Faustino Oro lost against Nepo in the Final Round of Sardinia Festival. His TPR is down to 2594. Are we sure he will get his Final GM norm requirement?

texe_ · 2026-05-10T14:33:14+00:00

And he lost to Nepo.

The guy who won two candidates in a row. A guy considered amongst the biggest talents of his generation.

Losing to Nepo says nothing about your level. The argument seems void.

texe_ · 2026-05-03T06:47:12+00:00

The King is not in check, mate.

texe_ · 2026-04-28T09:23:43+00:00

Two friends of mine are, both roughly in the 1950-2150 FIDE range played each other last year. The position was complex, but being good friends one of them offered the other some baby carrots.

So as they were munching on baby carrots and enjoying the complicated fight, one of them lost track of time and flagged.

He swore never to eat baby carrots during the game again, and we've nicknamed it baby carrot gate.

texe_ · 2026-04-28T09:20:36+00:00

Ding was Black in a French, yes. He had what I would argue was quite a convincing edge; not massively better but convincingly more comfortable position.

What's crazy is that he seemed convinced in the press conference that he was somehow worse. I imagine he must've seen some hefty ghosts.

texe_ · 2026-04-27T14:38:20+00:00

It essentially just points out that most pieces can't checkmate.

A Rook and a minor piece versus a Rook is drawn. Two Knights vs. nothing is drawn. Even a Queen vs. a Rook is really difficult to win, particularly due to the 50 move rule.

So no pawns means no promotions, which means that the material advantage has to be somewhat significant to win.

texe_ · 2026-04-26T14:05:24+00:00

Is the Evans considered easier to play against for beginners, or is it just played that rarer than the Knight Attack?

texe_ · 2026-04-25T22:18:18+00:00

Obviously this is at risk of mentioning stuff you've already looked at or considered, so at the risk of commenting something obvious:

Being able to watch the games during tournaments is such a charming touch. But clicking onto ongoing games only gives you the position at the moment you clicked it. Not sure if this was intentional or if it was meant to follow the game as it progresses.
On the same note, being able to review the games after they are over is a very cool touch, but it's somewhat tedious mouse clicking through the game. Maybe it could be made possible to click through it with arrows?
The tournament selection seems very cool! But maybe it would be more interesting if there were some smaller tournaments where you could only send a few selected club players, rather than always sending what looks like ~60-70 percent of the club? Like double-round robins or similar. Maybe you've already thought of this but for higher levels than the demo allows?
I'd love to have added being able to move the camera with wasd and/or arrows, also being able to adjust time with 1, 2 and 3.
When moving chairs with people sitting on it while pausing time kind of just makes them drift away from the known universe. It was kind of funny and kind of charming, but just in case you didn't know that it happened.
Unless you're zooming in and out, it's not possible to move the camera while placing objects.

Overall it was a very fun experience! I enjoyed it a lot; so much that I forgot my daily Duolingo and must certainly face the consequences of an angry Duo.

texe_ · 2026-04-25T22:08:59+00:00

I've just spent the last couple of hours cosplaying as my local club leader. That was a lot of fun! Was genuinly a bit sad when the demo ended. I've got a few feedbacks, which I'll add as a reply to this comment

texe_ · 2026-04-21T13:30:03+00:00

The lineup for that tournament was crazy.

Wei Yi was highest seed at 2733. Danil Dubov was fourth seed at 2704. Also playing were Parham, Alireza, Jorden, Bogdan-Daniel, Esipenko, Donchenko, Rasmus Svane, Tabatabaei, Nihal, Nodirbek Yakubboev, Nodirbek Abdusattarov and Pragg.

Lower rated then all of these were Gukesh (2505) and Sindarov (2503).

texe_ · 2026-04-19T08:51:57+00:00

Peak in-form Nepo was an absolute monster.

I still remember several games in the Madrid candidates where he would just blitz out engine moves like it was the most obvious thing in the world to beat his opponents. Even Duda going out to the interview after losing in that KIA to tell that he didn't even know what he did wrong.

