ThreeSadPandas Chess Blog

A Place to Find Your Footing

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I recently told GM Jesse Kraai on stream that his old ChessDojo video, The Cave of Self-Improvement, had stayed with me.

What stayed with me was his description of a man retreating into chess after losing his place in the world. Life feels unfair or impossible to make sense of, and here is a world with rules, structure, and a measure of progress. Somewhere to immerse yourself and regain a little sense of control. Somewhere your effort has a direction.

OneZenPanda BOT Needs a Night Shift

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 23:56:09 -0700

The next question arrived shortly after three consecutive checkmates.

Could I just leave OneZenPanda running overnight?

It sounds like a small extension of an evening’s experiment. The bot finds opponents, Stockfish plays the moves, and I wake up to more games. The panda gets the night shift. I get some sleep.

Then I started thinking about the machine doing the work: my M2 MacBook Air.

The silence has an explanation

The M2 Air has no fan. Apple describes it as a silent, fanless design.

OneZenPanda BOT: Inner Peace, Three Checkmates

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 23:02:07 -0700

In OneZenPanda’s first game, the queens came off early and the evening began with a draw. A calm introduction. Very on brand.

Then the panda won three games in a row.

All three ended in checkmate.

Apparently zen describes its emotional state, not its intentions toward the other king.

Three games after the handshake

These were the next three completed games after the debut against Leol-bot, all rated 3+2 blitz on September 25, 2026, in my Pacific time zone. Lichess’s PGN records date them September 26 because it was already the next day in UTC.

OneZenPanda BOT Has Awakened. Calmly.

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 22:35:00 -0700

Panda Nation has a new teammate. This one does not need coffee, does not get nervous about its rating, and is considerably less likely to hang a bishop than I am.

Meet OneZenPanda, our new Lichess bot.

Tonight I got it running on my Mac, turned it loose on rated blitz, and watched it complete its first game. We have officially added an engine to the bamboo.

How the panda came to life

The setup was refreshingly direct: a dedicated Lichess account, an API token, the open-source lichess-bot bridge, and Stockfish installed through Homebrew.

Knight Fork Tactics

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Knight forks are one of the most fundamental tactical patterns in chess. A fork occurs when a single piece attacks two or more opponent pieces simultaneously, often winning material.

Why Knights Fork Effectively

Knights move in an L-shape, which creates unique attacking patterns that are difficult for beginners to anticipate. The knight’s distinctive movement allows it to fork pieces that seem safely separated.

Common Knight Fork Patterns

The Royal Fork

The most powerful fork targets the king and queen simultaneously. This is a devastating tactical blow that usually decides the game.

You Going to Blog This?

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The short version: I opened with 1.a3, promised my bishop a home on g2, and then sent it to d3 instead. I missed the same free pawn twice. I opened the c-file with my own queen standing on it, captured the one pawn that was shielding her, and then tried to trap the rook that took her instead of recapturing. Twenty-seven moves after I pushed the g-pawn, a black bishop landed on g3 and a queen arrived on h2. My opponent’s first words afterward were a question about this website.

Lichess Tutor Gave Me One Red Box for Speed. Twice.

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 10:30:00 -0700

Lichess Tutor analyzed 409 of my games with Stockfish 19, separated them into blitz and classical, and compared each part of my play with players near the same rating.

Then it gave me one red box for speed.

Twice.

This is still a beta. It is also the clearest report card I have seen for my own chess because it does not pretend to be a coach, a personality, or an oracle. Lichess describes Tutor as statistical analysis and comparison to peers: concrete measurements, organized into categories, with no AI performance wrapped around them.

Panda Nation Has Entered the Arena

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 01:51:01 -0700

There is now a Panda Nation.

Panda Nation is our new team on Lichess: a place to enter tournaments, talk about chess, and gather the people who want to play alongside ThreeSadPandas.

Until now, this project has had games, studies, tournament marathons, blog posts, and a steadily growing collection of instructive disasters. What it did not have was a front door for other players.

Now it does.

Why a team?

