chess.com

Jan_de_Bakker · 28-02-2017 10:30am #1

Hey
Anyone use this ?
I have been playing for a while now - pretty basic level, I have started to get some wins against players around my ranking ~600/700 - mind you you start off with 800 ... hehe still not recovered from my initial hammerings

fizzypish · 28-02-2017 2:59pm

Jan_de_Bakker wrote: »

Hey
Anyone use this ?
I have been playing for a while now - pretty basic level, I have started to get some wins against players around my ranking ~600/700 - mind you you start off with 800 ... hehe still not recovered from my initial hammerings

Hey. Ya its a nice site. I mainly play the 3 day games and have a couple on the go. I'll play 30 min games occasionally. Dutch or Irish (I presume dutch...)?

Jan_de_Bakker · 28-02-2017 10:18pm

Irish living in Barcelona and occasionally Holland ..

fizzypish · 01-03-2017 9:15am

International chess man of mystery. I'm just tipping at 1400 (online, no clue what my on board would be and I really only play correspondence games so time pressures are something I've never dealt with). Use the analysis tool after each game. See where your mistakes came from. The tactics trainer gives you five puzzles a day. Do them too. I got the tactictrainer app too. Its pretty good. This will help train your eye to spot obvious **** like a bishop in line with a queen about to sack your king or pins etc..... The best way to learn is to lose, figure out why and try not to do it again. Also, try to find someone to play on an actual board. It'll keep interest up and its a different game on the board. I learned a handful of openings. This doesn't seem to be recommended (study mid game seems to be what the literature says, tactic trainer will help with this) as at my level I cannot fully understand them but having a plan from the offset makes me enjoy the game more. There's probably better ways but this worked for me. Does reaching 1400 count as working? probably not. Ignore everything I said. O and finally finally, my best wins came from me not trying to make that sexy attacking move, or going for the fork or devastating pin.... it came from letting my opponent **** up. Don't be fancy, be victorious.

Jan_de_Bakker · 01-03-2017 9:41am

Nice, I have some friends who are ranked 1800, and he sometimes has chess tournies in his house, its a lot of fun - as you say it's nice to play on a real board.

I must get a nice wooden set actually ...

But yeah, they kill me

fizzypish · 01-03-2017 10:19am

https://www.athleteshop.nl/schaakcassette-wedstrijd-6-mahonie-essenhout-54-x-27-cm

I've only used it 5 times since I got it and I don't care. Its gorgeous.

O and 1800's are mythical beasts as far as I'm concerned.....

kal7 · 01-03-2017 10:25am

Chess.com is a great site, I play the daily puzzle mainly.

Only play my brother through email correspondence, but have real board set up.

Don't know my ranking.

I must have another look at tactics trainer and analysis tools.

fizzypish · 01-03-2017 10:41am

kal7 wrote: »

Chess.com is a great site, I play the daily puzzle mainly.

Only play my brother through email correspondence, but have real board set up.

Don't know my ranking.

I must have another look at tactics trainer and analysis tools.

I distrust the free analysis tool at times. It gives inaccuracies at times when its optimal play doesn't leave such a good position. IDK, maybe I'm not clever enough to see its brilliance. It does highlight mistakes and blunders though so you see where it all went to ****.

Squall Leonhart · 08-06-2017 2:45pm

Reviving a half zombie thread here, but..

Can anybody suggest good apps/websites to learn to become a better player?

I have the chess.com app, and I play tactics and usually do the daily puzzle. However, my daily chess score is only in the low 600s

I am winning maybe 35-40% of games I'm playing, and probably making gradual improvements, but as I play on my phone and don't have a laptop, using the analysis tool is very difficult.

I'm all ears

fizzypish · 09-06-2017 2:06pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao9iOeK_jvU&index=5&list=PLl9uuRYQ-6MBwqkmwT42l1fI7Z0bYuwwO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoBAr08PApk&list=PL_9i-vG2pBSDtL9AmK6GiBsb6QdzvMZYs&index=1

I'd start right here if I were you. John Bartholomews fundamentals videos are pretty good. Just watched them.

Hutch is a gaming youtuber with an interest in chess. He got Tal Baron on to whisper sweet nothings in his ear while playing. I found this great as hutch is not at a high level and so thinks like us mere mortals do. Tal steers him towards better play. This I found really good as nearly everything he was saying or critiquing applied to me. I personally think watching a video/reading a book and applying it to a single game or two is far more beneficial than spending an hour on a tactics trainer or playing 7 games. At our level its concepts and good practices we need to develop. I think.....

Squall Leonhart · 09-06-2017 2:09pm

Great, thanks for the links, will check them out!

cdeb · 09-06-2017 6:59pm

Couple of other suggestions -

ChessTempo.com is good for endgames. Endgames are vital for finishing off an opponent - not much point being able to spot a tactic if you don't know how to win from a queen up. ChessTempo gives exercises across a range of positions with just five pieces or fewer on the board - getting harder as you get better of course. Rook and pawn against rook is a particularly good one to know.

