Newest Questions
9,574 questions
5
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Why does Stockfish fail in this position, but not in its mirror version?
In the following chess position, Stockfish does not find the win for White:
5k2/8/pppppppp/8/PPPPPPPP/8/8/5K2 w - - 0 1
If I change the number of principal variations from one to two, its evaluation ...
- 992
0
votes
1
answer
34
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Integrate Stockfish to my Javafx
I have written my own simple chess application in JavaFX with UI and other components. Now I want to integrate Stockfish to my application.
How would I do that?
I have gone through a couple of ...
- 103
2
votes
1
answer
144
views
Is this story about a chess bluff true?
Years ago I read of a story where there was an endgame position in which one player hovered their hand over a pawn, and their opponent claimed "Touch-move!". There was a ruling that they ...
- 149
-1
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0
answers
29
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Pritom Defence by Pritom Barua [closed]
[Event "Pritom Defence – GM Upgrade"]
[Site "Lichess.org"]
[Date "2025.10.07"]
[Round "?"]
[White "White"]
[Black "Pritom Barua"]
[Result &...
0
votes
1
answer
34
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How long does Stockfish take to search at different depths at the start position?
I've been writing my own hobby chess engine, and I'd like to compare my search speeds against something like Stockfish. I know this metric isn't as important as something like directly comparing ...
- 111
1
vote
0
answers
44
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Why is the engine best move in the Petrosian variation against the Grunfeld third most played?
In the following position the engine recommends Bf4 at low and high depths but in the masters database is the third most played move with only 16%, why is this?
- 45
6
votes
2
answers
3k
views
I hate playing white
Long story short: I'm a 2200 rated player, I'm satisfied with my black repertoire, but I really HATE playing white, as I often end up clearly worse when I try principled lines, or slightly worse when ...
0
votes
2
answers
92
views
How does opening study work if Chess games aren't predictable?
My question:
For example, say you're learning the Ruy Lopez. Any opening book will present it using some line of play, often an entire game until checkmate. Even if you play through that game and ...
- 21
1
vote
2
answers
93
views
Is it really a complete mistake to use a chess engine as an early learner?
I've heard it said numerous times by coaches and top players that you should strictly avoid using chess engines while learning chess at least until you're over 2000 ELO.
I understand why it is ...
- 21
1
vote
1
answer
69
views
Aggresive line against Colle system
I'm trying to find an edge as black against the 'Colle System'.
One of the suggestions I found "labelled" as 'Anti-Colle' is developing the light-squared bishop actively (something like Bf5)....
- 113
1
vote
2
answers
113
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Confused about where to go from learning opening principles [duplicate]
Sample Game https://lichess.org/kTn67W90ICEW
I have used John Emms' Discovering Chess Openings and Yasser Seirawan's Winning Chess book on Openings to learn basic principles. For instance, I ...
- 21
10
votes
3
answers
3k
views
If you are clearly winning & only need a draw, is it appropriate to offer a draw?
As I write this question, the FIDE World Cup 2025 is currently ongoing. In round three, one of the tiebreaks was Meier-Dubov. Dubov won the first tiebreak game. In the reverse, they reached this ...
- 30.3k
0
votes
0
answers
15
views
Chessbase. Add player FideID to the game
I am starting with ChessBase. Adding my games there. Is there any way to add FideID of the player into the game? For example, lichess has this tag in pgn whitefideid or blackfideid. Is there something ...
- 101
0
votes
1
answer
47
views
How to identify Opening , Middlegame , Endgame phase [duplicate]
I’m building a Chess analysis tool, and one of the features I’m adding is identifying the weakest phase of a player by analyzing all their games and calculating the number of blunders, inaccuracies, ...
- 1
6
votes
1
answer
170
views
(Rook + Bishop vs two Rooks) vs (Bishop vs Rook)
In Rook + Bishop vs two Rooks endgames, should the player with the bishop try to exchange rooks or should he try to keep his rook?
There are several situations:
the number of pawns are equal and the ...
- 161
4
votes
0
answers
134
views
Earliest move for a Queen Sacrifice at GM Level?
Queen sacrifices at GM level (between two GMs) at standard time controls are relatively rare. Today Indian GM Pentale Harikrishna sacrificed his queen for two minor pieces on move 8 and went on to win ...
- 104k
0
votes
1
answer
131
views
On what grounds can an AI declare that a position is tactical?
Reading What are my odds of winning a game, based on my material advantage or disadvantage in the middle of the game?, my first thought was like in one answer: "If the position is otherwise ...
