Hobbies The Chess Thread

[Garrett]

Does anyone have advice on learning new openings? I sorta found that I only play Scotch opening for white and Caro-Kahn for black and I want to try some new stuff (I guess I should practice against a bot to not destroy my elo?)

Hi there, I'll give a longer answer. First, I can't honestly recommend openings at a more beginner level if they're really driven heavy on theory and tactics--they're demotivating if you're new to learning openings; for that reason the Scotch might be a lot to explore. If you ever get the chance to review GM games on Youtube/chess archive site played in the Scotch, you'll see how "normal" it is to get chaos on the board.

GothamChess has a running YouTube series called '10 minute chess openings' which I think is a really good introductory blend of giving you the first couple moves and then explaining common motives and ideas so you don't need to actively memorize 8-10 move variations. I'd watch some of them and pick at most 4 (2 each for e4 and d4, one for each color).

From there, you should play only people in slower rated games. Why? The short answer is that bots have misleading ELO and at low ratings purposefully avoid playing theory in the opening you are, so you won't actually get genuine practice in what you want to learn. Avoid worrying about online rating--mastering an opening is an investment to eventually beat people out of the (new) opening.

When playing, have some agency in reviewing your game for mistakes afterward, mostly in the opening. More often that not, it'll be just learning a new idea in the opening.

 

[Cresselia~~]

Bumping old thread
So I used to play London. Once I played C4 I never went back. Now I play C4 for all games as white.
I am currently having problems choosing a defense.
I used to play Petrov, but my ex boyfriend said it is very drawish and it is not worth it, and that I have grown out of it.
(Back when my boyfriend told me to play black based on what I feel, I played what made the most sense to me, so he then told me that the opening I played is called Petrov.)

I'm not sure whether to choose French or Caro Kann
My ex highly recommends Caro Kann as that is what he had been playing for years.
But I kind of like how neat and tidy French is. (Based on the videos I watch)
I personally think that I do better when the chess pieces are in a neat and tidy position.

I wonder if there are any statistics about how people choose defenses, based on what openings they chose?
As in, would most e4 players be highly likely to end up choosing a certain defense?
What would most c4 players choose as their defense?

 

[shadowpea]

Bumping old thread
So I used to play London. Once I played C4 I never went back. Now I play C4 for all games as white.
I am currently having problems choosing a defense.
I used to play Petrov, but my ex boyfriend said it is very drawish and it is not worth it, and that I have grown out of it.
(Back when my boyfriend told me to play black based on what I feel, I played what made the most sense to me, so he then told me that the opening I played is called Petrov.)

I'm not sure whether to choose French or Caro Kann
My ex highly recommends Caro Kann as that is what he had been playing for years.
But I kind of like how neat and tidy French is. (Based on the videos I watch)
I personally think that I do better when the chess pieces are in a neat and tidy position.

I wonder if there are any statistics about how people choose defenses, based on what openings they chose?
As in, would most e4 players be highly likely to end up choosing a certain defense?
What would most c4 players choose as their defense?

I main the English as white too and I always go Caro as black against e4 because having my c8 bishop in the way is something I don't like. Simple as that. The b8 knight is easier to position imo and you can always go c5 (even though its not ideal cuz you'll be wasting a tempo).

Imo I do better when chess pieces are neat and tidy too, I always miss the tactics when the board is a mess. But the French has struck me as a bit too passive if white goes Advance sooo that's also partly why I prefer the Caro.

 

[Cresselia~~]

I main the English as white too and I always go Caro as black against e4 because having my c8 bishop in the way is something I don't like. Simple as that. The b8 knight is easier to position imo and you can always go c5 (even though its not ideal cuz you'll be wasting a tempo).

Imo I do better when chess pieces are neat and tidy too, I always miss the tactics when the board is a mess. But the French has struck me as a bit too passive if white goes Advance sooo that's also partly why I prefer the Caro.

Wow! Thank you so much! Nice to meet you!
I'll have a go at Caro Kann then, since I feel more secure when another C4 player uses it.

 

[pulsar512b]

not a c4 player personally, but you might already know Sicilian (c5) better than you think because there’s a lot of reverse Sicilian positions that come out of the English...

Worth noting that while that teaches the sort of positions/pawn structures, usually the lines are quite different.

