like the chess.com daily puzzle but oftentimes I find things confusing. Maybe that's because I'm a 530 () elo and tend toward the obvious and have a propensity for blunders though. Like today, the white bishop had a clear shot to the black rook on a8 and I was like "well, why the gently caress isn't this right" until I realized that white had mate in 3 if properly played.
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Nov 5, 2021 13:58
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It helps to see if there are any opportunities for mate, or a useful check, that can take priority over winning material. On an unrelated note I think I'm going to be taking a bit of a break from chess for awhile. It's gotten too tempting for me to whip out my phone and play puzzles or bullet when I should probably be doing something else. I'm going to block lichess for awhile to see if I can break that habit.
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Nov 5, 2021 14:44
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tanglewood1420 posted:One absolutely crucial thing when training with puzzles is to go through the solutions if you get it wrong. I think chesstempo or another one of the various chess puzzle sites has a mode that gives you puzzles you previously failed
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Nov 5, 2021 14:58
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I've noticed my recognition of tactical patterns has shot up in quick games lately and it's likely due to getting into the habit of playing puzzle rush a couple of times a day. Contemplating standard puzzles to crack into a new rating level is a lot of fun and has value, but over time you end up getting good at solving deep tactical combinations and there's little opportunity to drill those fundamental combos that come up over and over again in lower rated games.
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Nov 5, 2021 15:25
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I tend to do much better at puzzles than games, because during a puzzle I know there's some good move or tactic there to spot, just by virtue of it being a puzzle. In a game there often isn't anything to spot so I have to come up with some other idea, which usually ends up being wrong. My puzzle rating on chess.com is 500 points higher than my normal rapid rating.
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Nov 5, 2021 15:59
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That's my experience as well. I don't think puzzles have really helped my games but they're still fun.
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Nov 5, 2021 21:34
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The first thing I do with any puzzle is to spend a minute just looking for themes. Not even identifying moves or lines but just trying to find patterns in how the pieces are set up.
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Nov 6, 2021 03:05
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fisting by many posted:I like doing puzzles on both sites -- I like that lichess has no limit and that the puzzles are from user games so it's not as predictable, but I also like that chess.com puzzles are designed. Outside of the daily puzzles, I'm pretty sure that chess.com puzzles are from user games as well and picked out by computers. I've seen plenty of weird and under/overrated puzzles on chess.com.
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Nov 6, 2021 04:54
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totalnewbie posted:The first thing I do with any puzzle is to spend a minute just looking for themes. Not even identifying moves or lines but just trying to find patterns in how the pieces are set up.
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Nov 6, 2021 08:16
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qsvui posted:Outside of the daily puzzles, I'm pretty sure that chess.com puzzles are from user games as well and picked out by computers. I've seen plenty of weird and under/overrated puzzles on chess.com. I think the rating starts at 2000 and is automatically adjusted from players' success and their puzzle ratings. I think this because I was once given a trivial mate-in-one with a rating of exactly 2000, but when I checked my completed puzzles a few days later it was listed as 600ish.
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Nov 6, 2021 13:39
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On the other hand I once had my first puzzle in Puzzle Rush be a decidedly nontrivial win-material-in-3, supposedly rated 173. That was not a successful puzzle rush session.
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Nov 6, 2021 13:55
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Reading Chernev's Logical Chess this am and this Lasker quote seemed like a really nice thing to remember: In the beginning of the game ignore the search for combinations, abstain from violent moves, aim for small advantages, accumulate them, and only after having attained these ends search for the combination -- and then with all the power of will and intellect, because then the combination must exist, however deeply hidden.
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Nov 6, 2021 18:31
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Just Endgamezzzzzed a kid so hard I got to watch his soul leave his body in real time.
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Nov 6, 2021 18:57
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former glory posted:Reading Chernev's Logical Chess this am and this Lasker quote seemed like a really nice thing to remember: I'm loving this book, every game is very instructive with lots of good advice
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Nov 6, 2021 18:59
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Agreed. The way he repeats the same ideas over several games, but with a different anecdote or interesting flourish helps it all stick firmly.
