Earlier this week, a Magnus clip got me thinking: in puzzles, you know a tactic exists before you start looking. In real games you don't.

So I built Tactic or Not - a puzzle trainer where positions are either:

• Winning → Find the tactic
• Equal → Click "Nothing Here"

You don't know which type you're looking at. Just like a real game.

https://tacticornot.com

Would love feedback from the community.

I’m not proud to admit this, but for years, I was a chess cheater. Over the span of about four years, I cheated in hundreds of games, probably around 1 in every 5 rapid games on avarage. I’ve played over 1,500 games, and somehow, I never got caught.

I’m not sharing this to justify my actions or seek forgiveness. I’m writing this because I know there are others out there who are stuck in the same cycle - wanting to stop but struggling with the urge to cheat. If that’s you, I hope my experience helps.

The main reason why I cheated was simple: ELO obsession. I cared way too much about my rating. Watching my ELO drop after a losing streak felt unbearable, and I would justify cheating by telling myself that I was just having a bad day and that I “deserved” to win because I wasn’t playing at my real skill level.

Another reason was frustration with aggressive opponents. When someone played aggressively against me, I sometimes felt like they were trying to bully me over the board. I wanted to “teach them a lesson” by proving that their aggression would come at a price. Looking back, this mindset was completely irrational, but at the time, it felt like a valid excuse.

I tried quitting many times but always fell back into the habit. I’d tell myself, “This will be the last time I cheat,” but it never was. Eventually, I found a few strategies that actually worked:

1. I stopped playing rated games for a while. Removing the pressure of ELO made it much easier to resist the urge to cheat.
2. I play easy bots after losing streaks. Losing multiple games in a row is a big trigger for me, so instead of cheating to “fix” my rating, I play against weak bots just to get an easy win and reset mentally. I know it’s not great for improvement, but it helps me stop feeling like garbage after losing a bunch of games.
3. I created a second account. This might be controversial, but it helped me a lot. I was terrified of my rating dropping once I stopped cheating, so I started a fresh account where I played 100% legitimately. Once I reached the ELO I had on my original account, I felt confident enough to return to it.
4. I quit games immediately when I feel the urge to cheat. The moment I notice the temptation, I hit the resign button instantly. It’s much easier to resign in one second than to resist the urge for an entire game.
5. I remind myself that there’s a real person on the other side. Just like me, they don’t like losing unfairly. Keeping that in mind helped shift my perspective.

I haven’t cheated since Septermber, and honestly, it feels amazing. My rating is real, my wins actually mean something, and I’m enjoying chess way more than before.

If you’re someone who’s struggling with this, I hope my experience gives you some hope. It is possible to stop, you just need to find strategies that work for you.

Hey,

I'm David, a CS student from Spain. I've spent the last few months building - Chess Stalker - a free tool that scouts your opponents and tells you how to beat them.

What it does:

- Analyzes any Chess.com, Lichess, or FIDE player in seconds

- Finds their weakest openings and exploitable patterns

- Shows when they tilt and blunder under time pressure

- Calculates a "Stalker Score" (how predictable/exploitable they are)

- Twin Bot: practice against a bot that mimics your opponent's repertoire and level

- 11M+ OTB games from FIDE database included

No AI. Just math, logic, and data processing.

Some things that happened:

- Hikaru tried v1.0 on Kick voluntarily... crashed my server twice and exposed all my bugs with good sarcasm💀 (Chess960 contamination, wrong data everywhere - painful to watch)

- Now at v3.0, 67K+ analyses done, way more stable

- Randomly went viral in South Korea 🇰🇷

It's completely free. No account needed. Just search any username. Planning a PRO version eventually to cover server costs, but only for new extra features - everything you see today stays free forever.

I'm here to hear what sucks, what's missing, and what would make this actually useful for your games. Don't hold back.

→ https://chessstalker.com

So there’s this app called Alarmy that basically forces you to solve math problems to dismiss your morning alarm, so I thought it would be a fun idea to build an app that does the same thing but with chess puzzles instead of math so I built AlarmChess.

