All Questions

I just read this question and it made me wonder: when setting up such a game/comparison - shouldn't you try to level the computing capacity field? Or at least limit how much energy each "player" is ...

CL&R had an article about how Fischer trained at a spa in the adirondacks for an upcoming match. One thing he did was swim and also hold his breath for as long as he could. Not sure that ...

In the 50s Eliot Hearst printed the results of a study in "Chess Life and Review" (A private publication by I A Horowitz editor later merged into the USCF's monthly magazine, and later renamed "Chess ...

I found three different questions here on SEC that asked what Stockfish 8's rating was for the match against AlphaZero, but none that asked what AlphaZero's rating should have been after (if it had ...

[FEN ""] 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 c5 What's the refutation of Black's unusual third move, or anyway the best way to play against it? Which is stronger, the Open Variation 4. d4 cxd4 5. Bxf4, or the ...

Essentially I'm just trying to create a somewhat efficient chess ai using an Alpha Beta Pruning approach for a future neural network to train against. I know I could use an existing program but this ...

I [kasparov] can look at AlphaZero’s games and understand the potential weaknesses. And I believe it has made some inaccurate evaluations, which is natural. The reason he says that is alphazero ...

Games with two en passants in them are are uncommon, and games with three are exceeding rare, and four has never been achieved as far as I know. I only know of four games with three en passant ...

Wired magazine recently said Most remarkably, AlphaZero uncovered new approaches to the game that dazzled chess experts. Just what was unique about alpha zero that was so dazzline?

The setup is ChessBase 15 with the mega database 2020. I look in it for the Najdorf starting position [FEN "rnbqkb1r/1p2pppp/p2p1n2/8/3NP3/2N5/PPP2PPP/R1BQKB1R w KQkq - 0 1"] as follows : I double ...

I want to implement a handicap for my engine and Im struggling with it. I using alpha-beta pruning. In my current approach I set a variance variable in centipawns and let the engine choose a move in ...

According to Wikipedia, one of the conditions of Castling is: The king and the rook must be on the same rank (Schiller 2003:19). It's because Without this additional restriction, it would be ...

I'm currently trying to determine if a player on average plays more aggressive or defensive games. To do this I wanted to look at a game from that player, then average the amount of aggressive moves ...

London System is an opening for white, that goes d4, Bf4, e3, Nf3, Nd2, c3. The move order generally doesn't matter too much and there are lots of ways to transpose into this. However, what I want to ...

I am about to play a master. That is an important game, and I want to win that game. What should I do and how to prepare? Is there something special I can do, like special opening, sharp lines,...

I want to make a Twitch stream channel with my friend, and I want to know what the experience is like. Can explain it better to me or share their knowledge and experience?

Are there examples of chess games where the exact losing move has been found only with the help of engines? Better still, games where the exact losing move cannot be found even by the best current ...

What are some examples chess moves that seem to be "weak" only because they seem to be refuted by sacrificial maneuvers lengthy and practically impossible to thoroughly calculate? The context can be ...

Recently when I was on Lichess, somebody pointed out in chat that Stockfish calculated advantage based on what it considered as the best move for both sides. However, when we play the best moves (...

I read that during Kasparov's long chess career he always avoided the Marshall attack with Anti-marshalls(h3 and a4). This seems very counter-intuitive to me since the positions that arise from the ...

Descriptive notation seems to be limited to certain languages like English, and I found a Wikipedia article that mentions Spanish and French. I have never seen a Russian book that uses Descriptive, ...

I have heard many people saying, “Hah! I beat Stockfish,” and one saying, “I am the best chess player ever! I beat Stockfish.” So I wonder if it is possible, just to know whether I should try to beat ...

What studies have compared effectiveness for thinking by chessplayers using descriptive vs algebraic notation?

Is calling moves by initial letters better for calculating? By better, I mean saying Qe5 in your mind, instead thinking of Queen to e5, for one example. This is not that much of a subjective question ...

Capturing an enemy piece while castling has been illegal for many decades, and the concept has been solidified in chess history. But what effects would it have if it were allowed? First, some ground ...

