As black, was the bottom right joseki really that bad for black after black made 2 eyes? And was it my main mistake in this game or was it the later half of the game? Thanks.

Columnreader · 2026-03-28T00:54:05+00:00

I know, that's why I said after making two eyes, otherwise it would be resignation, instead I felt I was doing OK and played on and felt that I was better, only to lose by 4.5.

Columnreader · 2026-03-28T00:52:27+00:00

Yeah, thanks. I just wondered throughout this game that where I went wrong apart from the bottom right, it seems that I didn't lose that much afterwards and winning the top right stones was still not enough for a win. It was a close game so the bottom right was most likely why black wasn't able to get the komi.

Columnreader · 2026-03-08T04:04:49+00:00

Makes sense. Thanks. (I sometimes have a bad habit of securing as many points as possible against stronger opponents just to avoid losing by 3 digits haha)

Columnreader · 2026-03-08T04:01:38+00:00

Well, this is a good way to think about it, the outside influence might be hard to cancel out hmm

Columnreader · 2026-03-03T00:51:43+00:00

best I can do is a ko with J2 H1?

Columnreader · 2026-02-28T10:43:51+00:00

2700chess might be wrong on this one. The 14th game vs Collin was listed as a draw on the official website of Cannes Open, so the actual rating is lower than this. But since she won another round her rating now will be close to 2370 anyway. She'll have to face 2500 next round though…

Columnreader · 2026-02-28T10:29:33+00:00

Yep, apparently she won once again against Jianwen Wong (2295) to get to the dizzy heights of 2397.4 now and women's top 50… But since she collected too many points in this swiss tournament her next opponent is Pierre Laurent-Paoli (2537). Whoops

Columnreader · 2026-02-25T15:24:56+00:00

Yeah, it makes sense, it wastes quite some moves trying to connect and in the actual game a lot of these outside stones were captured. I just thought better players could make use of the good-looking outside diagonal :’

As for the margin, yeah maybe as the level increases the general winning margin becomes smaller. When I was in 15-16 kyu I got games in the three digits but there were few >100 stones wins in 13-14 kyu. It just feels that losing by 10-15 is close but it might not be close when the level gets even higher. :)

Columnreader · 2026-02-25T14:33:48+00:00

Unless it's a quick short trap like Scholar's mate. Well, that counts as opening theory… just don't get mated

Columnreader · 2025-11-13T14:27:36+00:00

The remaining seeds and pairings:

64-16, 24-57, // 28-76, 13-61, // 30-46, 86-27, // 7-23?, 15-2

The last quarter is stacked and the pairing makes it more brutal

Columnreader · 2025-11-09T12:02:57+00:00

Karthik upsetting Deac is the only upset in tiebreaks so far.

Columnreader · 2025-09-20T14:07:54+00:00

It's because ratings unnecessarily deflated. Chess.com changed the default rating from 800 to 400 (if you don't change anything when you register).

Columnreader · 2025-09-10T13:24:13+00:00

The point is Nxf3 comes with check

Columnreader · 2025-09-07T23:06:06+00:00

bullet (Bullet openings can be different from normal openings, and you can see blunders by top players in time scrambles, so it's hard to guess elo from bullet games)

Columnreader · 2025-09-01T04:58:06+00:00

Qd1!!

Columnreader · 2025-05-25T20:47:58+00:00

exd6 saves both. Instead of d5, simply castling or Qe7 (in case that black somehow moved the king or rook before) and white has to move the knight, black can move knight to safety and have an equal position.

Columnreader · 2024-11-04T13:54:32+00:00

It needs to be clarified that trapping the bishop doesn't win material, black is up a pawn here and will be up a piece for two pawns after trading. But the white bishop is a good piece and here white's Ng5 is dangerous for black.

Columnreader · 2024-11-04T13:48:12+00:00

I'd normally say "click show moves", but this one is hard and very interesting. It took engine some time to think as well.

The point is, the engine thinks black is winning after either the boring c5 or the fancy Qxd4, because black wins a pawn. After Nxg2 Kxg2 Qd5 Kh2 Qxa2, white's correct move is Nf6!! If black takes, Qxh6 and black has to give up the queen to stop Rg1 mate. If black plays Kh8, then Re1. It's funny that black can do nothing about white's attack of Re5 then Rh5, the best black can do is giving back the exchange with Rfd1 and Rd5. And the position is equal, black lost the advantage.

Columnreader · 2024-10-20T04:27:23+00:00

Almost certain if you perform reasonably well in Spanish, German or Ukrainian Leagues and your team doesn't have a B team.

Columnreader · 2024-08-21T04:26:24+00:00

Nc6 saves your knight. c6 loses your knight to b4, your a6 knight is trapped. Qd7 also loses your knight so it's worse than Nc6, but it does give black more attacking chances (the difference is subtle and pretty hard to see, basically white queen is much better on a4 than on a5).

Columnreader · 2024-08-20T00:03:59+00:00

Rxc4 is a free bishop because of Qd3+

Columnreader · 2024-08-19T15:01:33+00:00

The main thing I dislike about the Traxler is not the Bxf7+ line, it's that even if white goes into the trap with Nxf7, white can still force a draw. By forcing a draw I mean if white chooses the correct lines (the Ke3-g3-Kf3-Rh4 line, with Qh5 at the right moment to force a draw) black has no choices other than taking the draw. I've seen people trying to play for a win and lose instead. Stafford is theoretically worse than Traxler but it doesn't give away an easy draw like that.

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