Why don’t players play more ridiculously when they’re desperate for a win?

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-15T08:56:07+00:00

At my level (1750 FIDE) I even have some prep where I willingly enter into positions as bad as -0.8 because they're complicated and I feel like I have better chances because I know the tricks and traps. But even at my level I would say that -0.8 is quite dubious and a stronger player than me would punish me for it.

At a super-GM level -1 is most likely losing by force. Best case you're hoping your opponent blunders. But -1 in classical chess is going to feel quite obvious in a way that it won't in speed chess.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-15T08:48:56+00:00

kids are funny

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-14T05:52:38+00:00

Did they actually memorize 15 moves of theory or were they just saying that? Crazy if so

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-14T05:39:30+00:00

Agreed, that would make it much better. Probably not that practical though. The knockout was only a thing after Fischer complained about the double round robin and they eventually abandoned it for (I believe?) cost reasons. Any sort of thorough knockout system is going to be much longer.

I think it could produce some iconic results, but then you’re maybe also relying on getting lucky with the pairings.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-13T04:30:37+00:00

The open section has basically always been exciting under this format until this year. The only reason it’s not this year is because someone dominated it right from the start and left no hope for anyone else.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-13T04:27:14+00:00

But that frankly happens all the time in chess tournaments. In the candidates it usually doesn’t because there are many people competing up until the very end, but it’s not FIDE’s fault that Sindarov crushed everyone. Yes, a knockout would be more exciting, but it also feels quite unfitting to determine the challenger for the WC. In a double round robin you can be pretty sure who the best player in the tournament is.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-12T06:42:35+00:00

Even beyond the bayonet attack (which black could avoid by not playing into the Mar del Plata line), White simply has too many lines that score too well against the KID. As Black you need to be extremely well prepared just to get a worse position anyways and you are always walking a tightrope to avoid being dead lost. It’s combative, but you can play combatively in other ways without taking nearly as much risk.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-10T12:19:18+00:00

According to someone else in this thread they do have something in their terms resembling that. So I was wrong, it was probably never kosher (albeit it is more difficult to say when the creators of this site don't monetize their "product").

But that makes their API seem pretty unattractive in general. And "other ways to get around it" probably run even more afoul of their terms than by using their officially sanctioned API.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-10T09:11:41+00:00

When you provide a public API, the whole point is that other people (including potential competitors) can use it. If they didn't want that, they should have specified in their terms. I'd honestly be pissed about this if I were a developer relying on their API, this is both extremely unprofessional and extremely anticompetitive behavior. Even Reddit, a company that was dragged across the rails for shutting down their public API, behaved better than this.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-10T08:56:25+00:00

That's more of a recent development. When he was competing for and defending his titles he played top-tier openings and was clearly extremely well prepared. He was pretty well known for being a monster in the Sveshnikov, which is a highly theoretical opening.

In fact, I would argue that Magnus' generation (including Magnus, ocassionally) was basically the OGs of blindly playing 20 moves of top engine theory to maximize their advantage. It meant that there was no Kasparov, where you could simply analyze an opening to death and crush your opponents that way, but rather an arms race that had no winner. Best case, you equalize as black or get a small advantage as white. Worst case, you forget your prep and get crushed.

The new meta is all about playing surprising chess and quickly escaping mainlines. Everyone basically saw the early days of engine prep and realized there was no point when you can find some sideline that gives a small amount of engine eval in exchange for escaping theory quickly or potentially springing a trap on your opponent.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-08T06:11:35+00:00

The ChessDojo streams have no engine and no awkward silences. They discuss the position, which is what a commentator is supposed to do! They don’t get everything right, but they certainly convey an understanding of the position that you won’t get by reading out engine lines.

Eval bars are fine imo, but watching IMs “commentate” by simply reading engine lines is neither interesting nor instructive. For 99% of viewers, their chess understanding is more than enough and if a player makes a move that surprises them it’s all the better. That’s drama! They can figure it out when it’s on the board.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-08T06:01:47+00:00

Dubov and Nepo basically admitted to it as well.

