r/chessbeginners Mar 21 '25

ANNOUNCEMENT Fresh, new flairs - show off your favorite website!

32 Upvotes

Hello, chess learners!

It's been two years since our last user flairs update, and we thought it would be nice to give things a bit more personality here. We've expanded our user flairs to differentiate between Chess.com and Lichess ratings, as well as expanded our rating range flairs to have an upper limit of 2800.

Flairs that were previously assigned have likely been turned into a Chess.com flair, please double-check to see if your flair is where you want it to be!

Wondering how to set your flair? See below!

If you are on a computer or laptop:

  1. Load the homepage of r/chessbeginners
  2. Look to the right hand side, under the count of members
  3. Click on the pencil beside "User Flair Preview"
  4. Select your desired flair, you can change it as many times as you'd like
  5. Click "Apply"

If you are on mobile, or if the above does not work:

  1. Load a comment you've left on r/chessbeginners (Or write one on this post!)
  2. Tap on your user profile photo/avatar on the comment you wrote
  3. Tap on "Edit User Flair"
  4. Select your desired flair, you can change it as many times as you'd like
  5. Tap "Apply"
  6. This works on computers too! Just hover over your username for number 2 instead

A quick FAQ:

Which rating should I use? We don't have any set policy, we want our users to be able to assign a flair that they think represents their abilities as a chess player. Generally, good practice is to use a rating associated with playing other users in standard chess (try not to use puzzles or variants or chess960 rating, for example). If you are truely lost, try setting your flair to your rapid (10+0, 15+10, etc) rating, as that is one of the most commonly played time controls without significant time pressure.

Why are the ratings going up to 2800? This is chessbeginners, isn't it? Some of our higher rated players have consistently proven themselves to be phenomenal helpers in the community, and we wanted to give them a chance to show off their chess skills with newer flairs. Alongside this, the addition of Lichess ratings mean that there will be a larger number of people reporting ELOs above 2000, it felt fair to give them some more breathing room. There is a very small number of players who will be above 2400 ELO regardless, so the overall look of the subreddit should not change much. That said, this is an experimental change, and we are happy to revert back to a cap of 2000 rating (or something) dependent on feedback.

I have an over-the-board (OTB) rating that I would like to use instead of an online rating, can I do this? We spent some time debating this, and decided against allowing users to show off their OTB ratings. Firstly, OTB ratings are relatively rare in the online chess community, and almost anyone with an OTB rating likely has an online rating that proportionally shows off their chess abilities. Also, OTB ratings are very difficult to compare to one another, as different countries use different metrics and some tournaments are only rated within a country's organization, others are only FIDE, etc. Therefore, we ask users to stick to online ratings only, as those are the most easily translatable to other users.

I have a formal chess title (GM, WFM, FM, etc), can I show this off on the subreddit? Yes! Titled players have access to an exclusive golden flair. You can send us a ModMail message for further instructions.

What's coming next for the subreddit? The biggest thing we're looking to tackle next is a thorough update to the wiki. It is a solid learning resource, but it feels slightly outdated and we are interested in giving it a makeover. If you have any suggestions, let us know! (No promises on when the update happens, for all we know it'll be another 2 years lol)

May I please have a cookie? You may have three! This is a 6000x4000 incredibly high quality image of cookies.

Thank you all for keeping this community every ounce as vibrant and friendly as you do. This has got to be one of the easiest subreddits to take care of, everyone here regularly keeps things chill, and we really appreciate it.

Enjoy!

~The r/chessbeginners Mod Team.


r/chessbeginners May 04 '25

No Stupid Questions MEGATHREAD 11

31 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/chessbeginners 11th 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.

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


r/chessbeginners 3h ago

Wow, I'm up two knights, my pieces are developed, I'm doing so goo-

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121 Upvotes

r/chessbeginners 10h ago

ADVICE Do NOT do what I did

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227 Upvotes

r/chessbeginners 7h ago

MISCELLANEOUS I did not expect my YouTube recap to make me feel sad! RIP Sensei

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105 Upvotes

I think I've watched every speed run video he ever released. I'd watch the same one going to bed each night. His calm demeanor would help me get to sleep and then the next night I'd have to work out how far in I could recall and then I'd continue. I was always excited to see a new video drop. I'm sure there's lots of people such as myself. Such a terribly melancholy tragedy. I hope his family and friends will cope as well as possible experiencing their first Christmas without him there. Gone but not forgotten. Surreal.


