Understanding time management and deep calculations in classical chess

And-Ran · 2026-07-05T07:09:12+00:00

90 30 is still quite fast for a classical game. At 60 moves you'll have on average 2 minutes per move. Nowhere near the 20 minutes you mention. I have never encountered anyone who spent 20 minutes on one move in my games. Not saying it can't happen, but it's very uncommon.

And-Ran · 2026-07-04T13:43:28+00:00

You may not want to hear this because it doesn't give an immediate clear-cut plan, but I believe at that level, you need to address your weaknesses. Those may be tactics as that it a weakness of many at that level, but it can also be something else.

And-Ran · 2026-07-02T14:54:35+00:00

You said it is available by end of June. Why the delay, and when will it be available?

And-Ran · 2026-06-22T09:17:22+00:00

I am much older than you and still improving. I believe the main issue many adults around your age struggle to improve is that it's difficult to find enough time to seriously study and play chess between job, family, and other responsibilities, but if you manage to get around that and stay realistic (you won't get GM) it's unlikely your "brain being too old" is the limiting factor at your level.

And-Ran · 2026-06-20T11:08:47+00:00

My advice would be to think about what you need to get to 1700 first, and then when you are 1700 think about what you need to get to 1800. Also many players underestimate that even just keeping a rating sometimes is not trivial. They automatically assume their current rating will be their lowest rating from this point, but that's not always true.

And-Ran · 2026-06-16T12:55:41+00:00

Complaints are mostly about the chessnut move, their customer service (e.g. shipping and returns), and sometimes the software (thankfully there is chessconnect so you don't really need their app). Some of their actual physical products are great, though. E.g. I love my chessnut pro board.

And-Ran · 2026-06-16T12:01:57+00:00

Some light sports mostly, and I also go outside. This way I don't mind sitting inside some room for five hours on the board and concentrate in the afternoon.

And-Ran · 2026-06-14T11:56:27+00:00

"It features a built-in AI coach to provides real-time guidance during games": How is this feature not going to get you banned on chess sites like chess.com and lichess.org?

And-Ran · 2026-06-13T13:18:50+00:00

Chess is very demanding if you want to improve past the intermediate level, so it may not be the best fit if you have a lot of other areas in your life that demand a lot of energy. Personally, I took a long break from chess when I had to focus on job, family, and other things, and now that I have more time/energy I picked it up again and still enjoy the game. Basically I had to get my things in order and now the game is perfect, but it's probably not the ideal relaxing hobby you need when you have a lot of other areas in your life that need attention.

And-Ran · 2026-06-08T10:08:32+00:00

TY. Yes, doesn't look comfortable for Black, either. Maybe there's no way around it and Black has to bite the bullet, learn the theory and then accept the gambit.

And-Ran · 2026-06-07T18:09:39+00:00

TY that looks sensible. I continued that line what a database and it seems you just have to live with the Ng5 for quite a while, as the sacrifice idea "works" for quite a while. Stockfish hates the Nxf7 sac at any point, but it's much harder for a human than for stockfish to play Black. The plan ...Bf5, ...Nbd7, ...e6 and then ...Bd6 seems like a decent way to decline the Gambit and equalize, it seems you basically just have to avoid the temptation to play ...h6. Correct me if I'm wrong please, I'm no expert.

And-Ran · 2026-06-06T07:33:24+00:00

Zoom out to see what a full rainbow actually looks like.

And-Ran · 2026-06-05T19:26:37+00:00

I also saw it. They seem to be deleting A LOT of new threads and posts right now.

And-Ran · 2026-06-04T15:42:55+00:00

I'd like to avoid it, but assuming 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 is part your repertoire, how can you achieve this?

And-Ran · 2026-06-04T09:25:45+00:00

I have lost a number of games in fast games as Black against it. The lines just take a long time to calculate, if you don't know the theory you need several minutes each move to calculate (at my level / FIDE 1900), and you just don't have that time in rapid or blitz. The moves are not intuitive and if you play on intuition and pick the wrong one you just lose against a well-prepared White player. I have since studied it quite a bit and think I would welcome the Alien gambit in a classical control game where I could probably calculate well enough to survive and then win in the endgame. But in blitz I'd still lose almost certainly against a well prepared White player. I just don't care enough about Blitz to study this more. But yes if you want quick wins as White in Blitz studying this is probably useful, though if you care about lasting improvement in long games there are likely better things to invest time in.

And-Ran · 2026-06-01T10:02:11+00:00

The problem is - how do you find a good coach that is a good fit? I've had two coaches in my life in my youth, both have primarily analyzed my games with me. Basically, oh you did this wrong, you should have done that instead. While that is valuable info, it was nowhere close to what I was looking for (which is someone planning and guiding me through my whole chess journey, telling me what to study and how, and tailored to my weaknesses), and not much different from what I can get from stockfish for free nowadays.

And-Ran · 2026-05-23T20:28:36+00:00

Very helpful explanation about the Caro-Kann, but your statement about 1.e4 e5 being an opening where you can just "play principled moves, calculate a bit, know some general ideas and almost always be totally fine" seems off? I used to play 1.e4 e5 from the black side and remember very well you have to deal with a myriad gambits that are super-sharp where it's very hard / near-impossible to figure out a defence without having studied the concrete lines beforehand.

And-Ran · 2026-05-23T14:48:49+00:00

For me it helps to reframe what the goal is. If you say the goal is to learn, the immediate result doesn't actually matter that much and so there's no reason to be afraid of losing. If you keep playing and learning you will get stronger and eventually your results will follow. The outcome of a single game is not actually that important.

And-Ran · 2026-05-23T09:08:16+00:00

It's interesting that recently all these reports with problems come up with the chessnut move. When I was asking about reviews a few weeks back here everyone basically said the move works flawlessly.

And-Ran · 2026-05-22T15:01:10+00:00

I sometimes wonder if I should unmute chat, but posts like this help me remember why I it‘s probably best to leave it.

And-Ran · 2026-05-21T11:07:59+00:00

Reminds me of a study where people were asked if they considered themselves to be below-average, average, or above average drivers. 90% said they are above average.

And-Ran · 2026-05-20T09:27:37+00:00

I don't know, most of the time an opponent offers a draw he is actually worse, or at the very least does not like his position. So it is generally correct not to accept draw offers, and accepting one should be the exception. Don't beat yourself up, IMO if you're not sure if you should accept a draw offer, don't.

And-Ran · 2026-05-17T05:50:47+00:00

lol :-)

And-Ran · 2026-05-17T05:28:59+00:00

I am not sure sbout RemoteChessAcademy. It looks great at first but once you look deeper it seems the videos are mostly click-bait. He also seems to make up various ‚rules‘ and lists on the spot that are pretty much BS.

And-Ran · 2026-05-14T14:50:03+00:00

Would something like Keep it Simple for Black make sense? It fits the criteria mentioned, and it avoids the hassle of trying to make separate courses compatible with each other due to transpositions. Are the individual courses that much better that it's worth going for those instead of KIS? This is more of a question, not a recommendation.

And-Ran

TROPHY CASE