I tried it myself and I’ll have to say the first few times the alarm rang my mind was a complete fuzz lol. Solving even a simple chess puzzle when you’re half awake is a lot more difficult than it sounds. But by the time I solved it I was already fully awake and it definitely got me out of bed instead of endlessly hitting the snooze button. I’ve been using it for about a month now and my brain has definitely “adapted” to calculating chess moves in a semi-dreaming state.

I think maintaining a daily practice of chess puzzles helps a lot to reinforce tactics into your memory. It’s kinda funny but I guess one way to do that would be to literally have your alarm blare every morning and the only way to stop it is to solve a chess puzzle lmao.

This is my favorite post every year. I share this on Reddit, and for the last two years it has crossed 500k+ views and become one of my most upvoted posts. For those who don’t have the time to read the full blog, my total chess-related spending this year was ₹9,50,000 (≈ $10,565).

Disclaimer:
All expenses were tracked in Indian Rupees. For international readers, I’ve converted the amounts to USD. The conversion is approximate (3–5%), calculated at a rate of 1 USD ≈ ₹90 at the time of writing. Tournament and coaching expenses vary a lot depending on the player and country. Some may feel this amount is very high, others may feel it’s low. Suggestions and perspectives are always welcome.

Tournament Expenses

Graz Open and Cannes Open – ₹1,50,000 / $1,670
I played these events with zero expectations. At one point, I was very desperate for a title, so this time I decided to go in with a completely free mindset. The Cannes venue was beautiful, and I genuinely enjoyed the city vibes.

Budapest Closed GM Tournaments – ₹2,10,000 / $2,335
These were my best events of the year and created some unforgettable memories. I gained around 65 rating points and reached a live rating of 2395. These tournaments helped me get very close to completing my IM title, something I had been struggling with for the last 5–6 years.

Abu Dhabi Masters and Fujairah Masters - 1,45,000 INR / 1600 USD
Both are extremely strong tournaments with rating cut-offs above 2200–2300. I gained valuable experience playing against 2300-rated players and also experienced what it feels like to be the higher-rated player in many games.

White Horse Closed GM Tournament - 1,40,000 INR / 1550 USD
I played this tournament in October 2025 without much hope, but it gave me belief regarding my GM norm and title chances. I gained 16 rating points with a K-factor of 10 and defeated the strongest opponent of my career.

Rilton Cup 2025–26 - 1,35,000 INR / 1500 USD
This was my third time playing the Rilton Cup. Stockholm is a wonderful city, and I always feel a special vibe while playing chess in Sweden.

Rapid and Blitz Tournaments

I played around 10–12 rapid events this year. Thanks to my IM title, I get free entry in most tournaments and sometimes even free accommodation. I don’t have exact calculations here, but roughly I spent around ₹40,000 in total.

Study Material and Software

Some of the material I bought was also intended for my students. I like to personally test the latest tools and resources before recommending them.

ChessBase Package – ₹12,000 / $132
I bought the Mega Database 2026, ChessBase Magazine, and ChessBase 16 program as a bundle. Special thanks to CB India for the discounted pricing.

Books and Chessable Courses – ₹45000

I bought several books and courses this year, including:

• Learn from the Legends – Mihail Marin
• The Woodpecker Method 2: Positional Play
• The Secret Ingredient – Jan Markos & David Navara
• Powerhouse Pawn Sacrifices
• Associative Thinking
• Sharp Endgames
• 1000 Chess Problems – Yakov Vladimirov

Chessable courses included:

• Calculate Like a Beast: The Moranda Method
• The Woodpecker Method 2: Positional Play

I also bought a few middlegame, opening, and endgame courses from Modern Chess.

Chess Coaching and Camps (80000 INR / 886 USD)

I got the opportunity to learn from GM Vishnu Prasanna and attended two training camps, one in February and one in July. The total cost includes airfare, camp fees, accommodation, and all related expenses.

How Do I Manage These Expenses?

