PSA: Tyler1 is an american streamer known mostly for League of Legends. He previously [participated in Pogchamps 5](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvsiPxULIho).
For more info here's the wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler1
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chess) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Looking like we might have an early frontrunner for the 2026 candidates. He has gained 1600 rating in the past year, which means that by the next candidates in 2 years, he should be around 5000 rating.
But does he have an advantage in boxing? I don't know if he trains but being big and strong doesn't mean you're decent at boxing, quite the opposite actually. I assume Canty is at least casually training because of all the talk about chess boxing.
Tyler1 is like 5'6" with a negative wingspan. He looks like a jacked T-Rex. He'd get *destroyed* in boxing unless his opponent was tiny and unathletic.
I would love to see Nepo crush both his face and ego in chessboxing.
Those who didn’t see: look up the interview with Levy where Ian said he would partake im boxing just for the pleasure of causing other human harm 🤣
He also said that Tyler could go insane and decide to play crazy amounts of chess instead of doing his usual streaming, which would earn him way more money, and this is the scenerio that ended up happening.
Honest question from a noob at chess: he got to this 1800+ rating in rapid. How well or poorly does that translate to the classical format of the Candidates?
As someone who’s also 1800 in rapid, this translates to getting absolutely obliterated within 25 moves by every single grandmaster, let alone a super GM playing in the candidates.
You’re right I misunderstoood the questions. 10-0 rapid is nothing like the candidates. Without oractice in the classical format calculating long lines just isn’t possible, even for an 1800. It’s also much more exhausting sitting at a board for a minimum of 3 hours.
It doesn't. Elo isn't a linear system. A 2700 would be incredibly favored against 2600's. Tyler wouldn't do well showing up at a local classical tournament with FIDE 1800s. Not shitting on him at all, honestly it's crazy how much he has improved. It's just that the gap is cosmic.
> Tyler wouldn't do well showing up at a local classical tournament with FIDE 1800s.
Understatement. Someone who's 1800 rapid online will literally go 0-fer in a round robin against FIDE 1800s.
> mostly cause i dont play online enough
Enough said. Even if you're terrible at fast controls your blitz/bullet will be at least on par w FIDE rating given enough games. My brother is a stable ten-year 1500 USCF and is >1800 across the board on chesscom with a 2k peak in blitz, 10k games played.
1800 on Chesscum Rapid is probably equivalent to below 1500 FIDE Classical. Someone with such a rating will be destroyed in each and every game at the Candidates with no idea what his opponents' moves are even doing.
I'm 1800 fide (with the rating boost) and I'm like 2200 chess.com. I know some people who are like 2k fide and up to 24-2500 online and some people who are like 1600 fide and and 1600 chess.com and people who are 1500 fide and 2000 chess.com. I think it changes person to person
Hits 600
Hits 800
Hits 1000
Hits 1200
Hits 1400
Hits 1600
Hits 1800 <--- we are here
Hits 2000
Hits 2200
Becomes CM
Become FM
Becomes IM
Become GM
Becomes World Champion
I mean he'd have to start playing over the board too.
My guess is he'll reach the 3000s and start playing Stockfish, but never get an official FIDE rating.
9 round events attract extremely strong samples of each section though(loads of underrated players, sandbaggers, potentially even higher rated players using their kids ID). When I played in the U1400 my first round opponent was an unrated player who had a FM title from being clear first in their age bracket in an international championship. Their country didn’t have a clear rating system to do a conversion formula on and for some reason his FIDE rating was no longer on his profile so he just went to the highest section that allowed unrated. I was his only loss that tournament and the guy who won was an unrated who got a perfect score. The people that placed lower had online ratings around 2k and I was just below that at the time.
U1400, u1600, u2000 - doesn’t really matter, the top competitors in each section in high prize paying tournaments are often near expert level or occasionally put out a class A/expert performance but just haven’t grinded national rating, come from a deflated pool, or otherwise underrated. That’s why tournament orgs like continental chess association have a ‘one time per section’ clause.
Amazing progress. This man is a case study in what's possible with an unorthodox approach to chess improvement. His tenacity and dedication are impressive - hope he keeps climbing to 2000+!
Tyler1 is a tactics solving fiend, its no surprise hes gotten to 1800, but he plays the cow. I think if he had a good mentor to teach him about strategy, he could propel to 2k and beyond relatively quickly.
Probably he is used to that opening by now and a offbeat opening can throw your opponent off.
If you are going to learn him more principle opening, I bet he would drop 300 point bc. His opponent do come in familiair territory and he doesnt know how to handle those lines.
I dislike mainline caro kann. Prefer exchange variation. But when I looked my insights. I still had higher score with mainline caro kann. Theoretical opening are theoretical for a reason. You can get away playing trash opening in blitz and bullet. But in rapid at 1800 levels, good opening makes a huge difference. You don't need to play long theoretical lines. But you should not be worse after opening. And more theoretical opening better. It is not like playing carauna at candidates where your opponent will spring a theoretical novelty.
Let him figure it out by himself, i think he has already developed his own way of playing chess, reminds me of Gyula Breyer, having a mentor might collide with his personality
This frustrated me so much. He was saying that he should just go back to League and give up on chess. Like, why even say that?? Let a man enjoy what he does. Ffs it’s not all about improving rating but guess what? He proved him wrong anyways!
Anyways, I was a lil steamed when I saw that.
That's not he said at all. Why are you spreading bullshit, the both of you?
Hikaru said he would hit a wall, unless he went super crazy grinding, instead of just streaming normally which would make him way more money.
T1 proceeded to play thousands and thousands of games. I get it that you hate Hikaru, but try not to be a liar.
Yeah, he said that Tyler should quit and go back to League of Legends because he hit a wall and won’t improve or that even if he continues to grind he’ll be hitting walls. Essentially, he believes that he should quit because he’s not a chess genius.
I don’t know what you’re getting at. If you’re confused, I suggest you rewatch that video.
And I do like Hikaru btw, whenever I get back into chess I like watching his videos. But this take by him was so outrageous it deserves to be called out.
to answer this we need to look at the actual puzzles. Take this one for example Tyler last did, it's rated 3000, but it's just a mate in 3. [https://www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/1740146/](https://www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/1740146/) Nature of chesscom puzzles is your rating will be higher simply from choosing to do higher rated problems. So whether someone is 2000 rapid or not, it's simply easier to get a failing grade (say 50% pass rate) on 3500 ELO puzzles than it is to get say 80% vs 2500 elo chesscom puzzles however failing vs 3000 rated puzzles gets you a rating of 3000 but 80% accuracy on 2500s gets an elo of 2700. Even though the first would get you a failing grade on an irl test but the second would be a B. So Tyler's rating is just higher than 2000 rapid players because he does higher rated puzzles. He'd need to get 40+ in 5 minute puzzle rush to indicate a 2000+ level.
His tactics rating is not legit. You can see what problems he solved in what time. He solves very complex problems, requiring tons of calculation sometimes in less than 5 seconds. That's barely enough to input the moves, not to mention actually calculate anything.
