Create your free account

By clicking “Register”, you agree to our
terms of service and privacy policy

Log in

OR

Reset password

Chess forum by Grandmasters

The 3 Rules....

Hola,

In an article of the blog GM Avetik recommends to follow the 3 rules before asking  for recommendation(s) to make progress. So let's go :

1.I'm an adult player (best french Elo 2100) fallen back to 1885 FIDE. My goal : to climb (if realistic to 2200.)

2.I've the chance to enjoy much time and can work on my chess at least 4h / day.

3.My weakest point is probably the opening (I now study intensively the ChessMood Repertoire but before I just browsed some opening books before an important game ?!). Contrary to most chess players I dislike opening study and like much more endgame or middle game study.

My question is :

1.How to organize my chess study time,

2.Which books or sources (aside ChessMood naturally !) could be recommended to attain my goal ?

Many thanks,

Jean-Marie


Replies

Could be interesting to try the exercise I mention in Why do we lose to make sure it's really the opening that is responsible for your problems so you can allot time and focus effectively.

NEW ARTICLE: How to Use the Bishop Pair – 11 Key Concepts

Hey Champions!

We have this topic in our Blog:

https://chessmood.com/blog/how-to-use-bishop-pair

If you have any questions, comments or you just liked it, feel free to share your thoughts here.

Replies

Thanks for sharing very useful & instructive article !!


Just one question????????
In part one, how can black play Rf4+ and win the biskop? White Can then just take the rock????? There must be something I don’t see??!!????

Avetik- yes that sentence. Now I understand :-)

Question about a position in anti Sicilian part 1

Hello,  

I have started to study this course above and have  played the opening with good result.  Thank for this valuable course!   

I have a question I would like to raise and I hope to get an answer.   What is the best plan for white  after those moves below. 

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3.  f4 g6 4.  Nf3 Bg7 5.  Bc4 Nc6 6. 0-0  Nf6  7. d3 0-0 8. Qe1 Bg4 9. f5 gxf5 10.  Qh4 Bxf3  11, Rxf3 

My question here is how to continue after 11. - Ne5...  It seems to me black and defend well  by Ng6 after Rh3..  

Thanks in advance for your feedback.  


Replies

Do you guys see the picture? Because in my computer I cannot... Do you see it yourself Susanna?

This one has been asked a few times. If you search the forum you'll find something on it. Given it's a frequently asked question, perhaps something needs adding to the course.

Hi again Susanna,

Your position was analyzed here previously:

Check this thread

https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-members/nc3-sicilian-against-2-d6-the-8-bg4-variation-with-10-ne5

Hey Susanna! 
Thanks for your kind words. I'm glad you like the videos!  
9...gf5 is an engine move (not practical for human, as it weakens the king very much) 

Anyway after 10.Qh4 Bf3 11.Rf3 Ne5 12.Rf5 e6 White has 3 options:
1 - 13.Rf1 with a strong initiative 
2 - 13.Rg5!? 
3- And 13.Re5!? de5 14.Bg5!  




A. Wotawa's Studies....

Hi,

I like very much the studies composed by A. Wotawa and have tried in vain to find a book about this endgame composer. Can anybody of the "ChessMood Team" tell me if such a book does exist as Wotawa's studies are very often the "Puzzle of the Day" on the site ?

Many Thanks.


Replies

Hey! 
I had a very big database with of studies, which I can't find now :) 
Overall I've solved around 10.000 such studies, and then created a file of the best ones. Around 1000 :) 
From there comes the daily puzzles :) 

I think Dvorecky had a section about Wotawa's studies, but can't remember in which book :) 

Nimzowitsch...


I would like to know your opinion about his "Chess Praxis". (Not "My System" of course.) Do you think that it's a collection of games worthy of study to day or chess material completely outdated ?

Thanks.

Replies

No idea I never read it, sorry.

I haven't read it too... 
But overall, it would be a good idea, to write more about yourself. 
What's your level, how much time can you spend on chess, etc... 
Then it would be easier to say is it worth reading it, or there are better options. 
Have you read this article? 
https://chessmood.com/blog/which-chess-openings-books-courses-to-learn  

Sethuraman lifetime repertoire

Hey Chessmood family,

GM Sethuraman has just released part 1 of his 1e4 lifetime repertoire on Chessable. Apparently he also advocates 8.h4 in the Scotch. I will have to dig some more to compare the lines in this and other openings...

