Chess forum by Grandmasters

Endgame worksheets

Hi can you develop endgame worksheet and or pgn so we can practice the endgame postion that was taught in the endgame coarses?

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Hi Steve,

To practice the contents we developed the quizzes. We are uploading them to all the courses and most of them have a lot of them already. Did you tried them already?😀

dutch attack - Normal developpement 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. Qb3

Dear CMcommunity, Dear CM coaches, have you ever experienced 1. d4 e6 2. c4 f5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Bb4 5. Qb3 ? should we tack on c3 ?

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No, we never faced this move in the streams or live. You can take and follow our usual plan with fianchetto of the LSB. You can also play c5 Nimzo indian style, but to make it simpler, maybe taking is the easiest way.

Unable to watch the livestream

This has been going on for months. I do see the events, as I always watch them once they are posted. I just do not like being unable to ever participate. I am a Pro member, I click on join, and I click on participate, but to no avail. Am I required to download Zoom to watch things live?

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Zoom can be used from your web browser.

Event Problem

Hi everyone, I am a ChessMood Basic Student, and I am getting notified about the events and when I go to that page then it is written: "this stream is hosted on Youtube", and then when I go to the ChessMood channel on Youtube, then I see no stream there. Thanks!

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Hi. As far as I know, you can only join / later watch the events when you are a Pro member. I enjoy the events very much, so I can definitely recommend becoming Pro.

Which course is the best?

I'm 1800 lichess, and I would like to know everyone's opinion on what course do you think would help me the most?

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And a side note-how come not all courses have the get lifetime access option?

If you've never done a tactics course, then Tactic Ninja

It really just depends on what you need to improve on. For example, if I need to work on endgames, I can use the course "Endgame Roadmap" or go to the section "Endgame Mastery".

Go for the "Happy pieces". This really unique and gives you so much insight. And the same time it so practical. Just "speak" to your pieces during the game and try to make all of them happy 😁 And on second place: Endgame roadmap. Simple. Too simple? Maybe. But it will help you a lot. Nils (FIDE ELO around 1900).

My favourites so far: 1) Tactic Ninja. It's not just a course, it's a very well structured training. 2) Endgame Roadmap. A great course to understand the general plans of endgames before getting into the theory. 3) Starter Course - BlackMood Openings. A solid and easy to learn repertoire that is helping me getting more comfortable with the black pieces.

Fide Online Arena

Hi chessmood family members 😊 Do any of you have experience with the fide online arena? https://chessarena.com/ Is it any good? Are the ratings or tournaments there any credible or is it just another site with a good marketing behind? It seems to me they are throwing with special titles like AGM (Arena GM's) just to make us feel beter about ourselfs. 😆 Happy Chessing, Michel

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Hello, I have used it. This is the website of the official Chess Federation (FIDE). If you meet the requirements and get ACM, AFM, AIM or AGM, you will have a title added to your FIDE profile. And you will see it in the chess-results.com website if you are playing a tournament which is updated there also. But, I would say there is not much use. It is not an important one but there are some prize money tournaments nowadays.

Years ago, the organization hosted a few of the world championship matches. They lost the bid/contract/partnership a few years ago but maintained the "ties" with FIDE that allows them to issue "arena/online" titles that get appended to your FIDE profile page. (Similar to how the USCF has online ratings of quick, blitz, and regular.) Recently, they have been revamping and remarketing (especially around their Armageddon chess series) and their focus now is around online events and their "soon-to-open" physical chess club/coffee house in Berlin.

I have tried it a year ago and I was a bit dissapointed. I even asked to refund my yearly membership without any success :) Maybe now something has changed. 1) It was lagging a lot. I made short video screenshot and sent it to the website owner showing that it is impossible to play blitz games, so much it was lagging. 2) It was very difficult to get opponents. Sometimes you had to wait for a very long time to get the opponent. Often in tournaments there were not enough players. 3) I really do not like their user experience and interface. Too awkward compared with lichess and even chess.com 4) The only reason to play there is a) official tournaments b) to gain official online title, but as mentioned in other posts, you should pay for it each year; a kind a waste of money (at least for me) Since then I believe they had some improvements. And sometimes they have official tournaments.