Chess improvement can be solitary. You play your game, inspect the wreckage, write down the lesson, and try again. That work matters, but it is better when there are people nearby who understand why one move can occupy the rest of your afternoon.

Spend the Clock Where It Matters

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 22:55:38 -0700

The clock is not only counting down. It is asking a question:

Is this position worth more of my time?

I often answer by mood. A familiar position gets an instant move. An uncomfortable position gets a long think. A position that looks tactical can consume several minutes whether or not calculation changes anything.

That is not quite the same as spending time where it can improve the decision.

When thinking can find something

A 2025 study, Exploring Resource-Rational Planning Under Time Pressure in Online Chess, compared how Lichess players handled positions across different time controls and amounts of remaining clock time.

The Labor Day Tournament Onslaught

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 21:18:45 -0700

On Thursday I played six rated games.

That would normally count as a session.

On Friday I entered six tournaments.

On Saturday I entered twenty-one.

This was no longer a session. This was an absolute onslaught of TOURNAMENTS.

Between the start of Friday’s FRC Rapid 257 Team Battle and Saturday night’s Hourly Crazyhouse Arena, I entered 27 Lichess arenas, played 72 tournament games, and collected 20 tournament points.

The two events began 42 hours apart.

盤上の一手、人生の一日 — One Move on the Board, One Day in a Life

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

言葉について：私は日本語を勉強している途中です。この文章は、今の自分より少し先にいる自分を目指して、日本語で書きました。完璧だからではなく、学びたいから書いています。英訳は日本語本文の下にあります。

盤上の一手、人生の一日

チェス盤の前に座ると、世界は六十四のマスにまで小さくなる。

外では車が走り、誰かが仕事に遅れ、誰かが恋に落ち、誰かが病院の静かな廊下で知らせを待っている。それでも、対局が始まった瞬間、私の世界には白と黒のマス、三十二個の駒、二つの時計しかない。

世界が単純になったように見える。

しかし、もちろん単純ではない。

最初の一手が指される前から、盤上にはほとんど無限の未来が眠っている。一つのポーンを一マス動かすだけで、ある未来は生まれ、別の未来は永遠に消える。ナイトを右へ跳ばすか、左へ跳ばすか。ビショップの道を開くか。キングを守るか。中央を取るか。

私たちは「一手を選ぶ」と言う。

けれど、一手を選ぶということは、同時に無数の一手を捨てることでもある。

人生も、たぶん同じだ。

戻れないということ

チェスには「待ってください。今のはやり直します」がない。少なくとも、真剣な対局にはない。駒から手を離せば、その手は過去になる。

よい手なら、自信を持って次へ進めばいい。悪い手なら、その結果を引き受けなければならない。どれほど早く間違いに気づいても、時間を巻き戻すことはできない。

特にポーンは正直だ。前にしか進めない。

一歩進んだポーンは、元の場所へ帰れない。守っていたマスを置き去りにし、戻れない弱点を作ることがある。一方で、前へ進まなければ、クイーンになる可能性もない。

戻れないからこそ、ポーンの一歩には意味がある。

私たちの一日も、ポーンの一歩に似ている。今日という日は、明日になれば取り戻せない。言った言葉は相手の記憶に残り、言わなかった言葉もまた、二人の間に残る。選んだ仕事、離れた町、続けた習慣、やめた夢。そのすべてが次の局面を作る。

だからといって、一歩も動かないわけにはいかない。

間違いを恐れて動かなければ、時間だけが進む。チェスでは自分の時計が落ち、人生では機会が静かに遠ざかる。完全な確信を待っているうちに、選択肢そのものが消えてしまう。

慎重さは必要だ。しかし、慎重さと停止は同じではない。

時計が教えること

チェスの時計は残酷に見える。考えている間にも数字は減り続ける。「もう少し時間があれば、正しい手を見つけられるのに」と何度思ったかわからない。

しかし、時計は敵ではない。時計は、思考にも終わりが必要だと教えている。

私たちはすべてを読むことはできない。十手先まで完全に計算し、すべての変化を理解し、絶対に後悔しない一手を選ぶことはできない。強いプレイヤーでさえ、限られた時間の中で重要な変化を見つけ、残りを判断に任せる。

