Questions tagged [theory]
Theory commonly refers to the erudite study and the philosophy behind the moves in chess (like the opening or endgame theory), but this tag can also be used for questions about the theoretic study of the game itself.
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What does columns 1-24 mean?
I was reading Modern Chess Openings by Nick de Firmian, and found "columns 1-24 deals with 2...exf4 " in relation to a theory table. So what does "columns 1-24" mean?
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How did chess change over the 2010s and should I keep anything in mind for buying books from before 2010?
I presume I am being overly paranoid regarding this, and I definitely don't intend to turn away from older books at all, but were there any developments opening-wise, middlegame-wise, or endgame-wise ...
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Why reaching expert level is hard? [closed]
I was looking at the rating chart of Magnus Carlsen here's what I found:
He learned chess at age of five(1995),
On April 2001 his rating was 2064.Which means it took the best player in the world 6 ...
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How to avoid falling into unfamiliar traps in the opening stage?
I will be playing with a player in a few days and his level (1400ish) is slightly lower than mine (1500ish). However, he is very familiar with dubious gambits and opening traps and I can easily lose ...
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What openings can I play against most openings?
I'm looking for a "universal" opening. One example is the King's Indian, which you can play against e4, d4, and several other openings. What other openings, for Black or White, can be played ...
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Number of distinct checkmate positions
What is the number of distinct checkmate positions in each of the following categories given the following conditions?
We are not interested in whether the position can be forced or not or even what ...
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How many games of optimal chess are there?
Assume that we have weakly solved chess, in the sense that we have an algorithm that when used, allows us to force a win if possible, and if that is not possible, force a draw. Define a ply as optimal ...
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How many sensible games of chess are there?
Analytic procedures for estimating the number of possible games of chess typically reason that on each ply, a player has some limited number of sensible options, O, and the average game of chess lasts ...
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Which line(s) pose Black problem(s) in the King's Indian defense on the highest level of competition?
King's Indian defense is rarely seen in the highest level these days.
Queen's gambit declined took over for now.
I am trying to find out if there are any lines that put so much pressure on Black that ...
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How good is 1. e3 2. c4 as an opening for White?
How good is 1. e3 2. c4 as an opening for White? Afterward, developing the knight on b1 to c3, and developing the bishops too, it seems good. Castling is preferably done on opposite sides as well.
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Does anybody knows about how the Polgar sisters were trained?
I know they did a lot of hardwork and stuff like that but i just want to know what exactly process did they went through(books,how did they practice,etc),is there any biography on them?cause I just ...
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What is meant by openings with lot of theory versus those with little or none?
I just started playing chess one week ago. I've done a bit of reading but can't find anything that explains what is meant by openings with a lot of theory versus ones with a little or no theory. Can ...
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Why are retreating moves unintuitive?
I've heard IM and GM commentators on chess tournaments, from the Opera Euro Rapid to PogChamps 3, suggest that retreating moves, such as backwards knight and bishop moves, are unintuitive. I've felt ...
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What are some "quick start" openings?
First of all, I'm sorry if it looks like I didn't really research before asking the question, but I really did put in some effort and couldn't find a satisfying answer.
My problem is, I don't want to ...
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Why does castling in the Four Knights: Double Spanish opening inadvertantly stop Bxc3?
So I am currently working through Chess Fundamentals by Capablanca and he said something I find opaque: following 1.e4, e5 2.Nf3, Nc6 3.Nc3, Nf6 4.Bb5, Bb4 "5.0-0 an indirect way of preventing 5.....
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Three pieces vs Queen in the opening [closed]
Please, does someone have good information on the Grünfeld Defence, Russian System, three minor pieces vs Queen variation?
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Guessing who has to play next
Assume an observer sees a chessboard in the middle of a game. At which point in a game does it become impossible to determine who has to play next between White and Black?
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Why is this a better move?
Playing on chess.com against the first advanced bot, "Antonio", I've lost a game and looked at the analysis.
The following is the state of the game not far from the beginning, where I had ...
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Patterns in Chess960 positions
I have two questions.
Where can I find more studies like this Lichess one, please? I got it from this answer elsewhere on this site.
The Lichess study is talking about this position
[White "...
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What is the earliest queen move in any strong, modern opening?
I have noticed a tendency of weaker players to move their queen out very early (e.g. move 2-5), and conversely, a tendency for strong players to move their queen much later (usually later than move 5, ...
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How do you read this opening table presented in Modern Openings?
How do I read this table presented in the book "Modern Openings"? Specifically, what do the rows, columns and the dashed lines represent? Finally, there are also little letters like (a) ...
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Is there any obvious disadvantage of not castling in a game?
The opponent has the option of castling but can I still play a solid game without castling either side? I won some games in bullet time controls but only because position was too complex and opponent ...
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Is the Four Pawns Attack against the Alekhine opening promising for White?
The latest version of Stockfish 12 thinks that the Four Pawns Attack is the most promising variation for White against the Alekhine Defense 1.e4 Nf6, But it evaluated the position resulting from the ...
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Is it possible to reach King vs King by moving each piece at most twice?
I'm interested in short games that reach a King vs King endgame. Sam Lloyd reached King vs King after only 17 moves. This has since been improved to 16.5 moves. (See this and that.) One can show that ...
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3...c5 in the Advance Caro-Kann
Consider the following side line of the Advance Caro-Kann:
[FEN ""]
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.dxc5 e6 5.a3 Bxc5
In master OTB games, the move 3...c5 is one third as common as the main move ....
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Classical Scheveningen: Why is ...Ne8 so rare in this position?
Black to move. This position from the classical variation of the Scheveningen occurs over 900 times in the Lichess database, yet ...Ne8 has been played only three times. The move seems strong: it ...
