Chess forum by Grandmasters

Contact with Avetik

Hi does anyone know the most efficient way to get in contact with Avetik I messaged him on instagram but haven't gotten a response. Thanks in advance for your help.

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The contact us link. If it's important enough he'll be forwarded it. Remember the GMs are extremely busy so may not be able to reply to all messages personally.

Dear Avetik, You said to me that you never make impulsive moves. Please explain Sam Shankland in Olympiad today making immediate move v Robert H. your Armenian brother when he had plenty of time 2 mins+ left on clock moving his king into check convinced his opponent had played check on h1 when he had in fact stopped his queen on g2 ? Thx Mike

Dear Ding Liren, please through Wang Hao. He knows my phone number. 

:) :) 
Jokes aside, contact us is the best way, and whenever there is something urgent, our clients' happiness team forwards me the email. 
Cheers! 

Looking for playing partner

Hi, I am Joshua Tan from Malaysia, I would like to look for playing partner, my Lichess rating is around 1650. Want to test out what I have just learned in French Attack...

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hi, I am Wiktor from Poland and i really want to have a playing partner too. my rating is 2000 on chess.com tho. if it is alright to you then we can play anytime. my nick on chess.com and lichess: xWitekx02 :)

Any training partners available?

Hello guys, my name is Wiktor Przedlacki, im from Poland and im 14 years old. My rating is 2100 chess.com and 1400 fide. I would really apreciate it if someone with similar rating to me could be my training partner. thx :)

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New success story: Karthik raised over 450 points in less than a year, even with an active job

Hello champions! ?

We’ve just uploaded another success story! ?
This time our hero raised about +500 points in less than a year, having a full-time job! ?

? How did he manage to do that? 
? The challenges he faced and how he overcame them? 
? His improvement algorithm
? How he used ChessMood courses and much more you’ll find by clicking the link below ?

https://chessmood.com/feedback/karthik-ramesh

Have a great day! ❤️

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Great job Karthik!!Keep on like that!!

Congratulations Karthik. I see your improving graph of lichess is the blitz ratting. Are you focused in blitz or you use longer time controls. Also through my experience if you want to improve your FIDE rating and perhaps be a FM you should play more OTB tournaments. Online chess leads to lousy play while OTB 90+30 facing another guy who has similar objectives than you, during hours is a real psychological warfare. I use online games to check openings, normally 10+5 or 5+3. But I only notice OTB improvement playing OTB. Another method to improve my tactical awarness is to solve studies instead of game puzzles. Iss much more effective and after focusing 2021 in study solving my tactic rating on chess.com jumped from 2060 to 2850!! Good luck

Sight of board training

The GMs might have missed this one since it was under the blunderproof thread in main: ' One thing I've noticed about my chess (or at least when I was rusty a few weeks ago), is that watching a game and joining in the middle I get quickly focused on one thing, that I'm not taking in the board and the relationship between the pieces, except where the action is. That perhaps is less of a factor while playing as that gets built up. I'm wondering if there is any training for taking in all that's happening, starting from simple positions up to quite sharp one. That has to help the tactics. Doing puzzle rush helps somewhat, but the first 30 odd puzzles (and many of other puzzles) are about focusing in on the obvious point of action and sacrificing something (or back rank mate), nor do they have a good level of complexity increase so you can find where you currently are in what you can take in and train from there.' I asked about the sight of board question to GM Shankland in a Q&A session. His opinion was train it blindfold with simple tactical positions (so you are not confounding it with difficult tactics and calculation). Use a training partner to one by one give you the piece positions to build what's happening up in your head, then try to solve it blindfold. My own thought is if you don't have a partner, you could try for example to save a tactical database file as pgn, view in a text editor, cover the screen so you can't see the solution and read the FEN tag (which while gives you multiple pieces, it's not so easy to see straight off and you'll need to build it up in your head before solving).

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I suspect that a lot of what makes up rapid sight of board "just" comes down to pattern recognition. If you internalised a massive library of patterns then you can quickly assess the most obvious stuff and then start branching out to what else is happening on the board. Not just tactical patterns, but positional patterns, attacking patterns, defensive patterns, endgame patterns etc.

Hi David, The Steps Method books - especially Step 1 have a lot of good board vision exercises.

