Chess forum by Grandmasters

Scotch 4...Bb4+ 5.c3 Bc5 6.Be3 Qf6?!

The line- 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bb4+ 5.c3 Bc5 6.Be3 Qf6 is a tempo down for Black compared to the line- 4…Bc5 5.Be3 Qf6 6.c3.

The course gives 4…Bc5 5.Nb3

In the 4…Bb4+ line, after 6…Qf6 White is tempo up, but can anybody tell me the plans as I am new to Scotch game

Replies

I asked Gabuzyan since we discussed a similar line in a recent conversation, he'll reply soon. Stay tuned😀 In the meanwhile can you tell us your elo? Thanks!

Hi Nishant,

There are 2 good ideas in the position you mentioned. White can choose the development of 7.Be2 - 0-0 - Nc2 with the idea of trading the bishops and getting strong Knight on e3.
Or another option is to play with 7.g3-Bg2-0-0 ideas which will be preventing any d5 options for black in the future. Same Nc2 ideas will be available.

Miniature course: just an idea

Just an idea - maybe it would be usefull to have some course with well known chess miniatures. I think that Clsasical game course is ideal, but it is maybe difficult for beginners. Some miniature games  (for instance, Opera game, Legal mate etc.) could be interesting for many beginner players.

This idea come to my mind because I was preparing lesson for kid and was looking for miniatures ;)

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Scotch 4...Qf6 question

How should I play in the position in Scotch after-

4…Qf6 5.Nf3 Bc5 6.Nc3 Nge7 7.Nb5 Bb6 8.Be3 Bxe3. Attaching screenshot below-

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Well, you clearly must take on c7 and take the rook. You do not recapture the Bishop, of course. 
But no need for a long explanation here. Please check the video carefully where Avetik explains this variation exactly: https://chessmood.com/course/scotch-game/episode/675

Happy learning!

Choose your preferred platform to tune in:
The interview on YouTube
The interview on Apple Podcast
The interview on Spotify

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I have battled a few personal demons over the years and this is not the place to discuss the specifics of those struggles. What I am comfortable saying is that your conversation with Kamal really resonated with me. I've used some of the techniques you discussed to help me deal with some of my personal and professional challenges. I was not nearly as deliberate about them as the two of you have been, but they still benefited me. I think my next step probably is forgiveness. In strictly chess terms, his thoughts on finding a master and doing what they tell you to do strike me as being perfectly correct. I think that is a good way to approach learning any profession, trade or activity.

Another very interesting interview ! Thank you to bring these special people to our knowledge .

French Defense: Horwitz attack (?)

Hi ChessMood family! What would you recommend against the Horwitz, Papa-Ticulat Gambit in the French Attack, i.e., 1.e4 e6 2.b3 d5 3.Bb2.... ? https://www.chess.com/openings/French-Defense-Horwitz-Papa-Ticulat-Gambit

Replies

Hi Angelo,

I don't think it's a dangerous gambit and in my opinion, there are several options.

I would choose between 3…Nc6 , 3…Nf6 or 3…c5. 

In my opinion, no need to capture on e4, as that's the main hope for white for quick development.

Chessmood coins

How to buy courses with the ChessMood coins??

Replies

choose a course, click on "get lifetime access", and you will see the option with moodcoins

Try to do do the same with another course, not all courses can be bought with moodcoins. 😀

New article: Does bullet chess make you better or worse?

Does playing bullet actually help improve your chess? 

GM Avetik Grigoryan reveals the answer to this question, backing it up with science. He also shares:
 

✅ How this time control affects your game.

✅ Why streamers and GMs play bullet, and should you follow in their footsteps or not?

✅ A former world champion’s perspective on playing bullet chess and more…
 

Read the full article here 👇

https://chessmood.com/blog/does-bullet-chess-make-you-better
 

Hopefully, it points you in the right direction of chess growth 💪

Share your thoughts and opinions under this forum thread.

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My real beef with bullet is that opponents don't play real openings and often play dumb moves to waste clock time. Otherwise it would be a good way to practise many openings in a short period.

The truth is that I don't even know nothing about premoves. Playing bad chess is no fun for me. And as a rule of thumb when more time more quality is displayed. So I enjoy watching SGM play their best chess OTB in classical time controls.

Great article 👌.

Great article by GM Avetik

Maybe you forgot to tell us that we should play rapid/classical time control if we have time,only to play blitz time control when we don't have many spare time but still want to improve our chess skills?😂 This article finally solved my "puzzle" on why my bullet and blitz ratings is always higher than rapid and classical,while other people who don't play bullet frequently is vice versa!

Thank you coach, it's just up to me to take the right way and be in the 1%...

Excellent article. I fully endorse and agree with it.