Replies

Everyone is playing lately 8.h4... GingerGM with IM Robert Ris repertoire, now Sethuraman with Chessable... Maybe it is not such a bad choice after all, don't you think? Gabuzyan has been proving this line value for a couple of years now in the streams, with mythical clashes with Eljanov... We knew that we were into something good! Hopefully you will all feel the same...

Question about 3...Nbd7 philidor setup

At my chess club, I am constantly playing a 1900 or so rated opponent who always plays this way as black:      1.e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nbd7?! this is the 4th most popular move in the database and          Mr. Avetik says it is dubious in his philidor course (which I would 100% recommend) and says 4.f4 gives white a big advantage after 4...e5 5.Nf3 exd4 6.Qxd4 which, I knew even before the course.  The reason I avoided this line is after 5...c6 6. Be3 d5! (intending a complicated pawn sacrifice after 7.exd5 Bc5) stockfish says the position is +0.1 which means about equal, though I think I would probably prefer black.  I have played about 4 games with him in the 4.g3 line Mr. Avetik offers as an alternative but he always plays 4...c5 and our results have been equal with 1 win for me, one draw, one one loss.  Do you guys have any recommendations or know what I'm missing?

Replies

When they pick this move order I go for 4.g4!. h6 is almost forced as a response and we follow up with h3, bg2, nge2 build up slowly and break through the center.

I played a long time control game with this will see if I can find it somewhere. 

I guess you meant: "...The reason I avoided this line is after 6...c6 7. Be3 d5! (intending a complicated pawn sacrifice after 8.exd5 Bc5)..." ?!

Instead of 7.Be3 I prefer 7.Bd2 (with the idea O-O-O), as coach Avetik also recommends in the video "11. Crushing the Pirc, 6. Super version of the King's Gambit", when it is not so strong to play 7...d5?!, 8.O-O-O!, Bc5, 9.Qd3, and e.g. 9...O-O 10.exd5 +/- or 9...dxe4 10.Nxe4 +/-

Brody, after 5...c6 6.e5 is very strong. 
You can see similar ideas in the course Czech-Pirc. 

It's Happened !

Somebody finally played 4:Qh4 against my Scotch . I played 5:Nb5 he replied Qxe4 + . I followed the standard advice with Be2 he chose Kd8 and I castled. So far so good feeling confident! But he then played 7: a6 attacking my knight on b5. Tricky I don't recall seeing this on the videos ! The dilemma is whether to play Bd3 attacking his Queen or Nc3 but which one ? . Alternatively to try to force his Queen off the fourth rank to get the b5 Knight back to d4 (  eg. N(1) c3 then g3 and if necessary a3 ).It was a 5 min +15 game and I wasted too much time thinking about all this. What does the coach or members think is best after a6. In retrospect it seems such a natural move. 

Replies

The ChessMood repertoire is 5.Nc3, not 5.Nb5.

Question about maroczy bind

Hello,

Played a game in maroczy bind last year and knew 15..Be5 with e6 idea from other sources, but don't know if smth like this is recommended in your maroczy courses, cause in the game white was super solid and imo had an edge after the opening. Will try to watch the courses (can see you even have 2 on maroczy), but can you suggest some impro based on this game? Txs and cheers

Replies

Dear Paulius,

Welcome to the family! I will transfer this question to the Promembers channel and notify the team about your question. Normally the more detailed opening questions we post them in the Promembers forum.

As a personal note, I recommend you to watch both courses on the Maroczy, but my favorite by far is the Modern Maroczy, after watching and understanding  the course it it will be like getting into the jungle knowingly because you feel like Tarzan... ;-)

Hey Paulius!

As already recommended you can watch the courses and will see our Ideas, regarding this game as you have mentioned in the analysis I believe 23...f5 was wrong, as it weakened black's position a lot.

I do like 23...h5 as mentioned again, trying to keep the pawn structure, looking for h4!

An interesting game though with f6-g5!

less Preferred Line

Champions!

I have got a question in my mind. As we are all playing e4 for white, which reply or variation are you less excited to see?