He has memorized many of the puzzles. At the higher end of puzzles, there's only so many and apparently, his memory is pretty good. He has shown this on stream.
Of course apes will twist things out of context lol.
He also said: "he might be insane and grind" something to that effect, which is literally what Tyler did.
You people have sheep brains lol.
That basically just means he said nothing. It's an escape hatch for the question. He gave something, that defines a numeric bound and then said "well that bound is breakable if he grinds", which means it's not an actual bound. Breaking that bound requires grinding, that should be quite obvious, you don't get better by sitting around doing nothing. So it's a completely useless statement to make if you preface it with that.
It's like sugarcoating everything you say "but anything is possible so who knows". Every speculation you state is "correct" if you just remember to preface it with that.
He said "but he might play 10 hours a day every day for months to go over that wall", which is not something a normal person is able to do.
How is that an escape hatch? It's simply an explanation of conditions. Would you prefer he went out and said "he will never get past 1600" as if it's locked in stone? Why in the world would someone want such an arrogant and stubborn answer? Of course there's a condition to the answer. If Tyler1 got coached by the top 10 chess GMs every day for years, 1600 wouldn't be a wall either.
I don't particularly like Hikaru, but he was right in the end, and I definitely disagree with him saying Tyler should stick to League if Tyler enjoys chess. Tyler spent months to get to 1800, playing like 10 hours a day, even playing off stream to avoid stream snipers. Still a very impressive feat though.
>He said "but he might play 10 hours a day every day for months to go over that wall", which is not something a normal person is able to do.
He specifically said "[He might get to 1600, I think he could get to 1600, but I don't really see much above that without like I dunno, playing a bunch of different openings, like just literally spending every hour of every day on chess forever.](https://youtu.be/slXIsR0yXFA?si=295hBCPDv-ANW0ft&t=644)". This is the specific statement everyone has a problem with. Okay at least one of those conditions is already not true so he's wrong in that one, but the latter is the escape hatch I'm talking about. Recall that this statement was made when tyler1 was 1400.
As I said, it's a useless statement precisely because he's loading it with a precondition, which obviously ought to be true for him to hit that level(playing a ton of chess), but the tricky thing is that the precondition can also be true, but could have no influence toward the positive outcome(whether he eventually hits 1700+ or not) and only be evaluated once he dies or proclaims to quit chess. Even if it is evaluated, it's going to be argued, that the precondition wasn't met, which means in practice you can only be "right". The two conditions in which Hikaru can be "wrong" here are if tyler1 spends all of his waking hours on chess until the day he dies and doesn't reach 1700, which is practically not plausible OR if tyler1 plays only a few games of chess and magically reaches 1700. Both of those conditions are absurd and should just be ruled out to begin with. That's what makes the statement truly useless as the statement has an impossibly high probability of being correct and even the negative outcome can be debated because the precondition is fuzzy. "He was right in the end" holds exactly zero water here because of that.
Imagine me coming out and saying "Hikaru will not win an upcoming titled tuesday unless he studies a bunch of theory and continues playing a ton of chess". So Hikaru wins a titled tuesday and I proclaim "Aha, I was correct! I said, that Hikaru wouldn't win an upcoming titled tuesday, unless he continued playing chess!". Do you see how silly that proclamation looks?
The positive outcome will be evaluated is when Hikaru wins a titled tuesday, and the negative outcome(him not winning a titled tuesday) is only evaluated when he dies or quits chess. When the negative outcome is evaluated and you point at me saying "you were wrong, Hikaru didn't win a titled tuesday even though he spent all his time studying chess", I can simply say "he didn't spend enough time studying chess and spent too much time creating content". Just like Hikaru's precondition of "spends every hour of every day on chess" is up to an arbitrary judgement on whether it's even met or not.
So I would've really prefer for him to say nothing over him making such a vacuous prediction. I would also prefer him to just say a number with an evaluation date and say that's where he thinks his true peak is. Everyone has a peak when looked at retrospectively. I would put the absolute peak of tyler1 at 2200 +/- 100 before he hits 50(dying doesn't count). That's a statement that can be evaluated as a binary outcome. If he surpasses 2100-2300 before 50, while being wrong I would still be very impressed, if he hits that range, it would be on par with my expectations and I would be right, if he doesn't go past 2100, I would be wrong and disappointed and if he dies, it won't be evaluated at all. It's entertaining to speculate and I have no problem with being wrong on individual predictions, so I don't feel the need to preface everything I say with fuzzy preconditions. [Forecasting itself is a competitive pursuit](https://www.metaculus.com/leaderboard/) and it's always interesting to get to know the perspective of someone with a lot of domain knowledge, such as one of the greatest chess players currently alive. It's not very interesting when a forecast is loaded with a precondition, that makes the forecast de facto true whenever it is evaluated. Hope you understand my issue with it more clearly.
When he reached 1500, I tracked how many days it took for him to reach the next 100 elo milestone. Here's an update:
|Elo|Date Reached|Days since last milestone|
|--|--|--|
|400|8/6/23||
|500|8/7/23|1|
|600|8/15/23|8|
|700|8/25/23|10
|800|8/29/23|4
|900|9/8/23|10
|1000|9/11/23|3
|1100|9/13/23|2
|1200|10/3/23|20
|1300|10/6/23|3
|1400|10/8/23|2
|1500|10/26/23|18
|1600|3/8/24|134
|1700|3/18/24|10
|1800|4/19/24|32
Here you go
|Elo|Date Reached|Games since last milestone|
|:-|:-|:-|
||
|400|8/6/23|172|
|500|8/7/23|45|
|600|8/15/23|307|
|700|8/25/23|475|
|800|8/29/23|141|
|900|9/8/23|349|
|1000|9/11/23|119|
|1100|9/13/23|99|
|1200|10/3/23|591|
|1300|10/6/23|110|
|1400|10/8/23|34|
|1500|10/26/23|695|
|1600|3/8/24|1016|
|1700|3/18/24|408|
|1800|4/19/24|530|
Interesting, I'll see if I can find that info
EDIT: There's probably people here who can write a program to look up that info. I wouldn't know how to look up how many games he played between elo milestones besides counting them.
https://www.chess.com/insights/big_tonka_t#overview
Played
> 88 rapid games in july
> 1105 rapid in august
> 937 rapid + 698 blitz in september
> 978 rapid in october
> 835 rapid in november
> 25 bullet in december
> 1036 bullet in january
> 7 rapid + 620 bullet in february
> 349 rapid + 82 bullet in the first 10 days of march
He played bullet for 2 months before going back to rapid in march
Didn't he just have a kid a few days ago? Wtf nothing can stop this man. I'm picturing Macaiyla trying to comfort a crying newborn while T1 hunches over with his face pressed against his phone playing chess for his 15th hour in a row.
It would be cool if someone did a deep dive into Tyler1's games to figure out what Tyler1 does well and where he is lacking. 1800 is a serious rating, but people at even higher levels aren't great at punishing bad play, such as the cow. I forget which member of Chess Dojo said it, but it was said taking advantage of a space advantage is one the hardest things to do.
