#♟️Chess
dusky hull
because there's this notion that i never blunder, here's this game:
opening: 7/10
tactical awareness out of opening: rekt/10
middlegame skills: -4/10
endgame swindling: 12/10
took the liberty of comp analyzing it for viewing pleasure. enjoy the ??'s
void bramble
Is it that people think you never blunder, or is it people thinking you can beat them easily because of skill disparity
dusky hull
I’ve no idea what it is lol
Just showing that even I make some horrendously obvious mistakes too under time pressure, but it’s all about finding counterplay
dusky hull
What do you mean by lose your queen. What was the suggested move?
dusky hull
🙂
void bramble
🙃
tardy finch
because there's this notion that i never blunder, here's this game:
opening: 7/...
Seems like Nepo-Ding games to me 
dusky hull
lmao yea okay sure
tardy finch
Low time can bring the worst out of people so don't stress over it
dusky hull
so does low intelligence 
tardy finch
I once held against you until the endgame then hung mate in two the moment we agreed on playing it out instead of drawing. I'll leave it up to you to decide which of the two factors pushed me into that decision
I should probably pin this in DMs
dusky hull
lmaooo
modern vector
feral latch
dusky hull
So do you address the mate threat or fork the rooks
that actually is a really nice M1 threat
double checkmates are beautiful
er double check checkmates? idk the proper vernacular for it
half hedge
god i hate gothamchess
cyan elm
why
cyan elm
@woeful wolf
cyan elm
i watched his stream for a bit and idk its like watching a kid
ye I don't like his streams
the youtube content goes alright
dusky hull
he's just annoying
same
I think he has the single best “so you’re new to chess” video out there. And he is also a very talented player, who actually I thought was decent as a commentator for live games. But his streams are just
Yea.
delicate peak
I watched most of his videos and then I saw his stream once and it just completely turned me off of him as a person xd
dusky hull
right
makes perfect sense lmao
i would still recommend his youtube channel (or at least certain videos from it) to anyone who wants to learn, because again, he does have a knack for packing a lot of info in digestible videos
but his personality is just
a lot
dusky hull
the reverse fools huh
dusky hull
see this video is exactly what ive talked about before
sometimes moves are objectively bad but subjectively good. what i mean is sometimes a move is bad if and only if your opponent finds the precise refutation. but if that refutation is not found, then the move is substantially better than it was just one turn ago.
its sort of hope chess, but i'd think about it differently
this is why for mere mortals like us, engine evaluation can often be misleading. in this video, the correct continuation was Qd7 and an alternative being Bxc5. there are virtually no humans in the world who would play Bxc5 in the position he was going over. its just not happening.
so yes, sometimes engines can help us figure out mistakes in our play, but don't get sucked into the trap of "well what would stockfish have done here" because you will never be stockfish. you just have to try to make moves that seem sensible to the plan you're attempting.
cyan elm
so if stockfish says its a blunder
its actually just not thinking like the 5head I am
dusky hull
right precisely
tardy finch
this is why for mere mortals like us, engine evaluation can often be misleading....
I am a human who at first glance would have played specifically Bxc5 and I will explain to you why.
I didn't even look at the continuation and thought it was a free pawn.
So, in this case I am the opposite example. This move would be good but for all the wrong reasons. I am idiocy incarnate, slayer of GMs.
tardy finch
When they start bringing back the bishop
woeful wolf
dusky hull
Oh please let’s play a game where I show you why that opening is revolting
Just one
I massacre the englund like a fat kid versus a box of Twinkies
But all the same that bishop pin trap is so dirty
And it’s just one of like 4 different traps
void bramble
dusky hull
grats on 1500 though
i remember not long ago hearing IM STUUUUUUUUCK or something to that effect
dusky hull
this was such a fun video
eric is a great player. hes a gm. he's easily among the world's best.
and fabiano just fucking ruins him like its nothing
much like every other competitive sport, there's levels man. fucking levels.
"this is my bishop, it has range of one (1)"
fabiano made eric turn his bishop into a horizontal-facing pawn
do you know how hard that is to accomplish lmao
thats just the level you have to be at to even contend with magnus
woeful wolf
How did we end up here
Horses neatly stabled
His king is visiting my castle
Our bishops are communing
tardy finch
Rooks still on starting position:
- Should we do something?
- Nah.
dusky hull
His king is visiting my castle
this is what i envision whenever i hear that royalty is visiting our government
literally just some prince surrounded by a veritable army of government agents in our own backyard
woeful wolf
Rooks still on starting position:
- Should we do something?
- Nah.
The rooks succeeded from the nations
cyan elm
woeful wolf
dusky hull
Great instructive video
grand idol
I feel like Ive asked this before
but does anyone have a good opening I should start with
in terms of learning
ive heard about the “london”
void bramble
Have you gotten past move shit to the middle and castle soon
grand idol
yes that is my current opening strategy
void bramble
Then we need someone else to answer
dusky hull
3 questions
are you looking for ease of memorization without much variance regardless what your opponent plays
are you looking for sharp lines
are you looking for positional chokeholds
void bramble
Can you just answer all three @dusky hull
dusky hull
lmao thats a lot
esp if im doing both colors
depending on how he answered i was gonna give him one, maybe two for each color
void bramble
I can ask you 6 times if you want
dusky hull
i just wanna drink my Honest juice
void bramble
I do not understand that reference
void bramble
Enjoy 
tardy finch
Screw the meta, King's Gambit it is.
dusky hull
kings gambit can definitely be scary if you dont know what you're doing
(for both players)
dusky hull
3 questions
are you looking for ease of memorization without much variance rega...
@grand idol
grand idol
not sure honestly
maybe sharp lines?
I want an opening I can study
that has “safe” lines
and maybe some stuff that u have to know what to do with
idk
I dont mind if my plays differ based on opponent
maybe for the first little bit at leaat
not too sure honestly
dusky hull
okay so lets table specifically sharp lines for now. the reason i say that is because to force sharp lines, you'll likely need to play e4 all the time, and then you'd have to know a few lines of each of several openings (french, sicilian, carokann, ruy lopez, and maybe petrov) to avoid falling into classic ways that black can equalize/trade.
so if you want something that has the propensity to turn sharp based on your opponent but has positional lines if your opponent allows it is the English. I've had English games go anywhere from calm, slow, locked positions where each player is methodically setting up their pieces like children setting up an army man fight scene getting ready for the position to crack open in one spot-- all the way to absolute slobberknockers of bloodied fistfights, pieces hanging and tactics bounding.
learn some stuff about c4 and figure out what style is your own, because it is very flexible
In the meantime, here's a recent game of mine where I played a (relatively) bad opening because I was inspired from Aman doing his stonewall speedrun videos. https://lichess.org/iAQJYIsx/white#1
I will say, he's not wrong when he says that the attacks just sort of form on their own. Like black creates all of my threats for me through very simple play.
grand idol
In the meantime, here's a recent game of mine where I played a (relatively) bad ...
the bringing the black bishop over was cool but you end up just trading?
dusky hull
In the stonewall you often get stuck with a super bad bishop as a result of the stonewall pawn structure. The two schools of thought are 1) wait and see, your position may open up, but your bishop will be bad until that time, or 2) find a way to trade it. The maneuvering of the dsb to that square to trade isn’t super uncommon
If you watch Aman’s (chessbrah) stonewall speedrun that he’s doing, you’ll see it happen there a few times
Not saying he EXCLUSIVELY does that, but it’s a viable idea for sure
dusky hull
wow
ive never seen that one
that was something special. i was so curious about the best move for black in the position but after black plays ||Bg4|| its literally just straight up winning for white after ||Nb5||. Unreal trap.
tardy finch
God damn, her parents should not be allowed to see this video
I realize not everyone might be familiar with the topic so some insight:
Both of Anna's parents are GMs. Her mother, Pia Cramling, is one of the strongest female chess players of all time. Her rating in her prime puts her at the very elite spots when excluding Hou Yifan and Judith Polgar who are extreme outliers. Even today Pia is ranked 26th. She's been a GM for 30 years now.
Her father is harder to promote as ratings are much higher in the men's bracket but Bellon Lopez has some seriously impressive wins under his belt and has been the champion of Spain five times + part of the olympiad team a whopping 11 times.
woeful wolf
I did see one of her videos where she was doing guess the elo with her parents and they guessed like 800 elo and looked so disappointed when they found out it was her
And it was one of her games
I think she relies too heavily on her parents and their success for content though
She’s got a good personality and has some banter while she plays and has skills
tardy finch
Who summons me
woeful wolf
tardy finch
Bruh
woeful wolf
tardy finch
I should start playing again
woeful wolf
tardy finch
I'm being sent off to Germany next week anyway, what else is there to do
woeful wolf
Beer and such or something
tardy finch
I'm trying to cut down on drinks
feral latch
Bad time to cut down on drinks when you get sent to Germany
What are you doing here? @tardy finch
tardy finch
Visit, not raid
feral latch
Nuremberg is like 200km away from me and don’t think I have ever been there
tardy finch
Eh, sounds close enough to get to when drunk out of your mind
A friend of mine went to some festival in the Czech Republic, said that last thing he remembers before waking up in Serbia was drinking with his pals
feral latch
Classic
We always end up on Mallorca when drunk 
It’s Bavaria tho so a lot of nice breweries
And beergardens
tardy finch
You mean bee garden? Or are there actually places where they publicly brew or something?
woeful wolf
For a fun time ask in general off topic what they publicly brew
tardy finch
Formulate the question for me, I'll take the bullet
feral latch
You mean bee garden? Or are there actually places where they publicly brew or so...
