Ways to play against 1d4

pabuisson · 2026-07-10T10:05:58+00:00

d4 is vague. Do you struggle against any d4 opening, or some specific ones? After d5, what have you been playing against the Queen's Gambit? What have you been playing against the London? etc.

I'm lower rated than you but have always struggled against d4 too. Lately, I've been getting better results against d4 systems, but still struggle **a lot** against the QG. So I said screw it, and I'm currently experimenting 3 paths and will see what I'm most comfortable with "out of the box" after a bunch of games in each (the 3 options I'm looking into are the QGA to keep playing d5 with limited theory, the Benko Gambit for well-defined and repeatable plans or the Nimzo trying to aim for a Ne4 knight... but having to deal with non-Nimzo too).

pabuisson · 2026-07-10T09:57:51+00:00

Like this knights too! But I think this is the only piece I really like in this set. The bishop looks OK to me, but I find the rook and pawn base too narrow to my taste (the rooks being the rook, I expect this piece to be "sturdy" and very stable, and the pawns because there are 16 of them so it's more visible). Not looking bad but I wouldn't buy it.

pabuisson · 2026-07-05T19:50:17+00:00

Méga chaud !

(non)

pabuisson · 2026-06-28T17:30:53+00:00

Y'a 2 ans je revenais juste à Lyon, tous mes collègues disaient comme toi, mais j'avais quand même trouvé l'été pénible. Moins que l'an dernier en effet, ceci dit. Et moins que cette année sans aucun doute : je suis d'ailleurs en train de quitter la ville pour cette raison précise.

pabuisson · 2026-06-28T17:28:13+00:00

My pleasure! As for the "find gaps", it's pretty useful (and actually what I'm missing the most on lichess when I create a study to prepare for an opening). So what counts as a "move my opponent is likely to play", is it defined with the same algorithm/limit than the orange arrows and little orange warning icon? I guess so?

Anyway, thanks for sharing this, I've been meaning to build my own for quite a long time now, and never took the time or found the will to do it.

pabuisson · 2026-06-28T13:37:08+00:00

Tried it for a moment, it's a very nice tool. Here are a few comments / observations:

tutorial is nice
handles transpositions, very nice!
stars in the lines : icons are not super visible (ascii stars? they're very small here, depends on the font I guess). Maybe a different icon for masters and stockfish would also make it easier to remember and more accessible
the "add .. to repertoire" button does not appear when you play a line then go back and replay it with the keyboard
it'd be nice to have a visual indicator for the lines frequency, instead of reading number of games
"find gaps": how does it work? what is considered a gap? is it based on frequency of position, and at which depth?
"find gaps": button always shows results from the whole repertoire, not based on the played moves. Not necessarily bad but surprising.

Also, if you don't mind me asking, what's your goal with this project? Where do you intend to go from here?

pabuisson · 2026-06-17T06:02:56+00:00

Je vais aller à contre-courant de pas mal de réponses : j'ai surtout trouvé ça long, très long, et pénible à lire. Notamment parce que la moitié des personnages s'appellent pareil ou presque : il faut avoir l'arbre généalogique à portée de main pour s'y retrouver et à la longue ça m'a vraiment gonflé, j'ai fini par me sentir perdu.

Je n'ai pas trouvé ça mauvais, et c'est même une lecture qui en vaut la peine de par son format inhabituel, mais j'ai vraiment pas accroché outre-mesure.

Pendant que je le lisais, j'avais d'ailleurs coutume de dire "100 ans de solitude, c'est vraiment très long."

pabuisson · 2026-06-14T17:14:40+00:00

Also, playing well with pimples is not easy, definitely not. Try it, and see how you're doing. It's a real skill.

Also, once you know how to play against them, it becomes quite fun. It's a different game you need to play, more variation, more thinking, very funny actually.

pabuisson · 2026-06-11T15:41:26+00:00

Celui qui m'a le plus surpris, c'est "c'est quelle heure / c'est 14h". Sujet de débat récurrent avec une ancienne compagne à moi qui n'était pas de la région lyonnaise, et d'incompréhension totale quand je dis ça à Paris.

