25
votes
Accepted
Are computers destroying chess?
My short answer: no, computers are not destroying chess. And now here comes a really long version ...
Your first question:
It is true the engines have level up the game, but can we also conclude ...
19
votes
Accepted
How to play against higher rated (much stronger) players
Unless you have gotten much stronger than your 1542 FIDE rating, you have to realize that your odds of winning are not very good. It is fine to be realistic, but just do not let that overwhelm your ...
17
votes
How to play against higher rated (much stronger) players
Objectively speaking there is nothing special you can do.
Just do the regular preparation:
refresh your opening repertoires or specifically the opening you expect to have on the board
analyze your ...
12
votes
Are computers destroying chess?
In some ways, computers have been taking the "fun" out of chess, in the sense of creating an arms race of opening preparation in fashionable opening lines.
However, if you look at any current games ...
12
votes
How does opening preparation work at GM level?
Professional chess is hard.
Yes. Professional elite players prepare as many opening lines as they can. They have seconds who are dedicated to opening preparation (generally on a computer). The most ...
12
votes
How to play against higher rated (much stronger) players
In his book "Chess for Tigers", Simon Webb says that the best thing to do is to drag the elephant into the swamp. In other words, aim for complications, where the stronger player has a chance to make ...
11
votes
Are computers destroying chess?
Bobby Fischer:
Radio Interview, June 27 1999
I love chess, and I didn't invent Fischerandom chess to destroy chess.
I invented Fischerandom chess to keep chess going. Because I consider
...
11
votes
Accepted
How does opening preparation work at GM level?
Not a GM myself, but my understanding is that there is more than one way.
First of all any decent GM would have notes (nowadays on computer) with all the opening lines they play. These notes might ...
10
votes
Accepted
Seconds of Magnus Carlsen
So far, following seconds have been revealed (NRK, ChessBase):
GM Peter Heine Nielsen (no surprise as he was part of team Carlsen in WCC 2014)
GM Laurent Fressinet (also no surprise as he was part ...
8
votes
(For training purposes) Are there any openings with rook pawns that are more effective than others (and if so, what are they)?
Learning good chess principles and playing against clearly dubious openings like 1. a4 or 1. h4 are not mutually exclusive. In fact, following solid opening principles is the best way to counter weak ...
8
votes
(For training purposes) Are there any openings with rook pawns that are more effective than others (and if so, what are they)?
Are there any openings with rook pawns that are more effective than
others?
There are few recognized openings which start with a rook pawn move on move one, except in circumstances where the ...
7
votes
What is the best way to beat a French?
Mate, please... What do you want to learn in 10 minutes? Be serious... People spend years on learning openings. The French is complicated.
But well, to the question: if you have no idea about french ...
7
votes
Is it beneficial to play themed practice games?
It really depends on what your end goal is. Themed games in a specific opening are good to get familiar with a specific opening, and get a "feel" for the positions arising in the resulting middlegames....
7
votes
Accepted
Preparing for an OTB tournament: I must do well!
First, from a pure chess standpoint, you are probably as close to prepared as you will be since there is only so much you can learn between now and Friday.
The most important things will be to get a ...
7
votes
How does one analyse openings judged dubious by engines?
Forget the engines. We are humans (hopefully) and are only interested in how human's play.
The King's Indian Defence (KID), a favorite opening of Tal, Fischer and Kasparov (and now played by Nakamura),...
7
votes
Accepted
Can deep preparation for the early novelty be useful?
"Is it possible for White to gain an advantage due to excellent preparation, or are all uncommon early novelties bad enough to be easy for Black to refute?" Both are possible.
A famous ...
6
votes
Is it beneficial to play themed practice games?
A great practice routine if you have a willing partner is to take a position from an opening you wish to study and play a series of blitz games from both sides. For example, when I was younger me and ...
6
votes
How do GMs and IMs prepare for tournaments?
This question is too broad, everyone is training differently. There is also much more motivation on the side of strong young IMs than on side of weak GMs. A lot of colleagues just play, rarely train ...
6
votes
(For training purposes) Are there any openings with rook pawns that are more effective than others (and if so, what are they)?
Your kid did not lose the game because he did not know how to respond to that opening. He lost the game because he played worse! (by the way you're telling the story, probably because of a tactical ...
6
votes
(For training purposes) Are there any openings with rook pawns that are more effective than others (and if so, what are they)?
I'm seeing a lot of great answers being met with, "This doesn't answer my question" - so I'm going to go ahead and answer your literal question (even though the answer won't help you out at all.)
a4 ...
6
votes
Accepted
How long does it take to use opening preparation at top level?
As Brian noted, theory can move on quickly, but that does not remotely mean that everything that was prepared is lost in a short period of time. I think that the biggest issue was just that prepping ...
6
votes
How do you document your opening repertoire on a mac?
A lichess study would be a good way to do this.
6
votes
Accepted
Benoni Theory Help
The whole point of hypermodern openings like the Benoni is to encourage a big center. If you don't get that you'd probably be better off playing something else.
The Dutch leads to unbalanced positions,...
5
votes
Accepted
Can watching grandmasters' games improve my chess 'thinking'?
To get the most from other people's games, it makes sense to look at games that were played well. However, what a beginner needs to see is not perfection, but what happens if one player makes a ...
5
votes
Can watching grandmasters' games improve my chess 'thinking'?
Chess "thinking" is first and foremost a skill. As such it has to be practiced actively. Passively acquired knowledge will only flesh out what you already can do, it will not improve your chess all ...
5
votes
Are computers destroying chess?
A new answer like this to a four-year-old question is probably doomed to lie, unread, at the bottom of the answer column, yet four years late I have something different to add, so here goes.
That ...
5
votes
Accepted
Can GMs use computers to beat their opponents?
You pretty much described modern day preparation...
This is exactly what GMs are doing, except that they also try to add some of their own creativity into the process. Nevertheless, the majority of ...
5
votes
(For training purposes) Are there any openings with rook pawns that are more effective than others (and if so, what are they)?
How can 1.a4 be bad, when some guy named Magnus played it against a grandmaster and won? :-) See Carlsen-Radjabov (2012), from the World Blitz Championship.
Now, I don't think it counts as much ...
5
votes
How long does it take to use opening preparation at top level?
How long does it take until Ju Wenjun is no longer very "booked up"?
Top players have outstanding memories so it takes a very long time for the actual memories of the booking up to fade.
However, ...
5
votes
Accepted
Opening preparation
Learn what is known as the basic opening principles, and apply them to your game. Since you're a beginner, memorization of long opening lines is a wasted effort at this stage of your chess development,...
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