All Questions

There are 10 games in my database with this variation played on a high level and the White score is +6-2=2, almost always White is the elo-wise weaker player. The highest rated White player to employ ...

I seem to keep losing games as white in this opening. What systems is good for white and what are the developing ideas before the middlegame for white after 4. dxc5? [FEN ""] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 ...

The position in question is [FEN ""] [StartPly "13"] 1. d4 c5 2. Nf3 cxd4 3. Nxd4 Nc6 4. Nc3 e5 5. Ndb5 Bb4 6. Bg5 Bxc3+ 7. bxc3 Qa5 8. Qd5 Nge7 9. Nd6+ Kf8 10. Qxf7# 1-0 It's black turn and the ...

I am teaching a youngster how to play chess, remotely. I've seen suggestions to start with pawn-only chess, where we start with the initial setup for all 16 pawns, but no other pieces on the board. ...

There are some subtle differences in the rules of chess used in different un/rated competitions. For example, chess.com never considers King + Bishop sufficient mating material. Do all national ...

I am currently rated 1850. My coach tells me that in order to get better at my game, I should ''analyze grandmaster' games''. On the surface, I understand that he wants me to learn from great players' ...

As black I reached this position in a recent game [White "Somebody"] [Black "Ian Bush"] [Result "*"] [ECO "B07"] [FEN ""] [StartPly "23"] 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Be3 c6 5.f3 b5 6.a3 Nbd7 7.Bd3 ...

Is the number of legal chess positions odd or even? Two positions are not the same if they differ in castling rights (i.e. whether K or R have actually moved) or en passant capability (i.e. whether ...

From the game Samuel Reshevsky vs Henrique Mecking in the Sousse Interzonal (1967). [fen "r2qnr2/1pnb1pbk/3p2pp/p1pPp3/2P1P2N/PPN1B1PP/3Q1P2/1R2RBK1 w - - 0 1"] 1.Na4 Na6 2. Rec1 Rb8 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Qb2 ...

A famous recent example of this ending happened last year between Carlsen and Firouzja. Here, Firouzja time ran out, so Carlsen won [Title "Alireza Firouzja-Magnus Carlsen, World Blitz Championship,...

Why we often see many pawn moves in the Sicilian Defense? I would imagine that this harms the development of the black pieces. For instance, there is this line: [FEN ""] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 a6 ...

[FEN ""] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 e5 4. Nxe5 c5 5. d5 f6 6. Nxc4 b5 7. Nca3 c4 8. Nxb5 Qa5+ 9. N1c3 Bb4 10. Nd4 Bxc3+ 11. Bd2 Bxd2+ 12. Qxd2 Qxd5 13. Rc1 Nh6 14. b3 Nf5 15. bxc4 Qxd4 16. Qxd4 Nxd4 ...

In Bughouse chess can you make a triple occurrence draw claim if the position on the board has been repeated three times but the pieces available to the players to place were different each time?

Recently, I have been very attracted to the French defense, as I feel as though it is perfect for my style. However, I am aware that the French is highly theoretical, which is why I need a good, ...

Please analyze and comment about this game I played as an anonymous uer. I played the Polerio Gambit in the game. I would also like remarks about the Polerio Gambit (1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. d4) as ...

This has been bothering me from when I was little. Why are openings most commonly named after a country? For example: Sicilian, Scotch, Spanish, etc...

I started analysing my games as a means to improvement. I am trying to form my own opinion without looking at the engine that much, as I can't rely on it while analysing a position in game. I really ...

"How to win in the chess openings" by I.A. Horowitz states, regarding the Réti opening, that "there is no known way which leads to an advantage for white" which leads to the conclusion that it should ...

I am currently twenty years old. I learned the rules of chess when I was eight and played on and off for a long time. However, I did not take it seriously. Recently after joining chess.com and trying ...

I'm teaching my 5 year old daughter basic chess. While she's kind of interested, I feel the material, such as how the pieces move, mate in 1 puzzles, basic KQ and KR checkmates, etc, is a bit boring ...

Which endgame manual do you recommend and why? • Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual • Fundamental Chess Endings (Muller & Lamprecht) • Silman's Complete Endgame Course • Some other book I am ...

While doing my spring cleaning, I came across an old book claiming to give a good opening chance for black. It's called the "Barcza-Larsen opening" and it is characterized by 2 .. c5: [fen ""] 1. e4 ...

For instance if I analyze a game played in blitz, move by move, between two 2600s, should I expect the moves to be of the same quality as the moves between two 2600s in classical? Or would worse play ...

The purpose of this query is to discuss a topic that I am totally ignorant of, rather than pose one specific question. Although such a query does invite opinions based on intuition, I am also ...

