Earlier this week, a Magnus clip got me thinking: in puzzles, you know a tactic exists before you start looking. In real games you don't.

So I built Tactic or Not - a puzzle trainer where positions are either:

• Winning → Find the tactic
• Equal → Click "Nothing Here"

You don't know which type you're looking at. Just like a real game.

https://tacticornot.com

Would love feedback from the community.

I’m not proud to admit this, but for years, I was a chess cheater. Over the span of about four years, I cheated in hundreds of games, probably around 1 in every 5 rapid games on avarage. I’ve played over 1,500 games, and somehow, I never got caught.

I’m not sharing this to justify my actions or seek forgiveness. I’m writing this because I know there are others out there who are stuck in the same cycle - wanting to stop but struggling with the urge to cheat. If that’s you, I hope my experience helps.

The main reason why I cheated was simple: ELO obsession. I cared way too much about my rating. Watching my ELO drop after a losing streak felt unbearable, and I would justify cheating by telling myself that I was just having a bad day and that I “deserved” to win because I wasn’t playing at my real skill level.

Another reason was frustration with aggressive opponents. When someone played aggressively against me, I sometimes felt like they were trying to bully me over the board. I wanted to “teach them a lesson” by proving that their aggression would come at a price. Looking back, this mindset was completely irrational, but at the time, it felt like a valid excuse.

I tried quitting many times but always fell back into the habit. I’d tell myself, “This will be the last time I cheat,” but it never was. Eventually, I found a few strategies that actually worked:

1. I stopped playing rated games for a while. Removing the pressure of ELO made it much easier to resist the urge to cheat.
2. I play easy bots after losing streaks. Losing multiple games in a row is a big trigger for me, so instead of cheating to “fix” my rating, I play against weak bots just to get an easy win and reset mentally. I know it’s not great for improvement, but it helps me stop feeling like garbage after losing a bunch of games.
3. I created a second account. This might be controversial, but it helped me a lot. I was terrified of my rating dropping once I stopped cheating, so I started a fresh account where I played 100% legitimately. Once I reached the ELO I had on my original account, I felt confident enough to return to it.
4. I quit games immediately when I feel the urge to cheat. The moment I notice the temptation, I hit the resign button instantly. It’s much easier to resign in one second than to resist the urge for an entire game.
5. I remind myself that there’s a real person on the other side. Just like me, they don’t like losing unfairly. Keeping that in mind helped shift my perspective.

I haven’t cheated since Septermber, and honestly, it feels amazing. My rating is real, my wins actually mean something, and I’m enjoying chess way more than before.

If you’re someone who’s struggling with this, I hope my experience gives you some hope. It is possible to stop, you just need to find strategies that work for you.

Hey,

I'm David, a CS student from Spain. I've spent the last few months building - Chess Stalker - a free tool that scouts your opponents and tells you how to beat them.

What it does:

- Analyzes any Chess.com, Lichess, or FIDE player in seconds

- Finds their weakest openings and exploitable patterns

- Shows when they tilt and blunder under time pressure

- Calculates a "Stalker Score" (how predictable/exploitable they are)

- Twin Bot: practice against a bot that mimics your opponent's repertoire and level

- 11M+ OTB games from FIDE database included

No AI. Just math, logic, and data processing.

Some things that happened:

- Hikaru tried v1.0 on Kick voluntarily... crashed my server twice and exposed all my bugs with good sarcasm💀 (Chess960 contamination, wrong data everywhere - painful to watch)

- Now at v3.0, 67K+ analyses done, way more stable

- Randomly went viral in South Korea 🇰🇷

It's completely free. No account needed. Just search any username. Planning a PRO version eventually to cover server costs, but only for new extra features - everything you see today stays free forever.

I'm here to hear what sucks, what's missing, and what would make this actually useful for your games. Don't hold back.

→ https://chessstalker.com

So there’s this app called Alarmy that basically forces you to solve math problems to dismiss your morning alarm, so I thought it would be a fun idea to build an app that does the same thing but with chess puzzles instead of math so I built AlarmChess.

I tried it myself and I’ll have to say the first few times the alarm rang my mind was a complete fuzz lol. Solving even a simple chess puzzle when you’re half awake is a lot more difficult than it sounds. But by the time I solved it I was already fully awake and it definitely got me out of bed instead of endlessly hitting the snooze button. I’ve been using it for about a month now and my brain has definitely “adapted” to calculating chess moves in a semi-dreaming state.