On tactics, are you looking at the ones you get wrong to understand the puzzle? It's key to avoiding the same mistakes in the future - and learning. At a simpler level, that can be done by looking at the solution, but oftentimes it helps to put it into a programme like Fritz or to talk the puzzle through with someone up the club who's better acquainted with patterns. (A computer programme is good for stuff like puzzles because it will show you moves which are clearly better than the alternatives; it's not so good for positional stuff like moving a piece twice in the opening, or putting something on the wrong square, because it can't really talk to you as such)

s7ryf3925pivug · 18-08-2017 11:57pm

I play 10 minute blitz games and do tactics puzzles on chess.com. My rating for both is over 1300 at the time of writing. [My tactics rating has dipped a bit recently and was over 1500 in May.]

Can anybody suggest good apps/websites to learn to become a better player?

I started playing regularly two years ago. My blitz rating two years ago was about 1000. So I've improved my rating by 300, which is a rate I'm happy with.

I think tactics puzzles are good for improving your game.

I play on a mobile and a tablet with the app. I find the analysis easy to use on both. I use the one minute analysis after most games.

Studying openings is a good idea but I've never had the time and motivation to do so. I think the best thing is to study and understand them. I don't think there is so much benefit to just learning off sequences of moves.

Getting some sort of insight into evaluating exchanges is definitely beneficial. For example two bishops together are generally much stronger than a bishop and a knight or two knights. Bishops vary hugely in terms of mobility/strength, largely due to the placement of your own pawns. Doubled or isolated pawns are weak and open to attack. Things like that. Also how to organise your pieces better.

It's worth paying attention to what your opponent is doing and especially why they're doing it

Playing some bullet games helps blitz. I lose on time much more frequently than I win on time, but playing bullet definitely has improved this. It's useful to be able to shift into a different gear when the clock gets low.

For endgames, knowing how to get a mate with a king+queen or king+rook against a king is worth learning. Having some idea of how to promote and block pawns when there are only pawns left on the board is also worth learning.

Really I think the best practice is just practice. Mainly it improves your mental model of a position. You also sometimes spot moves you've seen before and deal with them better. I think 10 minute games are good for learning because you see more different positions/games than you would after spending the same amount of time playing longer games, while still having time to think about what you're doing.

Ficheall · 19-08-2017 12:12pm

lichess.org is very good - free, but no ads. Allows you to instantly analyse all of your games afterwards with stockfish - including pointing out what your mistakes in the game were and inviting you to find a better move, provides great analytics of your general performance; what openings you do well out of etc.
I mostly use it for the hourly blitz competitions. There are loads of chess variants too, but I only get hammered when I play those.

EoghanIRL · 01-09-2017 10:28pm

I am currently starting to play chess.
I am using chess.com and find it very good.
10 minute games usually don't end with check mate but with time running out so I prefer 30 min games.

Also read the first 100 or so pages of Bobby Fischer's chess book online.

Even though I understand the concepts discussed such as back rank mates etc.. I struggle to set up these positions in matches.
Particularly struggling with openings at the moment , never sure when to trade off pieces early on.
Can anyone recommend a resource to help with openings ?

fizzypish · 02-09-2017 10:53pm

EoghanIRL wrote: »

I am currently starting to play chess.
I am using chess.com and find it very good.
10 minute games usually don't end with check mate but with time running out so I prefer 30 min games.

Also read the first 100 or so pages of Bobby Fischer's chess book online.

Even though I understand the concepts discussed such as back rank mates etc.. I struggle to set up these positions in matches.
Particularly struggling with openings at the moment , never sure when to trade off pieces early on.
Can anyone recommend a resource to help with openings ?

I found openings the most stressful time of a game. I picked the stonewall opening and implemented it for all situations. Not a great idea but good for a time. Then came Chessable. John Bartholemew has a D4 repertoire for white. I learned another opening for black against E4 and the only reason I'm not studying more openings (when in doubt I play the KID... badly) is that I know its not as value added as looking at tactics or playing a game.
Regarding positions, I wouldn't try to engineer them at this stage. I made a post on this thread earlier containing videos. Try those. Simple thing like a pawn break. Take, ignore or pass. Making an educated decision on looking for future problems is far better than "**** it, I'll take it".
Regarding time, go for the 15 10 games. 15 min, 10 sec increment. Increment makes a massive difference. You'll get the benefit of making thought out moves but with some time pressure.
Honestly, if you make 0 clever moves, just get bog standard boring moves down , cut down on blunders and defensive inaccuracies and you will improve dramatically.
Personally I like studying chess but I can understand why sitting down studying it would be difficult/uninteresting. I think for maximum progress with minimum effort, watch an informative video and force yourself to learn 1 point from it. Then play a game or 2.