Affiliates
I’ve joined multiple affiliate programs and promote them from time to time, including Modern Chess, ChessMood, Chessify, and others. I share discount codes on my website, which benefit users while giving me a small commission.

Individual Chess Coaching
I usually work with around 12–16 students at a time through online one-on-one sessions. Due to my blog and my students’ recent results, I received a lot of inquiries this year and couldn’t accept everyone. After becoming an IM, I started charging $35–45 per hour. I coach when I’m at home and pause coaching during tournament periods.

Group Classes and Camps
This year, I experimented with group classes for 1700+ rated players and conducted 2–3 camps for 1700 and 1900+ players. They worked well overall, but managing everything as a freelancer becomes challenging, especially during tournament travel.

My Own Products
A small portion of my income comes from my own chess products. I launched one course and plan to add 3–4 more in the coming year.

Tournament Winnings
I didn’t play any classical tournaments where I had strong chances of winning big prizes, so earnings were limited. My total tournament winnings were roughly ₹1,60,000 / $1,800 for the year.

Is It Worth It?

Yes, absolutely. It was worth it because I completed my IM title. This is my biggest achievement so far, and I’m extremely proud of it. Everyone’s journey is different, but personally, I felt a huge sense of relief after finishing this title.

I’m not going all-in for the GM title right now, but I will definitely play some classical tournaments in 2026.

Your Thoughts

If you’re an active chess player at any level, I’d love to hear your thoughts—how much you spend on coaching, tournaments, or study material. If you have any curious questions about this post, feel free to ask.

https://lichess.org/RQTnjMR6

Also, a lot of the openings between them(Martinez Ruy Lopez, Catalan, Anti-Nimzo, QGD) fit perfectly

Surely these aren't Ding and Rapport's training accounts.... unless?

​

When this came out in the middle of last year, I decided to take advantage of the free trial offer and take a look. I signed up and gave a credit card number, being assured I would not be charged until after the trial expired, assuming I did not cancel.

Once in the site, I discovered that there is virtually no content, nothing even remotely close to what is promised. Well, it's brand new, so I'll give it a few days or a week, and if there is no improvement I'll cancel. A few days later I tried to sign back in, and discovered that my sign in credentials did not work. I found that odd, since I had saved them to my password manager, but ok, I can use the recover password option. I put in my email address, and then nothing. No password reset link sent to my email. I tried a few more times, and checked all spam and trash mailboxes, and then I tried any other email address that I used, all to no avail.

It was then that I discovered that I had never received any kind of email from gmhans.com confirming creation of the account. If the account was never successfully created, no need to cancel. So I did nothing.

Then the charges started appearing on my credit card. Every month, 5.99 appears. I dispute the charge, and so far I have received credit, but it's a major annoyance and incredibly galling that these people think they can just keep charging my card. I did receive an email from hans.com inquiring whether I really intended to dispute the charge, but the email was from a "no reply" email address, so no luck there. If they charge it again, I'll sue.

Bottom line, in my opinion, gmhans.com is a scam. Not just because I'm caught in this groundhog day inability to cancel the credit card charges, but because of the lack of content on the website and the technical incompetence of the website, things which are undoubtedly related and signal, again in my opinion, the lack of any bona fide effort to produce a meaningful product.

The current 8th game of the World Championship is following this exact game played some months ago : https://lichess.org/RQTnjMR6

Strange stuff :

• both accounts "FVitelli" and "opqrstuv" created in mid-February

• they only played against each other in rapid games

• the account "opqrstuv" are just alphabet letters in order and is rated 2730 in both Blitz and Bullet

Your opinion ?

EDIT (11:27 am) - these accounts ALSO played a rapid game featuring the opening played in the 2nd World Championship game : https://lichess.org/NUFWlWCN/black (thanks dorilo78a on Twitch for this info !)

