Chess forum by Grandmasters

How important is experience?

You hear all the time, even our dear chessmood GM's mentioning “experience.” Many people say things like, even if an older player's rating is lower now, they have lots of “experience” which makes them harder to beat. Or, “I didn't have that much experience at this point, so I did this or that” (Something around these lines was said by GM Avetik in game 2 of in Avetik's mind). IM Andy Woodward, age 13 years old, said in an interview I think something like ‘even at this high rating it is very hard to play against older players because of their experience.’ Really, how would you define this experience (is it playing stronger players, more games, does online count, etc.) and how important is it? A blog about this would be awesome, but also interested in everyone's opinion.

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When someone has “experience”, they generally have a good understanding of what plans to choose, a strong intuition that can guide them through difficult situations, and are able to evaluate positions correctly. However, at the end of the day, it really depends on who played better chess.

What is experience and the advantage  of it? - it's hard to pin down.  More time = more experience? Playing for an hour for 10 years, is the same time as 4 hours a day for 2.5 years. It's hard to compare.

Playing for fun but never learning or analysing - is that experience so useful? Played a lot Vs someone who played less but had a good coach?

Do they understand how to play good chess Vs just push the pieces about. Or if they are an encyclopedia of knowledge, can they apply it?

So many variables.

If anything I worry more about juniors who are highly coached, improving and often underrated. I do respect long time players though.

Jobava London Doubt

Hello Chessmood family, 

I was going through the Jobava London course and then I noticed something interesting for white suggested by the engine: d4,nf6,nc3,d5,bf4,g6,e3,bg7,nf3,0-0, be2, c5,dxc5, nbd7, b4, ne4, nxd5!? Please could you let me know what we do in this variation? 

Thanks

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Or maybe ne4 is inaccurate?

By the way Thunder, please could you be so kind to change your nickname and remove ChessMood from it?😅 Otherwise the users may think that you are part of the Chessmood team and it can be confusing. Thanks in advance! 😀

French Attack exchange variation

My question arises after this
1.e4 e6, 2.d4 d5, 3.exd5 exd5, 4.Nf3 Nc6, 5.Be2 Bd6, 6.O-O Ne7, 7. Nc3

The BlackMood Openings starter course discusses the aggressive setup with Bg4 and Qd7. But after 7. Nc3, I worry about Nb5 - trying to exchange the knight for our bishop on d6. Is this something to worry about (is it prudent to play 7…a6), or should we let white exchange if they want to?

Thanks! <3

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I am assuming you mean 6. …Nge7 rather than 6. …Nce7 right? Anyway I checked a game data base and black scores well in this position, 57% of the time black wins. Both options score well a6 is less common but scores a little bit better than Bg4, 56% vs 57% win rate. The computer likes the move a6 best. the computer doesn't dislike losing the bishop pair but in practice against human opponents keeping the bishop pair is better. The moves to reach this position by white aren't really common though so this seems like a bit of a rabbit trail. (Unless you know someone who plays this as white).

Hello!

I play the Exchange variation against the French defense and here are my thoughts.

I think that 7.Nc3 is a dubious move in this position because after 7…a6 the knight is sitting there doing nothing: it is only guarding the e4 square but black isn't fighting for that square (black knight is not on f6), so there is nothing to guard.

Furthermore the e2 square is occupied by the bishop so there is no easy regroupment on the kingside for the c3 Knight.

Summarizing: after 7.Nc3 I think a6 is a pretty good move 😀

Accelerated Dragon Course

In the Accelerated Dragon course Advanced Section “7. Nc6 with f4 Video 9. Some complicated lines for advanced players” from minute 11:00 to the end of the video to the end GM Avetik explains how to continue from the position below.

Here he gave us gave here 27. …. Qc2 but with very complicated lines and a lot of fighting. Stockfish in Lichess said 27. …. Qxd3 with mate in 24 moves! I don't see the mate and even on Chess.com it wasn't clear. But White can't do nothing here! Engine gives 28. Nb5 or 28. Rc1 as best replies. They are totaly losing! I've won easily the two lines against the computer ion Lichess and Chess.com. 

Continuation on Lichess: https://lichess.org/rajP9fRY/black#53

Continuation on Chess.com:

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "?"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "0-1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "1r4k1/4pp1p/2p3p1/2Q5/6P1/2NBn3/P1Pq3P/K6R b - - 3 27"]

27... Qxd3 28. Nb5 Nxc2+ 29. Kb2 Rxb5+ 30. Qxb5 cxb5 31. Rc1 Nd4 32. h4 Qe2+ 33. Ka3 Qxg4 34. Kb2 Qxh4 35. Rc8+ Kg7 36. a4 bxa4 37. Rc3 Nb5 38. Rc8 Qb4+ 39. Kc2 a3 40. Kd3 a2 41. Rc1 Qb1+ 42. Rxb1 axb1=Q+ 43. Kc4 Nd6+ 44. Kc3 Qe4 45. Kd2 Qf3 46. Kc1 Qe2 47. Kb1 Kf6 48. Ka1 Ke5 49. Kb1 Kd4 50. Ka1 Kc3 51. Kb1 Qb2# 0-1

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Hi Ilias, 

Your idea looks like an improvement and probably wins easier. However, this position is super-super deep and definitely if you are just trying to learn the openings, no need to dive in such a very deep analysis.

Thank you 🙂

Exchange variation with NC3

Hello Family,

I play french attack with black from black mood opening for beginners.

I am always blocked after

1. E4 e6
2. D4 d5
3. Exd5 exd5
4. Nc3       Now, knigth attacks d5 pawn defended by the queen. It is no more possible to play Bd3 as it will cut the queen defense. If 4. Nc3 Ne2, the bishop is closed. If Nf6, we can not play the agressive setup anymore with pawn f6.

