I HAD A NICE GAME

On the Chesstempo, I had a nice rapid game with white pieces. Not always, I win, making only a few mistakes.

I scored 2200 on the Chesstempo the first time, probably in the Glicko system.

Nanomaster - Gannthemann

The game is automatically commented by Chesstempo. I have added only the variation starting with 25...Rxa3.

Chessbase has automatically inserted references to other games. 

In the present post, the Apronus chess software was used.

 

I ABANDON THE CHESS PLATFORM FICS

I shall leave the chess platform Free Internet Chess Server.

First of all, there is no one to play with

Almost everyone prefers to play blitz or bullet. Only some players agree to play rapid or slow games. The number of players interested in rapid or slow games is not big enough. If you want to play with time control 15 minutes per game or slower, usually there are no challenges, or your challenge will not be accepted.

Sometimes, you must wait hours before someone accepts your challenge for a rapid game. 

It is particularly so if your rating is above 2000.

Sometimes, the system ignores your "formula" and gives you an opponent with a rating above or below the limits you had fixed.

One of the players on FICS has an abnormally high rating. If that player is a grandmaster, I know his name but will not reveal it here. Considering that only a few players have high ratings, that player must always win to keep an exceptionally high rating. I suspect the player is an admin and uses chess engines during the games.

FICS Chat is abusive

When waiting for challenges or for your challenge to be accepted, you look at the discussions in the chat.

Interestingly, the Free Internet Chess Club members discuss everything in the Politics chat, including the chess candidate tournament. 

It is even more surprising that when you enter the Politics chat, some members ask whether you are interested in politics.

Unfortunately, you cannot freely discuss politics on the FICS Politics chat.

You think you are talking about politics with chess players who consider themselves intelligent. Instead, you regularly speak with the same anonymous governmental political instructor. 

If your opinions or even questions do not match with the Western compulsory narrative, you will be constantly targeted in an abusive way.

Your arguments will not be refuted. Instead, everything you say will be distorted and wrongly interpreted. The context will be changed. The unacceptable argumentum ad hominem will be used. Personal attacks will constantly appear.

The political instructor, a thought policeman, will constantly observe whether you have joined the chat. As soon as you enter the chat, the political instructor joins it. The political instructor is probably one of the admins of FICS.

Anyway, the FICS has not de-platformed that nasty person.

The political instructor attributes you with various motives and beliefs and sometimes even explicitly declares that one suspects you of being a criminal.

A symmetrical answer would be to declare that you suspect that this person is a paedophile, corps-eater, etc.

Sometimes, the political instructor makes some explicit extremist announcements.

Once, that person declared that all philosophers should be jailed.

The McCarthyist political instructor even goes as far as to personally target you absolutely outside the context. For example:

YOU:

"Hello! It's nice weather today!"

POLITICAL INSTRUCTOR LOGS IN:

"You may talk about the weather, but a week ago you expressed stupid views about the Ukrainian war."

(Then, the political instructor will misdescribe your views.)

Then, someone accepts your challenge, and the chessgame starts. You are supposed to play chess right after some totalitarianist Stalinist maniac has seriously insulted and slandered you.

Your game's notation and result will be recorded, but the chat is self-destructive. The evidence of abusive behaviour will be eliminated.

It is not freedom of speech. Instead, the FICS is hosting some info-terrorists who are seriously damaging others' freedom of speech.

Mobialia chess interface

The best chess interface for FICS is probably Mobialia Chess. It is sufficiently laconic so that nothing disturbs you during the game.

Unfortunately, once, it failed to show me the chessboard and did not allow me to abort the game either.

Because of unknown reasons, Mobialia also has an Android app for mobile phones. It is pretty useless as most players play blitz, and correspondence chess is excluded from FICS.

Mobialia's nice feature is tactics problems. I like it as the problems are chosen from the games of great chess masters.

However, Mobialia behaves like a spy program. It hangs your clipboard. 

Mobialia can be connected with FICS or ICC (Internet Chess Club). To change my account, I need to insert my password using the clipboard. Unfortunately, Mobialia has taken over my clipboard, and to be able to use it, I have to switch off Mobialia and restart my computer altogether.