これは諦めではない。人間として考えるということだ。

人生には盤の横に時計が置かれていない。けれど、時間は同じように進んでいる。見えないから、無限にあると勘違いしやすい。いつか本を読む。いつか日本語をもっと話す。いつか大切な人に連絡する。いつか本当にやりたいことを始める。

「いつか」は便利な言葉だ。決断をしなくても、希望を持ち続けられる。

けれど、時計は動いている。

チェスが私に教えるのは、急げということではない。すべての手を早く指せということでもない。むしろ反対だ。本当に大切な局面には時間を使え、ということだ。

簡単な手には少しの時間を。難しい手には十分な時間を。そして、どれだけ考えても完全にはならない瞬間が来たら、覚悟を決めて指す。

人生でも、時間の使い方は価値観の告白なのだと思う。何に時間を使ったかは、何を大切だと言ったかより正直かもしれない。

最善手のない局面

コンピューターは、ある局面で最も正確な手を示してくれる。評価値は上がったり下がったりし、私の一手に容赦なく疑問符をつける。

解析画面を見ながら、「なぜこんな手が見えなかったのだろう」と自分を責めることがある。コンピューターの線は、答えが最初から盤上に書かれていたかのように見える。

しかし、対局中の私は答えを知らなかった。

疲れていた。怖かった。残り時間が少なかった。似た形を知らなかった。相手の脅威を大きく見すぎた。あるいは、自分の美しいアイデアを信じたくて、反対側から盤を見ることを忘れた。

それらは悪手を好手に変えない。しかし、悪手が生まれた理由を教えてくれる。

人生には、さらに難しい問題がある。解析ボタンがない。十年後に過去を振り返っても、別の選択が本当に最善だったかはわからない。選ばなかった人生を最後までプレイして、結果を比べることはできないからだ。

私たちは、実際に選んだ一本の変化しか生きられない。

だから人生で「最善手」だけを探すと、苦しくなる。正解があるかどうかさえわからないのに、自分だけがそれを見落としたような気持ちになる。

たぶん必要なのは、最善手ではなく、誠実な一手だ。

今見えていることをよく見る。自分が知らないことを認める。恐怖だけで決めない。他人の期待だけで駒を動かさない。そして、選んだあとの局面に責任を持つ。

それでも間違える。

しかし、誠実に考えた一手と、何も見ずに指した一手では、間違えたあとに学べることが違う。

悪手のあとにも盤はある

大きなミスをした直後、盤を見るのがつらい。

頭の中では、すでに終わった局面を何度も再生する。「あのナイトに気づいていれば」「クイーンを交換していれば」「あと十秒考えていれば」。目の前には新しい局面があるのに、心は古い局面から動けない。

すると、一つの悪手が二つ目の悪手を呼ぶ。

これはチェスでよく起こる。そして人生でも起こる。

私たちは失敗そのものだけでなく、「失敗しなかった自分」という想像にも執着する。もっと賢かった自分、もっと勇気があった自分、正しい言葉を言えた自分。その存在しない自分と比べながら、今の局面をさらに悪くする。

けれど、悪手のあとにも盤はある。

形勢が悪くても、次の一手は残っている。失った駒は戻らなくても、守れるポーンがある。作れる脅威がある。相手にも難しい選択をさせることができる。負けが避けられなくても、最後まで注意深く指すことはできる。

これは根拠のない楽観ではない。負けている局面を「きっと勝てる」と言い換えることでもない。

現実を見ることと、希望を捨てることは同じではない。

自分のミスを認める。評価が悪いことを認める。そのうえで、今できる最もよいことを探す。過去の自分を罰するために、現在の自分まで投げ出さない。

投了すべき局面はある。人生にも、終わらせるべき仕事や関係や習慣がある。粘ることがいつも美徳とは限らない。

それでも、投了は過去への怒りではなく、現在の局面への理解から選びたい。

相手も世界を見ている

初心者のころ、私は自分の計画ばかり考えていた。ここにナイトを置きたい。あのポーンを取りたい。キングに攻撃を仕掛けたい。

そして相手が指すたびに驚いた。

相手の一手は、私の物語を邪魔する突然の出来事に見えた。しかし相手にとっては、相手自身の物語の自然な続きだった。

チェスが少しわかるようになると、「私は何をしたいか」だけでなく、「相手は何をしたいか」と考えるようになる。

この小さな変化は、盤の外でも大切だと思う。

他人は、私の人生の脇役ではない。私を助けるため、困らせるため、評価するためだけに存在しているのではない。誰もが自分の盤を見ている。私には見えない脅威を恐れ、私には見えないものを守り、私には理解できない時間の使い方をしている。

