Chess forum by Grandmasters

The origin of epaulette

To be a bit pedantic, epaulette is actually French which English borrowed.

épaule is shoulder and ette is diminutive so épaulette literally means little shoulder. I guess the stealing the French won out versus calling them shoulder-thingies when we couldn't find a name of our own.

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Good observation, and if somenone needs more info on "eppaulette" just check this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epaulette

It is surprising how many things one can learn at the end of the day! Happy checkmates!

1. b3 c5 2. Bb2 Nc6 3. e4!? - Unable to reach CM 1. e4 c5 2. b3 g6 variation. Any alternative line suggestion?

In the latest course 1. b3 c5 2. Bb2 Nc6 is given as the recommendation. The moves 3. f4, e3 and Nf3 are covered. 3. g3 is covered in the Symmetrical English Course. However, I am not sure what to do if they play 3. e4!? Now we are in a b3 Sicilian and are unable to reach CM 1. e4 c5 2. b3 g6 variation when White starts with the 1. b3 move order.

Any alternative line suggestion? 

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Good question, I would like to know what is suggested to play in this line as well. If we go for botvinnik setup after 3.e4 with e5, is f4 idea dangerous for example?

Hello Dear Pro members,

Before answering to the question I would like to notice the following fact. All the time when you are seeing courses from different authors you may try to find some extremely rare spots or sequences and ask the questions, instead of enjoying the material and trying to learn I think this is not the best idea.
There is so much material to learn and proceed and instead of making value this only prevents you from further growth.

I would encourage you to study more from the different courses of openings, middlegames and endgames, reading blogs, and joining the events instead of looking for the EXTREMELY RARE sequences which are not covered. Our biggest concern is first of all chess growth of our members and I hope you will follow to this kind recommendation :-)

To answer on the specific opening question.
After e4 moves in this structure, you can try to build the same system we do recommend in the course, though I believe it's going to be once in a century that e4 player will implement a specific setup starting with b3 and only then e4 moves. 

Thank you and best of luck!

How I increase my online Rating 1600 to 2000

During last year I first came to know about ChessMood through facebook. Perhaps after 1 month I became Pro member, I am pro member for around1 year now. My first target was to raise my online rating 2000. I did it very easily at lee chess platform then i realize i should do it on chess.com. But it was not working as I thought, my rating was going up and down all the time. Finally today I did it . How i did it; I just did following two things:

1. I have only played chessmood opening

2. And for last 3 wks  I have stopped playing 3+0 game instead I played our chess mood format 10+0.

I am very happy to share it with our chess mood family.

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Well done!

Amazing!!

Keep progressing!

Well done! I also have the same difficulty, I am around 1900 on chess.com but just above 2000 on lichess. 

wow. Great achievement

Fantastic news! Lovely to see you are happy playing! What is your next step? Reaching 2100 in 2 months? or can you do it in just one month? Remember not to tilt, set a limit to the games that you want to play in one session and analize later. And if you did not do it yet: read carefully Avetik's latest articles. They are very helpful to me, hopefully they will be for you too.

Hello Shahinur, I know this is an old post but i just stumble with it. First of all, congrats, great achievement (Y). I have a question, why do you say 10+0 is chessmood time control? I haven't red anything about it (or don't remember xD), could you please point me to the resource where it was mentioned? Thanks in advance.

Sicilian Nc3, black's double trick with 5.. d5

I've encountered yet another move order trick with a6, e6, Nc6, as follows:

1. e4 c5

2. Nc3 e6

3. f4 Nc6

4. Nf3 a6 

5. g3 d5!

This is a spin on the variation presented here https://chessmood.com/course/4-anti-sicilian-with-nc3-part-4/episode/3462 where black "tricks" white to commit to Nf3 and then "threatens" to play a6 and b5, but here's there an additional trick, in that after white commits to g3, black plays d5. Note that it could also be reached by

3.. a6

4. Nf3 Nc6

5. g3 d5!?

