What real games reveal about how humans actually play chess
Interactive analyses built on the FlawChess benchmark database: hundreds of thousands of Lichess games with full Stockfish evaluations, across every rating level and time control.
You've lost three in a row. Should you stop?
2.67 million Lichess games say tilt is real but small: the game after three straight losses scores about half a point per 100 games below normal, and even six or more losses cost only two points per 100. Your own stats overstate it badly: stronger opponents, streaks spread over days, rematches and rating drift explain most of the gap. Plus: does a break help, and which loss hurts the next game most?
Read the story →You're two pawns up. Do you actually win?
329,518 evenly matched games say a "winning position" is a promise you still have to keep: players who reach the middlegame at a Stockfish evaluation of +2.0 or better lose roughly one game in four, and a bare two-pawn lead goes down almost a third of the time. Plus the two ways a won game is lost: outplayed, or flagged.
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