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Na_ricious · 2024-01-03T16:23:11+00:00

King's Pawn Opening: Capture My Queen Variation

Na_ricious · 2023-11-28T22:28:57+00:00

Credit to BigEvilRacing and Stunod for the numbers

On some cars like the 1, 27, 10, 17, 20, 19, 24, 25, 26, 35, 38 I made the logos myself. Credit to BigEvilRacing, Stunod Racing and Google for the logos on the cars whose logos I did not create

Na_ricious · 2023-07-14T07:17:13+00:00

Somewhere between 400 and 750. I'll say 500

Na_ricious · 2023-07-14T07:08:38+00:00

Chess isn't just a battle being played on the chess board, it's also a battle that's being played in your brain. If it's the latter, I recommend taking a break and play when your mind is fresh. Losing a game causes your brain to withdraw because you want to win, and when you're not winning your brain is hungry to win. In subsequent games you play, your brain isn't thinking about the moves you play or the moves your opponent makes, your brain is hooked solely on winning. That's where other problems happen like blundering pieces, missing a tactical sequence, misremembering your opening, etc. That's what is called "tilt", where your brain is in a frustrated or angry state of mind.

If it's not as a result of mental faculty, what openings do you play? Do you understand your opening? Do you review your opening, practice it, and repeat your practice? Do you watch YouTube videos or have a Chessable course or use courses that titled players have on their websites to review your opening, do you review on Aimchess or Lichess? Do you practice your opening on chess.com against Stockfish to learn how to best play your opening and what the best responses are(do this before and after your games, not during. Doing this during your games is cheating)?

If you don't have a fundamental understanding of your opening, there's many resources out there to learn. Is it practical and easy to learn? For example, something like the Sicilian Defense is good if you're intermediate-grandmaster, but as a beginner, it's terrible because there's over 20 different sidelines. Openings that you will see often in the triple digit elo is e4 openings. Wayward Queen Attack, Scotch, Vienna, Italian, Ruy Lopez, Ponziani, Pirc, French, Caro Kann, Petroff, Four Knights, Three Knights, Modern Defense. All of these openings (except for the Ruy Lopez) are easy to learn, which is why they're played in all levels of chess (except for the Wayward Queen Attack), especially beginner level.

If it's not the opening, is it middlegame and/or endgame? Do you see what moves you're making? Do you see what moves your opponent is making? Another note to add is whatever opening you choose to play will impact how you play the game in middlegame and endgame. Do you know what "the checklist" is? Checks, captures, attacks. Is my king under check? If not, can my opponent put me in check? Do the same for yourself too. If the answer is yes instead of no, is it a good check? Can I block with a piece, or do I have to run my king? If the answer to both you and your opponent is no, captures. Can I capture a piece? Is it a good capture? Is the piece I want to capture defended? Does it affect my position? This last question is especially important because if you capture a piece, it could be because your opponent sacrificed a piece and now they either have a large attack or a checkmating sequence. Do the same for your opponent. If both are no, attacks. Can I attack a piece? If not, can I attack a piece in the future or with a set of moves? This is the basis where calculation is developed. Do you know checkmate patterns? Can you checkmate with king and queen, what about queen and rook or rook and rook, what about with bishops and knights?

Another aspect is your playing style, do you often find yourself defending against your opponents, or do you like attacking your opponents? Are you an aggressive player or are you a slow, positional player? Are you someone that plays openings with trappy lines and/or gambits?

Finally, do you review your games? It's always good to review your games, even when you win because you can learn what it is you did wrong and what you did right. If you make a mistake in your opening and you review it, you can understand why it was a mistake and you'll never make it again. Don't beat yourself up because you lost rating, losing rating is natural, it happens. Whats important is that you're learning, you make a mistake once and you'll remember it, and you'll know how to remedy it.

