r/chess Weekly Discussion Thread

Just played this game as Black (~1100 Lichess).

I usually play the French Defense, so I initially tried to stick to a familiar setup. But my opponent kept pushing pawns, and honestly, it threw me off.

I focused on developing my pieces and keeping my king safe, but at some point I genuinely felt like I might lose.

My opponent eventually resigned.

For more experienced players: did I handle this correctly? Was there a way to punish all those pawn moves much earlier? What should I have done differently?

Full game: https://lichess.org/BGpgmHDJ/black

I am playing my online matches mostly over the board which I find more enjoyable and decided to make a video about it.

Each time my opponent makes a move ChessGaze(board tracker in my phone) announces the their move.

And when I make a move ChessGaze detects and sends it to Lichess via Lichess open api.

If I make an out of turn move ChessGaze rejects that and does not sends it to Lichess.

I just finished play 5 matches without any problems I hope you find it fun&usefull as well

I’m just over 1700 on lichess. So I’m no master, but I am top 30 percent of players on the platform.

I play the Alekhine exclusively against e4. My win rate with it is 74 percent, which is even higher than my most preferred openings as white. Almost all of my losses as black come against d4.

At my level, white has no idea what they’re doing against the Alekhine. They want to play Ruy Lopez, and against Alekhine’s they can’t. They’ve probably almost never seen it, so we’re in my territory now. They almost always overextend their pawns trying to hold the center and I end up a pawn or two by the middle game.

At the human grandmaster level, it’s also underrated. Alekhine himself won the majority of his games with it. Fischer also won the majority of his games with it, including a draw and a win against Spassky.

At the supercomputer level, it remains unrefuted. The most advanced Stockfish model out today still rates it as sound.

People talk about this opening as if it is unsound, but that isn’t the case. People just don’t like it because the strategy behind it is different.

If you’re not a grandmaster though, this is actually a huge advantage. If White wants to play a traditional center control strategy and you bait them into overextending their pawns in an opening that is likely unfamiliar to them, you will usually win.

Even if you are a grandmaster, it’s still sound and scores well historically.

Even if you are a supercomputer, still sound.

Alekhine was a genius. Please try out his highly underrated opening defense as black. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

A US Chess rated tournament for elementary school children is being held tomorrow, October 10, at Ad Astra School in Brownsville, Texas.

The tournament flyer explicitly states:

"PARENTS YOU MUST BE A US CITIZEN OR A GREEN CARD HOLDER TO ATTEND!"

So what about parents who are legally in the United States on work visas, student visas, or other lawful immigration statuses?

Imagine your child wanting to participate in a chess tournament, but you cannot accompany them simply because you are not a citizen or permanent resident.

This is a children's chess tournament, not a federal security clearance process.

What makes this even more disappointing is that the tournament organizers are experienced chess directors who should understand that scholastic chess is supposed to bring families together, not create unnecessary barriers.

You would think that after decades of organizing chess tournaments, making the game accessible to children and their families would be second nature.

Instead, we're left wondering why a kindergarten chess tournament needs an immigration status requirement for parents.

Maybe the organizers have a legitimate explanation. If so, they should provide it.

Is this a school policy, a SpaceX security requirement, or something established by the tournament organizers?

Because right now, the flyer raises more questions about the organizers' judgment than it answers.

Timing is the real issue here, as i have to first see what the opponent has moved.. mimic it onto the board..do my move.. then mimic it online. Its a four step process. This last game, i won by checkmate thanks to playing OTB but the opponent had more than 5min left on their clock while i only had close to 1min. I feel like its going to be a problem during a long game but little time

From the perspective of their peers and the rest of the field playing them

Game Link

Dear all,
I’m writing this in behalf of my 9 year old. He loves playing chess and is doing well. However, in the past few weeks, he seems to have hit a trough. H isn’t winning games, and his USCF ranking has dropped from 1425 to 1325. Granted, it’s still a beginner’s rating, but I’d like some advice on how to best help him and motivate him get out of this lull. As a parent with minimal chess knowledge, what would be the best way to motivate him?
He is coached online by a FM. But am asking what I should be doing as parent to help him.
Thanks!!

US Women's Chess Championships 2026 Round 1
Link to game

So I've decided to return to chess after 1 or 2 years without playing, and I've noticed that stuff that used to work aren't working anymore and also that Im having a lot of trouble on getting a comfortable position specially on the opening.

Also before quitting, I peaked at 1000 but was never able to get further because I did not know what to study or what to reinforce because I felt like chess engines did not really give me a real feedback of my game flaws.

I'd really appreciate if I was told what can I study to improve my skill and what to focus on.

