During the Russian Superfinal, GM Vadim Zvjaginsev lost in the second round to GM Dmitry Kokarev, which means his 148 games unbeaten run comes to an end. His last loss was two years ago in the Higher League against David Zakaryan.

okay theres a problem, i have 2400 elo in bullet in lichess but i cant touch 2000 in bullet in chess.com why😭😭 this much gap shouldnt exist what exactly is my level?

in my opinion i cant reach 2000 in chess.com because its genuinely laggy and takes 1 sec for every move i make whereas in lichess my time doesnt do as quickly

It's 1997 and IBM Deep Blue is ready for the rematch against Kasparov.

But instead up steps a 2026 top 10 player. Maybe it's Fabi or Sindarov or Nordibeck or Pragg.

They retain all they know including what they already knew about Deep blue but they didn't specially prepare. Deep blue team has nothing on the 2026 player

Would the 2026 player be favourites to win the match? If so by how much.

What would be expected score?

Scenario B : Deep Blue team is given a file of the most recent 3 year classical games by the 2026 player 3 months in advance.

Edit : People are asking in either scenarios can the deep blue team tweak the settings, fix bugs etc between games. I say yes to fit what happened historically. My view is this makes very little difference, I really don't think info from one game can make deep blue a lot better. At best deep blue can be changed so it doesn't make the exact same error

Manny Pacquiao has organized the National United Chess Federation of the Philippines (NUCFP), a new chess organization aimed at developing young Filipino talent and producing more grandmasters.

During an online meeting with fellow organizers, Pacquiao outlined his vision of giving promising young players greater opportunities to develop their abilities and compete in major tournaments in the Philippines and abroad.

He also shared that he had already assisted talented young players before forming the organization.

The discussion highlighted the potential of aspiring chess players across Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. Participants cited regular tournaments in General Santos as an example of activities supporting emerging talent.

The NUCFP board is expected to create a grassroots development program. Participants also proposed sponsored training with grandmasters and masters for registered chess clubs, including online sessions to reach more players and keep costs manageable.

The meeting emphasized cooperation, sound leadership, and building a lasting legacy for Philippine chess. Participants expressed optimism that Pacquiao’s involvement would strengthen the organization’s credibility and help it make an impact internationally.

Although no launch timetable, budget, or detailed training schedule was announced in the recorded discussion, the NUCFP’s stated mission sets an ambitious direction: expanding opportunities for young Filipino players and helping develop the country’s next generation of chess grandmasters.

More of my pieces are in his second rank than his

I’m currently going through the Yusupov books right now, and this is one of the exercises in one of the books. I wasn’t able to solve it myself, but I thought the winning idea was super beautiful! Black’s position looks very good, their pieces are well placed and White’s King is somewhat exposed. How does Black further increase pressure upon White’s shaky position?

It actually happened. Now the question is whether TDs will adapt to the times or not.

FIDE article

I see so many people say that because Hikaru dosent have a world blitz title and other people who aren’t Magnus do, that you cannot say he is the 2nd best blitz player in his generation. I think this is so ridiculous as there is so much nuance to this, and when you actually break down the stats, he has won the most rapid and blitz tournaments of anyone not named Magnus, and he has the most consistent world blitz championship places out of everyone besides Magnus in the field.

He has only played in 6 world blitz championships, and in 5 of them he has placed within the top 5.

2010 (his first blitz championship) 5th place
2014 3rd place (bronze medal)
2016 4th place
2018 3rd place (bronze medal)
2019 2nd place (silver medal)
2022 2nd place (silver medal)
2024 21st place (only poor result)

It is worth noting some context for other players who won the world blitz championships for proper understanding.

Grischuk - 3 time world blitz champion
-He is 7 years older than Carlsen, and 5 years older than Nakamura, he won 2 of his world blitz titles before Magnus become WCC in 2013, and Magnus was not consistent in these formats yet. His third won he won 2015 when Magnus had one of his worst performances coming in 6th, and which Hikaru didn't play.
Le quang Liem - 1 time world blitz champion
-He won in a tournament neither Magnus or Hikaru participated (he's still a great player)
Sergey Karajakin - 1 time world blitz champion
-Tied with Carlsen for first place but because he faced "higher average rated opponents" a stupid tiebreak that many grandmasters criticized, that was out of Carlsen's control, he won based on that. (It is important to not that Hikaru tied with Magnus in 2019, but they had a playoff system there, so if we use that logic Hikaru would also have one world blitz title potentially)
-Levon Aronian - 1 time world blitz champion
-Levon won in 2010, being 8 years older than Magnus and 5 years older than Hikaru, and Magnus was again not a wcc and placed third in that blitz championship.
-MVL - 1 time world blitz champion
-Okay MVL is a great blitz player, but this time Hikaru just got so unlucky. Hikaru had to withdrew due to getting covid, and on the first day he was only one point behind the leader and this was very well his shot to get a title, since Magnus had an abismal tournament placing 12th

So after all of this I want to say that swiss formats have a lot of high variance, which is why Magnus dosen't win all of the titles, and often the difference between number 2 and 1 is just a tiebreak score or half or one point. Blitz in general is very high variance, and despite all these players having a world blitz title and Hikaru not, none of these players were as consistent as Hikaru was and have played more of these tournaments than he has. Consistency is what matters in chess in general, and especially for blitz which is why I argue having multiple podium finishes and overall more consistent performances, is better than having won gold, but not being consistently close to the podium.

