Most Popular
1500 questions
19
votes
5 answers
Is it improper etiquette to ask your opponent what his/her rating is before the game?
Suppose you're playing in a tournament. For the purpose of filling up your scoresheet, is it improper etiquette to ask your opponent what his/her rating is before the game?
Siddhartha
- 465
- 4
- 12
19
votes
4 answers
How do you judge a sacrifice?
I have been looking at several of Mikhail Tal's games recently, as they are exciting to analyze. Often Tal makes sacrifices in surprising positions, and almost always the computer finds that the positions are quite close despite the massive…
EPN
- 2,433
- 3
- 20
- 36
19
votes
2 answers
What does "TPR" mean in chess tournament reports?
I usually find in reports like this (and many others) something like:
... with a TPR of 2551 ...
I would like to know its meaning, and also what it stands for.
Daniel Alfredo Sottile
- 1,300
- 10
- 23
19
votes
1 answer
Was the value of thorn pawns fully appreciated in decades past?
Many videos on YouTube channel "Kingscrusher" which discuss the play of new neural-net engines like Leela Chess Zero focus considerable attention upon the development of "thorn pawns" which are pawns that have reached the sixth rank and are blocked…
supercat
- 1,182
- 11
- 14
19
votes
6 answers
How to deal with your opponent's queen if your opponent rejects any trades?
If my opponent brings out his/her queen early in the game, I usually attack it with my own queen. The opponent can either accept the trade or reject it. If he/she accepts, I have no questions at all. The game continues, and I am happy.
The question…
Alexander
- 771
- 1
- 6
- 11
19
votes
5 answers
What are good openings for bullet chess?
It is evident that bullet chess has a different set of strategies from regular chess. It follows, therefore, that certain openings will be better or worse relative to their normal chess counterparts. Hikaru Nakamura covers some examples in his book…
Andrew Latham
- 3,651
- 2
- 23
- 38
19
votes
7 answers
How to play for a draw
In this video: Levon Aronian vs Magnus Carlsen Round 1 - 2013 Candidates Chess Tournament
[FEN ""]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Bxd2+ 5.Qxd2
And now, Kevin said: "You can tell that the game is going for a draw."
My question, how can you play a…
Lynob
- 5,774
- 5
- 42
- 79
19
votes
5 answers
Which chess player has the most openings named after him?
I always thought it was interesting that chess players had openings named after them. The game of chess has only been popular and organized for about 150 years, yet all the most popular openings and most of their sub-variations have already been…
Andrew Latham
- 3,651
- 2
- 23
- 38
19
votes
6 answers
Chess Problem Database with PGN or FEN
Is there a database of chess problems that have the game or positions PGN and or FEN?
Ludwig
- 301
- 1
- 2
- 5
19
votes
1 answer
If a chess board is disturbed, can the game continue?
Let's say I'm playing a game that has technically begun (white has moved) and then the board is disturbed: say a minor earthquake shakes the pieces off the table or something. Clearly no-one has interfered so there is no cheating, but what happens…
Smoke
- 293
- 2
- 4
19
votes
1 answer
Is it legal to move a piece if your opponent has not hit the clock?
I have played some rapid and blitz games in my city,
it was not a tournament, but a friendly match, but there's
something that bother me almost always that I've played:
I move my piece and as my hand is still in the air moving
towards the clock, and…
Kevin Hernández Arango
- 193
- 5
19
votes
5 answers
How did the engines improve since Deep Blue?
Computer chess engines have gotten better since Deep Blue beat Kasparov in 1997.
Did the algorithms get better, or were the improvements mostly due to the same algorithms running faster thanks to faster hardware, etc.?
If the former, are these…
MWB
- 475
- 2
- 13
19
votes
2 answers
What is the shortest known GM level OTB game to end with checkmate?
What is the shortest known on the board game played between GM rated players that ended with a checkmate? "Shortest" does not mean the game has to be very short.
Note: Edited this question twice clarifying some ambiguity.
Masked Man
- 1,006
- 8
- 17
19
votes
6 answers
How do I learn a new opening?
Often times, when I find myself going through the lines of a new opening, one that I would like to start using in my games I hit the concrete wall after a couple of days of studying it.
Due to the fact that this is new to me, I simply don't…
Helio
- 1,431
- 10
- 26
19
votes
4 answers
In the endgame KQ vs K, can you premove your way to checkmate?
This is a question concerning online blitz chess.
I'm sure we all have experienced having a completely winning position, but only having a few seconds left on the clock. After one such game I started to wonder:
In the ending KQ vs K, is it possible…
Dag Oskar Madsen
- 9,031
- 1
- 36
- 61