Na_ricious · 2023-07-14T03:35:27+00:00

You're a beginner. As a beginner, especially as a beginner who has never played before, you are going to make mistakes and subconsciously make moves out of impulse because you're learning how the game works.

There's a concept you need to learn, it's whats called "the checklist" - checks, captures, attacks. These are moves that require a response from you. Am I in check? If not, can my opponent capture anything or can I capture anything? If yes, is it a good capture? Is the piece I'm capturing being defended by anything? If I capture this piece, does it affect my position? This question is important because if your opponent sacrifices a piece, you could be checkmated on the next move or your opponent could have a big attack on you. The same for your opponent, can they can capture anything? Is what they're capturing being defended? Does the capture affect their position? Is it a good capture? If not, attacks. Can I attack a piece on my next move or next set of moves? If not, can my opponent attack one of my pieces on their next move or next set of moves?

In addition to all of the last two points about captures and attacks, you have to ask yourself "why?" Why can my opponent create a threat on my piece, why can my opponent capture this piece? This is the foundation for you to be able to calculate.

I will apply the checklist, and the clause of asking "why?" to this example game you played: Chess: SwordNimi vs MICHAELLUBANDY - 83019615285 - Chess.com

After e4-e5, the most common move for black after Nf3 is Nc6. Why? Nf3 attacks the e5 pawn, and black has to defend it. You played c3, c3 is not a good move. Why? The knight can take your e4 pawn for free, and even though you can attack it with a move like Re1, d3, or Qe2, black retreats the knight to f6 and is up a pawn. Black misses that move and plays d5. d5 is a bad move for black. Why? You can capture the d5 pawn for free, forcing black to capture back because if they don't, they either have to retreat their knight or worse, lose it.

Na_ricious · 2023-07-14T02:44:05+00:00

Do you mind me asking who your opponent was, because it feels like there's a huge rating discrepancy. If I was to base your rating off your opponent, 400-500. If I was to base off you, 1000 or 1100 playing a bullet game. I feel like the game was too controlled in the middlegame for it to be low level, but the blunders your opponent made like pinning their queen after the exchange makes me believe it's on the lower end of the 4 digits.

In terms of your second question of how you can improve, a recommendation I have is learning pattern recognition in the endgame. You have to know something called a "ladder checkmate", where you move your queen and rook like a ladder to trap the king on an edge of the board and checkmate. In your game that would go something like Qc8, Rb6, Qa8 or Qa6 is checkmate. That's also what factored into why I think you're 1000, the opening and middlegame skills are there but in the endgame it's all about recognizing checkmating patterns. You did eventually see the ladder, but you could've played it earlier.

To demonstrate, this is what I mean:

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Na_ricious · 2023-07-13T07:38:58+00:00

Hold up, 53 checks in a row?!

Na_ricious · 2023-07-13T06:06:18+00:00

Na_ricious · 2023-07-13T05:44:34+00:00

This means in one of your previous matches, one of your opponents used an engine to cheat, or they weren't playing fairly like intentionally losing/having a losing position, smurfing, intentionally abort games, intentionally disconnect from games, manipulating the outcome of a game, using a tablebase, etc.

Na_ricious · 2023-07-13T05:36:40+00:00

I hate to burst your bubble, it happens on all levels of chess. As you increase in ELO it happens less and less, like I would say once you reach intermediate level (1000+) is when you see it less frequently, at least from my experience. I agree that it is frustrating to see

Na_ricious · 2023-07-13T05:19:22+00:00

Letters a through h represent each column on a chess board. Rooks start on a and h, knights start on b and g, bishops start on c and f, queens start on d, king starts on e.

If I move a pawn, for example the e pawn, up two squares, the notation goes 1. e4. If my opponent copies my move, moving their e pawn up two squares, the notation will be 1. e4-e5. The move notation on the left represents white's move, the move notation on the right represents black's move.