Like an outdoor place where you can sit an drink beer
tardy finch
So just a large open pub?
feral latch
Well yes kinda
"The beer garden (also beer cellar and "on the beer cellar") developed from the
bar from beer by the brewer from a beer cellar without the mug right required for the operation of a pub. The serving of beer from cellars was first officially permitted in 1812 in the Isar district, and later in Upper Bavaria. This origin shapes the existing appearance of a traditional beer garden in
Bavaria, where guests sit under shade trees and are allowed to bring their own food.“
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
It’s like Germans favorite place in the summer
tardy finch
So I bring snacks and a mug then get shitfaced in the park
Sounds like junkies in my hometown
feral latch
Nah they serve the mugs with beer and you can also buy food
dusky hull
when you have opening theory knowledge and middle game tactical awareness but absolutely zero endgame skills because you're a fucking stupid idiot
like how am i going to find fucking 22... d5 and NOT win this game
im so angry at myself its appalling
dusky hull
yea i saw a chess puzzle from before when castling was strictly defined and it was solved using this idea
no way i was solving it back before i'd seen this
its certainly interesting
tardy finch
I've seen a super old puzzle that could only be solved if you promoted to an opposing piece. Because for some reason that was allowed.
tardy finch
like how am i going to find fucking 22... d5 and NOT win this game
I'm more surprised you didn't find 26..Rb8, you were the one to teach me the importance of controlling open files
dusky hull
Haha I had a situation very similar to that where I found a rook sac on a pawn and they were smart enough to not take
dusky hull
I'm more surprised you didn't find 26..Rb8, you were the one to teach me the imp...
Listen man
Idk
Sometimes my brain works magically and sometimes it doesn’t work at all
I was able to do that whole d5 line and understand I had a totally winning position, and then I let it all crumble like a sandcastle
tardy finch
Copying my dysfunctional way of solving problems is not a good idea 😄
dusky hull
Lmao
dusky hull
i think this was a really good example of how to stick to principles (control the center, develop pieces, castle by move 10) and then when to go on the attack once you see the opening
not every move is going to be engine-perfect, but i hope you can see the motivation behind what i was going for
bonus points to whoever can figure out my plan without engine assistance on 22. had my opponent played Na3 like I thought he was going to
tardy finch
@woeful wolf Undeniable proof that the Scandinavian can swiftly win you games.
Although I kind of wanted to play an actual game of chess 
dusky hull
just had this position. white to play and be in a better position.
answer:
main idea: ||Re67 threatening Qh7#.
If black captures the rook Nxe7, then Rxe17 still with the same threat. Black's only remaining move to stop mate is Qg7 which is met by the simple Rxg7
if black plays a bit more resiliently instead of capturing, the only other reply to stop the mate threat is blocking with the rook Rf7. Rxf7 Kxf7 Qxf5+ and now regardless where the king goes, the queen from f5 now controls b1, so on the next turn Rb1 attacking the queen and winning the b7 pawn is happening, or if queen blocks after Qxf5+ Qf6 Qxc5; either way white is up 2 pawns with a great bishop and a relatively safe king--winning.||
woeful wolf
answer:
main idea: ||Re67 threatening Qh7#.
If black captures the rook Nxe7, ...
||I was eyeballing that same idea but I don’t see why black can’t go qh8 instead of g7 after taking the rook. On further looking I guess the bishop prevents that ||
dusky hull
i was nearly creaming myself by move 19 when i had that center and those bishops
everyone say "best case scenario" with me
void bramble
i was nearly creaming myself by move 19 when i had that center and those bishops
Is this why white is more likely to win
void bramble
I'm being very literal about the phrase "creaming myself"
dusky hull
LOL
yes
precisely why
everyone knows that fortune favors those covered in cum
or however the phrase goes
void bramble
I can't take credit for the first one; I learned it from Pitbull
tardy finch
Fortune favours the load
Truckers be like
dusky hull
oh, boys
look at this
stonewall is quickly becoming one of my favorite set ups for white
cyan elm
dusky hull
Get worked son
cyan elm
delicate peak
dusky hull
What is that magic
delicate peak
I haven't but I still lurk
woeful wolf
@cyan elm @tardy finch @dusky hull sometimes I just
I knew I shouldn’t of but I couldn’t help myself
My king sitting comfy
Two castles and stable of horsey
dusky hull
Lmao ok so the next step after this is trying to deliver particular mates
Trapping your opponent to be able to do nothing while you run a pawn up the board to slam dunk the king feels wonderful
woeful wolf
Well I made him wait til i promoted all those knights
then i stabled the knights on that side of the board
then checkmated him
dusky hull
right
what im saying is your BMing skills will evolve
itll start as innocent promotions
and then itll become "naw i dont feel like checkmating you with the queen. give me 6 more turns to get my pawn in position."
woeful wolf
Oh true true
dusky hull
!steal meirl https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/1123234222660919416.gif?size=96&q...
what bot is this a command with
like is this carl
tardy finch
Used to be.. but the turtle is just a shell of its past self
feral latch
aren’t we all?
delicate peak
what bot is this a command with
There is or used to be a command that let you add an emoji to the server like that but it didn't work so I got it wrong
slate stream
that was right
void bramble
that was right
how far did you get
void bramble
I got to rule 32 and then I stopped
dusky hull
I got to rule 32 and then I stopped
Yea, best to stop before you hit rule 34
void bramble
I've been told that's relevant
My personal best was 3 tries, quitting when I saw rule 32
Beat me, nerds
dusky hull
Yea I got to the wordle part and got annoyed I had to go to an external link
void bramble
There's more of that
cyan elm
I quit when it put my password on fire
tardy finch
Likely a coincidence but a funny one.
I'm walking to my table in the canteen. I notice a guy sitting alone, no one is sitting anywhere near him. On the table I see his phone, he's watching GothamChess.
Weird, I think. Then I just keep walking. Three tables later there are 6 people looking super excited staring at a phone too. They're watching Naroditsky.
What I take out of this is Danya > Levy
dusky hull
Likely a coincidence but a funny one.
I'm walking to my table in the canteen. I...
Danya op
tardy finch
Quality finish but Stockfish hates both of you
woeful wolf
Not that paying more attention would of helped but
I was waiting for that move for a while
Made it very tempting
dusky hull
i dont suppose anyone wants to play a round
dusky hull
I've really been enjoying the stonewall as of late, as I've mentioned before. Here's a nice position I just had. Find a really strong move for white here.
answer: ||Bishop back Be2||
bonus question: if you figured out the answer or looked at the answer, try to see what happens if black responds with any of these 3 moves: ||Nxe5, Nf6, and most critically why 0-0-0 is a massive blunder||.
(my opponent resigned after ||Be2|| so it never got that far unfortunately)
dusky hull
My opponent just gave up. Positionally he was getting cremated lol. https://lichess.org/X7oFHuJu/white
This isn’t an exciting game by definition, but it really does illustrate how this set up puts a lot of pressure on black to find good resilient moves. Not being able to find those moves early can put black in some positions that are just hard to breath.
tardy finch
Pert back to harvesting souls as a hobby
tardy finch
I have at least half an hour before my check-in, anyone want to play? @cyan elm gets a ping just because he hasn't posted in a while
woeful wolf
tardy finch
tardy finch
Sooo ... Anyone up for a game? Ping of honour goes to @grand idol
grand idol
lol some real eu hours
grand idol
Sooo ... Anyone up for a game? Ping of honour goes to <@106556161913802752>
im down tho if ur still around
tardy finch
Bit late, sorry
dusky hull
Guys I haven’t had lessons in like 3 months I’m going insane
tardy finch
I can give you a lesson in pain, 1v1 me scrub
dusky hull
We should play soon fr though
I miss our games
They were fun
I can show you the stonewall I’ve been practicing
tardy finch
Problem is I haven't been practicing much and it shows
tardy finch
@dusky hull ya here mon
tardy finch
I got the first hello but mfers can't run a Neltharus properly
Hopefully it isn't a busy day, I'm aiming for a draw today
dusky hull
Word just ping me when you’re ready. Gonna play a stupid game until then
tardy finch
Yes
dusky hull
lets do it
dusky hull
this is the stonewall, yes
tardy finch
Here we can see the center of the board more crowded than a Metallica concert in the 80s
This doesn't feel like a draw anymore 
tardy finch
I traded stuff
At no point did I feel in the lead, no idea what analysis will say. This felt like I was fighting for the draw from move 6 onwards
dusky hull
idk who you are but f3 was a really good attempt at a trap
i nearly fell for it too
my opening felt comfy but i got nothing out of it at all
not that im making excuses but i do struggle with finding advantage in the symmetrical stonewall
once black gets in f5 cementing e4, it becomes a slog
but anyway gg man, you played quite well to hold that position together and keep me from getting any attack started
tardy finch
tbf I thought of f3 in a completely different way
Then I was glad it wasn't a blunder
woeful wolf
Then I was glad it wasn't a blunder
Yo, dude, I feel you! When you pulled off that chess move, and it turned out to be a solid play instead of a blunder, I was stoked, bruh! It's like the chessboard was your battleground, and you made a move that totally almost outsmarted your opponent I was like FR FR no 🧢 . That feeling of relief and triumph must've been epic, fam!
