OT: Chess

[aufheben]

I'm not sure that I think of it as advanced, but it definitely requires more forethought than developing the bishop toward the centre of the board. Especially if it is your castling side that you intend to fianchetto.

I actually don't use it a bunch in my own games, so I have more experience with attacking or neutralizing those bishops than utilizing them. A surprising amount of players will quickly fianchetto on the queenside as black without bothering to calculate that I am able to permanently close that diagonal. And seeing a black kingside fianchetto gives me a target to focus on; try to force a bishop trade then attack the weakened pawn structure.

There are definitely things that you need to consider and to be aware of when you fianchetto, but that bishop can be very powerful, very early if you work it right. You also have to assume that your opponent is going to gobble up a little extra centre or pick up a tempo on you, and be prepared to deal with that.

Yeah there’s just more things you need to consider like exactly what you posted: the Bishop getting trapped in and neutralized, it will be stationery for most of the game, the weekend pawn structure, and becoming a clear target for the opposition.

On the other hand, it gives your Bishop essentially it’s longest possible diagonal and cuts right through the center of the board. I’ve found it to me more usual as black than white because it’s it good and fast way to counter white’s initiative in the center.

It’s interesting that you don’t utilize it since you play the English where fianchettoing one if not both Bishops seems to be white’s goal. The English seems theoretically similar to black: you counter the center from the flanks with distance, and allow the opponent to steer the direction of the center.

 

[Harbour Dog]

Yeah there’s just more things you need to consider like exactly what you posted: the Bishop getting trapped in and neutralized, it will be stationery for most of the game, the weekend pawn structure, and becoming a clear target for the opposition.

On the other hand, it gives your Bishop essentially it’s longest possible diagonal and cuts right through the center of the board. I’ve found it to me more usual as black than white because it’s it good and fast way to counter white’s initiative in the center.

It’s interesting that you don’t utilize it since you play the English where fianchettoing one if not both Bishops seems to be white’s goal. The English seems theoretically similar to black: you counter the center from the flanks with distance, and allow the opponent to steer the direction of the center.

The English should be tailor made for a white fianchetto, yup. I just like trying to throw people off balance haha

In the line that I play, the computer generally tells me to play g3 fairly early. I do know those lines, I just find them kind of draw-ish so I prefer mine. It's actually a variation developed by Aron Ninzowitsch who is widely viewed as the father of hypermodern chess. Everybody els at the time was fighting for the centre with their pawns, and he was like, "Nah, I can do that with my pieces from a distance."

I may just not be confident enough to regularly fianchetto kingside with either colour. The vast majority of my fianchettos are queenside and they are only after I know for sure that I have the time to do it and that it will remain a powerful diagonal.

Have you been trying to work the Modern Defense into your game?

 

[Chimpradamus]

The English should be tailor made for a white fianchetto, yup. I just like trying to throw people off balance haha

In the line that I play, the computer generally tells me to play g3 fairly early. I do know those lines, I just find them kind of draw-ish so I prefer mine. It's actually a variation developed by Aron Ninzowitsch who is widely viewed as the father of hypermodern chess. Everybody els at the time was fighting for the centre with their pawns, and he was like, "Nah, I can do that with my pieces from a distance."

I may just not be confident enough to regularly fianchetto kingside with either colour. The vast majority of my fianchettos are queenside and they are only after I know for sure that I have the time to do it and that it will remain a powerful diagonal.

Have you been trying to work the Modern Defense into your game?

If you're a lower rated player, I wouldn't recommend to try the modern defense. It requires alot of experience. You will easily become dominated and lose, because you don't know how to weaken and counter when you give up the center. If I was a beginner, I would try sharp openings and focus on tactics. Pinning, diagonals, pulling off diagonals, lines, development, that kind of stuff. A modern defense requires positional awareness and I would say that's not what you should play if you want to develop as a chess player.

Take my advice with a grain of salt. I mean, I played positional openings from the start, but my tactics are weaker than they should be, I think. I can't say it's wrong, I just say you have to be accurate to be playing modern defenses. Even I feel uncomfortable playing modern defenses and I'm a 1870 FIDE player - and I'm a mainly positional player.

Don't learn from masters, because they play in a way we cannot, because we play too many inaccurate moves. To give any more knowledge of the game, I will give this video:

 

[aufheben]

The English should be tailor made for a white fianchetto, yup. I just like trying to throw people off balance haha

In the line that I play, the computer generally tells me to play g3 fairly early. I do know those lines, I just find them kind of draw-ish so I prefer mine. It's actually a variation developed by Aron Ninzowitsch who is widely viewed as the father of hypermodern chess. Everybody els at the time was fighting for the centre with their pawns, and he was like, "Nah, I can do that with my pieces from a distance."