 

[fian]

I climbed from 1600 to ~1850 on Lichess in the last couple of months :) Here are some of my new favorite openings:

• 1...g6 is now my favorite response to 1.e4, because I can usually get easy development and White can't force a dry, symmetrical position like with the Exchange French. Typically the white player will play d4 / Nc3 / Nf3, the setup I go for against this is Bg7 / c6 / d5 which turns into a sort of hybrid Caro-Kann. How you play this is you go Bg4, take the knight at some point, then break with c5. If White takes then his e-pawn is very weak and you can go after it with moves like Nc6, etc. If you watch Hikaru's stream, you'll notice he likes playing this system a lot.
• Against the Sicilian I really like the Closed Sicilian with 2.Nc3 / 3.g3, which avoids whatever pet setup Black wants to adopt against the Open Sicilian. The setup is very straightforward: play d3 / Nge2 / O-O and start pushing your pawns on the kingside (f4-f5, h3-g4-g5-h4, etc.) Would highly recommend for KID players as the feel is very similar.
• I really struggle against the mainline Scandi, so I've been playing 2.Nc3. It's objectively bad, but it gets the Scandi player out of their comfort zone and can lead to a closed position with 2...d4.
• Against the Caro-Kann, search for the YouTube video "CRUSH the Caro-Kann with WGM Nemo Zhou". Play the line in that video, and I promise you will win like 90% of your games.

 

[ButteredToast]

Against the Caro-Kann, search for the YouTube video "CRUSH the Caro-Kann with WGM Nemo Zhou". Play the line in that video, and I promise you will win like 90% of your games.

Love these kind of discussions. I miss being in my HS chess club where we would all play different random stuff and report our practical findings and our unique lines to each other and play them against each other to test out their viabilities to try out in league play. Would be cool as hell based on how many people were interested in the previous chess tournament to see if a Smogon Chess League with like teams of 4 or something. Probably not too long term viable because of the crazy amounts of inactive but would be cool if it worked. Anyways...

As a ~1750 USCF / 1850 Chess.com Rapid / 2000 Lichess Rapid player who switched from playing the French vs 1.e4 to the Caro in September, I play the Botvinnik (immediate 3...c5) against the Advance and 95% of players REFUSE to take the pawn and play that line in the video and I'm immediately equal. It's so absurd, because almost every source I've ever seen says it's the most challenging line. And no one practically ever plays takes. Maybe they are afraid of giving up the center or the pawn chain being disrupted? Maybe they think it's a bad gambit for them? You'd think at my level, I would face the most challenging line more.

Wanted to see definitely how many times I've faced this recommended line and what my score was against it so I went ahead and OpeningTree'd my chess.com profile. Turns out even I underestimated just how infrequent I've faced the takes line.

Total Caro Games - 1053
Total Advance Caro Games - 192

1.e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 (Results shown as W/B/D)

4. c3 - 109 Total Games 49/49/11
4. Nf3 - 37 Total Games 16/21/0
4.dxc5 - 10 Total Games 4/5/1
Other - 36 Total Games 14/19/3

This is not including transpositions here, but it still seems pretty representative regardless.

Of the 10 games, I've played Nc6 7 times and e6 3 times. I've committed to playing Nc6 in those positions, and have faced the recommended move from the video (5.f4) 2 of those 7 times (1 win, 1 loss).

So just from my own games, not only would following that recommendation (if you are good enough in positional chess to play the resulting positions) will not only be "theoretical best" response to my repertoire, but also a quasi-novelty that most Botvinnik players up into expert level will not have any practical experience facing and you'll just end up being better.

Cannot speak on the Tal lines from experience, but I'd be curious if other Caro players here could. I'm a 1. d4 player, so I'm not so sure how worth it it'll be as white to devote to those lines as I'm not sure how often people face Caro's. But definitely seems like an ultra-strong recommendation for anyone in the 1400+ range to try and take on.

Something I'll definitely have to visit when I get done with perfecting my white opening repertoire. Thanks for sharing!

 

[pulsar512b]

Love these kind of discussions. I miss being in my HS chess club where we would all play different random stuff and report our practical findings and our unique lines to each other and play them against each other to test out their viabilities to try out in league play. Would be cool as hell based on how many people were interested in the previous chess tournament to see if a Smogon Chess League with like teams of 4 or something. Probably not too long term viable because of the crazy amounts of inactive but would be cool if it worked. Anyways...

