Diamond Membership a Waste of Money and other things

O.K. So I play with dolls. Is that a crime?

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Black has not prevented White from playing d4. After the exchange White has his advantages as well, because although Black has 2 central pawns, they aren't actually in the centre like white's e4 pawn is, so White has at least a temporary control of the centre and space advantage, which he wouldn't have got if he'd have left the pawn on c5...

White has one pawn in the center + a centralized Knight + prospects of quicker development (1...c5 doesn't open lines to develop the bishops, while 1.e4 does) => he will enjoy some initiative and can try to build up an attack. Of course, black has good long-term prospects thanks to his extra center pawn (center pawns give extra board influence and space for your pieces)

Yeah, all that stuff as well. 

GM Bent Larson agrees that the open Sicilian is unsound.   Clearly White needs to play actively to win /survive in an open Sicilian.  That is why the Sicilian is a great weapon against passive players.

So is it agreed that the paid membership on chess.com is not a waste of money?

That would depend on your point of view. I think the jury is still out on this one.

Agreed?  Has anything on here ever been agreed?  Okay, seriously, I think it has to do with what you are looking for.  If you just want to play chess and not use any of the frills, then you should save your money (unless you hate ads and don't do the adblocker thing).  If you want and like the frills then it is a good investment in chess. 

And he said that like 40 years ago? No modern GM would say something like that. 

The open Sicilian leads to unsound enjoyable games :p

I think the user meant to send you the actual cheesecakes via mail which he mentioned was a problem with USPS.

I doubt that the user meant the recipe itself.

Oh. The recipe will be easy to send. I'll shoot you a pm. Sorry for my misunderstanding.

1. Yes. I am serious.

I didn't know why 3.d4 was played until your really outstanding explanation on post 185. Before your explanation, all I would have been able to say was this:  3.d4 is book, so that is what I will play. Take me out of book and most of the time I am lost.

Have you written any articles/blogs on chess? I will read all of them! You have a gift for writing. What you said actually made sense to this first year chess player.

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White has one pawn in the center + a centralized Knight + prospects of quicker development (1...c5 doesn't open lines to develop the bishops, while 1.e4 does) => he will enjoy some initiative and can try to build up an attack. Of course, black has good long-term prospects thanks to his extra center pawn (center pawns give extra board influence and space for your pieces).  That is pro writing.  

  2. A perspective.

The idea of trading material is new to me. I started playing serious chess one year ago at age 49.  As a kid, chess was a keep away game. The plan was to win material and avoid trades. The one with the most pieces in the end won by checkmate. So, the idea of playing 3.d4 only to have it removed from the board on the very next move is something quite knew to me.

When you hear me use words like "material" and two words like "avoid trades" - this is a new vocabulary for me. I didn't know what the word material meant a year ago.

Regarding opening principles, I learned about the four center squares one year ago, again, at age 49. I truly am THE beginning chess player. For some reason, no one ever taught this game to me, and to be fair, I never had an interest to learn until last year.

Why did I ask about 3.d4? Because it was a pawn move and I honestly don't know when it is in my best interest to move a pawn one or two squares forward.

This may help all of you who are reading this thread a bit more about what I know and don't know about the opening. I gave up on 1.e4 a few months back because every player of the Black pieces knows how to respond to 1.e4. So, I switched to 1.d4 for a while because it was less popular AND the d-pawn already has a defender - the queen! The e-pawn has no defender and I kept losing this pawn in my previous games, even with attempts to defend this pawn with Nc3 and/or d3.

I have only one idea as to why my opponents push the queenside pawns, and that is to keep me from advancing my pawns or pieces forward.

So, in summary, I don't really know when to move my pawns and how many squares I should move them on the first move.

When you are a beginner the idea is to fearlessly play the game, not to endlessly moan about it. All that will come later :p for now just move around the pieces and see if you can make sense of it. Forget all this nonsense about center control. Develop your pieces, attack your opponent's pieces while simultaneously keeping yours safe. The victories will start flowing in and the chess fever cannot be stopped by anything...

I still am having a great time at chess.com. To be fair to this site, please read post #198. Are the chess video teachers at this site good? They are more than good, they are excellent. However, I am not ready for their teaching based on my limited knowledge of the game. It would be like trying to go to college whithout ever going to high school first. that is how I felt when watching the videos. I am simply not ready for them yet. So, until videos are made for the ABSOLUTE beginning chess player, where every move is explained slowly and clearly at a level the beginner can understand, the Diamond Membership will be a waste of money.

Did I ever say that the Platinum Membership is a waste of money?  No. You get unlimited access to tactics trainer. Right now, I am using chesstempo for tactics training, and that is enough for now.

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Here is the current video lesson only  available to Diamond Members:

Video: Structural Thinking

Grandmaster Melik Khachiyan brings us a game in which he used a dominate structure and space advantage to create favorable tactics.

After reading my most recent posts and having a better understanding of what I know about chess, do you think this video would be appropriate for my skill level?

When I was a Diamond Member, I watched several of Melik Khachiyan's videos. He's a great guy and I enjoyed listening to him, but most of the content was way over my head.

1. Fearlessly play the game.

I like that. It feels liberating. I am such a perfectionist in far too many areas of my life, always afraid of making mistakes. For those reading this thread, please understand that perfectionism is completely different from being perfect. Perfectionism is a pain in the butt, dumb thought process that stifles spontaneity and puts the brakes on diving right in and getting the most out of life. It sucks big time.

2.  Forget all this nonsense about center control.

The bain of perfectionism is the obsession to control everything around one's environment.

Just a second, I see a misplaced object in my room. It's not at a right angle.

O.K. I'm back. I feel better now that the things around me are all in proper order.

Center control? I did see a few pictures showing that when pieces or pawn get closer to the center, they can influence more squares. So, the one who controls more squares wins this game called chess?  Is chess really all about control?  This may not be a good game for me after all.

Chess is for control freaks indeed. But however much you try, you can never keep in charge of the chess pieces - they wander wherever they like...

Some may find this a bit odd, perhaps even a bit disturbing. To keep my study chess set pieces from wandering around, I spent a full day modifying all 32 pieces with internal weights and sticky bottoms. My chess pieces do not wander wherever they like.

Just so you know, that was written by Hicetnunc, not Paul.