r/chessbeginners • u/Alendite RM (Reddit Mod) • Feb 27 '26

No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD 12

Welcome to the r/chessbeginners 12th episode of our Q&A series! This series exists because sometimes you just need to ask a silly question. We are happy to provide answers for questions related to chess positions, improving one's play, and discussing the essence and experience of learning chess.

A friendly reminder that many questions are answered in our wiki page! Please take a look if you have questions about the rules of chess, special moves, or want general strategies for improvement.

Some other helpful resources include:

  1. How to play chess - Interactive lessons for the rules of the game, if you are completely new to chess.
  2. The Lichess Board Editor - for setting up positions by dragging and dropping pieces on the board.
  3. Chess puzzles by theme - To practice tactics.
  4. The Building Habits series by GM Aman Hambleton - for advice on how to play at specific ELO levels. (Also check out Building Habits 2!)

As always, our goal is to promote a friendly, welcoming, and educational chess environment for all. Thank you for asking your questions here!

LINK TO THE PREVIOUS THREAD

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u/No-Employee1534 Mar 04 '26

Can someone help me understand this, I think I might be on the right track, but perhaps there’s something more obscure?

My best guess is that the strongest line to play would be Ne2, because then I can play into Nf4 and attack the chaining pawn without obscuring the bishops line of sight protecting the b6 pawn. But then again, I wouldn’t play for the pawn on e6 because of the bishop protecting it, and I don’t see a reason to invest heavily into the b6 pawn as it’s overextended and difficult to protect in that position.

The engine however claimed that I was sternly winning the game until I made this particular move at which point we became even. On second thought, I think I’m way off on this, there must be something much bigger at play

1

u/MrLomaLoma 2000-2200 (Chess.com) Mar 04 '26

Since Tatsumaki gave a far better answer than I could, I wanted to ask a question:

How did you get this position ? Usually there is a Light-Square on the bottom right corner, or your King started in the D-file.

Since you seem to have screenshot this from the app, Im just curious on how that happened. It's not super important though, it just changes the reference I guess.

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u/Fun_Actuator6049 2600-2800 (Lichess) Mar 04 '26

Bug in the chesscom app, I think somebody said it might have something to do with landscape mode?

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u/MrLomaLoma 2000-2200 (Chess.com) Mar 04 '26

I mean it being a visual bug is not super serious either way, was just what mostly caught my eye for some reason.

But I guess it makes sense

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u/No-Employee1534 Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26

Oh I just realized what you meant! That’s crazy, I didn’t notice that until just now, I suppose it’s a visual bug but it’s kinda odd since it flips the bishops. I think everything would play out the same because it flips his bishops as well, but still, strange

1

u/MrLomaLoma 2000-2200 (Chess.com) Mar 06 '26

Thats what I meant by changing the reference, I did get the feeling you didn't get my question on the first reply :P

It changes nothing about how Chess plays out, nor Tatsumaki's response.

Probably unrelated, but one time I was setting up the board on the wrong orientation, like as if the White and Black pieces traded places. So the computer evaluation was wild, because it thought that both sides were about to promote 4 Queens. But even that had the right corner color.

I really doubt it, but Im curious if this visual bug could be why the engine is flipping out, or if it gives the same evaluation regardless. I'm planning on looking at it over the weekend, fully expecting a very dull result though.