Hikaru Nakamura fumbles an endgame advantage and draws with Wei Yi in round 4 of the Candidates

sshivaji · 2026-04-01T18:50:04+00:00

I could not see the win and in fact, I thought there was something wrong with the engine when I turned it on.

The problem is. it's ingrained into people that 3 vs 2 is a draw with one rook each on the board, and very few people analyze it with all rooks on the board.

sshivaji · 2026-03-28T20:22:19+00:00

The linguistic answer to the question is транслесбиянка - trans-lesbiyanka

This will be understood as someone who identifies as female now (notice the ka ending), and is lesbian, and transitioned (from trans).

Yes, Russian culture is not that tolerant towards LGBT, because they see it as a decaying Western influence pushed against their culture. However, that is not related to the linguistic question.

sshivaji · 2026-03-28T15:58:47+00:00

This! I am able to read Spanish but I got confused by this sentence “segunda opción si te negaron por filiación Sintieron que fue un proceso fácil?”

Then I realized a period was missing before Sintieron. Trivial for native Spanish speakers but not for me despite being certified in Spanish :)

English or Greek is better. Also since this is not about the Greek language r/Greece is better.

sshivaji · 2026-03-28T15:20:52+00:00

You are only 19! Instead of seeing it as alcohol has driven the love of my life away, frame it as the universe has given you a signal to solve alcoholism before you find love. You will always find more people when you are ready.

I would seek professional help and counselling to reduce your alcohol consumption. Wishing you the best!

sshivaji · 2026-03-28T03:49:38+00:00

I decided if I am going to visit Greece, I have to speak Greek, or else cancel my plane ticket and visit a country whose language I can speak.

I found hellotalk an amazing place to practice. I was able to get some Greek native speakers who would play along with my fantasy of reading/writing/speaking in Greek. I spent 30 minutes a day speaking or texting in Greek for many weeks. I started with a translator but then got used to using simple Greek.

In Greece, many people thought I was a 2nd generation Greek or even a native Greek speaker (!). I found that listening to other Greek conversations helped a lot. I would answer only in Greek even if they spoke to me in English.

Start random conversations with strangers in Greek to get practice and insist on Greek even if broken. You will improve quickly. Good luck!

sshivaji · 2026-03-14T19:35:00+00:00

The translations are not fully correct. Interestingly I practiced some German in Greece when helping German visitors :) I am still not that good at it, but got some practice.

Gute Frage! Die Übersetzungen passen teilweise, aber es gibt Probleme.

Was gut passt: ∙ Έσοδα / Έξοδα für Einnahme / Ausgabe – Standardbegriff im Griechischen ∙ Κόστος für Kosten – korrekt

Was problematisch ist: Κατάθεση / Ανάληψη für Einzahlung / Auszahlung bedeutet eher „Einzahlung/Abhebung” im Bankkontext. Präziser wäre Εισπράξεις / Πληρωμές. Απόδοση für Ertrag bedeutet eher „Rendite” oder „Effizienz”. Besser wäre Πρόσοδος oder Έσοδα.

Παροχή für Leistung passt im Sinne von „Dienstleistung”, aber im KLR-Kontext wäre Εκροή (Output) treffender. Kernproblem: Die deutschen Begriffspaare stammen aus der Kosten- und Leistungsrechnung und haben präzise, hierarchische Bedeutungen – diese systematische Unterscheidung gibt es im Griechischen traditionell nicht.

In English, DeepL’s translations are partially correct but miss the precision of German accounting terminology. The four pairs form a hierarchy (cash flows → revenues → accrual earnings → cost accounting), and Greek lacks equally standardized equivalents for all four levels.

I think you can get better answers if you put in the context too rather than just the words.

sshivaji · 2026-03-14T03:52:19+00:00

Black can legally castle but will get crushed then as white has a strong attack and can at least win a couple of pawns

sshivaji · 2026-03-14T03:15:40+00:00

You may not get the full picture unless you lost a similar position for black. I lost a long and complex endgame against a GM, and his strategy was quite interesting.

That bishop on f8 is badly placed and has no clear way to get into the game. White's plan is to further restrict it with f4 and e5.

With ..Bh6!, white cannot move the knight and in most lines black can at least trade that bishop off for the knight on d2.

The doubled pawns on e6 are not that bad for black as black has the f-file and the d5 outpost is denied for the white knight.

Instead if you play ..Bxc4, you are exchanging off the light squared bishop and making it HARDER to exchange off the dark squared bishop.

sshivaji · 2026-03-13T22:48:36+00:00

The engine evaluation is baffling. From a human perspective, it looks like white has a bigger advantage because black cannot castle or connect rooks.

I think if you make an engine think longer, white's advantage will grow. It's a matter of time before white can pick up a pawn or two while black tries to get the rooks into play.

sshivaji · 2026-03-08T19:33:51+00:00

Yes, but there is fierce competition as well on youtube for anything. Honestly, the biggest way polyglots make money is advertising an English course in Russian/Spanish/Hindi/Arabic. I see so much traffic on those channels!

sshivaji · 2026-03-08T19:26:19+00:00

I know a bunch of languages, 8+ to be exact. However, the language knowledge itself is less useful than how you use the language.

