I consistently get crushed in these structures and structures of a similar nature against far lower rated players

I am a Kalashnikov player, but end up in these structures from openings like the closed Sicilian or grand Prix attack.

What is the best way of defending against this type of same side attack? I feel like I lose no matter the plan I take, whether I try for c4, e5, even f5, nothing has worked for me.

Alternatively, I'll also take suggestions on how to avoid this structure in the sicilian sidelines.

Thanks!

I was watching a bit Pia - Levy game and it was interesting when they achieved that ending with R v R+P. That particular ending was not trivial but I thought when I finish Dvoretsky book and after that If I really solve excercises and after some experience I will be comfortable in those kind of endgames and to acomplish result which is expected. For example, I thought 5 second increment would be enough for ME to draw that position. For titled players I expected they would EASILY draw that with 5 sec increment.

However, we saw GM Pia struggling with that endgame and flagging at the end with 30 sec increment. Is this just a bad day for this lady or this endgame is that hard that really even titled players struggle to draw here with 30 sec increment.

I’m trying to get an idea of how I should handle a recent OTB experience. I’m an adult chess beginner (~1100 USCF) and the club I play at holds a weekly G/60+5 game with pairings closest to your rating where they post the entire month of games to US Chess at the end of the month.

Earlier in the month I played a kid (~12 years old) and I won the game with a checkmate. We marked our results together on the result sheet showing that I won. The month’s worth of games posted last night and lo-and-behold that game was a loss for me on the crosstable. I sent the tournament director an email with a picture of my scoresheet and he replied with a picture of the result sheet from that night that instead of showing a win for me, shows a loss. The TD said that he’d reach out to my opponent to confirm but because the players are responsible for marking the result sheet unless the other player confirmed I had won the result would stand as reported.

Ultimately there’s nothing at stake here (no money or anything) but I’m wondering how hard I should pursue this? It’s absolutely apparent to me that someone (may not even be the actual kid I played) changed the result after I had left. For reference, the result sheet is on a bulletin board near the building exit where everyone has access to it.

On one hand I’m an adult and the other player is a kid so it feels weird to push this further. On the other hand, the implication is that I fabricated a scoresheet to attempt to “steal” this kid’s “win.”

Interested to hear peoples’ thoughts. Thanks in advance!

TL;DR: In a weekly rated game I think the kid I played changed our score after I left showing me as losing instead of winning. How to handle?

Hi, my rating is around 1900 on chess.com, but only 1300 uscf. I have a ton of trouble playing classical chess, not in the sense that I don't use my time, but in the sense that I get nothing out of thinking. It seems to me that my uscf rating is low compared to chess.com. I play tourneys around once per month, but I've only played around 20 so far, and there have been periods where I did not play at all. Is it because I need to just play more, or is it something else? Thanks.

I own both books, but I want to take 4-8 weeks and really dig into one of them. I've been training heavily focused on tactics for the last 2 months, so I'm looking for a change into another aspect of the game.

Right now I'm about 1000 USCF, 1800 Lichess Classical and 1350 Chessdotcom.

Would anyone like to be my training partner we can talk more if you have discord. My Fide rating is (standard)1903, (blitz)1893 and (rapid)1925. My lichess rating is (rapid) 2336 and (Blitz)2353. My goal is to become a IM and I am close to becoming a NM.

I've been looking for good options against the grünfeld for my blitz/OTB repertoire. I tried numerous things but never really got anything i was happy with, and saw multiple recommendations of the russian system. For context: Im 2000~ Blitz and 18XX~ Fide

My question: How do you guys think about the russian system? I like how it gives black not so much of the usual tactical counterplay, but some lines like this one bother me a bit:

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Qb3 dxc4 6. Qxc4 O-O 7. e4 a6 8. e5 b5 9. Qb3 Nfd7 10. e6 fxe6 11. Be3 Nf6

Engine gives +0.1~, database shows hardly any edge for the white player in my rating range. Seems hard to find testing lines here as white. Is my concern justified, or am i missing some other lines here for white within the russian system?

-edit-: in case the conclusion is that the russian system isn't indeed that testing or good of a choice: Give me your recommendations :)

I have a standard tournament that will start at November 4. what should I do to prepare for it? How much time should I spend of tactics or combinations. Analyze my game for how long and how many? Am really nervous, cause of how serious the tournament is 😰.

Looking for books to help my middlegames. My main openings are the Catalan, Taimanov and Grunfeld.