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Nov 6, 2021 20:47
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Logical Chess: Move by Move by Chernev is such a great book. That and his Winning Chess tactics book (which has a couple different names I believe) were the two most influential for me starting up playing chess
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Nov 6, 2021 21:12
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I really want like a curriculum. Like how Khan academy teaches maths but for chess. Chessable and chess.com etc are so open ended
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Nov 6, 2021 21:51
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Zwabu posted:Logical Chess: Move by Move by Chernev is such a great book. That and his Winning Chess tactics book (which has a couple different names I believe) were the two most influential for me starting up playing chess It is an excellent book, but even in the very first game there's also an interesting example of how computers have really revolutionized chess since the book was written in the 1950s. In Game 1, 17. ...Bxf2 is a straight-up blunder, but both Von Scheve and Chernev miss it. Any chess engine will show immediately that 18. Bxf7+ takes white from losing badly to a draw. That doesn't hurt the well-taught lessons the book has to offer, but it does show that no human is infallible. e: A lichess link to the game: https://lichess.org/study/3onPnD5y
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Nov 6, 2021 23:29
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First two games. Game 1 was a kid who was very Canadian, in that he had opening prep 20 moves deep but couldn't play for poo poo after that. I played one of those games where I gently caress up early, get a losing position, and only (maybe) salvage it once there isn't enough material left to win. But then he hung a rook so I won. The stuff that isn't pictures can be copy/pasted into a pgn reader. [Round "2"] [WhiteElo "1879"] [BlackElo "2175"] [ECO "B41"] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 { I knew my opponent played this so I was a little prepared, but it turned out they had memorized ~20 moves. } 5...Nf6 6.Nc3 Qc7 7.a3 b6 8.Be2 Bb7 9.f3 d6 { Main line is Nc6 but I wanted to stay with what I was more comfortable with. } 10.O-O Nbd7 11.Be3 Be7 12.Qd2 O-O 13.Rfc1 Rac8 ( 13...Rfc8 ) 14.a4 Qb8 15.a5 bxa5 16.Rxa5 Rfe8 17.Raa1 ( 17.b4 d5 18.c5 e5 19.Nf5 d4 20.Bc4 Bf8 21.Qa2 { came up when reviewing Pein-Kveinys but I assumed my opponent wouldn't play this } ) 17...Bd8 { Sign of blitz brain. This move felt bad, like I knew I had to be fast to get around b4, but I just decided to play it and see what happened. }  18.b4 Bc7 19.b5 axb5 ( 19...d5 20.bxa6 Ba8 21.a7 ) 20.Ndxb5 d5 ( 20...Bb6 21.Bxb6 Nxb6 22.Qxd6 Nxc4 23.Qxb8 Rxb8 24.Bxc4 ) 21.Nxc7 Rxc7 22.cxd5 exd5 23.Bf4 dxe4 ( 23...Ne5 24.exd5 Rxc3 25.Rxc3 Nxd5 26.Rb3 ) 24.Bxc7 Qxc7 25.Nxe4 Qe5 ( 25...Qb6+ 26.Nf2 { Missed Nf2 when entering line, though I was getting a pawn for the exchange. } ) 26.Nd6 Qxe2 27.Qxe2 Rxe2 28.Nxb7 g5 ?! { When I played this move I thought I might be okay because I could get some activity with my knights. However, it turns out that white can force an exchange of knights, after which black is defending passively and probably should lose eventually. }  29.Nc5 Nb6 30.Re1 Rc2 31.Rac1 Ra2 32.Ne4 Nfd5 33.Nc3 ( 33.Nxg5 Nf4 ) 33...Ra5 { playing for tricks } 34.Nxd5 ( 34.Re5 Nxc3 35.Rxa5 Ne2+ ) 34...Nxd5 35.Rcd1 ( 35.Re5 f6 36.Rf5 Kf7 37.Rd1 Ke6 38.g4 ) 35...Nf4 36.g3 Ne6 37.Kf2 Kg7 38.Rd2 Kg6 { Thinking about an eventual passive defence of f7 through Rf5 } 39.Kg2 h6 40.Re4 Ra3 41.h4 Rb3 42.Rc4 Ra3 43.f4 !? { At the time I thought this was a serious mistake but maybe it's the right way to try to win. }  43...gxf4 44.gxf4 Kf5 45.Rf2 ( 45.Rd5+ Kg4 46.f5+ Nf4+ ) 45...Ra5 46.Kg3 Nc5 47.Re2 Ra3+ 48.Kg2 Ne6 49.Ree4 