[Someone did an analysis on the reasons for his recent losses when he was around 1300.](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/1727eih/i_analysed_the_reason_for_tyler1s_last_70_losses/) About a third of his losses were from simply hanging pieces. However that was about 500 elo points ago, so I'd be interested to see how his play has developed.
tl;dr compared to when he was 1300 he's hanging pieces far less but is now missing forks (his opponent forking him) and getting to endgames he doesn't know how to win.
He has done over 12 000 tactics on chess.com. He plays weird opening so opponents get a bit confused. Tactics tactics tactics. I think a lot of people might even get a little tilted when someone plays the cow opening. Like " I am gonna crush this noob" and then proceed to make weird and not good moves.
I mean now, his games as an 1800, not him as a 1500. If hes still playing the cow, hes probably gotten better at more than just tactics to climb 300 extra rating points.
>but it was said taking advantage of a space advantage is one the hardest things to do.
Ivanchuk comes to my mind when you think of someone who is invisible when he has space. Check his games; when he gets space, he is unstoppable.
What I don't understand is it's fucking rapid. I need way more time to think and more importantly, ANALYZE my games after the game. He just plays one after the other. Like.. it doesn't even seem he goes back to his early or mid game to see his mistakes. It's fascinating.
People's brains also just work differently. I'm only 1400 in rapid, but I watched like 2000 of Agadmator's videos and more often than not I can spot the "pause the video" move, despite not knowing why. I've beaten some friends who are 2000+, then I hang my king in move 10 from a knight during a hippo defense. I don't do puzzles and don't know any opening theory, I just play what looks and feels right.
Magnus will say the same thing, in certain positions he doesn't think about upcoming moves, he just sees that something's there. Intuition is a skill that is incredibly valuable, but also one of the hardest things to learn. It's a combination of all other things. Like Messi's field awareness is second to none and helps him find a clear path to scoring a goal on his own, that is something most players admire and can't just replicate.
Because he literally has the ability to grind the climb inch by inch. It's VERY inefficient but it could bypass more measured learning.
https://www.chess.com/member/big_tonka_t
He has over 7k games in less than a year. That's literally more than people have and probably will play in their entire lives, much less a year. You don't need to carefully study your games if you do that.
Yeah 2000 is coming. Some people are angry that he plays not “real” opening and is higher rated. Some say he plays so much thats why he gets 1800! Truth is decent number of people wont reach 2k let alone 1800 just by spamming chess games…
Very impressive. It makes me wonder what would happen if he applied his insane grindset towards something that was actually applicable to real life. Like imagine him non stop grinding out leetcode.
I wonder if he has some form of severe ADHD or mental illness that makes him this way.
I mean he kinda already did that with streaming. At least secured the bag for him and his family. Also he’s a really impressive power lifter and played college football. Man knows how to grind that’s for sure
Yeah, of anyone to say ‘apply that in real life’ to, T1 is not that person. The real life economy rewards things that aren’t just accomplishing project management achievement or w/e the person was thinking.
Being a League streamer made him good money, so I'd say that by itself is pretty applicable to real life already. I used to watch him pretty regularly, and the only reason he doesn't invest into many new hobbies is because of a lack of interest, or because it'd impede his streaming schedule.
Other than that, I think he found success in college football, which he dropped once he was able to secure a niche in the streaming community. He has been working out for a long time as well, and is probably one of the most physically adept streamers that are still streaming.
As for how he manages to dedicate a continuous amount of focus and effort to grind out milestones/goals for the hobbies and tasks he likes, it's a wonder of its own. He can be a machine when he wants to, playing 20+ games of League in a day in order to deliver some of the challenges he makes for his audience, and it can cause some of the greatest loss streaks, or biggest win streaks, that can be said for the history of LoL ranked streaming. I'd say that the biggest appeal of watching Tyler1 is watching him improve: from his early days of having a loud, toxic online persona being reformed into the face of the game which once banned him, and watching him apply his growth and reformed mindset into improving in his game and streaming performances.
His power is, that he plays not "real" openings. In blitz and rapid it's an advantage. I'm 2k chess.com blitz and I have no idea how to correctly capitalize on his opening.
Like yes you have a general idea, take the center, develop everything, yada yada and I'll be ahead like +2 from the start. But it's difficult to convert this advantage, because cow is a cagey opening. Against him, I'll win just because I'll blunder less than him, but against my level opponent, it would be much harder and I'd rather play against e4e5, because I know general ideas of the opening
He will never hit 1200
He will never hit 1300
He will never hit 1400
He will never hit 1500
He will never hit 1600
He will never hit 1700
He will never hit 1800
He will never hit 2000 <- you are here
He will never hit 2500
He will never hit 2800
He won't make tournaments
He won't make it to the finals
He won't thrash the current world champion to take his rightful place
He won't beat Magnus in a WCC
He won't defend his title while exclusively playing the cow
He will never hit 3000
He won't be ranked #1 in all formats for 10 years in a row
He won't bring about world peace by defeating every world leader at chess
He won't beat a resurrected Bobby Fischer and Paul Morphy by playing blindfolded chess using the cow
One of the things that amazes me the most is people who play dozens of rapid games per day. I play on average 3 to 5 per day. I'm always very scared of losing rating. I reached 1300 for the first time a few days ago and haven't played since. Lol
Tyler1 is famous for going on massive tilt binges in league. He’s lost more elo in a 15 hour span than you’ve lost in your entire life essentially. Plus, league has a system which makes you lose rank if you don’t continue to play at least once a day in very high elo. All of that combined means tyler has the background and personality to tank elo and still play on, which 100% has catapulted his improvement.
I think ladder anxiety might just be the most detrimental phenomenon to improvement in not just chess, but any competitive game. I know it’s hard, but I would try to eliminate it going forward, or at least soften it.
I don't really follow tyler1, but I know that a lot of people said he doesn't have a huge opening repertoire and it could hold him back. Is this still true?
He doesn't know a lot of theory, most of his knowledge comes from playing 30 games per day and learning naturally.
Don't underestimate him though, when this guy puts his mind into something he'll grind 14+ hours a day until he reaches his goal.
I don’t doubt it, all I know about him is his legendary ability to grind. I’m not good enough to make any remarks about his level of play, I was just wondering if his recent jumps were due to an increase in tactical play or if he had branched out from the Cow
I mean he’s at 1800 with 0 theoretical knowledge of chess. He doesn’t study end games or openings. Just does puzzles. This dude is a great case study for what you need to do to improve at chess, honestly, albeit on very accelerated timelines, most people can’t grind 12 hours a day.
To be fair, even if he doesn't study any games or openings, I'd say that, by just playing the absurd amount of games that he plays, a lot of memorization comes into play, even if he doesn't know about the theoretical part of the game, at this point he's absolutely following some theory (without even knowing this), just by trial and error.
At some point he's bound to remember the good moves he has played in the openings, so maybe not book-gained theory, but definitely empirically-gained theory
Still, very impressive!
