Chess

Did you have to answer any questions or anything like that to start at 250? When I signed up years ago everyone started at 1200.

I donā€™t think so but honestly canā€™t remember. Maybe I lost a couple times and plummeted? Seems like not though as each game is only worth like 25-50 points.

this is the sign up page for chess.com so your starting rating is going to vary from 250-1200 depending on what you select here. the default value is ā€˜new to chessā€™ so there is likely a lot of 600+ rated players that dont bother changing their selection and get started at 250

Right! Maybe I was too honest!

Paywall-defeated version here.

A lawyer for the St. Louis Chess Club wrote in a 2021 letter that it was aware of Ms. Shahadeā€™s allegation in 2020. In 2021, the club and U.S. Chess were informed of allegations against Mr. Ramirez, including the abuse of a 15-year-old, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Journal. Mr. Ramirez was nonetheless tapped to coach the U.S. womenā€™s team at the World Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India in 2022.

There are indications that chess powers knew of Mr. Ramirezā€™s alleged behavior earlier than 2020. Another woman, who was underage at the time of her alleged incident around eight years ago, said that she was warned as early as 2016 by St. Louis Chess Club officials not to be alone with Ramirez after a party. A playerā€™s mother, who is also involved in the sport, said she alerted the top U.S. Chess official to Ramirezā€™s behavior in 2017. The mother added that she was also present in 2017 when top executives at St. Louis Chess Club joked about Ramirezā€™s interest in young women.

Fucking hell. Guy should be in prison. And shame on St. Louis for turning a blind eye.

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Yes, itā€™s certainly infuriating but sadly not surprising. Chess remains a male dominant, competitive environment which is a natural environment for this kind of behavior. In addition, so many prominent GMs are guys that dedicated their lives to chess from an early age and on average are probably even less well developed socially than your median 20-something male (which is already pretty bad).

Hereā€™s Hikaru Nakamuraā€™s video on it

I mostly fast-forwarded through it after I realized that the majority of the content was Naka reading the article word-for-word, with occasion pauses so he could drop his eyes and mutter, ā€œOh, man, oh man,ā€

This is how all of his content is when he is providing an update about an article.

I guess the allegation that the St. Louis CC covered this up for years would be consistent with Rex Sinquefield being a typical rich, MAGA piece of shit.

Two of the women told the Post-Dispatch they were recently contacted by a private investigator who was hired by Ramirez, even though one of the women said she never reported her assault to any chess organization or authority. The private investigator declined to comment.

lol at having a PI contact women who havenā€™t accused you of anything yet, thus prompting them to come forward, whereupon you have pre-confirmed your guilt. Proof that being a GM does not make you a strategic genius in general.

Also lol at hiring a PI at all, the WSJ spoke with eight accusers. Is the plan to try to discredit all eight or what? I guess people donā€™t behave super rationally when they see their lives crumbling around them.

LOL cHeSs

Remember when this was the big scandal?

Yeah thatā€™s right, the elephant in the room is not the guy faking a Russian accent and doing (allegedly) ~2400 level analysis, itā€™s the fucking serial molester asking the questions, unreal.

anyone following the world chess championship?

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Iā€™m watching the recaps by GothamChess.

Anyone have substantial trouble transitioning from classic chess to rapid chess? Just started rapid games and Iā€™m like 500 points lower in them. I totally suck.

how rapid? I mean iā€™m bad at chess in general so Iā€™m not a great comparison

10 minute games were too quick for me

I switched to 15/10 and it seems to have helped but the anxiety is amped up and Iā€™m way more burnt out despite the games being shorter and against considerably worse players.

Iā€™m not following the games as they happen because Iā€™m on vacation so I have better things to do. Iā€™ll probably watch some games live later especially when someone has a chance to clinch the championship.

So far the first 4 games have basically been 10/10 as far as sporting spectacle goes. Ding is going for it which is great.

Iā€™m following it. But the whole thing seems like a joke. Everyone knows neither of these guys is the best player in the world.

Even so theyā€™re both approximately 2800 strength players.