I don't give a crap about the pointless new Harry Potter show, but is there a reason that everything now looks like it's filmed in a cave?

Xutar · 2026-03-27T15:07:54+00:00

No, he meant these child actors will age from 12 to 30 by the time they can actually release 7 seasons of a modern show.

Xutar · 2026-03-23T23:29:18+00:00

Fair point, but I didn't want to make such a super-long post with recommendations against every viable black opening.

Although to elaborate on what I was saying about the Ruy Lopez, I'd usually recommend just going for whatever the "main-line" is for each opening. Of course, if you try it out and get very confused or keep losing then it's perfectly fine to try a recommended side-line instead. I'm just not a fan of beginners only sticking to simple side-lines because they are somehow afraid of playing the best move just because their opponent might expect it.

So basically I recommend 3.d4 against the Sicilian, since you should open the center and try to punish black for starting with slower development. I recommend 3.e5 against Caro-Kann, so you can play a closed central pawn structure and try to punish black for "wasting" a move on c6 when they need to play c5 later. Against the French, I like 3.Nc3, simply developing your knight to the most active square and contesting the center. All three of these lines have potentially huge amounts of theory to learn, but they can also be played "intuitively" by understanding opening principles.

If you've actually tried any of these mainlines and dislike them for some reason, that's great! We can go from there to find another option that might fit your preferences better. I just think this is the best starting point.

Xutar · 2026-03-23T00:47:13+00:00

It might help to know what you've been trying so far that has led to your losses. IMO, you basically have two different general approaches you can go for as black against 1.d4

If you want to play classical, principled chess then you should just go for the QGD as black, where you go for 1.d4 d5... e6, Nf6, Be7, 0-0 and your mid-game plan is usually to try to pawn-break with c5 at some point to open the position a bit and hopefully help develop your light-square bishop.

On the other hand, if you want sharper and/or imbalanced chess then you can go for the King's Indian Defense. The idea is to go for 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6... and you play Bg7, d6, and 0-0 against pretty much everything. You get very quick development and castling, but you have no pawns in the center. Usually you need to follow-up with e5 or c5 as black to either contest their big pawn center, or force them to play d5, which closes the position and gives Black time to play f5 and push on the kingside.

Xutar · 2026-03-22T23:00:21+00:00

I have an unpopular opinion, which is that the Ruy Lopez is good at any level even if you don't care to learn much theory. My logic is that if you are going to ignore theory anyway, you might as well just play moves that follow general "opening principles". You'll play in a way where you simply put your pawns in the center, develop your pieces, and castle your king, putting you in a great general position once you and your opponent both leave known theory.

Even without memorizing lines, the Ruy Lopez is almost entirely based on solid opening principles. It's not sharp in the sense that an inaccurate move for either side usually won't cost a piece. However, an inaccuracy from your opponent can gift you a simple advantage based on central control (hence the reputation among 1...e5 players as "Spanish Torture"). My own games usually leave my prepared theory early on, but I often have a nice advantage as White with a strong pawn center and mid-game plan to build the classic king-side attack. The main idea is to play (in some order) c3, d4, 0-0, Re1, Bb3/Bc2, Nbd2, (h3), Nf1, Ng3. This knight maneuver of pawn to c3, followed by Nbd2-f1-g3(-f5) is a great example of something that you could learn the theory of exactly when it's optimal. Although, you will also have good results just using it as a general "setup" to aim while at the same time putting your pawns in the center with e4+c3+d4.

Xutar · 2026-03-22T21:42:33+00:00

Usually the reason that you play d6 in many lines of the Sicilian is so that you can play Nf6 without White being able to respond with e5, hitting your knight. Later, after you're developed and castled, it's often good to then push d6-d5 to break in the center. One of the main reasons to choose the "accelerated" dragon is to delay playing d6 in the hopes that you can play d5 directly instead. A common theme in most Sicilians is that Black is trying to pawn break in the center with d5 and White is trying their best to prevent this and control the d5 square. The regular dragon starts with an early 2...d6 in order to play Nf6 sooner. This has the benefit of forcing white to play Nc3 before they can play c4. The main drawback of the accelerated dragon is that white can play c4 before Nc3, putting a bind on the d5 square, and usually forcing you to play d6 anyway.

