Poll of the Day > I've started trying to learn to play chess again.

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's hard and the terminology for all the different moves is so weird. But it's fun.

I really wish I had someone to play with back in my adolescence when I first learned the super basic stuff. I swear I spent a good year asking every one of my friends and family to play with me then, and in the end I don't think I even played more than 10 games.

Praise be to the internet that now allows me to play with someone at any time.
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I play on chess dot com. My daily rating is currently 1300 but my blitz is abyssmal.

I just recently started playing again. I've been watching a lot of videos and trying to get better but I'm at the stage where I feel like I'm getting worse because I am trying too hard to apply things and make mistakes.
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I have recently gotten back into Chess, but I'm terrible - I play at about 1200
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I played when I was younger. I was terrible then, and I'm still terrible now...
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My friend and I play and it's stupid and weird. And funny. Sometimes I forget things, I don't always know what to do, and I always make dumb risky moves. I'd say I win 40% of the time
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blorfenburger posted...

I always make dumb risky moves

I do good plans and can even calculate what a chess engine would do effectively - my problem comes from a sort of tunnel vision... if I plan like 3 moves in a row I'll make the mistake of doing the last move first
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Oh, man. I remember there was this coffee place that had chess and stuff and my buddy and I used to meet there sometimes. These nerds on par with the ones from Wayne's World ("isn't it cool to be downtown!") were having this loud discussion in their nasally voices. One dude was telling the other about this girl he was obviously in love with (that clearly had no interest in him), and all I specifically remember from their discussion was him brushing off being shot down as "she's just going through her 'bad girl' phase right now" - we were trying not to eavesdrop, but they were so fucking loud and only about 4 feet away. Both of us just burst out laughing full volume at that line and then were like "oh, shit"...

But yeah, that's apparently what you talking about chess made me think of.
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FellWolf posted...

I play on chess dot com. My daily rating is currently 1300 but my blitz is abyssmal.

I just recently started playing again. I've been watching a lot of videos and trying to get better but I'm at the stage where I feel like I'm getting worse because I am trying too hard to apply things and make mistakes.

Yeah, that's where I'm playing too. I'm right around 1000 rating, but I expect it to drop once I play a few more games. I kind of got what I felt was lucky in a couple of my wins.

I stumbled across a video of some grandmasters playing too, and hoooly. Some of their moves were absolutely mind blowing to me. Also some things were straight up confusing to me, like not taking a bishop with a piece that currently isn't doing anything else when there is nothing threatening to take the piece that would take it. It's really weird.

I'll probably seek out some actual videos and strategy guides once I get more of a feel for the game though.

Lokarin posted...

I have recently gotten back into Chess, but I'm terrible - I play at about 1200

It's OK. We can be terrible together.

LinkPizza posted...

I played when I was younger. I was terrible then, and I'm still terrible now...

Same, man. Same.

blorfenburger posted...

My friend and I play and it's stupid and weird. And funny. Sometimes I forget things, I don't always know what to do, and I always make dumb risky moves. I'd say I win 40% of the time

Yeah. I kind of tunnel on what I think will pin something down and forget that it leaves me open to something else. Lost a game at turn 6 or 7 today cause of that.

TheCyborgNinja posted...

Oh, man. I remember there was this coffee place that had chess and stuff and my buddy and I used to meet there sometimes. These nerds on par with the ones from Wayne's World ("isn't it cool to be downtown!") were having this loud discussion in their nasally voices. One dude was telling the other about this girl he was obviously in love with (that clearly had no interest in him), and all I specifically remember from their discussion was him brushing off being shot down as "she's just going through her 'bad girl' phase right now" - we were trying not to eavesdrop, but they were so fucking loud and only about 4 feet away. Both of us just burst out laughing full volume at that line and then were like "oh, shit"...

But yeah, that's apparently what you talking about chess made me think of.

Hehe. Decent story. I sure wish I had somewhere like that to go though.
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Yeah, my rating is hovering just over 900 now. I'm starting to see my catastrophic mistakes a lot earlier than before. I really need to start trading my queen for theirs when I have the lead more though. At least, that's what I can tell from my beginner's viewpoint.
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https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/1093-all-things-chess
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I haven't played a serious game in years. I still remember the movesets but almost always toward the middle/end of the game I start to develop tunnel vision and making careless mistakes.