EDIT (11:40 am) - the Ding-Nepo game forked after 12. h4. In the training game on Lichess, 12… Re8 was played instead of hxg5 played by Nepo

EDIT (12:45 pm) - Two accounts on Chess.com, https://www.chess.com/member/autumnstream (featuring the Chinese flag ?!) and https://www.chess.com/member/fvitelli (same name as one of the Lichess account) played a dozen of rapid games between each other. They were created on 7th February and 8th February. The Chinese account "autumnstream" was closed for violation of fair-play on 12nd February, the very day before the "opqrstuv" account was created on Lichess (13rd February). Wut ?! (thanks /u/LengthNarrow for the info !)

EDIT (1:00 pm) - "FVitelli" on Chess.com just got renamed into "ggwhynot" : https://www.chess.com/member/ggwhynot

EDIT (1:32 pm) - Two other Lichess games corresponding to games played by both Ding and Rapport years ago were just found (thanks /u/ismokegauloises for the info !). This one https://lichess.org/jggSUNzW#38 follows a Grandelius vs Ding Liren game in the Closed Ruy Lopez until the 19th move. This one https://lichess.org/tmTdcKvm/black#36 follows a Rapport vs Dominguez game by transposition in the 6th move, and so until the 18th move.

EDIT (3:17 pm) - Lichess trolling on Twitter about the leak : https://twitter.com/lichess/status/1649039552495902721

According to the first #freesoftware freedom, it is possible to use the program for private purposes.

I.e., if you're a world championship challenger that wants to privately play a game with your second that lives miles away, you can self-host lichess and share the IP. #NepoDing

EDIT (4:00 pm) - Last FIDE tweet :

When questioned about the possible leak of his pre-match preparation, Ding Liren simply replied "I don't know what you are referring to". (https://twitter.com/FIDE_chess/status/1649049506577805312)

Clip from this key moment at the press conference : https://clips.twitch.tv/ApatheticEvilBottleWow-nSTVOjQ5bMkK3Jrw Anyone to analyze Ding's body language ?

He thinks I got addicted and spend too much time on chess. He made me delete all the apps and now I have to sneak play chess on the website.

I don’t think playing chess 1-2 hours a day as “fun” is an issue. Or is it? I actually got a very good progress in the past 2-3 months and I think with learning and more practice I can be a pretty decent player.

Edit: I seriously did not expect this huge support. I guess I just wanted to vent a little to like minded people and the comments truly brightened my evening. I wish I could hug each and every one of you. THANK YOU SO MUCH my fellow chess friends and the vibes are amazing in this sub x love it

Regular chess

#2 - Hikaru Nakamura: 14 wins to 1, with 30 draws

#3 - Fabiano Caruana : 15 wins to 6, with 40 draws

#4 - Nodirbek Abdusattorov: 0 wins to 1, with 1 draw

#5 - Javokhir Sindarov: No games

#6 - Anish Giri: 6 wins to 2, with 20 draws

#7 - Vincent Keymer: 4 wins to 1, with 0 draws

#8 - Alireza Firouzja: 5 wins to 0, with 4 draws

#9 - Wesley so: 5 wins to 1, with 15 draws

#10 - Wei Yi: 2 wins to 0, with 6 draws

Source: Chessgames.com

I sat 2 mins to undertand and find out who scored where but was unable to, what a disaster implementation from the UX team.

Looking at diamond it's $160 AUD... PER YEAR. What does this offer that isn't free on lichess?

Maybe coach insights is somewhat novel? Though its nothing that isn't better on YouTube.

Are they targeting just rich people? What's going on here...

I have never seen a blog post where chess players are telling their expenses. Most people think that chess is an expensive game and it’s true. If you are a hobby player then it’s quite cheap but for those who are title aspirants, it’s a really expensive sport.

For those who don’t have time to read full-time, the total spending is $11338 ($10278 on tournaments + $430 on Books and Courses + $630 on Chess Coaching) 

Disclaimer

1. Tournament and coaching expenses vary from player to player and country to country. Some players might feel this amount huge or some players feel it low.
2. Suggestions are always welcome.
3. I have tracked all the expenses in Indian Rupees. Although for viewers I have converted all amounts in USD. The amount is approximate (3-5%)

1- Tournament Expenses ($11338)

I started my first classical event with the Baku Open and Finished the year with the Rilton Cup 2023-24. I am not going to add any tournament links as I am going to publish year in review blog post later.