As a ~1750 USCF / 1850 Chess.com Rapid / 2000 Lichess Rapid player who switched from playing the French vs 1.e4 to the Caro in September, I play the Botvinnik (immediate 3...c5) against the Advance and 95% of players REFUSE to take the pawn and play that line in the video and I'm immediately equal. It's so absurd, because almost every source I've ever seen says it's the most challenging line. And no one practically ever plays takes. Maybe they are afraid of giving up the center or the pawn chain being disrupted? Maybe they think it's a bad gambit for them? You'd think at my level, I would face the most challenging line more.

Wanted to see definitely how many times I've faced this recommended line and what my score was against it so I went ahead and OpeningTree'd my chess.com profile. Turns out even I underestimated just how infrequent I've faced the takes line.

Total Caro Games - 1053
Total Advance Caro Games - 192

1.e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 (Results shown as W/B/D)

4. c3 - 109 Total Games 49/49/11
4. Nf3 - 37 Total Games 16/21/0
4.dxc5 - 10 Total Games 4/5/1
Other - 36 Total Games 14/19/3

This is not including transpositions here, but it still seems pretty representative regardless.

Of the 10 games, I've played Nc6 7 times and e6 3 times. I've committed to playing Nc6 in those positions, and have faced the recommended move from the video (5.f4) 2 of those 7 times (1 win, 1 loss).

So just from my own games, not only would following that recommendation (if you are good enough in positional chess to play the resulting positions) will not only be "theoretical best" response to my repertoire, but also a quasi-novelty that most Botvinnik players up into expert level will not have any practical experience facing and you'll just end up being better.

Cannot speak on the Tal lines from experience, but I'd be curious if other Caro players here could. I'm a 1. d4 player, so I'm not so sure how worth it it'll be as white to devote to those lines as I'm not sure how often people face Caro's. But definitely seems like an ultra-strong recommendation for anyone in the 1400+ range to try and take on.

Something I'll definitely have to visit when I get done with perfecting my white opening repertoire. Thanks for sharing!

As a Caro player (2100+ blitz, 2000+ rapid, ~2000 classical lichess), the Tal lines are certainly the most challenging line, but you should note that the other advance lines also have some bite to them for sure. Really, there's a case that every line vs the caro excluding dumb shit like 2. bc4 or the BDG is tricky for black lol.
Also worth noting that even if they do play dxc5, they have to know that they play a3 after nc6, which nobody does :)
And if they know that.. well it can still go south (example game)


Note that if you're in a situation where white can prepare for you, you're gonna have a rough time- that's honestly why I'm swapping over to e4 e5 (Berlin vs the Ruy).
Despite what it seems, nobody actually plays into the endgame (it's to the point where it's annoying that I can't get practice there....), and relatively few play Re1 (same problem lol)- everyone either doesn't play the Ruy or plays the 4. d3 stuff which is basically an italian

 

[Cresselia~~]

One more minor thing:
I noticed that Lichess is gaining a lot of popularity over chess.com during my hiatus.
Why is the reason people are choosing Lichess now?

not a c4 player personally, but you might already know Sicilian (c5) better than you think because there’s a lot of reverse Sicilian positions that come out of the English...

Thanks for your suggestion. I've seen other high-leveled chess players recommend Sicillian for C4 players.
But I somehow think Caro Kann is easier to understand for me right now. Could be just me though.

 

[pulsar512b]

One more minor thing:
I noticed that Lichess is gaining a lot of popularity over chess.com during my hiatus.
Why is the reason people are choosing Lichess now?

free, no ads, and (in most people's opinion) better UI- also arguably better features with e.g. analysis being more robust
also doesnt bug you about membership constantly
also a couple scandals involving them (e.g. the simul cheating stuff)

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

Cannot speak on the Tal lines from experience, but I'd be curious if other Caro players here could

Tal line is on my to-do list to get study/experience with, ofc the advanced variation is the most challenging line and by reputation the Tal line is the most aggressive form of that. I've been playing the Two Knights and generally enjoying my positions but I haven't been scoring well with them, probably a little too easy to play for Black if not playing the most incisive moves in the early-mid game.

 

[fian]

Love these kind of discussions. I miss being in my HS chess club where we would all play different random stuff and report our practical findings and our unique lines to each other and play them against each other to test out their viabilities to try out in league play. Would be cool as hell based on how many people were interested in the previous chess tournament to see if a Smogon Chess League with like teams of 4 or something. Probably not too long term viable because of the crazy amounts of inactive but would be cool if it worked. Anyways...