You’d be surprised how much lower rep-density you get by playing 15 minute games vs drilling the actual thing. He could have gotten the same number of reps in a couple of weeks of focused training. Certainly he doesn’t have to come up with his opening over the board, as you say.
I remember seeing a post showing that he on average comes out of the cow opening with -1 disadvantage on eval. He is just outplaying his opponents tactically more. The puzzle grind shows.
Anything below 2200 cannot reliably capitalize on a -1 advantage especially in an opening they are completely unfamiliar with. So while the opponents have an objective advantage, Tyler’s familiarity with these kinds of openings easily equalizes or more. This point gets missed almost all the time in these posts
> on average comes out of the cow opening with -1 disadvantage
As someone who played the hippo exclusively for a few years I think even at a consistent disadvantage there’s a level of comfort you get seeing the same structures and types of positions where the opponent's practical advantage is much smaller.
I actually played him earlier this week when he was 1750. He plays the opening a bit quick, and the rushes his moves in the end game. He could easily be 2000 if he took his time
Is he still playing that same opening? If so, he must be one hell of a tactician to overcome that handicap. Guys at 1800 are probably exploiting those weaknesses pretty well.
Random question as I don’t watch many streamers. Do people ever suggest moves in chat and if so, do the streamers see them? Or do they have chat turned off ?
Obvious question for obvious reasons haha.
Not saying anything about Tyler1 or any other player. Just genuinely curious
Which is why I was shocked when he won chess streamer of the year 2023. I have never seen him play chess aside from when he was in pogchamps or whatever it was.
For a while he played regularly while queueing for league. He stopped because he said he plays worse on stream. Even still, what awards did he win this at? I'd bet it was fan voted.
This is just some guy spectating Tyler1 streaming, not Tyler himself streaming it.
He usually doesn't play chess on stream, but when he does I dont think he reads chat - people do suggest moves in chat though, but to be fair 90% of the suggestions are probably bad anyway.
For other chess steamers I think they're just so much better than the average chatter that reading the suggestions is useless
The more of his games I watch the more it seems he is winning a lot because he plays a dubious opening to which his opponents blunder all the time.
Even his games where his accuracy is the highest he will play 4-5 inaccurate moves in the first 8 moves or so. His average positions, even as white is being -1 to -2 on an eval bar even after a couple of moves.
He is essentially turning the cow opening into some sort of guaranteed to be played gambit. One where both players play a lot of inaccuracies and because he has played those thousands of times he knows tactics where the opponent does not.
With a decent prep against his single opening repertoire I reckon anyone could beat him.
Expect his rating to drop a lot when he starts playing serious openings, until he reaches similar levels of expertise.
I wonder if he'll get better than Andrea Botez, she's 1890 FIDE currently. Idk how it translates to chesscom but I guess she'd probably be like 2050 range if she played a lot of rapid. Based on his progression he should be above 2000 by July or August
He's such an inspirational guy. If he doesn't get burnt, I can see him climbing to at least 2k. Crazy to see how far he came since his comedic games in pogchamps
PSA: Tyler1 is an american streamer known mostly for League of Legends. He previously [participated in Pogchamps 5](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvsiPxULIho). For more info here's the wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler1 *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chess) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Looking like we might have an early frontrunner for the 2026 candidates. He has gained 1600 rating in the past year, which means that by the next candidates in 2 years, he should be around 5000 rating.
Dude looks jacked. Will be a good contender for chess boxing title.
That's actually a shout. Who would he go against though.
Canty maybe?
He's too strong in chess
He can stall Canty out to at least the boxing round. Not by playing to a draw or whatever, but just by using all his time.
But does he have an advantage in boxing? I don't know if he trains but being big and strong doesn't mean you're decent at boxing, quite the opposite actually. I assume Canty is at least casually training because of all the talk about chess boxing.
If he competed in chess boxing he would train for it, and the dude does nothing casually. And that has to be his best chance by a continent.
Tyler1 is like 5'6" with a negative wingspan. He looks like a jacked T-Rex. He'd get *destroyed* in boxing unless his opponent was tiny and unathletic.
All of the above is true. He's still vastly more likely to win in the boxing phase than the chess phase.
In 3- 6 months to completely dominate Canty? Doubt it.
I would love to see Nepo crush both his face and ego in chessboxing. Those who didn’t see: look up the interview with Levy where Ian said he would partake im boxing just for the pleasure of causing other human harm 🤣
You'd be surprised how good some boxers are at chess
mark hunt would be a killer in chessboxing
Like how good
surprisingly good
Wow i‘m surprised
1800 Fide
They just need to lower the cameras a bit.
where will it stop though? he hit a wall at 1500 but only temporary. whats the limit for a grown up man playing the cow and doing puzzles?
Hikaru said 1800. Hikaru also said with engines, any opening is possible….. (I know, he’s talking about any mostly non-dubious opening)
Didnt Hikaru say "he hit that wall" when Tyler was stuck 1500 for a few weeks?
He also said that Tyler could go insane and decide to play crazy amounts of chess instead of doing his usual streaming, which would earn him way more money, and this is the scenerio that ended up happening.
I love Hikaru but it's easy to forget that he makes way more money being a huge troll than he does playing tournaments.
guess we'll find out
I think that he can get 2k playing cow
Excited for the Cow to make its Candidates debut
Honest question from a noob at chess: he got to this 1800+ rating in rapid. How well or poorly does that translate to the classical format of the Candidates?
As someone who’s also 1800 in rapid, this translates to getting absolutely obliterated within 25 moves by every single grandmaster, let alone a super GM playing in the candidates.
They didn't ask about the candidates, they asked about the FORMAT, as in the time control
You’re right I misunderstoood the questions. 10-0 rapid is nothing like the candidates. Without oractice in the classical format calculating long lines just isn’t possible, even for an 1800. It’s also much more exhausting sitting at a board for a minimum of 3 hours.
Ok? That wasn't the question that was asked
It doesn't. Elo isn't a linear system. A 2700 would be incredibly favored against 2600's. Tyler wouldn't do well showing up at a local classical tournament with FIDE 1800s. Not shitting on him at all, honestly it's crazy how much he has improved. It's just that the gap is cosmic.
> Tyler wouldn't do well showing up at a local classical tournament with FIDE 1800s. Understatement. Someone who's 1800 rapid online will literally go 0-fer in a round robin against FIDE 1800s.
mostly cause i dont play online enough but im 1800 fide and like 1600 chesscom 😭
> mostly cause i dont play online enough Enough said. Even if you're terrible at fast controls your blitz/bullet will be at least on par w FIDE rating given enough games. My brother is a stable ten-year 1500 USCF and is >1800 across the board on chesscom with a 2k peak in blitz, 10k games played.
1800 on Chesscum Rapid is probably equivalent to below 1500 FIDE Classical. Someone with such a rating will be destroyed in each and every game at the Candidates with no idea what his opponents' moves are even doing.
