Anti Sicilian e6 line doubt

Hi dear chessmood family I have a doubt in Anti sicilian line with e6 is that in the mainline e4 c5 Nc3 e6 f4 d5 Nf3 dxe4 Nc6 Bb5 Bd7 Qe2 a6 Bxc6 Bxc6 f5 Bxe4 Qxe4 Qd5! this line Avetik sir told he will show in advanced video course but it has not been uploaded yet.. Kindly check sir..

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Thanks Prassana, 

We took note of it. Now the team is working in other courses on middlegame but once finished we will go back to the openings.

Caro-Kann material?

Hi! Im a new CK player. Is there any material on this site for CK players?

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Hi Bill,

We do not recommend the Caro kann for Black in our Chessmood repertoire.
You can find the White repertoire with the Exchange variation on the Caro kann on the White repertoire courses.

Also the Caro kann appears in some classical games and you will find them some concepts very interesting for sure.
Have you played the Caro kann always? 

Magnus cracks vs Benko-style pressure

Hikaru went for a Benko type setup in his second game against Magnus in the Chess960 World Championship today. Magnus probably had a better position for much of it, but Hikaru kept up active play and Magnus eventually blundered. The first game was also fascinating with very complex and creative opening play. Hikaru's recap of both games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ7LKH6IS1w

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NEW ARTICLE: The Game-Changer Question in Chess

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Super!

That quote in the article is from Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring =)

These articles 'inspire me to fight one more time'.

As this guy said in TED talk:

https://youtu.be/qvNyo1-AK6o

This leaves me with one big question.How do I know what is the most effective way for chess improvement?

Given that I can spare about 30 to 1 hour per day,what is the most effective method to improve my chess skills?thanks!

Sparing Games

Hello i am a 1650 player, looking for someone to play some games. I have working on the French attack. All is welcome Thanks Madison

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Attacking Like a Viking

Punish opponent's (1900) waste of tempo, keep the king in the centre, make it (want to) move, attack it, win - that's how the vikings do it, right? A miniature that could serve as an example in the course.

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Grand prix when black delays Nc6 and plays e6

I found the following variation in the pgn file: 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bc4 e6 6. d4 cxd4 7. Nxd4 Ne7 8. Bb3 Nbc6 9. Nxc6 However, I can't seem to find the corresponding video in the course. Anyone who knows where it is?

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It's the Short - Gardner game.

post tourament on standard game

Hi Today is a first time on tourament and draw on position too I just analysis my game and use petroff chess mood Nc3 If you have an good idea can share with us

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French Bd3 line

Couple weeks ago, i've played in a rapid game against FM CM French Bd3 line. In 3rd section 3. ...de, video 13 it says 7...Nd5?! is not a best move, but my opponent played really fast and after we finished he said he prepared this line few years ago. Maybe this game will be useful for someone. I'll paste the link with analyses. By the way it looks like Hans Niemann played this line in 2019 :)) https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=ATcw+stxriwN/OP0XeI8RGpI+/tOnl7UQU1HXSKvYBAkYp58eEaHrevaFeZcLDir

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Very nice and instructive game! Thanks for sharing it with us!?

Dear Vladimir,

Sorry for the little late reply, I just finished with my wedding and back to work :-) 

The variation your opponent played is completely fine for white. It's playable for both sides. Black goes for a sacrifice line with compensation. As you can see your 2400+ opponent was prepared so well, and to compete against IM, GM level you will need to work a little on the openings and go even deeper :-) 

Good luck!

Caro-kan is very hard to crush ?

Why The caro-kan was so stong the position likes white storm piece on kingside black all thetimes But the black side so strong to defense and closed. https://lichess.org/41Fo81K4/white#79

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Come on Kamikaze! 😅 You had a winning position all the time…💪 You had the checkmate there too. 💥Next time you will for sure do it, but your g4 and g5 closed your attacking options! You need to open some file for attack, not close the king side. With the g6 pawn played, g4, h4. h5 nicely timed will open the position for White pieces. 
Still you had overwelmingly advantage through the game. Check out a bit the model games on the Caro kann course to reinforce some ideas.
And the most important please check the webinar on “How to win winning positions”
https://chessmood.com/event/webinar-how-to-win-winning-positions
I hope this helps but you played very well the opening and I am sure that with the Exchange variation you will win many Caro kann games very soon!! For me is one of the most easy straight forward plans with very good results.🤠🤠
Go get them!!!
😈

French Attack vs 3. Nc3 Name Proposal

Hi Avetik! In the Blackmood openings course, you discuss the French Attack vs 3. Nc3. I have a name proposal for your paradoxical variation after ed5 attacking the black knight. You recommend that the knight retreat to g8. The knight going back to the starting square will seem lackluster and maybe even foolish or mocking to the opponent, but it contains deep strategic value. For those reasons, I propose the name "French Black Geode Variation". Just like a geode appears lackluster on the outside, and yet is filled with sparkling gems, so the move Ng8 seems foolish and yet has hidden surprises.

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New article: Deep Thoughts on Chess Improvement by Gukesh's coach GM Vishnu Prasanna

GM Vishnu Prasanna is a man of deep insights and wisdom. 