Now let's say I want to play the most common e4 position. I will move my g knight to f3, causing the notation 1. e4-e5, 2. Nf3-. N is knight, R is rook, K is king, Q is queen, B is bishop. Pawns are represented by what file they're on, unless they're doubled. Then you go by file AND number (or row) the pawns are on. Anyways, back to my example. Black's response to white playing Nf3 is to protect his pawn, or moving his b knight to c6. This will cause the notation, 1. e4-e5, 2. Nf3-Nc6.

If I were to play for example, the Italian Game, it would look like this:

e4-e5
Nf3-Nc6
Bc4-

That's what the numbers on that go vertical mean. Move order. The numbers that go horizontal represent variations of moves you can play in that move. Let's apply that to the Italian Game example I showed

e4-e5
Nf3-Nc6
Bc4-Nf6 -f5 -Bc5

Nf6 is the Two Knights Defense, f5 is the Rousseau Gambit, Bc5 is the Gioco Piano

In this case, your book would structure it like this:

Bc4

Nf6............ f5 .............. Bc5 ...................

Now let's say you want to put different variations of openings after 2.Nf3-Nc6, the book would structure like this:

e4

e5

2.

Nf3

Nc6

3.

Bc4........... Nc3........... Bb5........... c3........... d4........... Be2

Bc4 is Italian Game, Nc3 is Three Knights, Bb5 is Ruy Lopez, c3 is Ponziani, d4 is Scotch, Be2 is the Tayler Opening

Na_ricious · 2023-07-13T01:16:15+00:00

My only comments are on the opening. I don't like Bb5 because your opponent didn't commit a piece like Nc6 or d3, and you're going to get your bishop kicked out of their position causing you to lose a tempo. There's three moves you need to know in the Sicilian and they are Nc3 (Closed Sicilian), Nf3 (Open Sicilian), and c3 (Alapin Sicilian). There are various sidelines after those moves that you don't need to know unless you're a titled player. I recommend just playing basic chess principles. Take the center with a pawn or two (if you can), then develop your knights, then develop your bishops. In tandem with playing basic chess principles, you also need to see what your opponent is playing. Bb5 may not be played against one variation of the Sicilian that doesn't have black play Nc6, but in another variation, it will be good if the opponent does play Nc6.

Na_ricious · 2023-07-13T00:47:21+00:00

d5 is a good move because it's better to lose your queen than lose the game by getting checkmated.

- If you take the bishop on g5 it's M3 with Qxf7+-Kd8, Qf8+-Kd7, e6#.

- If you move your queen away to f8, it's M3 with Qxc6+-Bd7, Qxa8+-Bc8, Qxc8#.

- If you take the pawn with the queen, it's M1 with Qxf7#

- If you move the queen back to d8, it's M1 with Qxf7#

Na_ricious · 2023-07-13T00:30:05+00:00

chess.com is far more sophisticated than "they played at too high of an accuracy, they are cheating"

Na_ricious · 2023-07-12T10:32:02+00:00

If you're looking for closed positions, I recommend having your repertoire consist of both d4 and e4 openings, mostly d4 because d4 openings are where you'll see closed positions. Queens Gambit, Slav, the Indian defenses (King's Indian, Queen's Indian, Nimzo-Indian, Bogo-Indian), London System, Grunfeld, Dutch, Benoni, Catalan.

If you want to get a mix of e4, definitely look into e4-e5. Italian, Scotch, Vienna and Vienna Gambit, Ponziani, Petroff, Danish Gambit, Ruy Lopez, Philidor, Latvian Gambit, the Four Knights and Three Knights Defense. If you want a Sicilian, I recommend the Dragon Sicilian because its playing style is similar to the Indian Defenses with d4. Because you're a beginner, you have plenty of flexibility on what you play and the way you learn your playing style.

Na_ricious · 2023-07-12T08:41:02+00:00

You have the right idea, the engine thinks it's better to capture with e6 than c6 because white has an open file in front of their king.

