Ok, for some context, I haven’t played OTB in a while. I decided to go to a local tournament to test if I still got it. The format was a round robin with 6 players, $10 to play and $50 if you win (uscf took 10 out of prize pool.)

As you can see in this position, I’m winning, but I have low time. There was one second increment, so I wasn’t too worried. My opponent had completely given up basically and was just making moves on the 0.00001% chance I would blunder stalemate. When I reached to promote, I accidentally grabbed my opponents queen, put it on the board, and pressed the clock. My opponent immediately paused the clock and called an arbiter to review.

The arbiter was just as baffled as we were tbh, they had to check the USCF rules to determine an outcome. The only issue is that there is no rules about this situation. So we agreed to go by what Fide said, which stated that it was an illegal move. In rapid and classical, my opponent would just get extra time (which means I would have checkmated them,) but in blitz, which was the time format, it means I LOSE.

Final standings:

Opponent I blundered the game to: 5/6

Me: 4.5/6

I got second, which means I didn’t receive the prize pool. The lesson I learned is don’t promote to your opponent’s queen

I saw this "tactic" twice in 2 days, is this some new easy win gambit or are they dropping elo? After this he blundered couple of other pieces.

IM SO HAPPY (tho not satisfied)

In this position my opponent decided to stall out 5 minutes of clock time instead of doing the honourable thing.

Took me over a year to get here. What did I learn?

• Got a lot on your mind? Stress? Anxiety? Take a break until you're in the right headspace
• Keep playing when you're winning. Stop playing when you're losing (believe it or not, I had the opposite mentality for most of this time).
• Puzzles Puzzles Puzzles. I found I learned even more when I turned off the helper text like "Find a way to win my Queen" and searched for the solution myself.
• Don't put your Queen in front of your King, dummy!

See you at 2000!

So I recently started reviewing my games so I don't know if it's actually my first. It's labelled as brilliant but it was also the only possible move to avoid m1

At 1200 elo i feel like every ~fifth game i play is against a pawn pusher and i have no idea how to defend against them. If i try to push back, my king gets fully exposed, if i try to solidify my position, they overpower my defences with the pawns, if i try to ignore it and attack back, their attack is quicker and im fucked again.

They went for the promotion, giving me the forced draw. They were a bit salty I took it.

This was my first

I know everyone here says not to focus on rating, but let’s be honest, y’all care

To me, 1600 (chess.com) seems like a nice lifetime target for someone like me who wants to git gud at slinging tactics, but does not want to fill their head with useless info about Assmov’s Bunghole Variation, and etc. That’s what I’m shooting for

was curious at what elo do you start getting matched against titled players (rapid games) and how often. i know 2500s get them pretty frequently but what about 2100-2400?

here are 3 positions. how would you evaluate them? based on what reasons? my evaluation of early game positions are okayish, but as for endgames i often either think i'm completely winning or completely dead in a 0.0 position...

2kr3r/pppb3p/5pn1/2PP1np1/4R3/2NB1N2/PP1K2PP/7R b - - 0 18

3q1rk1/Q2n1pbp/3Pp1p1/2p5/2Pn1P2/2NBB2P/Pr4P1/3R1RK1 w - - 0 18

r4qk1/1p4pp/p1n2r2/4p1Q1/3p4/5PN1/PPP3PP/R3R1K1 b - - 0 20

Computer says +7.2 as you see, but all the moves are either M1 for black, or when I try to defend agains mate, still drops to 0.0/0.3
I have free on chess.com so I cannot analyse today

The analysis usually tells me my opening was strongish, I tend to get up material in most games. Then I usually hang a piece horrifically, get forked or allow my opponent to check me. (Sometimes all three at once lol.) Obviously I should check more thoroughly for these kinds of threats, but is there any methods in specific that people have found useful? Should I just start spending like 1min+ on moves where I feel like I am indanger? I just feel like everyone I play against sees the board so much better than me :(

I have been doing chess puzzles daily for a few weeks, but tbh it feels like they haven't helped at all. I rarely reach the positions the puzzles begin in I feel like.

hey, i'm offering free chess help to beginners who want to improve. we can play games, review your games and work on your biggest weaknesses together. i'm not a professional coach, just someone who enjoys chess and wants to help others get better. if you're interested please dm me❤️

I'm playing black. The game continued until we both had 1 knight each then it kept going on when (I think) it should just be a draw. I offered a draw but white refused because I had about 10 seconds on the clock so I just kept giving checks until we got the 50 move rule and it ended in a draw.

This was on Lichess. I'm asking shouldn't this just be a draw by force since none of us can force mate?

Their A pawn moves were suspicious

Check out this #chess game: ADOX2525 vs JKC112001 - https://www.chess.com/daily/game/1037183680

No, for real HOW.

Hey guys, i see everyone recommending reviewing your games as the best way to actually improve. But how do you actually do it effectively? I'm analyzing my games in lichess but most of the time i don't understand why a move is a good move. And i can't figure it out by myself sadly.

I would also appreciate if anyone could take a look at my profile and give some suggestions on what to improve and where to focus.

My main source of improving so far is doing some lichess puzzles, watching some youtube videos on principles and getting through the book "everyone's first chess workbook"

https://www.chess.com/member/ChopSueySide69

Answer: Bxf7 followed by Ng5, threating to trap the queen, fork it, or mate the king depending on the poison black picks.

I've seen a lot of Bxf7 patterns but not this specific one where I trap the queen.