I've experienced similar issues, and something that helped me a lot was doing the tactical puzzles on ChessTempo on blitz mode. This forces you to first of all scan the board and simply notice things, as otherwise the nature of the puzzles are such that you're sure to miss something outside of the most obvious center of action.

One question is how do we measure sight of board speed? Perhaps 5 minute Puzzle Rush is a reasonable estimate. Another estimate is blitz rating, although several other things play into that. In any case, unless we can measure it we don't know if we've improved it!

The best games of July, 2022, and the prizes

Hello ChessMood family, hello champions and future champions! 
Welcome to the "Best games of July, 2022" competition.
Under this post, we invite you to post the best games that you will play this month. 

The Prize fund is 350K MoodCoins which is equal to 350$.  

The 1st prize  - 150K
The 2nd prize - 100K
The 3rd prize-  50K
The 4th prize- 30k
The 5th prize- 20k

Good luck with your games and keep the Right Mood! 
#ChessMood
#Right Mood - Right Move 

P. S.
Here are the winners of June, 2022:

Mike Waddington
Buzzer
Paulius Juknis
Regis H
Vedant Garg

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Minor Piece Domination https://www.chess.com/game/live/50861980359

No spectacular moves but a typical attack in an exchange Caro Kann https://www.chess.com/live/game/50861961481

Hello! This is my first forum post. "A miniature in the Scandinavian defense" https://lichess.org/swxelEoZVVUX ?

Sometimes you win with out needing to think when you know your openings ?

My cool july games vs scandinavian (knowing CM theory helps) https://www.chess.com/game/live/50945504889 vs caro https://www.chess.com/game/live/50947765153 https://www.chess.com/game/live/51295236155 (Rh8 + Nf7 trick many are caught) https://www.chess.com/game/live/51466178305 grinding in maroczy as black https://www.chess.com/game/live/51033552359 https://www.chess.com/game/live/51290422049 vs alapin https://www.chess.com/game/live/52503583757 GP fun https://www.chess.com/game/live/51204667577 https://www.chess.com/game/live/51207596881 https://www.chess.com/game/live/51898156043 https://www.chess.com/game/live/52503078789 whiskey and scotch https://www.chess.com/game/live/51294623205 botvinnik setup https://www.chess.com/game/live/51463888979 https://www.chess.com/game/live/51467408817 https://www.chess.com/game/live/52761566199 weird benko https://www.chess.com/game/live/52505371859 not quite a Passini attack https://www.chess.com/game/live/52761022265

My Best July Games: vs Philidor Defense https://www.chess.com/game/live/50938168939 vs Italian Game https://www.chess.com/game/live/48949145955 ?

If there is a special prize for funny games: First time I quadruple heavy pieces on a file (after 33rd move) :-) https://www.chess.com/live/game/51377961853

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/51586159279 Dutch crushing the London. Opponent resigns in 13 moves!

Mating attack after Rf7 https://www.chess.com/live/game/51620444001

French attack-advanced variation with 5 c4. Not a perfect game; I tried 11 Bb4 to pin the knight and so indirectly protect d5, but it's a mistake (as I suspected, since I know we usually place the bishop on e7...) and it's better to just play a5. That's the move I thought of immediately during the game, but then as I thought about it I grew concerned (wrongly) about leaving the b5 square to the white knight (which it could be kicked away from easily anyway...).

Queen sac with lot of mistakes in stone wall dutch. https://chess.com/live/game/51653464485

BlackMood - French Attack with 3. e5 https://lichess.org/71ew5iICQcPt

Dark square domination using the Anti Sicilian repertoire https://lichess.org/TcviQZyq9NwJ

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/52169429087 Dutch game (15/10 Rapid) 91.8% accuracy (though there were some mistakes) Amazing Rook sacrifice that led to a 10 move forced mate! I am very proud that I was able to calculate this out and not only find the sacrifice but also to calculate it out to the mate. I knew that even if I had missed something I would at least draw.

Can I send the moves of a classical tournament game I played?

https://lichess.org/oGxsASRq#52 How to fight fire ? PLAY WITH THE FIRE!!!! 26..Rxh2!! And soon won :)?

French Bd3 https://www.chess.com/live/game/52255796111

Bg3! Closing the box https://www.chess.com/live/game/52394438677

fun finish!

Here is one of my games from the World Open a couple of weeks ago.