Replies

I don't like to see e5 on board and I love to see c5. It's almost 1-0 when i face c5! Grand Prix and Alapin rocks.

The one that I don't like is the Scandinavian, I am having bad results altough in the opening I am usually better :-) And the one that I am excited to play against is the Caro Kann!

Same for me, I don't like the Scandinavian but I love to play against the Caro-Kann.

Petroff defence ...i hate it now ...must learn how to play against it, if failed to do it then I will learn how to play for Black and change my repertoire

I have been having trouble against the French after they exchange on e4. (I still win easily against the Nf6 lines, even when they avoid the Kevin Hall Trap hehe)

I love to see the Scandi. I have a crazy good score vs it. 

Sicilian Nc3 with B Bg4

Sicilian NC3

E4 c5

Nc3 d6

F4 Nc6

Nf3 Bg4

I've been studying the Nc3 Sicilian with B playing d6 on move 2.  My question is what seems an obvious Black  fourth move Bg4. I do not see this covered in the courses so wondering if it can be refuted? It looks like Bb5 may be a good reply.

Thank You


Replies

Hi Richard

You are right, 5.Bb5

Video 24 in the course (Minor Lines)

Dear sirs

Dear sirs, why do I not get any of these little coins for successful solving the Daily puzzle? Do I just have too many already? :)))

Replies

Dear Martin,

This is the first message that we have regarding this issue. I will inform the technical team. If someone else is experiencing the same problem please let us know too! Thanks!!!

Dear Martin,

To get moodcoins you have to solve the puzzles, I checked your profile and I could not see any of the usual messages in the logs after you successfully complete a puzzle. Are you solving the puzzles correctly?

That said Edo Tokyo's logs show perfectly that he solved the puzzle correctly the first time and therefore received the moodcoins automatically. (Thanks a lot Edo for your help!)

This is getting weird, if someone else can verify if they get the coins, it will be deeply appreciated. Today's puzzle is not so difficult... ;-)

Finally OTB tourney

hello chess friends
finally otb tournament in 4 months
how to prepare?
of course tactics....
what about the rest? have no opening repertoire , middle game and endgame knowledge kind of poor 
Rating USCF 1318 chess. com around 1700
plan is to get these 7 games in tournament conditions then  will find a coach
thanks for advice
Wilson

Replies

I think you should learn the ChessMood Reportoire. For Middlegames, I am not the best person to ask. Endgames - I would suggest Jesus De La Villa's 100 Endgames You Must Know. I would recommend learning Silman's Complete Endgame Course first and then the 100 Endgames.

I think the answer is to have some sort of plan that you track, and some kind of goal. 4 months isn't a lot of time, but with regular study of the right things you might be able to do much in that time.

I'm all for lofty goals, "I'm going to win the open section outright(!)" but I would have a realistic goal and a stretch goal. The realistic goal will be better than you can do right now, the stretch goal would be, if would be even better if...

In coming to a goal, you've also got to remember that other players will have been studying and improving, as well as some stronger (on paper) players will not have been playing much. Thus not to beat yourself up too much if a 'weaker' player puts up a good fight, or if you get some higher player's scalp, it doesn't mean you're suddenly Magnus ;)

The questions you want to ask is:
  . What do I realistically think my rating should be (P.s. almost every player at some point thinks they are underrated :)?
  . What section do I want to be in? (Could I handle getting a hard lesson every game, or do I need to be beating most of the field to feel happy)
  . How much time could I spend _every_ day up to the tournament?
  . What are my strengths and weaknesses?
  . Whether I'm going to try to get a coach before the tournament, perhaps to consult every few weeks to help keep the plan on track?

  The other questions to ask are about your own games at roughly the time control of the tournament:
  . Do I still often blunder pieces and pawns without being in extreme time trouble?
  . Do I get a playable middlegame position most of the time (ignoring the times where your opponent knew a trap you didn't)?
  . Do I spot tactics (2 or 3 forced moves) both that I can play, and are played against me?
  . Do I always get the right result in K+P vs K, K + B + P vs K, and know the fundamental positions (e.g. Lucena, Philidor, Vancura) in K + R + P vs K + R?
  . Do I struggle to play with or against the knight (more tactically [forks] than positionally)?
  . Do I have some kind of strategy (that is kept to) for what to do when it's my move, and when it's my opponent's move (ensuring to check what the opponent is trying to do, blunder checks, dream positions, looking for forcing moves [checks, captures, threats]?
 . Do I try to set problems for my opponents constantly, do I try to punish bad moves - irrespective of opponent's rating?