CHESSBASE IS MAKING TRICKS

Chessbase is undoubtedly the best PGN editor out there. Nowadays, most chess databases, including the Chess Informator and Encyclopedia of Chess Openings (ECO), are in the Chessbase format.

One cannot avoid Chessbase if one is playing chess seriously.

Unfortunately, Chessbase misuses its monopoly status. Its behaviour, its databases, and the chess programs associated with it violate consumer rights and business ethics codes.

Chessbase forces to buy new versions of it

I had the Chessbase PGN editor, version 14. This old program could create, open, and edit all the PGN files and databases in Chessbase format. I was pretty satisfied with this version and did not intend to upgrade it or buy a newer version. Free updates of Chessbase 14 were sometimes available anyway.

Recently, Chessbase started advertising that I had to buy a newer version. When using the automated analyses of the games, it ceased to make comments in the style "peredecessor", referring to earlier games from the same position. 

I did not need that superficial feature anyway. It is strange, however, that Chessbase announced that the program is outdated and that the feature requires an update. 

When I bought Chessbase years ago, where did they say such features would expire? - Nowhere!

Things became worse, however. 

Suddenly, Chessbase 14 suggested I make a free update, which I did. Unfortunately, the updated version did not work correctly, so I could not create new games with the correct data. Thus, I was forced to buy Chessbase 17, wasting 189 Euros.

It seems that the sudden "update" was specially designed to make the program unusable and force consumers to buy a newer version.

That is a robbery.

Chessbase behaves as a spy program

There is the "Let's Check" feature on Chessbase. If you are analysing a position using the chess engine, then "Let's Check" allows you to see the analyses of other users with different chess engines and depth of analysis.

Sometimes, if you make a move in the position, the "Let's Check" feature turns on, but sometimes it does not. 

On its homepage, Chessbase somewhere declares that your analyses are "yours", but you can see the analyses of others. However, Chessbase does not explain in what sense exactly your analyses are "yours". And it does not explain how it gets the analyses of others.

Thus, there is a suspicion that Chessbase will take your engine analysis from your local computer, store it in the cloud, and make it visible to others.

The general feature of Chessbase is that, seemingly on purpose, it does not give exact information concerning several disputable features.

Suppose you are a top grandmaster preparing for an important match or competition. In that case, I suggest you use chess engines for your opening preparation only if you are not logged in to Chessbase and your computer is not connected to the internet.

Perhaps you should even use Chessbase only on a computer, never connected to the internet.

There is another feature of Chessbase that makes it look like a spy program

Newer versions of Chasbase are stealing the clipboard content. If you are copying a chessgame in another program and do not use the clipboard cleaner, what happens if you open the Chessbase?

Your clipboard content immediately appears in Chessbase as a new game. Worse, it is already saved in the file named "My PGN Downloads."

The user has not been informed about such a feature. It is also difficult to find how to switch off that feature.

No other chess program I know steals or even saves the clipboard's content. For example, Shredder pastes a game from the clipboard only if you click the "Paste" button, and it saves it only if you click "Save."

In this sense, Chessbase is similar to the spy program Microsoft Edge, which steals the addresses of the web pages you visit on other browsers. 

Of course, Chessbase does not steal your passwords from the clipboard unless you use the PGN file as a password.

If you need to be cautious, do not keep the Chessbase open while working with other chess programs, and remember to use a comfortable clipboard cleaner.

Chessbase app is not working

There is a cheaper version of Chessbase—the Chessbase app for Android. It can be used on a mobile phone.

Unfortunately, it is a waste of money. Chessbase still sells that app on Google Play. However, it seems abandoned, and its real name should be "No Games Found." For years, it has been unable to find games from the databases and constantly hangs. To exit, one must use the "Stop" command from the mobile phone's settings.

The Chessbase app malfunctions independently of the speed of the internet connection and the Android version or mobile phone used.

Playchess malfunctions

I have played hundreds of chessgames on some chess platforms, and never something suspicious happened. I was playing for free, without charge.

Some chess platforms, however, behave strangely. 

I wrote about Chessbase's "Playchess" earlier. 

