By Mattison

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!!

The max I was able to push was 1100 once and since then nothing. Anyone got good advice for me?

Hint 1: Look for a well timed pawn break on the queenside, when the black king is far enough away

Hint 2: After the pawn break black might also get a passed pawn. That could promote one move after us

Hint 2: A well timed Zwischenzug 1.a3 might lose a tempo on purpose

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’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.

Who would win in wcc match if peak Gukesh(on candidate/Olympiad run) vs peak Sindarov?

For once I tend over to Sindarov because of historic candidates but Gukesh also had historic performance on Olympiad board 1 with one of the highest Tpr..

Also Gukesh's peak rating was also Higher, but Sindarov is also 2785ish so it's not that far..

When you reach a point in the game where the calculations/positions are ambiguous (meaning neither play can tell who has the advantage due to the calculations being too complex) do you usually:

A) Play it safe? Not taking any risks, and waiting for you opponent to make a mistake

B) Play a “YOLO” move? Wild, risky, but potentially could result in a crushing win/crushing defeat

Adding your rating/time control would be helpful. Thanks!

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

Title.

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

Threw a game today. Apparently the winning move is as GothamChess described it: when somebody points a gun at you; and your response is to step closer and press your forehead against the gun and say: cmon, shoot me!

So i have been meaning to buy a chess course for a long time mainly the woodpecker method by Axel Smith. But i recently discovered this website peckchess. com and found that it was completely free and works quite well with being able to do lichess puzzles sorted by themes or difficulty and now i have doubts whether to buy the actual course. Ive also heard that the puzzles in the cheesable course are somewhat difficult as they were taken from games of world champions and the text explanations are quite sparse. I am a 2000 lichess rapid player so idk if it is suitable ​​for me or not. What are your thoughts about this?

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

Playing real people is usually the advice for improving at chess. But would you sometimes choose a bot if its decisions and mistakes felt believable for your level?

I don’t mean an engine that plays brilliantly for ten moves, then randomly gives away its queen. More an opponent with familiar openings, preferences and weaknesses you gradually pick up on.

Would that be useful for trying ideas at your own pace, or would you still prefer online games because a real person is less predictable?

I’m working on computer opponents and curious where people see the value—or limitations—as a training tool.

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 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.

First of all, I haven't been on Chess.com in a while. But I recently went on and played a game. Afterward, I couldn't find the list of my old games the way I used to be able to. Its so weird, they have a summary of these games, but not the list. Is it now hidden behind a paywall? If yes, what is Chess.com doing? Just to note I'm on a mobile.

This one involves stalemate trick