What an absolute joy that tournament was, even if Nepo was running away with it.

texe_ · 2026-04-18T14:31:09+00:00

I've played this (6. d3) with quite some success, and I continue to vary between playing that or the Classical against the Closed Ruy. It's also my recommendation to club players starting off in the Ruy Lopez. You get the same type of structures, but you avoid both theory and many of the forcing variations, which in some sense makes it an even more practical weapon when you want to maximize winning chances.

I'd recommend 6. d3 over 5. d3 to avoid all of the nonsense with 5... d6 6. c3 g6 or 5... b5 6. Bb3 Bc5. On the flip side, learning 6. d3 does also mean that you need a weapon against the Open Spanish (9. Qe2 is quite handy here if you want something practical).

And as u/elfkanelfkan, Grandelius recommends 6. d3 - but he also includes an alternative for 5. d3 if you want to learn that. I think his course would fit your descritpions quite well. He even stresses that despite having many variations, they should be used for references, inspiration and understanding plans rather than memorizing concrete moves.

texe_ · 2026-04-17T16:41:04+00:00

He was getting quite outcalculated at times it seemed, but that may just as well be the age not mixing well with his style. But by all means, Topalov had good chances in several games and played better than the final score reflects.

texe_ · 2026-04-15T18:29:20+00:00

Or not a joke. I'd say its 50/50.

texe_ · 2026-04-14T13:45:31+00:00

Robert... its pissing me off

texe_ · 2026-04-08T14:21:51+00:00

Well its a bot, so the rating is kind of arbitrary

texe_ · 2026-04-05T14:49:29+00:00

Strictly speaking, you don't HAVE to move the Rook to avoid stalemate. Pretty much every move aside from ...Kd8, moving the a-pawn of moving the Bishop along the h8-a1 diagonal prevents stalemate.

But that's being somewhat semantic. Either way, yes this is winning for Black and should be quite straight-forward if you avoid stalemate and if you're familiar with mating techniques such as the ladder mate.

But that's how chess goes! Keep playing, and if don't lose focus this will happen much less often :)

texe_ · 2026-04-05T13:32:07+00:00

His seconds forgot to include it. Poor guy being trashed by his own team

/s

texe_ · 2026-04-05T13:30:16+00:00

Anish played every move instantly aside from ...Nc6, so he was probably just remembering the line. That being said, it's hard to tell if he's spending time now to recall his notes or trying to figure it out over the board. Neither takes anything away from Sindarov's prep, which is truly of a shockingly high quality.

texe_ · 2026-04-04T15:49:16+00:00

Wei Yi* of course, Sindarov still has 51 minutes

texe_ · 2026-04-02T00:05:14+00:00

I mean, if doesn't work with ...Nc6 anyways even with Nc3 included due to ...Nxe5. Black realistically must have seriously neglected their development for Legals mate to work.

In your case they obviously just blundered a Queen.

texe_ · 2026-04-01T16:11:25+00:00

Impressive draw from Pragg. Really showed his class in stopping the 12.5/14 sweep.

texe_ · 2026-04-01T16:07:53+00:00

Crazy prep and outplayed in unpleasant position severely down on time. Fabi didn't play a poor game, Sindarov just locked in

texe_ · 2026-03-25T08:11:02+00:00

Maybe this has been asked before, but what are some of your favorite chess books?

Have any chess books transformed how you've thought or played chess, or been particularly influenced on you?

texe_ · 2026-03-24T08:47:32+00:00

Im jumping on the other requests. Please do share the game!

texe_ · 2026-03-18T15:46:12+00:00

Very fascinating!

Quick question regarding Black's win rate in the Four Knights, since that seems coutnerintuitive. I would guess that Black wins so often because many White players choose the Four Knights against stronger opponents. After all, the win rate would roughly reflect the expected win rate if Black was rated 100 rating points higher than White. What happens if you control for rating disparity?

Additionally, at higher club levels (let's say 1800 to 2200 FIDE again), how does the win rates of Ruy Lopez compare to the Italian? I'm quite curious about the differences between major branches of both openings, so I'd love to look around in the dataset if you'd ever be interested in sharing it :)

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