You pay money for the service, but it downloads the wrong games onto your local computer, deletes them, makes them inaccessible, etc. 

You are setting the rating difference in the "formula", but the system ignores your command and gives you an opponent with the ELO 500 points above or below your strength. 

You have a perfect internet connection and receive messages during the game, but the chessboard suddenly hangs, and you lose an important match. Playchess declares that you have been disconnected, which is considered a forfeit. But it never happened on some other platforms.

The new version of Chessbase malfunctions

While Chessbase forced me to buy a new version of Chessbase, the latest version does not work correctly.

The "Tactical Analysis" feature never failed on Chessbase 14. Unfortunately, on Chessbase 17, it gives a "Runtime error" message and stops working.

To use the automated analysis feature, I have to use Shredder, which is five times cheaper than Chessbase, or Scid, which is entirely free.

***

And so on.

So let's pay more and more money for the monstrum.

A TECHNICAL MISTAKE ON ICC

I just lost a game because the Mobialia interface did not show me the chessboard, and I could not abort either. If this happens again, I will cease playing on ICC (International Chess Club)!

Here is the "game". Without seeing the board, I accidentally hit some pieces....

[Event "ICC 15 5"] [Site "Internet Chess Club"] [Date "2024.04.14"] [Round "-"] [White "Nanomaster"] [Black "sedsak"] [Result "0-1"] [ICCResult "White resigns"] [WhiteElo "1914"] [BlackElo "1787"] [Opening "Modern defense"] [ECO "A40"] [NIC "QO.17"] [Time "15:55:29"] [PlyCount "4"] [TimeControl "900+5"] 1. d4 g6 2. d5 Bg7 {White resigns} 0-1

I ABANDON THE PLATFORM PLAYCHESS

Chessbase's playing platform, Playchess, cheated again. 

Today, it robbed 30 points of my ELO. 

It is interesting to note that it always happens then and only then when I have reached the top 5 or 10 on the list of current-day players.

Today, in my rapid game Nanomaster—Sd75, I had white pieces. I suddenly couldn't make a move, and the system announced that my opponent had left the game and was playing another one.

Do I really have to wait politely? It is a rapid game that was interrupted.

Earlier today, the server was down for a while.

After approximately 5 minutes, I tried different buttons on Playchess, like "Refresh", etc.

Suddenly, Playchess declared I had lost a game because my opponent CLAIMED I had disconnected the game.

At the same time, I had a perfect internet connection, but I was technically unable to press the "Claim win" or "Abort" buttons.

It was technically impossible to report the problem. As always, the "Help" button gave an error message.

According to Playchess, my opponent closed the game and, therefore, I lost the game!

In a 15-minute game, I had used 5 minutes, and 10 minutes were left. I was not thinking about my last move for more than 2 minutes. 

Tell me, how could my opponent start a new game and make an official complaint if I had been disconnected for only two minutes?! What normal person would complain if the opponent was disconnected for only one minute?

Please explain how I could have been disconnected if my clock was running and Playchess was able to send me messages that my opponent started a new game, that my opponent made a complaint, and that the arbiter ascribed me a loss?

You are cheaters, Chessbase and your Playchess!

Despite paying for the service for one year, I will no longer play a single game on Playchess.

STUPID TACTICS TRAINING

I found such a solution from the Chessbase's Playchess, Tactics Training: 1...Rg3+!!

White to move

Playchess's Tactics Training (similar to Chess24's, for example)—I seriously dislike such a fever.

They are trying to train you to be a superficial robot. 

Some stupid psychologists probably invented such a system.

Instead, I recommend using, for example, Chesstempo's tactics training. It trains you to calculate difficult, complicated positions and see nuances. 

On Chesstempo, you have to start by understanding the material balance of the position and its structure. It is important to know if you are a pawn down, etc., because the rightness of the solution depends on the final material balance.

I have received a rating above 2400 on such training systems. True, I often had to waste 30 minutes to find the right solution.

Let's return to Playchess's system. My tactics rating there is below 1800, and I will probably not use that system anymore.

Often, they give only 30 seconds to "solve" the problem.

