Chess Stack Exchange
Chess Stack Exchange

Most Popular

more tags
1500 questions
15
votes
5 answers

What is the highest known lower bound for mate in N from starting position?

Edit: It seems my question was not clear enough. Let me rephrase: What is the largest N for which we can knowingly say "chess, from the starting position, is not a forced mate in N moves"? Chess is not solved, i.e. it is not known what the outcome…
Sami Liedes
  • 341
  • 2
  • 7
15
votes
3 answers

How does engine strength scale with hardware?

Say I run Komodo on my 4-core machine. How much stronger would Komodo be if I used an 8-core machine? A 40-core machine? A 4000-core machine? Is there a general relation for this? Also, does this scaling depend on which engine is used, and if so,…
Allure
  • 26,534
  • 1
  • 68
  • 146
15
votes
7 answers

Database of every possible move in chess

Imagine that there is a chess database of every possible move and position. This database contains all possible moves from opening to end game. If I played using my intuition against a chess engine, it can predict which move will make me lose and…
Ahmad Azwar Anas
  • 1,717
  • 2
  • 16
  • 31
15
votes
3 answers

Understanding Kramnik's play in game 1 of Candidates 2018

The position I'm studying is the middlegame part of the game 1 of Berlin Candidates 2018 between Kramnik and Grischuk, which Kramnik won with the white pieces. In particular, I'm interested in understanding what Kramnik's idea is with the patient…
user929304
  • 3,396
  • 22
  • 45
15
votes
2 answers

FIDE threefold repetition and possible moves

FIDE rules section 9.2 says: Positions are considered the same if and only if the same player has the move, pieces of the same kind and colour occupy the same squares and the possible moves of all the pieces of both players are the same. Thus…
wberry
  • 273
  • 1
  • 6
15
votes
4 answers

Endgame technique: How to win with rook + g and h pawn vs rook?

The tablebase suggests it's a win for White, but I struggle to beat my phone. Black's rook seems to always be able to harass the white king to stop white make any progress. What's the technique to win this endgame? [fen "8/8/6k1/6r1/8/8/6PP/5RK1 w -…
jf328
  • 2,488
  • 14
  • 27
15
votes
3 answers

Why doesn't castling reset the 50 moves rule?

Capturing a piece or moving a pawn irreversibly changes the state of the game and thus resets the counter for the 50-move rule. Since castling irreversible changes the state of the game too, it seems to me that it should reset the move counter too,…
koryakinp
  • 251
  • 1
  • 6
15
votes
6 answers

Is the dead position problem solvable?

In chess, there are some dead positions (FIDE Laws of Chess). 5.2.2 The game is drawn when a position has arisen in which neither player can checkmate the opponent’s king with any series of legal moves. The game is said to end in a ‘dead position’.…
user17439
15
votes
3 answers

What are the common themes in the Catalan?

I have looked over some of the main lines of the Catalan in MCO-15 and feel pretty lost as to what's going on in them. What are some of the key positions and goals for either side? Or is the opening just too tactical to have any real unifying…
Nathan Monteleone
  • 469
  • 4
  • 7
15
votes
3 answers

Is there any etiquette about how to proceed when a technical problem leads to a misplay in an online game?

Recently I was playing an online game when I moved my king with the intent of castling. However, I apparently didn't get it far enough over, and when I "let it go", the king was placed in a square adjacent to the one it had left and the rook stayed…
GreenMatt
  • 2,937
  • 2
  • 20
  • 37
15
votes
2 answers

Can white win in this almost 20 year old puzzle?

It's White to move-can they force a win?. The left bottom is a1 as usual. [FEN "4k2r/6p1/p4pKb/p2N3p/p7/p5Q1/p1n5/qrn5 w - - 9 9"] Note for people who saw an earlier version: the position was edited (including a swap of the colors) for a more…
Albert Hendriks
  • 357
  • 2
  • 7
15
votes
2 answers

Understanding the Tarrasch defence to the Queen's gambit

I do not understand the diagrammed position. Do you? [fen ""] [title "A. Grischuk vs. V. Kramnik, FIDE Candidates 2018"] [startply "8"] 1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 d5 3. d4 Nf6 4. Nf3 c5 5. e3 dxc4 6. Bxc4 a6 7. Bb3 b5 8. e4 cxd4 9. Nxd4 Bb7 10. e5 Ne4 11. O-O…
thb
  • 4,539
  • 2
  • 23
  • 47
15
votes
2 answers

Wrong lines of play to illuminate right lines

De Firmian's Modern Chess Openings is a good book. I like it. However, the book teaches right lines of play. It teaches few wrong lines. Should one not also study wrong lines—the blunders, the pitfalls, in otherwise good openings—to learn why the…
thb
  • 4,539
  • 2
  • 23
  • 47
15
votes
3 answers

Beautiful retrograde analysis problem by Alexsey A. Troitsky

I saw this beautiful, subtle & accessible problem a couple of days ago, and wanted to share it with you folks. (It's by the ground-breaking endgame theorist who e.g. invented the "Troitsky line" in KNNvKP analysis.) [title "A.A.Troitsky - Bohemia…
Laska
  • 11,846
  • 4
  • 44
  • 76
15
votes
2 answers

Are the best engines better than the best humans?

I think the title asks it all. Under match conditions, would the best chess engines routinely beat the best grandmasters? If you say yes, have there been enough matches played under tournament conditions to offer credible evidence?
Stavros
  • 151
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
1 2 3
…
99 100