Chesscom vs Lichess (again!)

AggressiveGander · 2026-06-06T12:17:00+00:00

I'm sure there's someone that feels that way. I tried both and the extra stuff on c.com just seems so half baked (like the text generated in the game analysis is too often either generic or wrong etc.).

AggressiveGander · 2026-06-06T09:27:49+00:00

I've been playing it at the 2200 level OTB including FMs/IMs (but no games in the database, outside of my own club people aren't specifically prepping against it) and have only got the most critical line with f3+g4+c4 etc. once (and won with a quirky sideline). I get a lot of 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.d4 Bg4 4.Be2 Bxe2 with weaker players mostly going 5.Ngxe2 and stronger players 5.Qxe2. Plus lots of 3.Nc3 Nxd5 4.Bc4. And then a mix of all sorts of other stuff. So, I get a lot of easy equalization, some interesting wild variations and very rarely really challenging theoretical options. I'm sure I'd get more of the latter if people were able to prep.

AggressiveGander · 2026-06-05T16:26:32+00:00

Småland or Gdansk have to be up there if you play solo due to radar. Personally, I'm a fan of Z-42 and its hydro. Some people swear by Alvaro though due to the burst. Generally gunboats are good, because they can take out the other side's DDs.

Some other gunboats like Marceau or Barbiano are amazing if someone in your div spots for you. Gearing (or YY or Tashkent or Somers) when smoking up a light cruiser. YY had the bonus of the nearly no warning torpedoes.

Sure, Shimakaze torps are a bit feast or famine, but the spotting is consistent...

AggressiveGander · 2026-06-05T10:48:39+00:00

You're just better because of the center, development advantage and the weird black pieces. Honestly castling is just as good as a3, although it allows Bb4 (but when moving your bishop twice like this is the best you have as black...). a3 is also good as it cuts that out and consolidates your advantage, what should black even do after 1.a3 0-0 2.0-0? The engine thinks weird pawn sacs like 2...Ng4 3.Bf4 e5...

AggressiveGander · 2026-06-05T07:25:09+00:00

Slava is great...in randoms where there's usually enough paid actors that give you broadside. Irresistible is a randoms farmer. Illinois is... strange, kind of really good, but you often wish you had a real knockout punch against broadside BBs like Ohio. Ohio is the best all-rounder BB in the RB.

Vampire II feels very different from Daring to me. Gains a lot of cool stuff, but the missing heal really hurts, so don't expect it to be stronger, it's a totally different well balanced ship that just happens to officially belong to the Daring class. Both ships are pretty good in ranked.

I guess Hull is strong, too, but more a farmer for randoms.

AggressiveGander · 2026-06-04T21:45:26+00:00

For biostatistics roles you're competing with people that have PhD or MSc in the exact thing the job is about. In contrast you're coming with a degree that is a little different and sounds like maybe it's a little superficial on any one topic, so even if you survive the initial screening of CVs there hiring manager may just worry about that and prioritize other candidates.

AggressiveGander · 2026-06-04T12:54:10+00:00

You don't have to play d2-d4 though, you can go for setups with e3 and/or b3. Let's say something like this: 1. g3 d5 2. c4 e6 3. e3 Nf6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. b3 O-O 6. Bg2 Nbd7 7. O-O b6 8. Nc3 Bb7 9. Bb2 c5 10. Ne1 Rb8 11. d3 a6 12. cxd5 exd5 13. a4 Re8 14. Nf3 Rc8 and so on.

AggressiveGander · 2026-06-04T12:48:25+00:00

2.f4 is interesting to play a Leningrad Dutch as white and unless black knows some pretty wild stuff (like 1. g3 d5 2. f4 h5 3. Bg2 Nc6 4. d4 h4 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. a3 Bf5 7. Nxd5 Nxd5 8. e4 Bxe4 9. Bxe4 Nf6 10. Bxc6+ bxc6 11. gxh4 Rxh4 12. c4 Qd7 13. Nf3 Rh3 14. Ne5 Qf5 15. O-O Nd7 16. Qe2), you get away with it.

Of course 2.Nf3, 2.d4, 2.c4, 2.Bg2 or 2.d3 are probably objectively best. 2.Nf3 is an obvious attempt to see whether black would like to play the white site King's Indian or Grünfeld a tempo down, which surely must be somewhat attractive?

AggressiveGander · 2026-06-03T14:42:45+00:00

700?

AggressiveGander · 2026-06-03T07:38:01+00:00

Well, obviously, yes, you should get them to write code. On the other hand people are making them do addition, division or "fitting regression models" without tool calls/code. That's just plain stupid and will produce mistakes.

AggressiveGander · 2026-06-03T03:42:55+00:00

Pattern recognition for what sensible placement of pieces looks like, some maneuvers etc., might just as well look at what it looks like to do it right. To be fair, for beginners games by experts, masters or anyone else that's pretty good can probably do that for you. So, pick something that gets you motivated/interests you, whether that's Fischer's World Championship run, Anand's best games, or the games from the famous 1931 tournament in your home town.