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/52295413739 I sacrificed my knight and the rook for a mating attack

I love our Scotch! And the opening too... :)

French attack, dream variation. I missed a stronger continuation at a certain point but still not too bad

Quite proud of this double rook exchange sacrifice :))

My opponent thought he/she was facing the Dutch defense. They soon found out it was the Dutch Attack!

As all courses are unlocked, I just learnt French Attack (until section 2 only) this morning and won a game in the afternoon. I played 12 times before but without deep knowledge into it. Definitely will sign up a plan and increase my ratings. ?

https://www.chess.com/game/live/524616

Scotch. Missed exchanging the knight for black better bishop...but at least I saw 21 Nd5 with the idea Qxd2 Nxe7+ Kh8 Rxh7+ Kxh7 Rh1#

I was black in all the games.

Very nice checkmate! https://lichess.org/kUy5CNopLCpJ

https://lichess.org/5gKcRDlkADH2 playing the scotch

https://lichess.org/t8aboVVzP9CR

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/pgn/4bV1DbqPoL nice ending -Underpromotion i am white btw

https://lichess.org/zi7zjajG#0

Attack!

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/52461654799?tab=review I think this is the best game I've ever played in my life!!!

Hello Champions!
 

Thanks for sharing your best games! It brings us great joy when you apply the ideas you learn to win your games! And there were amazing ideas in the games you all have played this month. Keep it up! 

Moving on to the prizes for the best games of July 2022:
 

The first prize goes to Aram Sevag. 12…Rxa6 was an interesting exchange sac, and what followed after that was a beautiful attack! Well done Aram!

https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=MgQ/iCyPoR1TIjCLhWOveZ1a50R5FJIV47DtEbn0/nL79fFA0e7anRT4XRb4v5rO 

Regis H grabs the second prize for playing a model game in the Anti-Sicilian with the White pieces, demonstrating important ideas. And 23.Rf7!! was a killer! Nicely done Regis!

https://www.chess.com/game/live/51620444001

We say ‘Dutch Attack’! John Fallon takes the third prize for this attacking game in the Dutch – right from building an attack to a simple but elegant finish with a Queen sac! Great job John!

https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=MgQ/iCyPoR1TIjCLhWOveSgx6XXWfSt3LOqJCe7adbx1nowxsBb2wUXXzMbLjWhx

The 4th prize goes to Ayush Shirodkar. What a beautiful way to mass the pieces minor pieces on the enemy King and finish the game with a checkmate. Well done Ayush!

https://www.chess.com/game/live/50861980359

The 5th prize goes to Jay Garrision, who played a fantastic miniature in his beloved opening – Scotch Game! It shows the consequences of playing the dubious move 6…Nd5, instead of the main move 6…Qe7.

https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=MgQ/iCyPoR1TIjCLhWOveQDZe7JbMxm1i/k26jPzVYyV+VN3M5WLhwESTSDtcRZM

Congratulation, and thanks again, everyone for sharing your games! Keep the Cogro!

Good luck for the August month’s contest!  

Would the partnership between Chessmood and Chessdojo happen?

Hello! :) I was a PRO Member in the past (before the new prices) but I couldn't renew my membership at the same price because of technical issues. With this new offer, I'm pretty tempted to return to Chessmood. However, I've read a partnership could happen between ChessMood and ChessDojo which will give all the Chessmood courses for free to the Dojo members. Before renewing my Chessmood subscription with this one-time offer, would it be possible to have more information about how will work this future partnership? Thank you! ?

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Are you a Dojo member?

First and last up (as the offer is terminated in 15 hours) ?

Both site have their pro and cons currently i m in the dojo training program saw some videos during the free testing period lot of nice things inside. Currently focusing more on one things don t like to divide my attention too much did it a lot already in the past (purshase lot of chessable course without finishing half of them...). But what i saw from the video seems really interresting. Read lot of blog post lot of interresting things their too. Hope the partnership goes trough and we get a nice training plan which incorporate the best of both site. Thanks for the free preview (I divide my attention again but was worth it ?)

ChessMood + ChessDojo = ChessMojo?