Often, I have made the "right move" without having time to understand whether the final position's material balance and structure are good enough. After the "successful" solution, a new problem is immediately presented, while your brain is dissatisfied and still wondering whether the "right" solution was indeed right.

Often, I have lost time because I am still counting the dissipated pawns and exchanges.

Obviously, they are training you to be a blitz-idiot.

In a real game, the player remembers how many pawns and exchanges one has sacrificed!

PLAYCHESS LOST MY GAME

Recently, I criticized the chess platform Chess King Play. Among other things, that platform lost one of my wins against a player with a high ELO. I did not see a notation of that game while the result was recorded, and, accordingly, my ELO was increased. The support team never answered my complaint. I abandoned that platform.

Now, I was playing on the Chessbase's platform Playchess. 

If you pay for it, it has some comfortable features. For example, if you enter Playchess through your Chessbase program, all the games played will appear directly on your computer in Chessbase without you needing to download them.

Unfortunately, not all.

Today, I achieved an ELO higher than 2050. Suddenly, a player with an ELO around 1400 accepted my challenge to a rapid game. That was some grandmaster or, instead, some bastard using the chess engine during the game. That opponent played exceptionally quickly and precisely. Its opening preparation turned out to be the best of the day. In a rapid game, I lost a lot of time. I do not know the opening theory. 

I lost the game. I lost about 30 points of ELO.

I do not know the username of that player. I do not remember the game except for the first ten moves.

While Playchess decreased my ELO, that game does not appear on my games list. Playchess has lost that game, and it has disappeared.

These are clear signs of manipulation.

Someone creates an account to decrease someone else's ELO. That account has a very low ELO. It plays against a chosen opponent using the chess engine. The account owner also has another account with a high ELO.

It is probably some admin of the platform, as it was able to delete the evidence.

So why should I continue to pay for such services?

And isn't it sick to use such manipulation to get revenge for a lost game? Is winning in a chessgame really so all-important?

Post Scriptum

A few days later...

When the time comes, I will not renew my subscription to Chessbase.

The only reason I subscribed was that I started playing on its Playchess. Playchess does not even record the games if not paid. No downloads are allowed, either. 

Unfortunately, even in the paid version, some games are lost.

Today, two games disappeared. The system announced that it failed to save the games:

Playchess failed to download the game

Fortunately, these games are still on Chessbase on the internet. Because of some technical mistake, they were not downloaded to my local computer's Chessbase program. I had to download the games manually.

But one game that disappeared earlier (I wrote about it above) has vanished altogether.

The other reason is that cheaters are not ruled out. 

I am pretty sure that today and yesterday, some of my opponents used chess engines during the game. They played very fast and, as my computer analysis shows, almost without any mistakes. During the game, the rhythm of their moves was also robotic. Human players take a pause when facing a surprise. And so on. 

How do you explain if a player with the ELO 2200 makes perfect novelties in two rapid games in random openings, improving the mistakes made by correspondence chess grandmasters?

There is one more problem. I do not know how to switch off the chat on Playchess. 

It is interesting to note that precisely those players playing very fast and without mistakes (as the computer analysis shows) disturb the opponent with improper remarks like "Why do you not move?" etc. You are in a zeitnot, and your opponent has wasted only one minute from fifteen. And he disturbs you with such comments.

Later, one of these players accused me in the chat of being impolite because I did not answer his comments during the game. He knew I was in serious zeitnot!

So, why is the option of turning off the chat not salient, and why cannot I find it?

Why should I pay for such services?

Today, I had some nice games. It is always a pleasure to lose a chessgame to a resistant opponent who plays human chess, makes some mistakes, but finally wins by masterfully exploiting your blunder.

More Technical Mistakes

It is very interesting. On my computer, in the Chessbase program, the file with my Playchess games was inaccessible for a while. 

Chessbase program cannot access the Playchess file

Later, it contained a large number of chessgames that did not belong to me. Finally, it started to include only my games, but some were still missing.

What else does the Chessbase program upload and download from the users' personal computers without their consent and knowledge?

BREAKTHROUGH

On the platform Chess Mail, where the chess engines are prohibited, I had white pieces against Telemaque in correspondence chess. I thought I had a winning position but could not break through. The opposite-coloured bishops were on the board, and my opponent had built a fortress. 