As a ~1750 USCF / 1850 Chess.com Rapid / 2000 Lichess Rapid player who switched from playing the French vs 1.e4 to the Caro in September, I play the Botvinnik (immediate 3...c5) against the Advance and 95% of players REFUSE to take the pawn and play that line in the video and I'm immediately equal. It's so absurd, because almost every source I've ever seen says it's the most challenging line. And no one practically ever plays takes. Maybe they are afraid of giving up the center or the pawn chain being disrupted? Maybe they think it's a bad gambit for them? You'd think at my level, I would face the most challenging line more.

Wanted to see definitely how many times I've faced this recommended line and what my score was against it so I went ahead and OpeningTree'd my chess.com profile. Turns out even I underestimated just how infrequent I've faced the takes line.

Total Caro Games - 1053
Total Advance Caro Games - 192

1.e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 (Results shown as W/B/D)

4. c3 - 109 Total Games 49/49/11
4. Nf3 - 37 Total Games 16/21/0
4.dxc5 - 10 Total Games 4/5/1
Other - 36 Total Games 14/19/3

This is not including transpositions here, but it still seems pretty representative regardless.

Of the 10 games, I've played Nc6 7 times and e6 3 times. I've committed to playing Nc6 in those positions, and have faced the recommended move from the video (5.f4) 2 of those 7 times (1 win, 1 loss).

So just from my own games, not only would following that recommendation (if you are good enough in positional chess to play the resulting positions) will not only be "theoretical best" response to my repertoire, but also a quasi-novelty that most Botvinnik players up into expert level will not have any practical experience facing and you'll just end up being better.

Cannot speak on the Tal lines from experience, but I'd be curious if other Caro players here could. I'm a 1. d4 player, so I'm not so sure how worth it it'll be as white to devote to those lines as I'm not sure how often people face Caro's. But definitely seems like an ultra-strong recommendation for anyone in the 1400+ range to try and take on.

Something I'll definitely have to visit when I get done with perfecting my white opening repertoire. Thanks for sharing!

Nice choice, I'd say 3...c5 is definitely better than 3...Bf5 from a practical point of view. Even at 2000 I guess not everyone is booked up on theory and knows how to punish it; I also struggled with facing it until I studied it recently.

As a Caro player (2100+ blitz, 2000+ rapid, ~2000 classical lichess), the Tal lines are certainly the most challenging line, but you should note that the other advance lines also have some bite to them for sure. Really, there's a case that every line vs the caro excluding dumb shit like 2. bc4 or the BDG is tricky for black lol.
Also worth noting that even if they do play dxc5, they have to know that they play a3 after nc6, which nobody does :)
And if they know that.. well it can still go south (example game)


Note that if you're in a situation where white can prepare for you, you're gonna have a rough time- that's honestly why I'm swapping over to e4 e5 (Berlin vs the Ruy).
Despite what it seems, nobody actually plays into the endgame (it's to the point where it's annoying that I can't get practice there....), and relatively few play Re1 (same problem lol)- everyone either doesn't play the Ruy or plays the 4. d3 stuff which is basically an italian

They can also play 5/f4 after 4...Nc6 and just hang on to the pawn, unless you play 5...e6 which blocks your bishop. I think a3 is supposed to be the reply to 4...e6.

 

[pulsar512b]

Nice choice, I'd say 3...c5 is definitely better than 3...Bf5 from a practical point of view. Even at 2000 I guess not everyone is booked up on theory and knows how to punish it; I also struggled with facing it until I studied it recently.



They can also play 5/f4 after 4...Nc6 and just hang on to the pawn, unless you play 5...e6 which blocks your bishop. I think a3 is supposed to be the reply to 4...e6.

Of course yeah you're supposed to play e6 not nc6- was just giving an example of how someone who is not familiar in this stuff could end up going down quickly.

 

[cityscapes]

hey, does anyone know a good response to d4 openings that comes with dynamic counterplay? typically these openings tend to be super symmetrical so it can be a real nightmare to get any sort of advantage beyond equalizing (also why i never enter into the giuoco pianissimo), and my tactical knowledge just goes unused in favor of more unfamiliar positional concepts. for example in this correspondence game against a friend i tried to create an attack early on to disrupt things, but i made a mistake putting the bishop on the wrong square and he was able to consolidate and win soon after by having better pieces.

i have tried the englund and dutch but both just feel very unsound and though the positions are a bit more dynamic i never really feel happy to have the black pieces. lately what i've been doing is accepting the queen's gambit and playing 2. ...c5 against others such as the london system, which are more sound but it can still be hard to get the type of game i want (such as this game from today, where everything just got super closed, but i felt like if i didn't close the center i was worse due to letting out their bishop). for reference im about 1650 rapid on lichess.