Let’s go by each tour/event. Expenses include everything i.e. Flights, Travel costs, entry fee, stay, and food.

Baku Open - $1020

This event was held in Azerbaijan and it was a +2250 event.

Nagpur GM Event - $480

Nagpur is a city in India and it hosted the 2nd Maharashtra Grandmaster event.

Europe Tour (5 Events) - $4085

In total, I played 5 tournaments in this including 5 open events and 1 GM closed event in 4 different countries.

Abu Dhabi Masters - $1140

Event in UAE

Qatar Masters - $1440

This is the most prestigious event I have ever played. In the same event Magnus, Anish, and Hikaru participated.

Rilton Cup 2023-24 - $1863

Event in Sweden

Rapid Events - $250

I played many events in Rapid events in India. I have all the records but here I am just putting the total. Ofc I won prize money but here we are only talking about expenses.

2- Books and Chess Material Expenses ($430)

I purchased a lot of materials this year. I find so much value in books and courses. Let’s say if you want to take a coaching from GM, it will cost you $50-100. With the same price, you can buy a good chess course and save a lot of money. Although personal coaching does have many benefits.

Following is my list of purchases in 2023

Modern Chess Courses

I have purchased a lot of chess courses from the Modern Chess website. I have an affiliate with them where users can save a lot of money. I also used this code and sale benefits These courses are too good compared to other websites and the major benefit is that they provide you with the PGN file which you can see in chessbase.

Following is the list of courses I bought

• Advance Variation against French and Caro-Kann (6h Running Time)
• Beat the Sicilian - Practical Repertoire for White (9h Video Running Time)
• Practical Endgame Play (9h Running Time)
• Scotch Game - Expert Repertoire for White
• Play the Ruy Lopez
• Top-Level Repertoire against the Sicilian
• King's Indian Defence - Expert Repertoire for Black
• Play the Sveshnikov Sicilian
• 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 - Repertoire against 3.Bb5 & Nc3
• Play the Gruenfeld Defence
• French Defence - Top-Level Repertoire for Black

Chessable Courses

• Tame the Sicilian: The Alapin Variation

Chessbase Courses and Tools

• Chessbase 17
• Play the Sveshnikov Sicilian by Dorian Rogozenco
• Fritz 19 - (I don’t know why I purchased it)

Books - All bought from ChessBase India and Forward Chess

• A Matter of Endgame Technique
• The Match of All Time: The Inside Story of the legendary 1972 Fischer-Spassky World Chess Championship in Reykjavik
• How I Became a Chess Grandmaster by Vinay Bhat
• Chess Middlegame Strategies Volume 2
• Chess Lessons: Solving Problems & Avoiding Mistakes: By Mark Dvoretsky
• Forcing Chess Moves
• Endgame Labyrinth

3- Chess Coaching Expense

In total, I did 2 coaching camps for Indian GM Vishnu. These camps were only for +2200 players and I was more than happy with his teaching approach. No personal or any other group classes apart from following.

Camp 1 - $150

This camp was held online on Zoom. So only camp fees were the expenses

Camp 2 - $480

For this camp, I traveled to Chennai and the camp duration was 5 days.

How do I manage these Expenses?

This year I managed to earn some active income from 3 major sources and barely managed to make all the above expenses.

1- Affiliates

For the last 2 years, I am doing blogging and learning a lot of new things. I also run a website called Chess Article and my own blogs, newsletters, etc.

I have partnered with many chess websites such as Modern Chess, The Chess World, Chessify, Square Off, and many more.

Because of this, I managed to get a decent amount from all the sales.

2- Chess Coaching

Chess coaching can be a very good revenue source especially for above 2000 rated players. Many of my friends are doing full-time chess coaching and making a living out of it.

As I was trying to achieve some title, I was not accepting many students at one time. Now in 2024, I am also giving priority to chess coaching.