Funny enough, I never cursed in front of my friends in college but the one time I did was because I carelessly lost my queen to one friend.
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Person106 posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/1093-all-things-chess

But... It gets like 2 posts a month...

InfestedAdam posted...

I haven't played a serious game in years. I still remember the movesets but almost always toward the middle/end of the game I start to develop tunnel vision and making careless mistakes.

Funny enough, I never cursed in front of my friends in college but the one time I did was because I carelessly lost my queen to one friend.

I'm no expert, but that's not never. But yeah, I tend to mess up in the early or middle, but I do fine in the late when there are few pieces left.
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I used to open d4, but I hate the nimzo-indian defense so I switched over to e4
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Mario_VS_DK posted...

Yeah, my rating is hovering just over 900 now. I'm starting to see my catastrophic mistakes a lot earlier than before. I really need to start trading my queen for theirs when I have the lead more though. At least, that's what I can tell from my beginner's viewpoint.

If your king is safer then their king, you don't want to trade queens. Your chances of possibly check mating lower.

But if you end up in a situation where he is forcing you to either trade or retreat, and retreating has no pluses you should trade.
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FellWolf posted...

Mario_VS_DK posted...

Yeah, my rating is hovering just over 900 now. I'm starting to see my catastrophic mistakes a lot earlier than before. I really need to start trading my queen for theirs when I have the lead more though. At least, that's what I can tell from my beginner's viewpoint.

If your king is safer then their king, you don't want to trade queens. Your chances of possibly check mating lower.

But if you have same coloured bishops you might want to trade to avoid a draw.
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Lokarin posted...

I used to open d4, but I hate the nimzo-indian defense so I switched over to e4

I've been doing e4 just about every game because otherwise I just can't seem to figure out what to do. Though, the past few games I haven't had any idea what to do either because my opponents are doing stuff unfamiliar to me, so I guess it doesn't make any difference.

FellWolf posted...

If your king is safer then their king, you don't want to trade queens. Your chances of possibly check mating lower.

But if you end up in a situation where he is forcing you to either trade or retreat, and retreating has no pluses you should trade.

I mean, trading queens earlier beats randomly losing it due to a bad move later, which is generally what's happening to me.

Lokarin posted...

But if you have same coloured bishops you might want to trade to avoid a draw.

Surprisingly, I've only had two draws so far. One was because I didn't know that trapping the king without checking it while leaving the opponent with no legal moves results in a draw.
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Mario_VS_DK posted...

I'm no expert, but that's not never.

My mistake. Up until that game of chess I have never cursed in front of my college friends. Carelessly losing that queen was the first.

Mario_VS_DK posted...

But yeah, I tend to mess up in the early or middle, but I do fine in the late when there are few pieces left.

I might be the same. I think when I have less pieces to keep track of and less pieces to work it, it it easier for me to focus and be mindful of what I do.
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I used to open d4, but I hate the nimzo-indian defense so I switched over to e4

I'm not claiming to be a better player but when you're in 1200s you don't really need to learn opening theories. At 1200s you should just open with basic principles like control of the center and develop your pieces. The Nimzo Indian Defensice is a ridicilously highly theortical opening, beginners should not even try and learn such openings. If you insist on learning some openings, I'd suggest something like The Queens's Gambit, Ruy Lopez, The Italian Game and The King's Gambit.

I'm all in for a PotD Chess Club.

For us noob players like us we should instead learn tactical stuff (being able to see forcing sequences) and learning end game - because if you don't blunder and and in the end both sides have the same material, the player with the better end game skills wins.

I usually play against a computer, so they run their openings like a book and then forget how to play when it gets to mid game
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Yeah playing against AI isn't particularly a good idea because it'll just blunder at random times, unless of course you're playing against a high level-ed AI/a chess engine like Stockfish/Rybka/Houdini.

I been watching a lot of agadmator videos
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I've watched lots of kingscrusher's videos, anyone who is willing to take Chess seriously should definitely check out his channel.

spooky96 posted...

I'm all in for a PotD Chess Club.

For us noob players like us we should instead learn tactical stuff (being able to see forcing sequences) and learning end game - because if you don't blunder and and in the end both sides have the same material, the player with the better end game skills wins.