Rd3 50.Kf2 Rh3 ( 50...Kg4 51.Ke2 ) 51.Kg2 Rxh4 52.Kg3 Rg4+ 53.Kf3 Rh4 54.Re5+ Kf6 55.Ra5 Rh1 56.Kg2 Rd1 57.Rb4 Rd3 58.Re4 Rb3 59.Kf2 Rh3 60.Rb4 Rc3 61.Kg2 Rd3 62.Rh5 Kg6 63.Rh3 { This is a suprisingly tough idea to meet. }  63...Rd1 64.Kf3 Rf1+ 65.Ke4 $4 Rxf4+ 66.Ke5 Rxb4 { White resigned on move 84. } 0-1 After a brief lunch at a food court, I was back but extremely tired for round 3. My opponent tried to head straight for a drawn endgame, trading everything. The result was that he headed straight for a lost pawn endgame. Lucky for me, since I really didn't see how to generate play. [Round "3"] [WhiteElo "2175"] [BlackElo "1922"] [ECO "A07"] 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 c6 4.O-O Bf5 5.c4 e6 6.cxd5 cxd5 { I don't really know how to play against this, and the game seems to become drawn very quickly. } 7.d3 Nc6 8.Nh4 Bg6 9.Nc3 Be7 10.e4 dxe4 11.dxe4 Nd7 12.Nxg6 hxg6 13.Be3 ?! { Bishop is easily traded here. Maybe better is 13.b3 } 13...O-O 14.Qe2 Bc5 15.Rfd1 Bxe3 16.Qxe3 Qe7 17.Rac1 Rfd8 18.a3 Nb6 19.Bf1 Rxd1 20.Rxd1 Rd8 { After such a long morning game, I seriously consider offering a draw here. I struggle to find any idea to make play. }  21.Rxd8+ Qxd8 22.b4 Qd4 { After the game my opponent said he thought this move lost him the game. I'm not sure he's not still better here, the endgame doesn't seem intuitively better for the bishop. } 23.Qxd4 Nxd4 24.Nb5 Nxb5 25.Bxb5 Kf8 26.f4 Ke7 27.Kf2 Nd7 28.Ke3 ( 28.Bxd7 Kxd7 29.Ke3 Kc6 30.a4 ( 30.Kd4 Kb5 31.Kc3 Ka4 ) 30...a5 ) 28...e5 ?? 29.Bxd7 exf4+ 30.gxf4 Kxd7 31.Kd4 +- { White has the better king and, thanks to black's doubled pawns, will always control opposition. }  31...Kd6 32.a4 Ke6 33.a5 Kd6 34.b5 b6 35.axb6 axb6 36.e5+ Ke6 37.Ke4 f6 38.h4 1-0
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Nov 6, 2021 23:38
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This is a cool post, grats on your wins. What tourney is this?
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Nov 7, 2021 21:50
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Maugrim posted:This is a cool post, grats on your wins. What tourney is this? Just a weekender. Blundered again today but couldn’t save it this time. Two ugly losses. e: Here are my games, uncommented this time because I'm feeling mopey. Two games blundered away. Both players had much higher national ratings, but low FIDE ratings, so my international rating is going to suffer. [Round "4"] [WhiteElo "2175"] [BlackElo "2132"] [ECO "A11"] 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Bg4 3.Bg2 Nd7 4.d3 e6 5.O-O Ngf6 6.c4 c6 7.cxd5 exd5 8.Nc3 Bc5 9.Qc2 O-O 10.e4 Re8 11.a3 a5 12.Rb1 Qe7 13.exd5 cxd5 14.Bg5 Qf8 15.Rbc1 h6 16.Bxf6 Nxf6 17.Qb3 Qd6 18.d4 Bb6 19.Ne5 Bxd4 20.Nxg4 Nxg4 21.Qxd5 Qb6 22.Na4 Bxf2+ 23.Kh1 Qg6 24.Qf3 Re3 25.Qxb7 Rf8 26.Rc4 Bxg3 27.Rxg4 Qxg4 28.hxg3 Qxa4 29.Bd5 Qe8 0-1 This last one is really frustrating because I think I played it really well until I hosed up. [Round "5"] [WhiteElo "1911"] [BlackElo "2175"] [ECO "C41"] 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.Bc4 Be7 6.O-O O-O 7.Re1 c6 8.a4 a5 9.h3 Nb6 10.Ba2 Nfd7 11.Be3 exd4 12.Nxd4 Nc5 13.Bb3 Nxb3 14.Nxb3 Nc4 15.Bc1 Bf6 16.Qd3 Ne5 17.Qf1 Be6 18.f4 Bc4 19.Qf2 Nd7 20.Nd2 Ba6 21.Nf3 Re8 22.Kh1 Qb6 23.Qxb6 Nxb6 24.Nd1 Re6 25.Nf2 Rae8 26.g4 g6 27.f5 R6e7 28.g5 Be5 29.Nxe5 Rxe5 30.Ng4 gxf5 31.Nxe5 Rxe5 32.Bf4 Rxe4 33.Rxe4 fxe4 34.Bxd6 Be2 35.Bc5 Nd5 36.Re1 Bf3+ 37.Kh2 Kg7 38.Kg3 Kg6 39.c4 Nc7 40.Be3 Na6 41.h4 Nb4 42.Bb6 Nd3 43.Rb1 h6 44.gxh6 Kxh6 45.Bxa5 f5 46.Bd2+ Kg6 47.b4 Kf6 48.Bf4 Ke6 49.a5 Be2 50.b5 cxb5 51.Rxb5 Nxf4 52.Kxf4 Bxc4 53.Rxb7 Kd5 54.h5 1-0
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Nov 7, 2021 23:58