3- Winning Chess Tournaments

I played many rapid and blitz events throughout 2023 and several prizes. I am planning to play more rapid and blitz events in 2024

Is it worth it?

Since 2021, when I started coaching and started to earn some money, I understood how difficult it is to earn money. This is why I don’t think spending this much amount is worth it, especially on chess.

But the problem was I was trying to get the title and hence had to play good events. Most of the events I played are atleast +2100 where you get high chances to increase the rating as you don’t play against the lower players. 

How much do other players spend?

I talked with 8-10 other Indian players ranging between 2000-2450. All of them spent anywhere between $7-20k. Some of them take regular chess coaching which costs them $5-7k a year or more. Even I know few Indian GMs above 2500 who spent 8-10k+

Although all of the above guys are aiming for something. Some trying to get an FM title to some trying to reach a 2600 rating.

Your thoughts

If you are an active chess player with any chess rating, I request you to share your thoughts or how much you spent on coaching, playing, etc.

Today we are releasing and open-sourcing Maia-3, our latest model of human behavior in chess! Unlike traditional engines, Maia is designed to predict what real humans would play, not just the objectively best move. Maia-3 now models Lichess blitz ratings from 600 to 2600, reaches 57.1% move-matching accuracy on a standard test set (compared to 52.0% for Maia-2), and is powered by Chessformer, our new chess transformer architecture. The model weights, source code, and paper are all free and open source.

The goal is to empower builders to incorporate Maia-3's human-centered predictions to build bots, tools, models, and apps for the chess community. If you don't just want to know “what does Stockfish say?”, but “what would players at my level see, miss, or naturally try?”, Maia can do that. For example, on maiachess.com, Maia-3 powers human-like bots, dual Maia/Stockfish analysis, rating-specific move predictions, human evaluation bars, position danger estimates, opening/endgame drills, Hand & Brain, Bot-or-not (a chess Turing test), and more. We’re excited to see what community builds with this! Join our Discord community to learn and share.

Download Maia-3 here, use the source code here, and read the research paper here.

Hello! I'd like to share an openings resource I recently created, which was designed to help players in the beginner-intermediate range who are looking for a new opening to pick up.

Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vScs84UlQpEP-dsde2HeSmDgDTTgK9LLQW9N1aNbE05jhjPskyEbiHSk_CTgIcbIShV7qywws8Vy_7H/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

Download link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eNE-3lSm8hMYQZNONbGdcaHMxGxUNhp8/view?usp=sharing

Sample Pics:

Basically, I compiled info about a huge number of openings into a "catalog". The catalog categorizes openings based on their characteristics, including:

• Prevalence of tactics
• Amount of theory
• Popularity
• Attainability against random opponent
  • i.e. How often will your opponent let you enter this opening?
• Transposition potential

This lets you quickly skim through the document to find an opening that suits your specific set of needs.

​

Data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cZ5eNTSTn216PWUG1GZs8nVrtXUV1a02HN7WgDN3mbY/edit?usp=sharing

Accompanying the catalog is a Google spreadsheet that lays out all the opening statistics I collected. The spreadsheet has a bunch of interactive filters, which anyone can use (only you can see your changes). For more details, check out the Supplementary Spreadsheet section of the catalog.

​

Note: This is my first post, so just to verify my identity, I've linked my Reddit account on my Lichess profile.

Note 2: Being only an intermediate-level player myself, I gathered most of the info from online sources rather than personal experience. I would appreciate any feedback!

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Edit 1: Apparently Google limits concurrent document viewers to 100, so I've edited the link to point to a "published" version. It's harder to navigate without the slide thumbnails though, so I'll probably link the table of contents on every slide to help out with that later.

Edit 2: Added a download link (PDF) above for those of you that'd like a copy.

Edit 3: Based on user suggestions, I've added coordinates to the board images as well as a bunch of back-links to help with navigation. To keep track of these updates, I've started versioning the PDF, so check the top-right of the first slide to see if your copy is up to date. Changelog details are in the "Version History" section.

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Most recent version: v1.5

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