Chess forum by Grandmasters

French schlecter 'trap'

An interesting trap I fell into, quite likely played for.

After 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Bd3 dxe4 4. Bxe4 Nf6 5. Bf3 c6?! 6. Ne2 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. Nd2 Qc7 9. g3 (there are engine lines of letting h2 go which I don't understand the compensation) Nbd7 - now Nc4 is tempting, but Bg2 is the best here. After 10. Nc4 e5, now Bg2 is still possible, but after 11. Nxd6 Qxd6 12. dxe5 (could still play Bg2) Qxd1 13. Rxd1 Nxe5 14. Bg2 - life starts to get hard with Bg4! (which I saw but too late). 15. Bf1?! (the trap) was wrong where 15. Re1 offers a drawish looking positions and 15. Kd1 Nf3 16. h3 Nxf3+ is perpetual.

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You mean 5.Bf3, right!?

How many daily puzzle

Hello,

I appreciate daily chessmood puzzle. They are always esthetic and challenging. I never miss a daily puzzle. Sometimes, it seems to me that i have already seen a puzzle. Does someone know how many puzzle there are in the database? Is there a cycle, or puzzle compositors have no limit?

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I think that it cycles after you complete a certain number of puzzles.

However, I'm unsure about this.

I've been here since February, and have seen a couple of repeats. I have a really good memory for puzzles, but it's only been 3ish that I remember.

GM Gabuzyan vs PRO members game

Champions here is the game PGN from Nov25th event, where I was playing against combined ChessMood team.

https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=xpRxga1ACx/TIya0qyhkh6pB/yv9aMpCDnC+nfIu8UpVTVF/MYkvt55ufL8Q+DP6

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Gift chessmood

I have got a gift what is that for

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If you don’t have an active plan yet  , you will get access to all the video content of ChessMood for a month . 

New podcast with IM Eric Rosen and an article based on it

Champions,

The episode with IM Eric Rosen is out on the 🎙️ChessMood podcast🤩

He shares some of the most important lessons from his journey in chess, content creation and beyond, including:
 

- How he overcame a 4-year long plateau to become an IM.

- A lesson that took him years to learn on dealing with failures.

- What it was like to train chess at the famous Webster University.

- His 3 keys to succeeding in chess, streaming & more.
 

You can watch the full podcast through the link below.

We have crafted a short article too, in case you prefer to read. 

Enjoy❤️
 

Link to the article⬇️

https://chessmood.com/blog/eric-rosen

Full podcast episode (also available on Spotify & Apple Podcasts)⬇️

https://youtu.be/GfBY_VZBGhk

What are the lessons you learned from IM Eric Rosen?

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Chess Anxiety

Hello everyone at ChessMood,

I am rated around 1800 USCF and whenever I play chess otb, I always get very nervous whenever I play against lower-rated opponents. This makes me play much worse than I actually can (I lost to a 1200 when I was 1700 :( ). Meanwhile, I am super super confident against higher-rated opponents which helped me get many upsets back to back (I beat and drew 5-6 2000+ rated opponents at 1650 :)). I thought it was because I was too attached and focused on my rating and I tried to detach myself from this but this didn't work. Does anyone know the reasons behind this anxiety against lower-rated opponents and how I can prevent it?

Thanks for your time

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Hi H.L.!
Did you watch the blunderproof course? If not I'm recommending it to you wholeheartedly.
There is a section on this topic, but basically you need to try to play a game worth remembering, this worked for me in the past… 😀

How to open PGN files?

I installed the PGN files and idk how to open them. I have an old ChessBase 13 but it's too laggy and can't even open PGN files. So I need help

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Hi there,

You could:

1. Download a chess program like Arena and load PGNs there, or
2. Download a chess review program like SCID, or
3. Load it online at Lichess : https://lichess.org/paste
4. Load it online at Chess.com : add games in the Analysis section

   Does that help or have I misunderstood your question? ;-)

PGN for Classic Games

Can you please add the pgns of the classic games? It literally took me 30 min to find the pgn of just 1 game.

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We reorganized the game collections lately.😅 We will check this out and upload them as soon as possible. Thanks for letting us know!😄

Question on French 3.Nc3

Hi

I recently had a game as black where I had problems with the variation

1.e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 h6 5. Bxf6 Qxf6 6. ed Bb4 7. Bb5+ Bd7 8.Bxd7+ Nxd7 9 dxe6

I don't understand what compensation I have for the pawn. This variation (the second most popular after 7. dxe6 at my level and the most popular at master level) is not mentioned in the blackmood course. 

Can someone please explain the ideas in this variation?

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New Article "The Most Powerful Legal Drug"

Mahalo to Avetik for another well written article that can change people's lives.

Here in the  United States, there is an incredible amount of division, spite and anger, be it political or idealogical. Too many focus too much energy on complaints, unhappiness with the status quo, etc etc.

If more people would remember to put their focus on being grateful for the positives in their lives, the country as well as the world would become a better place! And their lives would become better still.

As a bonus, grateful people have been documented again and again  to live longer, healthier lives.

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How do you calculate?

How do you calculate?

My coach tells me to first create general considerations, then create candidate ideas and then candidate moves. But i get really confused and overwhelmed. Can someone explain how to calculate?

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Your coach advice is good, though you can break it down like this:

First, look for the ideas that you want to accomplish.

Second, find the most important of those ideas.

Third, find the moves that best help accomplish those ideas.

The 7Q method course, if you are a Chessmood member, will help a lot with the first two steps.

Chessmood will also be soon releasing a course on Calculation, so that topic will be explored in depth there!

Hope this helps!

1950 on lichess

First, you check if something is under attack or if something is forced.

Then, you look at the moves you like, or want to play to accomplish your goal. 

After that, you look if that piece is defending another piece.

lastly, you want to look at the order of your moves while you are calculating, to make sure you are right. 

Hopefully that helps😃

What rating are we talking about? If you're 1000, it's very different to 2200.

The calculation process is something that can't easily be answered here. There is the courses on evaluation and planning which are part of it, but much isn't useful to a 1000 player. For now I'll assume that sort of level.

Main elements for that level are:

What did my opponent just do and what's he threatening (if anything) - trying to answer why at this level doesn't help.

What are the checks in the position; analyse each.

What are the captures in the position; analyse each.

If neither checks are captures are fruitful, ask what can we threaten (loose pieces, early developed queen, etc) - tactic ninja will help here to find threating moves.

If nothing obvious if I'm in the opening, can I develop another piece, can I control the centre, can I get my king safe (opening principles course which is useful irrespective of rating, though only new to lower rated players).

If it's the middle game, can I improve . my worst piece, can I move forward, can I attack the king yet (more pieces around than defenders (mating matador helps with patterns here).

The rest you pick up as you go for now.