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Did the 2018 World Chess Championship feature any theoretical novelties in the Sveshnikov Sicilian?
I am interested in how the Sveshnikov theory developed in the last decade, and one of the biggest events heavily featuring it was the WCC match in 2018. Very few books on the opening were published ...
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Easy variation to learn with White against Semislav with not many lines and avoiding the Slav at the same time if possible
I'm looking for an easy variation to learn against the Semislav. Note that I play d4, c4, Nc3 against many openings. I tried to play the 5.Bg5 line but I felt that it was full of memorization:
[FEN &...
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How good is 4. d3, the Anti-Berlin?
The Berlin Defense is drawish if we reach the Berlin endgame. Yet White doesn't have to go into the endgame, and can instead play 4; d3. However, I hear that the Ruy Lopez is getting less popular in ...
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How can chess be applied to other fields like politics or football tactics?
I just think that a strategy game such as chess can be applied to the real world and in that chess can make you a better strategical person, but how so?
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What is the theory if black goes 4 Nxc4 in evan's gambit?
Ive been learning the theory for this opening but cant find anything if black chooses this line.
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Is it good to have a tendency to exchange pieces?
This is how I am playing nowadays. I can beat ~1500 player 50% of the time (the rest is due to tactical errors):
Play the opening (upto 12 moves)
Don't blunder
At the point where my pawns and pieces ...
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How long can a player hold off a draw by the 50-move rule?
Going by rules strictly about the board state, how long can a player theoretically hold off a draw by the 50-move rule? White will play as long as possible, and not want to lose. Black will claim a ...
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How many times can the king and its surrounding squares be attacked?
In a legal position, how many times can the king and its surrounding squares be attacked? There is a total of 9 possible squares to be attacked-the square the king is on and the eight squares ...
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How much do you actually learn from the book Modern Chess Openings by Nick de Firmian?
How much theory does the book actually cover and how far in terms of opening knowledge and building my opening repertoire will memorising every line of the book get me?
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Owen's Defence playability
The Owen's defence is a chess opening which starts with 1. e4 b6!?. This opening is playable if Black can get a quick c7-c5 break, where he has a pawn on e6, b6, and then he pushes c7-c5.
However, ...
user24344
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Benoni setup defence
In the Benoni, there is a certain setup for White where there is a knight on g3, and a bishop on d3. White then starts a pawn storm with f4-f5, with a large attack. How am I meant to play against this ...
user24344
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Benoni Bc1-g5 move
In the Benoni, I often have opponents play Bc1-g5 as White, after I have fianchettoed my king's bishop. I don't know how to stop it. I know that it isn't the main theory, but I haven't found a way to ...
user24344
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Traxler Counterattack
I've had a few looks at the Traxler counterattack before. It seems fine for Black, but somehow the engine (Stockfish) says that White has a +2.57 advantage after Nxf7, but not much advantage after ...
user24344
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Stockfish is considering a move in a book by GM Mihail Marin as a blunder
In the book English opening volume 1 by Mihail Marin at this position
[fen "3nrrk1/bppq2p1/p4p1p/2Pp4/1P1P3N/P1BQ2P1/5PKP/4RR2 w - - 2 21"]
1. Qg6 (1. Ng6)
He suggests Qg6 whereas ...
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Benoni Defence Theory and Ideas [duplicate]
I have played the Benoni for a while, and I frequently play bad moves in the opening. How could I play the Benoni - Pawn Storm Variation safely?
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Why is my theoretical knowledge is not coming to any use?
For the last few months, I have been reading "How To Reassess Your Chess (I expected at least this book to work), "Simple Chess," "The Art Of Attack," some ending book, "...
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Why is the Budapest Defense considered not fully sound or even dubious? What theoretical difficulties arise for Black?
[fen ""]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Bf4 (4. Nf3 Bc5 5. e3) (4. e4 Nxe5 5. f4) (4. e3 Nxe5 5. Nh3)
White can choose from multiple setups, most common are 4. Bf4, 4. Nf3, 4. e4 or even ...
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Unable to confirm theoretical evaluation
Theory claims equality for Black in the below diagram.
My engine claims White is better and demolishes the line with convincing moves.
Since I have old laptop, with 2GHz dual core CPU, I was ...
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What is the idea behind this move?
I was watching Nepomniachtchi - Liren match on Chess24 Legends Day 2. After having a pretty significant advantage [+7.1 (Stockfish 11)], White [Nepo] has played g4, and according to the engine, the ...
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How to calculate the number of positions in chess?
For layman, can someone explain how you calculate the number of available positions in a chess game, and how do you get the huge number of 10^120 or 10^46?
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Checkmate without check beforehand
[Title "fucccommies-Diam0ndJake, chess.com, 7/8/2020"]
[FEN ""]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 Nc6 4. d5 Nd4 5. c3 Nxf3+ 6. Qxf3 Be7 7. Bb5 O-O 8. O-O c6 9. dxc6 bxc6 10. Bc4 d5 11. ...
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What projects have been undertaken to solve chess completely?
Chess is not completely solved yet but what efforts have been undertaken to solve it? Has there been a large project like the HGP or is something like that even worth pursuing? What failed efforts ...
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Queen placement in the Dragon
[FEN ""]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.f3 O-O 8.Bc4 e6 9.O-O a6
Here is a line from a game of mine. I made the movee 10. Qd3, but my computer program says Qd2 ...
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Is this endgame drawn after the rook sacrifice?
2R5/8/8/8/4Pp1P/3k1K2/2p2P2/1r6 w - - 0 46
In this position, the engine recommends 1. Rxc2 and evaluates the position as drawn. Is there a general rule in such positions or precise calculation is ...
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