Hm
Chat GPT replies
tardy finch
Wat
woeful wolf
Ive been replying to a group chat for a hour with zoomer chat GPT replies
and it spilled over into here
Actually
it do be spittin fire
And hey, it's all about that strategic thinking, bruh. Chess ain't just a game, it's a mental battle, a strategic dance on squares. When you avoid a blunder and make a killer move, it's like flexing your brain muscles, showing off your strategic prowess.
dusky hull
Flexing your brain muscles
dusky hull
this just happened in a game i played. find the winning idea for black. bonus points if you play positionally for a crushing attack and dont go for material right away (but both are totally winning)
tardy finch
||Qd6 g3 Qd5 e4 Qxh5?||
left glade
||Qd6 g3 Qd5 e4 Qxh5?||
||isnt Qd5 a mistake for Kxd5?||
tardy finch
Okay, plan that actually works - ||b4 Ne2 c3 wins a minor piece||
Or alternatively what our dear soul harvester Pert would probably like more - ||Nf5 preparing Qh4; if g3 is played to prevent it, proceed with previous sequence and be happy the king is opened up to your lsb.
If e4 to attack the knight, Qh4 and threaten mate; one defence is h3 in which case you just claim the bishop and do the b4 thing again. If f4 either here or as a response to Qh4... b4 again. Basically you get the minor piece off the board but you might feast on your opponent's fighting spirit as well.||
dusky hull
So ||b4|| is the correct idea and there are two ways to play this. You could immediately win material since ||white will either flat out give up the knight, or will move the knight and b4 prepares the c3 fork||…
Or you could have some fun with that absolutely perfect bishop pair. In the game after ||b4|| my opponent played ||Na4|| which isn’t as resilient as ||Ne2||. The whole ||b4 push|| idea wasn’t necessarily to win material, although that’s nice. It’s to gain control of d5. After ||Na4||, I have Qd5 threatening mate on the light squares while also hitting the bishop. White has a few options to try to defend but none will be sufficient. Note that Bf3 is not enough of a defense because I can switch my attack to the dark squares with Qd6. In every line, white manages to barely escape checkmate, but the kingside gets shattered and there’s always c3 fork at the end of the line no matter what white does.
In the game, the line went ||b4 Na4, Qd5 f3, Qxh5 h3, and finally c3|| winning so much material.
void bramble
Meanwhile I'm at the puzzle io of || Qd6 Bxf7 Qxh2 and I'm guessing that isn't good because a real person doesn't do Bxf7 they do g3?||
woeful wolf
My solution was || baseball bat to right temple, KO victory baseball bat gambit wins again|| but I think pert dislikes That play
Thoughts @dusky hull ?
dusky hull
That gambit has a very high success rate
dusky hull
Meanwhile I'm at the puzzle io of || Qd6 Bxf7 Qxh2 and I'm guessing that isn't g...
Bxf7 is probably no worse than him playing f3 so it’s not like its the worst idea. Best defense for white in the position is Ne2 and then f4 so the queen defends g2 and the f pawn blocks the dark squares
void bramble
dusky hull
I think it’s worth noting that even if there was no immediate tactic on the board that wins material, black is positionally crushing white here. How can you tell? Relative piece value.
Rooks: about equal
Knights: slight edge to black because the black knight is getting ready to jump into f5 (or d5 to trade) which gets closer to the white king
Queens: slight edge to black because the queen will be able to navigate the dark squares towards the white king
Bishops: no brainer, my bishops are disgustingly good and whites dsb is locked behind the knight and the pawn structure. His best piece is the lsb which isn’t attacking anything important.
And as far as pawn structure is concerned, both kingsides are currently intact with no real weaknesses but with a 3vs2 on the queen side, eventually I can force a passed pawn.
So with all of these elements combining, white would be struggling to find meaningful moves even before this b4 idea
woeful wolf
That gambit has a very high success rate
The only real counter is the concealed carry gambit and that has to be fast to counter it
dusky hull
The stonewall is just unbeatable. White to move and gain a massive advantage. Try to take it a few moves deep.
Winning idea: ||Bxe4 with the idea of removing the attacker on the queen. Black will recapture dxe4. But now instead of responding by moving the knight, Bxh6 threatening M1 and the pawn is pinned by the queen. g6 stopping mate, and now we can move the knight into the attack and out of harms way Ng5. If you take this even further, black might respond by attacking the rook Bc4, but they will never have time to actually take because we will always have Nxf7 which starts a ferocious attack.||
tardy finch
Stonewall is unbeatable
Sir, have you met one of these??
||Fun fact, there is a position known as the trebuchet, Google it. It's an interesting thing to consider in an endgame.||
dusky hull
Lol okay well when you pull out a trebuchet onto the chess board I will take my statement back
tardy finch
now introducing the 9mm
dusky hull
I believe that’s what storm calls the concealed carry gambit
cyan elm
Lol okay well when you pull out a trebuchet onto the chess board I will take my ...
why is this 90kg rock launched from over 300m away on my chessboard
woeful wolf
|| So I think we can do this with just forced captures. D5 for Check, have to take with the pawn on E6. if we then check with our Knight by going D3 they have to force capture with the E4 pawn and we can move our pawn from F2 foward to F4 which was previously protected by the pawn that took our knight and blocked by our knight for a mate, I think? I could be missing something?||
dusky hull
You’re correct. It’s a solid puzzle for one reason and one reason only: ||it must play around en passant||
Good job figuring it out
And thanks for the post Leonard 🙂
dusky hull
<@171682145646018560>
What
cyan elm
dusky hull
god dude
his special brand of autism is fantastic for chess and awful for human interaction
but nothing, and i mean nothing, will top his ladder puzzle video
grand idol
You’re correct. It’s a solid puzzle for one reason and one reason only: ||it mus...
ur too stronk
dusky hull
lets hear it for TSL Chess surviving the thread purge
we are so clandestine and special
delicate peak
I am just not sure its big enough to warrant a channel?
dusky hull
@tardy finch why cant you be like this guy
he fully accepts my benko gambits
and then i get happy because my rooks and dsb and queen are all happy
but noooOOOooOOo you dont want me to attack or something
dusky hull
so one thing i havent really done that often is explain the thought process in the moves im playing in my game. i wont presume that you all would read it, but if anyone wants to know what i was thinking at critical points here, i dont mind sharing what was going on in my head
its a short game, anyway
tardy finch
<@276380421917507595> why cant you be like this guy
I'm sorry, Pert. I haven't been myself for some time. We'll play again some day and I'll be a better person, promise.
void bramble
so one thing i havent really done that often is explain the thought process in t...
Yes
void bramble
I thought this was chess, not gambling 
dusky hull
moves 1-5: theory
7: as soon as I saw g3 with the plan of him fianchettoing his bishop, I knew he had made a mistake. The benko gambit is all about Queenside presence and the best thing white can do to counter this is to attack and control the center, so e4 is almost always an automatic. Later on, white would play g3 to artificially castle, but not so his LSB has a fianchetto'd square.
11: as mentioned, the benko is about QS presence, so the idea is quite simple: connect rooks as quickly as possible, and swing the f rook to the b file. developing the queen is a must to accomplish this. although commonly you'll see Qb6 here, I've had better success in my own games with Nb6, so I play Qc7 leaving the square open.