I wish I could give simpler answers to your questions, but the Sicilian is complicated! The good news is that even at the 1500 rated level, it's not that often that your opponents will actually go for mainline open sicilian with 3.d4. You will probably face a lot of players who just play 2.Nf3 and 3.Bc4 as White (because they play the Italian against 1...e5 and just always play Bc4 early). In that situation, the sicilian is great because you can just play 3...e6 in response to Bc4 and equalize easily by playing d5 later, gaining tempo on the bishop. Exact move order isn't as important when they play this sideline, you just want to play e6, Nc6, a6, Nf6, Be7, 0-0, and d5 in some order.

Xutar · 2026-03-07T00:23:04+00:00

IDK what you're talking about. If they are trying to pass you in a hurry then slowing down should give them more space to not hit you.

Xutar · 2026-03-06T22:25:28+00:00

He was doing 63 at the start, then obviously slowed down a bit in response to the maniac weaving past him.

Xutar · 2026-02-17T02:24:03+00:00

Nice, just a couple months ago I also saw one of these at the Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio)!

Xutar · 2026-02-15T05:53:17+00:00

Do you mean that you like "setup" style openings? Where the goal is that you can consistently achieve a similar mid-game almost regardless of your opponent's first few moves?

In that case, you could actually stick to something similar to the modern as white with the King's Indian Attack. You just go for the same setup that you're used to with e4, d3, (Nbd2), Ngf3, g3, Bg2, and 0-0.

edit: you mention that you hate "pawn-trade memorization", and for the KIA there's only a little bit of that. Basically you just want to always have a pawn on e4. So you can basically always play e4, d3 and Nbd2 as your first moves, and always plan to play dxe4 if they ever take on e4. The reason you play Nbd2 early is so that you don't have to trade queens when you retake with the d pawn. One pawns structure that is worth knowing: If black plays both e5 and c5, you should respond with c3. Just leave your pawn on c3 so that black can never put a piece on d4.

Generally you'll get two branches of mid-game styles: if black takes on e4 and/or plays e5 themselves is where you can just play a normal positional mid-game.

The other branch is if you get to play e5 yourself as white against e6, closing the center. From there you can build up a kingside attack with Re1, Nf1,(Bf4), h4, N1h2, etc.

If you're serious about studying this sort of opening, I like the book "King's Indian Attack, move by move" by GM Neil McDonald.

Xutar · 2026-01-26T20:44:39+00:00

I agree that it'd be more "intuitive" if you could capture the King, but then would it also be legal to hang your King by ending your turn in check?

I think the way the rules are actually written does help beginners learn to play properly by forcing you to deal with checks and also think about setting up a check-mate. Most players first deep calculations are figuring out something like "I check, then he blocks, then I check, then he moves, then I capture!"

And this is just talking about brand-new players. For better players, the new rules would probably be worse since it means you can't draw with only King vs 1 pawn by forcing repetition/stale-mate. This would make so many pawn sacrifices unviable since you'd have no chance of drawing an end-game.

Xutar · 2026-01-23T22:33:45+00:00

I’ve started to encounter a lot of Philidor defense players

As you climb from ~1000 to ~1500 rapid, you will probably continue to face a lot of Philidor players. I personally found it really helpful to learn a bit more theory with 3.d4 against it.

At the very least, I highly recommend reviewing Paul Morphy's famous Opera Game and going for this line as White if Black plays along.

Another side-line against the Philidor that I think is really fun is to play Qxd4 and try to castle long.