So some suggestions:

At rating 1300, enter the under 1700 section (or whatever section is less than that rating, but at least 200 points above yours).
Goal: To score > 50%, beat most players under 1500
Stretch goal: To finish in the top 8 (of say 30 players)
Time spent: 1-2 hours each day, 4 hours each weekend day split into 2-3 sessions (please balance this with school/college work if young)

The top seeds at around 1700 may be playing at the 1900 level, but I think it's reasonable to get from 1350 to 1600 at least in 4 months if enough study and the correct study is put in.

Things to work on:
. Tactics - ensure you can recognise all tactic types, all knight forking shapes, you can calculate mate in 5 moves (if few sidelines), you spot most obvious tactics in 2 or 3 forcing moves. A server like chess tempo, own experiments, books like art of the checkmate, chess combinations for juniors.
. Endgames - Silman's endgame course for example, or the easier chapters in 100 endgames you must know (especially simple pawn, rook endgames in standard positions, B + P with right and wrong rook queening square)
. Opening - Study the scotch course here (don't worry so much knowing the tricky h4 lines) - get a feel for opposite castling and the kingside attack; study the sicilian - at least the d6 (kingside caveman attack), Nc6 and g6 courses, but have a little familiarity with e6 and a6; study the anti-sicilian course; study the philidor course; study the London system course; know the basics of the petroff course; study all the abracadabra gambit courses. For the others d6 and g6 you'll play the GP system, scandinavian and caro have a look at the summary sections. Maroczy structures swap pieces, try to leave White with the bad light squared bishop. That's more than enough for 4 months, just try to play chess if the opponent plays something else. Try not to know or learn everything, but to get a feel for how to play the positions and have the ideas in mind.
. Middlegame - look at the 2 bishops course, and happy pieces. Try not to spend too much time into the details but get a feel for good and bad pieces and how to use them.
. Practical play - play a 1 hour game (30 mins each) every 2 or 3 days and try to analyse it after before going to the computer. Try to get a feel of where the critical points where and where tactics were missed. Also note when your thinking was faulty or you forgot your thinking structure, such as checking what the opponent was trying to do, or making blunder checks.

Keep notes on what you learn and your progress. Also use notes on openings if you get 20 mins or more before a round, try to find what your opponent plays - e.g. chessbase online - I think chessdb is now dead. Consult your notes before the game to refresh your mind of the ideas.

And good luck, it's not the performance in one tournament, it's the bigger picture of becoming a better player.

Request for a "Watched Video" function

Hello ChessMood team, 

What a great product, I am here every day learning and improving.

I have a request please, when a video is watched can you make it possible to show the video as already having been learned? I would like to be able to see what new or what updated videos have been added to a section or be able to clearly track what training I have left.

For example, today I received an email with this message, "We've uploaded one more section in the course "Happy Pieces"." How can users distinguish which is the new video from the list? Ideally there would be a function where a watch video automatically changes its status or we can manually change the status to show that it has been watched/learned. Additionally perhaps new videos can have a time/date stamp on them showing when they were posted.

Thank you very much for an outstanding product, you guys are great!

Leslie Smith 

Replies

It seems a great idea to me! Currently, I keep my progress in an excel file

Hi @Leslie_Smith! I thought that I already replied to you but I must have dreamt it! We took note of your suggestion and we will take it into consideration. Thank you very much for your feedback!

Best regards and keep learning and improving!!!

Stream Suggestion

Hi, I hope all the cm coaches are happy and safe. I have one suggestion about chessmood streams. They are super instructive but one thing is missing in them. That is game reviewing. My suggestion to all mentors is that whenever you play blitz with random people in stream then after every game in 1-2 mins can you go through the whole game and share your thoughts about it. I know you guys share it during you play but issue come when people ask questions so sometimes I see that a lot questions are not answered. But if you add this reviewing thing then it will be so simple for you guys to answer the questions. 