How to continue with black after Nc3, in french opening exchange variation?

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Nf6 is one of the most popular moves, although you do have the option of playing c6, protecting the d5 pawn and preparing Bd6. This also gets rid of a potential Nb5, an attempt to exchange the bishop.

Calculation

Hi i d like to work on advanced calculation like the hard puzzles made for master and even Gms . The kind of hard one that we spent 10 or even 20 minutes on it. 

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Dear Jonathan,

Is this a statement or a question ? 😀😀😀

Alapin and Sicilian Sidelines PGNs

Hi there, I'm going through the sicilian videos for black, and notice there are no pgns to download for the sicilian sidelines. Is there somewhere I can download them? Or did you intentially not put them up? I saw a post a from a few years ago saying that the courses aren't finished yet, but that is from a long time ago. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

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Hey there,

About that courses we may have or not some restructuring. When decided we will make the update or just will have the pgns.

Thank you

Caro Kann Exchange doubt

Hello Everyone,

This forum is to discuss about a new move that I came across.

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nf6 5. c3 Nc6 6. Bf4 Bg4 7. Qb3 Qc8 8. Nd2 e6 9. Ngf3 Nh5!?

I was surprised by the move and was completely confused what to play and went on to lose the game. After checking in the engine I found that the best move was Be3. I do not understand what is the idea of the move. Isn't it making the bishop more passive. I need help to know what would be the most practical choice against 9.. Nh5 and what is the plan of Be3.

Thanks in advance!

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Hi Pranav,

I believe I also faced the Nh5 move and replied 10.Be3 in order to keep the bishop pair. In my opinion our idea is to play after h3 and get a bishop pair advantage as that knight takes the square from the Bishop, not allowing later to play Bh5.

Personal Ceiling in Chess

There is an opinion that every person has a ceiling in chess, which he is not able to overcome under any circumstances. This ceiling is sort of predestined from above. Do you agree?

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I've heart that once. Very interesting. 

My short answer is “No.”

Of course, I strongly believe in science, and there are probably several scientific articles/papers about

this topic. I am just wondering: They must contain lots of parameters with which every person can calculate

his or her ceiling to come to a concrete upper bound ?! If so there is a potential to desillusionate many people.

Me included. I like having illusions :-)

So on the one hand I'm interested in those papers (if you could link one here), and on the other hand I am not.

In the end- here in this question- I simply believe in me. It doesn't harm anybody if I ignore science in this very

special case.

Yes, almost certainly, but it's impossible to know exactly what that ceiling is.

If we set modest improvement goals then it doesn't really matter.  If we achieve them then great, we can set our sights on the next goal.

At some point we won't achieve our next goal, so we should remember to celebrate the victories and enjoy the challenge regardless of the outcome.

Dear Igor,

That's a question that doesn't really have a clear answer. 
Of course, not everyone can become a 2800-fide-rated player like in soccer not everyone can be Messi or Ronaldo.

But I am sure every chess player with strong motivation can improve. Just do your best and see what happens 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVHyUzX5IQw

Starts at 1:10:16, and fits well in here.

“If you're unsure about what you're going to do and how you're going to improve, just start from the ‘Rating Booster’ courses. Start with Tactic Ninja, start with BlunderProof. Start there if you're going to follow the ChessMood route and if your rating is like 1,000 to 1,500. I mean look at me, use me as an example. Do those two courses and then if you have time, do the SLP course because that course is phenomenal. I can't praise it enough.”

I would say that I am a decent casual player (key word: casual), so I routinely find myself in lost positions. I had looked at SLP a little bit, but after reading “500 points in 7 months” (link above) and the ringing endorsement for it, I decided to get into it a little more.  

There are a couple of things I really like about SLP.  Firstly, at my level, it's a very practical course.  As I said, I get into lost positions routinely :/  .  Secondly, one of the strategies when in a lost position involves “making adjustments.”  That is, sometimes we have to forego, say, taking an open file if it means we have to exchange pieces (a no-no when in a lost position).  “Antichess,” he calls it.  

The point is, that in order to know what fundamentals you avoid in a lost position, you have to know the fundamentals you are avoiding.  So, in effect, I am studying the fundamentals at the same time as I am studying how to try to clean up the messes I make by ignoring the fundamentals in the first place! SLP is a very rich and practical course.

Also, try ChessMood's Training link (https://chessmood.com/blog/category/chess-training), lots of great suggestions there … one of my favorites: (https://chessmood.com/blog/why-It-is-a-must-to-study-classical-chess-games).

Happy trails.

Hi, there are already suggested study plans .. check them out first

https://chessmood.com/chess-study-plans

I'll generally have somewhere between one and three courses on the go.

I don't take notes.  I'm pretty religious about pausing the video and trying to find a move when instructed, plus of course solving all the puzzles.  For the classical games I play through the game on a physical board while also watching the video.

Hello, dear chess friend,

I noticed your post here and wanted to tell you that GMs are replying to the posts in the Pro-members channel (you posted in the main channel).

As recommended below, you can check the study plans available on the website, which will make your learning process more effective and structured. 

Good luck 😎

Question on courses

I was scrolling trough the courses and I noticed that some of them can be bought while others not (for instance the SLP course). Does this mean that I can get access to it only by buying a plan? Please explain if you know why this is happening.

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French attack

how do we play this as well as 

1.e4 e6, 2.d4 d5,3.e5  Bd7 4. Nf3 a6 5.Nc3 c5 7.Be3. as well as Bg5

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Dear Chessfriend,

Going through the forum I saw your question, but wanted to mention that Grandmasters are replying to the posts in the PRO-Members channel.

Good luck 🙂