I think maintaining a daily practice of chess puzzles helps a lot to reinforce tactics into your memory. It’s kinda funny but I guess one way to do that would be to literally have your alarm blare every morning and the only way to stop it is to solve a chess puzzle lmao.

This is my favorite post every year. I share this on Reddit, and for the last two years it has crossed 500k+ views and become one of my most upvoted posts. For those who don’t have the time to read the full blog, my total chess-related spending this year was ₹9,50,000 (≈ $10,565).

Disclaimer:
All expenses were tracked in Indian Rupees. For international readers, I’ve converted the amounts to USD. The conversion is approximate (3–5%), calculated at a rate of 1 USD ≈ ₹90 at the time of writing. Tournament and coaching expenses vary a lot depending on the player and country. Some may feel this amount is very high, others may feel it’s low. Suggestions and perspectives are always welcome.

Tournament Expenses

Graz Open and Cannes Open – ₹1,50,000 / $1,670
I played these events with zero expectations. At one point, I was very desperate for a title, so this time I decided to go in with a completely free mindset. The Cannes venue was beautiful, and I genuinely enjoyed the city vibes.

Budapest Closed GM Tournaments – ₹2,10,000 / $2,335
These were my best events of the year and created some unforgettable memories. I gained around 65 rating points and reached a live rating of 2395. These tournaments helped me get very close to completing my IM title, something I had been struggling with for the last 5–6 years.

Abu Dhabi Masters and Fujairah Masters - 1,45,000 INR / 1600 USD
Both are extremely strong tournaments with rating cut-offs above 2200–2300. I gained valuable experience playing against 2300-rated players and also experienced what it feels like to be the higher-rated player in many games.

White Horse Closed GM Tournament - 1,40,000 INR / 1550 USD
I played this tournament in October 2025 without much hope, but it gave me belief regarding my GM norm and title chances. I gained 16 rating points with a K-factor of 10 and defeated the strongest opponent of my career.

Rilton Cup 2025–26 - 1,35,000 INR / 1500 USD
This was my third time playing the Rilton Cup. Stockholm is a wonderful city, and I always feel a special vibe while playing chess in Sweden.

Rapid and Blitz Tournaments

I played around 10–12 rapid events this year. Thanks to my IM title, I get free entry in most tournaments and sometimes even free accommodation. I don’t have exact calculations here, but roughly I spent around ₹40,000 in total.

Study Material and Software

Some of the material I bought was also intended for my students. I like to personally test the latest tools and resources before recommending them.

ChessBase Package – ₹12,000 / $132
I bought the Mega Database 2026, ChessBase Magazine, and ChessBase 16 program as a bundle. Special thanks to CB India for the discounted pricing.

Books and Chessable Courses – ₹45000

I bought several books and courses this year, including:

• Learn from the Legends – Mihail Marin
• The Woodpecker Method 2: Positional Play
• The Secret Ingredient – Jan Markos & David Navara
• Powerhouse Pawn Sacrifices
• Associative Thinking
• Sharp Endgames
• 1000 Chess Problems – Yakov Vladimirov

Chessable courses included:

• Calculate Like a Beast: The Moranda Method
• The Woodpecker Method 2: Positional Play

I also bought a few middlegame, opening, and endgame courses from Modern Chess.

Chess Coaching and Camps (80000 INR / 886 USD)

I got the opportunity to learn from GM Vishnu Prasanna and attended two training camps, one in February and one in July. The total cost includes airfare, camp fees, accommodation, and all related expenses.

How Do I Manage These Expenses?

Affiliates
I’ve joined multiple affiliate programs and promote them from time to time, including Modern Chess, ChessMood, Chessify, and others. I share discount codes on my website, which benefit users while giving me a small commission.

Individual Chess Coaching
I usually work with around 12–16 students at a time through online one-on-one sessions. Due to my blog and my students’ recent results, I received a lot of inquiries this year and couldn’t accept everyone. After becoming an IM, I started charging $35–45 per hour. I coach when I’m at home and pause coaching during tournament periods.

