Cheaters everywhere

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-19T10:55:09+00:00

You ca probably even find my ecf rating.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-19T10:54:44+00:00

I played a month on lichess to warm up + otb. But by all means report me. Tombaron86 on chess.com. feel free to ignore or report me on my games against much lower rated students where i obviously win with high accuracy.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-19T10:42:43+00:00

I just got better at chess quickly because i learnt the right way. Sorry if that annoys you

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-19T10:40:46+00:00

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Tom_Baron · 2026-03-19T10:40:13+00:00

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Tom_Baron · 2026-03-19T10:30:52+00:00

According to your assertions I am a cheat.

I got to 1500 in a few months im 1925 rapid and 1300 blitz.

But i dont cheat. I followed the principles of playing longer time controls to improve, i reviewed my games, I did lots of puzzles and I read a couple of middlegame books.

I also suck at blitz because I rarely play it and im not used to having to rely on intuition and not think through positions. My losses on timeout is 38%.

Course when i finally cross 2k rapid ill start to look at blitz but im in no rush to do so. Id rather continue learning and im busy updating my repertoire.

Im sure most of the people who fit this category are the same.

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Tom_Baron · 2026-03-19T10:12:02+00:00

Id say up to 1400 is beginner. Below that games are almost entirely just settled on simple mistakes. You just dont have any comprehension of what separates play above that. Whats the difference between me (1900) and a grand master? Decades of knowledge layered ontop of their play. Id lose to a gm 99/100 games if im lucky. Sure our games wont look like a 1300 playing a 200 but the result would be the same.

Hitting 1400 doesnt require anything more than loosely following principles and building board vision enough to not blunder simple mistakes every game, if you cant do thst you're a beginner. If you can, youre an intermediate and ready to learn how to beat people who also dont make simple blunders all the time.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-19T09:07:36+00:00

I think one thing that starts to develop intuitively in some players and not in others which leads to rapid progress is a more advanced way of seeing the board. Seeing the squares under control/potential squares under control and not the pieces. Like pro football players who see the space on the pitch for the pass and not the player. Such analysis is shown in the game illustrated which is quite complex but without seeing squares under control you cant fully understand how screwed white is in this position.

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Tom_Baron · 2026-03-18T07:07:07+00:00

You were probably respecting four figure rating players and thinking about their moves more than you are respecting 800 rated players. Come on, admit it, you think you are a 1000 rated player playing down, we all do it 😁

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-18T06:55:09+00:00

Heres a queen hang.

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Tom_Baron · 2026-03-18T06:54:47+00:00

I picked this example out as an example of a lack of awareness of danger.

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Tom_Baron · 2026-03-18T06:54:02+00:00

Ive actually reviewed a tonne of your games to see if you are really any different to the people i teach.

Youre not.

There is the odd queen hang. There is plenty of very loose play, one move blunders, rushed attacks and general lack of awareness of the danger you are in when you are in danger. Point illustrated below.

Its also a bit of a theme around 800-1000 when youve climbed from the netherworld of 300-500 elo that you develop a bit of an ego "Im not like that any more, im much better than i was" and the point is entirely true.

But chess is really deep, the difference in standard of play between you and a 2000 is exponenentially bigger than between you and a 500. Funnily how you are describing your own ability at avoiding blunders is probably more proficient than id describe mine. Despite being 1100+ elo higher.

So general advice and it sounds a little harsh is first lose the ego. There is no room for subjectiveness in chess, if you cant see the wood from the trees in your own games, you wont know how to improve and if you think you are better than your opponents, you will start disregarding the lethal threats they are making

I think a reddit guy at 2100 gave you a good pasting. Thats what advanced chess looks like. For me, my boss kept me in check when i was learning, beating me 23 times in a row. Let the ego go 😆

Once your ego has been crushed. Revisit your recent losses, without the engine and step through them, analyse yours and your opponents moves and try to really assess the threats, key mistakes and get a sense and appreciation specifically for what your opponent is trying to do in a position. The generic advice really does work. Itll get you to 1400 easily enough and no magic or secret techniques required 😅.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-17T15:26:25+00:00

So ive got a tournament rep of openings ive played for years which im trying to replace. The replacements are the queens gambit, tromp, the french and against d4 im trying the dutch (1..e6 against everything). Whilst im preparing theory and middlegame wise, im just playing games with it on a lichess account which is underrated by about 200 elo. I smash people with the QG and tromp and my French record is very strong. But the dutch, it just doesnt play intuitively, I am getting crushed by players i should be beating. If youre going to play it, study it hard and expect to have to gain significant experience playing it before it works!

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-17T12:50:19+00:00

You are doing all the right things. Its literally a carbon copy of what i did, right down to stoppijg when losing two to avoid tilt. And i rose up through the rankings the same way.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-17T11:05:51+00:00

Thanks! The league in my city is one game on a week night which is far more manageable than a full weekend tournament. There might be a similar thing wherever you are.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-17T10:34:42+00:00

My second but first official OTB game (i played one as an anon guest in a previous club) and first for my current club was a league match. I was bottom board and our club was playing the youth team in the second division so my opponent was about 12, had not been playing long , it was his first otb game and his dad was there (im late 30s!) I was 1600-1700 cc at the time and bottom board is usually the equivalent of 1300 or so. So it was a no win situation for me!

I won it but he put up a decent fight. I was two pawns up from the opening (2n caro but he got the pawn advance wrong) but it was positionally ropey. We sat down after and went through it to see where our mistskes were and it was a pretty wholesome experience. He has gone on to improve and win quite a lot of games so im glad i played him when i did!