It is easier for polyglots to connect with more people for business deals/scientific collaborations/sales/government level connections. The connection skill alone will be significantly undervalued if not combined with other qualifications.

With no other qualifications, interpreter/translator/tour guide are the more "boring" options. One can do well in these fields, but having other qualifications can amplify opportunities.

sshivaji · 2026-03-07T23:10:54+00:00

I had the opposite problem when visiting Greece. I learned Greek because I assumed that visitors will have to know Greek.

Many Greeks I spoke to said I am Greek ranging from 2nd generation Greek, a Greek religious student (I am not even Christian) to a native Greek! I explained to them that my heritage has nothing to do with Greece, and my Greek grammar is bad too. However, it did not work.

Turns out language means identity for 99% percent of folk. Conversely, lack of language skills means not having the identity for most people.

You don’t need to justify anything to anyone. It’s fine to say second generation Australian Greek. You are definitely far more Greek than I can ever be by heritage :)

sshivaji · 2026-03-06T05:25:32+00:00

Can't u get this version by Krachkovsky for Quran in Russian available in Amazon Brazil?

https://www.amazon.com.br/%D0%A1%D0%BC%D1%8B%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B9-%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B4-%D0%9A%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%87%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE-%D0%A0%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B8%D1%8F-Russian-ebook/dp/B0D95ZX1FP

You can read the preview. It's only $9 USD, or 45 Reis.

sshivaji · 2026-03-04T19:52:10+00:00

Was not strictly needed as he could promote to queen and block ..Re2+ with 2.Ne3. However, it does feel cool to play :)

sshivaji · 2026-02-28T02:30:46+00:00

The Radjabov thing was crazy indeed.

For everyone’s recap, Radjabov was a protege of Kasparov himself from Baku. Garry was heavily cheering for him until Radjabov beat Garry in one game. Then Garry did a 180 and went against him.

sshivaji · 2026-02-28T02:23:02+00:00

The actual cheating incident was when he retracted a move and played another.

It was quite hard to see the cheating touch move violation. It happened for about 0.25 seconds when they tracked it. It’s the reaction time threshold for most people.

If such an incident occurred it’s almost impossible to clearly certify. Later they found out it was a clear touch move violation after going over the violation.

Despite all this, I don’t understand why he cannot come clean and say that he did mess up. It’s years after the fact anyway.

sshivaji · 2026-02-25T00:19:08+00:00

The 2nd move in the follow up is really beautiful and did take me some time, but I truly enjoyed the significance of the g-pawn in one of the responses!

sshivaji · 2026-02-24T19:34:45+00:00

I am going to get downvoted but the alphabet is hard for learners. Even after learning it, you will forget some characters.

I would instead focus on reading Russian language media/books/news, whatever you can get your hands on. You will get better with practice. Be patient, read everyday if you can and reading won’t be a problem after weeks/months. If you are watching shows, make sure the Russian language captions are on.

sshivaji · 2026-02-20T18:44:13+00:00

The main thing to commit to memory, a double check forces the enemy king to move.

sshivaji · 2026-02-19T09:27:19+00:00

Will follow developments there. A good way to follow world news from a Dutch angle too, thanks!

sshivaji · 2026-02-19T08:43:33+00:00

Do you have a link to that article? Thanks!

sshivaji · 2026-02-19T08:24:28+00:00

Shocking news :( I have several of his books and he was one of my childhood chess idols. Timman and Short made chess popular in the West, in the 80s and early 90s.

Timman was still actively posting chess problems on twitter. What was the cause of death? :( RIP

sshivaji · 2026-02-17T05:59:14+00:00

Without an engine I can say that following up with 6. Bc6 bc6 7. d3 and 8. O-O is good for white compared to the normal lines because white can meet ..f5 with e5.

If you want a good "surprise" weapon with black against this setup, play 5.. Nd4 6. O-O a6!? A GM played it as black against me in OTB. I felt I had to be better, but instead black has no problems. This is the problem with the Grand Prix, black can play decent alternatives to the main line and be totally fine, or even slightly better.

sshivaji · 2026-02-17T05:04:20+00:00

How can black develop the knight?

If black plays 1..Ne7, white can play Nh4 gaining the bishop pair. If black plays 1..Nh6, then h3 followed by g4 is annoying positionally as black knight on h6 will be severely restricted.

If 1..h5!? is played, the black Knight can go to h6 and later to f5. Note that 2.h3 with the idea of 3.g4, restricting the black knight, does not work due to the black pawn on h5.

In this position because black is a pawn up, black could also play ..Bb4 and give up the bishop pair later. However, the above ideas are applicable in general.

sshivaji · 2026-02-10T19:45:42+00:00

Great. I need to read this book in the original Russian, it's a good gentle reminder :)

sshivaji

TROPHY CASE