 

[ButteredToast]

hey, does anyone know a good response to d4 openings that comes with dynamic counterplay? typically these openings tend to be super symmetrical so it can be a real nightmare to get any sort of advantage beyond equalizing (also why i never enter into the giuoco pianissimo), and my tactical knowledge just goes unused in favor of more unfamiliar positional concepts. for example in this correspondence game against a friend i tried to create an attack early on to disrupt things, but i made a mistake putting the bishop on the wrong square and he was able to consolidate and win soon after by having better pieces.

i have tried the englund and dutch but both just feel very unsound and though the positions are a bit more dynamic i never really feel happy to have the black pieces. lately what i've been doing is accepting the queen's gambit and playing 2. ...c5 against others such as the london system, which are more sound but it can still be hard to get the type of game i want (such as this game from today, where everything just got super closed, but i felt like if i didn't close the center i was worse due to letting out their bishop). for reference im about 1650 rapid on lichess.

I have played the Queen's Gambit / 1.d4 for over a decade. I've gotten to the point in my chess career where I wanted to put together a "Complete D4" repertoire for myself that I can use as a reference for the rest of my life. It's a full blown project that I've been working on everyday for the past month. As such, I've been reviewing literally every response to 1.d4 from the most absurd to the mainlines every day for the past month. Today I was off of work and just finished doing the sidelines of the Benoni.

When choosing your response to 1.d4, you're really have only 4 choices that each have their own issues. These are:

• Mainline QG Lines (Accepted, Declined, Slav, Semi-Slav)
• Mainline Indian Lines (King's Indian, Nimzo Indian, Gruenfeld)
• Slightly Dubious Sidelines (Benoni, Benko, Blumenfeld, Dutch, Albin)
• Very Dubious Sidelines (Englund, Budapest, Austrian, Chigorin)

Unless you're going up against 2200+ players often, you're fine existing in the first 3 buckets of openings. I've personally been playing the Classical Dutch against 1.d4 for the past 8 months and I have absolutely loved my experiences in it. I've had some absolutely beautiful victories online and over the board, and it's exactly the type of positionally aggressive opening that I'm looking to play and allows me to force both QG, London, English, and Reti players into MY GAME. There are some lines that cause me some troubles, but they're highly theoretical and exceptionally rare for me to get. The one otb game where I got a bad position in the Dutch was against someone 100 points higher than me who in the post mortem said they played the Dutch as well, and I ended up making a move order issue that cost me. I would say that the only reason to give up on the Dutch would be if you do not like the resulting positions, which it seems like you don't.

My primary recommendation to you would be to explore the King's Indian, as it's the most aggressive option that black has against 1.d4. It definitely is still a positional opening, but the middlegame is where the bread gets buttered and there are very few lines in which black is going to be on the defensive. It is definitely an opening that has a steep learning curve and will require a good understanding of positional chess to pull off, but that's just the nature of d4 openings.

Secondary recommendation would be the Nimzo Indian / Ragozin Queen's Gambit Declined. The Nimzo itself is a very easy opening to learn and understand and is all based on the fact that black is ahead on development and white is going to be slow to develop their pieces and control the center. The downside is that white can completely avoid the Nimzo Indian, and you need a response to the Anti-Nimzo lines. As white, I like facing the Queen's Indian and Bogo Indian. The thing I'm most uncomfortable with is when black transitions into a Ragozin, which plays pretty similar to the Nimzo lines I go out of my way to avoid. Against the London system, there is a popular line with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 e6 3.e3 c5 that plays similarly to the systems you currently play if you like those positions.

If you don't like those ideas, the Benko and Blumenfeld Gambits are something you can look into as they are highly aggressive Benoni-esque games that yield very original positions that test whites understanding of things outside the main line. They're not as sound as the other 2 recommendations, but again, I think it is a major mistake for people u2200 to play things that are the "objective best openings at GM level." Truth of the matter, a 1.d4 player is probably going to be off their element when facing these two gambits and are not going to have the most dedicated and testing lines prepared verses them. A buddy of mine who would probably be ~1900 if he learned a lick of proper theory use to terrorize me with these openings until I got angry and specifically prepared against him. Even if white is booked up, black is not going to end up ever being dramatically worse to the point where it isn't playable. You will still need a London response, but this could at least get you into the positions you want verses the QG.

