Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 15th February 2024, 4:19 PMI prefer a quick in and out without any small talk
You old romantic, you!
Status report Page 6,183
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I've got a lot of daily chess games on the go at chess.com and have run out of vacation time (sorry Herc, I mean holiday time!) so while being ill for the last few days and unable to play I've lost about 30 games on time and a shed load of ELO points as a result. It will take a long time to get those lost points back. Bugger!
Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 2nd March 2024, 5:37 PMa shed load of ELO points
About 10538?
I'm about 970 at the moment
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Quote: lofthouse @ 2nd March 2024, 8:36 PMI'm about 970 at the moment
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After losing about 100 points I'm now at 972. I've been putting in a lot of hours to improve on tactics and theory so I'm kicking myself for losing points on time. I've learnt openings, tempo, space, and most importantly Zugzwang. Zugzwang is a situation where the only move available to a player is going to make their position worse so understanding that has made me a much more cunning B******. A good way to avoid being put in Zugzwang is to leave at least one pawn on it's starting rank which can give you one or two moves as a kind of safety net. During the end game where few pieces remain that pawn could be your saviour.
If you ever fancy a game on chess.com let me know 
Lately I've been having several games where I've literally obliterated my opponent until they've got just king left - and I end up in stalemate after chasing said king around the board for 20 moves 😤
Bloody infuriating!
I've managed to avoid stalemate so far but I only play daily games so have plenty of time to chose my moves carefully to avoid stalemate which is easily done with faster time controls. In a recent daily game it was my K&Q verses a K which is a simple checkmate but my opponent carried on forcing me to get the checkmate. It's their right to carry on instead of resigning and it happens because they are hoping for a blunder or stalemate. The more I play the more I realise when you get to 1000 rating you're not far behind the 1500 players and the biggest difference is the higher rated players blunder far less and are thinking of an endgame scenario from the start. Novice players will not be thinking of the endgame or how significant giving away free material is. Just losing a pawn to a 1500 player and it's curtains.
Has Herc buggered off?
I'm keeping him prisoner in my cellar still
I feed him once a day on Ritz crackers and Um Bongo
He seems happy enough
For now...
Quote: lofthouse @ 2nd March 2024, 8:54 PMLately I've been having several games where I've literally obliterated my opponent until they've got just king left - and I end up in stalemate after chasing said king around the board for 20 moves 😤
Bloody infuriating!
It is, but if you've obliterated him you've surely got a handful of pieces left over their king, then it's not possible for them to avoid checkmate. You've surely got a rook and queen left if nothing else? So just block his vertical path and hey presto. Ie. Never leave yourself without a queen&rook or very minimum a rook and prawn for an endgame v king only.
Yes all good points
But I'm shit!
Did it again
I just had THREE queens on the board
Friggin stalemate again
You need to put the enemy king in to a box and 'walk' it in to a corner. The space the king can move to will reduce until it's trapped and only has two squares it can move to. It's very easy to accidentally cause a stalemate at this point. Make sure the enemy king always has a safe square to move to to avoid the stalemate. What time controls do you play?
Unlimited game time but must move within 60 seconds