The everything CHESS thread

[Superfraggle]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

Share the game gifs!

Ok, now that I know how to do it, here's the game we were talking about:



I don't see how to put our names using the chess.com one.

[Superfraggle]

Only 3 out of 6 people have accepted the invite for the consolation bracket, which I'd like to get started sooner rather than later, so if you wouldn't mind each just letting me know if you don't want to join, I can kick it off. A DM is fine if you don't want to post it here.

If you should have gotten an invite and don't see one, let me know and we can figure it out, but it does show all three as pending still, so I think they should be active.

[Slava]

I got the invite and accepted, but the issue for me is there is kind of no notification...or at least nothing that pops up for me. I don't know if that is a settings issue on my end?

[Superfraggle]

Originally Posted by Slava

I got the invite and accepted, but the issue for me is there is kind of no notification...or at least nothing that pops up for me. I don't know if that is a settings issue on my end?

Hmmm. It still shows you as a pending invitation. I will try cancelling and re-sending. Moving to PM for further trouble-shooting

[Superfraggle]

Consolation bracket has been started. Good luck everyone!

[Scornfire]

I got daydrunk yesterday and have been in an absolute spiral in all of my games /cry

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Scornfire

I got daydrunk yesterday and have been in an absolute spiral in all of my games /cry

I really wish I had known that yesterday and had some time to take advantage of that!

[mrkajz44]

I have 4 games going on at once now and I don't think my brain can handle it. Lots of fun though!

[Superfraggle]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

Watch out for 72UCI's pawn play - it's exceptional!

Thanks for the warning about the pawns, but I just got absolutely schooled by their queen, bishop, and rook play!

[Buff]

I always wanted to learn the strategies of Chess. One day my sons said they've been playing chess.com with a lot of school friends. I was a bit surprised at that. My 15 year old was really loving chess and got a cheapo board from the dollar store. He slaughtered me in the only two games we played.

He told me he uses the chess.com app so I downloaded it and I've been hooked on it for the past couple of weeks. I hate paying for games that you can play free but I'm tempted because I want to do more lessons and do analysis. I've got a long way to go but I'm getting better. I have to learn to think ahead for each move as right now I act/react too quickly without much thinking ahead. I'm good at strategizing but my downfall is impatience.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Buff

I always wanted to learn the strategies of Chess. One day my sons said they've been playing chess.com with a lot of school friends. I was a bit surprised at that. My 15 year old was really loving chess and got a cheapo board from the dollar store. He slaughtered me in the only two games we played.

He told me he uses the chess.com app so I downloaded it and I've been hooked on it for the past couple of weeks. I hate paying for games that you can play free but I'm tempted because I want to do more lessons and do analysis. I've got a long way to go but I'm getting better. I have to learn to think ahead for each move as right now I act/react too quickly without much thinking ahead. I'm good at strategizing but my downfall is impatience.

Feel free to hit any of us up for a game—it’s a great way to learn and there really is no pressure! I’m ShadowB0205 on chess.com.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Superfraggle

Thanks for the warning about the pawns, but I just got absolutely schooled by their queen, bishop, and rook play!

The game between Superfraggle and the mysterious 72UCI is worth a look if you have some time to kill:

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/...549?tab=review

Two very strong players, so no surprise that Superfraggle starts with his trusty London system opening (d4 and Bf4), or that 72UCI knows the critical response (d5, c5, Nc6).

The game then took a super interesting (to me, but I am kind of a nerd) turn, with black fianchettoing the dark square bishop but white finding a nice outpost for its own bishop on e5, which should in theory completely nerf black’s bishop on g7. But the game went on and was roughly even—white declined the bishop trade and opted for a long-term positional strategy with the bishop back on g3.

The critical moment, I think, was around move 20. Black had just played 17 …Rd3, piling up attackers on white’s knight on d2. After 19. Rf2 (defending the knight), Bh6 (creating a battery and adding an attacker on d2), white played 20. Qe2, setting up a back tank attack, with the idea of gaining a tempo with Qe8+.
Unfortunately, stockfish says Qe2 is inaccurate—it allows Rxd2, leading to a series of exchanges, after which Black is apparently better. Stockfish says that white needed to find Qf1, which is not straightforward. You still give up the knight on d2, but now the exchanges lead to a position where (with the bishop on d5) white has an annoying checkmating attack on the f7 square. Not easy to find at all—can’t even say I fully understand it now.

Next, on move 24, 72UCI played the brilliant 24. … Rd8!!

Now… I don’t know how to embed the image of the position at that point—maybe someone more tech savvy can assist. But Rd8 is a pretty incredible move. It “looks impossible” — the rook is technically hanging (white’s queen is on b5, looking right at it). Except it turns out the rook really cannot be taken because after Bxd5, Qxg2 is mate, and that creates impossible problems for white to deal with. White played on, but that sequence proved to be decisive.

Highly recommend people check out the whole game—very high level game from two very strong players!

[FireGilbert]

Originally Posted by Buff

I always wanted to learn the strategies of Chess. One day my sons said they've been playing chess.com with a lot of school friends. I was a bit surprised at that. My 15 year old was really loving chess and got a cheapo board from the dollar store. He slaughtered me in the only two games we played.

He told me he uses the chess.com app so I downloaded it and I've been hooked on it for the past couple of weeks. I hate paying for games that you can play free but I'm tempted because I want to do more lessons and do analysis. I've got a long way to go but I'm getting better. I have to learn to think ahead for each move as right now I act/react too quickly without much thinking ahead. I'm good at strategizing but my downfall is impatience.

Lichess is free:



lichess.org

[Superfraggle]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/...549?tab=review

[...]

Highly recommend people check out the whole game—very high level game from two very strong players!