I may just not be confident enough to regularly fianchetto kingside with either colour. The vast majority of my fianchettos are queenside and they are only after I know for sure that I have the time to do it and that it will remain a powerful diagonal.

Have you been trying to work the Modern Defense into your game?

Yeah I was playing the Modern last night since I’m still interested in an opening you can throw out against all of e4/d4/c4. The Modern seems viable against e4/d4, and the Great Snake 1...g6 is popular response to the English. Not bad results but the compact nature can get you into trouble quickly if you don’t know what you’re doing. Also been trying the Sicilian Kan.

 

[Harbour Dog]

Yeah I was playing the Modern last night since I’m still interested in an opening you can throw out against all of e4/d4/c4. The Modern seems viable against e4/d4, and the Great Snake 1...g6 is popular response to the English. Not bad results but the compact nature can get you into trouble quickly if you don’t know what you’re doing. Also been trying the Sicilian Kan.

Yeah, those openings get cramped in a hurry.

I don't think I've heard of that Sicilian variation before. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get on this weekend! I'm Jonesin' for some games.

 

[aufheben]

Yeah, those openings get cramped in a hurry.

I don't think I've heard of that Sicilian variation before. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get on this weekend! I'm Jonesin' for some games.

It’s 1...c5 2...e6 3...exd4 4...a6. There’s a variation of the Kan called the Hedgehog where you line up the majority of your pawns on the 6th rank and develop your pieces along the 7th. That one is super cramped but it’s effective.

...then 0-0, Rc8, Re8.

 

[Harbour Dog]

I may have stumbled into a few games in this variation before. Now, I answer 2.d4 cxd4 before I even touch the e-pawn.

I assume you mean 3...cxd4?

4...a6 looks like it is the defining move for this variation? I'd be curious to see how the middle game looks coming from this. I push b5 in the early middle game of many Sicilians, and end up with a huge space advantage on that side that I am only able to use effectively about half the time. Perhaps this could be a bit of a safer "lock the queenside" route for me to go if I see better opportunities elsewhere.

Also, as an aside, that position you posted looks terrible for Black . I'm sure it's sound as long as you tread carefully, but White has much more room and can generate some crazy pressure on the kingside.

 

[aufheben]

I may have stumbled into a few games in this variation before. Now, I answer 2.d4 cxd4 before I even touch the e-pawn.

I assume you mean 3...cxd4?

4...a6 looks like it is the defining move for this variation? I'd be curious to see how the middle game looks coming from this. I push b5 in the early middle game of many Sicilians, and end up with a huge space advantage on that side that I am only able to use effectively about half the time. Perhaps this could be a bit of a safer "lock the queenside" route for me to go if I see better opportunities elsewhere.

Also, as an aside, that position you posted looks terrible for Black . I'm sure it's sound as long as you tread carefully, but White has much more room and can generate some crazy pressure on the kingside.

Correct, and 2...e6 instead of 2...d6. I'm still not amazing and naming the squares rigt off the bat, lol.

@Harbour Dog Hikaru is getting killed by Naroditsky right now. 4-1 and Hikaru is about to lose his 5th.

 

[Ben Grimm]

Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri, Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja. I hope you guys watch this. Enjoy.

 

[Chimpradamus]

It’s 1...c5 2...e6 3...exd4 4...a6. There’s a variation of the Kan called the Hedgehog where you line up the majority of your pawns on the 6th rank and develop your pieces along the 7th. That one is super cramped but it’s effective.

...then 0-0, Rc8, Re8.

You've been following the Rangers for too long. You seem to be used to feeling cramped in your own zone.

I'm a fan of putting one knight on its natural square (c3/ f3 for white and c6/f6 for black) and place one knight on the 2nd row (d2/e2 and d7/e7). Not only do they protect eachother, but either the c or f pawn is free to advance and attack the center at the right time. If your opponent takes, you have exchanged an important center pawn for a flank pawn and gained a good square for your knight.

The downside is of course that one of your knights not being on a natural square leads to you controlling less important squares and chess is alot about controlling squares. That's also what I love about chess. There is no magic happening, you always trade one advantage for one disadvantage, unless you or your opponent makes a mistake. Then it's just free real estate.

That's why it's so important to understand why you play each move, you can't just learn the opening combination and be done with it. When you know why you play every move in an opening and what its strengths and weaknesses are, you can face any opening responses with your most optimal response.

As I've previously said, I've stuck to the English opening as white and the Slav/ Caro-Kann as black for many, many years. But, I've also tried out the Sicilian opening as black and even the Budapest gambit (I even bought a book about it), or the King's gambit as white. There are so many openings and it's all about finding a structure you feel comfortable playing and like.