Pretty much all of my 2 cents.

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

I have another option beyond what BT suggests, I actually play 1...e6 against d4 with the reasoning that 90% of d4 players aren't looking to transpose into a French. This does two things, it allows me to play into my English defense against 1. d4 2. c4 (e6 after d4, b6 after c4 in either order, Bb7 next but Bb4 immediately after Nc3) which is a super solid hypermodern opening that plays aggressively in the opening, forces your opp to respond in certain ways to not quickly drop a center pawn. Basically all of blacks ideas are about fighting for the e4 square or abusing the lack of commitment by white to place a pawn there. You very often have a powerful knight outpost on e4 from which your fianchettoed b7 bishop lands after a piece exchange, and many of the middle game plans lead themselves well to a kingside attack, several lines where you can push your g pawn, hide the king on h8 and use the file for your rooks.

The other benefit of play e6 on move 1 is that against e.g. 1. d4 and 2. Nf3 or 2. g3 is that I can enter a classical dutch without giving my opponent the chance to enter into the Staunton gambit, which is basically the entire reason the classic dutch is dangerous. It has many similar ideas to the English defense and you get very dynamic play with both setups, I know some lines of the dutch also include a b7 fianchetto. Someone may be able to tell that I'm a big fan of the English/Simon Williams/Tony Miles style of chess.

When I do get d4 e6 e4 I tend to follow up with c5 rather than d5, playing into a Franco Sicilian. It's a little bit dubious, has some transpositions into Old Benoni lines, but it's at least positions that most French players will have next to zero experience handling.

You also mentioned the London, and d4 e6 whatever c5 is a fantastic setup against that with Qb6 to come

 

[musiquepkmn]

hey, does anyone know a good response to d4 openings that comes with dynamic counterplay? typically these openings tend to be super symmetrical so it can be a real nightmare to get any sort of advantage beyond equalizing (also why i never enter into the giuoco pianissimo), and my tactical knowledge just goes unused in favor of more unfamiliar positional concepts. for example in this correspondence game against a friend i tried to create an attack early on to disrupt things, but i made a mistake putting the bishop on the wrong square and he was able to consolidate and win soon after by having better pieces.

i have tried the englund and dutch but both just feel very unsound and though the positions are a bit more dynamic i never really feel happy to have the black pieces. lately what i've been doing is accepting the queen's gambit and playing 2. ...c5 against others such as the london system, which are more sound but it can still be hard to get the type of game i want (such as this game from today, where everything just got super closed, but i felt like if i didn't close the center i was worse due to letting out their bishop). for reference im about 1650 rapid on lichess.

One thing to add if you do choose to switch repertoires is the Indian Defense, or Agadmator's Anti-London. It makes the accelerated london players taken out of their premoving game and leads directly to the type of dynamic, sharp and tactical positions you are looking for. The mainline goes like this:

1.d4 nf6 2.bf4 c5 3. e3 qb6

Right off the bat the early queen move takes london players off their guard. Of course the normal london move c3 is pretty bad here. In fact, the top moves from the computer and the database's perspective actually gambit this pawn, which is not something London players load up games to do.

If this piques your interest, you should check out the free anti-london course on chessable. Like every good course it starts off with some of the most testing variations that you will immediately find are sharp and very different from usual london positions. I highly recommend this opening in online rapid, blitz, and maybe bullet (if ur fast) games. It's a great compliment to the KID which I find to be kind of boring to play against the London (like pretty much every other opening).

Just a note, this opening is VERY different against 2.nf3 variations of the london. Oftentimes at high level it'll transpose into benko gambit declined, which I still don't know why it's called that since black still gambits a pawn, but whatever. Anyways, you'll usually end up with a pretty closed position against 2.nc3 so I wouldn't bother with it against that.

 

[Bughouse]

wow what a match today. Magnus missing Rcc2 100 moves before the game ultimately ended and a really innocuous Qe6 being the move that eventually turned a tablebase draw into a tablebase loss and Magnus ruthlessly taking the advantage gained on that one move to never give Ian back drawing chances.