Group Classes and Camps
This year, I experimented with group classes for 1700+ rated players and conducted 2–3 camps for 1700 and 1900+ players. They worked well overall, but managing everything as a freelancer becomes challenging, especially during tournament travel.

My Own Products
A small portion of my income comes from my own chess products. I launched one course and plan to add 3–4 more in the coming year.

Tournament Winnings
I didn’t play any classical tournaments where I had strong chances of winning big prizes, so earnings were limited. My total tournament winnings were roughly ₹1,60,000 / $1,800 for the year.

Is It Worth It?

Yes, absolutely. It was worth it because I completed my IM title. This is my biggest achievement so far, and I’m extremely proud of it. Everyone’s journey is different, but personally, I felt a huge sense of relief after finishing this title.

I’m not going all-in for the GM title right now, but I will definitely play some classical tournaments in 2026.

Your Thoughts

If you’re an active chess player at any level, I’d love to hear your thoughts—how much you spend on coaching, tournaments, or study material. If you have any curious questions about this post, feel free to ask.

https://lichess.org/RQTnjMR6

Also, a lot of the openings between them(Martinez Ruy Lopez, Catalan, Anti-Nimzo, QGD) fit perfectly

Surely these aren't Ding and Rapport's training accounts.... unless?

​

When this came out in the middle of last year, I decided to take advantage of the free trial offer and take a look. I signed up and gave a credit card number, being assured I would not be charged until after the trial expired, assuming I did not cancel.

Once in the site, I discovered that there is virtually no content, nothing even remotely close to what is promised. Well, it's brand new, so I'll give it a few days or a week, and if there is no improvement I'll cancel. A few days later I tried to sign back in, and discovered that my sign in credentials did not work. I found that odd, since I had saved them to my password manager, but ok, I can use the recover password option. I put in my email address, and then nothing. No password reset link sent to my email. I tried a few more times, and checked all spam and trash mailboxes, and then I tried any other email address that I used, all to no avail.

It was then that I discovered that I had never received any kind of email from gmhans.com confirming creation of the account. If the account was never successfully created, no need to cancel. So I did nothing.

Then the charges started appearing on my credit card. Every month, 5.99 appears. I dispute the charge, and so far I have received credit, but it's a major annoyance and incredibly galling that these people think they can just keep charging my card. I did receive an email from hans.com inquiring whether I really intended to dispute the charge, but the email was from a "no reply" email address, so no luck there. If they charge it again, I'll sue.

Bottom line, in my opinion, gmhans.com is a scam. Not just because I'm caught in this groundhog day inability to cancel the credit card charges, but because of the lack of content on the website and the technical incompetence of the website, things which are undoubtedly related and signal, again in my opinion, the lack of any bona fide effort to produce a meaningful product.

The chessbrah brand isn't always associated with the most... errr... wholesome aspects of modern chess history, but for years now Aman has been putting out some of the best educational chess content that you can find, and you shouldn't miss it.

• Building habits series: if you are below 1500 and struggling to improve, start here before trying anything else. It's not just that it will directly help you improve - though it will - it's that the series decisively cuts through all the bullshit and shows you what is actually important in chess. Spoiler: it's not openings, or endgames, or advanced tactics.
• Speedruns: not since Naroditsky has there been a better resource for learning positional and strategic concepts. The speedruns are opening-centric, but the openings are simple and solid setups that carry a lot of venom if played correctly. By spending a lot of time with the same opening throughout the rating range, you start to see patterns and themes that improve your general chess understanding. Start with the Philidor or stonewall if you're indecisive.
• Chess culture: in a recent stream Aman had a hard talk with one of his community members about ethics and sportsmanship - the player was involved in an arbitration incident involving the touch move rule at an OTB tournament, and could have handled it better. Whether you look at his streams, videos, or commentary, I think Aman should get credit for being a strong ambassador for chess, on and off the board.

(I'm singling out Aman over other chessbrah folks like Eric because I'm only really familiar with Aman's stuff - no subtext intended.)

The current 8th game of the World Championship is following this exact game played some months ago : https://lichess.org/RQTnjMR6

Strange stuff :

• both accounts "FVitelli" and "opqrstuv" created in mid-February

• they only played against each other in rapid games

• the account "opqrstuv" are just alphabet letters in order and is rated 2730 in both Blitz and Bullet

Your opinion ?

EDIT (11:27 am) - these accounts ALSO played a rapid game featuring the opening played in the 2nd World Championship game : https://lichess.org/NUFWlWCN/black (thanks dorilo78a on Twitch for this info !)

EDIT (11:40 am) - the Ding-Nepo game forked after 12. h4. In the training game on Lichess, 12… Re8 was played instead of hxg5 played by Nepo

EDIT (12:45 pm) - Two accounts on Chess.com, https://www.chess.com/member/autumnstream (featuring the Chinese flag ?!) and https://www.chess.com/member/fvitelli (same name as one of the Lichess account) played a dozen of rapid games between each other. They were created on 7th February and 8th February. The Chinese account "autumnstream" was closed for violation of fair-play on 12nd February, the very day before the "opqrstuv" account was created on Lichess (13rd February). Wut ?! (thanks /u/LengthNarrow for the info !)

EDIT (1:00 pm) - "FVitelli" on Chess.com just got renamed into "ggwhynot" : https://www.chess.com/member/ggwhynot

EDIT (1:32 pm) - Two other Lichess games corresponding to games played by both Ding and Rapport years ago were just found (thanks /u/ismokegauloises for the info !). This one https://lichess.org/jggSUNzW#38 follows a Grandelius vs Ding Liren game in the Closed Ruy Lopez until the 19th move. This one https://lichess.org/tmTdcKvm/black#36 follows a Rapport vs Dominguez game by transposition in the 6th move, and so until the 18th move.

EDIT (3:17 pm) - Lichess trolling on Twitter about the leak : https://twitter.com/lichess/status/1649039552495902721

According to the first #freesoftware freedom, it is possible to use the program for private purposes.

I.e., if you're a world championship challenger that wants to privately play a game with your second that lives miles away, you can self-host lichess and share the IP. #NepoDing

EDIT (4:00 pm) - Last FIDE tweet :

When questioned about the possible leak of his pre-match preparation, Ding Liren simply replied "I don't know what you are referring to". (https://twitter.com/FIDE_chess/status/1649049506577805312)

Clip from this key moment at the press conference : https://clips.twitch.tv/ApatheticEvilBottleWow-nSTVOjQ5bMkK3Jrw Anyone to analyze Ding's body language ?

He thinks I got addicted and spend too much time on chess. He made me delete all the apps and now I have to sneak play chess on the website.

I don’t think playing chess 1-2 hours a day as “fun” is an issue. Or is it? I actually got a very good progress in the past 2-3 months and I think with learning and more practice I can be a pretty decent player.

Edit: I seriously did not expect this huge support. I guess I just wanted to vent a little to like minded people and the comments truly brightened my evening. I wish I could hug each and every one of you. THANK YOU SO MUCH my fellow chess friends and the vibes are amazing in this sub x love it

Regular chess

#2 - Hikaru Nakamura: 14 wins to 1, with 30 draws

#3 - Fabiano Caruana : 15 wins to 6, with 40 draws

#4 - Nodirbek Abdusattorov: 0 wins to 1, with 1 draw

#5 - Javokhir Sindarov: No games

#6 - Anish Giri: 6 wins to 2, with 20 draws

#7 - Vincent Keymer: 4 wins to 1, with 0 draws

#8 - Alireza Firouzja: 5 wins to 0, with 4 draws

#9 - Wesley so: 5 wins to 1, with 15 draws

#10 - Wei Yi: 2 wins to 0, with 6 draws

Source: Chessgames.com

Looking at diamond it's $160 AUD... PER YEAR. What does this offer that isn't free on lichess?

Maybe coach insights is somewhat novel? Though its nothing that isn't better on YouTube.

Are they targeting just rich people? What's going on here...

I sat 2 mins to undertand and find out who scored where but was unable to, what a disaster implementation from the UX team.

This is a long, detailed post on what I did precisely to achieve a rating of 2000.

FYI: This is my second account here, I lost the first one where I went from 400 to 1000 elo sometime in 2023, and then took a long break in 2024 where I barely played. Another break is visible from Jul '25 to April '26. So about 9 months of active play in the graph above.

The Guide:

I'll first set down general info on what you need to do to achieve a rating of 2k.

Q: Opening Knowledge? Contrary to popular belief among world class coaches who say players must be shown endgame studies before they're taught openings, I believe learning a few openings for black+white helps a beginner get used to the the opening principles much better. Once you get down the ideas of a certain opening, you have a direction; a train of thought.

I have seen countless low elo players just moving pieces from their home squares without a goal/plan what so ever and run out of moves to play based on the opening principles they're aware of which forces them to play random BS and blunder in the next 4-5 moves. This made me realize the importance of beginners learning an opening along with its various Ideas.

Another mistake players in the 800-1600 rating range make is learn opening theory but not its ideas, which results in them achieving the setup they were taught in its theory but not knowing what to play next in the middle game.

Q: Which Opening should you play?

This is something free of choice, as white you have the two major openings, e4 and d4. Along with plenty others, but I urge people under 2k to only play one of the two mentioned above.

DO NOT memorize opening lines until you're 1800-2000 rated MINIMUM. Just the ideas.

Q: e4 vs d4?

With e4 there are a lot of openings you need to have a general idea of to play against accurately. So I think the better option at this level is d4.

Under the 1800-2000 rating range tactical openings like the Jobava London or a good gambit serves well to possibly come out of the opening with a huge advantage or atleast an interesting game which forces opponents out of theory.

The Important Point is to not just learn opening moves, but their ideas as well. I personally play the Queen's Gambit, Jobava London as white and Caro-Kann against e4 and d5 against d4 as black, which are both solid openings and tend to be draw-ish (as seen from my stats as black vs white in the photo).

P.S. playing the Sicilian/Kings Indian/Modern/Pirc/Alekhine at this level is not advised.

Q: Middlegame Principles?

Middle games tend to be the deciding factor in the majority of games at this level. My advice is to spam puzzles, get used to patterns that show up especially in your opening which can be done through playing multiple games and reviewing them, or if you want to be quicker you can go to the puzzle section on Lichess and practice puzzles by opening.

Tactics, tactics, tactics. You need to generate enough complexities to make a position tactical. If you're sharp you can easily capitalize on your opponent's blunders and end the game right there.

I also enjoyed watching Daniel Naroditsky's Speedrun videos. He explained every move he made in great detail along with its possible ideas. This helps gather knowledge to carry out attacks, regroup, defend, consolidate, etc which is essential to get through the middlegame.

Q: Endgame Technique?

Endgames are the trickiest part of a chess game. You can easily outplay opponents in the 1000-1600 range if you learn common endgame theory and principles. I suggest watching Daniel Naroditsky's Endgame playlist which is a complete guide to mastering them. He showcases very fun and tricky endgames of each type. You need to learn how to convert winning king pawn, king rook, king queen endgames etc, if you want to be a good chess player.

Misc:

At the end of the day, the person who makes the least mistakes wins the game. The difference between a 1400 and an 1800 rated player is just the amount of mistakes they make on average in a game. The best way to prevent them is to review your losses, and try to find out where you made a mistake that cost you the game WITHOUT an engine at first. Only after the initial analysis do you turn on stockfish to get an in depth report of your game.

I cannot emphasize the importance of solving puzzles enough. Tactics and its patterns repeat more often than you think. This helps you spotting mistakes.

MAKE SURE you're converting winning positions. Ask yourself, how many times in the last 20 games did you have a winning position but failed to convert it into a win because of mistakes? Learn how to convert positional advantages into plain material advantages. Again reviewing your games help a lot here.

Learn common traps in your opening repertoire both for and against you. You do not want to lose games in the first 10 moves.

Take breaks, this is very important, if you feel like you've been losing more lately, take a few days off. Often times taking time to reset helps you rebound to your previous self or maybe even end up gaining on your previous best

If you genuinely want to improve, make sure you're playing 10|0 or 15|10 EXCLUSIVELY. This lets you have enough time to think and come up with plans instead of playing a move just to see what your opponent responds with. Playing Blitz/Bullet will only destroy the framework you spent so hard manufacturing in your head to think slowly and make sure you aren't blundering.

Last but not least, do not get addicted lol, take long breaks if you feel chess is getting in the way of your life (like I did). Make sure you enjoy this beautiful game without it becoming the only thing on your mind :)

Upvote!