- 19k
4
votes
1
answer
772
views
Is filtering a 7 man tablebase feasible?
I had a discussion on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/chessprogramming/comments/1ojsn6k/has_a_tablebase_like_this_been_done/ where I was told that due to tablebases being constructed using retrograde ...
- 43
3
votes
1
answer
596
views
Struggling to Identify Plans for Black in This Position
In some positions, I find it difficult to come up with any clear plans. For example, consider the following position that occurred in one of the games, with Black to move.
Could someone help me ...
- 531
-1
votes
2
answers
101
views
Opening best move not used on top levels
Context
I'm a Dragon Sicilian player looking into some Taimanov Sicilian stuff while preparing a game (as black).
Here is the position I'm looking into:
Position
Evaluation
But I find it really ...
- 113
0
votes
2
answers
83
views
Largest Elo drop
Elo is a time series; do you know the record for the largest downward° gap (surely caused by aging) between highest and lowest (averaged °°) Elo? Example: My best was around 2350, my worst around 2050 ...
- 19k
0
votes
4
answers
145
views
What are my odds of winning a game, based on my material advantage or disadvantage in the middle of the game?
Suppose that I am playing a game. I have lost a pawn and a bishop, and the other player has all of their pieces. How likely am I to win in such a situation?
Does anyone have empirical data, possibly ...
- 111
3
votes
2
answers
402
views
When opponent does not resign, troll by delaying checkmate
This is a question for arbiters, mostly.
I just found out that on lichess, if your game reaches 300 moves, the game is ruled as a draw, which I find to be the most ridiculous thing. So the opponent is ...
- 39
1
vote
1
answer
308
views
Fabiano's Immortal - Chance of King move against running pawn?
I watched Caruana vs Firouzia (stop the video immediately because it overlays the board with the match result popup at the next second) and I'm not seeing why black is giving up here already.
I mean ...
- 21
4
votes
1
answer
63
views
When Black Should Play Ne4 in the Queen's Gambit Exchange?
In the Queen's Gambit Exchange, Black is often tempted to release pressure by offering an exchange of dark-squared bishops. For that purpose, Black sometimes plays ...Ne4 and sometimes plays ...Nh5. ...
- 71
0
votes
2
answers
97
views
Is it possible for the evaluation bar to change in favour of the player who just played?
After analysing my games and seeing the evaluation bar drop sharply after quite a few of my moves, I wondered if it was even possible for the opposite to be the case. It seems to be that this would ...
6
votes
2
answers
577
views
Kramnik referral to FIDE Ethics Commission regarding Naroditsky
After Naroditsky's sudden death at age 29 following repeated allegations of online cheating by Kramnik FIDE President, Arkady Dvorkovich, has published this statement on the FIDE website:
Human life ...
- 104k
8
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Can a player make illegal move one after the other in the same turn?
A player made an illegal move and pressed the clock. After I claimed an illegal he took it back.
Then instead of moving the touched piece the player played another piece and pressed the clock.
[Note: ...
- 920
1
vote
2
answers
91
views
Why is Stockfish loading small 6 MB engine instead of normal large one?
I've unzipped stockfish-ubuntu-x86-64-avx2.tar and copied only the binary stockfish-ubuntu-x86-64-avx2 to /usr/games/.
I tried to use the chess engine for analysis, but it gives very wrong chess move ...
- 293
4
votes
2
answers
148
views
Intermediate: Should I change openings because I don't like IQP positions (against stronger players)?
I have an OTB rating of about 1600 FIDE. I want to keep my opening work to a minimum, as I don't have much time as a working adult. Thus I bought Sielecki "My first opening courses" both for ...
- 611
-1
votes
2
answers
88
views
After 1. d4, is 1. ... c6 good at all? [duplicate]
According to Lichess' database for masters, it is played less than 1% of the time, which seems to indicate it is a bad move. On the other hand, after 1. d4 c6, the most common two responses among the ...
- 9,479
1
vote
3
answers
208
views
Why is this move marked as Brilliant?
Why is this move marked as Brilliant? It does not involve a bold sacrifice. It sets up a possible checkmate, but other such setups do not get marked as "Brilliant".
[FEN ""]
1. e4 ...
- 247
1
vote
0
answers
50
views
Is there established strategy for Ultima?
Ultima sounds intriguing, but when I tried playing it I was completely at a loss as to what I was supposed to do. (In fact it seems so different from chess that I'm not even 100% sure that it should ...
- 143
1
vote
0
answers
82
views
How did the Alatortsev Variation get its name?
