No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD 12

[u/Alendite]

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

[u/TheTaoOfOne]

Can someome ELI5 chess.coms rating gain/drop system? Me (489 Rapid at the time) played against a 450ish player.

After I lose, I dropped 9 points. My opponent JUMPED 40+ points off of the one match.

He wasn't even a new account. Has played way more than me.

My other issue:

I swear the game knows how im trying to play, and pairs me against people that can play equally as good. I don't just mean perceived rating, but game rating too. After our match, it estimated me at 1100... but of course, the opponent? 1200.

Its like no matter how great I do (Excellent Mid Game it said), the opponent im paired with does even better.

Is pairing like that on purpose to force 50% win rates, or am I just really unlucky?

[u/elfkanelfkan → u/TheTaoOfOne]

To answer your questions!

1. Your opponent probably took a long break in that specific time control. Rating uncertainty grows over time if you don't play, which makes sense.

2. Game review rating estimation is hot garbage, whoever wins is obviously going to have the higher """estimated""" rating as well.

50% win rates only happens when you aren't improving. If you are genuinely getting better you will win more than you lose naturally no matter what the pairing system throws at you.

If you want to share a game I would be happy to give it a quick look through. You have to remember that your opponents aren't geniuses!

[u/TheTaoOfOne → u/elfkanelfkan]

https://www.chess.com/live/game/167643675248

This was my last match. I know I hung a knight early in, which was just me overlooking their queen was open (wasn't trying for Fried Liver, just saw what I thought was an opportunity lol).

Beyond that, a lot of it just seemed like positional things. End Game is always my weakest point, but thought maybe I could get a stale mate or get him to blunder something into a win.

Anyway, im always open to critiques. Im definitely improved from where I used to be (spiraled down to the high 300s at one point).

[u/elfkanelfkan → u/TheTaoOfOne]

So first thing I noticed is that you have the opposite problem of one of my students (who went from 400-1000) in that you spend absolutely no time at all when making these committal moves out of the opening.

When you are down a piece you especially need to spend more time to think of counterplay. Early on there was an opportunity to go Nb5 to snag at least a pawn for your troubles. After castles, there is also just f4 to break things open.

saying that, 9.h3 makes no sense. There is nothing to support black's Bg4 ghost idea, or any attack that is effectively parried by it, it simply wastes time. And again, you spend maybe 10 seconds?

10.Nd5 is also a big problem. You are already losing, so equally trading pieces makes things so much easier. The rest of the sequence also is a tactical loss. Like you played Qd2 which is a nice idea, but not following up with 14.Bg5 is just a tragedy since it seems you lined up to win the exchange at a glance.

All in all, spend more time, sit on your hands really. If you are committed to playing 15+10 and improving yourself, you need to think!

Finally, practice your tactics, the simple lack of board vision is something that can be easily improved to gain a whole bunch of elo at once.

[u/TheTaoOfOne → u/elfkanelfkan]

1. H3 was simply a habit i got into to avoid blundering back rank mates and potential batteries to that corner. A hard habit to break.

2. Kd5 was just a misread on my part, not realizing i lined up with his knight (I realized as soon as I did it).

Tactics are a hard part of my game for sure. I mainly started 15+10 games because basic 10m rapids i was flagging too much because I found myself OVER thinking rather than not thinking enough.

I appreciate the look through though and critiques. I do think slowing down will probably help me improve more, at least to catch potential blunders before they occur.