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Crunchums
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Re: chess

Post by Crunchums » Wed Mar 30, 2022 4:59 pm

Crunchums wrote: Mon Feb 21, 2022 11:48 pm
Crunchums wrote: Sun Jul 11, 2021 10:23 pm peaked at 2432
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:super:
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Re: chess

Post by Crunchums » Mon Apr 11, 2022 4:20 am

IMG_2041.PNG
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but currently i'm at 2472
i failed this one https://lichess.org/training/Zk28A which is currently rated at 2665 !!?!
i wanna hit 2500 but it takes so much patience : S
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Re: chess

Post by Blissful » Mon Apr 11, 2022 10:06 am

i dont know anything about this rating system but 2400 seems like a really big number, nice puzzling crunchy
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Re: chess

Post by Ashenai » Mon Apr 11, 2022 11:24 am

it's actually even bigger than 2300! jury is out on whether it's bigger than 2500, some people say yes, others no

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Re: chess

Post by Blissful » Mon Apr 11, 2022 11:31 am

i think that 2500 is bigger but thats just my beliefs
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Re: chess

Post by Blissful » Mon Apr 11, 2022 11:32 am

2498 is mostly 2500 though, i dont think these numbers are all that different when you get down to it
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Re: chess

Post by Rylinks » Mon Apr 11, 2022 11:39 am

they’re 2 different

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Re: chess

Post by Blissful » Mon Apr 11, 2022 12:38 pm

Rylinks wrote: Mon Apr 11, 2022 11:39 am they’re 2 different
this is true, but i think if you got them together in a bar and talked with them for an evening you'd find they're a lot more the same than they are different
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Re: chess

Post by Crunchums » Sun May 22, 2022 5:31 pm

https://lichess.org/training/frh4u
i just solved this puzzle after two weeks; am pretty pleased
2483 when they assigned it to me but looks like 2354 now
Spoiler!
still feels weird to me, like yeah just hang your knight and they take your queen with check and then somehow everything sucks for them
something I feel like I have learned from past puzzles: any time you have a pawn on their side of the board you should be suspicious that the threat of it advancing further is part of the puzzle
but none of the other moves that do anything (fxe6, fxg6, f6, Bxe6) work at all, so eventually i spent a long time calculating what happens after Nxe6 Qxf2 Rxf2 and went with it and then that was the end of the puzzle, heh
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Re: chess

Post by Crunchums » Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:02 pm

https://lichess.org/training/tt4vo
just solved this puzzle (2473 when i solved it) after three weeks; i'm now back up to 2485
Spoiler!
it's pretty easy to see that Qe6+ Kc7 Be5+ Kb6 is a forcing line (Kb8 instead of Kc7 leads to made)... but then what?
eventually i realized that Qd6 wins the bishop because you're threatening mate (Qa3+ Kb6 c5+ Kb5 Qb4+ Ka6 Qa4#)
after you win the bishop you're only up a pawn, but i didn't see any other moves that really even do anything so i went with it and it was the right answer
the engine says +6, which i guess makes sense with black's king and knight being a lot worse than your king and bishop
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Re: chess

Post by Ashenai » Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:10 pm

Crunchums wrote: Sun Jun 19, 2022 5:02 pm https://lichess.org/training/tt4vo
just solved this puzzle (2473 when i solved it) after three weeks; i'm now back up to 2485
Spoiler!
it's pretty easy to see that Qe6+ Kc7 Be5+ Kb6 is a forcing line (Kb8 instead of Kc7 leads to made)... but then what?
eventually i realized that Qd6 wins the bishop because you're threatening mate (Qa3+ Kb6 c5+ Kb5 Qb4+ Ka6 Qa4#)
after you win the bishop you're only up a pawn, but i didn't see any other moves that really even do anything so i went with it and it was the right answer
the engine says +6, which i guess makes sense with black's king and knight being a lot worse than your king and bishop
Spoiler!
Yeah I got the first two moves immediately but then failed the puzzle with 3. c5

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Re: chess

Post by Crunchums » Wed Jun 29, 2022 3:50 pm

https://lichess.org/training/jovz2
only took a week to solve this one, now up to 2495 :IO
Spoiler!
this is a very strange puzzle. you start down a minor piece. two moves later and the end result is you've given up a pawn??
but then 14 moves of the top engine line later you're now up the exchange (i.e. you've won back minor + rook for minor)
weird
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Re: chess

Post by Ashenai » Wed Jun 29, 2022 4:02 pm

Crunchums wrote: Wed Jun 29, 2022 3:50 pm https://lichess.org/training/jovz2
only took a week to solve this one, now up to 2495 :IO
Spoiler!
this is a very strange puzzle. you start down a minor piece. two moves later and the end result is you've given up a pawn??
but then 14 moves of the top engine line later you're now up the exchange (i.e. you've won back minor + rook for minor)
weird
I got this one immediately!

Spoiler!
1. ... Bc5 seems so obviously crushing. You're trying to overload the white defenses. I also considered 1. ... g5 to deflect the white bishop but I think 2. Qxg4 solves White's problems there. Bc5 is great because white has to scramble to defend and doesn't have time to simplify the position.

I had to think about the response to 2. Bxf7+, obviously my first instinct was to take, but then I realized the 3. Qd5+ fork kills my attack. 2. ... Kf8 is the only move that doesn't allow any further checks.

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Re: chess

Post by Ashenai » Wed Jun 29, 2022 4:05 pm

I think this is a positional puzzle more than a combination. I obviously didn't calculate any of the engine lines you were talking about, but when you have a scary attack and you're forcing your opponent to scramble to defend, converting into +material is the usual outcome.

