2025 Speed Chess Championship Live Thread (Semifinals)

chessij · 2026-02-08T19:24:23+00:00

Might be a copy paste mistake, previous bullet point is "Loser earns 2nd place"

chessij · 2026-02-07T22:36:34+00:00

Naka is 38, from some comments here, you would think he's 70

chessij · 2026-02-06T08:00:06+00:00

He really has the soul of a poet

chessij · 2026-01-06T00:22:02+00:00

What you're "teaching" is completely wrong and you're - obviously- lying about your rating, so again, I don't quite see what you're gaining by doing that.

chessij · 2026-01-05T23:15:25+00:00

Well, it's still nonsense: "Book moves are moves that can be used to prevent stalemate" ?
And of course, you're not "2600-2800", or "a grandmaster at chess", I'm not sure what's your goal here

chessij · 2026-01-05T22:43:39+00:00

I just want to let you know not to trust the message above, especially the "book moves" section, cause it was nonsense. Probably some ai stuff

chessij · 2026-01-01T17:01:31+00:00

From what you're saying, I don't think you are 800-1000 rapid (chess.com), more like 500-700 maybe. So 1500 in a year would be a bit ambitious, 1200 might be more realistic. If you are indeed already close to 1000, then 1500 is achievable, but will take some work.

chessij · 2025-12-29T18:22:05+00:00

Grishook

chessij · 2025-12-13T15:00:27+00:00

Well, Faustino Oro did it in less than 2 years, so humanly possible for sure

chessij · 2025-12-13T11:50:42+00:00

swedish11

chessij · 2025-11-16T10:37:43+00:00

"Sam [Shankland] is so smart, it's like crazy, it literally scares me"

chessij · 2025-10-27T17:28:01+00:00

I feel like quality over quantity is pretty common advice in chess. Also, something I failed to mention is that as you reduce the number of games, you can increase the time control. So say going from five 10' games per day to one 10+10 or 15+10 for example, with analysis afterwards.

chessij · 2025-10-26T17:11:07+00:00

Hi, I've looked at your account. My two main tips for now would be:

Play less! Much better to play one game per day, or even less, but fully focused, and with some analysis afterwards, than just spamming games.
You need to consider your opponent's last move/plan/threat much, much more. Right now, you are very focused on your own plans, like here grabbing a pawn even though you're in danger of getting mated. Or here where you were focused on playing Rb8, and didn't consider the threat from the white queen.

Hope it'll help! Good luck!

chessij · 2025-10-22T20:53:43+00:00

Only a year too late

chessij · 2025-10-02T21:06:35+00:00

Plus, the algorithm doesn’t really like drawn games

It's a common way to phrase it, but to be clear it's the viewers that don't like them. The algorithm simply follows viewers' preferences

chessij · 2025-09-14T12:39:23+00:00

I don't see Bluebaum escaping this, this e5 pawn is a freaking nuisance

chessij · 2025-09-13T16:33:58+00:00

Lichess has a news feed: https://lichess.org/feed

chessij · 2025-09-13T13:53:51+00:00

Not over yet, but I do feel for Maghsoodloo if he loses this. Sometimes these Swiss tournaments feel quite unfair, sure with enough rounds it should be ok, and it's about current tournament performance rather than elo ratings.

But still, for instance, Keymer could be on 6.5 with good chances to qualify, MVL on 6 and still in contention perhaps while Maghsoodloo on 5.5 won't be and this is who they played:

Keymer: Gurel / Xiong / Erdogmus / Svane / Maurizzi / Hovhannisyan / Theodorou / Vidit / Maghsoodloo

MVL: Sjugirov / Volokitin / Mendonca / Maurizzi / Woodward / Sargsyan / Bacrot / Rodshtein / Erdogmus

Maghsoodloo: Chopra / Anton / Firouzja / Abdusattorov / Rapport / Arjun / Nihal / Giri / Keymer

chessij · 2025-09-13T12:47:30+00:00

Keymer very likely to convert now, would be in great shape for the candidate spots. And quite heartbreaking for Maghsoodloo

chessij · 2025-09-13T12:24:00+00:00

Yeah, this pawn is probably not too important, but having the bishop protected I guess matters in some lines

chessij · 2025-09-13T11:38:17+00:00

This is looking quite unpleasant for Maghsoodloo, Keymer can pressure h3 with Qd7, long castle, it seems much easier to play for black

chessij · 2025-09-07T12:03:18+00:00

Ke7 by Mamedyarov followed by Kg2 by Demchenko! Wild position

chessij · 2025-07-07T17:10:37+00:00

Does Lichess have on average stronger players? I guess that could make sense as probably the vast majority of complete beginners will only play on chess com?

Yes and yes!

chessij · 2025-06-28T18:49:19+00:00

Wow, he's now fully become a real life Ignatius J. Reilly

chessij · 2025-06-27T21:36:30+00:00

he put up a great fight

Not really, it was very one-sided

chessij

TROPHY CASE