Chess forum by Grandmasters

Scotch 5.Qxd4 Qf6 6.Qe3 b6

I found this variation many times in my Scotch games. How do you afford it? I try 7. Nc3 Bc5 8. Qg3 (it seems the best place for the Q) Bb7 9. Bf4 (or Be3). If 8...Bd6, then 9.f4. Any improvement? Thanks

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Hi! Assuming you're talking about 3..Nxd4 variation, after 9.Bf4 imo it's sharp but white is much better, you can check with engine but sample variation 9...Ne7 10.Bxc7 Rc8 11.0-0-0 Bxf2 12.Qe5! If 8...Bd6 then yes 9.f4! is good and again white is better after 9...Qg6 10.Qxg6 hg 11.Nb5 Good alternative if you wanna avoid these complication (imo you shouldn't) is 6.Qc4 with idea of Nc3, develop Bc1 and 0-0-0 or just 6.Be3 (if you like endgames). Overall 3..Nxd4 is not a good move, you can also find more ideas from stream game here https://chessmood.com/course/rock-n-rolling-with-white/episode/4074

MAting Matador Improvement

Great course! Did it last year when it came out and am in the process of going through the entire course again. Once a year is a good idea to repeat those more obscure patterns IMO. The surprise was that CM added 5 quizzes for each pattern. This is wonderful and really cements the knowledge gained. Thanks Avetik and crew!

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i need your help

I am currently a 1400 chess.com player.I have played over 3000 games and many online tournaments but when I play in OTB tournaments I play really bad.I miss simple tactics.I am unable to calculate properly. Can someone please help me to overcome this problem?

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Good evening! From my personal experience, OTB chess and online chess are lets say a bit different disciplines, maybe you need train more on real chessboard to improve OTB results with some book on simple 2-3 move tactics to get better orientation on real chessboard. I got really solid tactical foundation by solving Ivaschenko book on simple 2-3 move tactics (very close to tactical ninja course) multiple times over the last few years, but from my understanding of chess impovement process you will not improve in couple of weeks, you need to dedicate at least few hours every day (in positive mood - love for chess) for minimum 1 year, then you will see big jump forward in your tactical awareness and you will improve massively as a chess player in general. I hope I helped you at least a bit Petrosian64

Similar to what Petrosian64 says, I find there is an adjustment that needs to be made in terms of visual perception when moving from screen to physical chessboard. I think somewhere Avetik and/or Gabuzyan say the same thing too. I address this by: - regularly (once or twice per week) setting up and solving a puzzle on a real board. I usually go for a slightly harder puzzle so I have to stare at the board for longer. - regularly (at least once per week) I play through a game on a real board. - try to play casual/training games on a real board when I can.

I had a similar situation, so I bought the Chessnut Air board and it has dramatically improved my OTB games. Even though I'm still playing games on Chess.com & Lichess.... it's being played "OTB" and helped my visualization. Seeing the 3D board helped get my focus off the screen and onto the 64 squares.

New course: In Studer's Mind

Get ready to step inside GM Noël Studer’s mind as he commentates on his best games in his first course on ChessMood! 

As he walks you through the games, he reveals his thought process in a simple and crystal clear manner, just like the advice he shares on his blog Next Level Chess!

Through his games, you’ll learn:

✅The practical decision-making of a Grandmaster in a real game.

✅GM Studer’s victories against super Grandmasters (2700 elo+).

✅Dominating the position with piece play.

✅Practical tips on playing vs lower-rated players.

✅How to play (and beat) higher-rated opponents, and much more!

Prepare to step inside GM Studer’s mind and learn about practical decision-making and mindset hacks to take your chess to the next level. Watch the course 👇

https://chessmood.com/course/noel-studer-best-games

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I just watched the first game - love it!!! Noel's presentation is extremely natural and easy to identify with. It was very interesting to hear what he was thinking about during the game, both in terms of his mindset plus strategic considerations. And somehow the mistakes made the lesson much more compelling and easy to identify with. For stronger players I believe this Grandmaster's Mind series is a huge new positive about being a ChessMood member. The existing courses by Avetik & Gabuzyan are excellent but it's also extremely helpful to hear fresh perspectives even if they are saying similar things just in slightly different ways. Minor issue: in the first game the game is incorrectly labelled in the video.