Hi all, I've been trying to get back into studying chess recently. I read and loved Aron Nimzowitch's My System, and right now I'm just trying to get into any books on the middlegame that yall would reccomend. Preferably I'd like books for Winawer French (or really any kind of French) middlegames, London middlegames and King's Indian middlegames. Any recs are much appreciated. Thanks all!

So, I can barely be considered an intermediate player. I can beat 1400s USCF but can barely push past 1400 on chess.com. The next step in my chess journey is to significantly improve my endgame to get any better online or OTB. How did you stronger players on this sub work to improve your endgame? I know the easiest way to do it is to get an endgame book and study that which I'm actively doing, but I was hoping for some tips that can aid my hard work in making progress

What was it like for you to get to where you are right now? What did it take and how long. What helped you to overcome your plateau? What kind of help did you get for you to be 2300, 2400, NM, , FM, IM or even GM fide rated.

These are types of questions I ask myself what did you you do. For you to grow this much. Was the journey rough, how much did you suffer in training, how many have you won?. What kind of achievement did you get?

Please I would like you to answer truthfully cause I wanna know,

Hey there. I’m around 1500 in OTB games. I feel like I should be quite a bit stronger but the results haven’t gone my way. I’m looking for a stronger regular training partner if anyone was interested and any advice on how to get better study wise. I honestly feel like I’m 1600+ in some parts of the game but perhaps not all the time. - Sarah.

I'm around 2000 FIDE, 2100 USCF trying to make 2200 and get the NM title. I'm a bit of an openings nerd and was considering picking up the Grunfeld. I think it suits my style, I like open positions with dynamic play, and love sacrificing pawns for compensation. E.g., My mainline against the Ruy Lopez is the Marshall gambit.

However, I am intimidated by its reputation for having an excessive amount of theory.

Black players who play the Grunfeld, could you share your experiences and insights on how challenging it was to master the opening before you achieved comfortable positions? How frequently do you encounter difficulties on the board due to forgetting prep a move or being surprised? Do you find the numerous anti-Grunfeld and sidelines positions problematic?

What keeps you playing the Grunfeld despite the massive amount of work it takes?

Are there any changes in your routine you guys make 2 days or a day been a major tournament say you have been preparing for for 2 months

I am looking for a collection of instructive games on the French. In particular, I'm interested in the Winawer, Classical (Steintz), and Rubenstein variations. If anyone has a collection of instructive games on these lines, I would greatly appreciate it if they could share it with me. If it has around 300-500 games for each, that would be ideal. Additionally, to all the French aficionados out there, do you know of any instructive games (with either colour) that I should have a look at? I'm looking to refine my 1.e4 repertoire.

I’m reassessing my setup for opening analysis and could use some insights from fellow chess players. For those who frequently rely on engines to refine their opening repertoire, what’s your preferred approach?

Do you find running engines like Stockfish or Leela more effective on your own hardware, or do you opt for cloud-based services like Chessify or ChessBase? I’m considering investing in a new high-performance laptop, but I’m weighing the costs against the convenience of using a cloud server.

I’d appreciate any advice on the following:

• For those using local setups, what hardware specs have worked best for you in terms of speed and efficiency?
• How do cloud services compare, especially in terms of cost-effectiveness and reliability for deep opening analysis?
• Have any of you transitioned from local to cloud (or vice versa), and what were the key factors in your decision?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

Edit: My fide rating is 2200+

I'm not a new player, but I am fairly low-rated. I'm 1800 Lichess classical and my provisional USCF rating is 950 through 8 games. I've had a lot of free time these last few months and will continue through the end of the year, so I've been playing and studying a lot of chess. For the last 2-3 months my primary focus has been on tactics, as that seems to be the most recommended way to boost your rating, especially at lower levels. I'm approaching the end of the Woodpecker Method and I'm getting a little burnt out with tactics, so I would like to plan for another 4-8 week training block on a different aspect of the game.

I have a lot of ideas for what this could be, but one that I'm intrigued by is improving board visualization. I know my board visualization is pretty bad. I watched a video by Kostya Kavutskiy where he gives a few exercises to test your board vision. These include thinking of a random square and figuring out if it's black or white, picking two random squares and trying to figure out how a knight can travel from the first square to the second square, doing the same thing with a bishop, and, finally, working up to the point where you can play blindfolded. I struggle with all of these, which is to be expected.

It got me wondering if this is something that I should invest some time into improving. So, I have a few questions for anybody who has done regular training aimed at improving your board vision:

• How did you know your board vision needed to improve?
• What exercises did you do to improve it?
• What affect did your training have on your chess, both in terms of rating and just how you felt at the board?
• Was your visualization training worth the time?

