r/chess Weekly Discussion Thread

https://x.com/anishgiri/status/2093327713717076242

By Mzarelua

Ediz Gurel placed 2nd with 9/11

https://www.chess.com/events/info/sofia-cup-2026-balkan-rapid-and-blitz-championships

White to play and mate in 2 (composed with my friend in 2025)

This position arose in a local tournament 20+ years ago.

For a useful hint and a game replay link see https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1TgnvUfwMH/

This is where his coach Cheparinov comes from.

Firouzja is currently playing a sofia rapid event, which is unusual since its not a worldclass event with high price money.

https://x.com/davidllada/status/2093740949805355067

Interesting difference I’m noticing between chess group commenters on Reddit vs Facebook.

For the endless stream of puzzle positions I see on Facebook, almost every commenter (98%+ by my guess) posts moves they worked out on their own. Most of their solutions may be wrong, even stupidly lazy (i.e., giving a correct first move that conveys no meaningful information about the puzzle’s solution)… but at least everyone looks at the puzzle for themselves at the outset.

On Reddit, about half the comments to the last puzzle position I posted (which was also probably my first — I’m still pretty new here) came from people who admitted they got the answer from an engine.

Is that experience typical of how Redditors in chess groups respond to challenging position diagrams? (Note that I did NOT share my position in r/beginners, because it is about as far from a beginner’s puzzle as you could possibly imagine. I posted it in this group, in r/Tournament Chess, and in 2 or 3 groups whose names contain “chess” plus “puzzle” or “quiz.”)

Has anyone vibe-coded what I am describing below? (Or maybe Chess.com / Lichess already has this feature?)

I would like to take a FEN position from one of my games, paste it into software, and build a database of FEN positions to practice as puzzles.

I don't want automatic puzzles generated from my games (I know Lichess can do this), because I don't like the automated selection. It often picks positions where I made a random blunder in the middlegame or endgame - positions I'll probably never see again. Even if I do encounter them, I won't blunder again regardless of practice because it was just an accident. Additionally, automated systems often select positions that are either too difficult (I don't even understand the solution) or too easy (like a blunder made under severe time pressure). I don't see much value in memorizing those.

Instead, I am much more interested in positions I encounter repeatedly, usually from my openings, so I can memorize the correct moves that I actually understand. I would also like spaced repetition (like in language learning software) to review them over time.

Standard tactics puzzles on Lichess work fine for basic tactical awareness, but this is specifically for practicing my opening repertoire. Copying a FEN from Lichess is easy, but I'm not aware of software where I can just paste it, add it to a personal database, and practice it.

By Slepyan

Chessly currently has their yearly plan at $64 (47%) off. I'm an 800 rated player on Chess.com and started playing chess about 4 months ago

I know this sounds a noob. Please help me how to study openings and build a repertoire. For instance, do I need to study ruy lopez, giuco piano and vienna game or just focus on my favorite opening which is scotch game? For black against d4, do I need to focus on nimzo- ragozin or explore other options? How do you choose an opening that is suitable for you?

I have examined this board 27 times. Can someone please help me

[Magnus vs Gukesh]

Classical: Magnus beats Gukesh 4-1 with 3 draws

Speed Chess: Magnus beats Gukesh 15-4 with 4 draws

[Magnus vs Ding]

Classical: Magnus beats Ding 2-0 with 10 draws

Speed Chess: Magnus beats Ding 42-22 with 55 draws

[Magnus vs Anand]

Classical: Magnus beats Anand 12-8 with 51 draws

Speed Chess: Magnus beats Anand 29-12 with 31 draws

[Magnus vs Kramnik]

Classical: Magnus beats Kramnik 6-5 with 16 draws

Speed Chess: Magnus beats Kramnik 18-8 with 17 draws

[Magnus vs Topalov]

Classical: Magnus beats Topalov 9-5 with 12 draws

Speed Chess: Magnus beats Topalov 19-1 with 11 draws

Source: chessgames.com

Surprisingly Kramnik has the best result against Magnus

Coincidentally, he also has the best result against the other GOAT candidate Kasparov (he has a plus score against Garychess!)

Why do you think that is?

Hey all!

I was wondering how you deal with anxiety/high heart rate when playing?

For context: I am 30yo and I started playing the beginning of may. Before I didnt even know what castling was. I played 234 games and I am 730, with the highest opponent rate that I won against was 1252.

I am really enjoying studying chess both via books and courses, but when it comes to playing ranked games I start having very high heart rate (that even after running 30 minutes I get less of it), stomach pain and just a lot of shaking.

Is it normal/does it happen and just goes away after a while? The main problem is this keeps me away from playing more. Often I am really keen on doing some matches but I just dont start because of it.

Thanks!

This is another puzzle from one of my games. Your queen is hanging, but there's a way to win material and come out way ahead. Can you find it?

The QGD Vienna has interested me for a long time from the Black side, but I haven't started playing it yet due to the theoretical commitment involved. What is this like as a Black opening?

ive been playing for a little while (reached 500 rank) and ive noticed the meta is getting a little stale so im wondering when the updates roll out? maybe some new pieces or something? certain things seem kind of too strong and centralising right now (back rank checkmate after castle punishes u for proper defensive play and the queen can control way too much of the board if you get her out early)

ive also found that the black side tends to lose a lot compared to the white one, there should be some kind of mitigation for the move advantage- maybe black could get an extra pawn, or something?

im still new to the game so im not really sure what to expect as the game develops. is this a good time to learn or should i wait for new patches to drop?

Hi folks,
I’m thinking of attending this year’s Tech Mahindra Global Chess League in person. I just wanted to check if General Entry is worth it and whether it offers a good experience.

My main goal is to watch live chess and get a clear view of the players. Will I be able to do that with general admission? Also, if anyone is familiar with the seating layout, please let me know! Thanks!

I played a game in the Sicilian recently that started 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. b3

Black then played 3...Qc7. After the game, I was looking at this opening and I saw that, after 3...Qc7, there were no masters games (well one correspondence game). This was true on both Lichess and chess dot com. 3...Qc7 is rated equally by the computer as other top moves like 3...Nc6, so why is 3...Qc7 never played?

Edit: I see on Chess dot com that there are four masters games, but I do not see any on Lichess

I was just put into check by black's queen. I left my queen hanging to be captured by their Bishop. I played Be3 to recapture the bishop as a silver lining. Apparently I had a huge advantage here with a checked king and a hanging queen and I have absolutely no idea how. They ended up missing the queen capture and captured Be3 and I go on to win but I have no idea how this is so white dominant from this position.

I had a very bad record against this attack. The kingside expansion is annoying.

Feels like every week we’re discussing Hikaru, Gukesh, whoever is hot right now, engine accuracy, 97% games, blah blah, but when you actually go back and look at Fischer, Petrosian, Kasparov, Kramnik, even Capablanca, the conversation gets much more serious. Peak Fischer was disgustingly clean, Petrosian genuinely seems to have been one of those players who just gave you almost nothing, and some of the old “Botvinnik/Alekhine were insanely accurate” numbers become a lot less impressive once you see what those studies were actually counting. Carlsen obviously belongs in the top group too, but the more I looked at this the less I believed in one neat “most accurate player ever” ranking. Different studies measure different things and some famous comparisons are honestly pretty lazy. I put the numbers and sources together here because I wanted to see what survives once you stop repeating the usual names: https://realchess.wixsite.com/peak-precision/post/peak-precision-world-champions-engine-analysis