I'd for sure be the weakest player in it for a while, but I'd be up for it.

Lokarin posted...

I usually play against a computer, so they run their openings like a book and then forget how to play when it gets to mid game

Yeah, playing against a computer annoys me like that. It feels like it's trying to lose rather than slipping up and making a mistake while tunneling on something else, and that just really bothers me. OR... It feels like it's literally impossible to win because who can beat a computer going full strength at chess?!

I don't feel like I learn anything from playing against them. Kind of why I never tried to get into chess when there started to be chess computer games. But they are useful for examining your game and seeing where you went wrong if you didn't happen to notice it yourself. At least, for a novice like myself.

Lokarin posted...

I been watching a lot of agadmator videos

spooky96 posted...

I've watched lots of kingscrusher's videos, anyone who is willing to take Chess seriously should definitely check out his channel.

Yeah, I'm still trying to get an actual feel for chess before I start learning from others. I don't want all my knowledge to have come from other people, else I won't truly understand it. I'd just be blindly following what they are saying, and that doesn't sound fun, interesting, or even good to me. \

If I can learn some stuff on my own, and then find out what I was right and wrong about, I think I'll have a much more solid foundation to learn the rest of the game with.

But maybe I'm an idiot. Who knows.
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agadmator is good videos to fall asleep to, if you know what I mean.

His voice is so deep though that if you speed up the video to 1.3x he sounds normal
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Yeah, I'm still trying to get an actual feel for chess before I start learning from others. I don't want all my knowledge to have come from other people, else I won't truly understand it. I'd just be blindly following what they are saying, and that doesn't sound fun, interesting, or even good to me. \

If I can learn some stuff on my own, and then find out what I was right and wrong about, I think I'll have a much more solid foundation to learn the rest of the game with.

But maybe I'm an idiot. Who knows.

This is why I'd sugggest you to play on lichess instead of some other random website. Once your game is finished, their engines analyze each moves and shows you where there was an error or blunder and even shows which move would have been the best in that particular position.

spooky96 posted...

This is why I'd sugggest you to play on lichess instead of some other random website. Once your game is finished, their engines analyze each moves and shows you where there was an error or blunder and even shows which move would have been the best in that particular position.

You can do that on Chess.com too.
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Oh I didn't know that. Still, chess.com begging for money all the time annoys the hell out of me.

Mario_VS_DK posted...

Person106 posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/1093-all-things-chess

But... It gets like 2 posts a month...

Hence it needs more exposure and posts :P
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idk how to share games, but can anyone explain WTF the AI is doing here?

[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2018.04.04"]
[Event "Vs. Computer"]
[Round "17"]
[White "Computer Level 3"]
[Black "Guest"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D02"]
[CurrentPosition "2kr3r/1pq2ppp/8/1pb2b2/1P4P1/P2n4/2P4P/R1BKq2n w - - 0 22"]

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.a3 e5 5.e3 exd4 6.Na2 dxe3 7.Bb5 exf2+ 8.Kd2 Ne4+ 9.Ke3 a6 10.Nb4 axb5 11.Qxd5 Bc5+ 12.Ke2 Qe7 13.Qd3 Ng3+ 14.Kd1 Nxh1 15.Nd5 Bf5 16.Nxc7+ Qxc7 17.Qe2+ Ne5 18.g4 O-O-O+ 19.Qd3 Nxd3 20.b4 f1=Q+ 21.Ne1 Qxe1# 0-1
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I haven't played chess in years. I was never really good but I could hold my own against a dude that was aiming to become a pro. Only played against a pro once and it went exactly as expected
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I like playing chess, but I refuse to "learn plays" because I think chess wouldn't be fun anymore. Anyway, I'm sort of stuck on level 51 in "The Chess Lv.100". Wondering if anyone's played that game before and what's the highest level they beat without a undo for comparison.

I'm now on Chess.com (SaltyLox) and can reasonably defeat the level 4 computer! Which is much harder than the AI on my phone which claims to be 1400, but the level 4 computer at chess.com is considered only 1k so, like, IDK - I'm probably still not getting anywheres
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My name on chess.com is Viridian_Soothsayer, but I haven't played chess in months :P
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