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Re: chess

Post by Crunchums » Wed Jun 29, 2022 4:30 pm

Spoiler!
most of the puzzles gives me have a clear reason at the end as to why the answer is the answer - follow this idea and you come out ahead in material. sometimes instead the material ends up even but they're positionally wrecked, like their king is absurdly unsafe or something. but this one was just like "you make a very strong threat; the end" which is weird. it was actually pretty easy because Bc5 is the only move that does anything (and then Kxf7 obv gets ruined by Qd5+ like you said), but i don't like getting puzzles wrong (gotta make the rating number go up :supo: ) so i took a while to finally decide to pull the trigger even though i couldn't figure out what the line would be
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Re: chess

Post by Ashenai » Wed Jun 29, 2022 4:31 pm

Yeah my power level was vastly enhanced here by not particularly caring if I got it wrong

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Re: chess

Post by Crunchums » Sat Jul 02, 2022 5:03 pm

i broke 2500 :super:
2508 in fact :)
https://lichess.org/training/jxdn8
Spoiler!
this was much more straightforward; does Nf3 work -> calculate -> yes. the only real question is ok you win material, but what about the position? and the answer is that your queen is a fox in a henhouse vs their uncoordinated pieces and unsafe king
IMG_2085.PNG
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woooo
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Re: chess

Post by Ashenai » Sat Jul 02, 2022 5:14 pm

Got this one too!
Spoiler!
Nf3 looked like such a pretty move, so I was immediately excited by it and it became my top candidate to look at. Black looks vulnerable in several places but nothing White can do will work. I didn't bother to figure out what the position would look like after: as soon as I saw we were at least winning an exchange, I went for it.
Sloppy puzzle-solving wins again!

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Re: chess

Post by Crunchums » Fri Jul 15, 2022 10:27 pm

up to 2523
https://lichess.org/training/hjoJ8
Spoiler!
Rg4+ Kh1 Qd5+ f3 is an immediately obvious forcing sequence, but it took me a week to solve this. obv you can't hang mate so it seems like the only possible moves would involve defending f8 (or R[a-d]8 ). so i spent basically all of that week trying to figure out why Rgf4 would be winning, because it seemed like the only move that threatened anything. but actually Rxf3 doesn't hang mate because if Qe8+ then blocking with the rook comes with a discovered check! was such a eureka moment when I solved it :)

this was another one where patience won the day - i wasn't seeing anything that did anything, but after making the first two moves (which i'd rather not do, but i super wasn't seeing anything) and then staring at it i eventually had the key insight

i was kinda surprised to jump 18 ratings points, but the puzzle is currently rated at 2521 so I guess that makes sense
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Re: chess

Post by Crunchums » Sat Jul 16, 2022 2:09 am

this video has been in my watch later playlist for months, and every time i see the title i feel like it's the title of a porn video
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caro%E2%8 ... on%3A_3.f3)
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Re: chess

Post by Ashenai » Sat Jul 16, 2022 8:24 am

Crunchums wrote: Fri Jul 15, 2022 10:27 pm up to 2523
https://lichess.org/training/hjoJ8
Spoiler!
Rg4+ Kh1 Qd5+ f3 is an immediately obvious forcing sequence, but it took me a week to solve this. obv you can't hang mate so it seems like the only possible moves would involve defending f8 (or R[a-d]8). so i spent basically all of that week trying to figure out why Rgf4 would be winning, because it seemed like the only move that threatened anything. but actually Rxf3 doesn't hang mate because if Qe8+ then blocking with the rook comes with a discovered check! was such a eureka moment when I solved it :)

this was another one where patience won the day - i wasn't seeing anything that did anything, but after making the first two moves (which i'd rather not do, but i super wasn't seeing anything) and then staring at it i eventually had the key insight

i was kinda surprised to jump 18 ratings points, but the puzzle is currently rated at 2521 so I guess that makes sense
This is a cool one and I blew it!
Spoiler!
I got the first two moves right, but still had no idea where to go from there. I totally missed the discovered check trick, tried Rgf4, and failed the puzzle.

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Re: chess

Post by Crunchums » Sat Jul 16, 2022 3:15 pm

Ashenai wrote:
Crunchums wrote: Fri Jul 15, 2022 10:27 pm (or R[a-d]8)
:supo:
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Re: chess

Post by Rylinks » Fri Jul 22, 2022 12:40 pm

here's a puzzle position from one of my games:
Spoiler!
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Re: chess

Post by Crunchums » Fri Jul 22, 2022 1:44 pm

Spoiler!
Ng6+, hxg6, Qh[3,4]#
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Re: chess

Post by Ashenai » Fri Jul 22, 2022 1:54 pm

Yeah that's a very pretty combination!

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Re: chess

Post by Rylinks » Fri Jul 22, 2022 6:18 pm

it would have been very nice if i found it during the actual game

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Re: chess

Post by Ashenai » Fri Jul 22, 2022 10:31 pm

Nothing more demoralizing than getting the computer analysis of a game I thought I crushed, only to discover all the shit I missed.

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Re: chess

Post by Rylinks » Fri Jul 22, 2022 11:03 pm

yes there is it’s losing winning endgames because i don’t want to study endgames for a year

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Re: chess

Post by Crunchums » Fri Jul 22, 2022 11:52 pm

that's what i like puzzles instead of actually trying to play games - you don't actually have to know how to play chess well
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Re: chess

Post by Ashenai » Sat Jul 23, 2022 12:58 am

getting owned is fun, though. it gives you something to fight towards.

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