But, stick to few openings as a start. Otherwise you will get stuck and not find a plan and if you can't find a plan, you will become static and lose. When you get used to an opening, you know what the plans usually are and you might even find crazy ones from time to time.

 

[VanIslander]

I was ranked 11th in Canada in 4th grade elementary when i won my school, town, region and province.

I then went into a room in York, Ontario (I from B.C.) against 9 other provincial champions and two territories (i know there are 3 but only 2 were in the national final).

How was it?

In a room of 12 kids i was LUCKY to finish 11th! It was a double elimination round, and I had LOSS-DRAW-DRAW-LOSS. The only upside was i drew against the guy who lost the final.

I had bo business winning the provincial championship as even my dad told me *i was 10 years old* that he thought i had lost the provincial semifinal.

You see, i won on DEFENSE. I had passive gameplay, few attacks, looked to gain a SINGLE PAWN advantage then play it out. Why? Because my dad always frustrated me with that strategy and it was my go-to backup plan. My dad beat a guy ranked 109th in Canada in the late 1960's at the chess club in Richmond, B.C. and he walked away when they tried to put him on a clock. I, in 1979, overcame ny lack of familiarity with a punch clock to make my finals run.

My father taught me: defense first, seek not to attack but build for counterattack ("show the cheese") and get "a pawn advantage" and "play it out". I HATED that strategy because my dad always used it, but it served me well in competition.

If anyone on these boards wanna play me with no clock or an extended clock, PM me, I'm all game. I have a Master's degree in Philosophy in part because my dad taught me how to THINK SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY. "At least three moves ahead" was his mantra.

He has passed away. I still enjoy chess immensely. I have been teaching overseas in South Korea for 17 years and the local version of chess has an elephant (horse with bigger footprint), cannon (like a castle but must shoot ovet another) and the king and his pawn/guards are limited around him.

 

[Harbour Dog]

Correct, and 2...e6 instead of 2...d6. I'm still not amazing and naming the squares rigt off the bat, lol.

@Harbour Dog Hikaru is getting killed by Naroditsky right now. 4-1 and Hikaru is about to lose his 5th.

Oh frig haha, well if it is d6 then I've almost certainly stumbled into it a few times. I'm only just now starting to switch to e6 first ahead of d6.

That must of demolished his rating!

Natoditsky is one of the most fun guys to listen to when he's playing or watching chess. When they did the Puzzle Rush Championship on chess.com, he was just completely freaking out in the final haha

 

[Harbour Dog]

Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri, Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja. I hope you guys watch this. Enjoy.

I'll be watching. Work has been incredibly busy for me over the last couple weeks, and cracking a beer or two and watching this tournament is one of the few anticipations that has kept me sane.

 

[Harbour Dog]

Agreed. I'm gonna pick up some Molson, Labatt, or Carling.

Mooshead Lager, here!

Which reminds me to pick some more up after work today haha

 

[aufheben]

You've been following the Rangers for too long. You seem to be used to feeling cramped in your own zone.

I'm a fan of putting one knight on its natural square (c3/ f3 for white and c6/f6 for black) and place one knight on the 2nd row (d2/e2 and d7/e7). Not only do they protect eachother, but either the c or f pawn is free to advance and attack the center at the right time. If your opponent takes, you have exchanged an important center pawn for a flank pawn and gained a good square for your knight.

The downside is of course that one of your knights not being on a natural square leads to you controlling less important squares and chess is alot about controlling squares. That's also what I love about chess. There is no magic happening, you always trade one advantage for one disadvantage, unless you or your opponent makes a mistake. Then it's just free real estate.

That's why it's so important to understand why you play each move, you can't just learn the opening combination and be done with it. When you know why you play every move in an opening and what its strengths and weaknesses are, you can face any opening responses with your most optimal response.

As I've previously said, I've stuck to the English opening as white and the Slav/ Caro-Kann as black for many, many years. But, I've also tried out the Sicilian opening as black and even the Budapest gambit (I even bought a book about it), or the King's gambit as white. There are so many openings and it's all about finding a structure you feel comfortable playing and like.

But, stick to few openings as a start. Otherwise you will get stuck and not find a plan and if you can't find a plan, you will become static and lose. When you get used to an opening, you know what the plans usually are and you might even find crazy ones from time to time.

What openings would you recommend to a beginner for black against each of e4, d4, and c4? As white, I play the Queen's Pawn Opening (either QG or the London System), but I'm thinking about switching to the King's Pawn to hep improve my tactical play.

