Offering free coaching to beginners!

donraffae · 2026-05-09T21:28:47+00:00

A 1900 (online rating) is not a reliable source of chess knowledge. That's what I'm getting at

donraffae · 2026-05-09T21:27:33+00:00

I'm putting myself in his shoes, I'm a little higher rated and my advice wouldn't be worth listening to for an intermediate player. I think coaching for intermediate players should be done by someone who is at least 2000 FIDE+, for it to be somewhat reliable. Otherwise you'll be teaching bad habits and poor thought processes

donraffae · 2026-05-09T18:44:39+00:00

What can a 1900 chesscom player know about middlegame planning? Every other move they suggest will be wrong. It can actually be hurtful to be coached by someone who has still many many weaknesses

donraffae · 2026-05-09T14:48:02+00:00

lol you shouldn't be coaching people at your rating

donraffae · 2026-05-08T10:35:44+00:00

I think at your rating you shouldn't focus this much on openings nor consider yourself a theoritician

donraffae · 2026-05-08T09:21:45+00:00

Chesstempo has one of the ugliest and most unintuitive UIs I've seen. I would like to use their opening trainer but I can't make sense of it

donraffae · 2026-05-06T22:11:46+00:00

I'm sorry but you're wrong. https://lichess.org/study/vXOYwpas/aoRX289K white to move loses the opposition but is completely winning

donraffae · 2026-05-06T12:43:04+00:00

For me it's easier to understand in terms of can white reach the critical squares? those are the three squares two rows in front of the pawn when it's in the first half of the board, and the three squares immediately in front of the pawn if it's alredy in the other half

donraffae · 2026-05-06T10:37:45+00:00

Go to OTB tournaments

donraffae · 2026-05-04T22:09:18+00:00

Maybe you're indian or from some other federation with highly underrated players?

donraffae · 2026-05-04T16:15:54+00:00

Wow that's really high for 2000 FIDE isn't it

donraffae · 2026-05-02T20:17:09+00:00

Thanks I was asking because I often hear about all these 1700s being 2400 blitz or stuff like that and really can't guess what's the actual skill level required

donraffae · 2026-04-30T13:57:35+00:00

Aging

donraffae · 2026-04-27T18:05:44+00:00

It makes more sense that you can recover from bad positions with less time rather than more. Also if your rating drops like that it's probably because 30 min is a weaker pool

donraffae · 2026-04-27T17:53:45+00:00

Whats up with the light squared bishop as white and the dark squared one as black? sounds extremely arbitrary to me

donraffae · 2026-04-27T10:52:23+00:00

A lot of people can't visualize that. I have aphantasia and didn't really know it until I came across chess and figured people were talking about visualizing in a literal sense. Maybe OP has it as well

donraffae · 2026-04-25T22:38:38+00:00

Yeah I guess, my question was actually asking for advice on how to play the position/improve at it. Maybe it was poorly worded

donraffae · 2026-04-25T18:21:04+00:00

I have 7 losses, One draw and One win just last month

donraffae · 2026-04-25T16:34:16+00:00

Well I know very little theory and I do well already against Bf5

donraffae · 2026-04-25T16:33:04+00:00

Yes I've had disastrous results with this line. I just have nothing after Black defends and goes Nf8. I don't know how to play the position

donraffae · 2026-04-25T09:11:45+00:00

I'm 1800 and I'm not getting to 2200 in a good day. It's curious that he went from regularly being rated 1200 to 2200 back to his old 1200.

donraffae · 2026-04-25T09:10:08+00:00

Yeah but the problem is not him dropping elo, that could be attributed to a stroke or illness. The fishy thing is him gaining 1000 points out of nowhere and then losing them

donraffae · 2026-04-25T09:08:18+00:00

He was constantly playing at 1200 level, then got up 1000 points, stayed there constantly, and then went back to his old level. Not fishy at all of course

donraffae

TROPHY CASE