This move order has merit because White can still transpose to a London system.

A fun book by GM Soltis is Transpo Tricks in Chess (5 stars on Amazon).

https://www.amazon.com/Transpo-Trick.../dp/0713490519

I feel like I'm stuck in a rut in development.

According to my records, I'm much better as Black than I am as White. I feel like their goals in the early/mid game are different. I'm much better at developing pieces, playing closed games, and getting early king safety and reacting to what's there.

But as White, I just develop pieces to useful squares with no idea of an overall plan or attack. Lose The Initiative, and crumble. Alphazero unequivocally proved that being White is better than Black, so I feel like I must be missing something really important here.

What are some of your best successful chess books, and what am I missing?

Angleshooting by Inarkiev and amazingly bad arbitrating in the blitz. Head arbiter currently reading out loud from the arbiters guide...

Edit: Situation: Carlsen vs Inarkiev in the blitz - Carlsen checks Inarkiev - Inarkiev doesn't move out of check but instead checks Magnus with his knight. Magnus moves his king. Inarkiev stops the clock and claims the win because he was the one to point out the "illegal position". Table arbiter agrees with Inarkiev... half an hour of arbiters running around and discussing and arguing.

Head arbiter initially agrees with the table arbiter but finally comes to his senses and decides the game should be restarted from where the first illegal move was made, which makes Inarkiev start quarreling to back up his angleshooting (he was in a clearly lost situation).

I don't have much advise, but a little issue with this statement:

It will be unequivocally proven whether or not white is better on the day chess is solved, which neither one of us, nor our great-grand children will witness.

FIDE sucks.

News at 11.

I enjoy chess.

"Always check, it might be missed" -- Ernesto Inarkiev

Lol

this is good, thanks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhrvwHrceRg

i assume these puzzles at the end are rehearsed. is the last one (right near the end of the video) famous? if this were for real, i can't imagine him getting it that quickly.

Anyone know if the top GM's lose to the strongest engines with long time settings like FIDE classical or World Chess Championship classical? Am I correct in thinking as the time increases, Stockfish's edge decreases?

A0 didn't come remotely close to proving that. But also, Chess is almost definitely a draw with flawless play from both sides, so the only way White might be "better" is if less skill is required to achieve a draw with White.

Top GMs have absolutely no chance against strong engines at any time control, they can certainly draw some games but would ~never win. Humans do fare better against engines at longer time controls.

Anyone notice that Stockfish, when castled kingside, has a tendency to like Kh1/Kh8 in the middle game (maybe early-ish)? Do you tend to find Kh8 logical in those spots, or is it just a quirk of Stockfish and there's usually a better, active move to be found? I don't have an example in front of me unfortunately, but next time it comes up I'll post it. I think I'm aware of the move's benefits in general, but those benefits seem irrelevant in some of these positions (the kingside already looks safe, there's no enemy Q/R on the G file and nothing attacking the g2/g7 square).

I am not familiar with Stockfish. I thought in general Kh1/Kh8 is mostly done to be able to move the f pawn without exposing the king to checks on the diagonal.

Those moves can have a number of reasons and are entirely dependent on the specific position.

I recently heard someone say (not 100% sure but I think it was Yasser Seirawan in one of the Saint Louis broadcasts) that when your strong GM opponent attacks you and, in the middle of a super sharp and tactical line, plays a quiet king move, it's time to **** your pants (paraphrasing, ldo). obviously stockfish is capable of such moves maybe more than any chess playing entity on the planet bar any of the other top-three engines and AlphaZero.

For example 12-13 or even more ply down the line there might exist a check your opponent could play that would throw a wrench in your attack, and a ~perfect tactician spots it and also notices that it's ok to spend one tempo now, and still have a winning attack next move.

I was at a bar in Bondi beach the other day and saw a guy playing chess on his phone he was ~700 so I went over and explained I was actually in Sydney for the Australian chess championships. I ended up helping this guy crush all his opponents and he bought me a drink plus showed me around all the best spots with his local knowledge the next night when I ran in to him out again

Giri beat Kramnik today to go 2-0 so far in Wijk aan Zee

https://www.chess.com/news/view/giri...n-wijk-aan-zee

ive been doing lots of tactics but this is the first time one of these popped up

https://lichess.org/training/62150

Hey all, I made a group on lichess for the POG forum but anyone is welcome to join.

https://lichess.org/team/pog-chess-group

If anyone is looking for someone to play games against and discuss/analyze afterwards you could join. I am still pretty new at this (1300 rapid/1600 blitz) but hopefully we can have people from a wide range of skill levels

i'm not great and i may end up never using it, but i joined

i'm on a weird timezone and a lot of my play is on ipad/iphone. the app is great but not sure of its support for groups. i am occasionally on the pc tho.

this should be 1600 classical btw

i wish i was even close to 1600 blitz

I just submitted my "ask" to join.

I also sent a request.

So when I'm playing blitz I like to play interesting openings because I want to be entertained, what's the best move when they play anti fried liver stuff like e4 e5 nf3 nc6 bc4 h6?

Play the Latvian instead: e4 e5 Nf3 f5. It's awful, you'll love it.