One of the students whom he nurtured from a young age is GM Gukesh, who’s currently one of the strongest juniors in the world. 

We had an interview with GM Vishnu Prasanna where he shared: 

✔️His deep and interesting theories around chess improvement.

✔️The biggest challenge adult improvers face!

✔️The lesser-known qualities that make Gukesh the player he is today,

✔️The time when he was Adhiban’s second and Adhiban played the King’s Gambit against Wesley So and Scandinavian against Magnus.

…and much more!

Check out the full interview here 👇
https://chessmood.com/blog/vishnu-prasanna-coach-of-gukesh

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Very interesting interview, especially when he says you shouldn't use engines U2200. I would find very difficult to build my openings pgns without at least an engine blunder check. At the end the theory of nowdays is mostly what our silicon assistant says. In the old times there were opening theoreticians who piled the knowledge of many top rated games and when a new move/variant appears, they stated frequently that it has not been sufficiently tested at GM level. Another quote was that theory was what GMs played. Now you just click "analyze" and you have an immediate response about the soundness of the novelty variant. About Gukesh he is just 16 and a +2700 player. Anyway his rating has been built playing lots of games/tournaments. He not only plays the usual tournaments you expect a young prodigy to attend. He plays the turkish league, the polish league, the spanish league and I expect to hear of him at the Bundesliga. If you see other talents like Pragg, Abdusattorov, Keymer they hand pick with their coaches which tournaments to attend. Even Pragg coach, R.B.Ramesh, complained last year that the pandemic had cancelled many tournaments in the 2020/21 period and that is reflected in their underratement. But you won't see Pragg playing the turkish league. He rather plays this online rapid not FIDE rated because his coach wants him to interact with the best players in the world. At the end, Karjakin, as Gukesh or Sarin, were GMs at 12, Pragg and Magnus at 13 and Caruana at 14. There is no hurry if you walk with firm steps.

New trend in Philidor Larsen line

Just to let you know, today I discovered that 7...0-0, the only move really covered in the course, hasn't been played since 2018. (Engines don't like it either.) Instead, the main move is now 7...h6. After 8.Bf4 (recommended in the course) Nc6, Qd2 followed by 0-0-0 no longer works. Instead, we can choose between Nxc6 and Bb5, with different play compared to 7...0-0. Another option for Black is 8...g5. PS: Typing this on an iPad, I would really appreciate a timely fix for the previously reported "please type text in English" forum bug.

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Thanks for the info and the update.🤠
We took note of it and reminded the technical team of the typing issue.👍 

I stink at blitz

Hi Guys I've just played 6 blitz games in a row and lost six games - a real blunderfest. Should I just admit I'm too old and slow and give up on 3+2? When I slow down blunders disappear so should I only play slower time controls and just play fewer games? Is there any benefit to playing 3+2 or will it ingrain bad habits into my slower games? Not feeling the mood right now......... please someone give me a pep talk!!

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It might be helpful if you share your approximate level and approximate age. You can always play 5+3 blitz instead of 3+2 - there is nothing magic about the 3+2 time control. You can also try get better at blitz. Drilling some *very* easy tactics every day can help - focusing on speed and accuracy.

I always speak about this with Avetik and Hovhannes, we are teaching how to play chess, not how to play blitz or bullet chess.
In fact in several webinars they mention that they do not recommend bullet chess at all because it creates bad habits (superfluous and fast thinking and therefore lots of blunders). 
There is no too old in chess though, you have to adjust the time to your abilities and your purpose. 

Are you learning chess in Chessmood to be a better blitz player? Or to be a better chess player? 
Are you just trying to practice the opening? Or do you really want to have a great blitz score?
Playing rapid games is very good in general and also 5+3 as in Lichess time is very good since you have more time and it is still blitz. 

One thing of being with Avetik or Gabuzyan is that they are very good, you watch their streams, learn their openings and you get fantastic positions that fail to convert. Well they have years, and years, and years of practice. Maybe a hundred thousand games played… Practice makes perfection, and they played a lot, analyzed their games a lot, etc… 

Sometimes when I calculate a variation in an interesting problem and it takes me 5 min to figure it out, I show it to them and it takes 10 sec. They know a lot! We are not at the same level.

I do not know how old are you but I play regularly blitz with people above 70 years old, they enjoy it because blitz is fun.
Bronstein stated in his books that the ideal time for playing training games should be 20 min. With this you can play quite a good game and there is enough time to think in a couple of complicated positions. Less than 20 min was for fun he used to say.

In my case I play blitz 3+2 or 5+3 focusing in the opening practice but the results decrease with faster time since I'm not so young anymore. When I want to play a completely focused and well thought game I try to play a rapid game of 15 min with someone. So find your Why as Avetik would say. Why do you want to play online, and then adjust accordingly.
It also depends on your level. 
Check the blunderproof course, Avetik is going to upload the last sections very soon.
And do not lose the mood, good mood always! Then play… And remember: this is a game, you must have fun… Otherwise it makes no sense… 
I do not know if it is a good pep talk, but hopefully it will give you some food for thought.
😀
 

What a difference 24 hours make - and lots of good advice. I played an 8 round 10+0 tournament today and won it! That does not happen often. Thanks for all the advice.