Greymood

Hello all! Ive been playing a bit (along with studying) for about two years and just found this great website. Im starting to work my way through the courses such as mating matador and tactics, etc, which is all topics Ive been exposed to but enjoy the presentation and review from chessmood. Alongside these courses I decided I would invest the time to follow and learn chessmood recommended openings and watched the blackmood course, as there were only two openings to learn from black and i dont want to focus too much on this aspect of the game at my modest level, per what seems to be the conventional wisdom.. At the end of the course description, they said there would be courses on using the black openings for white; however, these courses arent yet available. If i wanted to use this approach so I didnt have to devote any more time to opening study over other topics (there is considerably more work on the white side than the black side), would opening white with 1. e3 be valid, and then following with either 2.d4 or 2.f4 as appropriate to emulate a reversed Dutch/French? Again, I am interested in this so that I can minimize my study of openings and devote effort to the other aspects of the game, and so thought this is perhaps a reasonable streamlined approach to a workable repertoire for both colors for the price of 1, so to speak...especially since the course description alludes to the idea of using blackmood for the white side. Thanks so much for any feedback. Cheers!

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sparring partner

hello people I'm looking for a sparring partner to play chessmood openings with, I'm 1700 fide.

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Hi Lucio,

Please use the following thread to post your message. https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/studysparring-partner-1362

This is the official thread for looking for a sparring partner.

Please let me know when you did it in order to delete this thread.

Thanks in advance and good luck in finding a partner!?

4 things required to become an expert

https://youtu.be/5eW6Eagr9XA Chess related for those interested in watching. The TLDR summary is that to improve your chess you will have to do a lot of work. The good news is that with Chessmood the quality inputs are provided here for us. The rewatchability of the classic games and various courses is significant. There is too much to gleen from just one viewing. Happy studies everyone.

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I think one major quality that sets a good player apart is that he / she doesn't fall apart when he / she falls behind in material or when in a losing position. Hikaru calls it tilting, right? The psychological aspect cannot be ignored. Not easy to attain such a focused state in a real game regardless of the evaluation bar, but can be done.

NEW ARTICLE: Be Awesome!

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Hello, Avetik! Awesome article today! You really pleasured my heart... :) Have a nice day!

Great article (and not just because it's asking you to be awesome).

I've noticed those that are always negative or try-too hard / act needy, often getting to the point of that they hate others with what they don't have and become jaded/unpleasant/critical without positivity, 'never' get anywhere. Be it for love, money/wealth, health/fitness, jobs... Often these people have a clique of like minded or placed people who almost celebrate their position in life and others are the problem, be it poor vs rich, politics, academic vs school of life.

Being a pleasant person to be around, positive (at the right times, but not acting fake),  giving credit where credit is due, acting with abundance mentality, trying to activity solve problems to get where you want to be rather than balking at the obstacles you face, seeing threats as opportunities and placing oneself to take advantage when they arise before everyone else does, being your own person and not what is expected of you or your focus...   this and more on average makes a successful person.

Coming from the opposite side of the article - who to help. I made mistakes about 10-20 years ago in that I was wanting to help everyone and offer free advice where I thought it would help others. I was successful academically, and not doing so bad career or financially either then. I found out there are a lot of people that didn't want to be helped. It was either 'misery likes company', or they saw it as acting superior when all I wanted was for others to be successful. Once some people have an idea (like it's down to who you know, where you grew up, what you're born with) changing that is almost not worth it (and anyone that says otherwise as living proof or how they succeeded in way others might follow is taken as an outlier). Facebook was a real eye-opener of what people really thought who would have never said/acted so in person.

I'm more likely to help or guide someone I feel is really trying (plus a pleasant person of course) and likely to be grateful, than someone who needs to sort their own attitudes out first. My parents bemoaned the same that you help people and they never help you back when you need it. I think the answer is focusing on the right people to help.

I had this very big dilemma that why hardworking people don't get success easily (at least in my case)

is it that they are too serious or they don't have any luck left with them?

I saw many people who don't work at all and achieve great heights so I thought to myself, I should work harder than them to achieve such success but the fact is we should not stretch ourselves too much and just be awesome not overthinking about the future results and everything will come into place

This was my learning from this article

Thank you once again !!!

 Awesome !!!! 

Gm Avetik you really awesome... Very inspiring..

Very nice, although in some ways it feels like it's  saying, 'if there is a good move in the position, make the move.' Haha

But at least it can foster awareness, that's a start!

Great article 

I recall when I was starting out in poker I sent messages to the top 1000 players in the poke rankings.

