Chess thread - discuss and play lichess here

Thread insurrection, but I don't know where else to put it and I am a giant nerd.

Anyway, Carlsen vs. Nepo is about to begin for the 2021 World Championship.
 
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Double Post? It been over a week.

Anyway, Nepo just imploded in Game 8. Magnus has a 2 game lead with 6 left to play.
 
Nepo is in a bad spot. Although all first 5 games where draws, in my opinion, it was clear Magnus was in better shape. Let's see what happens next, but my hopes of seeing a new champion are very low.

Karjakin was the last serious contender in my eyes. Caruana could hold it, but couldn't hope for more than that.
 
At this point, Magnus can just draw Nepo and win it. I'm hoping Nepo can pull something off and go for that underdog comeback, but I'm not feeling too good about that at this point.
 
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Brutal. Nepo goes full tilt with 27. c5 in Game 9 and just blunders away his bishop. It's like watching the gentleman's version of a snuff film; Nepo is just staring at the board in shock right now.

He is about to be down 3 points with 5 games left, meaning he needs to win at least once with black to even tie this match since he has only 2 games with white left.
 
It's all over for Nepo.

I won't lie: I hoped a lot more from Nepo, not necessarily becoming world champion, but I expected him to put a tough fight

This ks very disappointing.
 
Nomoreofftopi said:
It's all over for Nepo.

I won't lie: I hoped a lot more from Nepo, not necessarily becoming world champion, but I expected him to put a tough fight

This ks very disappointing.
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To be fair, analysis of their first few games showed that both guys were playing very well. No major losses on their evaluation. Looks like Nepo tilted after that first loss. That or Carlsen's showing him that anything less than 2800 isn't gonna cut it.
 
Bumping chess thread to say I'm learning on lichess. I am enjoying it but I still suck, scraping to pass a thousand in rated games and playing a 1500 bot is not a nice time. I'm practicing lots with the material they have on there to recognise patterns and set up moves in advance. I enjoy playing Horde and I think I'll enjoy Bullet when I'm competent enough. Doing puzzles has highlighted where I need to work on though, so that's a step in the right direction to getting better. I always thought I was too dumb and reckless to be good at chess but I know I can be good at anything if I am persistent and slow down to pay attention.

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I've picked the game up again after a while of not playing, and I forgot how fun it is.
For some reason, I play much better on a real board than online. Maybe it's something to do with not studying strategy at all so most numbers don't mean anything to me on the computer.
 
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As a casual the thing I always hated about chess was the formalia of the openings. As a casual, mind you. Fishers 960 sounded interesting but I forgot what little I knew for years... Then someone made "Really Bad Chess" and it is complete bullshit but I loved it. Unbalanced chaos! I can work with that.
 
Virgo said:
Bumping chess thread to say I'm learning on lichess. I am enjoying it but I still suck, scraping to pass a thousand in rated games and playing a 1500 bot is not a nice time. I'm practicing lots with the material they have on there to recognise patterns and set up moves in advance. I enjoy playing Horde and I think I'll enjoy Bullet when I'm competent enough. Doing puzzles has highlighted where I need to work on though, so that's a step in the right direction to getting better. I always thought I was too dumb and reckless to be good at chess but I know I can be good at anything if I am persistent and slow down to pay attention.

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How did you get that chart by the way? Kinda curious what mine looks like.
 
CivilianOfTheFandomWars said:
I've picked the game up again after a while of not playing, and I forgot how fun it is.
For some reason, I play much better on a real board than online. Maybe it's something to do with not studying strategy at all so most numbers don't mean anything to me on the computer.
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I think decisions have more weight in the board than online for some people. Online i can always make a mistake and play a new game afterwards. It might sound weird but it feels less real somehow. it's like the social media model of scrolling down, there's always more down the road: why would i get attached to this particular game? On the board, i can see the opponent, i can see the board and the pieces and taking the right decisions is more important. I love mi pieces, i dont wanna lose them!

Sorry if this sounds totally crazy, that's how i live it and talking with my friends whie playing, a great number of them feels similarly.
 
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Started it up again after years of not playing and boy do I suck. Don't you love it when you make a move and then immediately see how it's a massive blunder right after the move goes through? Thanks brain, couldn't have done that before I made the move.

Won by running out the clock from a completely losing position, so all is good.
 
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So is it worth my time to learn openings? I have no interest in competitive chess, but I do enjoy grasping games of strategy at a deeper level. So my question really is will learning one or more opening's actually help me to understand chess on a level that I wouldn't be able to otherwise?
 
Kujo Jotaro said:
So is it worth my time to learn openings? I have no interest in competitive chess, but I do enjoy grasping games of strategy at a deeper level. So my question really is will learning one or more opening's actually help me to understand chess on a level that I wouldn't be able to otherwise?
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it depends, you shouldn't learn 30 moves of the najdorf but learning some plans to get out of the opening and push the game to where you want it to go is a really good idea
 
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Kujo Jotaro said:
So is it worth my time to learn openings? I have no interest in competitive chess, but I do enjoy grasping games of strategy at a deeper level. So my question really is will learning one or more opening's actually help me to understand chess on a level that I wouldn't be able to otherwise?
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I don't know if it will help you to understand the game on a deeper level, but I would say my rating has climbed since putting in the investment to learn some openings. I don't think I necessarily understand the deeper logic behind them but I have a known strategy to at least gain an equal position or an advantage.

I'd never played chess until probably June last year, and it took about 4 months to learn the rules, get to 750, and then another 2 months to hit 1000 after I started studying openings and not just doing random shit. I now have a game plan for most lines that either side hits me with although I do still fuck up a lot, and looking at the post-game review, even when I won is still pretty painful sometimes.

I think it's worth it also to knowing what opening your opponent wants to play and doing weird shit in response to throw off someone who has studied hard. For example, I sometimes play the Englund gambit when my opponent opens with D4, as that usually means they want to play the London so this instantly disrupts their plan. I will say that I know that the Englund gambit is an objectively bad opening for black but it has a hilarious trap built in that at my level is easy to learn and people fall for all the time. Even if they don't, I can usually get to an even position after a slight disadvantage because my opponent is usually as bad as me. The idea is that you throw your opponent immediately off their prep and into something a bit more chaotic where they have to think more and that's the sort of position I thrive in.

It is definitely possible to ignore this though - just respond to your opponent's moves accurately and you can still hit a high rating. People certainly do this but I see openings as a set of mental shortcuts that have been proven over time to be the best responses to moves. It's just a tool after all.
 
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Tyler1, pro LOL player and angry midget, is currently rising the ranks in rapid going from a fresh account to 1500 in a few months.
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dude is crazy.
edit:
a video discussing his rise.
and a video discussing some of his games by the soyest man in chess.
 
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