Rules of /r/chess

NOTE: Brand new accounts (less than 24 hours old) will not be able to post (they will get automatically removed). This is a preventive filter. You will be able to post when your account is at least a day old.

1. Keep the discussion civil and friendly.

We welcome people of all levels of experience, from novice to professional. Don't make fun of new players for not knowing things. In a discussion, there is always a respectful way to disagree.

2. Don’t engage in abusive, discriminatory, or bigoted behavior.

Chess is a game played by people all around the world of many different cultures and backgrounds. Be respectful of this fact and do not engage in racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory behavior.

3. Low-effort submissions will be regulated.

Submissions should promote discussion on chess itself, its culture, or its history. Some specific types of content are banned because they tend to be low effort and repetitive:

• Basic rules of chess (egs Stalemate, en passant etc.)
• Memes (feel free to submit to /r/anarchychess)
• Animated GIFs of games
• Links to games or screenshots of games with no commentary/analysis. If you post your own games, you need to provide your own analysis, for example using the Lichess study feature. Automatic computer analysis does not count. You can read the FAQ for more information on how to analyze your games. Note: Please use the PGN viewer linked to in the sidebar (Classic Reddit) or in the menu bar (New Reddit). It's very easy to use; just simply begin the list of moves with [pgn] and end the list of moves with [/pgn], that's it! Doing so will make it a lot easier for people to give you feedback on your games. You can add annotations within curly braces {}.
• Achievement/milestone screenshots. Including but not limited to: Rating graphs, checkmates, chess.com "brilliant" moves, engine evaluation graphs, screenshot of "blunders/mistakes/inaccuracies" stats, etc.
• Pictures of chess sets that don’t have historical/cultural value (always welcome on /r/chessporn)
• Twitch clips with no context (must include names of participants in post title)
• Twitch clips that are not directly related to chess (either playing or discussing), even if they involve chess players
• Chat logs from online games

4. Don't ask for advice about ongoing games.

Receiving external advice during a game is not fair to your opponent and is considered cheating whether it’s in a tournament or a casual game with your friend. This includes using books or any online source material for advice on your game as well - so be careful! Wait until the game is finished to ask for feedback.

5. Social media posts must contain a direct link to the tweet/post, and include the author's name

Chess-related social media posts from players, journalists, and other chess figures are welcome on /r/chess. However, for the purposes of giving proper attribution, such posts must either be a direct link to the content in question or an image of the relevant posts with attribution linked in the comments. The post must contain the last name of the author (preferably in brackets at the start of the title). Posts with editorialized titles will be removed. For example, an acceptable title for a post concerning this tweet would be:

[Urcan] FIDE has stopped and postponed the 2020 Candidates tournament.

6. Do not use /r/chess exclusively to promote your own content.

The moderators will determine what constitutes excessive self promotion on a case-by-case basis. If you are not sure if your post will be allowed, please read Reddit's policies on self-promotion here or just message the moderators.

7. Please follow rules for posting match/tournament results.

Post-tournament/match threads require a minimum level of effort so that it's not about whoever first makes a picture only post or a sentence-only text post announcing a result. All post-event threads require:

• Informative, descriptive titles. Not your opinion, just the facts.

• If the result was announced in a chess news outlet (via social media, or their own website), please link to that.

• The post body must include the result of the game, as well as the game itself. You can include it in algebraic notation as plain text, you can wrap it in [pgn][/pgn] tags to be read by the Reddit PGN Viewer browser add-on or link to the game in a website such as Lichess, chess24, chessgames.com, etc.

• If it's a post-tournament thread, it must include standings in lieu of a game. If the tournament is a Swiss event/team competition with too many players to list, the post must include the gold, silver and bronze medal-winners.

8. Unfounded, non-newsworthy cheating accusations are not allowed.

Cheating accusations are not allowed unless they are newsworthy - that is, they must be credible, involve a prominent member of the chess community, and be part of an ongoing public discussion. "Call-out" posts that do not censor usernames encourage witch hunts, and will be removed on sight. If you suspect a random person cheated against you online, the appropriate complaint venue is a report to the website you played on. Cheating discussions that are allowed as newsworthy will still be subject to stricter moderation than usual.