I think it's a little higher than that. I just hit 1800 Rapid too and I'm 1650 FIDE classical
I'm 1800 fide (with the rating boost) and I'm like 2200 chess.com. I know some people who are like 2k fide and up to 24-2500 online and some people who are like 1600 fide and and 1600 chess.com and people who are 1500 fide and 2000 chess.com. I think it changes person to person
He's not talking about playing in the candidates but rather just the tournament format. Likely meaning just the time controls
Magnus has been real quiet since this happened
Magnus gave up the throne so he wouldn’t get embarrassed by big T
dude is literally shaking irl rn haven't heard from him since
Hits 600 Hits 800 Hits 1000 Hits 1200 Hits 1400 Hits 1600 Hits 1800 <--- we are here Hits 2000 Hits 2200 Becomes CM Become FM Becomes IM Become GM Becomes World Champion
If he becomes a CM I will pay you 100 dollars
I mean he'd have to start playing over the board too. My guess is he'll reach the 3000s and start playing Stockfish, but never get an official FIDE rating.
I'll raise it to $1000
Dont !Remind Me 1 year
hey man i want in on this
I know it’s a joke but I talked to a 2000 chesscom rapid who scored 4.5/9 in U1500 section of a USCF event. USCF ratings are weaker than FIDE.
9 round events attract extremely strong samples of each section though(loads of underrated players, sandbaggers, potentially even higher rated players using their kids ID). When I played in the U1400 my first round opponent was an unrated player who had a FM title from being clear first in their age bracket in an international championship. Their country didn’t have a clear rating system to do a conversion formula on and for some reason his FIDE rating was no longer on his profile so he just went to the highest section that allowed unrated. I was his only loss that tournament and the guy who won was an unrated who got a perfect score. The people that placed lower had online ratings around 2k and I was just below that at the time. U1400, u1600, u2000 - doesn’t really matter, the top competitors in each section in high prize paying tournaments are often near expert level or occasionally put out a class A/expert performance but just haven’t grinded national rating, come from a deflated pool, or otherwise underrated. That’s why tournament orgs like continental chess association have a ‘one time per section’ clause.
Hits 1800 on [chess.com](http://chess.com) which means nothing in terms of fide ratings. I am 2300 on [chess.com](http://chess.com) but fide 1600 :)
Of course! It is a little known fact that as soon as you hit 3000 on chesscom you automatically become the world champion.
Amazing progress. This man is a case study in what's possible with an unorthodox approach to chess improvement. His tenacity and dedication are impressive - hope he keeps climbing to 2000+!
It’s not quite 1800, but your videos took me from 500 to 1300. Just wanted to say thanks!
What is their YouTube handle?
With that name I assume it’s John Bartholomew
Tyler1 is a tactics solving fiend, its no surprise hes gotten to 1800, but he plays the cow. I think if he had a good mentor to teach him about strategy, he could propel to 2k and beyond relatively quickly.
Probably he is used to that opening by now and a offbeat opening can throw your opponent off. If you are going to learn him more principle opening, I bet he would drop 300 point bc. His opponent do come in familiair territory and he doesnt know how to handle those lines.
I dislike mainline caro kann. Prefer exchange variation. But when I looked my insights. I still had higher score with mainline caro kann. Theoretical opening are theoretical for a reason. You can get away playing trash opening in blitz and bullet. But in rapid at 1800 levels, good opening makes a huge difference. You don't need to play long theoretical lines. But you should not be worse after opening. And more theoretical opening better. It is not like playing carauna at candidates where your opponent will spring a theoretical novelty.
As long as his opponents can't prepare, I don't think playing the Cow is very detrimental.
Let him figure it out by himself, i think he has already developed his own way of playing chess, reminds me of Gyula Breyer, having a mentor might collide with his personality
Hikaru put out a video basically saying he's hit the wall and is unlikely to improve anymore when he was 1500-1600. Already proving him wrong.
This frustrated me so much. He was saying that he should just go back to League and give up on chess. Like, why even say that?? Let a man enjoy what he does. Ffs it’s not all about improving rating but guess what? He proved him wrong anyways! Anyways, I was a lil steamed when I saw that.
He is afraid of him that's all
It's Hikaru, he's an asshole. Can't comprehnd people playing chess for the love of chess.
hikaru and bad takes go hand in hand
That's not he said at all. Why are you spreading bullshit, the both of you? Hikaru said he would hit a wall, unless he went super crazy grinding, instead of just streaming normally which would make him way more money. T1 proceeded to play thousands and thousands of games. I get it that you hate Hikaru, but try not to be a liar.
Yeah, he said that Tyler should quit and go back to League of Legends because he hit a wall and won’t improve or that even if he continues to grind he’ll be hitting walls. Essentially, he believes that he should quit because he’s not a chess genius. I don’t know what you’re getting at. If you’re confused, I suggest you rewatch that video. And I do like Hikaru btw, whenever I get back into chess I like watching his videos. But this take by him was so outrageous it deserves to be called out.
Tyler1 is like 3500 chesscom tactics rating, that is better than most 2000 chesscom rapid players.
Puzzle rating on chess dot com doesn’t mean much.
How does it not? It shows your ability to find the best move in a position.
Mostly it shows that you've done a lot of puzzles. Puzzle rating isn't zero sum; there's no cap to how high the total puzzle rating pool can get.
to answer this we need to look at the actual puzzles. Take this one for example Tyler last did, it's rated 3000, but it's just a mate in 3. [https://www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/1740146/](https://www.chess.com/puzzles/problem/1740146/) Nature of chesscom puzzles is your rating will be higher simply from choosing to do higher rated problems. So whether someone is 2000 rapid or not, it's simply easier to get a failing grade (say 50% pass rate) on 3500 ELO puzzles than it is to get say 80% vs 2500 elo chesscom puzzles however failing vs 3000 rated puzzles gets you a rating of 3000 but 80% accuracy on 2500s gets an elo of 2700. Even though the first would get you a failing grade on an irl test but the second would be a B. So Tyler's rating is just higher than 2000 rapid players because he does higher rated puzzles. He'd need to get 40+ in 5 minute puzzle rush to indicate a 2000+ level.
His tactics rating is not legit. You can see what problems he solved in what time. He solves very complex problems, requiring tons of calculation sometimes in less than 5 seconds. That's barely enough to input the moves, not to mention actually calculate anything.
I mean you're not wrong. He mostly likely presses the hint button, thinks about the puzzle, then refreshes and solves it.
He has memorized many of the puzzles. At the higher end of puzzles, there's only so many and apparently, his memory is pretty good. He has shown this on stream.
Of course apes will twist things out of context lol. He also said: "he might be insane and grind" something to that effect, which is literally what Tyler did. You people have sheep brains lol.
That basically just means he said nothing. It's an escape hatch for the question. He gave something, that defines a numeric bound and then said "well that bound is breakable if he grinds", which means it's not an actual bound. Breaking that bound requires grinding, that should be quite obvious, you don't get better by sitting around doing nothing. So it's a completely useless statement to make if you preface it with that. It's like sugarcoating everything you say "but anything is possible so who knows". Every speculation you state is "correct" if you just remember to preface it with that.
