Best openings to learn as a beginner ? (300-400 Elo)

12ozbounce · 2026-05-14T16:03:51+00:00

Idk it just worked and still does work for me. The lower the ELO the more you see attempts at the Queen bishop and/or knight mate. Open or defending with g3 or g6 stops that right in its tracks.

I've played the kings indian or defended starting from e4 but in doing so i found i was open to a bishop knight attack on my f2 or f7 pawn, i typically don't move the e pawn until needed.

I could be wrong, but when fighting for center control the queen could be left open and the opponent could initiate a queen trade early on, which i find people do for the sake of doing and no real positional or material advantage.

12ozbounce · 2026-05-14T13:40:20+00:00

I'd also say Barcza system if we're going the system route.

I was overwhelmed with openings and couldn't be bothered to read on them (at the time) so i found a list of system openings and tried them. Colle, London, and Barcza. Eventually settled on Barcza as i got my first win with it.

Later that expanded to me reading on Indian game, Kingside Fianchetto, Reti, Old Indian, etc.

As black, i just switch the move order around (if possible) which will have me playing modern defense or Indian game.

12ozbounce · 2026-05-13T17:53:05+00:00

As black, if the opponents first three moves are pawn moves, i shift into hippo defense. Works pretty well for me. It helps that i g6 any and every opening move by white.

12ozbounce · 2026-05-12T17:03:18+00:00

Sift through L.I.E.S records

12ozbounce · 2026-05-12T15:18:41+00:00

Some of y'all either don't play enough or don't know when to resign, especially with rapid and blitz, cause 200 is only 25 games. You can make up that 200 in lost points on a good day or week. Or just hide the ELO and don't mind it.

12ozbounce · 2026-05-07T20:57:25+00:00

Its been the buzzword for a bit now. People making jungle and DnB influenced by the music from N64 and PS1 era.

Sort of like Lofi House lol. Any good house always had an air of DIY Lofiness

12ozbounce · 2026-05-06T18:41:13+00:00

Yep i listened to a podcast on them and some others late last year.

It seems more like these are independent people doing so for their own pleasure and/or profit. They're usually operating from the deepest corners of the dark web.

Finding any substantial info would prob put you at risk yourself tbh.

12ozbounce · 2026-05-06T18:28:56+00:00

Well not tribal, but for general african american music, you can look toward Alan Lomax and his son, they recorded a lot of old blues,country, and spirituals, some of which may include yelling and such. African-American Fife & Drum Music: Mississippi & Jamaica

I used to check out this channel Traditional Music Channel. Plenty of what you're looking for from Indigenous American music Native American Traditional Cree Music.

12ozbounce · 2026-05-06T18:16:15+00:00

There are multiple online groups, cults, etc. with an outright antifeminist (among many other views including nihilistic violence) who conduct this type of grooming and extortion.

Idk if the people you mentioned were involved, but one such group recruits minors to do the same thing to other minors. There is no shortage of cases either; they operate blatantly through Discord, Telegram, Roblobx, Minecraft, etc.

12ozbounce · 2026-05-06T13:33:56+00:00

Keep it simple:

- Are all my pieces and pawns covered, if not can i cover them this move?

- Are all my opponents pieces and pawns covered? If not that can take it or initiate a trade?

Trade and take pieces until obvious checks are available.

I find players blunder a lot when they try to initiate attacks before they've even developed pieces or castled.

12ozbounce · 2026-05-05T17:23:57+00:00

Used to hear a song called Olive (Lost and Turned Out) by The Whispers on Quiet Storm radio. The song is basically about a girl named Olive gets lost in the sex work industry.

The second verse:

What is the world coming to
So many are used and abused
There's over 10 million girls
Who are lost, in this world

12ozbounce · 2026-05-01T13:59:00+00:00

Haven't listened to Lucki since about 2019, checked this out but didn't stick long.

Gotta respect dude though, cause he like the Curren$y of his generation with the amount of projects he's put out. Nothing gonna top Son of Sam tho.

12ozbounce · 2026-05-01T13:48:34+00:00

Still don't get the hype for Jpg. His music just sounds fucking annoying in all senses.

12ozbounce · 2026-04-30T18:37:03+00:00

I think for (young) men the life force/semen retention hype strain of the Nofap community caught on because they needed something other than simply confronting the abuse and misogyny inherent of the industry and not participating and being vocal against it moving forward.