For example Yesterday I saw my friend Avinash had some questions in mind when coach Gabuzyan was playing but coach was unable to answer it because due to playing and commentary he forgot  in which position Avi had questions. Coach said in the stream that clarify position so sometimes he did clarified because he is strong player but players of my elo and those who are super low rated can't clarify these things. But if you add review option then it will become simple. 

I know we can ask questions in forums about anything but if we ask questions about positions then it will fill forums sometimes. So for easy convenience please think about this suggestion.

I hope this suggestion will be helpful and make stream more interactive. We enjoy chessmood lessons but I feel this change is essential for below 2000 players. Online below 2000 players I mean.

Thanks for the wonderful lessons.

Replies

Would very much like to see this as Abhi suggested. Less games and more games review.

And a separate video on how one should analyze his own blitz games would also be interesting.

Yeah I would love to see this. This reviewing games will give a lots of insights like where the game went wrong or right, Crucial moments and atlast answering to peoples questions. I hope that this reviewing option makes the stream more instructive as well as interactive.                                                           Thanks!

Yeah, that's important I think.

Hi Abhi,

This sounds reasonable and if it is supported by other Pro members as well, we will discuss this idea and let you know!

Thank you for kind words :-) 

Hey, hey, as Jay always says...

How did you like the recent streams? I had the chance to see Gabuzyan in action, and he is a machine providing explanations and writing arrows in the board... I think that everyone is enjoying it a lot with the game explained in detail once finished. We hope that you like it too, but please let us know your opinion in this case... Thanks in advance!

Thanks to coach @GM_Hovhannes_Gabuzyan  for changing stream concepts.. I am glad all cm members understood the importance of my suggestion and it is useful for all of us.  Soon I will share more ideas by which you guys take full advantage of great cm streams. But yeah for that I need to think.

The bravest in candidates

ChessMood family,
From candidates, who do you think is the bravest one? And who's the most confident one? :)

 I think it's MVL aka Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Is it always good to be brave and confident?
 In my humble opinion - no.

 Of course, you should be super brave and super confident and go for Najdorf, the opening you play over and over again, and every time telling your opponents "You can prepare, you can go and hire all cloud engines. I don't care. I know it better than you."

 But is it the best preparation?

 We have seen the result yesterday. The first time Caruana started to think it was on move 27! And he had 1.45 hours against 35 mins. (see the diagram)

 It's also a big psychological pressure, to be in such a situation, and MVL couldn't handle the worse endgame.

 Of course, I need to eat lots of bread and cheese, in order to play like MVL :) 

I'm just sharing an opinion and inviting you to discuss the case. In my opinion, MVL's ranking in the rating list would be higher, if he did some tricks in the opening preparation. (like the ones Gabuzyan shares in his article:
https://chessmood.com/blog/how-to-win-chess-tournaments-7-key-principles)

 Anyway, it's great for us, to see such brave chess players in tournaments.

Replies

First of all he had one whole year to prepare any opening which can be superb for him . He could learn classical variation or Svenikov and shock caruana on board. I do not know why he is so stuck to najdrof and even in Candidates where he have chances to win. Who knows why he is showing so brave attitude. In my opinion his brave attitude invites only problems for him. Yesterday I was watching the commentary of Alehendro Ramirez, Yasserr Seirawan and Maurice Ashely and before this commentary I was watching commentary of Magnus also . Magnus thinks that this is not a good line to play at top level. I mean this Qxb2 positioned pawn. He thinks it's very risky. He said in one year MVL could have prepared any openings like svesnikov or french. It was MVL who allowed all mess especially the Bc4N.  But due to his precise play atleast he survived mate in middlegame but the endgame which he got was also not so easy. All the commentars were confused then Ramirez showed the idea like place king on h5 for white and win and place knight on g7 for black to get draw. But in practical game it was tough. Acc. to Ramirez Caruana is familiar with a lot unusual endgames like this but he was not sure that Caruana knew this endgame . Anyways MVL tried to defend well but in the end he lost. 

In the end I just wanna say. he defended well but it was invited mess. In one year he could have learnt something else to confuse Caruana. Like Fischer did in game 6th of 1972 WCC with 1.c4. Even though Spassky's team had prepared Tartakover against it but still Spassky had nothing in that game. I forgot the history words but I remember Spassky deviated from his team prep and then he lost. But still key learning is deviate from Najdorf will be so shocking for Carauana to face.

