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Thread: Chess

  1. #21
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    I've got pretty hooked on playing the 10 minute matches. Definitely a different tactic to playing a longer game. But if you can get yourself a bit of an advantage early on, 20 minutes is plenty enough to bring it to a conclusion.

  2. #22
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    Up at half 6 playing til 9 this morning...!

    Had to drag myself away to get ready for the gym!

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post
    Up at half 6 playing til 9 this morning...!

    Had to drag myself away to get ready for the gym!
    It’s compulsive.
    The puzzles seem about right. After doing hundreds and hundreds of them, Gives me a grade of around 2100-2150
    Over strong club , but not quite up to master. I’m Too impatient to think the deep ones through.
    Im surprised at the number of errors/ innacuracies in the answers. .

  4. #24
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    Not got the patience for the puzzles.... as you say they are inconsistent.. for example two perfectly reasonable solutions... I.e bishop or knight takes rook... but you get penalised if you pick the alternative, even if there’s no discernible advantage to taking with the other piece...

    Got to about 1750 on the puzzles then went back to playing games...

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post
    Not got the patience for the puzzles.... as you say they are inconsistent.. for example two perfectly reasonable solutions... I.e bishop or knight takes rook... but you get penalised if you pick the alternative, even if there’s no discernible advantage to taking with the other piece...

    Got to about 1750 on the puzzles then went back to playing games...
    But there’s the thing. The puzzles right or wrong take a minute or two, so low attention span: games are a much bigger commitment. Most of the puzzles are very clean cut. There’s a big material gain or mate as a result of picking bishop rather than night. Some of them are tough to find. I just dispute on a few of the puzzles they make the best answers. I think some of their so called winning lines actually lose further on against best play.

    Puzzles are a bit more like stableford golf. You can have a bad hole, but not lose the round. Where one weak move in a game ruins the next quarter hour!

    I never did have the patience. It’s why I quit as a youngster.

    Is there an “ lichess anonymous” we can contact to wean ourselves off it?

  6. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post
    Anyone play?
    Meee, lets plaaay!

  7. #27
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    Been hitting the puzzles hard again on Lichess... still can't get above about 1750 rating though...

    Which is itself rather infuriating, as it puts me as a B category player... i.e advanced intermediate... i know in my peak teen years i should be A category... i.e Strong Club player...

    I'm sure the gradings were different in my day though, certainly in the UK... i'm sure my English Chess grading was a three-digit number...

  8. #28
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    The puzzles are interesting.
    Not artificial like newspaper puzzles
    I thought the grades were fair.
    Put me just short of master, which is how it was nearly 50!! Years ago as a schoolboy.
    Got to 2270 once, normally round 2100-2150
    The trick is considering all candidate moves.

    A few , I think they have wrong.

    Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post
    Been hitting the puzzles hard again on Lichess... still can't get above about 1750 rating though...

    Which is itself rather infuriating, as it puts me as a B category player... i.e advanced intermediate... i know in my peak teen years i should be A category... i.e Strong Club player...

    I'm sure the gradings were different in my day though, certainly in the UK... i'm sure my English Chess grading was a three-digit number...
    Last edited by Oracle; 20-04-2020 at 07:28 PM.

  9. #29
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    I've tried playing the 1 minute 'bullet chess' games... i am absolutely awful... think i won 1 out of 10 games.

    It's not an issue with ability... i just can't use the mouse quick enough, and even if i get to the endgame with an advantage i inevitably run out of time.

  10. #30
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    After meeting an old school-friend last week, who happened to be a fellow chess enthusiast, we had an afternoon playing online chess today...

    The longer timed games were pretty even, 3.5-2.5 in his favour (and 1.5 of his points came from me running out of clock-time when he also had less than 10 seconds!).

    The 1 minute bullet chess were a shambles. 5-0 to him. I can beat someone in a minute who doesn't know what they're doing, but an equally proficient player who happens to be very fast, just no chance, i'm not quick enough with the controls...!

    Good fun though... the "text box" between us contained an absolute array of expletives at times...

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