All Questions

What will happen if you have a position where no one can lose? Here is my game I know it is live960 but I was wondering the outcome for a standard format chess game will it be draw because no one can ...

I'm familiar with the technique of drawing this endgame with White: [fen "8/R4pk1/6p1/7p/7P/6P1/p4PK1/r7 w - - 0 1"] However, I faced an endgame yesterday that's objectively a draw, but ...

Can you place the eight (non-pawn) pieces of one color on an otherwise empty chess board, such that every square (including the squares that pieces are on), is attacked / defended? This is a problem ...

My son is learning chess, some friends/teachers recommended these books: Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games by Bruce Pandolfini and László Polgár -- he is now at problem 340, still early in ...

Are there any open-source chess engines that are written in primarily or fully in python? For example, Stockfish is written in primarily C++.

Many topics ask about Fischer's demands in the 1975 World Chess Championship between him and Karpov, but I've never found the reason Fischer made these demands. In particular: If the result is 9-9, ...

For some reason, my friend believes that the format of the World Chess Championship is made in such a way with the purpose of increasing the amount of errors by the players. Is there any trutto this ...

There are a lot of fake AlphaZero projects on GitHub. While I was googling if it was open-source, the answer in most places is yes, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Is there a link to where the code ...

Game 6 in the world championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi ran for 7 hours and 45 minutes. Apparently the players did not eat during that time. Chessbase India reports: ...

Recently, Andrea Botez asks world chess champion Magnus Carlsen 'How does the knight move?' in a press conference after a game in the 2021 World Chess Championship. It seems like such an obvious ...

After 8 moves in today's game between Carlsen and Nepomniatchi this position was reached: [fen "r2qk2r/pppb1ppp/3b4/3p4/3P4/3B4/PPPB1PPP/R2QK2R w - - 0 1"] The position is perfectly ...

As is well known, neither the 0-ply game, the starting state, nor 1-ply games, all of white's first moves, have rigorously proven outcomes. Not even first moves for white considered very bad (1. g4) ...

I was playing a game against one of the chess.com bots, as shown below (I was playing as white). On analysing the game afterwards, I'm aware I made a lot of mistakes, but the one I'm really confused ...

In Why did Magnus Carlsen drop out of World Championship in 2011? we see magnus said After careful consideration I’ve reached the conclusion that the ongoing 2008–2012 cycle does not represent a ...

In game 6 of the World Championship 2021 between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi, before Qe6 the engine says +0.9 at around depth 30/99, but I heard supposedly it's a (theoretical) draw. I know ...

Danger! Only for math buffs! As we all know, Elo is Gaussian. In theory. Except it isn't. But my question is not about that distribution. Your Elo might also list a second number: the number of ...

Quote: 'all rook endgames are drawn', 'All rook endings are drawn' or 'All rook and pawn endings are drawn.' For queen endgames, Karsten Müller even gives a way of visualising this (not quite Karsten ...

Suppose 2 positions both have 'equal' evaluations according to the engine, but the first position has strong, easy-to-spot moves which lead to a drawn endgame, whereas the second game is extremely ...

Quote: 'all rook endgames are drawn', 'All rook endings are drawn' or 'All rook and pawn endings are drawn.' For queen endgames, Karsten Müller even gives a way of visualising this (not quite Karsten ...

Can you recommend best chess apps for preparing openings? It is weakest part of my game and soon I will be playing my first local chess turnament. It would meant a lot to me! Also, can you give me ...

I have read other questions like this and I find people responding "just doing tactics is less effort and helps more". But personally, I find it really easy to memorise things, so I'm ...

I remember seeing a video a while back, which introduces this sub-variation to spice things up and to surprise black when they expect a dull draw game. I don't think it has a name, and I can't quite ...

Was there too much fuss about a possibile 20 c4 by Nepomniatchi in Game 5? After all , even after c4 , Stockfish 14 dev depth = 62 evaluates the position as +0.47 , that means a nearly certain draw. ...

I just failed a puzzle at chess.com, despite being 2 moves away from check mate. I am quite sure that there is no move I could have made to get check mate in 1 move, so I am wondering how I failed. I ...

