In long time control, I support d4 is best. e4 for short time control and fun seeking players.
Underdeveloped calculation skills and opening knowledge in people playing exclusive Daily Chess


Avoid using analysis board. It will retard your calculations n visualization development. Never mind you miscalculate or misvisualize and lose the game. You get better.

Avoid using analysis board. It will retard your calculations n visualization development. Never mind you miscalculate or misvisualize and lose the game. You get better.
Is Analysis Board the same as the Conditional Moves board?

I'm a bit lazy - i tend to look at the new position, come up with a likely move then play through loads of continuations based on that move or alternative ones and after a while the best move (as i see it) will emerge. I never play Daily games solely on mental calculation - maybe i should occasionally(?) One little thing i've (mostly) learnt though is to distrust moves that look ugly...

The old adage that e4 = tactics and d4 = strategy is a little misleading. It's perfectly possible to get rich, open, dynamic positions from 1.d4 (Mamedyarov makes his living doing it), and surely it's easier to learn sharper positions within your existing repertoire than it is to learn a whole new first move!

I use the analysis board all the time, just not exclusively. I always try to calculate and think about the position in my head first. Then I use the analysis board to check my calculations. Another way to improve calculation is to solve difficult chess puzzles.
Daily games have improved my repertoire because when my opponent plays a variation that I'm not as familiar with I use the opening database to see how masters play the position. I invest a lot of time in my games so I'm able to more easily remember what I've learned from the games in the database.

I use the analysis board all the time, just not exclusively. I always try to calculate and think about the position in my head first. Then I use the analysis board to check my calculations. Another way to improve calculation is to solve difficult chess puzzles.
Daily games have improved my repertoire because when my opponent plays a variation that I'm not as familiar with I use the opening database to see how masters play the position. I invest a lot of time in my games so I'm able to more easily remember what I've learned from the games in the database.

I thought playing daily games would help improve ones repertoire. Maybe it doesn't for some. My guess is that if you want to focus on internet chess then slower games are best to help ur calculation. Not 10 minutes but maybe an hour and use a real board (don't move the pieces to analyze) to simulate real otb games.

Avoid using analysis board. It will retard your calculations n visualization development. Never mind you miscalculate or misvisualize and lose the game. You get better.
Is Analysis Board the same as the Conditional Moves board?

I'm a bit lazy - i tend to look at the new position, come up with a likely move then play through loads of continuations based on that move or alternative ones and after a while the best move (as i see it) will emerge. I never play Daily games solely on mental calculation - maybe i should occasionally(?) One little thing i've (mostly) learnt though is to distrust moves that look ugly...
I often promise myself to calculate in my Daily games, but I always find an excuse not to do so and play only by moving the pieces in the analysis board. Over and over again.
Another problem of playing exclusively Daily chess is that you don’t have to memorise a repertoire, as yo can use a database or a book in the opening phase. Of course we are always learning something about the opening by playing a lot of games with the same repertoire, but this is not a substitute to invest a certain time everyday to refresh the lines of our repertoire.
As soon as am finish with a tournament I will play for a while only two games at once and try to calculate everything, write down what I think about a certain move, about my fears, why I decided to play move x and not move y, etc. After this I will move the pieces on the board and check again everything and write down again. With this strategy I hope to improve slowly my calculation, the worst part of my game.
Concerning my repertoire, I am updated with my (rather shallow) 1.d4 repertoire as white and I am learning regularly the French Defence.
My problem with black is still everything related to closed games. It seems that most people invest less time to learn the closed games - this was one of the reasons why Larry Kaufman decided to switch from 1.e4 to 1.d4, and certainly one of the reasons why he is now a GM (after winning the 2008 Senior World Championship).
In 2019 I want to feel the gaps in my repertoire and improve calculation, although I am rather sure that I will not be able to overcome my problems with calculation - my spatial orientation and ability to visualise things was always extremely bad. What I can do is try to improve a little bit through a lot of work.