1. d4

SckizoBoy

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Thanks to the popularity of the series Queen's Gambit (which I recently found out to be strangely popular in my part of the world where there's no real culture of int'l chess and the native language isn't English (obviously), even though I personally haven't watched it except by proxy thanks to a content creator analysing notable games played throughout the series) as well as other reasons, online chess has seen a boom over the past few months, aided by the gamer crowd that jumped on because of the PogChamps 1 & 2 tournaments (with a 3 rumoured to be around the corner).

Thus, I finally decided to grow a pair and made an account on chess.com to see just how much I suck at it. So I thought why not, here's a thread all things chess. Questions to answer in no particular order, plus anecdotes/comments as preferred:

1) Rating (whether classical/rapid/blitz)
2) Favourite opening/least favourite opening (whether playing into as black/white or with black/white)
3) Favourite player (active or otherwise)
4) Favourite content creator (pro-player or otherwise)

1) Haven't the faintest, my account is too recent to have a stable rating
2) I'll just say Sicilian-accelerated dragon, Queens Gambit Declined (I play it as white, hate facing it as black, weirdly), Giuoco Piano and Berlin Defence, I'm not big on opening theory at all
3) Vassily Ivanchuk
4) agadmator
 

Xprimentyl

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Sorry to be the first to respond with the least topical knowledge, but I am excited to see if this thread grows legs and gets some interesting input. I know how to play chess, but am beyond bad at it. The strategy eludes me entirely, the ability to see the game several moves ahead as basically a super power. I watch films like "Searching For Bobby Fisher" and "Queen's Gambit" because it never ceases to amaze me how good professional players can be let alone the geniuses.

Ok, I'll go back to checkers and tic-tac-toe and let the smart ones engage.
 
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SckizoBoy

Ineptly Chaotic
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Jan 6, 2011
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A Hermit's Cave
Sorry to be the first to respond with the least topical knowledge, but I am excited to see if this thread grows legs and gets some interesting input. I know how to play chess, but am beyond bad at it. The strategy eludes me entirely, the ability to see the game several moves ahead as basically a super power. I watch films like "Searching For Bobby Fisher" and "Queen's Gambit" because it never ceases to amaze me how good professional players can be let alone the geniuses.

Ok, I'll go back to checkers and tic-tac-toe and let the smart ones engage.
LOL, don't worry. I'm only at the stage where I can only spot bad moves after I've just played 'em(!) =P
 
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Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
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1) Rating (whether classical/rapid/blitz)
2) Favourite opening/least favourite opening (whether playing into as black/white or with black/white)
3) Favourite player (active or otherwise)
4) Favourite content creator (pro-player or otherwise)
1) I haven't played chess seriously since I was 18. I ended up graded ~120-130 BCF in classical, which equates to about 1600 ELO, and played for my county under-18 (which is not that impressive, as my county was one of the weakest in the UK at the time). I am surely significantly worse now.
2) I quite liked the French Defence.
3) Never really had one.
4) Not really applicable. But the book I learnt and developed my skills early on was "The Game Of Chess" (1954) by Harry Golombek.

One of my old friends and fellow teammates back from youth really stuck with chess, and now works for Chess24.com.
 
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Baffle

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I can play chess in as much as I know the rules, what the pieces are called and how they move, what the right voices and sound effects are for each one, and the tragic inevitability of chasing a sad and lonely king around the board for an hour with one and a half pawns.

I was a big fan of Battle Chess as a child, because the animations were fun.

Deep Blue will always have my chess-respect.

Edit: because it is apposite:

 
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09philj

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I don't really have the attention span for chess, so when I end up having to play I'll usually try to Aboyne my opponent.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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I like playing chess but I'm a pretty mediocre player, never really studied or developed much of a technique. At my most elaborate I might try a Scholar's Mate (the basic four-move checkmate) but I don't even remember the last time that worked.

Good show by the way.
 

CM156

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1) Rating (whether classical/rapid/blitz)
Low. I play well enough to beat beginners but not well enough to beat anyone who spends much time studyign the game.

2) Favourite opening/least favourite opening (whether playing into as black/white or with black/white)
Sicilian Defense as black. e4 as white. I don't have a "least favorite" for either. I like doing fianchetto with my bishops but don't always have a good counter when my opponent does it. I also have a weakness/bad habit of almost always accepting a queen trade whenever offered without seeing if it directly benefits me.

3) Favourite player (active or otherwise)
Hands down: Garry Kasparov

4) Favourite content creator (pro-player or otherwise)
Don't have one. Open to suggestions though.
 

SckizoBoy

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2) I quite liked the French Defence.
I know you mentioned not playing it recently, but the meta is that the French has fallen out of favour by a looooooooooooooot (boo, engine analysis). It's still played at GM level, but really rarely. But I'm sure scrubs like me can use it to no permanent damage(!) Though I personally dislike it for its slowness.

Sicilian Defense as black. e4 as white. I don't have a "least favorite" for either. I like doing fianchetto with my bishops but don't always have a good counter when my opponent does it. I also have a weakness/bad habit of almost always accepting a queen trade whenever offered without seeing if it directly benefits me.
Weirdly, Queen trades are one of the few things I genuinely think on and do to my advantage.

Don't have one. Open to suggestions though.
I follow a fair few, but regularly watch a couple of them. Loads of pro-players (including super-GM's) stream their casual game "nights" (Banter Blitz is a thing now, thanks to players having contract deals with particular online platforms), and stream anyway. Hikaru Nakamura (GMHikaru) is probably the most popular of them, but I don't like watching his stuff too much. BotezLive (centred around WFM Alexandra Botez, but with the pandemic, she's become a variety channel and roped in her sister, Andrea, with cameos from their parents) is the most popular female chess streamer AFAIK and well known for all manner of hijinks. Samay Raina is a comedian for the most part, but is a solid amateur chess content creator, and the same goes for NorthernLion (Ryan Letourneau), who is also a variety streamer.

I mostly watch stuff from GothamChess (IM Levy Rozman) and agadmator (Antonio Radic) and have followed the latter for about four years now. agadmator (he's a CM and rated a little under 2000, I believe) is one of the most popular because of his content's accessibility and plethora of in-jokes (though he hasn't done an Evan's Gambit one in a bit).
 

Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
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I know you mentioned not playing it recently, but the meta is that the French has fallen out of favour by a looooooooooooooot (boo, engine analysis). It's still played at GM level, but really rarely. But I'm sure scrubs like me can use it to no permanent damage(!) Though I personally dislike it for its slowness.
There can be plusses playing little known or out-of-favour defences at middling level, because people often know them less well.

My experience is that lots of players (especially young ones) have learnt the openings inside out, but are weaker when the book learning wears off. They can often rely on gaining an advantage in the beginning and pushing it through. If you can shift them off track immediately to where they have less preparation, it's a plus. That's partly why I played the French back then, too - out of fashion, less learnt. The Caro-Kann is similar as a semi-closed and was usually preferred.

As white I nearly always played 1.d4 towards the end because I usually played people rated higher 20-40 (BCF) points higher than I was, and it was easier to shift the game into a relatively balanced, draw-y position. Possibly low ambition, but it worked: I didn't lose any league games in my last season playing, although fair to say I didn't win a great number either. And one I got away really luckily: both my opponent and I thought it even and agreed a draw, but we played the position over a few times afterwards, and I was actually stuffed - it just took quite a bit of play for us both to see. I think my opponent was a bit rueful.
 
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