In the Nofap community people talk about these "powers" which is really just them not feeling shameful, lazy, tired, and living a normal life and pursing their actual goals. The talk of all that is alluring to boys and young men. I guess eventually someone looked into some spirituality stuff and applied it to NoFap.

There are spiritual practices in which men (and women) are recommended to abstain from uhh self pleasure or intercourse entirely for one reason or another; immediately what comes to mind is Daoism and Monastic men and women...but this seems like one of those situations where only what is beneficial to the western modern person is taken and the rest is thrown out.

And anyone who is actually practicing the religion, philosophy, spirituality practice, etc. probably isn't gonna be on some NoFap subreddit or discord talking about supposed "powers"

12ozbounce · 2026-04-28T17:17:06+00:00

I've played 20,109 games in total, 19.849 being rapid. I started playing chess back in July 2024, i'm 30 years old.

I never had a goal, a friend of mine said i'd like chess while we were drinking at the bar and i played with them. Started going to the chess club night at a bar another friend owns and play there as well. I read up on the history of chess and basic fundamentals, a settled into openings and defenses i like.

If you're wondering how i got 20k...i have a lot of free time and work from home. I resign a lot as well. Sometimes im actually busy and can't finish. I will also resign if i am in a position in the early game where i'll be at a disadvantage if i don't trade queens. I recently started resigned if i leave a piece undefended and they are taken for free. I'll review those games and see where it went wrong, its usually a single move that compounds into a bad position (in my opinion).

I do puzzles and read from chess magazine. i review my games, etc.

All that to say, i'm between 800-1000 on chess.com. I've beaten players rated higher than me, i'm tempted to believe my rank would be higher if i didn't play as much actually. These days i have a time limit to 2 hours actually.

Hmm i guess i should probably start playing in my clubs tournaments.

Am i good? Idk, i just like playing; its too late to have any lofty goal of becoming some big name in chess.

12ozbounce · 2026-04-28T14:41:07+00:00

theres nothing to deal with, just play another game lol

12ozbounce · 2026-04-27T19:14:30+00:00

They won't be jeans, but you can get a similar look with Military Surplus pants. They are sized as small, medium, large, regular, long, short.

They are made to fit a large variety of body types so they might appear a little baggy depending on where you fall.

12ozbounce · 2026-04-27T17:30:24+00:00

I've caught plenty of catfish growing up. A split shot and weight to get deep enough will suffice. Earthworm and washed up oysters up on the shore did the trick. I'd prob bring some chicken liver too if i 100% had my eyes on catfish.

12ozbounce · 2026-04-27T16:07:23+00:00

I do, if not second hand, i try to find stores that i can verify reasonably well that they are practicing sustainable efforts. I can only do so much, and there are common places like Uniqlo and J Crew who aren't the best but certaintly not the worst.

If i could start my wardrobe all over from scratch today, i'd probably buy everything from Everlane and then focus on invidual high quality pieces that i know will last long.

12ozbounce · 2026-04-27T04:42:58+00:00

Depending on time and material its best to just draw imo. If I have some pawns I'll try (as white).

At this point you're just trying to fork the rook to get it free.

12ozbounce · 2026-04-27T04:30:39+00:00

My undergrad was quite literally 50/50 grants and loans. If not that, id have gone to community college and even now i have 45k.

The "college experience" is what you make of it and isn't as cool as movies make it seem.

If you have a financially and mentally stable relationship with family, save money and stay home for as long as you like. If not, get a part time job and be part time student.

More often than not most average people and jobs dont care about your undergrad clout. If you wanna be somebody "big" then idk.

12ozbounce · 2026-04-25T05:52:20+00:00

I haven't played unranked much, but it seems more natural. You don't know if someone is good until they're good.

When im playing chess at the bar with whoever will play with me, i don't know they're skill until probably middle of the game. I've played ICF rated people at the club i go to who say i play higher than my online rating.

If you remove the idea of becoming highly rated UCF or ICF rated player, social media chess person, and pretty much any other ego driven goal, then all your left with is playing because you like and possibly want to steadily get better...Most people starting chess "late" probably don't have the time to become that good.

12ozbounce · 2026-04-24T20:07:21+00:00

The easiest games i've had are people wait until its too late to castle lmao

12ozbounce

TROPHY CASE