もちろん、チェスの相手には勝とうとする。相手の狙いを止め、ときには罠を作り、キングを追い詰める。

それでも、相手の考えを尊重しなければ強くなれない。「この人は何も見ていない」と決めつけた瞬間、私は相手の一手を見落とす。相手の立場から盤を見ることは、親切である前に、正確であるために必要なのだ。

人生では、それを共感と呼ぶのかもしれない。

駒の価値と役割

チェスを習い始めると、駒の価値を数字で覚える。ポーンは一、ナイトとビショップは三、ルークは五、クイーンは九。

便利な数字だ。しかし、本当の価値は局面によって変わる。

If You Don't Have a Better Move, Move

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 21:51:17 -0700

Thinking is not free.

In chess, every extra minute spent on a move has a price. The calculation may earn that minute back by finding a tactic, rejecting a bad idea, or separating two plausible candidates. But sometimes the position has already given us everything we are going to get. We keep thinking anyway, hoping that more time must produce a more certain answer.

Then we make one of the moves we were already considering.

A Small Fix for Lichess Mobile

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 16:23:42 -0700

I contributed to the Lichess mobile app.

That is a fun sentence to be able to write.

The contribution was not a new variant, a dramatic board redesign, or an algorithm that finally pairs me with somebody whose rating begins with the same digit as mine. It was one blank checkbox.

The checkbox had nothing next to it. Now it does not appear when there is nothing to put next to it.

The Question Mark Is Part of the Rating

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 12:49:31 -0700

A chess rating looks like a fact.

1167.

Four digits. No visible hesitation. It has the clean authority of a measurement taken by a machine that definitely remembered to calibrate itself.

Then Lichess places a question mark after it.

1167?

That punctuation changes the emotional reading. The number no longer seems official. It looks unfinished, suspicious, perhaps embarrassed to be seen in public.

The question mark is not an insult and it is not a warning that the account has done something wrong. It is the rating system being more honest than the number normally allows.

Half a Clock, Twice the Trouble

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The short version: My opponent was rated 808 points higher and voluntarily threw away half the clock. This seemed sporting. I responded by taking one bishop on a four-move tour, assembling an enormous time advantage, and discovering that neither of those things counts as material.


Game	ThreeSadPandas–Cheron
Event	Monthly Classical Arena
Date	September 4, 2026
Time control	20+10 Classical; Black berserked to 10+0
Opening	Sicilian Defense
Ratings	ThreeSadPandas 1166; Cheron 1974
Rating gap	808 points
Engine	Stockfish 18, five million nodes per search
Series	The Engine Room — Every move gets cross-examined

This is game two of the Monthly Classical Arena and the immediate sequel to Not Going Down Without a Fight.

Not Going Down Without a Fight

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The short version: My opponent arrived rated 526 points higher. The queens came off before either side had developed a bishop. Then my king went sightseeing, an h-pawn started believing in itself, and the game became much less settled than the material count wanted it to be.


Game	ThreeSadPandas–luferseji
Event	Monthly Classical Arena
Date	September 4, 2026
Time control	20+10 Classical, rated
Opening	Caro-Kann Defense: Two Knights Attack
Ratings	ThreeSadPandas 1167; luferseji 1693
Rating gap	526 points
Engine	Stockfish 18, five million nodes per search
Series	The Engine Room — Every move gets cross-examined

Arena pairings are not required to care about your comfort.