It seems black's position is not at all bad here. Isn't it perhaps better to play 5. d4!?

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In my opinion, the move 2. e5 is a bit weird. Maybe you should not play with f4 in that position?

Thanks for correcting the position @Yair_E. I would play d3 and Bg2 getting a closed position with similar themes in our repertoire, but I asked GM Gabuzyan and he will get back to you, now he is immersed with the OTB Armenian National Campionship.

Yair, you can go with 6.d3
The key is to not play 6.e5. We play e5 only after Nf6! 

Dragon with 8. h4

Dragon with 8. h4, is not discussed in the course but I cane across this:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 { B32 Sicilian Defense: Accelerated Dragon } 5. Be3 Bg7 6. Nc3 Nf6 7. Be2 O-O 8. h4 d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxc6 bxc6 11. Nxd5 cxd5 12. Bd4 e5 13. Bc5 Re8 14. h5 d4 15. Bb5 Qa5+ 16. b4 { White resigns. } 0-1

 I played black and the 8. h4 move surprised me. I could not see any real threat really so proceed with d5 and it worked out well. He resigned after the mistake 15. Bb5 without playing b4 first

But I am wondering if there is a better answer to this?

Theo

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8.h4?! is not a good move, as there is no real threat and as B now can get his d-pawn from d7 to d5 in 1 move playing 8…d5! (just as you did). This is one of the points of playing the acc. dragon rather than the regular dragon.
9. h5?! is answered with 9…Nxe4 and 9.Nxc6 with 9…bxc6 10.e5 Nd7 (or again 10.h5, Nxe4), or (probably best but still slightly better for Black) 9.exd5 Nxd5 ... as in your game.

Hello Theo,

I have checked the game and up to as you played is the best,

H4 shouldn't really work because white doesn't control the center and starting the flank attack is not on time.  

The central break with d5 as you did looks very strong and that's why winning the game that early is not even surprising.

Scandinavian..2NF6

Hi, I have question

E4 d5

ed nf6

Bb5 Bd7

Bc4 Bg4

F3   Bf5

Nc3 Nd7

G4  Bg6

F4 Be4

I don't see this obvious move covered which looks ok. Is there a good continuation for white?

I was looking at Nf3

Regards

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Hi!

Instead of Bg6 - Nb6! i think is the move best for black, but in my practice, esp blitz people auto go Bg6.

Now after Be4 I think it's not mentioned because we just take Nxe4 Nxe4 and go for example d3 and Be3 staying pawn up, next plan maybe Qf3 and 0-0-0, cheers

Hi Richard, 

In my opinion, Be4 is not dangerous at all. White can take the bishop and continue development with Nf3 - Qe2, pawn up, bishop pair, and space advantage on the kingside looks good enough to me.

Playing Nf3 as you mentioned is also a good option and can be played as well.

Overall after 8...Be4 white is doing better, because of the reasons mentioned above.

Good luck.

d4 sideline with benko gambit

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. e3......i dont know how to react...plz help!! its hard to react..

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You can continue with ...g6/...Bg7/...O-O, Black has a good game :)

This variation is dealt with in the course, section 6, video 37, Rare Moves.

And indeed 3...g6 is recomended

Robert Ris' Beat the Anti-Sicilians

This is being released shortly, and is a repertoire for where Black plays the Sveshnikov, which will be reached via Nc6 (also a more complicated option we can use if the Accelerated Dragon doesn't suit), thus most of the lines will be of interest. In the pdf sample there is the Nc3 Bb5 line, and he's recommending the Chessmood Bd3 line with b3 IIRC.

Might be worth a look for some additional material / alternative lines.

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I checked the PDF sample file and he is proposing 7...g6 for black that was not analyzed here at ChessMood.

against reti opening

Hi GM_Avetik Grigoryan

Is the chessmood team preparing to deal with the opening of Rati?

I had another question, I will send my  chess games pgn  soon

Please advise where is my game problem?