Making the move 1 Ra5-a1, I gave up my hopes of breaking through on the queenside by making some sacrifices.

I was ready to offer a draw if my opponent plays 1...Kf5-e6.

Suddenly, my opponent made a grave mistake 1...Kf5-g4??

It is White to move and win. 

And do not say you will win if you make the second-best move in that position. Whatever the chess engines are telling you.

White to move and win

In the present post, the Apronus chess software was used.

YOUR STRONGEST POINT MIGHT BE WEAK

Black to Move

My opponent on Playchess did not do it.

Check your solution on Apronus:

A SICK OPENING VARIATION

In the Two Knights Defence, after the moves

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d4 exd4 5 e5 d5 6 Bb5 Ne4 7 Nxd4 Bc5

the best move is 8 Be3, neutralizing Black's active bishop c5. 

The move 8 0-0 is also sound, defending the pawn f2 and providing White equality. 

In turn, the sharp move 8 Nxc6!?, ignoring Black's attack on f2, is generally considered invalid. However, my chess engine shows that the position is still equal. 

Two Knights Defence - 8 Nxc6!?

It is interesting to observe how chess theoreticians have described the move 8 Nxc6 leading to enormous complexities:

Playing devil's advocate...

    - Flear

8 Nxc6!? is obviously a critical response, but White comes under a dangerous attack. The position may be defensible but White should have both prior knowledge and iron nerves.

    - Pinsky

In principle no one in their right mind will go in for the variation 8 Nxc6...

    - Beliavsky & Mikhalchishin

Unfortunately, the variations provided by the theoreticians are so complex and lead to so non-standard positions that I cannot memorize them. It even seems to me that not only must White be sick when choosing such a sickening variation, but Black must be sick too, allowing to choose it.

For example, after the moves

8 Nxc6 Bxf2+ 9 Kf1 Qh4 10 Nd4+ c6 11 Nf3 Ng3+ 12 Kxf2 Ne4+ 13 Ke3 Qf2+ 14 Kd3 Bf5

 15 Nd4 Bg6 16 Rf1 Qxg2 17 Ke3 cxb5=/+

the following position is on the board:

Two Knights Defence - 17...cxb5

White's king is in the centre of the board. However, according to chess engines, and contrary to the statements of many theoreticians, Black, who has sacrificed a piece for two pawns, has merely a slight advantage.

From the databases, I found only two games with that position:

Nilsson - Bergstrom 2014

In that game, both sides made several mistakes in a tactical battle around White's king, stuck in the centre. 

In the game

Broszeit - Schleef 2020

White managed to quickly get rid of the central pawn e5, covering White's king, and Black got a mating attack.

Then, let Kasparov and Karpov play a hundred games from that position. 

I do not even remember how to arrive at it. And I do not understand it either. I have no idea of how to think in such positions. 

Is there any chess theory for handling such irregular positions? Are there any principles to follow? What is the cognitive value of playing such a position? 

Indeed, in the game 

Nikolaos - Alexandros, 2011

Black decided to avoid that position and forced a draw by repetition:

Nikolaos - Alexandros, 2011

In the present post, the Apronus chess software was used.

I ABANDONED THE CHESS PLATFORM CHESS KING PLAY

There are so many mistakes on this chess platform that I don't have time to list them.

Perhaps a little later, I will describe them in more detail.

For the moment, I will mention the following mistakes:

1) In one of my first games there, I played against a player with an ELO of over 2200. The moment I made a move that made it clear that I would win in a tactical combination, the game was interrupted. I scored a point, but my ELO didn't change. The archives had no game notation, even though the game metadata were recorded there. Chess King did not respond to my complaint.

2) Despite setting a limit on the ELO I wanted to play with, I was constantly being confronted by players whose ELO was, for example, 500 points lower than mine.

3) Even though I set the restriction (as I remember) not to ask for a move back, my opponents managed to do so. However, asking for a move back in rated games should be automatically impossible. Unfortunately, some players asked for a move back many times in a row, and for no reason, just disrupting the game. If you can't bid a draw more than three times in a game, why can you ask for the move back dozens of times in a row?