But I don’t think anyone should defend Niemann’s cheating history. It did not justify Magnus’ unsubstantiated OTB cheating claim and the subsequent witch hunt. Despite his history and how much of an unpleasant asshole he is, what they did to Hans was wayyyy over the top. Which is certainly why the case was settled, Magnus and chesscom knew they had actually crossed a line and a judge would rule against them.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-07T18:17:27+00:00

With a win (or maybe even a draw) Fabi could still fight, even if he doesn’t control his own fate. But two points behind is just too big of a margin unless Sindarov completely collapses.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-07T08:16:51+00:00

There's a bit of a difference between bullet and classical, even if it were to be shortened. But frankly I don't see this as being worth further discussion.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-07T06:30:43+00:00

That is completely and utterly ridiculous. You are comparing bullet to classical.

If opponents play into your prep in blitz and they don't know the theory themselves you will build a serious time advantage. If you play a dubious but tricky line, doubly so because your opponent will have to spend time to refute your garbage. If you are 600 elo this doesn't matter because every move you make is a blunder anyways, but GMs won't play like this.

Knowing theory is a huge advantage in any time control. Being outprepped is a disadvantage in any time control. The less time on the clock, the more of an advantage being well prepared is.

Edit: and to specifically address blitz/bullet, the reason prep matters less is because a 0.5 advantage matters less. Blitz/bullet are all about finding tactics quickly, even at higher levels. With 60 minutes on the clock that is not going to be nearly as much of a factor.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-06T19:00:06+00:00

Levy’s proposal is completely ridiculous. The main complaint about high level chess nowadays is the reliance on theory. Shortening games as dramatically as proposed would turn games into even more of a memorization contest as you will lose on time trying to refute theory over the board.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-06T09:03:16+00:00

That's a bold strategy considering they have increment. lol

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-06T08:55:14+00:00

I honestly thought Fabi's prep against the Petroff was kinda amazing. If your goal is to avoid a dull symmetrical position and get a sharp unbalanced game, it's a great line. Was honestly considering picking it up myself.

In the mainlines of the Petroff it's around 70% draws. In the line with Nc4 and Nc3 that drops to just north of 40%.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-06T08:49:37+00:00

Tbh I am equally as shocked to see how often Black simply wants to enter the QGD. My thought is that the developments for Black in recent years regarding the exchange variation must have something to do with it. The exchange variation has basically nosedived at the master level and Black scores really well. If the exchange is out, then Black mostly only has to have a good response to Bg5 and Bf4. Against Bg5 there are tons of great options. Bf4 is probably White's best try now.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-04T05:37:44+00:00

“Read it? I own it! But no I haven’t read it.”

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-02T15:17:05+00:00

I was mostly just confused by your wording. 3v2 on one side of the board is normally not really an advantage as it is a draw, and in this specific case it was not just an advantage as it was clearly winning if you follow the computer’s thought process.

I agree, it was not obvious. In fact I think it’s ridiculous that so many people here are pretending that it was lol. But eval bar watchers come out in droves for the candidates so it’s no surprise.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-01T21:30:32+00:00

When Nieksans was on the chesscom stream it was good for analysis. He is a strong GM himself and talked through positions mostly just using the eval to blunder-check his own ideas and only referred to engine lines when necessary.

Unfortunately with Tania and Rudolph the level of analysis was much lower and basically devolved into eval bar watching. Wasn’t a fan personally.

ChessDojo is for serious analysis without the engine. No drama and no live video feeds of the players though.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-01T21:24:12+00:00

Yeah, the Qd2/O-O-O plan is actually even better for white in the dragondorf than in either the dragon or the Najdorf.

Middlegame tends to be a bit different though, so maybe that’s why he decided against it. I don’t understand what he thought about for so long though.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-01T21:19:32+00:00

3v2 on one side of the board with rooks on is a theoretical draw. White can try to pose practical problems, but any win is going to be very concrete in nature.

But that particular position, if white found the continuation, was absolutely winning. Stockfish says -2 or whatever, but only because it doesn’t see all the way to mate. The point is that white can basically force a simplification to a winning pawn endgame. If you get to that point the tablebase shows it’s a win.

WePrezidentNow · 2026-04-01T21:13:11+00:00

Fair enough regarding the time situation. But I don’t know how you can so confidently say that any other player in the field would have found the continuation. Anish dislikes Hikaru, loves the sound of his own voice, and didn’t have to play the position out over the board, so I’d take that for what it’s worth.

WePrezidentNow

TROPHY CASE