14: Nfd7 has a very clear purpose: unblock the dsb. we want our rooks and our dragon bishop to be as good of pieces as possible. it also helps to control e5 making it much harder for white to break through the center
15: Be3 from my opponent seemed to be a pretty big positional error in my mind. If you're paying attention to what I've been saying about the benko, the point is to throw pieces at the queenside and try to get some of the pawns back through insurmountable pressure. Even without engine assistance, I think its fairly easy to spot that b3 wouldve been a far superior move because--although temporarily making my bishop stronger--it weakens the xray effect of my rook on b8 and prepares Bb2, challenging the important diagonal that my dsb is controlling. Be3 simply allows me to attack the bishop AND the b pawn with my next move, Nc4
16: b3 comes now to try to kick away the knight, but simply trading Nxe3 wins me the bishop pair and now that b3 has been played and there's no white piece to challenge my dsb on this diagonal, I can only assume at this point that I have an advantage (engine eval puts it as -1.4, which confirms my thoughts)
17: Qa5 wasn't exactly precise, but the thought process was to further add pressure to dark squares while continuing pressure on the a and b files (just playing according to the benko plans). Best here is to play c4 with the idea of trading off some material and then assuming the c5 square for the queen which does what Qa5 does but better, but I missed this in game.
18: perhaps the most controversial and surprising move in the game, Bc8. I think if i gave this position as a puzzle, most of you would be able to spot what is actually the best move here--Bh6, skewering the rooks. And indeed, I did see this. In fact, you can see I spent almost a full minute contemplating Bh6. The reason I didn't jump at this is because my dsb is just so tremendously good and white's rooks are just not that great in this position. Yes, I could win an exchange, but I'd be losing my indisputably best piece for a mediocre rook, which just didn't seem all that great. c4 in this position wouldve also been an acceptable move, but I was still holding out hope of getting a passed c pawn at some point later. Bc8 has the idea that it unblocks the a rook, adding more pressure to the a pawn, while also giving a defender to the previously undefended knight on d7
19: "the square left behind" is an important principle when considering moving pieces. the knight on f3 was previously controlling d4, but upon leaving, it vacated its control of the square. Bd4 attacking the rook, but much more importantly than going after material, it pins the f pawn to the king, and now my dsb is just an absolute behemoth
20: its worth noting that the line Bxc3 Qxc3 Qxc3 Rxc3 and finally Rxa2 will win a pawn and net black in a stronger position, but its clear at this point that I'm not interested in just winning a pawn; I want to dominate the position. Ne5 prevents white from returning Nf3 and its important to note that because the f pawn is pinned, f4 kicking away my knight is impossible
21: we successfully forced a4 because of the pressure, so now the a rook isnt as important, which means bishop back Bc6 is an automatic. take a moment to see how crazy good my bishop pair is, slicing right through white's camp.
22: white didn't spot the threat because he was focused on trying to dislodge my very strong pieces from the center. had I traded on f3, I still wouldve been in a better position because once again my dsb wouldve been entirely unopposed, but because of Ba6, we control the d3 square, so we get our Stormvine-approved fork. White's position dissintegrates entirely from here.
@void bramble
void bramble
@dusky hull explain dragon bishop pls
dusky hull
in many dsb fianchetto'd lines for black, it is referred to as the dragon because of the similarity between the pawn structure and the Draco constellation
the dsb is called the dragon in the sicilian fianchetto lines, the benoni fianchetto lines (including the benko gambit), and other opening theory
void bramble
ty
dusky hull
good question
void bramble
dusky hull
side by side for a bit more ease in recognition
void bramble
People see patterns in everything eh
dusky hull
cant really blame chess players for spotting patterns when that's at least 25% of the game of chess lol
but speaking generally, yes, humans build connections in skewed ways and its sometimes adorable
void bramble
How does your opponent come to the conclusion to resign where they do
I dislike how people give up so early because it's like not having the end of a conversation
dusky hull
hard to speak for everyone, and the answer for sure changes based on the level of play
novices may continue to play despite being down an insurmountable amount of material because they just dont know how quickly the game is close to ending
people around my strength will generally play on despite being down an exchange if they can find counterplay in the position
and i think it also matters who your opponent is. like if im playing against someone who is weaker in strength than I am, I'd still keep playing down an exchange or maybe even down a piece depending on the position and how much weaker they are compared to me
void bramble
The recommendation I keep seeing is literally keep playing because I'm still low enough that it's fully possible the other person will fuck up hard
void bramble
So was it appropriate for them to give up then? Was it clearly impossible to win or
dusky hull
being a math guy, i've often toyed around with the notion of probability in chess, like the probability that the move you're making is the best move in the position, or the probability that c5 is a good move by move 10 based on all previous games where c5 was played by move 10. things of that nature.
so the way I think about it is if I'm down material, what is the probability that my opponent will allow me to at least equalize. that obviously depends on how much material I'm down, how complicated the position is, and the strength of my opponent
if I feel like the probability is just too low considering those factors, then its a resign
void bramble
Would you have resigned there as well
dusky hull
in the game I showed?
void bramble
Yes, if you were the opponent is that where you would have chosen to resign
dusky hull
yea i'd have resigned at Nd3 forking the rooks. the reason is that not only would I be down material, but positionally, there's just nothing happening. counterplay can usually be defined as having one of the following: past pawns (especially connected), a very strongly positioned minor piece that has more effective value than a rook, a way to force a perpetual, a way to force a complication where the opponent might err, or finally a pawn break that could cause significant complications to an opposing pawn structure
if you look at the game at the point that I hit the fork, my opponent had absolutely none of those options
that's a flat resign right there
now granted
an IM or GM or untitled player whose skill rivals those titles could likely force counterplay in the form of the clock
the clock is a resource in of itself, and at the point that I hit the fork, I was still the one who was down on time
so yea, a really strong player mightve been able to salvage this, but it wouldve been incredibly difficult
void bramble
Is there a way to pretend the game keeps going with whatever the best moves are from an engine or something
dusky hull
im not sure i follow your question
do you mean from like a practice standpoint?
because yea you could just turn on engine eval and see what the best move is and continue to follow that line
void bramble
How do I turn on engine eval
dusky hull
if you have the game open, top right above the game notation it says "Stockfish 14+" and there's a slider to the right
if the slider is grey, its off, if its green, its on and you should see best move arrows
dusky hull
green slider on, it still shows the best move despite resignation
you have to manually move it yourself
just under the eval, itll also show you the best move line, so you should be able to also just hit space bar and space bar will automatically play the moves from that line
void bramble
This does not work, so I tried hitting the blue checkmark as well but nada
dusky hull
i didnt say the "next move" button would work lol
i said the space bar would, or you could manually move the pieces. and the engine eval on should show you a big blue arrow on the chessboard indicating the move
void bramble
@mint parrot here
mint parrot
oooo
void bramble
mint parrot
i don't really play at all though, just like watching videos :p
dusky hull
same
dusky hull
a fairly simple one. black to play and generate a winning position. if this is too easy, then try to think 3 moves deep about the best moves for white and black.
void bramble
Is the first move || Nf2 ||
dusky hull
answer: ||weak dark squares, Nf2 forking king and queen, forcing white to give up the exchange||
3 moves deep: ||you probably see Nf2 Rxf2 Bxf2, but what afterwards? white responds Qe2 hoping to also get in Rf1, but notice that the knight on a4 has no escape squares, so after Qe2 we just ignore and go b5||
void bramble
Ok then || Rxf2 Bxf2 || and then I'm having a hard time
dusky hull
usually you dont want to allow enemy pieces to stay on your side of the board, so what's a good way to start ending that
void bramble
|| e5? ||
void bramble
Oh no
I literally have my phone upside down and I can't see it
I read the spoiler text || I think I'm too focused on keeping the pressure where I am to see other things ||
dusky hull
@woeful wolf I’m linking this to you not necessarily because I think you don’t know this, but because if you didn’t, then it should maybe help with your disdain towards ruy Lopez players https://youtu.be/Mz_BnQQ2AxE
And for anyone else who may be interested, that’s a good video on the ruy lopez because it goes over a nuance of the opening that you might not be aware of
dusky hull
Oh my gosh guys I just swindled the fuck out of some poor guy
This game was the definition of setting a trap. That sequence starting with the bishop rerouting was like setting up a claymore and just watching it get triggered on its own
dusky hull
dusky hull
if i had a title for this game, it would be A Stay of Execution: A Light Square Bishop's Miraculous Escape From Death
now for the record, at move 28, there's 2 completely different checkmate in 3 patterns. here's the hint for a much cooler mating sequence ||I didn't go for it because I somehow kept my LSB alive for this long, I didn't want to lose him right at the end if I didn't have to. I got sort've attached to the guy||
tardy finch
Black is more drunk than me
dusky hull
oh my god guys
this isn't an immortal compared to immortals from actually good players, but this might be my immortal
I just put a rook in jail for the entire game
and not only that, but i made his dsb entirely useless by putting nearly all my pawns on light squares
this was the hardest ive ever just out-positioned someone
cyan elm
damn thats a sexy game
dusky hull
dude im genuinely just so happy with myself
like yea i missed some best moves according to analysis, but the strategy was there
i dont think i couldve done a game like this 6 months ago
cyan elm
and not only that, but i made his dsb entirely useless by putting nearly all my ...