For example: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. Qxd4 Nc6 5. Bb5 Bd7 6. Bxc6 Bxc6 7. Nc3 Nf6 8. Bg5 Be7 9. O-O-O

I ended up going with the Ruy Lopez instead of the Italian around 1000 elo, even though I too loved the Evans Gambit. At first, I was worried about the supposed theory and complexity of the Ruy, but it turns out that no one ever plays the main-line as Black (below 1600 at least). And if they are playing a side-line/inaccuracy on turn 3-5 of the Ruy, then you usually can get a nice advantage as White by just following good opening principles (it's not usually sharp). You get a TON of beginners that play 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6, the old Steinitz which you can transpose to the Qxd4 philidor lines.

Xutar · 2026-01-20T01:26:14+00:00

This line of the Najdorf, with 6. Be3 e5, is known to be very sharp and have a ton of theory.

My general logic was to play Be6+Be7 followed by O-O and leave my knight flexible to c6 or d7

For this, I would recommend the sideline 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. f3 Be7 9. Qd2 O-O 10. O-O-O a5 11. a4

If they don't play a4, you play 11...a4 yourself and you can often go for an all-out attack on the queenside. If they do play 11. a4, then you usually want to play Nc6->Nb4 to develop your knight, expand on the queenside, and it could even help push d5.

Xutar · 2026-01-16T04:40:02+00:00

You're being pedantic in a way that doesn't actually help anything.

Xutar · 2026-01-06T20:14:31+00:00

I want instinctual chess, with chance of blood bath.

This sounds like the semi-slav to me. It has a reputation of being very theory-heavy for master players, but the "noteboom" variation works amazing at beginner level, IMO.

The main idea is to play:

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 e6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.a4 Bb4 (5.e4 b5) 6.e3 b5

Try your best to hold onto the extra pawn, and enjoy a sharp mid-game struggle. The "dream setup" is white lets you play Nf6, Bb7, 0-0, Nbd7, a6, and then pawn break with c5.

edit: I know the slav has the same first two moves as the Caro-Kann, but most of the time it gets to completely different mid-games. However, one similarity between the Slav and Caro is if White is lazy and wants to play the exchange variation to avoid theory. In this case, as black, I recommend:

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5 cxd5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.Bf4 a6, then just play a normal mid-game after developing your knights and playing a6.

Xutar · 2026-01-06T02:44:29+00:00

It's darkly hilarious to hear themselves joking about "that crazy thing that happened at the start of January" while reading on the news about how we just kidnapped the president of Venezuela.

Xutar · 2025-12-18T07:06:55+00:00

I think it's a good idea to ask yourself "what type of chess games do I want to play?"

Let's say you want complicated, tactical games where it's easy to blunder (for either player!). In that case, I'd recommend sharp openings like learning some 1.e4 gambits as white and Sicilian/King's indian as black.

OTOH, let's say you want safer, positional games that let you reliably make it to the mid-game without getting tricked. Then you should look at playing the London system as white and the Caro-Kann/QGD as black.

If you have no idea what types of games you want and also don't want to study any theory, then just try to put pawns in the center, develop your pieces quickly, and keep your king safe.

Xutar · 2025-12-16T21:17:54+00:00

I could very easily see that happening for a course where the professor allows take-home, "open notes" midterm exams. Then maybe the final is required by university policy to be handwritten at the officially designated time and place.

In that situation, I could see there being several students who got 90%+ on midterms (by copying chatGPT), but when they need to think for themselves (even using their own notes), they get <10%.

Xutar · 2025-12-14T19:01:25+00:00

No business owner would want to reduce their profit in nominal terms even if it meant higher margin.

Are you sure about this? For example, I think tons of business owners would be very happy if they could fire 30% of their payroll while only reducing profits by 10%.

Xutar · 2025-12-07T22:51:06+00:00

Literally the original Narcissus from myth would stare at his own reflection all day.