I only got 4 responses! 2 were trying to sell me very expensive courses. One offered some hand advice and the other one ended up becoming my mentor and kick starting my path to being able to play professionally.

After this I alway made a effort to respond to anyone who asked me for help and advice. It wasn't with some ulterior motive I just recall what it was like when I was starting.

By having this attitude I actually gained a lot of coaching business over the years as well as forged friendships/relationships with other strong players who have in turn helped me over time.

Amazing article. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this important topic

Thanks for Awesome article.

Nice article. I would like to comment something not related with the article but about coaching.

When I was a youngster in the club, they gaves class 90min per week. Explained you basics, opposition, basic mates, a couple of openings and that was all. The game in the weekend until next Friday evening. 

I left the game for decades and when I decided for a comeback I went to classes, hired coaches and I noticed that most of them were bad. The reason is that if you want to make real progress you must study but no 90min/week, I would say rather 180min/day. So the good coach is not the one who teaches the theory 90min each week. The good coach is the one who uses the 90min to guide you in how to spend the 3 daily hours (alone, you and the material) that you should spend to make real progress.

I want to thank you for making this article Avetik!

This is not only brilliant advice for chess but also a great principle in life.

I found this article to be very resilient to the book you recommended "Unlimited power". The point that giving help is very good psychology for yourself. Also the point that whatever you ask from life; you will get from life.

I really enjoyed how you also encouraged the reader to take action in the end of the article rather than to just read it and say "aha, that is smart information, maybe I will get use for it one day".

Have a wonderful day champion!

Regards, Noam

GM Avetik thank you for the wonderful article you wrote

When will the blackmood openings course will cover the dutch vs everything else?

Hello, in the week where you Opened all your courses I did watch almost all the Dutch course and I enjoyed it a lot. I am probably going to buy the discounted yearly plan as a result since I believe there are many courses here that can help me improve. My question is when will the Dutch course will cover all the other starter moves similar to the black main course (about the Sicilian and the symmetrical English)

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We will add it soon! also, till you become a decent player play this Dutch and keep improving once your are a decent player then start learning and playing the Benko Gambit given in our courses! and also we will surely do about dutch soon

French - Schlechter variation main line deviation with 6.. Be7

I very rarely get the main, main line with 3. Bd3. Instead, I get all kinds of deviations where I feel it's quite unclear if white has any advantage. For example, I just got this: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Bd3 dxe4 4. Bxe4 Nf6 5. Bf3 c5 6. Ne2 Be7, and black later took on d4 and pushed e6-e5. Any ideas against this?

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The french is rarely played and ChessMood's Variation even more rarely. After the sequence of moves you give you get as White a majority on the Qside against Black's on the Kside. (The engines assess the position as equal.) One way to play that position is possibly (?) to take account of theses strategical imbalances ?

I think it's covered maybe in advance section by GM Avetik. 7. Nbc3 0-0 8. d5! GM Onischuk idea d:e 9. Nd5 Nc6 10. Nec3 Nd4 11. Be3 Nf3+ 12.Qf3 Be6 13. 0-0-0 If not take 8..e5 9. 0-0 Ne8 10. g4! Nd6 11. Ng3 but very advance.

Twitch streamer from Malaysia

Hi there. My name is Frankie. 54 years old. Married, gamer dad, IT Manager from a country that has no GM. I stream chess at twitch.tv/durian_defense .... just wanted to ask if anyone else here streams on Twitch? If yes, great! If no, that's no problem. Just curious. I bit the bullet and signed up for the yearly Pro Plan during the 72 hour offer period. I am looking forward to being a productive and useful member of the Chessmood community. Just want to share an interesting t-shirt I saw a motorcyclist wearing the other day. His shirt read the words: "Good food is good mood". So a useful piece of the puzzle to playing chess in a good mood is ... good food! Eat well, eh? Regards Frankie "Durian Defense" Kam Malaysia Chess com Blitz rating 2050.

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Welcome Frankie! I'm not a streamer, but probably some other members are.

French Attack McCutcheon Gambit....

Please you opinion ChessMood coaches and players. I have faced this variati?on 2 or 3 times and the opponents don't accept the gambit !?. After 6...Bb4 they answer 7.Bb5+ (instead of 7.dxe6) and the position seems (at least to me) difficult to play for Black : which constructive plan to build to compensate the pawn minus ? After 7.Bb5 Stockfish 15 assess the position as equal.....but we are human and for the majority of us amateurs....