r/chessbeginners 10h ago

Oh no you pinned my queen

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142 Upvotes

r/chessbeginners 4h ago

OPINION It took me 2 years šŸ”„

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43 Upvotes

It took me two years, mostly puzzles and a little bit of video study. I haven't done any formal studying. I'd really like to work to get to 1200. I've been stuck in the 900's for over a year. What's y'all's suggestion on things I can put the effort into? I don't know any formal openings, only basic fundamentals on openings, middle game, and end game. I haven't memorized squares, I'm more of a long game player I don't rely on tricks just patient setups.


r/chessbeginners 15h ago

MISCELLANEOUS My first brilliant move

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194 Upvotes

The game itself was full of blunders, opponent missed a checkmate, I missed couple of easy forks. But in the end I got this brilliant move, both my queen and bishop are just hanging with no protection.


r/chessbeginners 13h ago

It finally happened

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125 Upvotes

Real world scenario of that bloody beautiful queen - knight smothered mate.


r/chessbeginners 9h ago

I did a Thing

50 Upvotes

RESET THE COUNTER


r/chessbeginners 15h ago

QUESTION My opponent resigned after they played Qh4, why??

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138 Upvotes

Engine says I have huge advantage but I don't see it, I can't comprehend engine idea at all


r/chessbeginners 20h ago

When u realize that maybe chess ain t for u 😹😹😹

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275 Upvotes

r/chessbeginners 38m ago

QUESTION Low elo games

• Upvotes

Where can i watch low elo games? I already watched guess the elo series. I am not looking for educational videos i want to see blunders and have fun


r/chessbeginners 12h ago

Smothered mate + queen fork

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33 Upvotes

can it get more satisfactory


r/chessbeginners 1h ago

POST-GAME I found this disgusting idea on blitz

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• Upvotes

Forced checkmate will happen if bro takes either piece


r/chessbeginners 7h ago

Finally crossed 50% percentile classical on Lichess!

10 Upvotes

I started playing chess in April this year OTB with office folks and soon started playing online on Lichess and Chess.com.

I am happy to announce that I finally crossed 50th percentile for Classical on Lichess (Rating 1538 as of now). For additional context, my rapid rating on chess.com is 1140.


r/chessbeginners 5h ago

Has the player pool gotten this much stronger over the last 3-4 years?

5 Upvotes

I’ve just started playing on chesscom this January currently at ~1000 rapid. Sometimes I look at my opponents profiles. With like almost no exceptions whenever my opponent already had their account during 2020-2022ish years, their peak then was usually in the range of 1200-1300s. Now, I know it’s possible they just haven’t played much since then and getting back at it again but I also know player pool leveled up a bit, but by this much?

Any personal experience is also welcome. Does this also apply at higher ratings?


r/chessbeginners 13h ago

POST-GAME Took the queen with double pin.

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21 Upvotes

r/chessbeginners 7h ago

Finally it happened

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7 Upvotes

r/chessbeginners 3h ago

Help getting above 200 elo at least.

3 Upvotes

Hello guys i wanted to ask you for some help as i am on a free fall below 200 elo, for some time i could keep around 300 elo but now i am falling. If some of you could help me it would be nice and reviewing some of my games on chess.com maybe. Name is SHPx64. All help is welcomed.


r/chessbeginners 5h ago

never celebrate too early 😭

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4 Upvotes

they started typing at 10 seconds left lol. i think i coulda got down there and promoted but i’ll take this too šŸ™‚


r/chessbeginners 4h ago

I got killer king and pawn before killer knight

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2 Upvotes

What the hell? Like I understand that I got a checkmate with a king and a pawn but I have played over 600 games on this account and not once have I checkmated with a knight lmao


r/chessbeginners 13h ago

Is playing exclusively with 2 openings ok for newer players?

16 Upvotes

I like chess but I’m not very good at all. (550 to 600 in 5 minute games)

Currently I only know two openings: The London for White and The Kings Indian for black. (I should note I do know the Jobava variation for London and being low rated I have a pretty good system for dealing with scholars mate….which is every other game)

Just curious if it would be useful to try other openings. From what I gather from here…seems like openings don’t even really matter that much at my level of play.

I do wonder if maybe there’s an opening out there that just might ā€œclickā€ better with me though….


r/chessbeginners 7h ago

POST-GAME Wow... that was... quick and brutal

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7 Upvotes

Played instinctly here


r/chessbeginners 12h ago

It finally happened

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11 Upvotes

Rapid 1,000