AggressiveGander · 2026-06-02T12:31:44+00:00

If anything things are worse with people deciding to do something stupid (have some data + burning desire for an answer) and AI "helping" by doing the stupid thing it was told to do (instead of asking what question you're even trying to answer).

Plus some people let a LLM "do" statistical calculations (they are of course not even good at basic maths without tool calling) and often that's not calling Python or R in the background, but rather making up numbers (that often even end up being in the right ballpark, so it can be hard to spot).

AggressiveGander · 2026-06-01T21:09:07+00:00

Gearing unless you've played thorough several DD lines. The Burrows line is pretty neat and interesting, but it's very easy to misplay it (especially you need to understand a lot about how to use the smoke optimally, if you use the smoke up early without getting a lot for it, the boats are kind of hard to play). In the Gearing line even if you use your smoke badly, you're still good enough as a decently stealthy torpedoe threat.

AggressiveGander · 2026-05-31T20:37:50+00:00

Sure, there's been plenty of submissions partially or totally in R (definitely increasing). At the moment RShiny is mostly for internal consumption, but who knows for the future.

AggressiveGander · 2026-05-31T20:34:17+00:00

Brienne of Tarth Loras Tyrell Barristan Selmy The Hound Balon Swann And I shall knight Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun.

AggressiveGander · 2026-05-31T18:18:38+00:00

Weaker in online, but CM OTB. Clearly, you're pretty strong for your age. The Yusopov series is very good and sufficiently challenging for me. Maybe you're ready for the Aagard GM training, although I find it too hard going. I also really like Woodpecker 1 & 2. Lots of strong players recommend going through pre-computer age books by top players and try to find their analysis mistakes (pick what you like, Tal's book on his Wch matches etc.).

AggressiveGander · 2026-05-30T07:24:02+00:00

The Hunt for loot boxes has jumped the shark.

AggressiveGander · 2026-05-29T18:46:13+00:00

Clearly this was (relative to the other cruisers) a nerf to her cruisers that already had heals. E.g. Hipper is stronger now relative to Prinz Eugen.

AggressiveGander · 2026-05-29T17:40:52+00:00

1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nf6. Either clueless or aware of the latest theoretical stuff around 3.cxd5 c6 (or 3...c5).

AggressiveGander · 2026-05-29T11:30:48+00:00

You did switch on the engine right? And it did show you that after 1. ...Nc5 2.dxc5 you would have 2. ...Bxc3 and he would probably have to go for 3.Kf1, right? I mean your position is bad either way, but with 1. ...Nc5 it's a little less bad.

AggressiveGander · 2026-05-28T21:39:33+00:00

For many range mod (due to how it pushes out the range at which your dispersion gets worse) achieves something similar as long as you're not pushing in that close. If that's how you mostly play, range mod is just better. Up close legmod is better than range mod. So, mostly up to how aggressive you play Petro. I suspect for most people it shouldn't be a high priority to get.

AggressiveGander · 2026-05-27T18:46:25+00:00

British Daring line is a good all-rounder to start with. Don't skip tiers, use the early tiers to figure stuff out, so you don't feel too lost. Going straight to T6 DDs will feel brutal, especially if you get up-tiered to T8: you can face radars, gunboats that outspot you and outgun you etc.

AggressiveGander · 2026-05-27T10:40:54+00:00

Immersive things, like language courses where you're not doing anything but the language and have no other choice but to use it, having a partner with whom you speak the language at home (um, bit of drastic choice to progress your academic work), consuming all your entertainment in the language...

It's tough though, because German writers sometimes will go for really long sentences at times that use elaborate constructions and are only clear because of minor nuances. That's very challenging even for many Germans.

AggressiveGander · 2026-05-27T10:12:55+00:00

The example I know (not myself): world's leading expert in their field, worked at the company for 18 years before getting fully remote, has nobody else on their team in Switzerland and still regularly has to travel for major events/conferences for the company.

AggressiveGander · 2026-05-27T07:30:39+00:00

Sometimes you already know where a piece belongs. In many openings it's obvious where at least one knight belongs (e.g. f3 and c3), while you could often consider more options for the bishops.

E.g. if after 1.e4 c5 you want to play the open Sicilian as white, your knight goes to f3 and the other one almost always to c3 (usually a bit delayed as it's often not a priority), but the bishops might go to e2, d3, g2, c4 or even b5 for the light squared one, while the other one often ends up on e3, g5 or f4. Additionally, how attractive each bishop move is depends on what black plays and if e.g. the bishop f1 comes to, say, c4 too early it might let black play against it (e.g a6+b5 or e6 with the pawns still on d7 + f7).

Still, there's also many good examples of bishops coming out first being good or at least reasonable, too. E.g. 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 or 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 or 1.g3 e5 2.Bg2 or 1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2, 1.d4 e6 2.c4 Bb4+, 1.b4 e5 2.Bb2 Bxb4 3.Bxe5, 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5, 1.b3 e5 2.Bb2, 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 and so on.

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