I myself feel that my weakness is in the calculation part
  I do not know how to improve my calculation?
And reduce my mistakes in the game
I will post some of my games soon
If you please, check and guide
  I will be very grateful

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Hello @maknatevaeva_maknatevaeva, did you already have the one on one call with a GM? If not you should do the 1-1 Call with Grandmaster. 

Press the "take your seat" button in the "events page"and have your time with a GM that will advise you

https://chessmood.com/events

When I face the Reti I transpose to the Benoni positions as I use them in my opening repertoire along with the Accelerated Dragon and King's Indian Defence.

Sparring partner

I'm looking for a player (up to 1500 ELO) who would like to just play chess or practice openings and endings without using an engine.  

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I would like that, shall we chat and see where and when we can start this. I am on chess.com and lichess. 

https://www.chess.com/member/theovanstratum
https://lichess.org/@/tvanstratum

DAILY PUZZLE OF 18.01.2022

Dear Chessmood family;

Reference to the daily puzzle, the system is giving an error in case one decided to repeat some moves (before threefold repetition). In this situation, if we just re-play 1. Rf5+, the system gives "wrong"; whereas, you can still go to the winning situation (will not reveal it for the sake of authenticity).

Hence, the system shall have the flexibility of repeating some moves. If the player does a threefold repetition, then it should provide the error :) !

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I think in this situation we should play R:g8,next move K:g8 of course,2.Ke6 not allowed black to come back f7 so Black King must go h8 and White play Kh7.Now Bg7# is unavoidable .If Rf5 we 'll win too but it is longer than R:g8 line to checkmate.So the correct for the 1 st move is R:g8

Solution:

Rxg8 

If ...e5, then Rg7+ , capture the h7 pawn, and move the rook to "e", and capture the pawn and everything will be a a piece of cake. 

If ...Kxg8:

Ke6 Kh8

Kf7 ...

Bg7#

Tactic Ninja Quiz Button

I can't seem to find the Tactic Ninja quiz button that is referred to in video 4 of Section 29 - Epilogue.  Please help!  Thanks

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Exactly,  there has been a slight delay in the implementation of the new page *(with the button for testing this). Avetik explained it in the following video *as Nils pointed out  https://chessmood.com/course/tactic-ninja/episode/3531

https://chessmood.com/course/tactic-ninja/episode/3531

Coach Avetik gives an explanation here (will come with the new website).

Daily puzzle of today - 14.01.2022

Please note that after solving the daily puzzle of today, I come to the idea that if white also promotes his pawn into a rook, the solution is still valid; however, the system states that promoting it into a rook is wrong and rather it should be promoted into a queen to get to the solution.

Please clarify.

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I agree. promoting into a rook would force the queen taking.

Thanks for reporting this. Yes, sometimes the problems may have more than one solution and in this case it seems that it skipped the testing phase. We will add the rook promotion as an alternative. Thank you very much!

Playing against Engines

Hey guys today I asked myself if it would be possible to get stronger by playing aginst a really strong engine. So I wanted to ask you about your opinions and maybe even experiences. I think that it would be frustrating to lose all the time against a strong opponent but if someone would be able to overcome that hurddle he could still learn a lot ideas by analyzing the games and grasping the ideas and strategies the engine used to apply them in your own games. So what do you think about it?

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Re using engine for trainig - I found this quite interesting:

https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2021/12/21/ep-258-gm-matthew-sadler

I read that playing against the computer can make you sharp. Before that, i read that computers use tactics a lot, are, poor in making long range plans for the game, and weak in endgames.

Engines are too strong and I doubt you will learn much because they will just find a tactical flaw in almost everything you do.

The best advice I heard was if you want to improve try to play against an opponent who you expect to score 20-40% against.  Rating wise this translates to 100-300 points or so.  This means you score enough wins to keep you motivated and the difference in strength is close enough for you to understand where you're going wrong.   Sometimes it's tactics, sometimes your tactics may be as good as the higher-rated opponent but your strategic understanding could be what's lacking.  You won't get this from an engine as you will be worse everywhere.  You can close the gap and then find another opponent to continue improving.  

