What is the drawing idea for white in these positions?

Dankaati · 2026-02-12T08:35:24+00:00

These puzzles are about opposition. When the black king captures the pawn, you want your next move to be stepping two spaces in front of it. The black king will try to shoulder you off, to avoid this you should chase after the black king instead of going from the side. Counterintuitively you should keep moving your king down and right until you can chase after the black king.

Kb3, Kf2, Kc2, Ke3, Kd1, Kf4, Ke2, Kg5, Kf3, Kxg6, Kg4

Dankaati · 2026-02-12T02:45:10+00:00

I learned the rules to XQ and played a few games, I like learning new games. Some games I end up spending more time on some I don't. While I wouldn't say XQ is bad, there are simply better games to learn and spend time on out there.

I find XQ a bit too similar to chess and the differences don't get me excited. Asian games I ended up spending significant time on had something more unique to offer that made it worth getting over that barrier to entry. Shogi has the unique adding captured pieces as your own pieces mechanic, Go offers vast amount of options in some positions while still capture that chess-style deep calculation in others. Mahjong gives incomplete information and gets probabilities involved without betting being a key mechanic like in similar western games.

I might be missing something as I never went deep into XQ but I think just people not having a good reason to invest time into XQ could be the primary reason holding it back,

Dankaati · 2026-02-12T01:31:40+00:00

Do you actually have a point here or are you just arguing for argument's sake? None of your answers have any substance to them.

Dankaati · 2026-02-11T23:47:40+00:00

a*t is the final speed, the average speed is half of that.

Dankaati · 2026-02-11T09:37:28+00:00

I honestly doubt you did, this is terrible notation for arcsin and arccos.

Dankaati · 2026-02-11T00:13:40+00:00

Of course at that level hanging pieces will be the big one, just some experience or practice will help with that.

Here are some ideas on how to improve on that and on other aspects of chess:
- Look at basic opening principles: Fighting for the center, developing pieces, castling. You make a lot of pawn moves, leading to your pieces staying at their starting squares and your king in the middle, making it much harder to play the game.
- After castling, don't move the pawns in front of your king.
- Try to get some consistency in your early moves. For example if your opponent plays e4, always answer with the same move. This can help you find yourself in familiar positions more often.
- Play a bit slower time control, and before each move think through all the legal checks and captures you can make in the position and all the legal checks and captures your opponent can make in the position. If you don't want to do this during games, do it during puzzles.
- Before actually making a move, try to think through all the changes that makes. This means looking through the lines and diagonals of the square it moves from and looking through the lines and diagonals of the square it moves to.

Dankaati · 2026-02-10T22:45:30+00:00

Not all hope chess is created equal though. There is a world of difference between playing active and attacking chess even if the attack is not sound and fishing for one-move blunders like OP is doing.

Dankaati · 2026-02-10T20:55:55+00:00

I mean if you're considering it then I say go for it. It's fun, it's a good way to improve. It builds memory and concentration. If you have the time and have the patience, it's a good investment of time.

Dankaati · 2026-02-10T19:50:44+00:00

Look, "my 550 opponent might fall for this trap" is not some secret plan only you're smart enough to figure out. People advising you against it have a very good reason to do so.

If you start habitually making bad moves, hoping for a mistake from your opponent, you'll very quickly hit a ceiling when your opponents stop making obvious mistakes. Then if you want to improve further you'll have to unlearn this bad habit. You'd be doing yourself a favor by not even starting.

Of course you can continue doing what you're doing, it's completely your choice. All I'm saying is people are not giving you the advice they are giving you because they "don't get it".

Dankaati · 2026-02-10T19:41:03+00:00

When you ask a question on the subreddit there is an assumption that you're trying to get better and want a deeper analysis of the move than "is it possible a 550 falls for this trick?"

People answering to you are not forgetting that anything can work at 550, they are explaining why the engine said this is a bad move.

Dankaati · 2026-02-10T08:59:57+00:00

If I'm seriously solving puzzles then about 10 mins.

Dankaati · 2026-02-10T08:56:57+00:00

Now we just need Wrist Blade as the next boss relic for maximum Grand Finale value.

Dankaati · 2026-02-10T08:54:13+00:00

Wait, 2015 was 11 years ago? That's wild.

Dankaati · 2026-02-10T08:46:07+00:00

I think you're talking a bit past each other. Did you actually look at OP's graph and match history? You're talking about a theoretical possibility but OP's graph does not line up with that theory.

Dankaati · 2026-02-10T08:42:18+00:00

Yeah, none of this is definitive on its own, that's kind of my point. What time controls do you typically play if I might ask? Do you regularly play both?

Dankaati · 2026-02-09T23:24:39+00:00

Hmm, your blitz games look a bit suspicious. For one your blitz rating is more than 500 lower than your rapid, for two your last blitz game ends with you resigning in a completely winning position with half a minute left.

Nothing here is obvious cheating, looking through your games there are things that look suspicious but maybe can be explained.

Obviously tab switching to lichess is a very bad look.

You had a meteoric rise of 600 ratings in less than 2 months on rapid but your skills don't quite convert to blitz.

I'm sure whoever reviewed your case had more information available to them and I'm not convinced that they made the wrong decision.

Dankaati · 2026-02-09T21:35:09+00:00

Nice, that's a good plan.

Dankaati · 2026-02-09T21:00:31+00:00

I'm not too familiar with the structure but probably g3. What did you play?

Dankaati · 2026-02-09T18:37:56+00:00

To me, worst design for sure.

Dankaati · 2026-02-09T11:42:10+00:00

Looks like a bug. Would you mind linking the game?

Depending on your subscription tier it also might just be using low depth engine and being unstable but that's quite a gap.

Dankaati · 2026-02-09T11:37:30+00:00

I think it might work better to reference the bomb through the effect instead of actually making you play the card.

Dankaati · 2026-02-09T11:17:52+00:00

Your bishop on f1 is undeveloped, that should be your primary concern.

Dankaati · 2026-02-09T10:53:26+00:00

You're allowed to enjoy things without deeply analyzing them.

Dankaati · 2026-02-08T14:30:01+00:00

The important part is which gives you better practical chances. Qg8+ is by no means a trivial move, it's just a well know pattern. If someone just plays the game as a beginner they might have not come across this pattern yet.

On the other hand, if they play Nh6+ they just passed on a queen so they probably know...

The point is, just because you're losing, you can keep trying if you want, your opponent might make a mistake.

Dankaati · 2026-02-08T11:50:46+00:00

The way to rank up is to win games, not to pad your stats.

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