I think he wanted to trade knights which is what he took. But oh man

you know when someone posts a puzzle here as a picture and you just stare at it trying to calculate in your head? i built a little chrome extension that fixes that.

it's free, open source, no account, no ads, nothing monetized, i make nothing from it.

you click the icon, it reads the board that's on your screen, and one more click puts that exact position on a real board (lichess analysis) where you can actually move the pieces and try things. works on puzzle screenshots, chesscom and lichess boards, even diagrams from chess books.

the important stuff:

- completely free, no account, no sign up

- nothing you do leaves your computer, it all runs in your browser

- if it can't read the board or isn't sure, it tells you honestly instead of giving you a wrong position. and you can always just drag a box around the board or paste a screenshot with ctrl+v

i built it for myself and use it every day, mostly for exactly the "puzzle posted as an image" situation. chrome is live now, firefox and edge are under review and should be out in a few days.

link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/fenshot-chess-board-to-fe/fpkdijjlnafehkdkjmkppcekocjdomkc

if it ever reads a board wrong, send me the picture and i'll fix it. enjoy.

Been playing about a year, self taught, sitting in the 750s on chess.com rapid and playing 4-5 games a day. I’m not lazy about it. I’ve done the chess.com lessons, tried Chessable courses, even the Duolingo chess thing. They all have the same problem: they tell me WHAT the move is, none of them teach me WHY it’s the move.

I can play book openings fine. Then move 12 arrives, there’s no book left, and I genuinely don’t know how to decide between three sensible looking moves. Game review shows me the eval dropped, cool, but “you should have played Rd1” with no reasoning teaches me nothing. Next game, same type of mistake, different square.

What I’m looking for is anything (book, course, video series, method, whatever) that teaches decision making itself. How you choose a move when nothing is forced. How you build a plan from the position instead of memorising lines.

500 kilo btw 💔

I know the title might seem like a stupid question, as you could join a chess club at any level and have something to learn, but hopefully I can make my point clear.

I've played chess on and off since being a kid (with a few month long stints on chess.com some years ago), but mostly with my dad, who is quite into it. Since April I've been playing it and studying it much more regularly, and managed to improve a fair bit (my elo has gone up about 300 points to 770 ish in that time, with ups and downs). Despite this, I'm well aware that it still puts me right in the beginner category.

(Main bit) My actual point is that soon i'll be starting my 2nd year at uni, and I'm considering joining an actual OTB chess club. I had already assumed that my elo on chess.com would translate to being bottom of the barrel at any club. I wouldn't mind this, but I've seen a lot of stuff (probably exaggerated) about the standards at OTB chess clubs being very high, and how even people pushing the 1800-2000 rating range aren't considered particularly skilled. From this, i ask if anyone has any experience with these kind of clubs (although it will vary between them), especially if you joined as a beginner? was it worth it to you, and was it different to what the consensus online seems to be? For any more experienced club players, do you find it annoying or frustrating playing beginners who might not be able to give you the most challenging game? (this latter point is one of my main concerns).

Thankyou for any advice)

I know people say Bullet is bad for practice, but the flipside is that going back to Rapid makes you feel like you have *eons* of time to work with. It's amazing

I’m wondering if this is a sign of low intelligence am I genuinely an idiot? Like I miss so many things and blunder so much and I’ve been playing for a while now and I’m still so bad. like this game makes me lose respect for myself and I genuinely get depressed playing this game because it makes me realize how low my iq is

https://www.chess.com/game/live/171935956126?move=31

Check out this #chess game: bigsaucesmokey vs yousef5051 - https://www.chess.com/game/171923138548

This is my last game

https://www.chess.com/live/game/171927814118

I'll explain every move and my thought, process, though I'll skip chess notation.

1. Classic pawn to e4. I didn't have an opening in mind, I was just going to play principled chess.

2. I can put 2 pawns in the center, so I did it.

3. I thought about taking because I'm way more comfortable in an open position, but I decided I didn't like how I was trading my e pawn for a c pawn basically, so I decided to just take space.

4. develops a piece.

5. develops a piece, trying to castle quickly. If they take I take with the queen.

6. I REALLY thought abou taking black's bishop, since my bishop kinda sucks compared to black's, and it would damage their pawn structure, but I decided not to because I didn't want to move my bishop twice in the opening, which is something I regret.

7. Develops a knight

8. Develops the bishop. I knew it would probably get attacked, but it was either there or d2, but d2 would disconnect my queen from my light squared bishop, so black could take it and damage my pawn structure.

9. I ended up moving to d2 anyway after it got attacked. Quite foolish of me, waste of a move.

10. I knew it would happen but I accepted it already.

11. Here I was like "well what else is there to develop?" And I developed my rook.

12. Here I remembered how to play closed positions. From here the goal was to move my pieces to where white would castle and attack.

13. The idea is "after this, I'll move my knight to h2, clearing the way for my queen to go to g4"

14. When I played it I thought it was a free pawn lol, but then black took back with their bishop and I really didn't like that, black's bishop looked active and intimidating.

15. Continued with my plan.

16. I was going to do that anyway, but I also realized it was a good move even without my masterplan.

17. Getting more pieces into the attack

18. Apparently that was a bad move, but the thought was "I'll remove the knight, and once it's gone, I'll take with my bishop on h6 because it's only defender is pinned."

19. Saw the fork, so of course, I had to stop it. Was actually pretty proud of that one.

20. Remembered my plan and did it. I'm also threatening mate, good times.

21. The knight stops me from mating, so I remove it. Then I realize if they take back it's mate, so it's a free knight.

22. My knight got attacked, so i move it.

23. I saw the fork, but my logic here was "If they take the pawn and fork me, I'll get to the King first, so they cant take my rook.

24. I completely missed that the bishop could do that, i was devastated.

25. Still looking for an attack. If i can find a checkmate, It doesnt matter if I lose my rook.

27.saves my rook and pins the bishop to the queen.

1. I tried to win the bishop somehow, but I didn't see it'd hang my queen. I had little time in the clock compared to my opponent, I was trying to play fast, and Just like that, I lost the game

The rest of the game was simply pure survival, hoping black would blunder the game away like I did, but I knew it was over.

​

My kid (5+) is interested in chess. How can I help him? He knows the rules and can sometimes play a 1 move tactic. I would estimate him at around 300-400 elo.

What do you recommend for him to get better at the game?

I was hoping a book that has easy puzzles for him to do. Do you have any recommendation?

I feel like this is probably the 2nd or 3rd time in about 5 years of playing online, that I've won with .1 left on the clock. Granted, in games where time gets added as you go it might be more likely, idk.

Hey everyone — I'm building an online platform for live, small-group classes, and this week I'm running a free trial chess class. It's aimed at being approachable, not intimidating, so if you're newer to chess and have been wanting some structured guidance instead of just grinding puzzles alone, this could be a good fit.

No cost, no experience required, just looking for about 10 people to join and share honest feedback afterward on how it felt. If that sounds fun, drop a comment or DM me and I'll send the details and timing.

sorry that the recording sucks for some reason