Trapped Pieces

I went through all the Test and Tactics sections of Tactics Ninja recently - great course and now even better with the interactive quizzes which I'm currently working my way through. I was wondering if any consideration was given to having a Trapped Pieces section in the course? I did notice one or two positions where threatening to trap a piece was part of the puzzle, but of course there isn't a separate section about it. Seems like a natural fit to me, but maybe some people don't count this as a tactical motif? I think the trapped piece theme comes up reasonably often in games so it's useful to cover it somewhere. Just an idea...

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Dear Peter, 
Trapping a piece can not specifically be defined as a tactical motif we believe. 
😀Of course we mention this as a theme in some games and some lines in the repertoire are focused in limiting or trapping a piece. That said I do believe that it will be included of the middlegame courses, but not as a tactic.😀 

simul 20th February not uploaded

Good afternoon, I want to watch simul against GM Gabuzyan from 20th February, but it is not uploaded. Can something be done about it? https://chessmood.com/event/simul-game-grandmaster-vs-pro-members-02-20 Thank you! Petrosian64

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Benko gambit

In the variation Benko gambit declined Qc2 you have shown that we play b4 and the advance e5 block the centre and play like KID but what if dxe5 havent seen that variation in the video or is it there I may have missed it

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Taking is not good for White, you can check the following game as a sample, it happens a lot in the streams. 

https://chessmood.com/course/rock-n-rolling-with-black/episode/4313

Here Gabuzyan explains a bit how it should be played. 

By the way, he has been recording a revamped Benko course, and hopefully it will be published soon. First he must finish the course on “Exchanges” though… 😅

interactive quizzes

another one error related to interactive quizzes. i tried to solve this puzzle for 10 minutes (i thought about h7Nf6 - it didn't work) and i was really confused because i literally tried EVERY single move, and non of them worked, then i went to lichess stockfish and it said that move h7Nf6 (that i was thinking of) is correct. i tried to refresh the page but i didn't help :(

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💪Thanks for reporting this. Already fixed 😅

I will delete this post in a couple of days.

caro kann course

will we have a course on Caro kann opening

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No, we will not have a course on the Caro Kann for Black. It is not in our plans. 😀 We have a course on how to play against the Caro Kann though…

when should reverse sicilian be played

when should reverse sicilian be played

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With reverse sicilian you probably refer to 1.c5, 1...e5 for Black, but the CM repertoire is 1...c5 followed by 2...g6, where there are great videos for all these interesting variations by GM Gabuzyan 👍😀

Windmill

I have watched the tactics lesson on the windmill technique. Been waiting for an opportunity to use it. Finally did recently. It sure is fun! Allen

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have pretty good accuracy but lose because of time

when i play bullet and blitz a lot of the time i play with better accuracy than my opponents but they beat me on time

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Move faster :-)

Play time controls with increment

interactive quizzes

Some of the new quizzes just don't work 😕(for example: course - Tactic Ninja, section 4 - Fork, quiz that after 6th lesson, puzzle n.2)

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It is a new function and there may be some mistake. We are working hard to improve it and fix any bugs.

what do you guys think?

The world chess championship match is coming up who do you think is going to win Ding liren or Ian nepomniachtchi

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nepomniachtchi

Bookies seem to believe that Nepo is a slight favourite. He does have a slight edge historically and probably IS the best bet, but it could go either way, of course

do you guys wish magnus would play

My personal take is that I think Ding will eek out the win. Nepo plays excellent lines, but I think Ding has been hiding his lines recently. In recent tournaments, it appeared Ding was playing new lines for his gameplay and he was trying out different systems of attack/defense... while at the same time, Nepo seems to have been playing just has he always has. Because of this, I'm thinking Ding might have a few things up his sleeve when he faces off against Nepo... (or at least this is what I'm hoping will happen and we will have an exciting World Championship and not just a blowout win for Nepo).

