I don’t know how, but I played 61 blitz (3 min 2 sec inc) and bullet (2 min 1 sec inc) games yesterday. I was tilting from like game 30 and on.
Some obvious advice: Don’t play that many games in one day!
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Haven’t been on the site in a while, but was thinking about if I wanted to get better at chess from the beginner’s level I’m at, what would be a good way to go about doing that? I’m sure this has been asked, but are there any good books you would recommend for a relative beginner to up their game?
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I asked that question a while back and got some good recommendations. It’s probably earlier in this thread. The one book I ended up getting was this one. It seems really good, but unfortunately I haven’t given it the time it deserves. I definitely recommend reading it with a chess board or app at the ready though, unless you are really good at digesting chess notation (I’m not, it takes me a long time to visualize what’s happening)
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This is such a strange book. It has some very good ideas about positional play, but the format of repeatedly mocking the play of his low-rated students really does wear thin. He comes across as quite a jerk.
It isn’t Silman’s first or best book.
I beat a guy rated 2210 FIDE in classical OTB chess last night. Felt great - my best win. I was white, he played the dragon sicilian against me, which I know well.
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Nice! Can you post the game?
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That poor black king made quite the journey around the chess board lol
Yeah in game I calculated that he would go to e4 and was like okay that’s probably resignable and he got there and I was like… where’s the mate???
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If he’s 2200+ FIDE, I’m assuming he’s an NM or CM? Would that be the first time beating a titled player in classical time control?
It was his first game in the US, so not sure if he is technically titled, but it would be NM equivalent and yes would be my first win over a titled-level player OTB (I’ve beat some NMs in blitz before)
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@AbstractActuary Hikaru played the Smith Morra twice against Fabiano Caruana in the Chessable Masters GrandFinal. One win and one loss in Online Rapid format.
The books that I found useful (Way Back When) were What’s the Best move by Larry Evans and Chess Made Simple by Milton Hanauer.
Hmmm… tried GPT-4. Didn’t last long either.
I guess I could ask it to correct itself after every error…
- Nc6
You moved your knight to c6. Here’s the chessboard after your move:
8 r . b q k b n r
7 p p p p . p p p
6 . . n . . . . .
5 . . . . p . . .
4 . . . . P . . .
3 . . . . . N . .
2 P P P P . P P P
1 R N B Q K B . R
a b c d e f g h
My move: 3. Bb5
8 r . b q k b n r
7 p p p p . p p p
6 . . n . . . . .
5 . . . . p . . .
4 . . . . P . . .
3 . . . . . N . .
2 P P P P . P P P
1 R N B Q K . . R
a b c d e f g h
. . . . . B . .
Your move!
That’s awesome. And castled queenside! (and lost). Never seen that. Interesting. I do love speed chess in that it stops people playing book against book, prep against prep, etc. at a certain point. And people play less precise moves making it more of a raw game.
@MayanActuary what are your thoughts on Ding playing 4. h3 instead of 4.g3 (the Catalan). I know you play the Catalan yourself. Just seems very weird to see in a World Championship match, and it obviously backfired.
I find the Bonetti defense cancels out Caruana, unless you have studied your Agrippa. WHICH I HAVE!
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Interesting idea. The result not withstanding I kind of like the position it led to.
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If you’re interested in deep analysis of the World Chess Championship, check out this study
It often takes 1-2 days for them to post analysis of the latest game.