Yes, exactly, lol.

Pretty funny video.

Rei, cool game, but I think what you're actually looking for would involve a lot more king moves. I'm working on it now, with an engine in infinite analysis mode and multi-pv set high enough to always show an eval for every legal move. It's slow going though. Black has quickly achieved a position bad enough that white's worst move just restores equality, and then black does something else dumb. Game so far:

1. g4 f5 2. f3 g5 3. f4 Kf7 4. Bh3 Ke6 5. Kf2 Kd5

I'm expecting Ke3 next, but the analysis is still running (multi-pv mode slows the engine down massively when you set it at 60, lol)

Was proud of getting this one (white to move) in 2:27 until I saw that the average blitz time was 1:20.

Looking for some low-content help with the King's Indian. What's the right plan for White if Black adopts an early b6/a5 strategy, e.g.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.Nc3 0-0 5.e4 d6 6.Be2 Nc6 7.0-0 e5 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Nd7 10.Nd3 b6

Black can continue with a5, Nc5--what's the idea here? Take on c5/play for b4, or move to the kingside?

probably ask to restart the game and play e4 instead.

There seem to be a bunch of posts missing. What happened to the one where someone played a full game of worst eval chess?

I put the position after 10. Nd3 into Chessbase and filtered the results to have both players rated 2500 or higher. The position has occured 104 times, with 103 of those continuing with 10...f5 and just 1 continuing 10...a5. In that one game, after black played 10...a5, he continued with f5 and then brought the knight back to f6. Based on these statistics, black's setup must not be too promising.

In a general sense, you can see why. That knight is usually very effective going from f6 to h5, and by spending a few moves to bring it to the queenside, I think black is depriving himself of some kingside play. The lone remaining knight on e7 is much more awkward. I think essentially what black is doing is trying to slow down white's queenside play, but at the same time is taking the sting out of his own kingside potential. Assuming the game continues naturally with something like 10. Nd3 b6 11. f3 a5 12. Be3 Nc5 13. Nxc5 bxc5, white seems to be doing fine. We're playing a KID where by move 13 black has taken a few moves to trade off a normally good attacking piece and hasn't even tried to push f5 yet. I sort of like the idea of playing for a3 and b4 and just blasting things open. It seems particularly annoying for black because white has the b5 square to constantly pressure c7, which looks awfully weak.

Cliff's notes: I'd probably just forge ahead with queenside play because black hasn't gotten going yet on the kingside.

That was posted in the BBV thread. Thanks for putting that game together, BJJ.

Yeah, I might have forgotten which thread we'd been discussing the "worst eval" game in, and posted results in the wrong place - then been too lazy to move and/or repost it here.

Thanks, Tex.

OK, that all makes sense, but I wasn't sure whether White should expect more (as I did). In my view, Black should avoid (or delay) f5 here--it's too slow now--but moves like c6 (dreaming of a knight on d4: Nxc6-d4, or exchanging knights on d5), and meeting a3 with a4 seem OK. If White starts to take time for things like 14.b3...Black can probably even get in f5-f4 before trying to coordinate a queenside defense.

(This was from a recent game of mine--eventually Black did play f5 which was tactically unjustified, but had he avoided that, he could have secured a reasonable position against some imprecise play by me--such as Bd2 instead of Be3 which diminished my pressure on the d-file. I was playing for a quick b4.)

Yeah I would play 11.b4 if Black goes 11...a5, 12.bxa5 Rxa5 Bd2 and Nb5 followed by a4-a5 - it looks pleasant for White.

In general I think the move b6 is not very good. It helps White's attack and doesn't contribute to Black's Kingside play.

Thanks. Yeah...the idea is not great for Black, but somehow not as bad as I thought.

The immediate b4 is an interesting suggestion. I wonder whether this is fast enough (e.g. maybe Black can get in f5 now, since White's play with c5 will be slower). Hard for me to say without a lot of concrete analysis...

Correct, I am very very far from 2500 but playing the KID as black is all about the kingside attack the vast majority of the time. b6 just doesn't fit. You can play an ...a5 to prevent immediate b4 but that's different.

Random questions regarding OTB play:

- I understand you're supposed to use the same hand to move the pieces and hit the clock. How about writing the moves? Could you play with one hand while writing the moves with the other?

- Is there a correct order of action when promoting, like, when castling, moving the king first, then the rook?

1) There's no rule, but everyone I know uses their writing hand for moving the pieces and pushing the clock.

2) You have to move the King first then the rook, and both using the same hand. If you move the rook first you can technically be forced to make a rook move under the "touch move" rule.

Oops I misread your second question - when promoting, I think the correct procedure is to push the pawn to the last rank, then replace it with the promoted piece. If the promoted piece is not available you have to call the arbiter.

Most of the time, players will just put the new queen on the 8th rank and remove the pawn from the 7th. If there is no Queen available often players will use an upside down rook. Technically these are both violations of proper protocol, but I've never seen it become an issue in a tournament game.

The most important procedural thing to know is when claiming a draw by repetition you have to stop the clock without making a move on the board - if your claim is that the next move by you will create a triple repetition, you need to write the intended move on your scorecard without playing it on the board. If the opponent does not agree to a draw, you need to ask the arbiter to determine if the position was actually repeated three times.

you don't actually have to ask your opponent for a draw. if you just claim one to the director, the first thing the director is going to do is say "a claim is first and foremost a draw offer, do you accept" to your opponent.

of course, offering it to your opponent will hopefully bypass the arbitration process altogether.

I have a question about queening a pawn. If you move your pawn to the 8th rank, without saying anything, and the opponent makes a move, have you foregone your ability to Queen that pawn?

The reason I ask is my wife did this and I playfully told her it was too late to request the Queen after I moved. She said I was supposed to put the queen there for her and I said that's not true, since you can pick a Knight or some other piece and you have to specify. Of course I put a queen there for her but I'm honestly curious.

Promotion is obligatory.

FIDE rules:

Wiki entry:

Moreover, it's an illegal move--different rulesets treat that differently, but in FIDE's case:

Basically, the other player moved too soon. The promoter hadn't finished their move by selecting their piece for promotion.

I beat Houdini in a 15-minute game!

It was restricted to three-ply search depth, though.

I was playing as Black.

Turns out I allowed a draw in the ending--36...a4?? allows 37. c4. But it re-blundered.

What is Houdini? I keep hearing about it but as a total noob to the Chess World, don't really know what it is or how you get it or get to play it. Is it basically a high-powered chess computer software you have to buy?