Nepomniatchi, because Ding sometimes plays very strange :) Thou Nepo blunders sometimes

When is your rating, your rating

At how many (online) games in a certain timecontrol, can you say that the rating you have is the rating you are. I've seen people say in forums they are e.g. 1700 rapid, but after a quick look at their profile it seems they only played 1-5 rapid games. That's not enough to really say that you are a 1700 player. Obviously the bigger number is the right answer (1000 games etc ...) but can you say it after like 20 games, 50, ... ? Or tl;dr I am overthinking this. Edit: This would help me picking a study plan tho.

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You're probably overthinking a little. Sure, a sample of 5 games is indeed quite prone to the effects of variance, however, as far as chess is concerned, a few dozen games should already be more than enough to have a very good idea - look into Glicko Rating Deviation (aka "RD"). This somehow reminds me of the poker player "winrate problem" (i.e. it's incredibly difficult to tell what your True Winrate is) - not only poker inherently has a lot of variance, but in the process of gathering "a fair sample size", the opponents change and YOU also change. So well, as for your thought, increasing the magnitude of the number isn't necessarily the right answer - hopefully, after you play 1000 games, you will be stronger than when you started :D

Study plan - Chess.com vs Lichess

Is there a reason you use Chess.com Blitz rating to recommend a study plan when you also say that you highly recommend playing on Lichess. This got me confused :-)

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Somewhere in the first pages there's a table that attempts to estimate the rating difference between the sites (you can also check from the source https://chessgoals.com/rating-comparison/). I suppose chesscom was picked as the baseline due to being most popular

App

As a smartphone player I'm very happy that chess.com and Lichess.org both have an app I can use. As a new member of the ChessMood family, I wonder. Why is there no app for watching the video's and all (yet?)? Is this something on the ToDo-list or has it been discussed and isn't it necessary? Is there another reason?

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I have no problems playing the videos and participating in the chessmood community using the browser on my phone. Is there something an app would do for you that the browser doesn't already do?

Dear Gabriel, 😀
If an App would help our users to be better players we would have an “App”. We can not see the educational value of it and we would need to invest lots of money, hours and work that could be used in the courses and webinars.
So, at the moment, unless we become a bigger family and have more members it is not a priority. Of course we discussed it and see the value in being able to access the content offline, but we are focused on providing you the best content that we can for your chess growth. 😅  

That said you mentioned that you have some problem accessing our courses with your browser, please send us an email ([email protected]) attaching an screenshot and tell us the name and version of the browser and we will do our best to fix it. That would be great and will help us improve! 😍 

WhiteMood Simplified openings // Playing against Sicilian // 6.d3 or 6.0-0

Hello everybody, I'm currently working on the white opening against Sicilian defense, simplified openings. I've downloaded the PGN and I've noticed that 6. can be 6.0-0 as 6.d3 depending of the lines...But with the same exact position before. I can't really find out why, could you explain ? Thanks a lot chess friends :)

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What do I play against 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. Nf3?

What do I play against 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. Nf3 - I can't find this covered in the benko nor in the english sections of the course?

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It's covered under the Maroczy as White will play Nc3 e4 or g3 after cxd4.

You play 3…cxd4 and will transpose to the Maroczy Bind or Modern Maroczy. In some cases there can be a transposition to the d4 sidelines later on, but almost everything that you need is in there. If you are an advanced player, we do recommend the Modern Maroczy Bind.😀

Quiz progress

The new quiz feature within the courses is great. Thanks chessmood. However there is still room for some improvements... Some diagrams are empty... Today, all my progress in interactive quiz is lost. Maybe between sessions... What do you guys think about adding some sound when moving the pieces or correct answer?

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It is a new function and there may be some mistake. We are working hard to improve it and fix any bugs.😅

Regarding the progress, sadly we had to reinitialize the counter but as I said, we are doing our best to make it work.  

I wouldn't mind some sound too.

hi, i would also strongly prefer not to having to drag the pieces all the way to the destination squares but just click on the piece and the destination square (like on i.e chessable). that dragging is an awful UX on bigger touch screens:/ cheers iris