Joedryan · 10-09-2017 11:20pm

I have recently given this a go as it seems to be getting popular. I cannot get used to the interface (can you do a pre-move etc?) and frequently lose on time because of that.
That said, any place there are good players is a good place to play. Although I find chess24 interface much better and my rating on there is much higher

fizzypish · 11-09-2017 7:45am

Premoves can be enabled. Look in your settings.

Joedryan · 12-09-2017 1:21am

fizzypish wrote: »

Premoves can be enabled. Look in your settings.

really ? will have a look. that is the feature that frequently stops me losing on time.
If it has that and makes some enhancements to the interface it should be ok

EoghanIRL · 19-09-2017 10:26pm

I am starting to get better I think.

https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/game-gifs/0/bUMwS2d2WlJmSDZaYnNXT0h5WEh5clpFZWdFdmR2UkpzSjlJZmU1UWl5UUJ2c0Jyc3I3Rm93RnhKWThaWTQhVnJKWjZKSTZaNFBaU0lKUzBsQlZFY00wOEo0.gif?gameId=2322946276

anyone want to look at my game tonight and give any feedback? Played as white here.

cdeb · 19-09-2017 11:24pm

First off, well done on the win. The nature of chess analysis is that it tends to be a lot about mistakes. I've had many a game that I was happy with, only for a computer to tear it to shreds. It can be a bit disheartening - so don't forget that you did win!

A couple of quick comments -

3. Bb5+ is a mistake. The check doesn't achieve anything; black should reply 3. ... c6!, when you've to move your bishop again, and black is gaining extra presence in the centre of the board. Instead, 3. d4 is a nice aggressive move which takes a share of the centre and ensures the game will be nice and open.

6. ... Bg4 is a mistake for black for two reasons. First, it breaks a golden rule of the opening - don't move the same piece twice unless necessary. And second, it allows you to sac your queen! You can play 7. NxP! and if black takes your queen, you have 8. Bxf7+ Ke7 9. Nd5 mate! So instead, he has to take your knight, but you take the bishop then, and you're a pawn up and flying.

7. ... BxN is a mistake for black for three reasons. First, the poor bishop has now moved three times while all black's other pieces are at home doing nothing. Secondly, there's no reason to swap off the bishop for the knight - black doesn't gain anything; in fact, it looks like the game will be an open one, in which case the bishop is worth hanging on to. And thirdly, white now has two big pieces pointing at f7... Note it's as important to learn from your opponent's mistakes as your own.

8. ... d5 for black obviously just hangs a pawn, as you saw. But taking with the bishop is much stronger - it creates two threats. One is to take the rook on a8, and the other is to checkmate on f7. Black has to deal with mate, but then loses a whole rook.

The same idea creates another tactic a couple of moves later. Instead of 11. a4, you can play the unusual-looking 11. Nb4! The knight moves to a square where two pieces can just take it - but because of the mate threat on f7, black has no time to capture the knight, and instead, it's the black knight on c6 that's doomed, as white will take it once black deals with the mate threat.

Why is black in so much trouble so early? Simple - no development. After 8 moves, you've two pieces and a queen in the game, and black has no pieces developed (bar the bishop which he swapped off). You're castled, and black is nowhere near ready to castle. This adds up to a big advantage for you, and from move 8, you should already be thinking about a way to kill the game off (in this case, 9. Bxd5 would have done the trick)

Once you drop in 15. Nxc7+, there's hundreds of ways to win, and you finish it off fairly clinically. You did miss mate in 2 on move 22 with 22. Qd7+ Kf6 23. Qd6# - but black walked into mate in two for you anyway. But this doesn't matter. Once you're that far ahead, any straightforward win is fine.

A nice open game with plenty of tactics - just a shame you didn't spot 7. Nxe5! I'm not sure if I'd have spotted it myself - it's a pattern I've seen before, but not that often, so maybe this game will reinforce it for me, and I'll spot it in my own games when the chance comes along.

Fishorsealant · 24-09-2017 4:19pm

Thanks for the feedback. I only play very casually but it's starting to grow on me.

You can't see from the gif but in this match I was certainly losing on time, something I feel I need to work on.

A fair amount of people actually play chess I have been finding out! One person I know has a rating >1600. Fair to say I won't be taking him up on his offer anytime soon haha.

Brid Hegarty · 18-10-2022 4:45pm

There's a few specific questions I have the site. Two of which I can think of now:

1. When the thing flashes red to remind you that your time is low, is that the time left to make the move you're on, or the time left in general?

2. I'm not entirely sure what the default type of game is on chess.com? blitz, bullet, etc. And what's the bonus time in whatever the default is? And how exactly is bonus time awarded?

3. How do you castle? on the site that is... not in general!

L1m1tless · 18-10-2022 8:38pm

The total time left
I think if you hit "New Game" it will default to the last time control you played. Everytime you move the bonus time will be added on to your total time.
Move the king two squares and the rook will automatically move

Joedryan · 24-10-2022 7:02am

Have to admit, I was using chess24 years ago, then tried chess.com, but for me I find lichess by far the best

Not a great fan of online blitz mind, bit of a lottery

chess.com

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