Luck in chess?

[visual gazelle]

Luck in chess?

[north coyote]

yes I managed to blunder a knight when I played against myself so I would call that luck/unluck for one of the colors

[misty lichen]

its always a factor, but not the one u should ever rely on

[craggy ridge]

chess is skill

[tropic heron]

There is no luck unless we count opponent's misplays as such

Yo uwon't lose a game due to a bad dice roll or a hand of cards

[craggy ridge]

Exactly

Of course your opponent can blunder

but then that's just a skill issue

[silver wagon]

i was gonna say that lmao

[craggy ridge]

not a matter of luck

[tropic heron]

yep - it's simple, if your opponent was Magnus, would he blunder that one game you won? nope

so, no luck

on the other hand if you are playing backgammon you can very easily lose a game due to a bad dice roll, regardless of any strategies which might level out the win ratio in the long run

[craggy ridge]

thats why backgammon is fun hehe

[tropic heron]

actually never mind Magnus, go with Stockfish

A few days ago MVL completely outplayed Magnus, it does not mean he got lucky - he just was better for those 2 matches

[hollow linden]

Isn't there a small amount of luck in online chess?
Mainly in whether or not your opponent disconnects and misclicks?
Over-the-Board definitely feels 100% skill-based

I swear I have gained at least 100 rating from completely lost games just because I got lucky and my opponent DC'ed

[rotund flax]

Imagine accidentally touching a piece and you have to move that piece. That would be the otb equivalent of misclicking

[tropic heron]

In that sense, yes

[hollow linden]

That would be quite "unlucky", wouldn't it
therefore there is luck :)
in a small sense

[rotund flax]

Your opponent would be the one who do that tho

[timber prawn]

luck being a factor in chess is like luck being a factor in writing good stories. like, you mostly need a good enough writer to write a good enough story. if that writer probably has a mental illness, then there is probably a ceiling to how good that writer's story is. similar thing in chess

there might be complications and distractions which are usually banned in tournaments

so most likely it's the mental state

and not actual luck

[hollow linden]

clearly luck is a factor
every time I lose, the opponent just got lucky. Every time I win, that's when it is a pure 100% skill game
/j

[rotund flax]

That clip always got me rolling lol

[north coyote]

I do think there is luck in coming up with great stories. You might be part of an event and luckily get inspiration from that event or something

[timber prawn]

that is not luck, that is life

[north coyote]

life is luck

[timber prawn]

*life has luck

[north coyote]

yeah

[hollow linden]

someone should properly define luck

[timber prawn]

oh yea

[north coyote]

yep I think we have different definitions of luck

[hollow linden]

Is it just "A chance something happens" is luck
or something else

[timber prawn]

you are not talking about luck here, that's "convenience"

[north coyote]

a chance that I will look at these squares or not?

[trim hinge]

have u ever said in ur game when u lose: "ah shit he got lucky" instead of "ah fck, why didn't i see that, im so bad". so its a skill issue

[north coyote]

my opponent was lucky that I didn't see that

[trim hinge]

so its a skill issue first then luck second, but its a luck to u if he also miss it. so double skill issue

[ember shuttle]

I think that there's luck in chess when resources are limited. Time is limited, so you have to prioritize calculating certain lines, and your choice on which line to calculate is all instinct and probabilistic. Opening prep is also about luck too, what you choose might be in your opponent's repertoire, and you will have a hard time because they happen to analyze it deeper than you. It's like a rock scissors paper game but with opening repertoire

[north coyote]

is it skill if you make a move and then realize that your move was better than you thought after you made it?

[hollow linden]

I wonder if it's more luck at lower levels, and more skill at higher levels too-

[hard heron]

It has a good amount of luck in it but the skill part obviously overweights it

[late kindle]

Yes

[hard heron]

Yes

[north coyote]

99% skills 1% luck maybe

[hard heron]

U could say that

[late kindle]

Misclick

[hard heron]

I am a firm believer that luck exists in every factor on our lives

[north coyote]

ya

[hard heron]

No matter how small it may be

[trim hinge]

u made me change my perspective with just one word lol

chess does indeed have luck but its still more relies on skill

[north coyote]

how do you missclick OTB tho?

[trim hinge]

there's also touch move

[north coyote]

true

misstouch

[late kindle]

Illegal move by accident when there is 1s left

[sturdy lagoon]

You should calculate the best moves by your opponent but of course you can get lucky. Your opponent can miss something, miscalculate it, make a missclick or just forget theory/prep. That doesn't mean you should play hope chess and expect a blunder but luck is real anyway

[remote hound]

within the game itself, no, but there are extrinsic factors, like whether your opponent (at least in online chess) is being harassed by their cat

[hard heron]

the only luck in chess is if ur opponent misclicks or isnt feeling well

[gray sparrow]

LOL

True though

but for the most part i think its mostly skill based because that what chess is 😎

[vital quiver]

Luck means something like this and you are lucky if your enemy takes queen then gets checkmated

[dense bison]

you are lucky if youre opponent is bad

[mighty karma]

Agree

[cosmic scroll]

you are unlucky when you pull up to a chess game and your opponent has 🇮🇳 next to their name

which is like half of the games on chess.com so you’re screwed most of the time

[oak sun]

schizo take

[tardy vessel]

Everything is luck.

