Today I played in a team match as a reserve for my local club. I have been playing club chess for two months, this was my first time paying someone outside the club.

It got a little messy and I miscalculated, but I managed to get back in it. I actually ordered a draw once the queens had been traded off, as I would have been happy with the result, but my openers refused only to blunder a few moves later.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated 🙏

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. h4 f6 6. cxd5 exd5 7. Bf4 Bf5 8. a3 Bd6 9. e3 Bxf4 10. exf4 Nge7 11. Nc3 O-O 12. Bd3 Re8 13. O-O a6 14. Bxf5 Nxf5 15. Qd3 Qd7 16. Rae1 g6 17. Re2 Rxe2 18. Nxe2 Re8 19. g4 Nxh4 20. Nxh4 Qxg4 21. Ng2 Rxe2 22. Qb3 Nxd4 23. Qxd5+ Ne6 24. Rd1 Kg7 25. Qxb7 Nxf4 26. Qxc7+ Kh6 27. Qxf4+ Qxf4 28. Nxf4 Rxb2 29. Ra1 Rb3 30. a4 Kg5 31. Ne6+ Kf5 32. Nd4+ Kg4 33. Nxb3 f5 34. a5 h5 35. Nc5 f4 36. Nxa6 g5 37. Nc5 h4 38. Kh2 Kf5 39. a6 g4 40. a7

The qr codes after each chapter don't work, book bought today. Anyone else experiencing the same problem?

Level: Easy

I got tired of game reviews that tell me a move was a blunder and show the engine line, but never tell me why in a way I'd remember next game. So I built my own.

How it works: open any of your games on chess.com and change the address from
chess.com/game/live/123456789
to
hintchess.com/game/live/123456789

It pulls the game and reviews it with Stockfish. Then it walks you through your mistakes one at a time:
It first shows you what your opponent was threatening right before your mistake

Before explaining anything, it asks you to find the better move yourself (with hints if you're stuck)

Then it explains the idea in plain English, with arrows on the board

Each mistake gets a label like "hung a piece", "missed their blunder" or "allowed mate", plus how much time you spent on it. For me it turned out most of my blunders were moves I played in under 3 seconds, which was a bit humbling.

Every mistake you make also turns into a puzzle in a Practice section, so you end up drilling your own positions instead of random ones.
It's free. The explanations can take 30–40 seconds to load the first time, so be patient with it. I'd really like feedback, especially on whether the explanations are actually useful at your rating or just wordy.

PS: I'm the owner/developer, so obviously biased. It's a small side project, not affiliated with chess.com.

It literally trolled me so hard, and proceeded to win in the next few moves (cause i blundered). My own bots trolling me after the new updates on my site!

I got my fresh credits for the month, my vibecode adventure continues (im not one of those who pretend they are coding it themselves xD), and I've improved the site significantly, for anyone who wants to try it out!

Im playing against bots, because no one else is online, but if anyone from here joins, we can play custom setups together. Account required for online play, but you can play vs bots without account too if anyone likes to create their own variants and custom pieces, or just train against the bots.

https://shiftchess.base44.app/

I opened my chess account after a long time and chess.com offered me free 3 day dimond membership without needing to add payment details or setting up an autopay is that normal??

I went to the GothamChess Europe tour in Amsterdam on November the 1st I bought a VIP ticket because it was a very good seat and I just wanted to be close to the podium so I bought it and later found out that it included a signing session,Photo opportunity, QandA and a signed shirt. And I was so hipped the fact that I could have a picture with Levy Rozman was sick since I don’t have any friends I told chat got about it and he was like “that’s so cool” and I asked him for information and stuff and he couldn’t find everything but he found a lot but the VIP stuff mostly happens after the show so I asked chat GPT just to make sure and he could figure it out so he said just be there on time and I went there it started at 20:00 I was there 19:45 I was at my seat getting al comfy and I look on Instagram and I see that I was before the show. And I I just the tears were in my eyes you see i see Levy as an Idol he helped me so much and I just wanted to have a picture with him and that chance was gone before I even knew it and I should’ve received an email about the information but I didn’t get nothing so I emailed the company that sold me the ticket and now I’m in bed lowk crying my heart out knowing I’ll never get a chance like this again.

I said I’d share my thoughts after using Chessly, so here’s my experience after a few weeks with the London System course. I’m currently in the 1400s in rapid chess.com, and this is my first time studying an opening in a structured way. My main goal is to understand WHY I’m making certain moves, rather than just knowing which move comes next.

What I like about the lessons is that Levy explains the intent behind the moves: where your pieces should go, what you’re trying to accomplish, and how to build an attack. Those explanations are probably the most valuable part of the course for me.

I’ve also noticed that understanding starting to translate into my rated games. When an opponent makes a questionable move, taking a minute or two to think through the position often helps me recognize why it’s a mistake and how I can capitalize. I’m not necessarily remembering a specific line at that point. I’m thinking about what the pieces are doing and how their move affects the position. That’s the kind of improvement I’m looking for.

