Wrong thread maybe but how do I get less terrible at chess? I'm OK on tactics but don't have much of an idea re. strategy - what to do in the middlegame, which pawns to push etc. In some matches I look at the computer analysis and it says a move I did in the opening took me from +0.4 to -1.6 and I can't spot why it was so bad - my opponent has no immediate tactic. Something which explained the thought process of a top player on the "non fancy" moves would be ideal.

1. Play a lot of games and allow your brain to absorb the patterns subconsciously (this is much easier in the internet age than it used to be), because much of chess is pattern recognition and somewhat less is lengthy calculation.

2. As a break from that, play through some of the annotated GM games from chess.com or similar, move by move.

3. Study the endings (some would argue this should be #1) so you better understand when to head into them.

or

Read what professional chess trainers say and ignore this list

David Bronstein's book on the 1953 Zurich Candidates tournament is the best book I've read on chess strategy. And Understanding Chess: Move by Move by John Nunn sounds like exactly what you're looking for--something that explains "the thought process of a top player on the 'non fancy' moves." These and other strategy-oriented books can be a lot of fun, and definitely made me feel more knowledgeable about chess and able follow the logic of a game between two strong players. But in terms of strict improvement, you'll get more bang for your buck just drilling tactics and analyzing your games in depth. Unless you are 2200+, you are losing lots of games due to tactics.

is there anything more tilting than players, having started a repetition/perpetual sequence of moves, declining a draw offer then proceeding to take the draw line?

On some of the phone apps its more convenient to just repeat than figure out where the menu for the draw button is, especially when low on time.

Chess bbv. I have to resign about 10% of my games because wife or child needs something. Doh


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One of the best books I ever read in this vein was called Logical Chess move by move by Irving Chernev. Shows high level games and literally comments every single move with text instead of moves. I have no doubt it inspired the Nunn book.

100% agree, and I think Nunn acknowledges the debt in the introduction. Another great Chernev book is The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played.

I was on a flight with delta airlines, and they have free games and movies. The flight was only two hours long, and I played a couple of games of chess on the delta studios chess game. Even on easy difficulty I was destroyed and it was way too hard. For it to be “ way too hard” the easy difficulty had to be playing at at least 1800 level which seems insane considering other delta studio games were trivially easy on higher difficulties. Is there a way I can play this game off flight? I want to take another shot at it and or point out they should have an actual easy difficulty.

https://kotaku.com/every-game-in-my-...wed-1795928857

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasparov_Chessmate

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/che...arov-chessmate

https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/index.php?id=306057

https://www.chessprogramming.org/Kasparov_Chessmate

The game was released in 2003. I'm not sure how it may have been modified for the in flight system. But if the skill levels were based on thinking time, running a 2003 program on 2021 hardware could make it much stronger than intended.



Is this what you saw when you set the level, or was it modified to make it simpler?

TimM, that would make a lot of sense but it was not the game that I played. The game I played was the only chess game, and it did not involve Kasparov. The game looked like a polished but cheap mobile app. The menu was incredibly basic. You could choose easy , normal or hard only. The other choices were just if you wanted hints or not and if you wanted black or white pieces. I had briefly been crushing a few other games like bird vs bird, Texas holdem( single player was a sit and go) , a tic tac toe sea creature game( the ai repeatedly lost in tic tac toe) and then switched to chess suspecting I would win on whatever the default was. I dropped ten moves of theory and then played cautiously for another ten moves and ended up in an even position with no material advantage. I did not miss any forks , or two move tactics from my opponent but got squeezed. After seeing no compensation and down a piece it became clear to me I could not win. I decided to turn down the difficulty but was suprised to find it was already on the easiest difficulty.I lost 3-4 games on easy difficulty. I wish it had been kasparov chessmate that looks more fun. I googled it and did not find the game. Shrugs, I don’t know what game it was and wish delta had a better chess game.

OK well they probably built an interface around some open source chess engine rather than code one from scratch, which would explain the strength.

That is hilarious though, running a game that will beat 99+% of your customers in 25 or 30 moves.

Yes to both of these. I like delta airlines and I like chess so I found this to be mildly annoying. Also weird to me is that there is no info about it anywhere. I understand almost no one cares but I was surprised that literally No one has mentioned this game anywhere on the internets, it’s on planes that are flown by millions I would’ve thought at least one person would have said something somewhere about it. I tried a decent amount of searching and only came up with this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnarchyChes...elta_airlines/

AFAIK this is the most this game has ever been discussed.

I also find this totally hilarious. Some kid probably hooked it up to Stockfish and set easy to 2000 elo to fk with custys.

Reminds me of when WallSt banks used to do chess/rapid tourneys against each other and our board 1 sat down and saw Max Dlugy sitting across from him.

Former world blitz champ, no biggie.

And don't get me wrong, plenty of guys on WallSt are strong players but not...you know....GM strong.

Reminds me of the time I was roped in to help some pals out for their bank's team, and found myself on top board facing someone rated 2350 lol.

We all have our disastrous days at the board. Chess gets us all. Kasparov lost in seven moves today.

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-to...tz-2021/15/1/2

That's the second time I've seen Kasparov resign after his opponent castled.

FeelsBadMan for Duda. One match away from earning his place in history and he draws the greatest ever.

Feels worse man for Shanky. Just needed a draw in classical or rapid, loses both, then needs to win with white and actually gets a huge advantage but somehow lets Sergey tradeoff the last pair of rooks into a dead draw [then loss].

Duda can beat Magnus though. And if he doesn't, winning 3rd gets him into Candidates.

Yeah, Shanky.

Duda has a great chance at the candidates. There are 2 spots for the 3 semi-finalists not named Magnus.

Always root for Shank...they guys works his ass off. How can you not like a guy who describes himself as "essentially a 2700 player with no talent."

Was frustrating for Shankland, it's like what the hell more do you have to do, to beat these guys like Karjakin. Great run for him though.

As I suspected, Duda beat Magnus, great job by him and Karjakin into the Candidates.

Kinda miss the days of Interzonals though!

http://chess-results.com/tnr570470.a...=11&turdet=YES

I am still capable of winning some chess tournament, who could have thought?!