The Five-Minute Knight

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The short version: A 1967-rated Chess960 specialist berserked against me, cutting five minutes and the increment from their clock. I answered by spending almost five minutes on a single knight move. This would have been intimidating if the move had not placed the knight directly in front of a pawn.


Game	Morgenstern64–ThreeSadPandas
Event	FRC Rapid 257 Team Battle
Date	September 4, 2026
Variant	Chess960, starting position 257
Time control	10+5 Rapid; White berserked to 5+0
Ratings	Morgenstern64 1967; ThreeSadPandas 1458?
Rating gap	509 points
Engine	Stockfish 18, five million nodes per search
Series	The Engine Room — Every move gets cross-examined

The question mark after my rating is not editorial despair. My Chess960 rating was still provisional. The question mark is part of the rating.

Privacy

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Last reviewed August 28, 2026.

threesadpandas is a static website published through GitHub Pages. This policy describes the site as it operates today.

What this site collects

The current site has no visitor accounts, comments, contact forms, payments, advertising, or email signup. It does not set its own cookies. The site uses Cloudflare Web Analytics for aggregate traffic and performance measurement and embeds public game replays from Lichess on some game pages, as described below.

The Opera Game: Development With a Body Count

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The short version: Paul Morphy develops his pieces. Black develops excuses. Morphy sacrifices one rook, offers the queen, and uses the other rook to deliver mate on move seventeen. This is not merely a famous old attack. It is the cleanest available demonstration that development is stored tactical energy.


Game	Paul Morphy–Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard
Place and year	Paris, 1858
Format	Informal consultation game; Black’s moves chosen jointly
Opening	Philidor Defense, C41
Result	1–0; checkmate after 17.Rd8#
Engine pass	Stockfish 18; 5 million nodes per position, with a 50-million-node audit of the final combination
Series	Masterpieces — The games everybody should meet

Some chess games are famous because champions played them. Some are famous because the final combination is beautiful. Some survive because teachers can use them to explain ten ideas without changing the board.

The Queen Walked Into the Fork: A Stockfish 18 Autopsy

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The short version: Black gives me an advantage. I return it. Black gives me another advantage. I return that one too. Black opens the center, I win a loose bishop, and then Black places the queen on the one square where my knight can take it. Stockfish has notes.


Game	ThreeSadPandas–Galtor15
Date	August 28, 2026
Time control	30+0 Classical, rated
Opening	Four Knights Game: Italian Variation
Result	1–0; Black resigned after 20.Rxd5
Ratings	ThreeSadPandas 1164; Galtor15 1174
Rating change	ThreeSadPandas +10; Galtor15 −7
Engine	Stockfish 18, five million nodes per search
Series	The Engine Room — Every move gets cross-examined

This is the first threesadpandas game analysis built around a full local Stockfish run.

What Is Left on the Board

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I was waiting for the Weekly Classical Arena to begin when Lichess put this above the tournament chat. The event was five hours of rated 20+10 classical chess, which is enough time to consider what remains on the board and, ideally, enough time to consider it before moving.

“When you trade, the key concern is not always the value of the pieces being exchanged, but what’s left on the board.”

— Dan Heisman

How Life Imitates Chess: The Discipline Behind the Decision

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How Life Imitates Chess is not primarily a manual for moving pieces. Garry Kasparov uses chess as a language for examining decisions: how we form plans, calculate risk, recognize our own style, and learn—or fail to learn—from results.

The book’s most durable idea is that improvement begins after the decision. A result tells us what happened. Review asks why it happened and whether the process deserves to be repeated.

Strategy gives tactics a direction

Chess makes the difference between strategy and tactics unusually visible. Tactics answer the immediate demands of a position: a hanging piece, a forcing check, an exposed king. Strategy determines which positions we are trying to create before a forcing opportunity exists.

My First Lichess Tournaments

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday I played in my first two Lichess tournaments.

No podium. No undefeated run. No dramatic claim that the chess world has been put on notice. I entered two Classical Swiss events, played the games, and finished with two rankings that now belong permanently to the record.

The results

Tournament	Time control	Field	Score	Finish	Performance
Classical	30+0	43	1.5	#17	1277
Classical Increment	25+3	25	0.5	#22	1402

Those numbers are modest. That is fine. The milestone was entering.