When I started playing chess I picked 3 openings (Queens Gambit as white, Caro-Kann and QGD as black) and pretty much stopped studying the openings to focus on endgames and middlegames. Some months ...

At 0:55 in this video, Youtuber agadmator claims Anish Giri played the Evans Gambit in the Italian Game: [fen ""] [Black "Anish Giri"] [White "Kirill Alekseenko"] [Event "Candidates 2020 (Joke Line)"]...

The variation is almost forced if White aims for the standard Smith-Morra setup. At the end White is a pawn down and no longer has two bishops, but is well developed. However Black's setup does not ...

Usually one-move checkmate puzzles are easy. However, I am wondering if there is a relatively more difficult one-move checkmate puzzle. Here are a few thoughts: There are many legal moves. One or ...

In the game of Carlsen vs Navara Biel Chess 2018, on move 7 why did Carlsen play e3 instead of playing Qa4+ and taking that hanging bishop?

Given that in GM Simon William's book The Killer Dutch, Williams says that the Sicilian and the Dutch are mirror images of each other, as Williams states "If you look at the first move, you can see ...

I lost this game and I am not looking for a computer analysis, but what approach should I have taken instead? The game continued 1. Rxd4 Rb7 2. Rxc4 dxc4 3. a4 b4 4. Bd4 Rd7 5. Bb6 c3 6. Rb1 Rd5 7. ...

I read about Looking for Magics for Magic Bitboard, they mentioned the method "Feeding in Randoms". As I understand, this method works like this: label RETRY; magic = random();//trial for (all ...

I am actually drilling methodically several lines (1...e5 and 1...e6 2...d5 but the question won't depend on that) of the english opening, using ChessBase 15 fast reference search. The qualifier "...

I've been letting the engine analyze a position at depth D, then making the player's move and letting the engine analyze the resulting position at the same depth D, and then taking the difference ...

My 5-year-old old daughter very often forgets which direction a pawn is moving. This is confusing especially at endgame studies. I use a marker pen to draw two eyes on the pawns so that her pawns are ...

I know openings often tend not to be busted, and I'm obviously not really suggesting that the Bogo is busted. But I recently played a Bogo-Indian where I just couldn't find any follow up quite early ...

Does anyone know of an engine that gives "sub-scores" (e.g., for material, king safety, space, activity) in addition to its total evaluation? Lots of people have wished over the years that engines ...

I played a player ranked about 450 points higher, and I was out-played. I managed to give a fight but was trailing all along. The player used the English opening and on third move I (black) played c5....

I often go from winning positions to losing positions. What could I do to stop doing this? For an example, take a look at this games of in which I played as Black. [FEN ""] 1. e4 {0} 1... e5 {4} 2....

I want to setup positions for my grandsons to show different tactics and print them. Lichess is excellent except that it won't print the pieces on the board. Any suggestions?

I have been working on a checkmate-in-3 puzzle for a long time. So long that I am becoming convinced it is not solvable. Is there a way to prove it is not solvable? I want to avoid putting the ...

[FEN ""] [Event "Rated Correspondence game"] [Site "https://lichess.org/GILERcIS"] [Date "2020.02.26"] [Round "-"] [White "mathwhiz16"] [Black "theMortician"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [UTCDate "2020.02.26"] ...

I often wonder if it is better to resign or keep playing at a disadvantage after making an obvious blunder (for instance, leaving a piece hanging, only to realize too late that you made the mistake). ...

I have used Chess Position Trainer for years. I now only play "postal" chess and no longer memorize openings. Also chess position trainer is the only application I have the requires windows and I ...

So I'm an (unranked, but ~1500 on lichess) amateur who's been working on developing my opening strategy for some time, and I've basically been using the King's Gambit for a variety of reasons: It is ...

So I've been looking at the "Game of the Century" between Bobby Fischer and Donald Byrne. There's something I can't get over. In move 18, that queen is tempting, but there's also a knight on c3 that ...

In the position at 15:29 of this video, what are some possible variations the line starting with the move 12...Qe5 that lead to an advantage for white? [FEN ""] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. ...

I am looking for chess freeware that ideally has the following facilities, and I am wondering what compromises I'll need to accept. I am also requesting the results of your experiences. List Of Needs ...

In the position at 14:28 of this video, why can't black just make the move f6? I wish to know as it was stated in the video that black will lose the other rook. [FEN "2k3r1/ppp1qpPp/2n1b3/2b3B1/...

[FEN "r3kb1r/ppqn1ppp/2p1pn2/4Nb2/2BP4/2N5/PPPBQPPP/2KR3R b kq - 0 10"] This position is taken from super GM game, so I am fully aware that Black might be busted here and that this question might ...