I have used it, and got a "title" just before the full migration; The interface is fairly laggy and has some bugs, a few of them are potentially breaking (I filed a report for some randomly triggered forfeits and never heard back 🙄) Two clarifications though; According to the FIDE handbook section for FOA titles (https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B11FOATitlesForLowerRatingBand) : 1) "If a player upgrades his FIDE Title of the lower rating band with a new one, then the difference of the fees between the two categories has to be paid." So you should never be asked to pay more than 50 euros *in total* for AGM, regardless of whether you take it directly or get all the intermediate titles first. 2) "An expired membership does not cancel an already acquired title nor the right of the player to use the title in over the board chess tournaments." So if you do not renew your membership, the title should *not* be removed/hidden. If this happens you should complain :) In fact mine had been removed a couple of times (reasons never clarified) but both times it was added back after some correspondence. Whether acquiring these titles or not is worth it is another topic, and comes down to how you view it yourself; it won't really add anything / not many people care about them, but if it would be a challenge for you to beat or something you would be proud of, you can by all means go for it (if the sub-par platform isn't too deterring 😛)

what is the best respawn agenst 1.D4

hello I don't feel comfortable when my opponent plays 1.d4 I did try dutch attack it's a good vs below 2000 rating player but I keep losing against 2200/2300 player

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Are blitz tourneys before main tourneys helpful?

Some larger tourneys have blitz tourneys before them. I've only looked at the results of a few of these tournaments and I've noticed that the person who wins the blitz, even if they are the strongest player in the tourney, doesn't win the main classical part of the tourney. Often, the person who wins the classical (main) section didn't play in the tourney. So, asking everyone, do those optional blitz sections before the main part starts helpful or not? Thanks!

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Thanks Paul

My improvement on Paul Morphy's Opera game (5-0 blitz)-thanks Paul! My 10 move mate against the Philidor defence ;-)

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ChessMood Simplified openings with White // Petroff // Continuation after 3...Nc6

Hello dear chess friends, I've been studying the chapter for playing against the Petroff but the fact is that most of the time, after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 my opponents play 3...Nc6. It appears that this move isn't covered in the simplified ChessMood openings for White. Do you have any advice in order to fight the best way we can after this move ? I thought it was a transposition from the Scotch first, but not at all, because we still have our pawn on the d file... Help :) Thanks a lot !

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3...Nc6 is an unusual move and not a good one. Just play 4.Nxc6! and Black gets his pawn structure damaged unnecessarily, whether he plays bxc6 or dxc6. Then you continue 5.Nc3 to protect your e4-pawn and White not only has the better pawn structure, but also the better center

3...Nc6 in the Petroff is called "Stafford Gambit" . In the gambit section you can find this great course: https://chessmood.com/course/stafford-gambit-the-refutation Hope, it helps you.

Nc6 is the Stafford gambit, a love of Youtubers. It can be particularly dangerous if you don't know what you are doing, and easy points if you do and are tactically aware. Have a look at the Abracadabra gambits section, there is also a blog article on this.

Thanks a lot for your help ! This is very kind 😀

This is known as Stafford Gambit. In general this is not a good opening. You won't face it much OTB games in classical chess. However, online and in Blitz you can face it quite often just because some Youtubers are advertising it as good (dubious) opening. One of them is Eric Rosen. In ChessMood you can find it here: https://chessmood.com/course/stafford-gambit-the-refutation Even if you forget all line one thing you should remember: do not play Bc4 with white.

Dutch Vs the English?

Do we just use the same type of setup against queens gambit type positions or use the stonewall or something different? Thanks for your answers.

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😀Yes, as a general roule when the Bishop is fianchettoed as in the English, we normally will go StoneWall mode if we cannot play our usual setup with Bb3. It depends a bit but think about the general rule.  😅

2001+ Study Plan?

Hey, I just hit 2210 from 2189 USCF OTB and I am wondering when the plan will come out as I am trying to get IM by the time I graduate high school in 2.5 yrs.

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We cannot promise any date as we never do. We are working on it and when we finish, we will publish it. Stay tuned…😅

Bug in Wolf of the wall street course?