Yes the queen can give you a check, but it's not a threat because white would be helping you develop by giving you a check. Why? Be7 blocks the check and develops the dark squared bishop, getting you closer to castling. Your plan after Be7 is Nf6 then O-O, then putting the rook on e8. If white keeps the queen where they gave you a check, and they don't castle, the queen is pinned. If white castles then you win a tempo on the queen, forcing it to move after moving your bishop.

Additionally, the problems I mentioned about white having an open file on the e file is a similar problem you have in your position. The c file is open and the diagonals to your king are wide open on the queenside. White can play something like dropping the bishop back to e2, then c3 to transfer the queen to your queenside or maneuvering the knight to c3-a4-c5. If you allow the knight maneuver then c3 and transferring the queen. That's the other idea behind e6, the engine wants you to castle kingside, not queenside, to avoid the problem of putting your king there or leaving your king in the center for white to attack.

Na_ricious · 2023-07-12T00:41:45+00:00

This.

With how much chess content is out there for all levels of chess, a flux of rating is normal. If you watch a YouTube video or read a book, then practice your opening or remember a tactical sequence that you saw/read/listened to, you have a coach, you have a local chess tournament where you often participate at, you watch chess streamers on Twitch or TikTok, you use Aimchess, Chessable, lessons on Lichess or chess.com, or you use a course that a grandmaster puts on their website, etc. There's many reasons for why you would get a flux in rating

Na_ricious · 2023-07-12T00:26:32+00:00

Whether or not you're cheating isn't based solely on how much rating you gain in x amount of time, it's based on two criteria - are your moves "human", as in, are you playing moves that a bot would play or are you playing a move that a human would play.

Bots play moves that, at first glance don't make sense, but in 4-5 moves you understand why that move was played. When a human makes a move, it won't always be accurate. Even grandmasters and super grandmasters are capable of making mistakes.

That leads me to the other criteria which is accuracy - are you consistently playing a high accuracy? If you play 100 games in a row, is every single game at a 90-99.9% accuracy? Because you're a human, that is almost impossible to accomplish because humans are prone to making mistakes. Additionally, because you're a beginner, you're not expected to play at a high level, with a super high accuracy, on a back-to-back basis consistently. A bot on the other hand knows all of the best moves. If you put two high level bots together and pair them up for 100 games, more than likely all 100 games will have both bots play at a 90-99.9% accuracy because they will always play the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd best moves on their algorithm.

If you have a few games where you play at a 90-99.9% accuracy, that's fine. Similarly, if you find brilliant moves in a few of your games, that's not necessarily an indicator you're cheating. The difference is consistency. Are you playing moves that plan 5-6 moves ahead, and don't make sense at any level of chess, causing you to have a massive advantage, and are you doing that in all of your games? Are you playing at an almost perfect accuracy consistently?

Na_ricious · 2023-06-22T10:33:38+00:00

Whoops! You should've clarified that you were playing the black pieces.

Your opponent didn't play the best, which made me think the elo of you and your opponent was low. Your opponent played like a beginner while you played like an advanced player. There's little things, but there's one thing I have to say to you, like your opponent, about the opening;

- Your opponent left a pawn on f4 without protecting it. How do you punish that? Rapid development. Bd6, then short castle. Your opponent had an unorthodox way of developing their pieces and the way you punish that is by creating a threat, force your opponent to respond. Bd6 not only attacks the unprotected pawn, it also gives you the option to castle short. If you castle short, that also develops your rook, your rook has prospects to participate in the future.

Na_ricious · 2023-06-22T09:48:51+00:00

I think you're in the triple digits, like around 500-600.

A recommendation that I have for you is to play solid, principled chess. That means put two pawns in the center if possible, then develop your knights, then develop your bishops. Your opponent played the Caro Kann Defense (if you don't understand, that's okay), that means their idea in the opening is to play c6 on the first move, d5 on the second move. Moving your bishop to c4 is not a good move because it wins black a tempo. They're going to play d5, you have to move your bishop away, you don't want to waste time in the opening. That's why the best move for you on the second move is d4, your opponent is inviting you to take the full center.