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Hi! Yeah that seems like an annoying move Bb5+, but usually in blitz people take dxe6 against me, then I think black has good play. After 7.Bb5+ I guess we need to go Bd7 8.Bxd7 Nxd7 9.dxe6 Bxc3 10.bxc3 Qxe6 11.Qe2 Qxe2 12.Nxe2 0-0-0 with ideas Nb6,Rd6 with some play, though I dont like being pawn down in that endgame so instead of 9..Bxc3 maybe something else

Relaxing too early - another technique

In positions I'm winning, I find a couple of things that are useful to try: 1. What are my opponent's only chances - even if it looks impossible that they can achieve them. Pretty much all the examples in the section could be seen (although the hidden mate in the 'not an angel' section was hard to see) by doing this. Getting a queen trapped, a king being in a mating net etc are all visible if you are aware of the opponent's possibilities and you check before moving that they can't execute them. 2. If I was my opponent, what tricks (SLP) to save the position would I be trying. Remember tricks is plural, it's often easy to lock onto one idea and miss another. By evaluating as an opponent hopefully you'll see their ideas, and unless time is low, you'll have more time to do this as your own move should be 'easier' (though don't relax!), so it's about snuffing out all remaining counter-chances. Additionally, some opponents just don't resign, either to hope for such a trick, a blunder or just to annoy you. Just play as normal. While some describe playing on in a hopeless position bad manners, as well as 'wasting your time' having to finish them off, they're wasting their own time too which could be used to recover from the loss in prep for the next round. Of course this gets really annoying if you've got to go for a train(!) just don't let it phase you, otherwise a slip means the game will go on longer. If you don't act bothered they might resign, but if you get frustrated then they are right to continue. On a similar note it's worth practising basic finishes such as Q+KvsK, R+RvsK, RvsK,B+BvsK,B+NvsK,P+KvsK,P+RvsR,Q+KvsN+K,Q+KvsB+K and others like it whatever level you are. Often when you have to deliver these you might be under pressure and low time which is a recipe to slip. Don't be arrogant that your rating means such basic drills are beyond you.

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Good tips! Reverse psychology really helps not to relax, basically you have to kill all hope moves and ideas of opponent. When hope dies, they resign

One thing not mentioned but I find that works is stare at them like Kasparov if they are in a hopeless position as if to say How dare you play on.

NEW ARTICLE: Raise Your Rating by Cutting Your Losses

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I like your idea of having two accounts and using one to play casual games and the other to play serious games. But I saw that the Chess.com policies say "Do not open more than one account." https://www.chess.com/community

Other ideas I have are to play serious games on one chess website, and casual games on another chess website. Or, to play unrated games when you are tired. If you have trouble finding human opponents who want to play unrated games, you can always play unrated games against a computer opponent.

Last year I hadn't played for 6 years for health reasons but I wanted to go OTB again (notice that the 2 profiles trick doesn't apply OTB). In 7 months and 37 games I lost about 250 FIDE rating points. What I did? I stop playing because dropping material constantly u don't learn anything.

So what I did instead is reading chess books. Theory of the Opening, theory of the endgame, tactics, calculation, chess history!!! (is amazing the quantity of material we just ignore).

I don't know when I will go back OTB but as GM Hansen pointed out this time I will never give up again.

Llorenç Boldu

Thank you Avetik.

The next question arises is the following:

"How can I boost my mood and energy?"

Thank you GM Avetik!

It worked gor me and I crushed 2100 Elo on Chess.com just by not playing when I feel tired

The next question I have in mind is that in a classical chess tournament, where we can get real Ratings and Titles, We have to manage our Moods and Energies. Our body and mind must follow us when we need them!

Since you are a highly experienced chess professional, I thought may be you can share some techniques chess professionals apply to manage their mood and energy in real tournaments, where they have to play according to tournament schedules, not at will.

Thank you and best wishes for Chessmood

Sir,In Real Tournment Situation the Time is Fixed and At that Fixed Time Our Mood is Not good So What Should We Do Then?