Hello guys, I am facing an issue in the course wolf of the wall street. Before the course had 1h+ of material and 3 sections but when I see it now it's material is only 24 mins and 1 section. Is this a bug or has chessmood removed the sections?

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They are re-recording some of the course to make it better so some stuff has been temporarily taken down. I think it was mentioned in a recent email.

New course: BlackMood Openings Model Games!

Champions,

Today is 16-July-2022. And as per our schedule, we’ve released the BlackMood Openings Model Games course!

Here, GM Gabuzyan has recorded real and instructive model games played with the BlackMood opening repertoire to help you:

• Deepen your knowledge of BlackMood openings.
• Discover the typical plans and middlegame positions arising from these openings.
• Learn how to punish your opponent when they ‘forget’ theory and make dubious moves.
• Remember the BlackMood opening variations better and so much more!

Start watching it now by clicking the link below

https://chessmood.com/course/blackmood-openings-model-games

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I went through the following game which was excellent! https://chessmood.com/course/blackmood-openings-model-games/episode/4601 An instructive attack. The Qxe5 followed by Qh8 was very cool. I'm going to have to remember that one!

Tired of the Benko, I decided to try the BlackMood openings and just finished the model games. I'm amazed by the spectacular games. How many training games did it take to produce these masterpieces?

Hello, In this 2nd game from the best game series of dutch attack against the london, At time 4.07, h5 schould win the bishop.

French Attack: Rozman-Rubinstein Attack playable?

hi, I just finished the French Attack part of t. BlackMood Openings &I love it yet I wonder, why not play always like in t. 4.Bb5 line shown? (vs tarrasch) avoiding - early e5 , which you don't always play (e.g. 4. Bb5 line) - early f6, which you don't always play (e.g. 4. Bb5 line) - early Nf6, which you don't always play (e.g. 4. c3 line) Levy Rozman always plays the same moves: 1) e4. e6 2) d4. d5 3) Nd2. dxE 4) NxE is forced. Nf6 5) Nx F6+ is best, it seems. gx F6 6) almost any move. NC6 7) almost any move. B6 8). any move. (RG8, BD6, QD7(QD5,QD6), 0-0-0, NE7, NF5..) so it kind of is an exchange variation with crippled pawns &good light bishop is it playable/advisable to play for an amateur? setup after 6. gx F6

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I don't really believe in this diagram for black, to be honest. I think black has trouble proving anything against simple development, e.g. 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nf6 5 Nxf6+ gxf6 6 Nf3 Nc6 7 c3 b6 8 g3 (not only countering the bishop, but also closing the g-file) Bb7 9 Bg2 Qd7 10 O-O O-O-O 11 a4 h5 12 a5! Nxa5 13 b4 and white is first with a huge initiative, while ..h4 isn't even an actual threat (the broken structure kinda tells here) So, I assume that ChessMood wants to recommend better lines :D

😀We like this variation because it gives the chance to play unusual positions for White and has a big surprise value, and think that is a great choice and you will play different positions too. Of course, you can play any other variation that you like and go along the other line. We do not like to oversimplify either. In this case in particular I love the look in the face of a Tarrasch variation player when I go Nc6, I cannot refrain myself from having a very nice feeling at the moment… 😅

Also Aelya just proposed a very good reason to not play this Youtube line… 😀

Visualisation - For People Who Cant Visualise?

Hi there, This is something I thought maybe would make a good blog post (apologies if already covered, I did a search but couldn't bring anything directly relevant up). You hear often how important visualisation is as part of calculation. By that I mean the ability to see the board in your minds eye, as part of calculating potential moves and responses by the opponent. The above is a major issue for me. Reason being, I struggle to visualise. I have heard that certain people fall into particular types; those that are visual and think/talk in terms of pictures (and are often strong visualisers), those that are auditory (thinking/learning best by sound/spoken word), and those that are kinaesthetic (process thinkings mostly internally i.e. through felt or associated feelins/sensations). Of course, most do not fall entirely into just one of the above, but for most people one of the above is strongest. I myself fall into the kinaesthetic category. These types typically struggle to visualise pictures in their minds eye. I certainly find that the be the case myself. While I might be able to get a flash of an image in my mind, I find it very difficult to sustain. This makes visualising a sequence of moves very difficult. While I do my best to calculate, I tend to rely more on intuition, or my intuitive sense of a particular position in chess. Nonetheless, I cant help but think this is a pretty big weakness for me. As teachers of students, have you coached people with this challenge and if so are there any strategies you might recommend? Thanks a lot, Rich.