Reti Opening

Hi. This Friday I have an OTB with black and is probable I meet 1.Nf3 to which I thought to reply 1...c5. The guy is a hypermodernist and likes to fianchetto both bishops. Any recommendations?

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Just play c5 trying to follow our repertoire, develop fast and play a good and healthy game. No one has never been afraid of 2 fianchettoed bishops.😀 It does not matter if the guy is a hypermodernist, you are a Chessmood member! Go get them!😀
 

Endgame Roadmap

Dear chess coach, regarding the 1st position, is it a forced win for white with correct black defense ? i m trying all the 5 positions before to start the course, now i m on the first chapter and studying it by playing some positions against engine. (by the way: it is a nice course with a clear target and goals in the endgame phase) for the first position, i m trying to beat the engine by creating multiple outside passed pawn but it s not so obvious.

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Hi Marius,
I sent this question to Avetik a while back but when he wanted to ask, the attached position was not an endgame. 
Can you please show us again the position that you were refering to?

It may have been a technical glitch, I do not know and we apologize for it. ?

Please check this video about the first position of the course, Avetik explains perfectly the position because it happened in one of his games and even won a prize for the best endgame in a tournament in Saint Petersburg! 😀

https://chessmood.com/course/chess-endgame-roadmap/episode/4990

Chessbase sort

I'm looking for what I hope is some simple help from any Pro members who use Chessbase. Chessmood recommends playing a number of games with your openings, then carefully analyzing them. I am using for my model GM Gabuzyan's Racing To... series. In his summary on each series, he had all the games collected in a Chessbase database. Here's my question: He then would look at the games sorted by piece response. For example, as White he would play e4. Chessbase would show him all the responses to his move and their number. You could easily see that most response were e5, a certain number were c5, some were e6, some c6, etc. This continued for each of his moves. How do I get Chessbase to sort my database in the fashion he uses in his stream reviews? Thanks!!

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I don't know how to do this in Chessbase (I don't use it), but in Hiarcs you can see this with "Tree Explorer" (selected from the View menu). So maybe it's called something similar in Chessbase.

Also, I want to mention that I am following GM Avetik's blog article on "How to Memorize your Openings...", especially Step 4 "Fix your mistakes". This is where you create a database of your games and compare them to your Opening File.

It should index them if you convert them from pgn to chessbase database format.

Hi John, 
I wanted to ask Gabuzyan but he's on leave now. I checked Chessbase a bit and I found how to do it very fast, lucky me! 😅

1.You open the database that you want to analyze (it does not matter if it is pgn or cbv). Picture 1 
2.Click on the first game to select it. One click only. Then select all the games (Ctrl+a).

3.Once all the games are selected, right click and select “Opening reference on selection”

💪4. That's it. Enjoy your study!!💪😀
 By the way, if you want to select just your games as White, select only your White games… (The same goes for Black) It will be easier to handle and understand the stats. The best way is to do 2 databases, one for White, one for Black…

Congratulations to GM Hovhannes Gabuzyan on his wedding

Many congratulations to our great coach, GM Hovhannes Gabuzyhan, as he makes the best move of his life tomorrow on his wedding day! Love & best wishes ;-)

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I hope you have a great day! Congratulations, enjoy yourself and best wishes for the future. -:)

Congratulations for your wedding, GM Gabuzyan 👍

Congratulations and best wishes!

Hope you and your soon-to-be wife have a lovely day and many years of happiness together.

Congrats to him!

Congratulations, Gabuzyan! Wish you all the best. (Would be nice if you posted some pictures)!

Congratulations! 🥳🥳

Congratulations coach! Hope you will be very happy with your wife😀🥳🥳

Congratulations on your wedding

Congratulations coach!! Wishing you both many happy years!

Hastings anyone?

Assuming covid doesn't get it cancelled again, anyone thinking of playing this year's tournament?

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😀🤠I would love to play there someday! Good luck and play good games to show us your progress David!!💪

scotch game

Hi, i am Nancy from Western Australia and i have recently completed the Scotch game course. my chess.com rating is 850 on average. i am looking for a sparring partner to further learn the Scotch game

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At 850 knowing openings beyond the first few moves will not help. You could be given a database to play with (illegal of course) and your rating will not move much. At that level you need to spend time on not making obvious blunders, noticing what your opponent is doing, basic tactics and checkmates, K+P Vs K, developing pieces quickly to good squares and little else. Spending time in the right areas is important for growth. Learning openings is a big task that will take effort away from that. Your opponents aren't going to know much theory and if they do the rest of their game must be in need of work if they are still at that level.

Hi Nancy!🤠

I hope that you watched the opening principles too, and you are already slowly but steadily becoming a tactic ninja!😀 

You can check the following thread to see if anyone else is interested in finding an sparring partner:
https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/studysparring-partner-1362

Take a look at it and good luck finding a partner. By the way, you should post this message there so the previous people that posted there will know that someone else is also looking for a partner.💪