In the end, I am just 1400 so I dont think i have right to say something to greatest but in my opinion he invited the mess so he lost.

Your rating is not your strength

Have you ever heard someone say, "I know I am rated (insert rating here), but I clearly play much better. I am way underrated."

I have heard this, or variations of this, more times then I can count. I must admit, I have said it myself more times then I can count as well. I would be willing to wager it is near the top of all phrases uttered by chess players to other chess players, at almost every level.

I am sure many of you have had similar experiences. This conundrum has vexed me for a long time, and as I continue to grow in my knowledge from ChessMood, it has been a question I asked myself more and more, because my rating (I am speaking OTB rating) hasnt grown as much as I feel it should have. (I confess my online rating has jumped higher then ever, but that story will be saved for another time)

When I started ChessMood, my OTB Rating was 1750ish USCF with a peak of 1816. Since I hadnt played OTB for almost 2 years before ChessMood, my rating dropped at first to 1675ish (this is most likely also attributed to the fact you usually go backwards before going forwards when learning something new.). After that initial drop I quickly raised my rating back to my peak of 1816, a gain of 140 points! But then I stayed there until COVID hit and OTB tournaments halted.

Since games started back up a couple months ago, I have played in 5 tournaments, and have promptly fallen back to 1750. Part of this can be attributed to lack of playing OTB, but my opponents had the same break from playing, so I know I cannot use this as an excuse. I know my knowledge has increased in an uncalculatable amount since joining ChessMood, yet I am not gaining in rating like I would think I should. So this has got me thinking about what rating really is.

It was then, as I was thinking more and more about this, that I realized, RATING IS NOT YOUR STREGTH AT CHESS! Your rating is your performance from playing! 

I have  experienced many times while analyzing with an opponent after a game and thinking to myself, "How is this guy rated 200 points higher then me? I know as much as he does!" I have also had times where the opposite is true, and I think to myself while looking at a game with a lower rated opponent, "There is no way this guy should be lower rated then me!"

I have realized as I have reflected on this that it doesnt matter how much more I know then my opponent knows,  if I dont apply it, my rating isnt going to go up! At the end of the game, the player who wins gets the rating points, not the guy who studied the most.

So, what can we do to address this issue?

I started by looking back at my history, and looked for patterns in the times I gained the most rating points. The biggest thing I noticed, is I gained the most when I played the most. 

I gained 220 rating points in 5 months about 20 years ago. I played almost every weekend for that 5 months. Coincidence? Maybe. But I also ganed 140 rating points in 10 weeks about a year and a half ago. Want to guess what I did for those 10 weeeks? You are right! I played almost every weekend! Still a coincidence? Unlikely.

Knowledge is very important, and I am glad I found ChessMood to help me gain that knowledge (I am sure many of you are as well!) but all the knowledge in the world doesnt help if we dont put it into practice. More accurately, continuous practice. 

I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this, including our illustrious GMs who teach us, and see what other things we can learn! I am also going to put this to the test. I am going to play 5 tournaments over the next 6 weeks ( I would play the 6th but I am moving to a new house that weekend, and cant be in 2 places at once!) and will report back the results. I am currently rated 1764 USCF. Any one want to guess what I will be rated at the end of the National Open in June? (Full disclosure, I am playing the open section in every tournament I am playing in, and will be close to the lowest rated in the section every time.) My wager is on my rating will be rising past my current peak. 

Only time will tell!

GM Jay

 


Replies

Super post my fav. endgame mentor. I am also gonna follow your path. I learnt so much and now it's action time. I hope events will start here too so I can easily play but still covid sucks. So, I just hope to play atleast local events. I am prepared. I am glad to be in chessmood because I found "The Best Chess Team" of superb players and I am glad we all are improving together. My guess that you will reach 2100+ by the end of your upcoming 6 events and soon I will call you Master @Jay_Garrison

That seems pretty accurate comment on rating & playing strength. Over 5 years ago when I wanted to improve I played about 6 or more blitz games daily in my narrow repertoire and assessed (analysed) the games after and went to 1800 after 5 months. Then I started studying chess & my rating is now anywhere from 12-1600 5 minute blitz and I may just play 3 or 4 blitz games a day. 5 days ago on lichess I played a game in our ChessMood tourney & beat one of the members here, rated 2120. That was in the Vienna game opening (I was black), an opening I know very little about. How often can you beat someone 583 points higher with no special study or theory? I often go close in games with higher rated players, but make a small mistake and that is all it takes to lose (as all players know). So, I agree that playing regularly & playing openings mid & endgames you are familiar with & like to play will help you win more & improve your rating, while too much study will probably do the opposite!