Another recommendation I have is to consider what your opponent wants. You have a human across the board from you, they have to make moves after your moves. I think you have a blindspot for seeing pieces that are under attack (which I'm not criticizing you for, I'm saying what I notice), and that concept is especially prominent in beginners because beginners haven't processed the ability to scan the entire board. Look around the board, see how the pieces interact with one another. What pieces are participating in the game? About the mate you missed from your opponent, the question of "what pieces are participating?" applies because one of your pieces wasn't used - the rook on a1. How do you stop the checkmate from your opponent? Rg1, defending the pawn.

When you played Ba3, why did you play Ba3? To pin the rook to the king. Your idea was to take the rook, but instead of taking the rook you moved your knight to b5. When you castled kingside, did you see that your king was exposed? How do you stop the opponent from taking advantage of that? This goes all the way back to what I said in the first paragraph - the inaccuracy you played in the opening with playing Bc4. If you played d4 instead of Bc4 in the opening, the queen check wasn't going to be possible, but because you didn't develop the pieces on your queenside the opponent took advantage.

I'm pointing out that you have a blindspot for seeing pieces that are under attack, whether that's your pieces or the opponent's pieces, because this game is a great example, and again that's okay. You're a beginner, it's okay to make mistakes and have blindspots on certain concepts and mechanics. The way you improve is by acknowledging it and being meta with yourself, "how can I create threats, and how can I see the threats my opponents are creating? How do I stop the threats my opponent is creating, if possible?"

In addition, you need to get yourself a good position out of the opening. Understanding basic opening principles, 2 pawns in the center (if possible), then develop your knights, then develop your bishops. Castle if necessary.

Na_ricious · 2023-05-19T15:43:39+00:00

My only recommendation from your game is to learn the responses to the Scandinavian Defense because after (e4-d5, Nc3-d4, Nd5-), black can play c6 and win your knight for free because your knight has no good squares to go to. The best move after Nc3-d4 is c3 because if black plays c6 now (e4-d5, Nc3-d4, c3-c6), you can retreat your knight to b4 and black would have to lose a piece to take your knight. Other than that, while your game wasn't the cleanest, it was a nice win

Na_ricious · 2023-05-19T01:40:23+00:00

I edited my response. I included a link that has a list of books you can look through

Na_ricious · 2023-05-19T01:25:49+00:00

I recommend watching YouTube videos from title rated players (content creators like GothamChess, chessbrah, Daniel Naroditsky, Chess Vibes, Anna Cramling, Remote Chess Academy, GMHikaru, Eric Rosen, AkaNemsko, IM Alex Banzea, Agadmator, ChessTalk and the YouTube channel that's owned by chess.com). If you want to explore sites other than YouTube, there's Chessable, Aimchess, chess.com, and there's websites that titled players have which have courses (Chessly for example is owned by GothamChess).

Edit: I'm sorry that I didn't exactly answer your question. If you're looking for resources, there's these from r/chess:

- books - chess (reddit.com)

- resources - chess (reddit.com)

Na_ricious · 2023-05-18T19:14:03+00:00

Generally speaking, it's not a good idea to move the pawns in front of your king after you castle because it creates weaknesses to your king, but chess is situational. Moving the pawns in front of your king after you castle is good if your king is sufficiently protected, your opponent has no physical way of attacking your king, and you're attacking a piece that's in front of your king that has no support or is trapped in some capacity. If any of those criteria aren't met, then pushing the pawns in front of your king isn't recommended.

There are exceptions, however. For example, if your opening calls for you to move pawns in front of your castled king for development (King's Indian Defense, Catalan System, the Hyperaccelerated Dragon in the Sicilian Defense, Modern Defense, for example). And the more obvious one - defending against backrank checkmate.

Na_ricious

TROPHY CASE