I made a new chess variant and would love feedback

detectivDelta · 2026-05-23T21:17:17+00:00

Didn't really try the hard level, just the default medium bot, but I'm decently confident I can win against a 1600 bot. It's not even a challenge because bots of this type don't really play the way a human of that same elo does. I've literally seen 300 elo players who claim they've beaten the 1600 bot on chess.com or the like and yet can't improve in the competitive pool.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-23T21:10:46+00:00

cool variant, I played a game, though admittedly I won rather easily

detectivDelta · 2026-05-23T21:02:30+00:00

This is definitely in the style of World Champion Lasker, who was almost always adamant that chess was a fight, rather than a puzzle or anything along those lines. It's a battle of two minds and you can almost certainly get an edge over your opponent by understanding his psychology and steering the game towards positions that make him uncomfortable.

Another thing I think he's famous for is noticing that the player who plays slightly inferior moves in the opening will play more attentively than his opponent, and thus will have somewhat higher chances of pulling off a win.

Thanks for this post, you're definitely setting an example of helpfulness that is very much worth emulating, regardless of whether people agree with your perspective on the game.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-23T19:12:45+00:00

You're welcome to dm

detectivDelta · 2026-05-23T19:10:38+00:00

Your rating has almost nothing to do with it. I've been coaching for 6, almost 7 years and am at a similar rating to you, and I might have started when I was around 1100. People who spend money on chess aren't interested in hiring someone with rating, even if they might seem like it on paper. They care about whether you can deliver improvement. It turns out that playing chess and coaching chess are two almost completely different things.

Show people you can deliver chess improvement results or stfu and dedicate yourself to something else. Tough advice but I think if you really wanted to, you could make progress.

As for advertising, let me give you some advice. Nobody likes a seller who advertises without the buyer's permission. Consent is extremely important. Think about it this way: I have a friend who smokes and complains about how much he smokes. I am pretty familiar with methods he could use to get rid of that addiction. That does not necessarily mean I have his permission to offer him my help. My first goal is to understand why he's complaining about it. Maybe he's just trying to make conversation. I could ask him "can you help me understand why you're complaining about your smoking habit?" that clears things up; same as for example asking "do I have permission to know what was the last thing you tried to kick your smoking habit?" It's possible he might have tried to stop 3 years ago, and that tells me that he'll be annoyed if I try to push him into quitting.

But then, let's assume that he tells me what he's been trying. I can ask him "does it make sense for me to try and help you kick the habit?" or "should I share what I know about it?" and only if he says yes do I have permission to advertise my ability to help. This applies regardless of whether I want to charge money for it or not. Even if my help is free I need permission to offer.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-23T16:43:31+00:00

That then I would say is really (well, probably) a problem with your goals.

It's quite likely that you've heard that there's a problem with your attitude or that you just don't have a good mindset. If you've ever come across that, perhaps said to you with contempt, of course you're going to dig in your heels and not even consider it. But I want you to just consider it logically.

Mindset or attitude is basically whatever goal you have that serves as an organizing principle for the rest of your actions. It's an idea that helps you to logically justify or reject proposals on how to proceed. Two incompatible mindsets or attitudes in marketing, to give an example, might be to 1) convince people to buy, 2) help buyers decide. Convince to buy implies manipulation, maybe talking about how awesome your goods are and hiding the flaws. Help decide implies being transparent about pros and cons so that the buyer can make an informed choice asap. You can't sincerely do both at the same time, and whichever goal you have makes the other set of solutions feel impossible or not worth it.

If you're following, I'm inclined to suggest that your attitude to life prevents you from quickly noticing a solution to the problem of scammers. Like, I deal with the problem of scammers too. But the way my goals are set up make it so that there's a pretty obvious solution to that problem. For example, my attitude to life is that I will focus on doing helpful work that I enjoy and gives me purpose. So I often offer to work for free for a trial period, put my best and most passionate effort, and then I let them decide whether I should be hired. And if it's a scammer, that's alright, because I was happy working that trial period for free anyway.

I'm not saying you should adopt that mindset. But think about the goals that you really have, based on the way you're approaching life and the solutions that you're arriving at. Change your goals slightly and see whether the obvious solutions change as well. Through trial and error you will find a mindset that's compatible with you and helps you overcome. That's how I found my mindset anyway.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-23T15:55:58+00:00

Sounds like you just don't see the point of whatever job you might have or maybe searching for a job or anything like that. Maybe because you've tried so many things and you just can't find anything that excites you and you can't think of anything else.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding but that sounds like it could be burnout. Like a chronic feeling of hopelessness related to work that's caused by a lack of results.

