Chess Thread

Why don't we have chess threads on Veeky Forums?
I don't see where else it would go

For those too autistic to know how to play chess
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess
chess.com/learn-how-to-play-chess

Discuss strategies, talk about dumb things you or your opponents have done.

Other urls found in this thread:

en.lichess.org/3LFq5dyY
en.lichess.org/uej61krn
twitter.com/AnonBabble

No.

Sure, what's your elo? I started playing chess because of Age of Empires II

I only ever play chess with my dad.

I read once from somewhere that one sign of adulthood is when you can beat your father in chess. I don't know whether there's any truth to that (probably isn't), but I can beat him about half the time these days.

Lost the last time, though.

>ITT

I'm pretty shit
I love playing, but I only really play every so often with a buddy of mine, and we are both pretty bad

>Why don't we have chess threads on Veeky Forums?
Because most people don't know much about chess, certainly not enough to discuss it in any depth. The people that do,

A) Tend to congregate on dedicated chess communities and not Veeky Forums.
B) Tend to talk in a way that's incomprehensible to everyone outside the set of skilled chessplayers.

I'm about a 2,000 USCF, sometimes I'm a bit over, sometimes a bit under. That puts me in a middlesish sort of position. Real, pro players (IMs, GMs) eat guys like me for breakfast, but I'm similarly invincible to a casual player. I'm not trying to be condescending here, but if I made a post analyzing, oh I don't know, the Evans Gambit and whether or not the lost pawn is worth the initiative, how many people on Veeky Forums would be able to follow my reasoning?

Haha I'm pretty shit as well to be honest, I should get my skills up to par sometime though.

>most people don't know much about chess, certainly not enough to discuss it in any depth

Could still get an amateur thread going.

And talk about what? Again, I'm not trying to be condescending, but most amateurs don't know enough about chess to discuss it, they know little and are able to articulate even less.

Do you have any advice on how a complete amateur can learn more about chess and how to play it at a high level? I used to casually play against my dad but both he and I aren't so good at it.

Playing experience alone won't get you that far. It helps to learn actual theory, primarily to give you a frame of reference to systematize playing experience. Go for endgame books if you're trying to build strength, endgames are often microcosms of games, and will help you learn how to calculate deeply; breadth usually comes later on its own.

If you can, seek out stronger players to play against, but not overwhelmingly strong. I find that what works best is to play against people you can win maybe 1 game in 4. Stronger than you, but not so much so that you get crushed and often have no idea how it happened.

Write down your moves during games. Go over EVERY game you play, ideally with a computer which can analyze missed opportunities. Don't mindlessly parrot computer lines, but try to look for positions where you made errors and figure out what the common patterns are.

play online or join some kind of chess club somewhere close to you
watch game analysis on youtube, pick up some books about openings middle game and endgame, dunno, get creative

Thanks, I'll jot down some notes.

I just feel that my problem is that I can't think ahead more than 1-2 step if even that? I don't know how to work on that.

My recommendation would be to do a bunch of endgame studies, and force yourself to start calculating further. Do this alone, with no clock or anyone around to provide social pressure to move fast.

These sorts of positions usually don't have that many good ideas, which means you don't have to worry about widely branching possibilities.

Here's one. White to play (your move) and win. The pawn queens by hitting the top of the board, and is moving up, not down. It's not easy, but it is solveable, and if you like, I can spin it up on an lichess board so you can move it around with a responsive player trying to hold the position as black.

you get to that with practice, i was a noob 3-4 years ago and then started to get more into the theory so i got better, im not saying im some kind of master or something, but im much better than casuals

Anyone up for a game? 5/2 time controls set by default, but I can switch them to something else if someone else wants to play at a different speed.

en.lichess.org/3LFq5dyY

This is far too difficult a puzzle to give to a newer player and the solution is unintuitive.

A newer player should just focus on getting to [and surviving] promotion and count that as a win.

I have to sleep now, optimization essay defense tomorrow ironically. I'll look into this and post in this thread if it's still alive by tomorrow. Thank you for your time.

Has a point. Yeah, just get to the pawn promotion. There is a really sneaky defensive trick which requires an equally sneaky trick of your own to counter it.

>en.lichess.org/3LFq5dyY
your move, bud

Beg pardon? I played one game and won, almost an hour ago. You want to start another?


en.lichess.org/uej61krn

I'm afraid I"m going to have to run. I'm rescinding the game offer.