Our First Lichess Blog Post

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday, ThreeSadPandas published its first post on Lichess.

White to Move… and Lose: My Hello to the Chess World begins with a position that looks like a puzzle and ends with Stockfish delivering the bad news: White has four legal moves, and every one of them loses by force.

It is not a grand theory of chess. It is one lost position, one stubborn search for a miracle, and one useful lesson: sometimes the puzzle is realizing that there is no save.

Play the Board, Not the Opening

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One line in my old game notes captures an entire stage of beginner chess:

The only defense I know to the London is the London.

I was playing Black in a 2022 rapid game. White opened with 1.d4 2.Bf4, so I mirrored the structure. It gave me something recognizable to do.

There is nothing inherently wrong with symmetry or with knowing an opening. The problem was that I was treating the opening name as a substitute for reading the position.

Queens Were Optional, Rooks Were Temporary

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The short version: White wins my queen. I construct a tactical sequence and win White’s queen. The game becomes playable again. I develop a winning attack against my own rook. White accepts. I lose.


Game	pokhtpkiopihkhkhhopk–ThreeSadPandas
Date	August 27, 2026
Time control	30+0 Classical, rated
Opening	Queen’s Pawn Game: Accelerated London System
Result	1–0; Black resigned after 24.Rxc8
Ratings	pokhtpkiopihkhkhhopk 1264; ThreeSadPandas 1171
Series	That Was Wild — Games with more swings than sense

Some games have an arc. This one has a seismograph.

The Fifth Sticky Note

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In 2022, I put four sticky notes along the bottom of my monitor.

They were a physical blunder-check system. Before every move, I was supposed to inspect four things:

My king.
My opponent’s king.
My pieces.
My opponent’s pieces.

The idea was simple. Stop trying to play impressive chess long enough to notice checks, threats, loose pieces, and free material.

Then, in the very first game with the notes attached to the screen, I hung a rook.

The Game I Lost Before the Mouse Slip

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The obvious losing move in this 2022 rapid game was 16.Qg3??.

It was a mouse slip. I had the queen selected, clicked g3, and watched it land where Black’s knight could take it. After 16…Nxg3, the game was over in every practical sense.

That is a complete explanation of how I lost my queen. It is not a useful explanation of how I played the game.

The useful mistake happened one move earlier.

The Hardest Chess Book Is Your Own Games

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Chess offers an endless supply of productive-looking avoidance.

I can watch another opening video, solve another puzzle streak, buy another book, click through a grandmaster game, or ask an engine for another line. All of those activities can teach me something.

None of them can tell me why I made the same kind of mistake again.

For that, I need my own games.

Your games contain the missing information

An engine sees the position. It does not automatically know what I believed.

The Pawn Cannot Move Backward

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One reason pawn moves are difficult is brutally simple: the pawn cannot move backward.

A knight can retreat from an ambitious square. A bishop can return to defend. A rook can abandon an open file. A pawn move changes the position permanently.

That permanence matters most around the king.

The shelter

After kingside castling, the pawns on f2, g2, and h2 form a compact shelter for White. Black has the equivalent structure on f7, g7, and h7. The knight on f3 or f6 often adds another important defender.

Two Bishops, Two Blunders, Ten Moves

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The entire plot: White gives one bishop to a pawn, then gives the queen to the other bishop. Black accepts both deliveries and tries to look as though this was the strategic plan all along.


Game	jcgang733–ThreeSadPandas
Date	August 27, 2026
Time control	30+0 Classical, rated
Opening	English Opening: King’s English Variation
Result	0–1; White resigned after 10…Bxf3
Ratings	jcgang733 1223?; ThreeSadPandas 1160

This game had sixty minutes available on the clocks and used three minutes and six seconds of them. It lasted ten moves. It contained two major blunders, both involving bishops, and concluded with a queen disappearing before either rook had developed in the usual sense.

Two First Games on Lichess

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every account starts at 1500. The games that follow are another matter.

This is a comparison of the first recorded Lichess game for Hikaru Nakamura’s TSMFTXH account and the first game from my ThreeSadPandas account.