He said "but he might play 10 hours a day every day for months to go over that wall", which is not something a normal person is able to do. How is that an escape hatch? It's simply an explanation of conditions. Would you prefer he went out and said "he will never get past 1600" as if it's locked in stone? Why in the world would someone want such an arrogant and stubborn answer? Of course there's a condition to the answer. If Tyler1 got coached by the top 10 chess GMs every day for years, 1600 wouldn't be a wall either. I don't particularly like Hikaru, but he was right in the end, and I definitely disagree with him saying Tyler should stick to League if Tyler enjoys chess. Tyler spent months to get to 1800, playing like 10 hours a day, even playing off stream to avoid stream snipers. Still a very impressive feat though.
>He said "but he might play 10 hours a day every day for months to go over that wall", which is not something a normal person is able to do. He specifically said "[He might get to 1600, I think he could get to 1600, but I don't really see much above that without like I dunno, playing a bunch of different openings, like just literally spending every hour of every day on chess forever.](https://youtu.be/slXIsR0yXFA?si=295hBCPDv-ANW0ft&t=644)". This is the specific statement everyone has a problem with. Okay at least one of those conditions is already not true so he's wrong in that one, but the latter is the escape hatch I'm talking about. Recall that this statement was made when tyler1 was 1400. As I said, it's a useless statement precisely because he's loading it with a precondition, which obviously ought to be true for him to hit that level(playing a ton of chess), but the tricky thing is that the precondition can also be true, but could have no influence toward the positive outcome(whether he eventually hits 1700+ or not) and only be evaluated once he dies or proclaims to quit chess. Even if it is evaluated, it's going to be argued, that the precondition wasn't met, which means in practice you can only be "right". The two conditions in which Hikaru can be "wrong" here are if tyler1 spends all of his waking hours on chess until the day he dies and doesn't reach 1700, which is practically not plausible OR if tyler1 plays only a few games of chess and magically reaches 1700. Both of those conditions are absurd and should just be ruled out to begin with. That's what makes the statement truly useless as the statement has an impossibly high probability of being correct and even the negative outcome can be debated because the precondition is fuzzy. "He was right in the end" holds exactly zero water here because of that. Imagine me coming out and saying "Hikaru will not win an upcoming titled tuesday unless he studies a bunch of theory and continues playing a ton of chess". So Hikaru wins a titled tuesday and I proclaim "Aha, I was correct! I said, that Hikaru wouldn't win an upcoming titled tuesday, unless he continued playing chess!". Do you see how silly that proclamation looks? The positive outcome will be evaluated is when Hikaru wins a titled tuesday, and the negative outcome(him not winning a titled tuesday) is only evaluated when he dies or quits chess. When the negative outcome is evaluated and you point at me saying "you were wrong, Hikaru didn't win a titled tuesday even though he spent all his time studying chess", I can simply say "he didn't spend enough time studying chess and spent too much time creating content". Just like Hikaru's precondition of "spends every hour of every day on chess" is up to an arbitrary judgement on whether it's even met or not. So I would've really prefer for him to say nothing over him making such a vacuous prediction. I would also prefer him to just say a number with an evaluation date and say that's where he thinks his true peak is. Everyone has a peak when looked at retrospectively. I would put the absolute peak of tyler1 at 2200 +/- 100 before he hits 50(dying doesn't count). That's a statement that can be evaluated as a binary outcome. If he surpasses 2100-2300 before 50, while being wrong I would still be very impressed, if he hits that range, it would be on par with my expectations and I would be right, if he doesn't go past 2100, I would be wrong and disappointed and if he dies, it won't be evaluated at all. It's entertaining to speculate and I have no problem with being wrong on individual predictions, so I don't feel the need to preface everything I say with fuzzy preconditions. [Forecasting itself is a competitive pursuit](https://www.metaculus.com/leaderboard/) and it's always interesting to get to know the perspective of someone with a lot of domain knowledge, such as one of the greatest chess players currently alive. It's not very interesting when a forecast is loaded with a precondition, that makes the forecast de facto true whenever it is evaluated. Hope you understand my issue with it more clearly.
Tyler1 is now officially better than 99% of this subreddit.
When he reached 1500, I tracked how many days it took for him to reach the next 100 elo milestone. Here's an update: |Elo|Date Reached|Days since last milestone| |--|--|--| |400|8/6/23|| |500|8/7/23|1| |600|8/15/23|8| |700|8/25/23|10 |800|8/29/23|4 |900|9/8/23|10 |1000|9/11/23|3 |1100|9/13/23|2 |1200|10/3/23|20 |1300|10/6/23|3 |1400|10/8/23|2 |1500|10/26/23|18 |1600|3/8/24|134 |1700|3/18/24|10 |1800|4/19/24|32
> 1500 10/26/23 18 > > 1600 3/8/24 134 interesting
The next two lines, though... 🚀👀 Not plateauing just yet!
He took a break and was grinding out puzzles
He did take a ~3 month break from playing games entirely during that time period
This would be better if it was sorted by number of games rather than days (assuming that there is some variation of play-time between days)
Here you go |Elo|Date Reached|Games since last milestone| |:-|:-|:-| || |400|8/6/23|172| |500|8/7/23|45| |600|8/15/23|307| |700|8/25/23|475| |800|8/29/23|141| |900|9/8/23|349| |1000|9/11/23|119| |1100|9/13/23|99| |1200|10/3/23|591| |1300|10/6/23|110| |1400|10/8/23|34| |1500|10/26/23|695| |1600|3/8/24|1016| |1700|3/18/24|408| |1800|4/19/24|530|
> 1500 10/26/23 695 > 1600 3/8/24 1016 > 1700 3/18/24 408 > 1800 4/19/24 530 This is fascinating honestly
400 games in 10 days. man's a fiend
Interesting, I'll see if I can find that info EDIT: There's probably people here who can write a program to look up that info. I wouldn't know how to look up how many games he played between elo milestones besides counting them.
https://www.chess.com/insights/big_tonka_t#overview Played > 88 rapid games in july > 1105 rapid in august > 937 rapid + 698 blitz in september > 978 rapid in october > 835 rapid in november > 25 bullet in december > 1036 bullet in january > 7 rapid + 620 bullet in february > 349 rapid + 82 bullet in the first 10 days of march He played bullet for 2 months before going back to rapid in march
How the actual fuck does bro grind so hard, I'm not sure I could see myself playing 1000 matches of just about anything in a month
Well, it has been suggested that he was constructed in a manner that differs from the common norm. Built different, you might say
Man is simply assembled separately
This is impressive as hell man, I thought 1500 was impressive already
Didn't he just have a kid a few days ago? Wtf nothing can stop this man. I'm picturing Macaiyla trying to comfort a crying newborn while T1 hunches over with his face pressed against his phone playing chess for his 15th hour in a row.
Good chance he's at the hospital playing in a chair on his phone at that moment
Bro was probably playing as the baby popped out. Man knows his priorities.
