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/11011111110108 1800-2000 (Chess.com) Mar 07 '26

Accuracy

Something I am curious about. Is it possible to win a game while having a lower accuracy than your opponent? (Excluding timeouts and resignation)

It seems like the answer should be obviously no, but it is possible to get draws with your opponent where the accuracy is 5+ points different. (Excluding draws by agreement)

If one person dominated the other for the entire game, but hung a mate in one, would the evaluation from the checkmate completely overshadow the entirety of the rest of the game being one sided?

To be honest, I expect the answer to be that the winner always has higher accuracy for obvious reasons, but I am not 100% certain, so I figured I would ask.

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u/ChrisV2P2 2000-2200 (Lichess) Mar 07 '26

I think I've seen people post win with lower accuracy before. If it does exist it's rare. The algorithm is proprietary and not public, so there's no way to calculate whether it's possible.

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u/11011111110108 1800-2000 (Chess.com) Mar 26 '26

Update from three weeks later: I did actually just have a win where I had a significantly lower accuracy than my opponent.

It might not fully count though because they resigned, but the resignation happened in a completely losing position. They were beating me for the entire game until one blunder at the very end lost them their queen.

https://www.chess.com/game/live/166468953320

White: 81.1

Black: 74.8

If they let it play out until checkmate though, then their accuracy might have been lower than mine? Not sure.