I have two accounts and after 6 months, by reading your article I understand why my rating is different in the two accounts.

https://lichess.org/@/jyotisko06 - Real account where i play with right mode and energy.

https://lichess.org/@/jyotisko2006 - Second account where i play when at bad at night ( in sleepy mood just to enjoy).

I have one account in each platform but with the key advice from the articles I raised +69 blitz, +45 rapid in one week. Now I can crush players up to 2000 easily. I am 1860 - 1950 rapid and blitz, 1940 - 1990 bullet.

Dear Maestro Avetik,

I liked this article very much. I recognise myself in that I feel I have developed a very bad habit of playing too much online, i.e. also at times and in conditions when I shouldn't be playing (on a cellphone, while killing some time, or example). Particularly, when I lose a few games, I get extremely annoyed and playing on until I've won back my lost rating points can become a total obsession. As a result of that, my online blitz rating (almost 3-0 games exclusively) has been seesawing between 1900 and 2200. I will try to implement your golden rule of playing one session of 9 games max, and avoid playing when I feel tired or have distractions (such as my one-year-old daughter attention calls). 

I have a few questions I was hoping you might find the time to comment on:

1. Do you recommend playing nine 3-0 games, or three 10-0 games? 

2. Do you recommend analysing all online (blitz) games immediately after the session?

3. If so, what is your recommended approach to analysing such games?

 Thanks!

fantastic article

GM games in French Attack

Hello, Dear Champions, Being all my life a Sicilian player recently I have been playing the French attack in my streams and other events. However during my training games against 2850 GM. I used the opening and it turned out it practically works so well. I was enjoying great positions out of the openings. I have won all the games as black and below you can find the link. I love this French attack! https://www.chess.com/game/live/52503589393 https://www.chess.com/game/live/52502977865 https://www.chess.com/game/live/52502467721 https://www.chess.com/game/live/52501922833 P.S. This is not the only session against very high-level opponents, so I would say on the level below 2700 it's practically very interesting! Good luck and best wishes Champion! I would love to see your French-Attack masterpieces here so you are welcome to share your games!

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Wow instructive and crushing games in advanced var of the french, this rare Bd7 sure surprises even very strong players! ?

wow...4 different games after Bd7

Thank you for posting these GM French Attack games! Great stuff.

So although it says the French repertoire is for till about 2000 level you could also play it against much higher rated opponents? ?

Congratulation, nice games with Bd7 not so easy to play with white. I've checked and GM Shipov is often using as black if anybody need more games to reserach. I'm happy that there are at two opening for chessmood becasue then everybody could easier prepare and based on openings CM.

Searching forums

I noticed that the forum search function (the magnifying glass icon) only searches for thread subjects. What if I want to search the body text of a post in the forum? For example, I want to search and retrieve ALL posts in the forum that have the word "durian" in the body of the post. How do I go about this? Frankie "Durian Defense" Kam

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Hi Frankie, 

I will ask the tech team, but yes, at the moment the search is limited to the thread subject. ?

Durian? :) You mean that smelly fruit? :) 

Recommandation - Positional Chess

Hello, I started to play 20+ years ago, and easily ranked up to 2000 Fide Elo. Then I stopped to play , and now I can resume my chess career. I used to be agressive player and play for checkmating opponent asap in every game. Now, I understand that I need to be "multistyle" to perform. My goal is to reach 2300 elo. Do you have any recommandation to learn positional chess ? Do I need to work on my principal weakness, or is it better to work on my strenghts ? (tactical play, sharp positions ...) Thank you

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I think it was Jacob Aagaard who said that you should work on both your biggest strength and your biggest weakness. I guess the reason is that the former is how you gain points, and that the latter is how you lose points! There will always be times, particularly when playing black, when your opponent manages to direct the game into a quieter waters where solid positional play is essential. I think going through the 100 Classical Masterpieces course (https://chessmood.com/course/chess-classical-gamesis), at most one game per day so you can fully absorb it, is a nice way to improve positional play. There will be a certain amount of learning by osmosis by playing through 100 carefully selected classics, plus the annotations are first rate and contain lots of helpful advice for positional play. Happy Pieces is another course that I'm greatly enjoying. For additional material, the book reviews here are interesting: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2022/3/29/ep-272-posiitional-puzzle-book-championship-with-neal-bruce https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2021/8/24/episode-240-pawn-book-championship-special-episode-with-neal-bruce