 

[Myzozoa]

My primary recommendation to you would be to explore the King's Indian, as it's the most aggressive option that black has against 1.d4.

as a barely 1500 rapid player who almost exclusively plays the Queen's gambit w white, I actively try to avoid the Nimzo, but really don't mind the King's Indian, just something to think about. I feel like if they play the King's Indian I kind of get everything I want besides a big attack, but w the Nimzo, I still never get a big attack, with the knight on f6 being good enough to defend their king, and I have to fight the black pawns for the center.

 

[McGrrr]

So sad for Nepo. I'm also disappointed that we probably won't even get to see a game 13, nevermind a game 14. This match feels like a shitty album with just one great track on it.

The post-game press conferences since game 8 have been unbearable.

 

[McGrrr]

Welp, we didn't even get a game 12. Nepo really went 1.0-5.0 after being tied at 2.5-2.5. Game 6 broke records and broke Nepo. Magnus GOAT.

 

[Myzozoa]

it's ok now we have 25 years of alireza vs magnus wcc matches to look forward to

 

[FlyingCactus]

Im 1700 USCF rated and I can hold my own against the 1900-2000's who are at my club, but online I am complete garbage and miss tactics and ideas that seem so obvious afterward. How do you guys play better online than otb?

Also, for some reason I play so much more solid and get fantastic positions against stronger players... but against players who are clearly weaker the feeling of nervousness of losing to a worse player gets to me and I slip up and am very inconsistent. Am I the only one who plays like this? And how can I fight this kinda psychological wall I have?

 

[Myzozoa]

im a bad beginning player who has never really learned any openings (like I feel like if I'm honest I know 1 part of the mainlines of queen's gambit for white+how to avoid the fried liver w black, and nothing else. like sure, I "know" the move order for some lines of the italian game, but being real I should not really be going for the italian game at my level).

How do you learn openings? and what openings do you recommend for black? I'm kind of too dumb to ever become actually good at chess, so mainly looking for lines that lead to favorable end games or at least clear end game plans. Like, how did you come to understand an opening beyond just memorizing some move orders? I just feel so lost trying to understand the positions im trying to get w openings and what types of plans I have in those positions.

Is there a certain lichess.com study or free youtube video that was particularly helpful for you to finally understand what types of positions to play for from a certain opening? repost it at me if possible plz.

Also, for some reason I play so much more solid and get fantastic positions against stronger players... but against players who are clearly weaker the feeling of nervousness of losing to a worse player gets to me and I slip up and am very inconsistent. Am I the only one who plays like this? And how can I fight this kinda psychological wall I have?

I am not a even a good chess player, but ime: Until you develop the mental aspect of your game to the point where you no longer think about/are affected by whether your opponent is weaker or stronger than you, you should try "pretending" that your lower rated opponents are actually higher rated and youre the underdog, possibly in addition to "pretending" that your stronger opponents are actually lower rated. I know it sounds crazy, but if you want this aspect of the mental game you may need to practice dumb mind tricks like this on yourself. I used to have a similar problem in a different sport and this is sort of like what I did to overcome it only applied to your case (my problem was that I went easier on my opponents when I was winning, so I would pretend my opponent's score was my score when I was winning so that I wouldn't 'let up').

 

[Garrett]

Some openings are cruel. The whole “play e4/d4 if you’re a beginner” is dumb as fuck. There is nothing wrong with the Italian game at any level. If you like it, keep it and review where you go wrong. Likely, if you’re a beginner beginner, opening theory will be second to an improvement in tactics and developing positional ideas (and when to be concrete vs. dynamic) anyway.

I wish when I started that I had known that not all openings are equal in terms of theory. Or at least, certain ones are far more critical and require more complete knowledge of that opening. For example I at some point changed from French to Caro-Kann and I knew how to play the positions already (they’re very similar due to pawn play and space, etc.), and it made a world of difference. I will admit that certain openings (for me stuff like a Rubenstein French) make it easier to follow others—sort of like similar programming languages lol. I know 12 moves deep of Winawer french theory in a lot of variations, and you know what, I’m fighting to equalize still. Don’t jump into the Sicilian as black “if you want to win like GMs do”, don’t play the French as black unless you’re comfortable getting squeezed and playing specific only moves sometimes, don’t play into spicy lines of the KID for either color without colorful masochism. Your opening choices should be based on what kinds of positions you enjoy and your dedication to face the criticality that sort of opening can present. As your style and confidence changes, your preference for opening weapons will as well.