4) On Chess King Play, there is a widespread habit of hooliganizing, for example, accepting a challenge to your game only to cancel it. On dozens of occasions, my game was accepted, but the opponent either didn't move or immediately cancelled the game. 

5) There is a widespread bad habit of abandoning the game when the position on the board is bad. The opponent is forced to wait another five to ten minutes even though the game's fate has already been decided.

6) There is a technical means of blocking rogue players, but it works only half-heartedly. I have managed to block about thirty hooligans. Still, I have failed to block another thirty or so, either because it proved technically impossible for some reason or because it suddenly turned out that there was no such opponent on the list of players.

7) Chess King Play players use chess engines en masse, even though they have declared that they do not. Already from level ELO 1800, cheating is done massively. I understand this very well when a chess engine is used against me in a quick game. I've played hundreds of training games with the grandmasters with fast time control, and I know perfectly well what they can and can't do in a short amount of time.

8) It's not just that this chess platform technically allows hooliganism and cheating. This platform itself is likely doing dubious manipulations. For example, this platform "randomly" gave me black pieces about seven times in a row yesterday. Such coincidences do not happen in real life.

(For a similar reason, I stopped using the Chess.com platform a few years ago. Namely, in correspondence chess, this platform "randomly" gave me the same opponent ten times in a row despite many options for providing opponents. This opponent always played the same opening variant I knew perfectly well because of my previous ICCF games. He later officially complained that I was cheating. In fact, after I got out of the opening, I made many mistakes in those games before I won. Cheating was probably done by Chess.com instead, who manipulated it for political reasons, which I do not wish to discuss here. I abandoned this platform.)

9) ChessOK and Chess King Play platforms are mixed. While it is difficult to find information about it, the Chess King Play is a newer version of the ChessOK Playing Zone. In this case, however, mistakes are not avoided. 

I had to make a separate account in both. They managed to get me to play with myself even though I had the same username and the same details on different platforms.

Nanomaster is playing against itself. - Chess OK

Nanomaster is playing against itself. - Chess King Play

10) Meanwhile, I could not download my game notation (PGN) on the Chess King platform. Finally, I got the PGN file, which initially opened in the chess programs. However, sometime later, the game disappeared - the game notation was empty! The PGN files downloaded were broken.

11) Audio notifications are not working properly. Since everyone plays blitz with a time control of 5 minutes or less, but I like to play slow games, I sometimes have to wait hours before someone accepts my offer for a match. I was doing other things then, such as reading a computer book. However, it has often happened that I did not notice that the game had already started. Namely, the sound notification works only when the Chess King Play window is opened. If, simultaneously, another window is open in which I am reading a book, then the game starts secretly, completely unnoticed. (In the Windows app of the ChessOK Playing Zone, the notification about the beginning of a game did not work at all.)

Chess King's hostage

This platform also has learning files under Chess King Learn. Generally speaking, these PGN files are comfortable, interesting and useful. 

However, I wonder why they sell study files for money that give the reader a headache because they are written in broken English? If you're making thousands of dollars selling these files, you could spend a hundred dollars a year fixing your grammar mistakes.

Of course, I have nothing against the professionalism of Russian grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk. However, these files teach children outdated opening theory. It is a haltura. 

For example, in one of the main variations of the Queen's Gambit, in one position, one move has been known for decades. It is the most frequently used, successful and the strongest according to chess engines. Surprisingly, this move is omitted from the study materials without any comment. There are many more examples.

Finally, I would like to ask whether this Alexandra has a reason or a conscience? Today, I liquidated my account at their Chess King Play. Earlier, as I remember, I had to create a separate account there in addition to the Chess King account through which I bought the study files.

And behold a miracle. After liquidating my account on Chess King Play, I also lost access to my study files, which shouldn't have anything to do with the playing zone because those study files are in the store and not the playing zone. Without any warning. (On the ChessOK, an older version of the Chess King, there are two separate accounts - one for the shop and the other for the playing zone.)

As a result of all this mess, I feel I no longer want to have any business with this Chess King platform!