Let's play some chess in our heads!
I'll start with d4. Reply with your move and I'll play against you.
For some help, here's a picture of a chessboard with my initial move:
If you win, I'll zap you 1k sats.
Let's see how this goes ...
1,000 sats paid
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Bf4
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c5
Gotta walk my dog and it's late. Let's pick up the game tomorrow.
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Kc3 I meant Kf3
Sure, I just woke up. Is this you playing or your son?
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cxd4
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20 sats \ 56 replies \ @ek OP 6 Sep
Someone woke up and chose violence
Kxd4
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My 6 year old said "take that pawn".
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deleted by author
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When will we play our next chess tournament on lichess?
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We have this 'club' on open source Lichess
Feel free to start a tournament, however it's hard to gather people
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek OP 6 Sep
I agree with @Alby, having to meet at the same time is hard, especially with so many time zones involved. I thought we could try something more casual which is even on SN :)
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Lichess is open source. Is it possible to implement it on top of sn?
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Knight f6
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Kc3
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21 sats \ 31 replies \ @ek OP 6 Sep
Bf4
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C6.
This is going to get very hard! I appreciate you posting the board for reference haha.
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Haha yes, I want to learn the positions because when I watch chess players talk about what they are thinking on YT, they talk in these positions and it's hard for me to keep up with them. I can regularly post a screenshot of the current board to make it easier for both of us (like a commitment transaction, ha). This should be the current state:
  1. d4 Kf6 2. Kc3 e6 3. Bf4 c6
My next move is e4
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Oh that’s great and now your screen shot has already highlighted a mistake. I meant to play c5
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21 sats \ 27 replies \ @ek OP 6 Sep
Takeback accepted (if you want)! That move confused me anyway lol. I’ll reply later with what my move would be then.
chess is hard
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61 sats \ 7 replies \ @ek OP 6 Sep
Life is hard
just learn some chess openings and you’ll already feel way more like you know what you’re doing and have fun
maybe there is a life lesson in there
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Don’t focus on memorizing openings. Memorize concepts instead and your chess will crescendo into tough solid chess!
Separate the game into three stages and study them all individually.
Early game, middle game, end game.
Goals for every early game:
  1. Control the center of the board
  2. Develop your minor pieces (knight, bishop, rook)
  3. Get your king out of the center (castle)
Do these three things more efficiently than your opponent and you will secure a nice middle game for yourself.
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21 sats \ 3 replies \ @ek OP 6 Sep
You're right, thanks for writing it out, I was too lazy for that. I wrote a little about that in #582522:
Even though I am not very successful, learning and applying chess openings, their goals (piece development, controlling the center etc.) and some common ideas like pinning pieces or forks made chess really fun! I now feel like I actually know what I am doing (or should be doing) instead of just randomly trying to win or hoping for blunders.
Is the mid game when pieces are traded? And end game when the queen is lost?
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There is no definitive transition into the end game. Essentially when most of the pieces are off the board. Rook king pawn vs rook king pawn, queen end games, rook rook king vs rook rook king… an endless list really.
Studying end games is what really made me (finally) feel like a chess player. This book changed my entire game and I recommend it strongly for anyone trying to get better.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek OP 6 Sep
There is no definitive transition into the end game. Essentially when most of the pieces are off the board. Rook king pawn vs rook king pawn, queen end games, rook rook king vs rook rook king… an endless list really.
Maybe a sufficient (but not necessary) condition for being in the end game is when you try to promote pawns faster than your opponent. 🤔
Studying end games is what really made me (finally) feel like a chess player. This book changed my entire game and I recommend it strongly for anyone trying to get better.
Cool, thanks for the recommendation! 240 pages doesn't look too intimidating.
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Not at all! And it’s written in such a way that you can just go slowly one end game at a time. No need to read the book in a linear fashion either.
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how do small text
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40 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek OP 6 Sep
<sub>like this</sub>
the real cheat code is to go to #674135/edit though
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F6 horse
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Kc3
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c4
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So is this like a simul or are we all playing as one?
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You’re all playing against me individually in each thread
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @Car 6 Sep
Checkmate
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You can’t checkmate your own pieces
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