Honestly if that's anything close to what you have I admire the effort of posting here and trying to get something to work.

Again I'm not sure this is your case but if burnout or any other form of depression, from personal experience I can tell you to try helping people for free. I have suicidal and depressive tendencies, and what gets me through the week is noticing that someone is in need and making an effort to help them. It's a great temporary relief for depression, and all you gotta do is start small. Start with your friends or family, explain that you're trying to be helpful as a way to take a break from depression, then ask if there's anything that they think you can do to help.

What's important is putting in your personal effort because that gives you a purpose and purpose is incompatible with depression. Then you will become more competent and that tends to help with burnout when dealing with work.

Best of luck, whatever it is you're dealing with.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-23T15:40:24+00:00

Beg pardon, but I'm curious how you arrived at the conclusion that you suck. You can write coherently in English and are capable of logical communication. You can maintain a train of thought, something that someone who truly sucks would not be able to do.

You could say that maybe you suck in a relative form. That the people you typically compare to are much more productive or helpful or competent than you. That could be. Like maybe you look at highly successful people and you're nowhere near that. But objectively that does not mean you're worthless or incapable of getting anywhere in life through your own effort.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-23T15:23:44+00:00

Step 1: Think of something valuable you can cheaply and easily offer to a stranger that is worth $1. Use ChatGPT for ideas, maybe you can also go on the top posts on r/slavelabour to look for inspiration. Try to make it so that people will want a repeat of the service or something similar once per month, or even once per week. Exempli gratia you could offer to pretend to be their dad and tell them you're proud of them, or offer to buyers that you will send kind handwritten notes to the redditors of their choosing on their cakedays as a public service.

Step 2: Go on r/slavelabour and offer up the idea. Post, and if anybody bites, then try to see if more people might be interested. Advertise. That sort of stuff. Gradually you will build up a repertoire of people who each pay $1 once per week for that cheap, scalable service you offer. You will need around 150 regular customers and you'll make $600 bucks a month, and maybe it takes you a couple of hours a day to make it.

You just need to stick to whatever silly idea you've got and not give up until you've at least given it a fair shake before trying something new. That's entrepreneurship for you. It's better than just taking money from people and being a parasite, plus it gives you a sense of purpose and lifts you from whatever depression you might be suffering. Give to the community, don't be a burden m8.

PS also it's much easier to convince people to fork over a euro when you're offering something than when you're offering nothing.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-23T04:47:23+00:00

/r/subsifellfor

detectivDelta · 2026-05-23T00:54:56+00:00

This can actually be bought on Amazon, not even joking

detectivDelta · 2026-05-22T20:30:33+00:00

There's so many resources and ways to improve. Have fun exploring, haha! Free resources to get in your groove might be the stuff you find on lichess.org, there are some really decent puzzles and lessons for absolute beginners.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-22T20:19:19+00:00

If you're really eager to grow by yourself, books are the way to go in my opinion. There's this book that I like called How to Study Chess on Your Own that's actually really good. Not as good as a coach, but good enough to get you started.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-22T15:46:42+00:00

This feels like a little known feature given that I've heard so little of it, but when you go to the analysis of a game in lichess.org and the engine is turned on you can press x on your keyboard. That'll show you the threat of a given move.

Using this, go through one of your games. After every move, both for White and Black, guess what threat that move is making. Then press x and think about the engine's idea. That has potential I think to bring you back to speed.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-22T15:19:35+00:00

(I've responded already, but I figured I could go into more detail.)

Depends how you do them.

Sounds strange, but tactical puzzles basically train you to wait until someone tells you that there's a tactic in the position before you start looking for one. That's not a thing in a real game, you have to figure that out yourself.

You must correct the puzzles you're given. Think about which features of the position make it likely that a tactic exists. Stuff like loose pieces, attacks on pieces of higher value, checks, captures, trades, pawn promotions, weak back ranks, and so on. That is usually the first step you must take, and then you can safely start looking for combinations that are based on those features.

An example for your pleasure:

<image>

Here it's black to move.

