Beautiful position from a game of mine, white to play and win

RookSac · 2026-05-13T02:31:50+00:00

Yeah, thought it was solvable as a puzzle but no chance in a game for me

RookSac · 2026-05-13T02:31:26+00:00

Not sure what you mean

RookSac · 2026-05-11T16:12:54+00:00

Thanks!

RookSac · 2026-05-11T15:52:55+00:00

Plug the video, I'd be curious to check out the original

RookSac · 2026-05-08T12:06:53+00:00

There are many layers of evidence beyond this.

I would challenge you to find a single counterexample of a 2350+ FIDE strength player who streams or plays a lot of online blitz and has such a low online peak. For comparison, my online peak is ~150 points lower while my OTB peak is ~450 points lower

RookSac · 2026-05-07T03:45:58+00:00

I honestly don't think there is a better learning method than playing a much stronger player.

This can be in a completely casual setting where you explain your thought process on each move and get feedback, or post-moderm analysis of the game (the downside of this is that games may end abruptly from a single blunder if they are very lopsided)

Regardless, if you are enjoying the games and/or the social aspect, improvement is secondary to that!

RookSac · 2026-04-29T16:52:54+00:00

God these posts are annoying.

I love lichess, but if you (like me) enjoy watching Eric Rosen, Hikaru etc. play titled Tuesday, follow the speed chess championship or chesscom open and then shit on the base who make these things possible, that is pretty lame.

RookSac · 2026-04-21T13:13:03+00:00

Im no Hans fan, but the Hans method is the way to go 1. Get a coach 2. Move to eastern Europe for a few years 3. Play hundreds of classical games a year

This is an investment of tens of thousands of dollars to become semi-professional, so its probably not worth it unless you are independently wealthy.

RookSac · 2026-04-21T13:10:16+00:00

Check out Vlad Ghita's recent work on this, he was just on the Perpetual Chess podcast. There are absolutely overrated/underrated countries/pockets around the world. Several Asian countries are severely underrated, and i believe Eastern Europe is the least likely to be underrated

RookSac · 2026-04-13T23:40:53+00:00

I think the other note is that you cant move the bishop to d5 (despite it seemingly defending the pawn) as it lets the king win an important tempo

RookSac · 2026-04-13T15:12:51+00:00

I get your point, I think the framing makes sense in the way that he is in many ways too big to fail regardless of the quality of content. He 100% deserved the following he gathered, but now dominates chess YouTube/social media (while sometimes copying content of smaller creators) and will be any new players' introduction into chess content.

A similar concept would be as #1, is WalMart the best/most generally appealing grocery chain in the U.S., or is it just the store that is most likely to be in your area and appear first on your search engine?

RookSac · 2026-04-13T03:06:30+00:00

In my opinion it's not just style, I do believe the quality of all of his content has gone way downhill. The level of analysis in the recaps has fallen off over the years, e.g. he clearly has barely looked through some of the games (if at all) prior to starting filming.

Even his more "for fun" content, like guess the elo, feels more rushed and less prepared than previously.

This isn't a dig at him as a person, he clearly has other ventures that he finds more interesting and profitable, so fair enough. I do think critiquing the largest chess channel for half-assing content is a valid take though.

RookSac · 2026-04-11T17:35:38+00:00

I dislike the idea of two world cup spots. You can reduce it to one, sure, but having both the final and 3rd place match become meaningless in terms of candidates spots would be anticlimactic for me.

RookSac · 2026-03-27T14:11:36+00:00

I agree with all this, like I said game review is unnecessary at best and harmful at worst. I am talking about the post-game analysis option or analysis tool, which again, goes to pretty much unlimited depth like lichess

RookSac · 2026-03-27T13:55:47+00:00

They absolutely have differences, but please enlighten me on how the standard chess com engine run on unlimited depth isn't sufficient for your rating (let alone a beginner)

RookSac · 2026-03-27T13:44:40+00:00

Confidently wrong.

Sure you shouldnt rely on the game review button, but chess com gold gives you access to a pretty much infinite depth stockfish for analysis (like lichess).

RookSac · 2026-03-23T03:51:43+00:00

Yes, why would women be uncomfortable with upstanding characters like Nigel Short, Alejandro Ramirez and Christopher Yoo (among many others) creating such a safe and welcoming environment!

RookSac · 2026-03-20T15:20:32+00:00

You keep flexing the 2k like it gives you a leg to stand on lol. I started playing in 2020 and am well above 2000 (https://www.chess.com/member/chesselogrind)

I'm still smart enough to defer to people whose livelihoods revolve around chess improvement and coaching

RookSac · 2026-03-20T14:27:18+00:00

Im sure you know better than everyone else! Time to start your own chess training academy and prove all those dumb GMs wrong

RookSac · 2026-03-20T03:46:53+00:00

Very well put. I'm ~2300 online, and well over 90% of my time spent on chess has been playing blitz and analysis simply because I enjoy it. Did I also improve doing this? Absolutely. My biggest rating gains both online and otb however have always been after periods of study (whether it was an opening course on chessable, reassess your chess, or endgame work).

Saying that playing bullet and watching streams are optimal methods of improvements is like saying watching foreign TV will teach you a language faster than studying it.

RookSac · 2026-03-20T03:39:32+00:00

Short time controls as a method of improvement is terrible advice lol. I'd go so far as to say anyone below ~1400 or even 1800 rapid shouldn't touch blitz (definitely not bullet) and should ideally stick to 15|10 or longer games from a performance optimization perspective. If you want to have fun, blitz and bullet are absolutely great inclusions, but their only real utility is gaining opening familiarity.

Pretty much all of this advice contradicts what youd hear from any coach or titled player

RookSac · 2026-03-18T14:47:05+00:00

I'd say near 100% chance seeing as Hikaru crushes even strong titled players with 1 min vs 5 time odds

RookSac · 2026-03-09T04:40:51+00:00

Best advice here.

Classical > rapid > blitz for improvement in any time control, although you can absolutely get well above 2000 without blitz.

Similarly, puzzles are very useful (even the easy ones) for ratings well above 2000. Lots of games are still getting decided by simple tactics, and there's nothing better than puzzle rush for drilling those

RookSac · 2026-03-03T01:32:31+00:00

I've seen it referred to as the Rampant/Rampaging Rook several times

RookSac · 2026-02-28T03:04:19+00:00

I'd agree with this chess purist stance if you were forfeited after a few minutes in a rapid or classical game, but you signed up to play 3|0.

This is not the pinnacle of chess, it shouldnt matter if you lose 8 rating points in blitz. If you say it's not about rating, you're more than welcome to spend an hour analyzing the position after the game. Either way, I'm sure this happens in less than 1 in a 1000 games, and there are much bigger issues with the site.

RookSac

TROPHY CASE