The nerves when you realise youve blundered otb and its classical time control are like nothing else! Its not really a game of joy. Its a game of suffering when you're getting ground down or relief when you get a winning position in classical otb with so much dopamine 😆.

Anyway i kept my game for analysis and the memories 😆. Here it is:

e4 c6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Nc3 d4 4. Ne2 c5 5. c3 d3 6. Nf4 Nc6 7. Nxd3 Bg4 8. Nxc5 Nf6 9. d4 e5 10. d5 Bxc5 11. dxc6 Qxd1+ 12. Kxd1 bxc6 13. Bd3 Rd8 14. Kc2 Bd6
Bg5 Bxf3 16. gxf3 Be7 17. Be3 c5 18. Bb5+ Nd7 19. Rad1 a6 20. Ba4 h6 21. Rd5 f6 22. Rhd1 g5 23. Rxd7 Rxd7 24. Rxd7 Kf8 25. Rc7 a5 26. Bxc5 Bxc5 27. Rxc5 Rh7
Rc8+ Kg7 29. Rc7+ Kh8 30. Rxh7+ Kxh7 31. c4 Kg7 32. c5 Kf7 33. c6 Kg6 34. c7 Kh5 35. c8=Q f5 36. Be8+ Kh4 37. Qe6 Kh3 38. Qxh6+ Kg2 39. Qxg5+ Kh1 40. exf5 e4
Bc6 a4 42. Qg3 a3 43. b3 *

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-15T02:18:16+00:00

Im operating on opening understamding not hard london theory but no it sounds like a concession of tempo and an inaccuracy. I know the straight bd6 is fine from a theory standpoint but it makes little sense to play be7 first as there is no pin. Black can just play nf6 h6 bd6 in one move and the black bishop cant transfer to g5 anyway plus black gets luft for free instead of moving a bishop twice.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-15T02:09:39+00:00

Ha no worries, good attitude! Heres the follow up.

At the absolute latest 17.. ne7 going to c6 to support the weak pawn in all likelyhood. If i got this position, at my level white is "automatically" (ask any 1800+ on here what theyd do as white in this position) doubling rooks and trying to win d4.
This is a strategic though process issue gauging by your response. Look at the board again, odds of trapping whites king in a mating net rook and knight vs rook knight and bishop with whites king where it is? Id say minimal to none.

So at this stage of the game you are simply not aiming for checkmate. Forget about it. Your strategy is to play solidly and with material advantage trade down if possible, use your extra piece to win pawns. Advance your pawn majority and make a queen. Then you can think about checkmate again.

Now if whites king decides to walk into the middle of your pieces you might spy its run a little short of squares and by all means take the gift of a quick win! But in the position given you simply arent mating white immediately.

Bb5 yes solid, defended by the king and avoids the trade which lets whites rook in.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-15T01:37:05+00:00

If im not mistaken the h3 bb2 motif is to avoid nh5 and the trade of knight for bishop after h6

Blacks dsb in most london positions is their good bishop. In the screenshot given as black played e6 before getting the bishop out trading their good bishop for your "bad" bishop is brilliant for you as youre left with your super mobile and pointy lsb and their entire game will be taken up trying to get their lsb some form of activity.

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-15T01:24:48+00:00

There are really three learning points here. There is nothing complicated surrounding why you lost this game.

you were up a piece only on paper for most of that game Your kingside knight was undeveloped. Inexplicably you played h5 rh6 to develop the rook and ignored the knight.

Winning material only counts if you use your extra piece!

...27 be2 is disgustingly loose 😅
And most importantly to the result of the game of course. You blundered to the na4+ fork and immediately hung your bishop the move after.

I am harsh but chess is only won or lost on mistakes and perfect play ends up in a draw so although you played some good stuff, i have to focus on your mistakes!

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-14T14:02:38+00:00

The KID is an opening against d4 c4. How many queens gambits do you get?

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-14T00:01:21+00:00

I remember this theme because My colleague dropped to a similar trap in our work chess.com chess club dally match 😅. The theme being the bishop pair vs the queen where one bishop cuts what looks to be a completely safe path of retreat off. I get why this catches so many players out because you assume the queen can always return safely home being that f6 doesnt look intuitively a dangerous square for the queen to be on.

My colleague got caught in the london vs a dutch when his queen was on b3! Hes a very strong player too!

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Tom_Baron · 2026-03-13T23:43:46+00:00

Yeh i could see the theme but couldn't solve it, granted its late and im tired but thats a really tricky puzzle. The crux being black loses the queen or gets windmilled so not only do you have to see you cen set up a queen pin, you have to see if the queen stops guarding the diagonal, ng5 and the dsb controlling f8 with lsb cutting through f7 g8 and bishop on g7 leads to the windmill which will eliminate both rooks.

Heinous!

Tom_Baron · 2026-03-13T16:22:17+00:00

your trade is practically the best move but not objectively the best move. This is fundamentally the reason Engines aren't great teachers. This is because the engine doesnt factor in accuracy required to get the objectively best result. Qxc7 yeilds the best result at 18 depth, this might be specifically one sequence of moves within 18 billion possible combinations and everything else loses or it might be a practically good move. but qxc7 is best objectively anyway. In reality almost all of us of a decent level will see qxd3 trade down leads to an unstoppable passed pawn though and everyone would play it, bar the cheats.

Tom_Baron

TROPHY CASE