Lichess Game of the Month: January '25

@MrWabiSabi the game of the month is not an appropriate place for advertising. it's a game competition, not a call for tenders to reward the best coaches or courses

If you are an expert, you can volunteer to be part of the committee that checks the games.

@MrWabiSabi said in #9:

@FairChess36
I contacted Lichess, but they did not respond. I also don’t think Lichess notifies a player when someone writes in chat. There is a setting that allows players to hide chat and even report it if they find it offensive, in addition to the Lichess bot, which helps prevent different kinds of spam. If my messages caused annoyance, @Druismat , I sincerely apologize. My intention was simply to criticize Lichess, and I wasn’t aware of a better place to do so.

Years ago, before the rise of computers and scientific methods, many things were dismissed as purely subjective. Given that this is a comment and not a scientific paper, I provided a few high-level, simplified criteria—such as high accuracy (98% vs. sub-90%), precise tactical execution, and a successful king hunt—as stronger indicators of a high-quality game than frequent mistakes in non-complex positions and missed opportunities. Yet your response is simply that everything I say is vague?

@yojoey
I understand that some of you prefer to approach these things for fun, and for that reason, I’ll end my messages here. However, it’s worth considering that not everyone submits their games just for fun—some may have other reasons that make it important to them. It would have been better if Lichess had handled this matter with more responsibility.

Get a life and stop being so annoying.

Enough is enough. If you include @TonyRo, @FairChess36, @yojoey, @Peristilo, and other accounts that engaged in harassing or bullying comments—calling me "disrespectful," "rude," "annoying," "jealous," and dismissing my arguments as "long and fruitless debates"—then congratulations, you’ve succeeded in pushing me away.

But not because of those comments. The real issue is that I genuinely did not know this contest was just for fun. I took my time to participate, believing it to be a real competition.

My original comment in the chat was:

"I get it, maybe the Lichess team picking games isn’t full of experienced players,
but choosing this game with an engine right in front of them is just disrespectful.
I’ve always loved Lichess and told people to give it a shot whenever I could, and I still will.
But honestly, I’m probably done submitting games for their contest or checking what they pick next.
Hopefully, they actually listen and change how they do things."

I admit that using the word "disrespectful" was a poor choice, but what followed was completely unnecessary. This was how @TonyRo opened his commentary:

"First, I think it's worth addressing some disparaging comments in this game's original chat.
The Lichess GOTM contest is not an accuracy contest. The games aren't strictly selected by player ratings.
Blunders and mistakes are allowed. It's so easy to look at the Stockfish evaluations and cast games aside,
to cast aspersions on players with lower ratings, and to try and make yourself feel superior at the cost of others."

This is a serious misrepresentation of my words. Nowhere did I criticize lower-rated players, nor did I attempt to feel superior. My criticism was solely about the game selection process. It’s also worth mentioning that, to my knowledge, my submitted game had the highest accuracy and I was the highest-rated player among the submissions this month (or at least among those who commented).

@TonyRo, you could have simply responded at the beginning by explaining that this was an informal event and how the selection process works. When you eventually did, I actually appreciated your response because it clarified things I didn’t know before. Had I known, I wouldn’t have submitted a game at all—I used to be a professional player, and I wouldn’t invest time in a contest where the outcome is based on subjective selection rather than clear criteria.

However, I didn’t appreciate my concerns being labeled as "long and fruitless debates." More professionalism would have been expected—especially from someone representing an official Lichess blog. Phrases like:

"Could be, but if you put a gun to my head..."
"Kasparov curb-stomping some random idiots in simuls."
are not appropriate in this context.

Additionally, I never asked for advice on how to grow my YouTube channel. Some people made assumptions about my motivations, implying I’m only doing this for money. If that’s truly what you believe, feel free to send me your card details, and I’ll make sure every penny of future income goes to you instead.

For context, I have played, worked, and been teammates with some of the biggest names in chess (top #2-#100). When I quit professional chess, I wrote a book— for intermediate, advanced players, i.e., future generations. For some reason, I never published it. Between my Master's and PhD, I saw how chess content was declining into clickbait and poor-quality opening materials. So, I combined my chess expertise with my computer science knowledge to create a course for beginners. Why? to give them a correct foundational vision they need to have about chess. That is my motivation. And this why I am exploring different options to see how I can promote the course in a shorter time. Once my PhD workload increases, I will likely no longer have the time to promote it further.

Everything I’ve said is honest. If you are so accustomed to dishonesty that you can’t recognize sincerity when you see it, that’s your problem, not mine.

But don’t get me wrong—I did like your response, Tony, because it ultimately gave me insight into how the contest actually works, and it helped me understand that I was mistaken. However, you could have handled it more professionally. If you don’t have time for "fruitless long debates," then perhaps it would have been wiser not to start one in an official Lichess blog. Once you did, you became responsible for how the discussion unfolded. I didn’t realize it until it happened, but people became more aggressive toward me after your response. If my concerns had been addressed in a more welcoming way, I believe the situation could have unfolded differently. If people saw that, as a commentator, you did not consider my words "fruitless," they might have understood that criticism is not an attack—while calling people bad names is.

I have reported @TonyRo but specifically requested that he not be banned or punished because I still consider him a respectful person. However, I have asked Lichess to clarify its stance on this matter.

As for the other players I mentioned, I have reported their messages as bullying and harassment.

I am waiting for Lichess's response. If it is unsatisfactory, I will delete my account—and you all can enjoy your "fun" without me.

Donde esta el enlace para subir la partida del mes de marzo?

@Nuevo_amanecer said in #34:

Donde esta el enlace para subir la partida del mes de marzo?
After so many debate after January game, they gave up this contest.
Of course, it is only a joke, the link is below:
https://adjva4.dpdns.org/forum/general-chess-discussion/lichess-game-of-the-month-february-2025-contest

guys stop attacking wabisabi, he realised that he made a mistake, so guys stop pls bro. Accept his apologies

Hi, no GotM for february ?

Hi @HighlyCruciferous,

Here is the link for submissions (Month – February 2025 Contest): https://adjva4.dpdns.org/forum/general-chess-discussion/lichess-game-of-the-month-february-2025-contest

And here is the selected game:

@ChessChuan

Thanks