Bold!
lol. Christmas indulgence has rotted my brain and Iāve forgotten how to create an animated game gif from chess.com and embed it.
EDIT. remembered you have to download the gif and upload it to a post here
The old d4 (d5) trick.
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Iāve been watching the British coverage of the Airthings Masters, and Iāve noticed David Howell and Jovanka Houska almost always refer to the āLeft-handā side and āRight-handā side of the board, rather than āking sideā or āqueen side.ā
Is this a British thing?
The first year I saw a Phish concert they were playing chess games vs. the audience. They are doing a rematch tonight during their stream of a show on chess.com. Not sure how good they were because I suck at chess still but some of you might be interested. You can help the audience with moves somehow on the site.
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/who-knows-of-phish-and-their-chess-with-the-audience
Fun pawn storm annihilation vs misplayed Sicilian - miniature
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I am still not good at chess but I am getting ābetterā.
Yesterday I had my first win against the lichess engine (not at max level, ldo) where my ālearn from mistakesā turned up no significant errors. Where do I go to pick up my GM certificate?
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I enjoyed this 15 minute recap of one of the Carlsen v Dubov matches at Airthings.
Another miniature opposite sides castling pawn storm vs someone probably on his phoneā¦
I mentioned it in the gambit thread, but the type of personality that is required to become a top chess player also creates some of the most direct/honest interviews and general discourse.
This is what Dubov said after the win:
āI know I sometimes can beat Magnus, but this game is very strange by his standards. Itās not the way you beat him normally. I think he just played badly, to be honest.ā
Can you imagine some top 20 tennis player beating Federer and saying āwell he played like shit, maybe heās brokenā after?
Itās not a trash talk thing. My take is that itās just a lack of understanding, or acceptance, of standard social codes of conduct.
I watched one of the live feeds where the commentator (another top player) just kept ruthlessly shitting all over one of the players (another top player) for mistakes he made in the game (which he won, just not fast enough). It wasnāt mean spirited by any means, just he had no concept of saying anything else than what he think the truth is.
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That type of matter-of-fact speaking, literal interpretation of communication, and lacking awareness of social norms and cues is common among people on the spectrum. Iām guessing most top flight chess players are either firmly within the spectrum or toeing the line.
So, in an interview situation, when they are asked āWhat [do you think] happened in the match?ā where the [do you think] is implied, they are more likely to tell you exactly what they think, because they understand that level 1 implicationāthey are being asked the question. Where as most people in that scenario understand that there is more to that implied part of the question. Our norms make the ācorrectā response be the answer to this question with its full implication: āWhat [do you think our audience would like to hear, within the parameters of our social norms regarding sportsmanship and tactfulness, about what] happened in the match?ā.
This isnāt a challenge exclusive to people on the spectrum, most top flight professional leagues and teams now include instructional seminars for rookies where they coach them on how to respond to media questions with milk toast answers.
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Well, I was implying they are all on the spectrum without saying it because itās not within the code of conduct 
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Hikaru just mentioned that heāll be streaming a chess lesson with Daniel Negreanu some time soon. What do you guys think DN is rated?
1500?
Hmm. I tried searching - not sure if this is really him, but damn thatās an impressive rating if so.
https://www.chess.com/member/kidp0ker
Edit: I think this is his actual profile though:
I have no idea if heās actually good at chess but it would be believable. Getting really good at mentally visualizing ātreesā of āif this then thatā is big part of moving up in the chess ratings. Negreanu would certainly be good at that.
Nobody is good at chess unless they play a lot.
If dnegs has played thousands upon thousands of chess games, then sure I can believe he has a 1500 rating. If heās played a few hundred and doesnāt know how to play proper openings past move 3, then yeah 1000-1100 is the ceiling.
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Real 1500 is a decent bit stronger than chess.com ELO isnāt it? I just mean, heās had to have put in a good chunk of time to be that good, I donāt know if he has, and if he hasnāt, heās going to be a pretty weak player.
Iām not sure. All I know is I was around 1700-1800 irl about 20 years ago but struggle to get beyond 1600 in chess.com blitz lol and although Iām older Iām a stronger player now.
I think blitz ratings donāt really compare to longer time limits because blunders decide more games.