Published on Lichess — chess improvement, opening preparation and positional thinking.
RBOTChess Opening Fit Project — Article 1
Research / Opening competence
Do the World's Best Players Play the Openings That Suit Them?
What 200 classical games reveal about Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and two different ways to build opening competence.
What Your Opening Book Doesn't Know About Your Opponents
Most opening preparation is built around one assumption: your opponent will play the best available move. At club level, that assumption is wrong — and the data shows exactly how wrong it is.
Where Do the Pieces Go? A Different Kind of Opening Study
You have trained the lines. You arrive at the middlegame — and now you need to win. This article looks at how 200 consecutive winning games in your opening can give that next step a concrete shape.
A Different Approach to Chess Improvement
Every chess improvement guide tells you the same thing: solve tactics, study endgames, don't spend too much time on openings. The chess market then sells you another opening course.
Three Openings Where the Right Reply Depends on Rating
Opening preparation usually assumes there is a single right answer to a given position. Engines reinforce this. But ask who's sitting across the board, and the answer changes.
Sixty Years of the Same Training Advice. Here's What's Changed.
Chess improvement advice has been built around the same model for sixty years — designed for professional players preparing for classical tournaments. Most of us are not that player.
Beyond +0.34 — A Position Measure You Can Actually Read
Engine evaluations are precise and useless to most players. The Center Control Score attempts to express one dimension of position quality in a way that connects to what you see on the board.