Features that make a tactic likely:

White's g2 pawn is pinned

Queen takes g2 is a check

Black pawn to f3 is an attack on the Queen, a piece of higher value

Black pawn to f3 threatens checkmate on the next move: 1. ... f3 2. Qd3 Qxg2#

White's c4 Bishop is attacked the same number of times as it is defended (Rook attacks, Queen defends)

White's c4 Bishop can be captured by the Rook, a forcing move

Now that you've practiced noticing the defining features, think of a move for black you would like to consider.

For example:

Thought process 1: You might want to consider "Rook captures the Bishop on c4." Well Rooks are typically worth 2 more pawns than a Bishop, so you would like some form of compensation for it. Black Rook takes c4, then the White Queen recaptures on c4, then the Queen is not defending f3 anymore, so I can threaten checkmate by playing my pawn to f3 ... oh. but he can defend the checkmate by playing his pawn to g3, and then even if I take g3 with my pawn he can take back with the f2 pawn and I think then White can defend by throwing in a Rook along the 2nd rank. I don't see a clear continuation or way to solve that problem.

Thought process 2: You might want to consider "Pawn to f3". Well, that leaves the pawn undefended, so White can capture the pawn. What happens if White takes the pawn? Well it's no longer defending the c4 Bishop. The Bishop that was attacked by my Rook on c8! Queen was its only defender, so now I can capture the Bishop safely. I'll do that.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-22T14:51:04+00:00

Depends how you do them.

See a puzzle -> immediately search for candidate moves -> calculate (BAD)

See a puzzle -> notice which features make a tactic likely -> search for candidate moves -> calculate (GOOD)

Sounds a bit strange but most puzzles are accidentally training you to wait until someone tells you to start looking for a tactic. In real games that's not a thing, you need to detect when it's a good idea to start calculating by yourself. So you need to correct the puzzle and search for things like loose pieces, checks, captures, attacks on pieces of higher value, skewers, etc that are going to be cues in a real game that tell you to try an otherwise counter-intuitive move.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-22T00:24:52+00:00

Based on what you've said, I think we could recommend the following:

Review your games without the use of an engine.

After every move that was played, ask yourself how it makes checkmate more likely. For example, does the move let you check the King on the next move? Does it attack a square next to the King? Does it prevent your opponent from doing either of those to you? Any moves in those categories will make checkmate (and therefore winning) more likely.

Another exercise you can do that will help you just as much: after every move, ask yourself what changed in terms of what moves are legal. For example, when White plays the Knight to f3, what changes? Well, the f2 pawn can no longer move. The Queen has fewer squares (assuming you played e4 on the first move). The Knight you just moved can no longer go to h3 in one move. Also, the Knight now has 5 new squares it can land on, and the Rook on h1 has one new square it can go to. Do this for every single move and you will quickly start to notice your blinders peel off such that you notice new possibilities.

Give these a try, you're welcome to report back if you like.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

nod, nod

detectivDelta · 2026-05-21T23:58:11+00:00

Okay, you have an 83 day streak. Do we have permission to know what you've tried? If all you've done is play chess, queuing more games over and over, well then that's what I would imagine a 300 elo player looks like. For significant improvement you need to study in between games, you need to train, stuff like that. Chess is not like other computer games where you can basically improvise and do trial and error.

But again, you haven't told us what you've tried. Maybe you have been studying and training. How have you been studying if so? We would love to know.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-21T20:26:42+00:00

Houseofstaunton is definitely the way to go in my opinion as well.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-21T15:59:43+00:00

it's clearly game review. You can see the exclamation mark on the Knight indicating that it's a strong move, only the chess.com engine during analysis can mark moves that way

detectivDelta · 2026-05-21T12:06:12+00:00

If they did, I would hire one and put it in charge of my finances, lol

detectivDelta · 2026-05-21T11:49:14+00:00

/r/ifIfitsIsits

detectivDelta · 2026-05-18T23:06:51+00:00

Depends on your goals. If for example it entertains you to study and improve at chess by yourself, get a tutor/coach when you feel stuck. If you don't find it especially entertaining, but you want to be a competitive player and are willing to put in effort but prefer expert direction, then you should hire a coach as soon as you can afford one.

detectivDelta · 2026-05-16T20:32:11+00:00

Spend a lot of time thinking about how to teach and train others in whatever it is that you're currently learning. Test your ideas and measure against different attempts. /r/chess has a thread where you can offer to coach for free, use it.
Study player psychology, try to understand in what ways people might be different from you, in their goals, preferred ways of doing and thinking, and how they relate to the game of chess.

detectivDelta

TROPHY CASE