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jiggerypokery posted:I really want like a curriculum. Like how Khan academy teaches maths but for chess. Chessable and chess.com etc are so open ended I've been thinking about this as well. There are so many excellent free resources right now that I'm trying to plan how I study a little better, otherwise I'll just get distracted. Making sure I work through a bit more of Silman's Endgame course has been helpful and a bit like eating vegetables since I don't really like the endgame. I'm trying to find analogies between this and self instruction of like a musical instrument where a teacher is mainly finding faults in technique that you aren't conscious of and laying out a sequence of material that will best help you progress.
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Nov 8, 2021 03:41
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totalnewbie posted:The first thing I do with any puzzle is to spend a minute just looking for themes. Not even identifying moves or lines but just trying to find patterns in how the pieces are set up. That fits Adriaan de Groot's influential study. From Wikipedia: De Groot found that much of what is important in choosing a move occurs during the first few seconds of exposure to a new position. Four stages in the task of choosing the next move were noted. The first stage was the 'orientation phase', in which the subject assessed the situation and determined a very general idea of what to do next. The second stage, the 'exploration phase' was manifested by looking at some branches of the game tree. The third stage, or 'investigation phase' resulted in the subject choosing a probable best move. Finally, in the fourth stage, the 'proof phase', saw the subject confirming with him/herself that the results of the investigation were valid.
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Nov 8, 2021 23:56
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Hey pals, i just got back into chess recently. Played a lot as a kid but never tried to Get Good or anything. In the past couple years i've played a few thousand games of bullet but just developed bad habits lol. Trying to step back and improve my play, i'm 1100ish right now i think but spending more than 40 seconds or so on a move feels like absolute torture lol. I'm sp0kes on chess .com
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Nov 10, 2021 01:21
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i mostly play chess against this one old dude i know, we meet in a cafe and play without a clock and a game takes like 2 hours or so
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Nov 10, 2021 21:44
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I really miss playing OTB, haven't done it since I was a teenager. Sometimes when I'm visiting my mum I get one of my old sets out and tool around setting up and exploring positions from my chess.com daily games, but it's not quite the thing. Give it a couple of years and one of my kids might be old enough to start learning, but the other one will still want to just chuck the pieces around..
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Nov 10, 2021 21:57
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I haven't played OTB in like...15 years, since my high school Algebra II class where the teacher gave zero fucks once work was done for the day. I Fool's Mated many a motherfucker in those days.
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Nov 11, 2021 20:32
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I've done it! I've done a four move checkmate as White! It might not the four moves you're thinking of, but it counts dammit!  (No idea what they were going for)
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Nov 12, 2021 16:05
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the caro can’t
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Nov 12, 2021 17:57
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jesus WEP posted:the caro can’t
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Nov 12, 2021 19:59
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