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Episode 82, with guest Aiden, on the Chess Journeys Podcast is well worth listening to. One of the points that Aiden makes is that visualisation is somewhat misnamed and might be better named conceptualisation. Apparently there a lot of variation regarding how people "visualise" a position, but most people certainly don't have a clear picture of the board in their mind. At least, not a picture in the traditional sense. A lot of it seems to come down to our mental model of the chess position, the relationships between the pieces, and the geometry of the board. The richer and more accurate our mental model is, the easier it is to "visualise" and calculate. That dude Aiden has a chess startup that is focused on visualisation. I sampled the free trial and it's fairly interesting stuff but I didn't join. It's actually quite similar to some of the stuff that GM Jonathan Tisdall talks about in his underrated book "Improve Your Chess Now".

As someone who struggles with this (I'm able to audiotorily hear music though), I think a fair bit of the problem is other parts of the brain being more dominant. When being tired I can visualise better. Some of it I think is turning off in the internal monologue and just doing the best you can. I don't think the real aim is to be able to visualise the position Queen's Gambit style, but to be able to understand where the pieces are and their relationships enough to judge the position or feel for tactics or danger, and then be able to start from that position and work on. Much of this will depend on how much changes in the position, how familiar you are with it, and the complications and branching factor. Also the better you are with the other skills, judgement/intuition, tactics, positional themes etc being ingrained the less you'll need to take up your conscious capacity with them affecting your visualisation capability.

One thing to try, if you haven't already, is playing out a simple endgame blindfold, for example KR vs K. Just use any mental technique that you can think of to get through it. It's fairly easy to try on lichess.

A couple of things that might help you that have helped me before: 1. Try playing a blindfold opening-say, a blindfold game for 10 moves. 2. When playing out a game in game analysis always try to visualize 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 moves ahead, and then move the pieces. Start with what works, and then move to more and more moves ahead. 3. Solve puzzles by setting it up on the board but not moving the pieces. Try to calculate all the variations you need and then check it after you have decided it in your head. In my opinion, you can train your visualization. One interesting psychological idea is to when solving puzzles chewing your favorite brand of gum (or something similar) and then when playing an OTB tourney chewing the same type of gum. This can help because you say that you think through association with feelings/sensations, and research has shown before that this can help. Just my ideas, hope that helps! :)

Hi all, Its been a busy week at work, didn't expect so many helpful responses - very much appreciated. I must admit I've never seriously tried blindfold chess, other than trying to visualse some opening variations I know - but certainly not games. I've had a look at the startup mentioned and signed up for the free introductory course. It sounds an like something that could be quite helpful, as does the book. Its good to know that I'm not the only one that finds this area challenging! On the topic of chess geometry, there's a course on another website I've had my eyes on for a while. Intuitively, it makes sense to me that improving my understanding of the geometric aspects of chess would help with visualisation. I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew when it comes to chess studies, so I'll stick with the 5 day free course and see how that goes, but working on geometry is on the list. No doubt aspects of the skill are inter-related anyway. Thanks again for the useful thoughts and pointers, especially Peter and David :)

ChessMood for iOS

Is there a version of ChessMood as an app for Apple devices? Or, any plan to create one?

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Currently there is no ChessMood app for iOS or Android. Just use the web browser.

No plans to create an app in the short future. It takes a lot of time and resources and it will not be reflected in a faster improvement for our students. 

Chesscom and lichess have app for iOS but I strongly suggest avoiding them depending on what your doing as they dont have as many features compare to using them through the web . Chesscom app for example is limited with max time setting . I play 90 min +30 sec games over there and you can only set 60 max with the app . Lichess studies are easier to manage for me with the web browser and the learning tab is more convenient also .