Yeah, I really enjoyed this game, despite losing. 72UCI fully just outplayed me. Move 19 is where I realized it was going wrong, as I couldn't adequately protect my knight once the rook slid over to D3 thanks to the pin of the knight to my queen. Stockfish looks like it only gives -0.96 on the evaluation there in black's favour, presumably because of the counterattack that was possible.

My next mistake was defending with the rook on F2, rather than moving the queen out of the pin immediately. We both knew that bishop was going to join the attack before my second rook could get there, but I went for the trade with the idea of making the queen leave the D5 pawn unprotected for my bishop to both attack F7 and create a connected passed pawn on D4.

In retrospect, it would have been better to move the queen right away on move 19 and leave my rook on F1 to help attack F7 when my queen got down there. Relying on the bishop to attack that square helped 72UCI finally develop his own bishop and offer up that poisoned rook, which I didn't realize wasn't actually free until after his bishop moved.

From there it was just a clean conversion in an extremely well-played game by 72UCI. I could probably have survived longer with more accurate play, but I think it was a foregone conclusion a that point.

[Superfraggle]

To embed the image, first you have to create it (I used chess.com/gifs), then just put it in image tags [img]www.etc.com[/img]

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Superfraggle

Yeah, I really enjoyed this game, despite losing. 72UCI fully just outplayed me. Move 19 is where I realized it was going wrong, as I couldn't adequately protect my knight once the rook slid over to D3 thanks to the pin of the knight to my queen. Stockfish looks like it only gives -0.96 on the evaluation there in black's favour, presumably because of the counterattack that was possible.

My next mistake was defending with the rook on F2, rather than moving the queen out of the pin immediately. We both knew that bishop was going to join the attack before my second rook could get there, but I went for the trade with the idea of making the queen leave the D5 pawn unprotected for my bishop to both attack F7 and create a connected passed pawn on D4.

In retrospect, it would have been better to move the queen right away on move 19 and leave my rook on F1 to help attack F7 when my queen got down there. Relying on the bishop to attack that square helped 72UCI finally develop his own bishop and offer up that poisoned rook, which I didn't realize wasn't actually free until after his bishop moved.

From there it was just a clean conversion in an extremely well-played game by 72UCI. I could probably have survived longer with more accurate play, but I think it was a foregone conclusion a that point.

That capture chain around move 19-20 was very tricky. I definitely would not have found the right move there either—as I said, I’m not even totally sure I understand stockfish’s idea—which seems to be to give up the knight but put the queen on the f file, so that the bishop and queen both point to f7 at the end of the sequence.

And even then, stockfish still gives a slight advantage to black—around -.8 or -.9 or so.

[Superfraggle]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

That capture chain around move 19-20 was very tricky. I definitely would not have found the right move there either—as I said, I’m not even totally sure I understand stockfish’s idea—which seems to be to give up the knight but put the queen on the f file, so that the bishop and queen both point to f7 at the end of the sequence.

And even then, stockfish still gives a slight advantage to black—around -.8 or -.9 or so.

Yeah, the line I was looking at is actually:
19. Qe1 - Rxd2

Which gives a +2 advantage to white IF you find h4, with the same idea of deflecting the queen away from d5, but without that rook trade.

The sort of thing that seems easy when Stockfish tells you to do it, but I do think is findable once you have the idea to go after that pawn.

They could capture with the queen instead of the rook, but even that is only a -0.6 advantage for black.

[mrkajz44]

Very interesting game with some major sweeping moves. I'm finding the "mistakes" and "inaccuracies" tend to be those small adjusting moves where you think "man, I wish my rook was just one space over". Seems like the computer really hates those moves and wants you to figure it out another way.

One move I've seen a few times in our tournament that the computer likes but I just don't understand is moving the edge pawn up one space. In the game we are talking about now the move is made 6.h3. I just don't get why that's good? It doesn't help develop a bishop or rook and in this game specifically, the queen pin is not available at this point in the game. What am I missing?

[Superfraggle]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

Very interesting game with some major sweeping moves. I'm finding the "mistakes" and "inaccuracies" tend to be those small adjusting moves where you think "man, I wish my rook was just one space over". Seems like the computer really hates those moves and wants you to figure it out another way.

One move I've seen a few times in our tournament that the computer likes but I just don't understand is moving the edge pawn up one space. In the game we are talking about now the move is made 6.h3. I just don't get why that's good? It doesn't help develop a bishop or rook and in this game specifically, the queen pin is not available at this point in the game. What am I missing?

Very situational, as sometimes it really is just a pointless move and sometimes it's a preventative move to stop a bishop from going somewhere later. Eg. A6 to prevent Bb5+ (edit: on re-reading, this is clearly something you are well aware of, since you mention the queen pin).

This particular time, it's a bit of a common theme in the London set-up. Black will often move their knight to H5 so they can trade it for my bishop. He couldn't do that right away because my queen covers the square, but in order to get my knight out I have to block the queen. So I moved the pawn to give my bishop a square to hide on if the knight moves (H2).

[mrkajz44]

Originally Posted by Superfraggle

Very situational, as sometimes it really is just a pointless move and sometimes it's a preventative move to stop a bishop from going somewhere later. Eg. A6 to prevent Bb5+ (edit: on re-reading, this is clearly something you are well aware of, since you mention the queen pin).

This particular time, it's a bit of a common theme in the London set-up. Black will often move their knight to H5 so they can trade it for my bishop. He couldn't do that right away because my queen covers the square, but in order to get my knight out I have to block the queen. So I moved the pawn to give my bishop a square to hide on if the knight moves (H2).

Thanks for the explanation! I never would have thought about giving the bishop a little hole to hide in the pawn ranks. I suppose I've never actually seen it used because the other player sees that its available and doesn't make the move that forces it. Clearly I have some work to do to get to this level.