[vital quiver]

You are lucky if your enemy hangs free queen

Unless stalemate

[bright aurora]

Primarily skill, but there is some luck involved when your opponent mouseslips

[willow depot]

The opponent messing up isn't luck, it's a skill based issue

Chess is a game where two people face off and use their skill to try to win

As said many times earlier, there is no dice roll or luck of the cards

if you call someone not being capable of something "luck" then in my opinion that would be wrong

The way I see it, if the opponent blunders, it isn't luck because it wasn't chance, it was an attempted calculation that turned into a miscalculation.

Even a mouse slip is a skill issue related to not being very skilled at using a computer/computer mouse

[late kindle]

https://youtube.com/shorts/fYBinaUFi4g?si=ujDno2QK2ueH6Edc

[loud widget]

Its luck based if you lose, skill based if you win

[cobalt prism]

Your moves are played based on skill; If you lose because you blundered, you lost because of your lacking of skill. If your opponent makes a blunder, that is lucky for you. There is good luck in chess, but there is no bad luck.

[oak sun]

schizo

[sturdy sun]

luck is a massive factor

[north coyote]

luck is when you make the correct move through misscalculation

[cosmic scroll]

best feeling in the world

other than

[chilly canyon]

Luck is real

[buoyant maple]

Yes, once after getting some horrible positions against the d5 anti-morra Alipan transpositions I hit the books to work out what was going wrong and sorted it out. Then 3 days later in a playoff for my local club championships my oppoennt played this exact line. What are the odds? But by RANDOMLY filling a hole in my repertoire put me in "lucky" situation to benefit. Like if I had of put that prep off for one more week I would have been floundering again.

[vital quiver]

If you starts with white you are lucky, if you start with black pieces you are unlucky

Because you need 1 more tempo for fried liver attack or scholar's mate

[cosmic scroll]

then don’t play those 😎

[indigo forge]

llucky is important because what do you feel when misclick

[gentle solstice]

At a lower elo like players make mistake but that is not luck but are not experienced.

[edgy lynx]

Yes, when you don't see a specific thing in the current position for example a bishop that's protecting your rook since you haven't moved your bishop there in order to defend the rook but for something else. If you somehow account that as just a lack of skill (which it is of course) then no.

[oak sun]

lack of skill in board configuration and lack of knowledge in how to change mouse sensitivity

[woven laurel]

yes

whether you start as black or white is usually luck

other than that the base mechanics are not luck based at all

[misty nimbus]

There's no such thing as luck, Chess is a skill-based game, you must learn the openings, strategy, etc. You make a mistake = You make a mistake. NO GOING BACK ONLY FORWARD

[misty nimbus]

except that

[static gull]

there are people that prefer black

[little pewter]

Yes if person does Misclick or blunder without realise

[north coyote]

yeah so that equals to you are lucky if you get the color you prefer

[indigo forge]

im not gonna change mouse sensitivity because im not only play chesss in this computer

[oak sun]

Lack of skill in choice making and hand coordination accuracy

[woven laurel]

Misclicking is a mechanical skill issue

Hot take

Mouse aiming ability is a skill and the better your aim the less likely you are to misclick

[oak sun]

yep

[hard heron]

It depends who your playing against. They could be very bad, or very good.

[little pewter]

Also depends on how opponents is feeling

If they r tired u will win

But if they were in normal mood they would win

[craggy oak]

and if they are in a good mood they are guaranteed to win if 1500+

[echo flicker]

it is something in between, sometimes it is luck, sometimes it is skill

[deep cove]

obviously chess is a game of pure luck

[humble dune]

sometimes when you play with a very evenly matched open , make one mistake and it's all over

[olive orchid]

Sometimes you make a move

And only after playing it do you realise it's true potential

That I would think is the only thing that's lucky

[granite anvil]

i don’t think chess is a luck based game. chess requires skill, and if your opponent blunders, that’s because of miscalculation. there’s no luck involved in chess. chess is based on skill

[sturdy sun]

nah, its all luck.

[viscid crown]

If you played entirely random moves against magnus carlson, and won, you would be very lucky. Therefore luck is a factor, cause not everyone knows the best move

[mighty karma]

If you win it is skill, if you lose it is luck

[gaunt wadi]

[static gull]

that's not because he was unlucky tho

it's a mistake

[spark inlet]

its a factor of moves. When u make them and how u make them

[sharp steppe]

Im not sure about tournaments as much but on chess.com, who you get paired with can vary greatly, you can go against someone 30 elo lower than you, equal, or 30 higher, its also luck if they dont know your opening lines

[north coyote]

If my opponent is unlucky, I'm lucky

[mighty karma]

[forest falcon]

no there is not luck in chess

[rose canyon]

Depends, the player you go up against is luck in tournaments. (Hypothetically) Would you want to go into a tournament and your opponent be a GM, IM, FM. But overall, the game itself is based on skill.

