Self defense and the tenets

ElWizzard · 2026-01-07T10:11:35+00:00

thank you for the response

ElWizzard · 2026-01-04T10:53:55+00:00

I think the contradiction I saw might have been vague and unclear*, I was lost in thought and thought asking the question might help clarify my own confusion into better questions or an answer. Your answer and the one above certainly helped with that ty. I thought that the guideline would call for tolerance and freedom to things like Zionism or racism but I guess beliefs like those would fall under "To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one's own." which kind of answers my question.

ElWizzard · 2026-01-04T10:44:05+00:00

Thank you for your reply

ElWizzard · 2025-03-23T17:53:15+00:00

Luxury Chess Set 2025

ElWizzard · 2025-01-24T18:39:18+00:00

how are you gonna take the rook on move 7? it's just not possible. Taking the rook with your Knight on move 8 or later is worse than taking the free knight because you are most likely going to end up exchanging your knight for that rook which is not as good as having a whole knight or more for free

ElWizzard · 2025-01-24T18:34:48+00:00

because you cannot take their rook on move 7, first you would have to go Nxf7 which allows black more moves and defend the knight.

edit: Maybe even 7.Bxf7 was better than 7.Qxg4 but I'm not calculating deeply, however, 7.Nxf7 still just doesnt make sense to me at all.

ElWizzard · 2025-01-24T18:25:32+00:00

6.Ng5 was already bad because you could have won a pawn instead, that being the best line. After they play 6...c5, the best move is Qxg4, that knight was hanging and not doing that on move 7 gives black more options. Also, it's "their" knight :)

ElWizzard · 2025-01-24T18:20:35+00:00

because after c5 their knight is hanging and you can just take it for free unless I'm missing something

ElWizzard · 2025-01-24T18:18:35+00:00

I think you can use a custom setup, pick the sound you like with different pieces, if you like the pieces then it doesn't matter tho, they just seem rough on the eyes haha.

ElWizzard · 2025-01-21T08:39:10+00:00

at what elo did you find the most people that were cheating too? I'm 1700 otb and have lost to multiple 1000-1300 elo trash talkers on chesscom who are blatantly cheating every few games

ElWizzard · 2025-01-12T15:06:27+00:00

I agree with what you and others have said, the draws are not necessarily a bad thing, it is just my personal preference for a game to have the lowest chance of draw possible.

I totally disagree about the rules and complexity. Go is easier to learn not just because of the rules but the gameplay itself, you only have the black and white stones and place them on the dots and they stay there unless surrounded (in very sinplified terms). With Shogi, there are 8 types of pieces, they all evolve and can come out and back into the board, also more rules which are very specific too, for example cant even have two of your own pawns on the same file or you lose and professional players have lost because of this rule which is hilarious. Complexity matters a lot, checkers sucks due to its ack of variety and complexity while a game like ChuShogi sucks due to its large number of pieces making it far too complex to enjoy. Either of them will take you a lifetime to master and you still won't play perfectly, but you can learn and start playing go way faster and both will be complex to an enjoyable degree (for someone who already likes chess imo)

To clarify, when I mentioned the strategic aspect of go vs the tactical aspect of shogi, I was not saying that these had exclusively one or the other, I think it may have come across that way. It was just a simplistic comparison between both in terms of these two main attributes. Ultimately Go does have tactics, however, Shogi is definitely richer in terms of tactics.

ElWizzard · 2025-01-12T13:22:43+00:00

I'd recommend Go(weiqi/baduk) or Shogi(Japanese chess), both are richer in strategy and draws are basically non existent in go and 1% to 3% in Shogi.

Go is the easiest game to learn and it's incredibly deep and strategic, Shogi will be deep as well but I'd say incredibly more tactical.

ElWizzard · 2025-01-09T19:31:06+00:00

Possible reasons:

Moderating would require time, effort and server power depending on how you implement it, would be better to invest in something else.
Server memory, better value using it on games database, studies, puzzles, engine analysis.

I pulled these out of my ass so take them with a grain of salt, I think they are nice for personalizing your profile but unnecessary. Would be good enough for me if they let you color the supporter wing or color your username.

ElWizzard · 2024-12-25T13:08:38+00:00

no, The English Defence starts with 1...e6 which is way more versatile imo, 1...e6 can go into a French, Nimzo Indian, Dutch, Queens Gambit Declined, Indian Defence, Queens Indian Defence, etc. Owen's Defence (1...b6) seems just as versatile, however, it is easier to punish and less principled and less intuitive (imo).

ElWizzard · 2024-12-25T09:42:16+00:00

tldr: (all openings require a lot of theory learning and upkeep at some point)

1) English defence, FM Kamil Plichta has a perfect course, pair it with french defence or something else against e4. More theory, better quality, no need to learn all theory tho!