[FEN ""] [startply "5"] 1. d4 e5 2. dxe5 Qh4 3. Nf3 I reached this position after following the line for the Englund Gambit. Lichess says that this is known as the Mosquito Gambit. Is it a joke ...

One of the most interesting openings, in my opinion, is the Kings Indian Defense (KID). 2-4 decades ago it used to be very popular at the top level with Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov using it ...

Sometimes I see a move or serial of moves described as "artificial" What does this mean? Here is one example, comments by Kasparov on move 10. ..cxd4. Taken from "Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov, ...

I need help clarifying the abbreviations and acronyms used in endgame tablebases. Just what do DTM, DTZ, DTC, DTR, DTZ50, DTZR mean?

When my opponent makes a draw offer, I will consider whether to accept this draw offer or not and this consideration could take very long, say 20 minutes or more. What is a good etiquette now to ...

If I understand correctly, once player A makes a draw offer, the opponent player B retains the right to accept the draw offer as long as player B does not rejected it verbally, or touch a piece with ...

In recording a game, one typically does not record offering draws (if yes, how and is it required?) while one does indicate that a particular move gives a check by using + (or ++ for double checks). ...

I have the megadatabase 2020 from chessbase and chessbase 15. I am using chessbase 15 to search the megadatabase 2020, my seach criterion being all games ended through a KPvK (king and pawn vs king) ...

When defending against 1. e4, I'm a French Defense player. I enjoy the French Defense very much, and my win rate with it is fairly good. Lately, though, I've been wanting to explore new defenses, only ...

What is the name of the chess piece in a variant game where there is a piece that moves like the queen AND a knight? Is there a name for this variant?

I occasionally think it might be fun to play a chess variant that is exactly the same as regular chess, except that it is permitted to capture your own pieces as well as your opponent's pieces - so, ...

If your time is up on a timed game, but your oponnent has only a king, the game is drawn. Does this rule apply to online correspondence games?

I know that the great Judit Polgar defeated Kasparov, but he was no longer World Champion at that point. She defeated Anand, but he was not yet World Champion at that point. She defeated Kasimdzhanov, ...

I know this is very basic question, but I just started playing and want to know. How do you set up king and queen the right way? Heading I generally get confused between the King and Queen and what ...

My last serious attempt to get into chess ran into a basic difficulty with the program: with a bit of work, I got to a point where I could beat difficulty 1 or 2 on a scale of 10, but got consistently ...

I currently have a function which returns the closed off squares for a piece in a particular position based on pieces blocking it. This function iterates over the rays of a piece and is sufficiently ...

[White "White (to move)"] [Black "Black"] [FEN "rnq1kb1r/ppp3pp/4pn2/4N3/2QP4/2N2P2/PPP3PP/R1B1K2R w KQ - 0 13"] In this position, White can still castle, but Black cannot (having moved the king ...

This is my first post on this forum, and bear in mind that I'm new to chess notation in English and never have read or heard chess commentary in the broadcast or publication. I'm trying to decipher ...

I am on a path to improve my chess and as of now I have phased it out to tactics endgames Tactics I can say with confidence I had good improvement in the last 8 months or so. About endgame, I kind ...

[Site "Valencia"] [Date "1475"] [White "Franci de Castellvi"] [Black "Narcis Vinyoles"] [Result "1-0"] [startply "36"] [FEN ""] 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd8 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. Nf3 Bg4 6. h3 ...

Feel free to share more than one book. I'm very interested in understanding better those preparatory moves.

Hello fellow chess players, I´ve recently returned to the learning of this game and as I forgot several ideas on deep mechanics, I read (again) My System , from Nimzowitsch and found it very useful ...

Why does Black take the knight on d5 on his 9th move instead of saving the Queen by moving to a4? Is it because then on the next move white plays Nxc7+ followed by NxR?

On various occasions in commentaries or interviews, e.g. during the World Championship commentary with Peter Svidler and Anish Giri, I've heard the Dorfman method being mentioned. I then learned that ...

all. My name is Roman Vincze. I play chess (https://ratings.fide.com/profile/324906) and I'm also a programmer. As for tournaments with swiss system, all computer programs are paid. That's why I ...