[cosmic scroll]

I’d say this is a perfect take. There’s a few factors, like random opponents, and if they’re having a bad day for chess, but overall, those are just luck-based factors that affect skill. So there’s a healthy mixture of both factors.

[radiant tangle]

it can be but it depends on many factors such as the opponents mood, sleepiness or even the things that are happening in their lives and also the tension in the room [I think the Above does not apply to GMs and IMs but who know, i never played with one :)]

[deep cove]

100% luck

it's whoever makes the last mistake

if you're lucky, you won't be that guy

[spark inlet]

If you can find a way to make less mistakes and also be able to capitalize on your opponents' mistakes, you'll be fine

[rose quail]

luck is a factor when you dont know how to play

when you dont know, all your moves are random

in that case any output you get is random too

unless you know what you are doing, well then your output will be based off of you

[high wren]

When new poll?

[hard heron]

The luck arguments are so trash. of course there's chance in everything although its such a slim factor its nothing to be worried about, so i would say yes there is luck but barely, examples of luck is usally having the opponent being at a disadvantage or going to be because of different things as hand injury, phone call, clock error when winning on time, unfair referee or other variables. In conclusion: there is luck in chess.

[woven laurel]

u seemed to change ur mind mid way through typing without realising it

[oak sun]

lol]

[hard heron]

how so

[clever veldt]

You can get lucky by getting a bad opponent, getting that person to play a specific opening that you know. Getting lucky enough to make the opponent make a blunder and possibly winning the game.

You could also play black or white

[hard heron]

[vital quiver]

It is good luck if you start with white pieces and bad luck if black pieces

Because you can do many gambits with white piecea

[heavy fulcrum]

lmao overreacting

[remote hound]

it's definitely bad for weaker players. The number of times I've seen someone play Nbd2 robotically, not noticing the open d-file meant my queen was attacking their bishop on d3...

[lost ibex]

In some eyes, making a blunder is bad luck. Making a brilliancy can also be considered luck(because game review edits it so that brilliancies are harder to get the higher elo you are. Chess.com takes away my old brilliancies because of this). Now im not saying brilliancies are luck, but some of them are. As someone said, getting an opponent who plays an opening you are good at is nice. Like I love it when opponents play the queens gambit, so I can play my accepted line.

[lost ibex]

Dammm

a 2086 just hung backrank mate against m

those 9 rating points 100% luck

also the above situation happened against a 2150

lucky 11 points

[vague jasper]

It depends. For example if you blunder a piece but your opponent doesn't notice, and makes a different move, then yes, I would consider that luck.

[prime gate]

There is luck in chess, because if your opponent plays the opening that you studied hours to fight against, it would be considered luck

[spare edge]

thees no luck in the game itself but if your opponent sucks i guess youre lucky?

[prime gate]

Exactly you got no say on who you are gonna fight

[lost ibex]

I mean if your opponent sucks then their rating is likely low and youll gain less ponts and lose more for a loss, but in a tou rnament thats nice, also they may suck against your opening which would be "free 8 points"

[near spindle]

You can't rely on it anyway so don't have a mental note on it in game. But never underestimate the power of luck 💥💪

[hard heron]

🤦‍♂️ why is this even a question lol

[deep cove]

fr everyone knows that skill is danny's second favourite conspiracy

[north coyote]

If you read the discussion you will figure it out

[hard heron]

Don’t care said it anyway

[north coyote]

Asking why this is a question would be pointless if you didn't care

[hard heron]

2 blocked messages 🥰🥰

[gaunt atlas]

Well there is a luck in chess but that's too rare

[echo flicker]

well today i played a game, i was losing badly but then i somehow win, that was luck

[lost ibex]

yeah ive gained 20 to 30 points sometimes because of luck, then the next day i go and lose it

[north coyote]

Is it unluck when you have a losing streak of 10+ games and then you get lucky(?) when you get a winning streak of 10+ games even though you don't know what has changed to your chess?

[north coyote]

Then what is it?

Selection of opponents?

[woven laurel]

Whether you mouse slip or not is a mechanical skill

Unless it's from an FPS spike or something

[lost ibex]

mindset, tilt wornoutness etcetera

[pearl locust]

if your oponent doesn't comit a single inacuracy you can't win so yes it is a slight factor

[lilac trail]

I agree. It's a slight factor

[vital quiver]

If opponent ragequits because of losing one knight before checkmating it would be lucky

And chess960 too

And something like this looks lucky

[languid raptor]

Mostly skill, but slightly luck.
So if it's "is there luck?" then definitely.
if it's "is there dominately luck" then definitely not

some of the arguments of luck absolutely sucks though such as inaccuracies or misclicks. that isn't really luck, just the person messing up purposely or accidentally

[lime orchid]

if you mess up accidentally and it ended up good then its called luck @languid raptor

[half sapphire]

if you blunder a queen but then realize that it forces mate...

ain't something more lucky than that

[lost ibex]

yeah luck exists