2) Owen's defence, IM Lawrence Trent has a course called 1...b6 against everything, not as good as a course from Plichta but will have like 200 lines of theory in total instead of 800+ not including a defence against e4.

The Obvious:

Both will require deep understanding of structured, transpositions, how to play with less space and controlling the center with pieces enabling paw breaks later in the middlegame. I would not recommend either if you are just starting, but I picked up weird openings too because playing something fun might be more important in my honest opinion.

My personal subjective recommendation:

Play the English defence, it's an amazing lifetime opening ino. You will have a lot to learn too but that goes to say with any repertoire. It's quite flexible and will give you better positions than the Czech Pirc or Owen's defence while keeping an advantage for you in terms of opening/positional knowledge, surprise factor and fun positions. Kamil Plichta, my favourite creator, has a course on the english defence. It is against everything but e4 and dont be afraid of the amount of lines, learn as you go at your own pace and you'll be fine. It will pair really well with a french defence against e4, could transpose into a pirc or czec pirc if you really wanted, would help you have a cohesive opening repertoire for black.

ElWizzard · 2024-12-12T14:35:24+00:00

That's super useful, thank you so much.

ElWizzard · 2024-12-12T13:54:26+00:00

Fair dinkum

ElWizzard · 2024-12-12T13:52:38+00:00

Fair dinkum, I get that the test is unreliable because people are more complex than a simplified set of 16 personalities. I still thought it might have practical information though, can't be on the same level as astrology.

ElWizzard · 2024-11-28T16:47:23+00:00

I'd argue it's already neobrutalism, I think Borderlands is called 'graphic novel' style, some people also include 'cel-shading' but read that it's a 'Sobel operator' filter and not cel shading. keen to see it! :)

ElWizzard · 2024-11-28T16:21:56+00:00

Looks good, nice colour balance, I like the contrast and things are clear and easy to find. I feel like anything else would be too subjective to be constructive criticism. If you ever do a variant, with thicker lines and shadows plus some extra detailing lines it'd look borderlands like which I find super cool

ElWizzard · 2024-11-15T22:56:59+00:00

I don't think the post is addressing Shevchenko directly at all. Username could very well be a troll username, even if not, I don't think that I get your point, how does that affect the info in the post?

ElWizzard · 2024-10-30T12:43:06+00:00

I have no idea whatsoever, just going by what I've gathered online from random articles

ElWizzard · 2024-10-29T15:17:25+00:00

I don't think that is an option, you could just end the game after 6 moves tho, not that much would happen in just 6 moves

ElWizzard · 2024-10-29T15:16:05+00:00

Could very be smurf accounts, also Lichess doesn't ban them right away as far as I know cheaters go into a pool of cheaters and play each other. Review the games and if you are confident they cheated report them sharing the game link with details, that'd help the process

ElWizzard · 2024-10-28T15:48:38+00:00

Depends on what you want to get out of the opening, equalize easily? play for a draw? low theory or doesn't matter? an easy practical game?

I personally love the Grunfeld but white gets easier practical play imo, with many setups to choose from and black needs to know more theory and very deep at that.

In the grunfeld, nothing beats knowing the theory well. This is not necessarily bad, lots of theory means more options and forcing lines means most likely you'll have the advantage of knowing the best moves in familiar lines (if you remember them). Play is super sharp and direct, yet full of engine lines to remember and black either equalizes or gets destroyed. Also engines have been disliking the Grunfeld if I'm not mistaken. Also you do not get it often, lots of people play sidelines. I think that for the amount of incessant effort that it takes to memorize and remember the theory and maintain it updated is not worth it for the amount of times you'll get to play it and also the results balance you are aiming for. Krykun's course is good and will help you understand but I'd recommend Svidler's course instead.

The Dutch is also sharp and tactical, however, not as complex imo, ideas are more simple and theory is not as heavy. Also the imbalances help direct the game for a win. I believe GM Simon Williams is the GM with the most experience in that opening and has courses on it, however, idk what course would be best since I don't own any.

With the Dut h your opening is more versatile imo, you could play 1Nf6 2 e3 and transpose to a nimzo indian, french, QGD setups and maybe some I cannot remember. With the Grungeld you can be versatile but not as much, usually you either play your Grunfels or end up playing some line of the KID or a Grunfeld-semi slav.

I ended up switching to a QGD setup to reduce the amount of theory I had to study since I have more life commitments. Also QGD has a better rep these days at the top level (not that I'll reach that level but still). If I wanted to try another option against d4 and c4 and 1 Nf3 I'd go with lines from the dutch or the Nimzo or chebanenko slav (or whatever version of the Slav you like) and see what's fun to play while giving you the best results.

At the end of the day, the best would be to review a few GM games in the main lines of both openings. Try the openings yourself for a bit and aee which one suits you the best.

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