Yeah watching how many moves he had to invest just to give it any life was disgusting
dusky hull
and whats crazy is even if he took my a pawn, i didnt care. not one bit. he could have it.
on move 33 when he left, if he played Bxa5 then I get Re82+ Kf1 Rb2 threateneing Re2 which has to lead to mate
tardy finch
15-ish moves
this shit on board
Ya want a draw mon?
dusky hull
man that is a gross position
your lsb must be a hardened criminal to be in a jail cell like that
but like his knights literally have nowhere useful to go
positions that lead to this make the attacker in me wanna kms
dusky hull
My opponent wants to take me into an endgame where I have the bishop pair? Sounds good to me 
https://lichess.org/9UocysRL/white#1
dusky hull
guys
i have such a nice ending to a meh game
soon as the game ends, ill post
its a meh game because he blundered a full rook on move 20, but i think before move 20, this was a pretty interesting position.
but the real flair is not the fastest mate. yes, there is Nxd8+ Kh8 or f8 and then mate the next move. thats cool. the cool real true ending is Nxd8+ Kh8 Nf7 Kg8 Nh6+ Kh8 Qg8+ Rxg8 and fuckin Nf7# smothering https://lichess.org/06eZqjw2/white#1
dusky hull
I know I've been spamming the channel with games, but here's one more, if only because the double discovery was too beautiful not to share https://lichess.org/wP0XcoqN/black#1
tardy finch
Puzzles have confirmed that my brain is rotting. Almost 2200 on chess.com but I can't spot a hanging piece in an actual game. I blame Pert.
delicate peak
Puzzles have confirmed that my brain is rotting. Almost 2200 on chess.com but I ...
this can make you feel better
tardy finch
Lel what a scrub
But technically speaking, if you are hyperfocused on that side of the board I can understand the backline weakness becoming temporary invisible
dusky hull
Puzzles have confirmed that my brain is rotting. Almost 2200 on chess.com but I ...
If it makes you feel better I played a positional masterclass 2 days ago, and then missed a 2-move tactic that would’ve won me the game on the spot. And then I proceeded to lose because time trouble.
Absolutely heart wrenching stuff. I saw I missed the tactic immediately after playing my move and was just slapping myself
My playing strength for the first 25 moves was probably like 2200 and then my playing strength from the blunder on was like 800
And unfortunately I am just not fast.
tardy finch
Pert flexing here that when he's at his worst, his at our level and beyond 
dusky hull
LOL shut up man haha
dusky hull
Pert flexing here that when he's at his worst, his at our level and beyond <:Fee...
Do you wanna play chess again at some point? imy 
dusky hull
just saying, im free tomorrow at 2pm EST should anyone want to play a game 👀
void bramble
Can I have unfair odds
void bramble
A pawn AND a queen 
tardy finch
I'd entertain you but two problems:
- I might still be on the road
- I am no longer a challenge to beat
dusky hull
A pawn AND a queen <:smugdevil:882319356724404235>
Lmao never
dusky hull
I'd entertain you but two problems:
1. I might still be on the road
2. I am no l...
- I hope you are home now
- Lmao if you say so
void bramble
Lmao never
you don't even know how bad I am
tardy finch
1. I hope you are home now
2. Lmao if you say so
Home, yes 
dusky hull
<a:shiftyeyes:893825195352158229> you don't even know how bad I am
Yes but I know how much a queen is worth haha
dusky hull
Home, yes <:peepoflower:817439406621065267>
Hooray. We play soon 
tardy finch
We haven't typed here for a week... Is the chess thread officially dead
void bramble
I'm still waiting for the game where @dusky hull starts down a queen and a pawn
dusky hull
Lmao that’s not happening
dusky hull
We haven't typed here for a week... Is the chess thread officially dead
It might be 
The endtimes are near
void bramble
No one even mentioned Niemann
dusky hull
Something something anal something
void bramble
Something something he's welcome again and Magnus said he's willing to play him
tardy finch
Unless Hans shows some superb games, his reputation will remain just as stained as it is now. And, to be fair, Niemann's performance this year has been rather underwhelming in standard. He has scored a lot more wins than losses over the last few months, yes, but most of those against players at a much lower rating. I get the feeling that any time he plays someone at his own rating, he just goes for a draw(and sometimes gets it). The problem in that is that this would even further reinforce the whole cheating idea once the spotlight is back on him as computers would much rather prefer going for a draw than risking an attack and losing. And with the lawsuit dropped, it's a matter of interpretation whether everyone agreed that they cannot prove him cheating or straight up told him to dig his own grave.
Or I could be barking up the wrong tree and Hans, now being the center of attention again, will show us why he's GM and we are spectators.
tardy finch
Let's get back to having some puzzles here. White is very clearly winning having promoted a queen, we are not looking at trading it off for the pawn and then promoting another(easy to achieve with c4).
No, no. Very interesting queen practice incoming. Mate in 5 on board.
dusky hull
My mating skills are terrible (take that in whatever way you want). At quick glance, I only see the staircase M7. I’ll have to look for the M5 later
The staircase mate being Qb8+ and then alternating on the dark squares on the a and b files to not stalemate
void bramble
Does it start with ||c4||
dusky hull
Ah I see it now
It’s a shortcut of the staircase
Took me a bit too long but ah well
void bramble
Does that mean I was right
dusky hull
haha unfortunately not
void bramble
dusky hull
c4 is a totally fine move and will win the game for sure (you could play c4 with the idea of your queen covering the a1 promotion square, and then trade your queen for his pawn, leaving you in an end game where its 3 pawns to 0, totally winning)
but its not how you M5
think about forcing moves. moves that by the rules, your opponent must reply to
tardy finch
I specifically mentioned c4 so you don't look for it... Try Pert's idea
dusky hull
fuck
why threaten checkmate on just one color, when you can threaten it on both?
also can you guys please appreciate move 26 as much as i do
cyan elm
That is sexy chess
Got a fun puzzle
See if you can find the way to punish white’s mistake
dusky hull
See if you can find the way to punish white’s mistake
just tell me if it starts with ||Rh5|| because if so then i see the idea
cyan elm
just tell me if it starts with ||Rh5|| because if so then i see the idea
it does ye
dusky hull
nice, its a good one for sure. illustrates a few cool ideas at once
cyan elm
Yeah took me a bit to spot but once the first move is there it falls into place nicely
tardy finch
also can you guys please appreciate move 26 as much as i do
I did in fact appreciate move 26
and was excited to see how the game will continue but I will need a reference so I know if I appreciated it as much as you. Please film your reaction to move 26.
dusky hull
tardy finch
Man, you win, I didn't rent a boat to watch the game...
dusky hull
@tardy finch when play
tardy finch
Dunno, up to you, I guess
dusky hull
hello friends. been a little bit. its not often that I post a game that I lose but I thought this game illustrates how sometimes deciding on trading pieces can really matter. I'm playing as black here
I was playing this relatively well in the beginning. Its a carokann, but with the moveorder intentionally changed to try to throw him off. objectively slightly worse move order but it transposed anyway so it doesn't matter.
by move 10 I figured I at least equalized; getting the free tempo on the dsb with no pin to the queen had to make me at least as strong as white, if not moreso. 11, he tosses out h4 which, yes, I was very tempted to play h6, but I figured (probably from stonewall habits) that if he allowed me the opportunity to strengthen my center, I should take it, so f5.
some boiler plate moves to follow, and we get to the critical point in the position which is 17. Here's whites plan is pretty obvious. White wants to double rooks on the f file, play Bd3 to assume a stronger light square diagonal, maybe even move the queen to get in g4 and start advancing pawns to expose a weakness.
I had two options: I knew I wanted my knight on f5: its a natural outpost for it and it becomes a much more centralized piece, and the second option was trading rooks before executing Nf5, because once I play Nf5, trading no longer is an option. This is where I should've asked myself "who is attacking?" If I had taken the 3 seconds to ask who was the player in danger, that wouldve helped me realize that trading was the best course of action. white is definitely the one pressing, white has the bishop pair which is pretty active, and black is the one with the backwards e pawn.
I play 17. Nf5. Now objectively the game isn't lost yet. Stockfish puts this at around +1 for white. But why does this move matter so much for black's position? Well it's because white's plans haven't changed. White will still double rooks, white will still play Bd3, and white will still be the one pressing. By trading rooks, I would've prevented the doubling, but also I would've put the queen or the LSB on a less active square. Whereas what are black's plans? pretty fuckin passive, no real avenue for success. maybe down the road play for b5 a5 b4, but our rooks are required along the f file anyway. by move 22 I panicked and played hope chess, hoping he'd allow me to be the one to trade rooks on the next turn, but my opponent absolutely siezed the iniative and my position went from very hard to completely lost.
tardy finch
Pert bad 
dusky hull
True
dusky hull
I showed my coach this game and he was like “why wouldn’t you just trade pieces in a not bad way” 
tardy finch
To be fair, until Nf5 you were looking good, had the advantage on board and you actually have a good understanding of what you messed up and how to fix it. The only problem is remembering to ask yourself the right questions during the game as opposed to after it's over.
dusky hull
Been a little bit since I’ve posted a game. Here’s one that truly illustrates how easy it is to attack someone when they’re ignoring the basic principles of chess. If you’re a new player, think about what rules black broke that allowed his position to collapse so quickly. https://lichess.org/etVWWqC8/white
Foundational concepts black disobeyed: ||don’t bring the queen out too quickly, castle by move 10, don’t play f6, control the center, develop lower value pieces. Look how easy it is to breech black’s defenses when these principles are ignored.||
void bramble
Been a little bit since I’ve posted a game. Here’s one that truly illustrates ho...