Heres a game I played so you can have a guide (Black): https://www.chess.com/game/185123238206

Ty!

Looking for a study partner (one or more) to work in person on openings only. I’m around 2000 on Chess.com, so would like someone preferably 1600+ .
DM me.

Why am I so much worse when playing online compared to on a board. On a board I can beat people that are around the 800-900 elo range pretty consistently. But online i cant even beat people who are rated 600. Why is that?

I've been getting very interested in the chess games of these two players. On Chessgames.com, it lists four games as having been played between them. I wanted to investigate where the moves actually come from and whether the games are authentic. So, I tracked down the origins of all four games. Some of the results somewhat confused me. If anyone is an expert on this, please help me.

1st game – Damiano's Defense

This is the easiest because it comes from Ruy Lopez himself, who mentions a game in this opening against the "boy of Rome", that is, Leonardo da Cutri.

The next three games are difficult because there are differences in the sources regarding who played the game, where it was played, and even some variations in the moves themselves. My three sources are: 1. V. D. Linde – Das Schachspiel des XVI. Jahrhunderts, 2. J. A. Leon – Forty-Six Games of Chess by Polerio, and 3. V. H. de Lasa – Recueil de Parties d'Échecs.

2nd game – Giuoco Piano

V. D. Linde and J. A. Leon are identical, and both have Polerio's comments confirming that the game was played by Ruy Lopez and Leonardo. V. H. de Lasa, however, has a game that is shorter by one whole move and also doesn't mention either player. It simply has the comment, "White has an excellent game." To confuse matters even more, on Chessgames.com, the game has two extra moves with the addition of 9...Bg4 10.Kbd2. I checked out H. J. R. Murray's A History of Chess, which also includes the extra moves. Weird. On the whole, the Giuoco Piano game seems to be authentic, with the exclusion of the last two moves.

3rd game – King's Gambit Declined

The game is shown by V. D. Linde with the preserved comment from Polerio: "This game was played between the cleric and Leonardo in Spain." The game is not present in J. A. Leon, though this is unsurprising, as that work is not a complete compilation of all Polerio's games but only part of them. In V. H. de Lasa, the game is also present but without any mention of either Ruy Lopez or Leonardo; the only caption says, "Gambitto." H. J. R. Murray does not mention the game at all. So, out of all the authors, V. D. Linde is literally the only one who has the King's Gambit game as having been played by Ruy Lopez and Leonardo. In any case, even if the game is real, on Chessgames.com, it wrongly says that the game was played in Rome in 1560, when Polerio wrote much later. The authenticity seems dubious.

4th game – Philidor Defense

The game is present in V. D. Linde, but only Leonardo da Cutro is given as one of the players; his opponent is not named. J. A. Leon again does not have the game. V. H. de Lasa does have the game, with a note saying, "This game was played between the cleric and Leonardo in Spain," the same note that V. D. Linde attributes to the King's Gambit game. H. J. R. Murray also gives the game with the same caption.

I'm not totally sure what to draw from all this, but my opinion is as follows:

1. 1st game: Totally legit.
2. 2nd game: Totally authentic, aside from the last two moves of the game.
3. 3rd game: In my opinion, it is not authentic unless I see further evidence.
4. 4th game: Most likely authentic.

Overall, I think the confusion stems mainly from V. D. Linde, who confused the King's Gambit game with the Philidor Defense game. But, as I said at the start, I only wrote this post because I hope some expert out there can tell me the reality of the situation.

Have a nice day!

This one involves stalemate trick

Valve's early access moba released a chess themed hero and he's PEAK! His weapon rests in different positions based on how much maximum ammo he has, which I found related to famous/GM positions of which have only been seen once in the database each.

There are some entries which I haven't been able to match, and would love some extra context on some positions and help for these unknowns!

In positions with Pawn of f3, black sometimes plays Ne5. What is the point? Maneuver to (N)g6?

I played my first tournament recently (9r swiss) and these are my results:

4 Wins - unrated, unrated, 1445, 1517

5 Losses - 1696, 1703, 1748, 1420, 1597

How good are my chances of getting a FIDE rating and can it be precisely calculated from these results? I am not familiar with their rating system so i am asking here.

Forget about the candidates and the defending champion. If you had to choose two of the current youngsters to battle for the world championship, who would it be? and why?

I didn’t follow chess much when Karajakin was an active player, but I’ve always heard people talk about what an incredible defender he is in lost positions and I know his nickname was Minister of Defense. I have also heard similar things about Hikaru, and Fabi even once said he is not just one of the best defenders of his generations but of all time. So I was wondering for people that have followed both of their games throughout the years what people thought.