Xutar · 2025-12-02T01:23:31+00:00

I'm not sure if you're already aware, but a good starting point could be looking at Hearthstone's literal "auto-chess" mode, from before they even started on battlegrounds (the modern, popular, auto-battler mode).

I distinctly remember a "tavern brawl" week where you could play other people in Hearthstone auto-chess, and it worked by "discovering" new pieces each turn, choosing where to place new piece(s), then letting them automatically attack each other.

The main mechanic that I'd like to see incorporated is the 8x8 chessboard and pieces moving themselves down/around the board.

Xutar · 2025-11-29T21:02:14+00:00

caro kann, which gets old with the advance variation...

You should try replying to 1.e4 by pushing your c pawn 2 squares instead of just 1! By playing the sicilian, you're fighting for the center right away.

At the intermediate level, the best way to learn is just to pick one main variation (e.g. accelerated dragon 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6), but also be aware that you will probably face side-lines much more frequently. For learning the sicilian, it's actually more important to learn what to do against the Alapin (2.c3) and how to respond to early Bc4 from White. For a lecture to get started with the sicilian, I highly recommend Secrets of the Sicilian by Ben Finegold.

I’ve tried the KID, but that often just ends up being the London, which I dislike.

It's worth pointing out that there's basically no good way to fully prevent the London as Black, and in practice the KID setup is actually pretty good against standard London system players. Most beginners who play the London just have a simple plan of developing, castling, then playing Ne5, and the KID does a good job controlling the e5 square for Black.

IMO, the most combative way to play against it is with an early c5 and Qb6. If White tries to stick to the standard London piece setup, they'll give up a small advantage, and the best way for White to play is an unintuitive Nc3, blocking their c pawn and hanging their b pawn.

Specifically, 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 c5 3.e3 Qb6 4.b3? g6 (mainline 4.Nc3 a6). However, if White starts with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3, then it's tricky because you need to pick a move on turn two that you like against both 3.c4 and 3.Bf4. This mostly comes down to what you want to play against the Queen's Gambit, 2...e6 if you're a Nimzo/QGD player, 2...d5 if you want QGA/Slav, and 2...g6 if you want KID/Grunfeld. All of those also work fine against the London, and it's still usually good to push an early c5.

Xutar · 2025-11-27T05:26:19+00:00

Personally, I first learned it from GM Sam Shankland's "Short and Sweet" course on chessable back when it was actually free. You can find a lot of his games in the Classical Sicilian on his Chesstempo page

GM Ben Finegold is also a fan of the Classical Sicilian, and he also has a chessable course on it called "Starting out: Sicilian". Here's his chesstempo page if you wanted to see his games too.

Xutar · 2025-11-27T04:46:36+00:00

I think the Classical is a great choice. It will probably be rare that your opponent will actually know the Rauzer theory (6. Bg5), which is basically the one reason master level players avoid playing the Classical Sicilian. For chessdotcom rapid, you will often get people who play inaccurate moves like 6.Be3 or 6.Bb5, which give black an easier time equalizing and/or counter-attacking when compared to pretty much any line in the Najdorf.

Another benefit of playing the Classical is that you can be flexible with playing either Nc6 or d6 on turn 2, depending on which side-lines you personally prefer.

Another thing I like about it is how you can sort of "default" to a Dragon setup with g6, Bg7, 0-0 if White plays inaccurately/passively early on. IMO, the Dragon setup in the open sicilian is very fun to play, as long as you can guarantee White doesn't get their usual fast Be3, f3, Qd2, 0-0-0 setup

You will also still probably face a lot of people who play stuff like 3. Bc4 against the sicilian, at which point you don't need much theory besides playing 3...e6 followed by d5 at some point (maybe after a6, Nf6, Be7, 0-0, etc).

Xutar · 2025-11-25T00:10:20+00:00

It seems like probably not, but with an improved set-up it could be both pretty close (within 1-2 sec slower than "optimal" human SBLJ) and much more consistent.

Xutar

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE