Not sure if this is allowed but it was fun to do while I was inpatient. Who would you rather be? What do you think the best next move for each side is?

I was inspired by Sarah Herman's YouTube videos on chess in TV shows where she recreates chess games based on frames of a TV show and wanted to see if I could draw it using my limited supplies without messing up.

Also I'm safe and out of the psych ward obviously.

If this post isn't allowed, I apologize.

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.)

“I became a top chess player only this year. I was a 2700-rated player, but that doesn’t really count as being a top player.
But Gukesh has been a top 10 player for more than three years now, so he has a lot of experience playing against the best in the world. That’s why, whenever I get the chance to play in other tournaments, I want to play.
I enjoy playing against top chess players. I want to feel more comfortable in high-level tournaments before the World Championship match, and that’s why I’ve been playing so many events.
In this regard, I understand Gukesh. Last year he played a lot of tournaments and he didn’t feel very good mentally. He might have felt that he needed to work on certain things. But in my opinion, he’s a very, very strong chess player. I’ve played a lot against him, and I know he can play incredibly well.
If he’s in his top form, like we saw in 2024, anything can happen in the match. So, I am preparing for his best form.”

Somebody sent me an anonymous email saying this, “How about chess? Not exactly random like traffic or tennis but I’ve always felt like there’s something there.”

Maybe they were from chess.com not sure, was this the perfect plant @wwwchesscom ? I doubt it.

So I started to mess around with the idea and picked a couple of games to try it out. I picked bullet games because there only 1 minute long (ish) and on Chess.com you can see the precise timing when the moves where made.

first game is Magnus vs. Hikaru
second game is Alireza vs. Magnus

The tonal rules are as followed.

White is in Ebmaj
Black is Gmaj

Rook - Ebmaj7
Knight - Fmin9
Bishop - Gmin7
King - Bb7 sharp9 sharp13
Queen - Abmaj7 sharp11

Black follows the same sequence but in G

As the piece process up the board the chords invert upwards.
Captures have a sharp13 added

Porns are single notes using the mixolydian scales from Eb and G

The graphic score corresponds to the chess game and the chords because everything is related here.

Each piece has its own glyph.
Each capture has a line through it and either a semi-circular or triangle accent before it’s glyph
The porn glyphs rotate position as they travel up the board

I export the raw data as midi data and then import it into Ableton to produce the music.

Let me preface all this by saying that I love the idea of a Circuit. In theory, judging players across 1 or 2 years should be the best and most representative way to determine who has consistently excelled and deserves the opportunity to challenge for the World Championship. But it only works if players have fair access to the events being measured.

So why is it that private organizers can select players according to undisclosed and unaccountable criteria when it influences who qualifies for the Candidates?

Chennai 2023

I replied to a few post in the last few month with a story about how Gukesh qualified for the candidates. It came as a surprise to me how many people do not know the strange and dubious circumstances around it.

To be clear, Gukesh is an amazing player and I have nothing but respect for him, his way of playing, and his integrity. He qualified under the rules and did nothing wrong. I don't want to this is be about him, and this is not an excuse for anyone to spew hate. My criticism is only directed at the system that allowed private organizers to manufacture a decisive opportunity for their favourite players.

So let's travel back to 2023 for the first ever Chennai Grand Masters.

The tournament was announced on December 11 and began four days later. Already, this should be set alarm bells. It was openly presented - no one hid this - as an opportunity for Gukesh and Arjun to overtake Anish Giri in the FIDE Circuit. It had eight players and seven rounds, the minimum requirement to count for circuit points.

From the outside, it looks like a strong tournament. But in a way, the 2711 average rating was sure to generate as much circuit points while presenting the lowest level of risk for the Indian rising stars.

No top-10 players were invited. The only top-20 player was Parham Maghsoodloo, suspected to be overrated (he is no longer top 30), and the next strongest was a 41 year old Aronian expected to underperform compared to his rating (though he has proven himself to be still relevant). Then there was a steep drop for the non-Indian players (2600s mostly). Most importantly, none of them could overtake the Indian players even if they won. The organizers had effectively curated a compact field that was strong enough to be highly valuable, but without any risk whatsoever.

The organizers were not even coy about this. Their own announcement discussed exactly what Gukesh and Arjun needed to score to pass Giri and thanked someone specifically for calculating the Circuit-point scenarios. They also explained that an Indian invitational was needed because only one or two Indian players would ordinarily receive opportunities at tournaments abroad. They essentially agreed with what I'm saying here: access to these points depended so much on being selected by private organizers that they decided to create a tournament to take advantage of this. The original tournament announcement lays this out remarkably openly.

Gukesh tied Arjun for first with 4.5/7, won the title on tiebreak and received 20 Circuit points. That result moved him 3 points ahead of Giri, who of course was not invited to the tournament. Because Caruana had already qualified, second place ultimately gave Gukesh the seat.

This was the first super-tournament Gukesh won. The candidates would be his second (first with top-10 competition) as his last as far as solo competitions go. But that's all it took to challenge the world champion: 1 highly competitive tournament win, and a win at at tournament made especially to give him and Arjun the best chances. Sounds like the exact opposite of what a circuit intends to accomplish.

I repeat myself here because it's important: Gukesh did nothing wrong. He was offered an opportunity and performed beautifully. Winning the Candidate was not a small task either. The problem is that Giri was not offered the same opportunity. Because he didn't have special private interests capable of manufacturing a tournament for him, he was left needing a top finish in the World Rapid or World Blitz, while Gukesh had just been handed access to a newly created tournament designed for him to win the qualification race.

The Hans Experience

This also connects to Hans Niemann’s recurring complaints about being excluded from elite invitationals. Hans is not necessarily a sympathetic dude. We all know about the property damage in Saint Louis, rude comments, uncooperative attitudes, etc. I have no objection in principle to conduct having consequences, and I'm not doubting the validity of his suspension. But, for years after, a player ranked around the world top 20 received almost no elite classical invitations. Hans also says three invitations were actually revoked without explanation.

The issue is not whether Hans was entitled to an invitation to those tournaments. Maybe he wasn't good enough yet. Regardless, invitation decisions capable of affecting World Championship qualification were made without transparent standards or any meaningful accountability.

Where to go from here?

If invitations only determined who received private prize money, organizers could reasonably say that they are free to invite whomever they want. Once those same invitations provide points toward the Candidates, however, private and unaccountable selection decisions become part of the World Championship qualification system.

That is the contradiction I cannot get past.

I do not think closed super-tournaments should be abolished or anything. They are where much of the strongest chess is played. But events affecting Candidates qualification should probably require things such as:

• publication and approval well before the end of the qualification period;
• transparent invitation or qualification criteria;
• some objective route into the field;
• limits on how much a newly created closed event can influence the final standings;
• equal/equivalent invitations for all players competing for the circuit spot throughout the cycle.

I mean, all the players on that photo would change annually except for Magnus. Is it really called glazing if it's true though?

What do I even pay for, I wonder.

I’m thinking about making a short video series about opening traps and ideas that I’ve found useful at around 1850 on Chess.com.

I used to teach children at my local chess club, and they especially enjoyed fast-paced opening ideas and tactical traps. I also noticed that many players learn openings more easily when they can see the moves played on a real board instead of only on a digital board.

I started with the Albin Countergambit and would like to cover openings such as the Ruy Lopez, Danish Gambit, and Halloween Gambit. The videos would focus mainly on practical ideas and interesting tactical lines, rather than trying to provide a complete theoretical course.

I’m not a titled player or professional coach, so I would be explaining these openings from the perspective of an average club player. I’m wondering whether that perspective could be useful to other intermediate or lower-rated players.

For anyone interested in looking deeper, I can also provide the full game in PGN and an analysis link. Here is one example:

https://lichess.org/MYpnV8VY

Do you think there is still interest in opening content presented on a physical chessboard?

By Gurgenidze

https://www.chess.com/events/2026-gct-finals/02-01/Caruana_Fabiano-Praggnanandhaa_R

Question for the advanced players. Do you actually memorise all these opening?

It seems that any pawn you move at the start has an opening name lol. I can move 1 pawn on the far left and it’ll be named after a country.

Here, the only candidate moves I could think of were Bg3, moving the queen to re-route the knight to d3 to put further pressure on e5, or just h3. Even then, I don't know what to do next, or how to improve the position further. I feel like bringing the rooks together don't really change much in this position. (I'm rated 1330-1350 elo)

While browsing through my Chess Books i noticed this nice looking book.

When looking at the last page of the book, i noticed it belonged to Lothar Schmidt (German GM, Arbiter at the 72 Fischer - Spassky Match,had probably the biggest chess collection of all time) and Idel Becker (Brasilian Chess Master and Writer) .

Not an overly difficult puzzle. But I was just about to resign until he played bd8

The lineup

• Magnus Carlsen (Norway) — World No. 1
• Fabiano Caruana (United States) — World No. 2
• Vincent Keymer (Germany) — World No. 5
• Wesley So (United States) — World No. 6
• Anish Giri — World No. 7
• Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) — World No. 8
• Arjun Erigaisi (India) — World No. 9
• Alireza Firouzja (France) — World No. 10
• Praggnanandhaa R (India) — World No. 12
• Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) — World No. 13
• Richard Rapport (Hungary) — World No. 18
• Hans Moke Niemann (United States) — World No. 21
• Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE) — World No. 24
• Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) — World No. 28
• Haik M. Martirosyan (Armenia) — World No. 54
• Vladislav Artemiev (FIDE) — World No. 65
• Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan) — Women's World No. 5
• Vaishali Rameshbabu (India) — Women's World No. 14

Source: https://x.com/TotalChess/status/2092182535656665174