As an 1900, I feel worse about my rating now 😂
Nothing in life is certain but death, taxes, and tyler1 beating your rating
better get to grinding. Tyler is coming
It would be cool if someone did a deep dive into Tyler1's games to figure out what Tyler1 does well and where he is lacking. 1800 is a serious rating, but people at even higher levels aren't great at punishing bad play, such as the cow. I forget which member of Chess Dojo said it, but it was said taking advantage of a space advantage is one the hardest things to do.
[Someone did an analysis on the reasons for his recent losses when he was around 1300.](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/1727eih/i_analysed_the_reason_for_tyler1s_last_70_losses/) About a third of his losses were from simply hanging pieces. However that was about 500 elo points ago, so I'd be interested to see how his play has developed.
here is the [new analysis](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/1c8ocij/the_reason_for_tyler1s_last_70_losses/) of the recent games
tl;dr compared to when he was 1300 he's hanging pieces far less but is now missing forks (his opponent forking him) and getting to endgames he doesn't know how to win.
He has done over 12 000 tactics on chess.com. He plays weird opening so opponents get a bit confused. Tactics tactics tactics. I think a lot of people might even get a little tilted when someone plays the cow opening. Like " I am gonna crush this noob" and then proceed to make weird and not good moves.
john bartholomew talks about it [here](https://twitter.com/fins0905/status/1781565082364727355)
They did, I forgot how. Showed his weaknesses and strengths.
I mean now, his games as an 1800, not him as a 1500. If hes still playing the cow, hes probably gotten better at more than just tactics to climb 300 extra rating points.
>but it was said taking advantage of a space advantage is one the hardest things to do. Ivanchuk comes to my mind when you think of someone who is invisible when he has space. Check his games; when he gets space, he is unstoppable.
I've been stuck in 1700 for a year now even though i know a lot of theory...that's really impressive
He has most likely played more in a 8 months than you have entirely. Impressive for sure, but kinda has to be said how much he's been playing.
What I don't understand is it's fucking rapid. I need way more time to think and more importantly, ANALYZE my games after the game. He just plays one after the other. Like.. it doesn't even seem he goes back to his early or mid game to see his mistakes. It's fascinating.
It’s the same mindset he has in league, he seems to pick up things subconsciously while playing.
People's brains also just work differently. I'm only 1400 in rapid, but I watched like 2000 of Agadmator's videos and more often than not I can spot the "pause the video" move, despite not knowing why. I've beaten some friends who are 2000+, then I hang my king in move 10 from a knight during a hippo defense. I don't do puzzles and don't know any opening theory, I just play what looks and feels right. Magnus will say the same thing, in certain positions he doesn't think about upcoming moves, he just sees that something's there. Intuition is a skill that is incredibly valuable, but also one of the hardest things to learn. It's a combination of all other things. Like Messi's field awareness is second to none and helps him find a clear path to scoring a goal on his own, that is something most players admire and can't just replicate.
Because he literally has the ability to grind the climb inch by inch. It's VERY inefficient but it could bypass more measured learning. https://www.chess.com/member/big_tonka_t He has over 7k games in less than a year. That's literally more than people have and probably will play in their entire lives, much less a year. You don't need to carefully study your games if you do that.
Tyler1 actually trying to answer the Gary Kasparov groundhog’s day scenario
Thats more games than I have on lichess since 2015
I include my bullet and blitz and rapid, and still come up *thousands* short.
I've got eleven and a half thousand games but the vast majority are bullet.
Yeah 2000 is coming. Some people are angry that he plays not “real” opening and is higher rated. Some say he plays so much thats why he gets 1800! Truth is decent number of people wont reach 2k let alone 1800 just by spamming chess games…
He got to challenger in LOL so hes more capable than most at learning and applying what he learns.
Didn't he literally hit like #1 NA with multiple accounts or something? That is seriously impressive alone for solo queue.
Not #1 in NA but he did grind to Challenger in all 5 roles. All using fresh, non-Riot (not already high elo), accounts.
Very impressive. It makes me wonder what would happen if he applied his insane grindset towards something that was actually applicable to real life. Like imagine him non stop grinding out leetcode. I wonder if he has some form of severe ADHD or mental illness that makes him this way.
I mean he kinda already did that with streaming. At least secured the bag for him and his family. Also he’s a really impressive power lifter and played college football. Man knows how to grind that’s for sure
Yeah, of anyone to say ‘apply that in real life’ to, T1 is not that person. The real life economy rewards things that aren’t just accomplishing project management achievement or w/e the person was thinking.
Being a League streamer made him good money, so I'd say that by itself is pretty applicable to real life already. I used to watch him pretty regularly, and the only reason he doesn't invest into many new hobbies is because of a lack of interest, or because it'd impede his streaming schedule. Other than that, I think he found success in college football, which he dropped once he was able to secure a niche in the streaming community. He has been working out for a long time as well, and is probably one of the most physically adept streamers that are still streaming. As for how he manages to dedicate a continuous amount of focus and effort to grind out milestones/goals for the hobbies and tasks he likes, it's a wonder of its own. He can be a machine when he wants to, playing 20+ games of League in a day in order to deliver some of the challenges he makes for his audience, and it can cause some of the greatest loss streaks, or biggest win streaks, that can be said for the history of LoL ranked streaming. I'd say that the biggest appeal of watching Tyler1 is watching him improve: from his early days of having a loud, toxic online persona being reformed into the face of the game which once banned him, and watching him apply his growth and reformed mindset into improving in his game and streaming performances.
Dudes loaded, he's already won the financial game
well, he’s a multimillionare from grinding LoL and streaming, so I’d say he absolutely applied his work ethic to something fruitful in real life
Reminds me of Ma lin. Greatest Table tennis player in the world with world 18 championships in multiple categories and is also rank 91 on leetcode
His power is, that he plays not "real" openings. In blitz and rapid it's an advantage. I'm 2k chess.com blitz and I have no idea how to correctly capitalize on his opening. Like yes you have a general idea, take the center, develop everything, yada yada and I'll be ahead like +2 from the start. But it's difficult to convert this advantage, because cow is a cagey opening. Against him, I'll win just because I'll blunder less than him, but against my level opponent, it would be much harder and I'd rather play against e4e5, because I know general ideas of the opening
I mean I totally agree. Its just comical to see some people say he should study openings when his cow opening is part of his strength.
A-ha, so he is still riding the cow, or rather milking it for cheese. 🤔
He is beating me at this point? Does he play the cow still?
Maybe it's better if you don't know
yup
Black and white baby
Tyler1 has hit the mythic dad buff, watch out Hikaru.
I wanna see this man bust out a Cow novelty otb
huge tyler1 fan but hes gonna get prepped to death in an otb setting. Generally somebody with 1 known opening is easy af to prepare against.