Why don't you || play f6 ||
dusky hull
I would say most lines for black involve castling kingside, usually because queenside castles is usually reserved for attacking play, and since white has first move advantage and can usually be the side that gets to dictate the attack, black doesn’t always have time to queenside castle. So with that in mind, since you know you’re probably castling that direction, you realize that by playing f6, you permanently alter the structure in front of your king while weakening your light squares. And in fact you see early in the game how my queen utilizes that light square weakness to win an exchange.
Granted there are times where f6 is required or is the best move in the position, but f6 out of the opening is just usually a positional mistake.
void bramble
Do you also avoid f5
dusky hull
If you’re a new player, probably yes. But f5 is perfectly playable if you know what you’re doing. It’s called the Dutch opening for black (usually 1. d4 f5) and although it is not used at the top level all that much, it can still be brought out as a secret weapon and definitely it is viable for basically all levels of play below the best players.
The difference is that f5 makes a direct claim to the center, so although you weaken your light squares, you’re at least responding by controlling e4 which is a very important square.
void bramble
tardy finch
6am brain can't comprehend Kd7
tardy finch
9am brain still considers Qxa4 superior so I'm waiting on the insight
dusky hull
The insight was I thought it was playable and funny
It’s not all bad. If he trades queens I get a king on c6 which controls his knight pretty well without having sacrificed pawn structure integrity
The fact that he also traded on d5 was an even bigger bonus. Centralized king, baby
dusky hull
Yes yes Qxa4 is objectively the better move but how are you gonna pass up taking your king for a walk
tardy finch
Sir, that's a king, not a dog
dusky hull
Sometimes you need to take the elderly for a walk, keep ‘em active
dusky hull
Of course. chess is all about dommy mommy, why do you think the queen is so powerful
Oh you went a different direction
tardy finch
First brilliant move I find in the random analysis I do from time to time. I thought maybe it's one of the attacks? Who knows, maybe a subtle defensive move? Nice pin/fork? Nah, it's the fucking pawn takes pawn 🙂
tardy finch
Thread is dying 
tardy finch
Top tier gameplay though
mint parrot
idk, i think the game was abandoned by the devs, last update felt like it was hundreds of years ago
dusky hull
Thread is dying <:feelsbadman:313725498121256971>
All good things must come to an end.
I would argue that you—or anyone—can take up the mantle of posting games/content :) I’ve taken a small hiatus
tardy finch
Yeah, cool, however my games are rarely educational and the only insight I can give is how to achieve two blunders in one move
It's time we start issuing challenges once again
void bramble
I still have a challenge out, Pert just doesn't accept my odds I'm offering him
tardy finch
What was it again?
tardy finch
I'm willing to get clapped for content
void bramble
oops sorry missed the question. queen & one pawn
tardy finch
Queen and pawn is too much, I'll agree if I remove one of your pawns as well. But I get to choose which one!
tardy finch
Alright, so ryli doesn't respond which means I'll post a puzzle to keep the candle lit. Black was already bad but Rc8 leads to mate in 7... or 8, I lost count. Try to find it.
Tip 1: ||Think of restricting the king's movement||
Tip 2: ||What the d pawn doing?||
Tip 3: ||If you could remove one piece on your opponent's side to get an immediate mating threat, which one would it be? Aim for it.||
void bramble
Oh sorry, no removing my pawn 🙃
tardy finch
Then no pawn, only queen 😠
tardy finch
Only on chess.com
Pert will be mad if isn't Lichess
Actually found it. Black or white for you?
void bramble
White for me
void bramble
At the end I was like oh I should have seen that 
void bramble
gg 
tardy finch
To be fair, I didn't really see much of a way out if it wasn't for that. You didn't want to blunder your queen so position was just too much if you traded everything
void bramble
I was too focused on time & how to keep taking your pieces
I get stressed out about the timer
tardy finch
I see. Maybe next time we play 10 minutes and go slower
tardy finch
It is a good plan. But as a rule of thumb (since you are not always up a queen), consider a bit what captures/trades do for your opponent. Had you paused for that, you would have spotted the weakness and played differently.
With that being said, I am not doing queen odds ever again, shit was terrifying.
void bramble
dusky hull
<@171682145646018560> you're next
Playing down a queen is so rough because like ideal play will lead to trades and all trades are only good for your opponent. So you have to find ways to keep pieces on the board while also forcing weaknesses and that’s not easy
cyan elm
Sounds like a great challenge for a player of your calibre Pert
void bramble
I mean, it's easy when I'm the opponent cuz I'll fuck up
dusky hull
I mean, it's easy when I'm the opponent cuz I'll fuck up <:notlikemeow:350722757...
Luckily you both warranted the same reply
cyan elm
dusky hull
Let’s put it another way. GM Aman (one of the chessbrahs) did this challenge against a viewer who was rated like 1200 or something and it was still hard for him
Like yea he won but it was hard fought victory for sure. And I am no gm lmao
void bramble
|| Qd4 black moves king Rh2?||
cyan elm
|| Qd4 black moves king Rh2?||
||King could go h6 and then escape to g7 after Rh2||
Is it ||Qc7?||
void bramble
I only see how to do it in 3, not 2
cyan elm
||Qc7 if Kh6 or Kh4 then Rh2# if black responds instead with any bishop move Qh7#||
I think
@grand idol am I right?
grand idol
||Qc7 if Kh6 or Kh4 then Rh2# if black responds instead with any bishop move Qh7...
thats in 3
|| Kh6 and then bh4||
cyan elm
Oh ye ofc lol
dusky hull
@grand idol ||Qc3|| ?
dusky hull
That was a fun exercise
Nice puzzle for sure
for anyone who is stuck, try to think about how you can use the rook to solve a problem
tardy finch
But .. ||Qg2|| works as well?
||If king moves, mate on a white square.
If bishop goes to h4 to cover Qg5#, then Qg6# suddenly is available
If bishop stops covering h4, Qh3#||
Correct me if I've missed something
grand idol
But .. ||Qg2|| works as well?
||If king moves, mate on a white square.
If bishop...
what about bg3?
tardy finch
Shit, my bad
grand idol
btw the answer is || Qc3 , if they take with bishop then Rh2#, if they move the bishop to block with Bh4 then Qh8#, and if they don't do anything / move king its either Qh2# or Qh8# ||
slate stream
@dusky hull was the game intense
dusky hull
it is a display of incredibly deep positional understanding
magnus' opponent had a fantastic grasp of the board. its one of those serendipitous moments in life where he just sees exactly what must be played and left magnus without any good moves despite basically all pieces being on the board.
grand idol
so pissed I missed this tactic in my game
black to move
see if you can do better than me
cyan elm
||Bxg2+ Rxg2 Qa1+ Rb1 QxRb3||is that it
dusky hull
I hope you won this game even if you didn’t see the tactic because despite being down an exchange, your bishop is disgustingly good and you have a 2v0 queenside push. Plus the two pawn control of g4 makes your king fairly challenging for white to attack.
If that tactic didn’t exist here I’d still prefer blacks chances every time
dusky hull
Not an idiot man, shit happens
I’ve lost many games from totally winning positions. We just gotta try to learn and move on
dusky hull
Good on you just for analyzing
Rc8 trading the rooks is a bit annoying for sure, but once you realize that your king is actually really safe and you can just march pawns up the qs, you see that whites options are really limited. a2 is a fantastic square for the queen because it guards the pawn while also keeping a constant checkmate threat on the board.
So like you had the ideas. They were there
tardy finch
My thoughts after solving this:
||Why would I even play that, they'll just capture back with the queen, I'll pin it, then trade and... ooohhh that's a good thing||
Brain is rotting
dusky hull
i really like this one because all too often it comes up "why is f6 a scary move for black to play"
and the answer, time and time again, is light square weaknesses
tardy finch
m+ right now but I can play one afterwards
tardy finch
@grand idol let's give people content
tardy finch
ggs
tardy finch
@grand idol wanna go again?
grand idol
sure gimme 2 mins
grand idol
huge
tardy finch
https://lichess.org/3AoFhwUD52Fn
(for game 2 if anyone is interested)
tardy finch
You def had it
First draw I offered, +0.1 according to analysis at 35 depth
Second draw, 0.0.