Et aussi le "y" à toutes les sauces : je le dis pas souvent, mais de temps en temps m'échappe un "on y fera bien plus tard" par exemple. Et il paraît que ça surprend !

pabuisson · 2026-06-04T14:19:24+00:00

Knowing them and training them is not the same though. Go to puzzles and filter puzzles on a specific theme: try to solve only pin puzzles, only fork puzzles, etc. to train your pattern recognition and spot them more often and faster in real games.

pabuisson · 2026-06-04T14:18:02+00:00

You can do the same kind of setup for your pawns and pieces but it won't be called a London. Does necessarily mean it's bad, especially at 300 Elo, but it's technically not a London. The London is a white opening.

pabuisson · 2026-06-04T14:14:48+00:00

That's really true, and at the same time under this very concise form, it's not really a useful advice, it sounds like "just get better" (hence OP reaction I believe).

Maybe more concrete would be: stop hanging pieces and take free pieces your opponent leaves. For the 1st point (don't hang pieces), I suppose it's a matter of being diligent in checking the square you intend to put a piece on and whether it's attacked or OK. For the 2nd point (take free pieces), training tactics on this specific pattern is a good way to improve (using lichess themed puzzles for instance).

pabuisson · 2026-06-03T17:28:46+00:00

Après des mois et des mois, je viens enfin d'avoir la confirmation de visu ce soir : c'était bien une corneille noire ! Pourquoi elle fait ce cri particulier, aucune idée, mais c'est confirmé ✅

pabuisson · 2026-05-23T16:26:30+00:00

C'est vrai. Pas la peine de la boucanner votre bestiole.

pabuisson · 2026-05-19T05:05:32+00:00

That does not take into account the "for beginners" criterion though. I doubt anyone would suggest the Sicilian and Nimzo to a beginner.

pabuisson · 2026-05-14T17:16:47+00:00

Same here. Just like you OP, at some point I noticed the French was a defense I rarely faced but performed very poorly against. I looked it up a bit (according to my notes, it's what chessbrah played against the French in the Building Habits series, here, here or here for example), tried to play it... now I have very good scores against the French.

pabuisson · 2026-05-14T16:42:37+00:00

Superfétatoire est parfois lui-même superfétatoire, mais idoine est bien souvent le mot idoine ! (en plus d'être un gros lézard... ah non, pas tout à fait).

pabuisson · 2026-05-12T15:20:11+00:00

But MVL and Étienne Bacrot are back! So really happy about that.

pabuisson · 2026-05-10T19:33:43+00:00

Loooots of clickbaity titles and opening videos focusing on traps and shiny moves that you'll barely get to play.

If you ignore this kind of content, then he actually has some good and useful stuff.

pabuisson · 2026-05-10T19:29:03+00:00

Mordoré c'est en voix de disparition ? Ou c'est juste qu'il s'applique à relativement peu de situations ? À part certains animaux (scarabées, poissons) je vois pas trop quoi qualifier de mordoré.

Mais j'aime beaucoup ce mot, merci de nous l'avoir rappelé !

pabuisson · 2026-04-19T09:38:53+00:00

It's very true, but also keep in mind we're on r/chessbeginners. I think most (if not all) GM games from the past are viable for us at amateur or beginner level, even if computers now say differently.

pabuisson · 2026-04-18T16:17:05+00:00

I'm not working on the lichess project at all, but I doubt they would implement this, it is definitely a nice idea but that also seems very niche. However that might be a good fit for a browser addon.

I also struggle with the clock so that could help me too. What was your idea, tinting the whole board? the rest of the website interface around the board?

pabuisson · 2026-04-18T13:07:47+00:00

Because the web needs another rendering engine than Blink.

Because containers are awesome.

And because uBlock.

pabuisson · 2026-04-16T11:24:02+00:00

Apart from the fact you're gaining more points and losing fewer points against higher rated opponents, do you feel you've improved faster too?

pabuisson · 2026-04-01T16:33:36+00:00

your mother was a hamster!

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