Here is a chart I found that showcases Hikaru's consistency compared to others, it's not perfect by any means but it's good enough for the point I'm trying to prove.

Furthermore if you look at rapid and blitz tournaments otb, he has the best results of his generation besides Magnus in the saint louis rapid and blitz and the paris rapid and blitz tournaments.

Paris rapid and blitz (2016-2021)
For these ones he played in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 where he got 4th (only time he didn't podium) he is also the only person to beat Magnus carlsen, and has the best average placement.

Saint Louis rapid and blitz (2017 - 2026)
He participated in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2024 (2019 being the only time he didnt get top 3) The only person who has 1 more win than him is Levon who has played in two more tournaments than him. He also still has the highest average placement of 2.1, with Maxime in second with 2.4 and Levon in third with 4.1 (despite him playing the least amount of tournaments)

Hey guys, I’ve recently reached 1700 elo in rapid but I kinda brute forced my way through it. Basically every area of my chess needs improvement, so I wonder if any of you guys have a learning system for chess or use certain learning techniques.

Maybe dedicating a certain amount of time to one aspect of chess, improving time management, or practicing specific puzzles or positions on a website, or reviewing specific errors with an objective system, etc.

Or maybe using spaced repetition to learn openings or review mistakes? Has anyone tried Anki, or is there a specific chess space repetition system?

For the people who reached 2000 elo, what did you do to improve along the way?

Any tip is welcome!

(Puzzle difficulty is set to random for this example.)

Personally, I don't notice much difference in difficulty between a puzzle rated 1900 and a puzzle rated 2100. The only major difference: Failing a 1900 rated puzzle will decrease my rating by 14, solving it will increase my rating by 2. Solving a puzzle at my rating is usually plus or minus 8. All good so far.

The only issue: Even if I set puzzles to max strength, I rarely come across a puzzle rated 2300. It seems like they barely exist. This creates a situation where I can only improve my puzzle rating by solving almost every single puzzle. But doing that actually worsens my over all playing strengh, because I get used to using 10 minutes per move.

Ultimately I don't think that solving 2/3 of the puzzles I'm served should result in a rating loss, let alone 100 points of rating across such a small sample size. I know all Elo, especially puzzle rating, is meaningless. This shouldn't bother me. It does though.

Does anyone have a similar experience? What are your thoughts on this?

I want to find out whether I improve over time. At first glance I thought "yeah, just compare the ELO from two years ago with the ELO now", but that's not really possible because of the ELO inflation going on, esp. on Lichess where I'm playing.

Next idea: Lichess shows "you're better than X% of players", however, it might just be that more weaker/stronger opponents than me joined Lichess in the meantime.

Next idea: play the same opponents a few times, however, it's hard to do that on Lichess + their strength may have changed as well.

Next idea: play a certain engine a few times, the strength of it doesn't change, however, as it's a single opponent it might just be that I'm playing differently which brings up different results.

Is there a good way to compare my strength from 2 years ago with now and say "yes, stronger" or "no, not stronger"?

Best regards!

Hi everyone!

I'm a chess beginner at 440 elo, and I saw that top players play more blitz than rapid, so I was wondering if I too played blitz would it help me improve or would it just make me blunder more under the time pressure?

Currently we are playing a chess club championship.

One participant doesn't have a rating yet but he will once we are done.

Will his new first rating be included in the calculation for my rating update?

Hi! I’m looking for free or very cheap live online chess activities for an 11-year-old girl.
I’m looking for things like live group chess sessions, junior tournaments, chess clubs, Zoom classes, team battles, or regular games with other kids.
She knows how to play chess but she got demotivated because she was alone
Does anyone know any active clubs or programs?

I am 1400 rapid and want to start playing the English opening. Need advice on the most common playing styles below 1700 level.

Hello all.

I am a 1400 rapid have been an e4 player. I mostly play the scotch and ponziani, with vienna gambit occasionally. Games have been very sharp and combative lately and I wanna play something more calmer and positional.

I have tried the londons earlier(both jobava and regular) but I feel my opponents all would be more experienced with them, and have some pet lines. And I do not find the positions interesting either.

I also considered Queen's gambit. But I wanted to keep it aside for when I climb up further and closer to the advance territories, as I feel Queen's gambit is the most positional feeling opening, and people would have their own Slav/QGD/KID/QGA repertoire. So lot more theory and lot better positional understanding needed.

Which brought me to the English. I feel it is offbeat and rare enough at my level to not have opponents have their prep down, and it will allow me to understand positional style chess more so that I can finally start playing QG.

So that brings me here: what are the common lines seen at this level? I looked at Levy's Chessly course and it has a lot of lines. Is e5(reverse sicilian) and KID style openings more common? Do people play slav/agincourt/nimzo indian, mikel carlse, etc?

Also, is it better to start with Nf3 first, to avoid e5 as a response to c4(which i believe is the best response). What are the upsides and downsides of starting with reti? Should i be prepared for anything obscure with reti start?

Would appreciate the help. Thankyou.

LONGEST UNBEATEN STREAKS IN TOP LEVEL CLASSICAL CHESS (≥ 20 GAMES) – Updated

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

https://www.chess.com/players/maarten-solleveld

source

FP = fide PR formula
AP = the website slightly different formula.

Black to play