Immediately afterwards, I blundered and played Rf2 instead of Kg5 which gave you a winning advantage but you didn't spot it.
grand idol
ya I see it now, I had to take your pawn and promote
tardy finch
Yep
I gave up on typing the whole paragraph, basically if I don't charge for your pawn, it promotes
dusky hull
clap 'em Pert
Beat a 1500 USCF with a knight sac on the king side
He was like ????
Waiting to play a 1900
cyan elm
Waiting to play a 1900 <:feelswaytoosweaty:834315561802399764>
What are you rated fren
dusky hull
dusky hull
I didn’t get to play the 1900
tardy finch
Pert is unconfirmed IM
tardy finch
We are at 1.5-1.5, what do you mean
tardy finch
Pert is very much not an IM
incredible mastermind
dusky hull
Fine yes you caught me I am an IM (Imbecilic Moron)
tardy finch
Right now, I can call you GM(good morning)
Enjoy the coffee made with chess players' tears
grand idol
We are at 1.5-1.5, what do you mean
no i fucked up that draw remember lol
tardy finch
@here any chess enthusiasts?
tardy finch
I'll take one
grand idol
@tardy finch looks like I basically lost when I refused to just trade for your bishop
and then you took it anyway
tardy finch
Yeah, that felt like a win for me because I still traded bishops but got both your pawn structure and king safety in one swoop
God damn, analysis blesses it big time
But yeah, apparently if you took on c8, I would have had to gallop around hoping for you to make a mistake ... and I'm not that great with the knight, that is stormvine's specialty
grand idol
Yeah, that felt like a win for me because I still traded bishops but got both yo...
its annoying because I literally thought it through UNTIL the bishop trade
should have spent more time!
tardy finch
Well, there's always next time. As long as you get something out of the game, you'll always improve.
That is until you play Pert
grand idol
ya i mean pert is another level
dusky hull
Gonna start only posting L’s so you guys understand just how bad I really am lmao
void bramble
cyan elm
gratz!
dusky hull
Big gains
tardy finch
Gonna start only posting L’s so you guys understand just how bad I really am lma...
Doesn't mean shit unless we are the ones farming them 
dusky hull
If you want to beat me, put yourself in a worse position but one that requires some thought to convert. My most heartbreaking losses are always the ones where I know I’m better but don’t know how to prove it 
dusky hull
Asiano could retire like three times already lmao
dusky hull
The importance of castling cannot be understated
dusky hull
@tardy finch what would you call this game? because holy fuck man. look at the timestamps too. https://lichess.org/O2kxntBV/black#1
for the record, i really like that opening as black. if they decline the benoni main lines, you just get a lot of activity
but jesus man so many blunders but so many tactics
dusky hull
Just had this position come out of a game where I was playing the English. If you look at the board, I have not one pawn hanging, but two.
But the question I have is are they really both hanging? Can black get away with Bxa2 and/or Bxg2?
In the game, Bxa2 was played.
Answers:
||Neither pawn is up for grabs. Exploring Bxa2 first because its easier to see why its off limits
If Bxa2, then I can do a very Spassky move: b3. (in the world championship against Boris Spassky, Fischer captured an h2 pawn and is immediately met with g3). Now you see how profound of a trap it is: the bishop can only move to b1 which is guarded or sacrifice itself for a pawn on b3. Black might try to add a second attacker to b3 with Rb8, but Bc4 comes with check and adds another defender to the pawn. Black will lose this bishop.
A bit harder to see is what happens if Bxg2. Clearly the same trap doesn't apply. However, instead of a positional trap, we just play good positional chess: the c4 square is no longer guarded, which means that Bc4 is possible and comes with check. Moving the king and allowing white to retain these imposing diagonals is basically a suicidal move, so black only has two real options: bishop back with Bd5, or knight blocks with Nf7. If Nf7, we have the very simple e6, forcing the knight Nd6 and then we just trade down into a winning endgame with Bxd6 cxd6 Rxd6 (the passed pawn is very strong). And much cooler is what happens if black tries to go back with the bishop Bd5, because it runs into the very nice tactic Rxd5 cxd5 Bxd5+ forking the king and the rook on a8.
Sometimes you have to lay mines in your position for your opponent to walk into. And when they do? Fuckin kaboom.||
grand idol
that fork is really cool
didnt see it
from the chess subreddit, a cool tactic, see if you can see it
dusky hull
This took me a second because I tried a move order switch the first time around, starting with ||Ng4+||. The continuation is weird and black retains an edge even though I’m not sure in a game I’d be able to keep the pressure. But yea once I realized that was probably not it, ||Rxe3|| was my next guess and that is crushing white. Nice puzzle
dusky hull
JESUS FUCK https://lichess.org/AihMwV62/black#1
yes i blundered but this was a spicy fucking game. also im so sad my opponent went for Rxd4 allowing promotion instead of Bf4 stopping promotion
because after Bf4 i have Rb1 which is a double checkmate
Rb1++ if you will
dusky hull
Stolen from a chess page. White to move, fun little mate in 3
grand idol
I know it has something to do with || the knight, I'm thinking like bishop to f6, then when he moves down, move the knight and then Qb2. but that doesn't work if he just checks me on h5 ||
dusky hull
My hint would be that when solving puzzles look for forcing moves, and forcing moves are usually checks. So explore all the checks and see what you can come up with
I’ll post the answer in a few mins
grand idol
Ive got || Ne6+, Qxe6||
but then idk
omg dude
i got it
thats sick
now I know why you posted this
dusky hull
answer: while there are a couple variations in what black can respond with, the first move for white is always ||Ne6+||
||If black doesn't capture and runs the king to either g8 or h8 (doesnt matter) then Qb8+ Qd8 and Qxd8# because the knight covers g7
If black plays fxe6, then Qf6+ Kg7 Qf8# (the queen has access to f8 because the pawn is no longer in the way)
And most fun, if black plays Qxe6 then you have Qh6+ queen sac. If black refuses and plays Kg8 or Kh8, then Qf8#. But if black accepts the sac with Kxh6 then you have a somewhat unreal Bf8# as the black pawns cover the light squares and the white king prevents the black king from running down the board.
Note: in the fxe6 variation after Qf6+ black can choose Kh6 instead of going to the back rank which still leads to the same bishop checkmate, but i omitted it because its much cooler to present that mating idea with the queen sac||
dusky hull
now I know why you posted this
:)
dusky hull
White to move, mate in 2.
Hint: ||what pieces can black actually move on his turn?||
answer: ||Qf4. Only blacks knights can move. Whichever knight black moves, queen will mate on the corresponding dark square next turn
This is an example of zugzwang||
grand idol
what about || Qd2 ||
dusky hull
what about || Qd2 ||
||Nd3||
grand idol
ah fuck
grand idol
half hedge
oi m8
grand idol
white to move, mate in 2
half hedge
good day
grand idol
I could only see the mate in 3 before I looked itt up
tardy finch
||Qb1 forcing the pawn to capture and promote, then whatever the piece is, Ra8#||
Pretty sure that works
But this is one of those puzzles that makes me understand why people say puzzles are unrealistic to encounter in a real game..
half hedge
MANNN why was the trophy a picture 
void bramble
Mine told me I do too many puzzles
dusky hull
Hello chess friends. I know I’ve been gone for awhile but I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. May you all be happy and cozy :)
dusky hull
Hi everyone. I hope you all do not mind random activity in this thread. I was studying a game I had played as black which led me down a very interesting, very disgusting engine line that resulted in being down 2 pawns yet still able to hold a draw. This is one such position that can occur in this line. I'm posing it to you all as a challenge. Why can't white escape the check with Ke3? See if you can find what black plays.
Main idea: ||No matter what, you had to recognize that the white king actually boxed himself in. Unable to run back to the 2nd row due to the rook, unable to move laterally because of the e pawn, and unable to move further down the board because of the black king, white's king has no moves. So if you land a check on that dark square, it's checkmate. How? The dsb||
Winning, but not forcing: ||If you thought Bf8 with the idea of Bh6#, it's just one turn too slow from being forcing. white can play Ra6 which stops Bh6. You might think that's fine, just Bxb4 preparing to mate on the queenside with Bxc5#, but now you've allowed Re6+, forcing the black king to move away from controlling f4, so the white king gets a way out. It's still winning for black, but black needs to earn it a little more.||
Forced line: ||The move you had to find, very similarly, is Be7. This also aims at targeting the dark square issue, preparing Bg5#. White has only one way to stop this which is h4, taking away the g5 square, seemingly stopping the threat. And this is where you had to see just that little bit deeper with the fantastic Bxh4. Not caring at all that the h pawn is defended. You give white an impossible choice, either don't respond and bishop back Bg5# gets played, or actually do capture the bishop with gxh4 which gives up control over the f4 square, allowing black to play f4#: a connected pawn mate.||
tardy finch
Sir, you baited me ||into thinking this was a draw so I spent most of my time looking for a way white was actually defending after Ke3...||
Still, good to see Pert back.. even if the thread is a bit, uhm.. not alive
dusky hull
Well it is a draw! Just not if Ke3 :)
grand idol
dude I saw the || be7 ||, but couldn't figure out the finish of || pawn f4 mate||
thats so sick
if they move the king into the 1st row
is the idea Rh2 pressuring the pawn?
or b4
dusky hull
Yea the way you hold this as black is a bit more complicated which is why I didn’t pose that as the challenge. The idea is if white is passive and just moved the king around then you have a draw by perpetual checks. And if white tries to get active by running diagonally towards the rook with something like Kd1, then the rook will slide over to the g file still cutting off the kings access to the rest of the board. Despite having FOUR passed pawns, white doesn’t have a way to keep them intact. With perfect play white will always end up in a rook endgame being up only one pawn due to the black kings massive activity vs the white king’s very sad inactivity.