I hate playing fast chess and my friend likes playing fast chess so a few weeks ago he sent me the article on why I should play blitz chess. Needless to say I am happy this now exists 😆

I feel like I was a better calculator before adapting to faster time controls.I hated bullet and I liked rapid more than blitz or bullet for a better quality of chess. I was more ''obsessed'' with finding the best move in every position. I sometimes get in that ''mind-set'' but it won't last long.Blitz or bullet have made me catch up with other players' speed (you need to have a bullet skill/rhytmn to be a good blitz player imo) but after analyzing my games there are blunders or mistakes that make me a little frustrated even if I have won some of them. Currently I feel like my brain has gotten numb but I have decreased the amount of time for blitz or bullet games per day and my 1st games tend to have better quality.

Yeah

Kahneman actually won the Nobel Prize in economics. I know him well from many years of undergrad and grad training in econ and finance, but one could easily consider him more of a psychologist. Another great book to consider on learning is, "Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning", by cognitive scientists at The University of Washington, St. Louis, a top tier school. The book has very valuable lessons for life, some that may surprise you. Thanks for a great article, as usual.

Very nicely written GM Grigorian, Kramnik is like the ultimate dictator (in a good way 😀😀😀) for me and if he says that bullet is damaging my chess, then it is damaging my chess!! Petrosian64

Book Recommendations

Hi there, I've been really enjoying the ChessMood podcast, and I was wondering if you have a list of non-fiction, non-chess books that you recommend for personal growth. I have my own favorites, but the list is constantly growing, and I'm always looking for new ones. Thanks!

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Terence McKenna - Food of the Gods // Piero Scaruffi - A History of Rock and Dance Music

Absolutely! 
Soon we'll upload the page “We recommend”, where among our recommend books, websites, youtube channels will be also non-chess books. 

Bug in Quiz from Inside GM Studer's Mind

Hello, I have found a bug in the first Quiz from the course inside GM Studer's mind. The quiz #5 which is the reverse color from the game if the rook takes on e7 and then the knight on d5 takes back, black will loose the exchange. I have also uploaded the picture here. Thanks for the great course and quizes and best regards, Armin

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Thanks😀

Thank you!
Fixed :) 

How to play after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3

I was curios if chessmood can provide a line after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 with concrete moves🤔

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The ChessMood repertoire is to play 2...g6 there. If 3.c4 then try to transpose into a Benko with 3...c5 4.d5 b5.

Improve Chess calculations

I am good at tactics, puzzle solving. I've completed all the "Tactic Ninja's" but when it comes to calculation I miss some or the other variation. How to be better at calculations ? Is there a course in ChessMood ? Please help with some references. Thanks

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Check Chessmood's study plan. They told one course on calculation is planned at some point but until then, they gave recommendations for books with lots of puzzles to solve :)

New article: The Fork Tactic in Chess Explained

Hello champions!

Today we’ve launched an article that covers everything around the fork tactic that beginners should know. You’ll learn:

• What’s a fork, it’s different types.
• Why are Knight forks hard to visualize (as shared by a neurologist)?
• How to get better at noticing Knight forks?
• 5 ways to get out of forks and so much more!

Read it here👇

https://chessmood.com/blog/fork-in-chess

And you can share your thoughts and the solutions of the puzzles under this forum thread.

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Excellent article as usual ! My answers are 1- Nb5 aiming at c7 2- Nd5 aiming at e7 after rook avoid attack 3- Qxd8 Qxd8 Bc4 + followed with Nf7 + 4- Qxe7 if Qxe7 f6+ and a royal fork on d5 or h5 with an exchange up

Knight forks are also hard to see as there are 6 patterns (ignoring reflections and rotation) and can happen between lots of pieces. With a pawn on e4 a knight can fork that and 26(!) light squares together. Doing knight training and coming up with some of my own improved me about 100+ points and helped me win the British U125 (~1500) championship with 5/5 long ago (2 games involved knights significantly IIRC).

1.nb5 forking c7 2.nd5 idea of both nb6 and ne7 3.qd8 qd8 bc4 kh8 nf7+- 4.qe7 qe7 f6 kf6 nd5 if qf6 nh5

Accelerated Dragon_AS 7.Sc6 with f4

Dear Avetik and friends, after 13....Rb8 you analyze 14. dxe7, d7, g4, Bc4 and Bxa7. But: what about the simple 14.b3! Unfortunately, I can't see how Black can gain any advantage here. Thank you very much for an answer and your help. Sincerely Matt

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Hello Matt, as best variation against 14. b3 I found this: 14. b3 Qa5 15. dxe7 Re8 16. Na4 Qxa4! 17. bxa4 Bb2+ 18. Kb1 Bc3+ 19. Kc1 and then it is a dead draw, if you take the queen on d2, white takes advantage in the endgame.