Good luck in your tournaments and you should certainly gain over 100 points rating! Right Mood, Right Move..GO JAY!


good luck Jay.....dont worry about ratings ... hope u get chance to implement chessmood openings...

I guess we all feel underrated because we feel the pain of losses that should have been draws and draws that should have been wins and even losses that should have been wins!  These happen when we make a blunder or a minor lapse of concentration that lets the advantage slip.  So we say they don't reflect our true strength.  We are probably right but it is still our own fault that the results don't match the strength while others get better results than their strength.

A large factor can be the number of juniors in your area.  Because young players tend to be rapidly improving their rating is often out of date.  They play much stronger than their published rating.  This means you can often find yourself in a position where you are playing someone rated much lower where your expected score may be 80%+ but because their published rating is lagging behind your actual expected score could be much closer to 50:50.  This will inevitably cause you to lose rating points.  What makes it worse is young players who do this grow up, go to University and move out of the area.  The net effect is that they have sucked the rating points out of your local area and you can end up in a position where everyone is a bit underrated.

Conversely, if you play in tournaments where there are not so many youngsters you will find everyone is a little bit overrated.  

You can also have 2 guys with the same rating but with very different strengths.  The first can be sharp, play lots of tactics and have just good enough technique to convert when they are a large amount of material up and the second can have a good understanding of chess but is very prone to making some tactical oversights losing rating.  This second group don't make the mistake every game so you can find yourself playing someone much stronger than their rating suggests.  You have to be practical and try to steer the game where it is uncomfortable for your opponent to maximise your own chances of success.  If you get the choice wrong your practical chances diminish.  Style matching or mismatching is an art I think and the reason why it is good to have at least 2 different opening repertoires -your sharp fighting one and your quiet let's go to a more technical position where we know the ideas one.  

So what can you do in your tournaments?   These are some things I do that I hope you will find useful, if you don't do them yourself already. 

1. Watch other games going on in the tournament and make a mental note of the sort of openings the other competitors are playing.  They are a strong indication of the type of player they are and if you can remember what they played it will be good for you if you want to do some prep before the game. 

2. Go into the analysis room when you finish your game.  Analyse it with your opponent and learn from it but then stay and watch a few other post mortems from other competitors.  Make a mental note of the sort of player each of your potential opponents is so you will know the best way to approach the game if you draw them in a future round or tournament. 

3. If you play a stronger opponent - relish it and focus.  If they see your rating is lower they may well make the mistake of not concentrating 100% too and relax too much.  You can catch them off guard and take the points.  This is often the reason people make those blunders in winning positions we hear about all the time  This will automatically reduce the difference and improve your chances. 

4. If you play a weaker opponent.  Also focus 100% as you don't want to make the same mistake and they may well be underrated.  So beware!  

5. Enjoy the game and play interesting chess.  This will keep you motivated and in the right mood.

Good luck.   Don't get disheartened if you continue losing in the Open tournaments at first.   You will be improving by playing stronger opponents.  If you improve to 1950 and play a 2100 you will still be the underdog and could lose the game but you will learn just a bit more and at some point you will pass a threshold where your results improve fast.  The rating points will then follow.   I will follow your progress too and wish you all the best.

  

Anti sicilian part 4 5/6... h5

I'm having a look through Gabuzyan's games in the Sicilian a6 line. Only one follows the course move-order (5. d3) but it seems there are a lot of games with h5 on move 5 or 6 which is not in the course. I've not taken a look at the games in any detail yet, but I'm assuming that given b5 is played, it's just an attempt to restrict White's kingside build up (idea also seen in the Modern), rather than to leave the king in the centre and try to punish Nh3.

Given it's a very common occurrence, what's the plan against it, and maybe a suggested course inclusion?