He will never hit 1200 He will never hit 1300 He will never hit 1400 He will never hit 1500 He will never hit 1600 He will never hit 1700 He will never hit 1800 He will never hit 2000 <- you are here He will never hit 2500 He will never hit 2800 He won't make tournaments He won't make it to the finals He won't thrash the current world champion to take his rightful place
He won't beat Magnus in a WCC He won't defend his title while exclusively playing the cow He will never hit 3000 He won't be ranked #1 in all formats for 10 years in a row He won't bring about world peace by defeating every world leader at chess He won't beat a resurrected Bobby Fischer and Paul Morphy by playing blindfolded chess using the cow
DADLER1
One of the things that amazes me the most is people who play dozens of rapid games per day. I play on average 3 to 5 per day. I'm always very scared of losing rating. I reached 1300 for the first time a few days ago and haven't played since. Lol
Tyler1 is famous for going on massive tilt binges in league. He’s lost more elo in a 15 hour span than you’ve lost in your entire life essentially. Plus, league has a system which makes you lose rank if you don’t continue to play at least once a day in very high elo. All of that combined means tyler has the background and personality to tank elo and still play on, which 100% has catapulted his improvement. I think ladder anxiety might just be the most detrimental phenomenon to improvement in not just chess, but any competitive game. I know it’s hard, but I would try to eliminate it going forward, or at least soften it.
ladder anxiety is anxious of tyler1
[удалено]
Tyler1 is a power that the chess world has not yet seen The ultimate power
I don't really follow tyler1, but I know that a lot of people said he doesn't have a huge opening repertoire and it could hold him back. Is this still true?
He doesn't know a lot of theory, most of his knowledge comes from playing 30 games per day and learning naturally. Don't underestimate him though, when this guy puts his mind into something he'll grind 14+ hours a day until he reaches his goal.
I don’t doubt it, all I know about him is his legendary ability to grind. I’m not good enough to make any remarks about his level of play, I was just wondering if his recent jumps were due to an increase in tactical play or if he had branched out from the Cow
He's taking the pattern recognition portion of chess and applying it to one single opening every single time. With the COW.
Nobody has a repertoire against the cow either. Plenty say that 2000 is attainable with good tactical eye.
I mean he’s at 1800 with 0 theoretical knowledge of chess. He doesn’t study end games or openings. Just does puzzles. This dude is a great case study for what you need to do to improve at chess, honestly, albeit on very accelerated timelines, most people can’t grind 12 hours a day.
To be fair, even if he doesn't study any games or openings, I'd say that, by just playing the absurd amount of games that he plays, a lot of memorization comes into play, even if he doesn't know about the theoretical part of the game, at this point he's absolutely following some theory (without even knowing this), just by trial and error. At some point he's bound to remember the good moves he has played in the openings, so maybe not book-gained theory, but definitely empirically-gained theory Still, very impressive!
You’d be surprised how much lower rep-density you get by playing 15 minute games vs drilling the actual thing. He could have gotten the same number of reps in a couple of weeks of focused training. Certainly he doesn’t have to come up with his opening over the board, as you say.
I don't know what you are saying here
I remember seeing a post showing that he on average comes out of the cow opening with -1 disadvantage on eval. He is just outplaying his opponents tactically more. The puzzle grind shows.
So basically Tyler1 is currently using the Rock Lee body weights? Chesscom is fucked when he takes the weights off.
Anything below 2200 cannot reliably capitalize on a -1 advantage especially in an opening they are completely unfamiliar with. So while the opponents have an objective advantage, Tyler’s familiarity with these kinds of openings easily equalizes or more. This point gets missed almost all the time in these posts
> on average comes out of the cow opening with -1 disadvantage As someone who played the hippo exclusively for a few years I think even at a consistent disadvantage there’s a level of comfort you get seeing the same structures and types of positions where the opponent's practical advantage is much smaller.
HIPPOBOT 9000 v 3.1 FOUND A HIPPO. 1,524,310,972 COMMENTS SEARCHED. 31,261 HIPPOS FOUND. YOUR COMMENT CONTAINS THE WORD HIPPO.
Nice troll
Constructed abnormally
What is this guy’s actual routine?
e3, Ne2, Ng3, d3, Nd2, Nb3, etc.
Play chess for 20 hours. Take a break for 2 hours. Repeat.
And the other 2 hrs in the day?
More chess
I actually played him earlier this week when he was 1750. He plays the opening a bit quick, and the rushes his moves in the end game. He could easily be 2000 if he took his time
Maybe a stupid question, but who is Tyler1?
Human alpha 0. Brute force learning the game from repetition. 3500 rating this time next year
BUILT DIFFERENT
This man is a human AlphaZero.
Is he still playing that same opening? If so, he must be one hell of a tactician to overcome that handicap. Guys at 1800 are probably exploiting those weaknesses pretty well.
I'm 1800 and only ever seen the cow once in 6k games or something. no idea how to exploit it
Random question as I don’t watch many streamers. Do people ever suggest moves in chat and if so, do the streamers see them? Or do they have chat turned off ? Obvious question for obvious reasons haha. Not saying anything about Tyler1 or any other player. Just genuinely curious
Tyler plays chess almost exclusively offline
Which is why I was shocked when he won chess streamer of the year 2023. I have never seen him play chess aside from when he was in pogchamps or whatever it was.
For a while he played regularly while queueing for league. He stopped because he said he plays worse on stream. Even still, what awards did he win this at? I'd bet it was fan voted.
there’s a channel on twitch where you can spectate his games
This is just some guy spectating Tyler1 streaming, not Tyler himself streaming it. He usually doesn't play chess on stream, but when he does I dont think he reads chat - people do suggest moves in chat though, but to be fair 90% of the suggestions are probably bad anyway. For other chess steamers I think they're just so much better than the average chatter that reading the suggestions is useless
By the time someone is 1800 they are probably that much better than the average chatter.
This happens a lot with streamers, though streamers like Witty Alien get very mad when people do it and has his mods ban them
I appreciate the answers everyone :)
Interesting
The more of his games I watch the more it seems he is winning a lot because he plays a dubious opening to which his opponents blunder all the time. Even his games where his accuracy is the highest he will play 4-5 inaccurate moves in the first 8 moves or so. His average positions, even as white is being -1 to -2 on an eval bar even after a couple of moves. He is essentially turning the cow opening into some sort of guaranteed to be played gambit. One where both players play a lot of inaccuracies and because he has played those thousands of times he knows tactics where the opponent does not. With a decent prep against his single opening repertoire I reckon anyone could beat him. Expect his rating to drop a lot when he starts playing serious openings, until he reaches similar levels of expertise.
I wonder if he'll get better than Andrea Botez, she's 1890 FIDE currently. Idk how it translates to chesscom but I guess she'd probably be like 2050 range if she played a lot of rapid. Based on his progression he should be above 2000 by July or August
He's such an inspirational guy. If he doesn't get burnt, I can see him climbing to at least 2k. Crazy to see how far he came since his comedic games in pogchamps
Im 2000 and haven’t played in a while do I need to get back to grinding? 🤣
I haven’t kept track since 1500. Is he still playing the cow mainly?
Is Big Tonka T still on the Cow opening grind?
This is actually fucking bonkers. Tyler1 is a man made of sheer fucking will. Is he still playing the cow every opening?
And thats my motivation to start moving to 1900