4...O-O followed by 6...Ne8!? is a popular line in the f3 Nimzo at master level, but I'm still struggling to understand why it's played. [FEN ""] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 O-O 5.a3 ...

There's an ongoing trend towards building 'Explainable' AI so that not just the results of a decision process are generated, but also some form of human-readable explanation for it. The Wikipedia ...

This question is directed to the experienced ICCF players. My question is basically what is the input that the human player has into the game. I was just wondering because with the use opening books, ...

At the top levels of chess the identity of the coach/assistant is sometimes kept secret. What are the advantage(s) of this? I found: That mystery [second] turned out to be the intensely creative ...

In the game 2 of the current World Championship Series, the FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich made the inaugural move, which differed from what Carlsen wanted the move to be. How does this exactly ...

I'm interested in books covering the major chess tournaments between 1880 and 1930, roughly speaking. I would prefer the official tournament books, like this one, but translated in English. Can I buy ...

I can't see the difference between a waiting move and zugzwang.

What will happen if all the games in the World Chess Championship are draws? Who will be considered the world champion?

I have noticed a gap in the PGN spec and the Laws of Chess in section 6.2.2 The time saved by a player during one period is added to his time available for the next period, except in the ‘time delay’ ...

On most websites, such as chess.com and lichess.org, computers aren't allowed, but when playing under ICCF rules engines are allowed. With the increase in strength of engines especially from the ...

I’m reading a book saying that now black Knight at b4 is under attack so need move away. However Stockfish app suggests take the white c3 Knight first using f6 Bishop , then black will Rcxc3 take the ...

In the press conference (at about 44:20) of World Chess Championship, Maurice Ashley invites Nepo and Carlsen to take a photo with the trophy but Carlsen says that he finds it inappropriate. Why is ...

Did Geller resign in a drawn position vs Spassky in 1959 ? Or could White win ? The famous controversial position is the following : [FEN "6k1/6p1/7p/7P/2q1B1P1/Kp3P2/1B6/2N5 b - - 0 1"] ...

Since castling involves one player moving two pieces in one move, was AlphaZero just given this move, in the same way it was told that players take turns and a win is better than a loss? In other ...

Do professional online players always prefer to play on a chessboard oriented with the Black pieces on the top or with their own pieces on the bottom? Is there a consensus on this, and has there ever ...

I get that from the point of view of the engine there's no difference; equal is equal. But for a human analyzing with an engine, I find quite important to note that a move takes to a balanced position ...

In the following Ruy Lopez opening; [FEN ""] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 (5... Nxe4) Now the question, instead of Be7 why does Black not play Nxe4 as e4 is not defended? ...

Firouzja has just scored 8/9 against opposition with an average rating of 2664 - 7 wins and 2 draws. According to the video clip in this tweet his performance rating was 3017. According to chess-...

This has been a problem that has been vexing me for a while, and it manifested again in my most recent game in which I played Black: [FEN ""] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 e6 5. Bg5 ...

I would like to know what this opening is called, if someone has made a bad move, and who stands better. Finally if this opening is played by grandmasters here.

Given the existence of the (optional) 50-move rule and the (mandatory) 75-move rule, are the (optional) threefold-repetition rule and the (mandatory) fivefold-repetition strictly necessary? Do the ...

Easy one: Starting position, but Black never moves. White makes n moves (no checking!) until Black is stalemated. Minimize n. Hint: You don't need to capture all Black pieces, pawns can also be ...

Question: On average, how many pawns are there at the start of the endgame? To answer: You can choose your definition of the endgame as long as you can show a credible reference that supports your ...

Position that follows is from Anna Rudolf's video 'Challenging Top Chess Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura for a Choker Match!': [FEN "8/5p2/8/2qkp3/4R1P1/5P2/3KP3/8 b - - 0 1"] Also, here's a ...

From Lichess page 'Chess rating systems': Which rating system is best? The purpose of rating systems is to predict the outcome of games. Therefore, they can be objectively better or worse, according ...

What lichess and chess.com setups are the most similar to the board theme and pieces of chessgames.com? I love their setup and I'm feeling the most comfortable with it.