With that said, if you give this position to two humans below a ~2200 rating, I imagine the white side is muuuuch easier to play. I mean. Four passed pawns is a dream scenario even if you know that you’ll end up losing one or two. The onus is on black to defend well.
tardy finch
Below 2200 includes 100 as well and you seem to heavily underestimate their ability to throw.
I've incorporated some of the techniques in that bracket into my own play and I have to say there has been a significant increase in the meme quality of my endgames along with a steady decline in winrate and happiness.
dusky hull
Today at the chess club I attend, I got revenge on the USCF 1800 who kept beating me. I was really just playing too fast for my own good and he was taking advantage of my lack of calculating. Today I forcibly slowed myself down and took an extra 30 seconds each move (after the opening).
First game was an English with me as white. I had a winning middle game but couldn’t find the necessary combination to convert (he had played f5 early and so my entire plan was attacking the light squares). Instead, I sacrificed a knight for three pawns and got a winning endgame where my three connected passed pawns were too strong. I actually ended up catching him in a mating net.
Game 2 he played the nimzo Larsen attack against me (1. g3) and I just ended up out calculating him in the middle game, where a pawn looked free but really wasn’t. He fell in the trap and I went up a piece and converted.
Feels really good to start winning OTB games against some stronger opponents. Maybe I’ll actually go to a rated tournament soon
dusky hull
I need more over the board experience especially now, but its on the horizon. i'd like to see how far i can take my actual rating with some prep and more practice
left glade
the new rising star in the chess world mr. perturb, will he be able to fulfil his role as "the giant slayer" and defeat his next opponent?
you can follow his career on tsl.com/chess/perturbingly
tardy finch
Pert bout to dab on them IMs
dusky hull
Lmao you guys have far too much faith in me. I’m like 0-4 against a 2100 at the club
I get so nervous playing him it’s crazy
tardy finch
Try the angy juice *gambit.
Just now in this position I played Qh4. You could not pay me to explain why. And I am up 3 minutes. I'd be 0-4 against the 100 lad at the club.
dusky hull
in the words of danya naro, Qh4 is a very high level move. An incredibly strong move. It is also a blunder.
dusky hull
If you guys want a real challenge, I can post 4 puzzles from Engine games. If I had to guess their difficulties, I’d say the range of the puzzle ratings are between 2000 - 2700. I could not figure out the fourth puzzle despite seeing the ideas.
cyan elm
Post em boss
dusky hull
https://lichess.org/study/2FAm5C66/yggLDsF0
linked on puzzle 1 for convenience.
In my opinion, they're posted in order of difficulty, so puzzle 1 being the easiest and puzzle 4 being the most arduous. You can obviously check the engine for the answer so i don't necessarily need to post solutions, but if you find you want a hint, i can drop some
if i had to guess approx puzzle ratings for each one:
- 2000ish
- 2200ish
- 2300ish (weird though because technically white can defend if white responds with the correct move, which white does not in the puzzle)
- 2600-2700. incredibly challenging to not just spot all the ideas but to calculate how black could respond and recognize that there's no good defense. easily one of the best puzzles ive looked at in awhile. also takes very good understanding of the game to recognize that the final position is actually better for white.
tardy finch
So, in order:
- spotted immediately
- getting through the first move is hard, from there on the idea flows on its own... But I am a shit attacker so this one took a while
- got it immediately but wtf is white doing
- alright, this one is torture and even though I got it eventually, there's no way I'd apply this to a game... You have to analyze the analysis to understand this one
I need to play more and do less puzzles
dusky hull
if you got 3 immediately, kudos to you
it took me a bit to really calculate it out up to and including why the knight block is stronger than the bishop block
and yea 4 is just a masterpiece of positional understanding. truly impeccably high level play.
also on the topic of crazy high level engine chess, agadmator recently put out a Leela vid that is unbelievable. I dont want to spoil anything about it but it is very much worth watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAnA963WS-s
tardy finch
if you got 3 immediately, kudos to you
Hey, knowing it's a puzzle, I can just say "fuck it, we ball" and go for the aggressive play. Which also happens to work wonderfully in this case as the following move was not something I would have expected.
Even Stockfish is saying it's a blunder
grand idol
ya i got the first 1
but the second one is stumping me
ya okay this is an insane play
I stumbled through these
dusky hull
did you try 4
grand idol
yes
I got them all eventually
I still dont really get how || two rooks + bishop < two bishop + rook ||
I guess its because the king is so exposed?
dusky hull
right so this is where the really good positional understanding comes in.
the king exposure is part of it, but its not just that the king is exposed: its that white is actually threatening checkmate on the next turn (from the position the puzzle ends). note that the bishops are restricting the king and the pawn cuts off the only escape square, so if white gets in Rh7 thats game over. and if black plays Rh8 preventing Rh7, then white has Bg7# instead.
So black's best move is to just block the light squares with the rook, hoping to give back the exchange, which white won't do because white is the one who is pressuring.
black's e pawn is going to fall, one of his rooks will be "pinned", and his bishop and other rook are not doing anything useful. for all intents and purposes its like white is playing 2B + 1 R v 1R
and to be able to see that from where the puzzle starts? nothing short of a cosmic understanding of the board
dusky hull
I’ve had literally four people tag me in this and I just want it to end
Please make the cock and balls stop
tardy finch
The urge to push this number to 5 
dusky hull
dusky hull
hello friends, here's a benko gambit I just played.
im presenting this game for two reasons:
-
plans > engine eval. a bad plan is better than no plan, even if the engine disagrees with the move. pay attention to moves 12-15. notice how i dont recapture the a-pawn, and its because i made my plan to target the d3 square, knowing if i could trade one pair of knights and get my second knight on d3, it would be incredible. also notice how the refutation to this line is very deep and requires 13. Na4 to be played for white to maintain an edge.
-
a pivotal moment in the game where precision was key. check out move 22. what would you do in this situation?
bonus) find another sequence of moves after 17. Qc2 that is just as good if not better for black.
i'll give you a hint and tell you a line it isn't: 17... Nxb2 because after Qxb2 Qa5 yes you have a really strong DSB pinning the knight on c3 to both whites queen and rook and a strong queen attacking the other dark square diagonal, white will just move the rook off the diagonal with Rac1 and the queen will follow. Just not enough attacking power to make something happen. Definitely not bad for black but you lose all the potential of the position. https://lichess.org/6C4gtgNi/black#1
cyan elm
hello friends, here's a benko gambit I just played.
im presenting this game fo...
can u present a game where u play the cock and balls opening
dusky hull
cyan elm
tardy finch
can u present a game where u play the cock and balls opening
Only if the opponent counters with the 8-pawn buttcrack gambit
grand idol
I bought tickets to the candidates for round 6!
excited
never seen otb professional chess
dusky hull
Yo that’s so fucking cool, good for you man
dusky hull
@grand idol can i ask a semi-invasive question? how much were the tickets and also were the prices varying based on the round?
grand idol
they were 65 canadian, I think it was the same per round but the weekend ones are sold out now
the prices are on https://candidates-tournament-2024.square.site/
seems like you only get a 2 hour slot for viewing if you do GA
grand idol
so weekend is a bit more
tardy finch
The daily puzzle on chess.com today is a thing of beauty.
Throwback to Pert's 2400 puzzle where properly evaluating the board was the key to confirming the moves. In this case, not doing that leads to a drawish position but if you can see how the next moves unfold, you will spot the tiny difference in position.
||1.Rf1+, correct guess. 1..Qf2 blocking.
This is where you have a little trap. The correct continuation is 2. Qe1 Qxf1+ 3. Qxf1+
Try to figure out the difference in captures.||
void bramble
I have not graduated to even considering ||Qe1|| 🤣
I stopped with the regular puzzles but I still try to solve the daily puzzle every day. I get it wrong A LOT