The short version

	Hikaru	ThreeSadPandas
First game	TSMFTXH–swailm1	ThreeSadPandas–Getribica
Date	July 25, 2021	September 18, 2025
Time control	1+0 bullet	3+2 blitz
Opening	Bird Opening	Closed Sicilian
Result	Win by checkmate	Loss by resignation

Why “TSMFTXH”?

The username is a timestamp from a strange moment in chess and esports history. Nakamura joined the esports organization TSM in 2020. In June 2021, TSM sold its naming rights to the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and became TSM FTX. The Lichess handle compresses that branding into TSM + FTX + H, for Hikaru.

Why I Play With Increment

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A chess clock does not merely limit a game. It helps decide what kind of game will be played.

That is why I keep returning to increment: time added after every move, as in 5+3 blitz or 15+10 rapid. Those extra seconds change more than the final scramble.

They make the game keep asking for chess.

You still have to finish

With no increment, a completely winning position can become a race to make almost any legal move before the clock reaches zero. That is a real skill, and it can be spectacular. It is not always the skill I am trying to train.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I play as threesadpandas on Lichess. This blog is where I write about my games — annotated analysis, tactical themes, and what I’m learning along the way.

Chess Engines

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I use Stockfish for most of the computer-assisted analysis on this site. This page explains what that means, what the engine can and cannot tell us, and how I use it without letting a number replace the work of understanding a game.

This is an evergreen reference. Stockfish will keep changing; the basic ideas here should remain useful, and the page can grow as the analysis on this site becomes more sophisticated.

Five Chess Openings Worth Knowing

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here are five of the most important opening families in chess:

The Italian Game
The Ruy Lopez
The Queen’s Gambit
The Sicilian Defense
The French Defense

This is not a mathematically certified ranking handed down from the mountain. Chess has too many sound openings, transpositions, styles, and perfectly reasonable arguments for that. These five belong together because they are historically important, widely played, strategically distinct, and rich enough to keep teaching chess long after the opening moves are forgotten.

Guides

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

These are the durable reference pages: ideas and instructions meant to stay useful, get tested, and improve over time.

Playing and improving

The Five-Step Blunder Check — a repeatable scan for checks, threats, loose pieces, and the safety of your intended move.
Five Chess Openings Worth Knowing — five foundational opening families, what they teach, and why beginners should still stop memorizing lines.
Hide the Ratings. Get Better. — how to remove rating numbers from Lichess and put attention back on the game.
Lichess vs. Chess.com: An Honest Comparison — what each platform does well, why my preference changed, and why I now use Lichess.

Tools

Chess Engines — what Stockfish is, what an evaluation means, and how I use engines for analysis.

Hide the Ratings. Get Better.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here is my advice: turn off ratings for a long time.

Your rating will still exist. Lichess will still calculate it, match you with players, and record the result of every rated game. You are only removing the number from view. That small change can make it easier to see the position in front of you instead of the status you might gain or lose from it.

On the Lichess website

While signed in:

Lichess vs. Chess.com: An Honest Comparison

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I started on Chess.com. I liked the interface, paid for a membership early, and genuinely did not understand why anyone would choose Lichess instead.

Now I use Lichess for everything.

That change did not happen because Chess.com became bad. It happened because I learned what I value in a chess platform.

The short version

Chess.com is a polished commercial chess platform with an enormous content and community ecosystem. Lichess is a focused chess platform built as a public, open-source project. Both let anyone play unlimited games for free. They feel different because they are trying to be different kinds of institutions.

The Five-Step Blunder Check

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Most beginner games are not decided by a twenty-move strategic masterpiece. They are decided by the piece left undefended, the check that went unnoticed, or the move played before the board received one final look.

“Be more careful” is not a method. This is one.

Before the checklist: what changed?

Begin every turn with your opponent’s last move.

What does the moved piece attack now?
What did it stop defending?
Which line opened or closed?
Is there a new check, capture, or direct threat?
Why did they choose that move?

Do not begin by searching for your own brilliant idea. First update your understanding of the position.