Replies

Note that h5 is also asked about when the knight is on f3 instead in the 2... e6 lines.

Hi David,

Mostly h5 is a waste of time for black, and after he we are usually able to play g4. Since there are no many pieces on the kingside for black,  pushing 5 pawns is not dangerous for white.

Yanish's Gambit

Hello Chessmood I knew a new lesson for you its Yanish's Gambit for black Hope you will show how we can play with black in Spanish Gambit

Replies

This gambit makes no sense for Chessmood users since we play the Sicilian as Black. The Chessmood GMs work in the lines offered in the repertoire, not random lines or openings... And I hope that you were talking about the "Danish Gambit" because I could not find any reference to the "Yanish Gambit"... ;-)

NEW ARTICLE: Achieve Your Chess Goals Using Warren Buffett’s 5/25 Rule

Hey Champions!

We have this topic in our Blog:

https://chessmood.com/blog/achieve-your-chess-goals-using-the-rule-of-Warren-Buffett

If you have any questions, comments or you just liked it, feel free to share your thoughts here.

Replies

I think the bigger lesson is you can't have it all (irrespective of what you are told).

Trying to put numbers of things is artificial, but I would go as far as saying if it's not your focus, you probably won't excel at it. You have to compromise, and sometimes you have to enjoy what you have even though you can't get (significantly) better. That's not to say that if it is your focus you will definitely get better, there are lots of reasons. Nor is there any definition of excel.

In 'Think and Grow Rich' the central message (and I could pretty much save you reading the whole book) is that to get rich you have to have a single focus and Napoleon Hill believed you had to burn all your bridges - no going back to get there - do or die (there is dispute as this being the only factor that some of the big names he investigated also were in the right place at the right time - see Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell). I suppose by the same token that getting rich as your only focus, you miss out in life and ironically have lots of money, but aren't really able to enjoy it so you better be enjoying the business you set up as that becomes your life.

More points and expansions in further replies.

As to excel - what is meant by excel in chess that means a goal is reasonable given the time or amount of focus you can put into it. In Lasker's day you could be WC or a strong 'master' and not just be solely a chess player, there wasn't so much to learn and 'common sense' and study of a few greats could take you a long way. You could also be a 'master' of many other things - the investment of time needed was not as great.

Nowadays, to reach a similar percentile it's a lot harder, and even those who do/did other things often got their big chess rises before going off to do other things (Sadler and Kamsky being good examples, but there are plenty of titled players that work in finance for example as it pays a lot more, yet remain pretty strong players). The reason being that there is tons of theory, lots to learn, the competition is stronger - to get there you need to spend so much more time.

It becomes a career, and sadly for most, chess' payback financially isn't enough to support a life much more than getting by (unless you have a lot of students and are well known, or can make it to the top few in your country or the top 20 or so in the world). It's not worth it for that small chance of being successful chess player.

Thus my focus has to be on my work because that is what pays, and the time that is left gets divided up. Now if someone wants to pay my day rate for me to study chess and become titled I'm all ears ;)


It's also possible that you need to study, play and train a lot consistently in a period when you are growing up because of how the brain organises information. Those that start later or cannot put all this time in, may find an uphill struggle. The article does mention about the 40 year old trying to improve. Just how many 40 year olds that weren't pretty strong when they were younger go on to be GMs. Are there many modern examples? Any modern examples? Can other priorities alone explain it. What about retirees, maybe if lucky at 55 who take up chess, they might have time and resources to spend a lot of time on chess. How many 55 year olds went on to become Grandmasters? We know a few grandmasters were still playing at a high level in their 70s or beyond, so given the number that can retire at 55, have a strong passion for chess, and that chess at grandmaster level is not impossible at 65 to give 10 years to work at it, what explains the lack of retirees that make grandmaster level.

What if it's not just about conflicting priorities (real life syndrome) but it's that younger still growing brains can organise the knowledge better with less effort, where as an older brain is less plastic and also doesn't have so many less developed areas to store all the new knowledge arranged close enough together for it to be effective. An area for study perhaps.

Again I don't think it impossible, just it's harder work and then when you add in the other priorities it becomes unobtainable.

This website uses cookies. To learn more, visit our Cookie Policy.