In the Queen's Gambit Declined, a popular move order is 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Be7, often referred to as the Alatortsev Variation.
rnbqk1nr/ppp1bppp/4p3/3p4/2PP4/2N5/PP2PPPP/R1BQKBNR w KQkq - 2 4
...
- 71
5
votes
2
answers
365
views
What is this chess h4 sac known as?
So in this game at move 12. I moved h4. In general how does one counter such a move? Taking it seems like a mistake? Does this tactic have a name?
[FEN ""]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. ...
- 183
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votes
1
answer
73
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CHESS ENGINE PERFT RESULT MISMATCH [closed]
BEGIN PERFT TESTING:
Testing FEN: rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
Depth 1 Expected: 20 Got: 20
Depth 2 Expected: 400 Got: 400
Depth 3 Expected: 8902 Got: 8902
Depth 4 Expected:...
10
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Are there any world leaders who are/were good at chess?
Per title, I'm wondering if there are any world leaders who are/were good at chess. Anyone reasonably prominent will do, and I'm taking "good" as solid club level or better (so e.g. able to ...
- 30.3k
2
votes
1
answer
141
views
Is it good practice to only play opponents who are at the same level or higher?
I’ve noticed that my rating tends to improve when I’m selective about who I play against. For example, if my rating is n, I usually try to play only opponents whose rating is at least
n−50.
My ...
- 9,479
0
votes
1
answer
62
views
Chess notation without explicit capture
I notice (at least in my mother tongue) that some players say the captures like it was a normal move. For example, if a bishop takes a piece on a8, the move would be "bishop a8" instead of &...
- 103
0
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1
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79
views
What is the correct puzzle in "Easy Endgame Strategies" diagram 34?
In Easy Endgame Strategies by Bill Robertie, diagram 34 on page 65 gives the following puzzle/solution, with White to move:
[FEN "8/8/6p1/6P1/6P1/p7/1k4PK/8 w - - 0 1"]
1. Kg3 a2 2. Kh4 a1=...
2
votes
0
answers
54
views
Are most players witth a K of 40 increasing their ratings?
As a K of 40 is a under 18 or new chess players I would expect most people with a K of 40 to have an increasing rating. Is this what the data shows?
- 1,725
0
votes
1
answer
87
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Problem move in Erigaisi-Keymer
In the recent game Erigaisi-Keymer, FIDE Grand Swiss Samarkand 2025 (11), Black could obtain a winning position with the problem move 31. ..Be6!
2b1r1k1/q6p/3r2p1/p1NP1p2/1pP1pP1P/1P2QN2/6P1/4R1K1 b - ...
- 191
2
votes
2
answers
138
views
Is this proposed handicap likely to give my daughter a better chance during end game?
I've recently started playing chess against my daughter who is 8. I don't play competitively and don't have an ELO score, so I'm not sure how good I am, but I think I'm probably ok; most of my ...
- 121
3
votes
4
answers
237
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What am I lacking?
Here is my game, I'm rated 900 to 1010 in rapid lichess. I know I ain't that strong but still learning. In this game I knew I had an advantage (I was playing white) but got into a position and just ...
- 31
2
votes
1
answer
157
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What is black's source of compensation in this line of the Giuoco Pianissimo?
This position is based on a line that I found during analysis after my game, though it never actually occurred. Black goes down a piece for a pawn and damages whites structure, but white is still able ...
1
vote
0
answers
81
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End game : 2 Rooks + Bishop vs 2 Rooks
Consider an endgame without pawns, queens or knights.
Only two kings , where one color has 2 Rooks and a Bishop and the other has 2 Rooks.
Assuming optimal play is this usually a win for the one with ...
- 133
0
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0
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82
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Can AI bots replace human opponents for classical training?
This post is related to my earlier question Finding Classical Game Opponents Online at 2200+ Rating.
From the discussion there, I concluded that joining classical leagues is perhaps the only ...
- 531
10
votes
2
answers
3k
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Can chess engines solve the bishop and knight mate without the use of an endings tablebase?
Can top chess engines systematically mate a lone king with bishop and knight against perfect defense without the use of a tablebase? Using "Deletang's Method" as shown in Wikipedia for ...
- 109
1
vote
1
answer
161
views
Promote pawn after press the clock
In a recent tournament (standard 60 min game), I advanced a pawn to the 8th rank and inadvertently pressed the clock before placing the promoted piece (queen). My opponent claimed that this was an ...
- 11
8
votes
2
answers
2k
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When do games typically "leave known territory"?
For the sake of the discussion, let's assume "good chess players" here, maybe strong amateurs and professionals, and "serious" games (for example, no bong cloud), and classic chess....
