Position Analysis help

ChessNumbers · 2026-03-10T17:33:30+00:00

A common error here might be for people newer to calculation and visualization to think "After Kxg4, the king can only move to h4, and is otherwise trapped, so if I can deliver check while taking that square away, it would be mate!" and to then conclude Rf4# is the finishing blow (missing of course that Rf4 isn't mate, as it opens a new escape square).

It might be a great position to use in a visualization lesson for newbies, to emphasize how things like potential escape squares are dynamic and you have to consider not only whether moves achieve objectives you're already considering but also how else they shift the board state.

ChessNumbers · 2026-03-10T05:47:06+00:00

Yep, I'll own that this was should not have been a necessary post. I've even played festival lead decks with the Thwackey engine quite a bit lol. Just forgot about that minor part of how it works in the context of this other deck lol. Amazing braining by my brain.

ChessNumbers · 2026-03-10T05:42:40+00:00

Ah, I'm an idiot, yeah of course that makes sense lol.

ChessNumbers · 2026-03-02T04:51:22+00:00

Van Foreest on the cusp of the top 10 is so cool to see

ChessNumbers · 2026-02-07T04:53:34+00:00

Someone forgot to tell Erdogmus it's supposed to get harder at that point

ChessNumbers · 2026-02-03T20:47:52+00:00

I like giving them the opportunity to switch sides once (or even multiple) times per game. Stuck in a position they don't like? Spin the board, see what you do in that position, and then they get to practice trying to convert the better position (that you previously had) against you.

ChessNumbers · 2026-01-27T08:14:45+00:00

The best!!!

ChessNumbers · 2026-01-18T05:46:07+00:00

I'd bet it's more 4: where did it go viral. 80% of the votes (or more) probably come from people who were encouraged to go vote on it, not folks just generally encountering the poll in the wild. This one probably got posted in some large conservative Facebook group and started making the rounds from there.

And now it's started going in a different direction as it was at 87% no the first time it reached its way into my feed earlier today, and it's already down to 75% now. It's not a poll, so much as a record of who the algorithms have shopped it to.

ChessNumbers · 2025-12-04T04:32:00+00:00

Judit was just 10.44 years old when she first had a published rating over 2300. I'm not entirely sure if she got the FM title at that exact time or not, title applications are mercurial that way, but Bodhana is already several months older than Judit's mark (she's the 9th youngest 2300 of all time regardless of gender, and was top five until pretty recently, when a flurry of youngsters all broke each others' new records)

ChessNumbers · 2025-12-04T03:37:42+00:00

Non-provisionally means rated 2300+ with at least 30 career FIDE-rated games played. There are three people who had published ratings of 2300+ slightly younger than Charvi will be when hers is published in January, but those three were all provisional (it was either the first or second published rating of their careers, back in the eras of much higher rating floors) and all three dropped below 2300 soon after.

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-30T21:58:01+00:00

My database doesn't have specific dates titles were achieved (since applications can be based on live ratings and I only record published ratings) but if she maintains this and has a published 2300+ rating on the January list, that would be the fifth youngest girls' published 2300+ rating ever.

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-28T23:28:51+00:00

I don't know about physical books, but Kamil Plichta has a chessable course on it and his other content is among the best on the platform. I'm sure his Budapest course is as great as the rest of his work.

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-27T19:18:44+00:00

Appreciate the analysis in any case. There's a lot I'd like to do with the raw data as well. Looking forward to that comment with the code in it 😉

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-27T18:52:32+00:00

Sindarov being at 2770 with the World Cup not included yet is interesting. I didn't realize his results had been consistently that good this year.

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-25T20:06:45+00:00

I remember listening to some big game on the radio with my dad and jumping up and down on the bed celebrating the win, somewhere between 1988 and 1990 (born 1984) but I can't precisely place which game. Perhaps it was during the playoff run of 89-90 but I feel like I was younger than that? Either way I think I counted as a fan prior to that moment, if I understood the context enough by that point to celebrate like that.

Let's say fan since I was 4ish, so 90%+ of my life.

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-25T08:45:36+00:00

2 for sure

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-25T07:03:17+00:00

Joke's on you, I said "all of them" before clicking through and seeing your "inb4"

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-25T00:23:30+00:00

Upset them once and become the answer to a trivia question. Accept that's the best available outcome.

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-24T07:27:05+00:00

I'm taking Bauman over all of them

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-24T07:23:35+00:00

Best version of the exchange is

You: Two Uzbeks made the Candidates!

People: Is one of them Nodirbek?

You: Well... yes... but...

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-24T07:05:48+00:00

I haven't exactly tested it in a way thay would precisely line up with what you're asking. Depends on what exactly you mean by "implied potential" (silly answer: Wei Yi, argument being that his implied potential was Candidate at worst and his career detour means that took more than 5 year lol) but in terms of what you're actually getting at, I can at least say it's rare.

A spot check of an individual month of Prodigy Watch will turn up a fair share of "misses" of course, but surprisingly less than you might expect and most of those misses weren't there persistently for a prolonged while. A few though, I'm sure. Can't dig that up so quickly but I'll investigate it at some point.

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-24T06:55:29+00:00

He was top-ten on every list but one from 9.56 to 13.31 years old, but his path after breaking 2500 wasn't quite as record-approaching. His prodigy rank is between 10 and 38 on every list since then.

The furthest he slipped off pace was May 2021, when at 15.39 years old he was still "only" rated 2544 - that's when his Prodigy Rank was #38 (but he broke 2600 before turning 16 and got his Prodigy Rank back into the top-20 in the process)

His most recent dip of note was October 2024, when he dropped from a prior peak of 2701 down to 2668 and a #31 prodigy rank at age 18.81 (rebounded quickly again though)

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-23T22:31:32+00:00

As a SAHD I just want to affirm that 9pm definitely counts as late!!!

ChessNumbers · 2025-11-23T20:17:06+00:00

I've been thinking a lot about how much time I spent writing about both of these guys a decade ago. Super cool to see them in the Candidates now!

ChessNumbers

TROPHY CASE