lichess matches

Hello all, i recently found the possibility to play rapid matches (15+10s)in the lichess environment. For me this is a very nice experience and thought many chessmood family member might be interested. For the format see https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mR0UgAloPJuGlV2YZpyyLxdnOYhnuxQySh_MzDJlvBc/edit anyway last Saturday i had an almost impossible task to play against an almost 2400 player (400 point higher than me). But started with a "good" fighting mood. Lost 3:1 as "expected". But, I thought my play was not too bad in the first 2 games. Black / White / Black and White for me (French advance, Scotch with 8. h4 and again French advance and Scotch) What I like about the match format .. nice training format and especially for the opening lines. If you have time .. you might like my game 3 (correcting the mistake in game 1) 1) https://lichess.org/1uqxOXFqgHtm 2) https://lichess.org/ZMXDgTlaybVQ 3) https://lichess.org/MYmihRYW5rPv 4) https://lichess.org/Si6HnPug5o7O lost the first 2 games but especially with the french move order .. and early c3 I tried to remember why not Lb5 (Lc2) as in the first game and played "correctly" I believe, with the idea of blocking castling with move 9) Bb1 Bb5. My opponent blundered 10) Qb3.. allowing the following few moves with a nice (Vukovic mate at move 25). Well he helped me a little. Game 4 I was punished (and exhausted but happy with my win in Game 3. Blundered and punished with a mate in one. I can highly recommend to participate in this match format of lichess. Have a nice day.

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one of my best game

Hi guys been studying a lot of chessmood since one year and today i beat a strong young NM with a two pawns sack! This is the game keep the good chessmood and the content is amazing guys! [Event "?"] [Site "?"] [Date "????.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "?"] [Black "?"] [Result "*"] [PlyCount "111"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. d5 exd5 5. cxd5 d6 6. Nc3 g6 7. h3 a6 8. a4 Qe7 9. a5 Bf5 (9... Nbd7) 10. Bg5 h6 11. Bxf6 Qxf6 12. e4 Qe7 13. Bd3 Bc8 14. O-O Nd7 15. e5 dxe5 16. Bc4 Bg7 17. d6 Qf6 18. Ne4 Qf5 19. Re1 g5 (19... Qf4 20. Ra4) 20. Ng3 Qg6 21. Bd3 Qxd6 22. Nf5 Qf6 23. Nh2 O-O (23... h5 24. Be4 (24. Nf1)) 24. Ng4 Qe6 25. Qc2 h5 26. Bc4 (26. Ngh6+) 26... Qe8 27. Ngh6+ Bxh6 28. Nxh6+ Kh8 29. Qf5 f6 (29... Qe7 30. Nxf7+ (30. Bd3 f6 31. Qg6) 30... Kg7 31. Bd3 Rxf7 (31... Qxf7 32. Qxg5+ Kh8 33. Qh6+ Kg8 34. Re3) 32. Qh7+ Kf6 (32... Kf8 33. Qh8#) 33. Qh6#) 30. Bd3 Rf7 (30... Qe7 31. Qg6) 31. Nxf7+ Qxf7 32. Qg6 Qxg6 33. Bxg6 Nf8 34. Bxh5 Be6 35. Red1 (35. Bf3 Rb8 36. Rac1 (36. Red1) 36... c4 37. Red1) 35... Kg7 36. Bf3 Rb8 37. Rd6 Kf7 38. Rc1 c4 39. Rb6 Nd7 40. Rxb7 Rxb7 41. Bxb7 Nc5 42. Bc8 Bd5 43. Rd1 Bc6 44. Rd6 Bb5 45. Rb6 Na4 46. Bxa6 Nxb6 47. Bxb5 c3 48. bxc3 Nc8 49. Bd7 Na7 50. g3 Ke7 51. Ba4 Kd6 52. h4 gxh4 53. gxh4 Kc5 54. h5 Nc8 55. h6 Nd6 56. Bb3 *

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Congrats ! You should submit it for the best of June .

LiChess...

When I enter an opening on LiChess with the idea of downloading the pgn for later study. I don't obtain the icon "pgn" under the board ?! Many thanks to anyone having an idea to solve my problem !!🙂🙂

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Hi Jean-Marie! Do you use Lichess Studies? Are you having a problem there? Are you talking about a Chessmood pgn you want to download?

Smith Morra gambit

I have started to play Sicilian. I have watched main Accerated Dragon course and briefly Sidelines and Rossolimo. Which course covers 1.e4 c5 2.d4(with idea to play cd 3.c3). I have not found or missed this.

Replies

It can be found in the Alapin course. We will decline the Morra by 3...Nf6, which transposes after 4.e5 Nd5 to the Alapin.