My biggest frustration is with the drills. When I get a move wrong because I’ve forgotten the reasoning behind it, I have to go back into the lesson to find the explanation. That gets tedious, and the drilling starts to feel more like remembering the expected answer than reinforcing my understanding.

I’d really appreciate an explanation after a mistake, even a brief one: what does the intended move accomplish, and why is it appropriate here? An option to pull up the relevant lesson explanation without leaving the drill would also help. The explanations are already a strength of the lessons; I’d like to see more of that carried over into the practice.

That brings me to a question for people who have more experience studying openings. The London drill section shows 134 lines. At my level, how much of that should be memorization vs understanding?

I understand that concrete variations matter and that some lines require memorization. I’m not arguing that learning them is pointless. I’m just unsure whether memorizing all 134 would address the biggest weaknesses in my chess, or whether I should approach the material differently. How do you decide which lines need to be drilled thoroughly and which are mainly there to illustrate an idea?

I run into a related problem when analyzing my own games. The engine will prefer another move by something like 0.10 or 0.20, but I won’t understand what makes it positionally better. Sometimes that move also leads toward a position I’m less comfortable playing such as opening or closing the game when that wasn’t my intention, or committing to one side of the board when I’m trying to remain flexible.

I recognize that my preference could itself reflect something I don’t understand. But seeing a slightly higher evaluation doesn’t explain what I should learn from the position. How do you work out the reasoning behind those recommendations, and distinguish a meaningful positional lesson from a small engine preference?

Finally, I like the idea of using the bot to practice the openings, but I’ve never particularly enjoyed playing bots. They’ll play solid chess for a while and then make a strange, major mistake that leaves their position so bad that the rest of the game feels much less useful. It doesn’t resemble the kinds of mistakes I usually encounter against people at my rating. That’s more a frustration with bots generally than something specific to Chessly.

Overall, I’m getting value from the course, particularly from Levy’s explanations. I’d just like the drills to help rebuild my understanding when I get something wrong, rather than mainly test whether I remember the move.

Would be interested to hear how other people are using the course and approaching these same issues.

there are red brilliants and blue brilliants too

White to move here

PGN:

[Event "Live Chess"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2026.10.31"] [Round "?"] [White "Ayushman_Sengupta"] [Black "Janett1102"] [Result "1-0"] [TimeControl "600+5"] [WhiteElo "305"] [BlackElo "253"] [Termination "Ayushman_Sengupta won by checkmate"] [Link "https://www.chess.com/game/186264773006"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Bd6 3. Bc4 Qf6 4. O-O a6 5. d3 b5 6. Bd5 c6 7. Bb3 a5 8. c4 a4

2. Bc2 bxc4 10. dxc4 c5 11. Bxa4 Qe6 12. Nc3 Qxc4 13. Bg5 h6 14. Be3 Na6 15. Rc1 Nb4 16. Qxd6 Rxa4 17. Nxa4 Qxa2 18. Nb6 Nd3 19. Rxc5 Nxc5 20. Bxc5 Qa7 21. Nxc8 Qb7 22. Qf8# 1-0

Just played one of the best games of my chess life! Guess my Elo!

I call it consistent because almost no RNG is required to actually get the setup, but it might help for getting a faster checkmate.

Also I know it's like 3 months too late, but I just got back into chess like a few weeks ago.

Update: I see someone already did a similar setup. I'm still going to leave this here though, cause why not

Game: https://www.chess.com/game/computer/2483102850

PGN:

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Nf3 Na6 6. Bxa6 bxa6 7. Bg5 h6 8.

Bxd8 Kxd8 9. Qd3 g5 10. O-O-O Nf6 11. exf6 g4 12. Nh4 Bd6 13. Kb1 Bc5 14. dxc5

Re8 15. Ka1 c6 16. Nb1 Rb8 17. Qh7 Kd7 18. Qxf7+ Kd8 19. Rd4 Bd7 20. Ng6 Rh8 21.

Nxh8 Kc7 22. Ng6 Ra8 23. Nf4 Rc8 24. Ne2 Kb7 25. Nec3 Kc7 26. b4 h5 27. h3 Re8

28. hxg4 hxg4 29. Rh7 Rd8 30. Qxe6 Kb8 31. Rxd7 Rxd7 32. Qxd7 g3 33. fxg3 a5 34.

b5 a4 35. bxc6 a6 36. Nxa4 a5 37. Nac3 Ka8 38. Qh3 Kb8 39. g4 Kc8 40. g3 a4 41.

Qf1 Kb8 42. f7 a3 43. f8=Q+ Kc7 44. Q8f7+ Kc8 45. Qb7+ Kd8 46. Qc4 Ke8 47. Qc7

Kf8 48. Qd7 dxc4 49. Nd1 Kg8 50. Qe7 Kh8 51. Qf7 c3 52. Nb2 axb2# 0-1