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Chess tactics explained

chesstactics.org

11–20 of 271 posts

Re: Chess tactics explained

#11
post #2

I wondered if the popularity of 'The queen's Gambit' would lead to a brief infatuation with chess in the popular imagination. The fact I've seen about 3 chess related submissions on HN recently, where I don't recall ever seeing one before, suggests it does. I used to enjoy a game of chess back in the day, although I was never very good. And I always imagined myself playing chess with a remote opponent by post when I…

I'm perhaps in the same boat. Played a lot as a child but very rarely nowadays. I am a member of chess.com but haven't played in a while.

I think the better players tend to play a quicker timed game to better avoid bot activity. Personally I prefer a more slower game, particularly because I'm out of practice.

Re: Chess tactics explained

#12
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

chess.com's messaging is the opposite of "chances are slim". but they emphasise that they take the issue seriously, albeit with a low false-positive rate. https://www.chess.com/article/view/online-chess-cheating From the comments, it seems there's also the risk that you'll think cheating occurred, when instead you just missed stuff.

Interesting article. They do however say nothing about the rating of said cheaters (or I missed it). What I stated before was that it is unlikely in the lower rating levels and I stand by that. If someone cheats he will gain rating fast and leave the lower rating groups. And yes people also tend to accuse other of cheating if they lose. :) As long as you are not a competitive player the best you can do is to just pla…

In other words, you would have to be rather bad at cheating to maintain a low rating.

Chess competition is driven by various rating systems which match people fairly well. Computers are very much better than beginner to intermediate players.

Re: Chess tactics explained

#13
post #2

I wondered if the popularity of 'The queen's Gambit' would lead to a brief infatuation with chess in the popular imagination. The fact I've seen about 3 chess related submissions on HN recently, where I don't recall ever seeing one before, suggests it does. I used to enjoy a game of chess back in the day, although I was never very good. And I always imagined myself playing chess with a remote opponent by post when I…

'The queen's Gambit' has definitely lead to a rise in chess popularity [0] and I as well assumed this submission was a side effect of that.

In mid-November, more than 100,000 new members registered for Chess.com each day. This is roughly five times higher than average.

[0] https://www.businessinsider.com/the-queens-gambit-netflix-on...

Re: Chess tactics explained

#14
Due to Magnus Carlsen, chess has had a major boost here in Norway. His major tournaments are covered in detail on TV with commentary by chess experts, which makes it quite approachable and exciting to watch.

Given the inevitable slow parts of the game, the experts have time to explain the position on the board, and show how the variations can play out etc. They've somehow managed to turn chess into a spectator sport.

If per chance they're not geoblocking it, you can get a flavor of it here[1].

Currently there's the Champions Chess Tour (online), which gets several hours of coverage each day they play.

[1]: https://www.tv2.no/sport/11799097/

Re: Chess tactics explained

#15
post #2

I wondered if the popularity of 'The queen's Gambit' would lead to a brief infatuation with chess in the popular imagination. The fact I've seen about 3 chess related submissions on HN recently, where I don't recall ever seeing one before, suggests it does. I used to enjoy a game of chess back in the day, although I was never very good. And I always imagined myself playing chess with a remote opponent by post when I…

You might end up playing a cheater at some point (though it's uncommon). But you're much more probable to end up playing someone better and you'll think they're a cheater..

Look at this livestream where Magnus Carlsen, the world champion, is logged in under another account and crushes Jan Gustafsson (another grandmaster) and he can't believe it's a human playing him :) (or at least suggests he is skeptical)

https://youtu.be/Ka5sh6hBvSI?t=219

Re: Chess tactics explained

#16
> This site teaches chess in words.

> It assumes you know only how the pieces move and builds step-by-step from there.

Do not get me wrong: TFA is a fine and useful book for an intermediate player but the above claims are overselling it. They are equivalent to telling you that learning the

    x ^= y;
    y ^= x;
    x ^= y;
trick will make you a better programmer while being silent on what copy-and-paste programming, magic constants, or hardcoded data are and how to avoid them. While novice chess players are naturally attracted to brilliant combinations, they will have no chance to play them without knowing how to gain positional advantage.

> Strategy and tactics both are important, but tactics are more important.

> If you're a whiz at strategy but not much good at tactics, you will have trouble winning or having fun because your pieces will keep getting taken.

I beg to differ. You should first learn how to supercharge your pieces by controlling the centre, putting rooks on open files, co-ordinating your bishop pair, keeping a strong pawn structure, etc. Two oldie but goodie books that teach these principles and are available as PDF's are Capablanca's A Primer of Chess [0] and Nimzowitsch's My System [1].

EDIT: memorizing openings ⊄ strategy. I understand strategy as applying good principles regardless of your opponent's moves, and tactics as calculating (mostly) forced move sequences. Also, strategy does not have to be dull. Playing a gambit and attacking Black's f7 weakness is a strategy, albeit one that can hardly succeed without tactical thinking.

[0] https://archive.org/details/aprimerofchess (this particular edition uses the outdated descriptive notation)

[1] https://archive.org/details/my-system-2020

Re: Chess tactics explained

#17
post #10
post #2

I wondered if the popularity of 'The queen's Gambit' would lead to a brief infatuation with chess in the popular imagination. The fact I've seen about 3 chess related submissions on HN recently, where I don't recall ever seeing one before, suggests it does. I used to enjoy a game of chess back in the day, although I was never very good. And I always imagined myself playing chess with a remote opponent by post when I…

There was some sorts of renaissance of chess in twitch community. All the big streamers were playing chess for some reason. Not sure what happened there, might be related somehow to Hikaru Nakamura starting to stream and growing pretty big. But that was before "Queen's Gambit".

It was tied to the beginning of Covid lockdowns as well. Chess has had a very strong year in terms of numbers coming to the game. Queen's Gambit seems to have exploded that again.

Re: Chess tactics explained

#18

Due to Magnus Carlsen, chess has had a major boost here in Norway. His major tournaments are covered in detail on TV with commentary by chess experts, which makes it quite approachable and exciting to watch. Given the inevitable slow parts of the game, the experts have time to explain the position on the board, and show how the variations can play out etc. They've somehow managed to turn chess into a spectator sport.…

As an aside, for very good analysis of current Chess games (as well as older sagas around certain legends of the game), I heartily recommend checking out agadmator's Youtube channel[1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/c/AGADMATOR

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