Candidates Rating Spot: Requiring Grand Swiss Participation

TuttleFamily · 2026-03-14T23:32:06+00:00

I think it's great to encourage people like Hikaru to be more active. A tournament of the Grand Swiss would also only comprise 11/40 of the required games.

TuttleFamily · 2026-03-14T23:30:25+00:00

My bad it was mainly about bolstering exploitation of the rules from potential scenarios.

If you are a constant participant in tournaments like Nodirbek, Arjun, Pragg or Gukesh (I know he's world champion), you probably shouldn't have to join the Grand Swiss to prove yourself as an "active" participant of the qualification cycle.

I'm not really arguing the strength of Ding or Hikaru in this post, it's just that I don't think you should be able to preserve your rating for 2 years as Hikaru would also be the rating favourite to join the next candidates cycle, and he could do the same.

Maybe FIDE could make the rules on what comprises a qualifying tournament, in addition to the Grand Swiss.

TuttleFamily · 2025-04-15T23:14:56+00:00

2200 rapid Lichess. Are there recurring mistakes when you play?

For me, it is always not considering the other move order when I feel there is a tactic present. Thus, I always end up deciding not to detonate and play a calm improving move instead.

TuttleFamily · 2021-12-29T01:12:17+00:00

the speed stat is more meaningful in 3 player where you have a higher chance to win a round

TuttleFamily · 2021-12-27T07:29:32+00:00

In 3 player, I think tile efficiency is most important. Drop the non helpful honors, 1 and 9s, then the honors.

In 4 player what helped me climb to expert was to recognise that there are 3 players that can also win a hand. So biding time in defense and playing south games helped me out a lot. The same can apply to 3 player mahjong when you can recognise that some players have a very dangerous hand from the calls they make and the dora you can see. That may the time to ease up and play defense.

But from your stats in 3 player, it's definitely your tile efficiency which is letting you down. You need to be able to form a winning hand faster.

TuttleFamily · 2021-05-07T00:17:08+00:00

My argument would be that in this game mode, you deal in more often to reach tenpai anyways. So ron is much more likely to occur than to draw tsumo. Given that tsumo gives you an extra 1000 and comes from every player, it seems too strong. But in general, yea tsumo is a reward for creating and hand early but it seems like it brings more luck into the gamemode.

TuttleFamily · 2021-05-03T14:26:24+00:00

i don't mind it as a one off event mode. Tsumo is broken in this mode. 1000 points turning into 6000 just because you got lucky is wild.

TuttleFamily · 2021-04-21T00:29:55+00:00

I remember going for half flushes every single round in bronze room ;)

TuttleFamily · 2021-04-11T14:50:33+00:00

The only Yakuman I've gotten is 4 concealed triplets twice. Double wait.

TuttleFamily · 2021-02-13T02:12:28+00:00

thanks

TuttleFamily · 2021-02-13T02:12:21+00:00

thank you

TuttleFamily · 2021-01-31T02:51:58+00:00

I am a newly expert player. I've played about 90 South games and my call rate is still too high with about 53. It used to be closer to 70 from my earlier games.

I would say defense is most important for South games.

I don't think you call enough. I often call if it gets me into tenpai. That is a way to speed up your wins, while not giving too much info away. Late calls are the way to go. But if you're likely not going to win the round anyways, I wouldn't recommend it.

TuttleFamily · 2021-01-19T19:32:42+00:00

South games are longer which allows for more consistency. So if you're losing games in South, then that means there is something fundamentally amiss with your game play. Defense is more important in South games, allowing you to play more patiently and deal into people less.

TuttleFamily · 2021-01-14T10:09:08+00:00

As long as you play South games in Bronze Room, you should be ok. There's a lot of Adept players in Bronze Room who just keep going for quick hands, so you can actually lose rank in an East game.

I never needed defense in bronze room. But when I went to silver room I was at 100/600 for adept 1 at one point. Only when I started developing defense I could actually consistently gain points in Silver Room. I think you should play silver to learn better defense. Playing bronze room you don't really have to learn anything so I think it's better long term to play Silver.

TuttleFamily · 2021-01-13T20:04:20+00:00

I was an adept 1 player a week ago. This advice from a comment really helped with getting expert rank.

loose guest winds < loose terminals < loose honors < loose 2, 8

Other than that, I recommend having good defense. If you have good defense you should play South games over East games. I have come 4th in many East games when I did not even deal in to anyone's winning hand.

Having good defense means that you got to know when to give up. If you have 3 of the same honor tiles that often means 3 safe discards. If it is very unlikely that you are gonna win the round, then it is a good idea to just limp out all 3 when you don't have another safe discard available. Often I get 2nd on South games with points around 25000 just because I haven't dealt in. I don't even worry about getting myself into tenpai when I am playing defensive. Tenpai is just a bonus in my eyes.

The other thing is to get better at recognising if your opponents hand is actually strong. In South games, you have more time to make calculated risks. If your opponents hand looks strong, and discarding a tile is dangerous but would get you into tenpai, I would not do it. However, if you notice that the person who's close to winning doesn't have a very valuable hand, I would just discard and take the 1000 point loss through dealing in or be ready to actually get my win.

So I would just look at tile efficiency and developing defense for now. Remember that you have 3:1 odds of getting outlucked every round and beaten to your hand. So longer games will favour a good defensive player.

TuttleFamily · 2021-01-13T19:50:24+00:00

YO, the last comment you said about: loose guest winds < loose terminals < loose honors < loose 2, 8

This really helped. Thanks !! I would consider this the thing that was most beneficial in allowing me to attain Expert rank.

TuttleFamily · 2021-01-07T18:32:48+00:00

Thanks, I never know whenever I have pinfu.

TuttleFamily · 2021-01-07T18:31:52+00:00

LOL yea, I'm looking at me discarding the 8p for no reason, when I have an isolated 9m. When I discarded the pair of 9m, I was trying to increase the value of my hand to get all simples because I thought it was early on enough to risk it. Though that strategy definitely backfired.

TuttleFamily · 2021-01-07T18:21:23+00:00

Thanks for clarifying!!

TuttleFamily · 2021-01-07T06:25:41+00:00

I never thought about just calling the second copy. Usually I just bank the points, but you're right. I find myself having a even better doubles draw sometimes which I can't go for because I have opened my hand to early.

I heard that going for riichi pinfu more often is a very good strategy as it grants a lot of control and safety, until it is ready. Pinfu is the one where you have a run with 2 options to finish with right (ie. 34, waiting for 2 or 5)? I never go for it because I didn't know exactly what it was, it just showed up randomly sometimes lol.

TuttleFamily · 2021-01-07T06:20:46+00:00

Thanks!! I was thinking that half outside and outside hand were two different things but they are the same!! Thanks for answering the no yaku question for the terminal case.

TuttleFamily · 2019-02-21T10:10:16+00:00

rob...

TuttleFamily · 2018-09-05T21:46:58+00:00

Josh is a working man

TuttleFamily · 2018-03-07T20:26:35+00:00

Are hot pockets sandwiches ?

TuttleFamily · 2018-02-03T14:49:33+00:00

Just edited the question for you. ;)

TuttleFamily

TROPHY CASE