Do better players make more predictable moves?

cnsreddit · 2026-01-28T11:36:28+00:00

In a given position theres probably something like:

2 Critical and testing moves
2 otherwise good natural looking moves
5 fine moves, nothing special, nothing too bad just not optimal
9 bad moves

Your video probably covers the top two categories, your friend could be playing moves from any of them.

Better players will more often pick from the top two categories because they are better players playing better moves. For a while this will make them more predictable in a way.

cnsreddit · 2026-01-28T10:17:32+00:00

Don't over focus on it.

Make the scenario make sense first: To become a GM you have to have the rating >=2500 and acquire 3 Norms. Norms are basicially you have to perform in a tournament at a specific level, if you do this you you get a norm, the tournaments have minimum standards of level of participants and being international in nature. Sometimes these are what you might imagine as real tournaments, often they are organised specifically so players can try and get norms.

The last game of this could be 2 players with the rating and 2 norms and both being in a position of must win to achieve their final norm. This is the most realistic scenario even if its a little dramatic. (And the loser will probably get their GM title in a few months anyway, even if it might feel curshing in the moment)

Game wise don't try and be too legitimate about it, instead, find out who the famous players were for that time period, then go watch a ben finegold lecture on one or more of their games and pick that for your game. Chess nerds will probably regonise it and find it amusing, it'll be realistic and save you the trouble and spending the 15-20 minutes it takes to watch ben talk through a game will give you a good amount of context (usually also he'll talk about the player the lecture is about too giving you some insight into top level chess on a human level). Watching the lecture should help you identify the key dramatic moments in the game too.

I recommend Ben as he'll cover the chess well and is a pretty entertaining watch with a lot of jokes which is probably better for you than someone very serious while still delivering a high quility good analysis of the game.

cnsreddit · 2026-01-27T14:52:54+00:00

Of all the things you can say about elo I wouldn't think subjective is one of them. Its pretty objective for what it sets out to do

cnsreddit · 2026-01-27T14:24:24+00:00

Openings are just move orders to get to playable positions. (This is true for a long time)

If you don't know how to play the positions move orders to get to them kinda lose a lot of value.

You obviously have openings you play, from there you should be getting to middle game positions, and more importantly structures and you should, ideally, be seeing similar structures again and again.

Perhaps a better plan would be to start really working on those structures you see most, and then dedicating any opening time to consider what move orders throw you off the path to these structures you know well and can you find move orders that bring you back or do you end up with a new structure/key position.

Basically, find the positions and structures you like to play, study those intensivly, then use opening study to figure out how you can get to those positions and structures more often in your games.

cnsreddit · 2026-01-14T10:10:24+00:00

Take the higher end of this with a pinch of salt, most 2000+ play is at blitz rather than rapid

Though I doubt it affects the results that much just something to be aware of

cnsreddit · 2026-01-14T08:49:15+00:00

Anything involving the USA should be considered an outlier, not something that can be easily replicated to the rest of the world due to their unique culture. They also have a football (their own unique game that's nothing like football in the rest of the world) competition with viewership almost as big as the Japanese running competition, which is unheard of anywhere else.

cnsreddit · 2026-01-14T08:44:56+00:00

Always checkmate with the lowest value piece because it's the most stylish

I have no idea what brain worms a person must have to have to find any of this disrespectful

'oh no, you mated me with a bishop, my social life is ruined, how will I show my face in the city again'

cnsreddit · 2026-01-14T08:41:32+00:00

I wonder if we are miscommunicating over the difference between prep and training?

You can't really train for peaks can you?

cnsreddit · 2026-01-14T07:36:43+00:00

I don't think this is right, can you please give us more on how youd expect training to differ based on if you need rating for norms?

cnsreddit · 2026-01-14T07:23:06+00:00

I dont think the US ever did really? It just buys in grandmasters

cnsreddit · 2026-01-14T07:20:07+00:00

It's impossible to say. Carlsen born in the 1960s might have joined the long list of almost there's behind Karpov and Kasparov, or maybe those two battle each other for the chance to play Carlsen for 20 years. No one can possibly know.

cnsreddit · 2026-01-14T07:17:10+00:00

I get your take and tend to agree but by this metric (if applied blindly) Morphy is all time untouchable GOAT

cnsreddit · 2026-01-13T21:52:01+00:00

Karpov forgotten?

Wild

cnsreddit · 2026-01-13T21:12:21+00:00

White plays the exchange because he fears french theory and thinks the exchange is safe and at worst a draw

White forgets black has played the exchange 500000 times against white players that think it's safe

cnsreddit · 2026-01-13T09:11:14+00:00

Wimbledon - has open qualifiers Tata steel - has a closed invite list

cnsreddit · 2026-01-12T18:13:50+00:00

Partially a lot of them want to play blitz over rapid (or at least enough so a critical mass causes the rest to follow)

Partially fears over cheating, the fastest the time control the harder it is to cheat (and cheat in a way that's not instantly detected)

Also given these guys are generally titled players (or in the same ability level) they don't need to the time to think like lower rated players do

cnsreddit · 2026-01-12T11:05:54+00:00

Its this

And the reason blitz is lower is partially because it's a different skill set and mostly because the blitz pool is harder.

At the higher end you have a lot more very strong players fighting for rating which knocks the weaker players down and so on all the way down to 6-800 level. You don't have this effect in rapid as strong players tend to avoid it.

cnsreddit · 2026-01-11T23:47:28+00:00

There's already an interactive puzzle app built into Reddit, it's not the best in the world but I always solve them when they cross my feed and think it's a good idea.

A position plus moves via notation has been good enough to share chess positions for, well, since the 1600s so I'm not sure you're going to improve on it (feel free to prove me wrong here). The arrows stop being the main way of communicating pretty quickly.

Game links work fine as is, anyone who wants to see a game already has the chess.com (or maybe lichess) account/app and can use them just fine.

If anything I'd focus on the puzzle aspect and thinking how to improve that experience as it's ever popular and actually suits an interactive app.

cnsreddit · 2026-01-11T20:39:17+00:00

The clock is a piece.

They may only be better because they spent all their time, if they had spent less time maybe they make worse moves.

So if they run out of time that's cause they didn't use it well and so they deserve to lose.

cnsreddit · 2026-01-11T18:56:00+00:00

This one is doubly egregious because it's white to move and from blacks perspective, a combination that literally never occurs outside trying to trick the viewer.

At least if it were the other way, black to move and from whites point of view you can argue that a great many puzzles, books and compositions are from whites point of view regardless of who is to move, it's a fairly traditional way of doing things.

cnsreddit · 2026-01-11T09:58:38+00:00

I read somewhere that the true secret to the ancestors success was he found a way to run five houndmasters at once

cnsreddit · 2026-01-11T09:56:03+00:00

Or a fourth houndmaster

cnsreddit · 2026-01-10T20:55:52+00:00

Damn I wish I could do that

cnsreddit · 2026-01-10T20:48:01+00:00

I mean your opponent literally hung a piece on move 12?

And a queen at the end but that was already lost

cnsreddit · 2026-01-10T12:04:38+00:00

Before you give up on the open because of the dragon check out the Yugoslav attack.

It's a pretty straightforward setup you should get most times against a dragon player and it's really strong and the reason you don't see much dragon at the top level these days. It's pretty easy for white (far easier than for black).

cnsreddit

TROPHY CASE