What is your chess rating? Fav opening? Wanna play?

David Mary said:
Yep, you've got me a few times now! It's true. I'm not very good. I am getting better though, slowly but surely.
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I'm admittedly a very poor chess player because I'm lazy and don't bother to consider all of the possibilities of different moves, which can be countless. So, I wouldn't want to embarrass myself by playing someone who actually does.

However, after I 1st saw this thread, I started "playing" the computer bots on Chess.com at the advanced level in full "help" mode and that is teaching me to see ways to play moves that I never considered before.

This should make me a better recreational player but still a long way from becoming a "serious" chess player who'd considering playing a "real" opponent.
 
sgt1372 sgt1372 you pretty much described me. I don't consider all possible moves, or anywhere near. BUT chess victory is built on principles.

1. Move a pawn or two to open diagonals for Queen and Bishops.
2. Develop minor pieces, generally Knights first, then Bishops, with the purpose of controlling the center.
3. Castle.
4. Raise Queen off the back rank, connecting the rooks.
5. Move Rooks to the center.
6. All while matching/countering opponent's opening moves.
7. Gain a material, space, positional and/or tactical advantage.
8. Use said advantage to checkmate the opponent's King.

Some openings and moves go outside certain principles, or use them loosely, but as a whole, the player following these principles more closely should win the game. Exceptions exist, like the Modern Defense, for example, one of my favorite openings. It does not seek to control the center directly, and is designed to make the most of a space disadvantage.

One of the most important principles that people at my level seem to either not know, or ignore, is never take an equal value trade when you're already down in material, unless it gives you a clear advantage. I would say that more than half my victories are from playing opponents who don't realize this simple principle. As soon as I am a pawn up, I will trade, trade, trade, until we reach the end game, at which point that one pawn makes the winning difference. Equal trades of material when you are already down in material is tantamount to resigning, it just takes a little longer.
 
I guess we'll see.... ;)
 
Might as well post this now, since I have just acheived my highest rapid rating ever. :)


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I can't believe I posted this thread almost two years ago! Around that time my daily rating was fluctuating between 950 and 1060. My highgest ever was 1274 in 2016, but that does not reflect my actual abilities, but at the time I had a group of friends at the call center who all joined up at once, and when they made their accounts, they were defaulted to 1200 provisional ratings, and I beat a bunch of them which artificially inflated my rating for a time until it gradually came back down, until I finally took a hiatus from chess. You can see that my daily rating reached its all time low in summer of 2020 when I started playing again, until I shook of the rust.

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I play more 10 minute rapid games now than anything. My "daily" rating has decreased, below what it was before, but my rapid has come up. Its funny because a year ago, and two and three years ago I couldn't seem to do anything to get my rapid and/or blitz rating to come up anywhere near my daily rating, and now it's the reverse. BUT I tend to play rapid with the same group of guys, guys much smarter than me, whereas I let the chess.com algorithm pair me up with random opponents close to my rating for daily and blitz. And I make every game. The only time I have ever acheived 100 percent accuracy is when my opponent made all the wrong moves as black against the Fried Liver Attack (ie my game from Feb 13 2022 against "SomGuyDatLikeChess"). But I'll never play as many daily games as rapid games, on account of the simple fact that daily games take several days or weeks to complete, whereas a 10 minute rapid game is usually finished before 15 minutes are up, allowing me to play many games in a short time.

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Chess accuracy is based on finding the best move, according to the engine. The engine assigns move quality according to what type of reply it allows from the opponent. If I make a move that gives up checkmate, then it's a blunder, whereas if I make moves that improve my own position, make unanswerable threats, and don't allow the opponent any opportunity to make improvements in their position or answer my threats, then the move would be an excellent move, or the best move. So the accuracy above reflects how well I was able to find moves that nulified those of my opponent. Had I been playing against Hikaru or Magnus, my accuracy would certainly have been significantly lower.

Some of the games that I won involved some luck. For example, my win against blop-pp was a complete fluke because I blundered mate in one, but my opponent missed it, and I was then able to slog my way to a win. And a lot of my losses are the same thing, where my opponent made a terrible move that should have cost him or her the game, but I missed it, and ended up losing. But even though there is that element of luck, it means nothing unless you are paying attention and convert that luck into an advantage by making the right move in response.

So no question I am still making a ton of innacuracies, mistakes, and blunders in my games, but I do believe that my overall understanding of chess, albeit still pitiful, is at least better than it's ever been, as a side by side comparison of my rapid games this past week with those of around this time year ago shows:

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I'm not a scholar. I didn't read a single book. I've watched several few dozen chess videos, I had a total of about four or five lessons with two different coaches over the last year, and just played a lot of chess. I believe anyone can play chess and improve at least at the rate I have been, and I think it can be a very rewarding and worthwhile pastime for just about anyone.
 
Le sigh....

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I’d like to let everyone know, that may be on the fence about playing with the tiger of the north (David). That he’s a good teacher and loves the game. Thanks David, I much enjoy our games and conversations.
 
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White to move. What is the one move in this position that loses for white?

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