I am considering to start playing the trompowsky as my main opening against 1.d4,Nf6, but I was wondering if it's a viable opening for players my level (around 1400 national rating)

Wouls you recommended it for a low-intermediate level tournament player?

Sidenote, I currently play d4 only and have bad results mostly against the Nf6 systems, so that's why im consideringt this. Other opening suggestions are more than welcome (:

Im around 2000 rapid on lichess, learning the mainlines of the slav, merans, anti merans. Id love to practice together. Let me know

Hello everyone, I’m a Fide Master a FIDE rating of 2200. Could anyone recommend some good books for players above this level?

Anyone feel strongly about a specific resource/book/author/video that is a must for any chess player? For example Zurich 53 by Bronstein is a well known must have. Im looking to improve around 1500 OTB and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff out there to study. Thanks in advance.

a few days before i just 18 days ago i was 1364 on chess.com ( which was my peak )and now i am losing almost every match and am 1287 on chess.com almost lost 100 rating points.

what should i do ?
what did you do when you were stuck in a chess rut ?
I am open to all the advices

I am around 1760 FIDE. I’m learning the Najdorf and wanna play some games. Open to any one of all levels.

white to move

So I'll begin this post by stating that I know you can practically play anything from 0-2000 and with enough study and ambition win consistently without playing top engine lines like the 2700 club do. What openings, be they systems or gambits do you like to play where you have a firm grasp on all the ideas and variations that isn't favored by the engine or at least gives away the advantage for white and lets black equalize? For me I really enjoy playing the king's gambit against e5 and players at my level struggle to play against it. Another gambit I know really well is the Budapest gambit. What openings that doesn't get a lot of attention from the engine does everyone like?

Hey guys, long-time Catalan fan here, I am familiar with most positions and have good winrates in rapid and blitz, but some positions I am still unfamiliar with such as the g6 Catalan:

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. g3 Nf6 4. Bg2 g6 5. Nf3 Bg7 6. 0-0 0-0 7. Qc2

I assume that many of the typical Catalan ideas are still the same, b6 met by cxd5 exd5 where white goes ne5 and targets c6 and c7, and if no b6 white tries to play e4 attacking black's center/opening the bishop?

Here's an interesting game by Ding Liren in the mainline in the database: https://lichess.org/yhvP9xvG#17

So yeah, any advice on these Catalan positions welcome!

I've been considering picking up the Sveshnikov Sicilian, but after looking into the Chelyabinsk Variation, I'm wondering how Black actually wins in practice. The typical plans involve the bishop pair and the f5 break, but it seems like White can shut down Black’s counterplay with moves like f3 and Be4. After that, White can go for b4 to create a passed pawn.

So my question is: how does Black create real counterplay in this line? Are there any key ideas or instructive games that show how Black can handle this plan and still fight for the win? For reference, I'm 2100 fide and a lifelong najdorf player.

So based on looking at the table of contents, I feel like I know 90% of Silman's Complete Endgame Course (not a surprise, since I read his earlier endgame book) and probably 85% of 100 Endgames You Must Know.

I feel like I'm nowhere near strong enough for Dvoretsky. (My guess is about 1800 USCF, based on my ~2100 Lichess and some casual games I've won against 1500- and 1700- OTB rated players recently, but my 20-year-old OTB rating has some catching up to do). I'd love a good endgame Chessable course since it seems like I really do use Chessable more than I use books - but I'm also open to books.

So what's out there for people who probably aren't ready for Dvoretsky but really want to dig deeper into improving their technical play?

I hope that makes sense. I'm a new tournament player, and the general consensus is that at my level, roughly 1000 USCF, memorizing lines is not the best use of my time. In the past, I've used the Short and Sweet series from Chessable to learn lines in my preferred openings, only to find that it's useless because my opponents don't "stick to the script."

Rather than waste my time learning specific move orders, I would rather get a basic understanding of what my objective should be in specific openings. For example, I took a lesson and my coach taught me that in the Italian, white wants to play c3-d4 to gain center control. That's a tangible objective that I can look to achieve during a game. He also taught me that in the Caro Kann, black will often try to challenge whites pawn on d4 by playing c5 and, if dxc5, playing Bxc5, developing while weakening whites center.

How can I get better at learning these simple ideas behind openings when so many opening resources focus on specific lines? In particular, I tend to play the Ruy Lopez or Italian as white and the Caro Kann and QBD as black, if you know of any specific resources for those openings. If not, I'm open to whatever you know of.