 

[Harbour Dog]

And... now I have to work tomorrow. No chess tournament for me, unfortunately.

 

[Harbour Dog]

This post is for you.

"MC Invitational: Ding and Carlsen win on opening day

4/18/2020 – The Magnus Carlsen Invitational kicked off with two stellar match-ups. The world champion traded blows with Hikaru Nakamura and won the Armageddon decider to get two points for the overall standings table, while Ding Liren defeated Alireza Firouzja without needing a tiebreaker. There was no lack of drama, as a small technical glitch and an intervention by the arbiter distracted Nakamura — the American grandmaster was understanding and accepted defeat." MC Invitational: Ding and Carlsen win on opening day

Tomorrow!

 

[Harbour Dog]

Magnus Carlsen Invitational: Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave score

"4/19/2020 – Round one of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational concluded on Sunday. Three players are sharing the lead with 3 points each after scoring match victories without needing a tiebreaker. On day two, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated an out-of-form Anish Giri, while Fabiano Caruana won the fourth game of his match-up against Ian Nepomniachtchi after the latter missed some chances in the previous drawn games." Magnus Carlsen Invitational: Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave score

I watched yesterday's games. MVL may have been the only guy who brought his A-game; not sure if that will continue for the rest of the tournament, but Caruana and Nepo were lackluster and Giri was outright bad (by Super Grandmaster standards).

 

[Harbour Dog]

The Carlsen-Firouzja match from today looks like it was a doozy. I am only just about to start looking at the games.

 

[ecemleafs]

played a game last week on chess.com and got an 87.5 rating when i analyzed it. best so far! dominated the guy.

 

[aufheben]

played a game last week on chess.com and got an 87.5 rating when i analyzed it. best so far! dominated the guy.

I'm aufheben89 on chess.com if you want to add me.

 

[Harbour Dog]

"4/20/2020 – After Monday's round, the Magnus Carlsen Invitational has a sole leader in the world champion himself. Magnus Carlsen got a 2½:1½ victory over 16-year-old Alireza Firouzja, thus gaining three points for the overall standings. Firouzja did get to win a game, when Carlsen blundered the game away in one move. In the other match of the day, Hikaru Nakamura defeated Anish Giri." Magnus Carlsen Invitational: Carlsen beats Firouzja

MC looked good. Round 2.5:

Ding,L

2836

Caruana,F

2773

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Vachier-Lagrave,M

2860

Nepomniachtchi,I

2778

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Caruana joined Carlsen in the lead today. I haven't got a chance to check out the games yet, but both Caruana and Nepo won their last rapid game to tie it up, then won with black in the armageddon game.

 

[aufheben]

Recent game between me and @Harbour Dog that was pretty wild. He was white, I was black. I lost on time by 0.5 seconds. 10-min Blitz.

 

[Harbour Dog]

Interesting game. / It looks like the semis are set. I like it. The top 3 classical players and Nakamura who is one of the best, if not the best, speed players. I could see some players giving up traditional in person, classical chess for online chess and a variant such as Kramnik's No Castling Chess or Fischer Random Chess 960. I like Kramnik's idea better, but would love to see you two play one game of each! @aufheben @Harbour Dog

I think that the highest level of chess would benefit the most from variants like this, meant mostly to make players think for themselves earlier in games.

At our level, players are so far from mastering the game that classic chess is still "pure" in my opinion.

That said, I've played Fischer Random (Chess360) a few times and really enjoyed it. It helps a lot with basic reasoning of the game, as nothing is a given anymore about what setups are strong and what ones are weak.

I've never played with no castling, but it sounds like a good idea. When Kramnik first introduced it, he ran a bunch of computer simulations and picked out some of the more interesting games to showcase. They definitely seemed to be more "fighting" games, even with the computers manually castling a lot of the time.

tl;dr I'll play any variant for fun, and will probably learn something from it as well; but the original is still the best game, for casual players at least.

 

[aufheben]

I think that the highest level of chess would benefit the most from variants like this, meant mostly to make players think for themselves earlier in games.

At our level, players are so far from mastering the game that classic chess is still "pure" in my opinion.

That said, I've played Fischer Random (Chess360) a few times and really enjoyed it. It helps a lot with basic reasoning of the game, as nothing is a given anymore about what setups are strong and what ones are weak.

I've never played with no castling, but it sounds like a good idea. When Kramnik first introduced it, he ran a bunch of computer simulations and picked out some of the more interesting games to showcase. They definitely seemed to be more "fighting" games, even with the computers manually castling a lot of the time.

tl;dr I'll play any variant for fun, and will probably learn something from it as well; but the original is still the best game, for casual players at least.

I'm down if you are.