Hope that helps

Playing against engines or even thinking about it isn't the right approach for anyone wanting to improve their Chess IMHO. You can watch those games played by them and understand the rationale behind moves, ideas that can be tried out in your own games. You won't be playing against them in any tournaments either except if you are a Kasparov, Magnus or any other top SGM, so there is no point in wasting your time with those thoughts. 

The team at Chessmood have put in enough material to learn from, shared their ideas and given tips to work diligently on various phases of the game and through their streams demonstrate their decision making process too. 

Enjoy the game and have fun learning. 

lesser played openings

I read that  openings that start with moves other than e4, and d4, and sometimes c4, shouldn't be played because they don't win. On black's side, the French Defense, and the Caro Kahn were mentioned in the same vein. e5, and c5 were listed as ok.

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Some strong players hold this view. IM Toth for example has a clear opinion (a little strong, but grounded in how play takes place). Even at GM level all those openings are played and are sound, and only at the top echelon do certain openings which otherwise are respectable get considered tricks only as it's too easy to equalise or difficult to set complicated enough problems. There is a fair bit of fashion thrown in too.

For all of us here, including the GMs, there is no reason to always avoid c4, Nf3, b3, g3, or not play the French and Caro Kann for the reason stated. For White f4 is probably just okay, b4 is tricks only and others are only worth the suprise, transposition or looking to play reverse positions. Probably e4 and d4 as your first move would be better for other reasons, but not because they are the only winning moves.

The only caveat is certain openings and all those above would apply, where it allows the opponent a potential free hand in play or does not challenge them, that a few mistakes or missed opportunities may lead to positions where their opponent is much better or even be strategically lost. This forms part of IM Toth's view, for example in openings which do not immediately challenge the centre may be problematic if the player doesn't counter at the right time, leading to situations where it's hard to pinpoint what went wrong.

What is more important in my view is selecting openings which are sound (all of the mentioned are), ones that don't require more work and memory than you can reasonably put in (which is where IM Toth's view of learning mainlines breaks down for many players), and are suited to your style and level, but also will give you enough experience and exposure. Some experiment and experience may be needed here. I suggest learning the Chessmood repertoire and seeing how that suits you.

Study/Sparring Partner thread error 500

Hi, I am getting an error 500 on the Study/Sparring Partner thread. It is working okay for the rest of you?

Thanks 

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Same here!

I believe this is a known problem.

statement

I read once that you should always play out the first five moved of your opening. If your opponent plays e4, and you decide to play the French Defense, after looking at the first move, e4, you play out the first five moves of the French Defense. this could mean that you lose 10 points, or a significant amount of material by doing so. or end up in a terrible position to continue the game. On the other hand you could win a lot of points, or material, too. Or, even gain a great position. This is what i interpreted the statement to mean. 

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Hello @Christopher_Aach! Welcome to the family! I think that this "statement" makes no sense at all. You should play the moves according to the opponent moves. Transpositions are very frequent, I recommend you to watch "opening priciples" and I am sure that Avetik explanations will make sense to you and you can learn properly how to think about the opening...

https://chessmood.com/course/opening-principles

PD: I realized that you also wrote a review, maybe you already watched it :-) If you finished, then let's start to learn a proper repertoire with: 

https://chessmood.com/course/1-starter-course-winning-with-white

Happy learning my friend!

I think what that advice means is you should be able to play correctly the first few moves of the openings you play, you shouldn't be trying to make it up as you go along (exception if you're a really strong player playing weaker opposition particularly in games that don't matter, but for now don't worry about that).

As you get more experienced at chess you should be able to do that for openings not in your repertoire as you learn how different openings work and review model games for example.

Whether the number is 5 moves (an FM noted that often the first 7 or 8 moves may be difficult to adlib from principles) or another number (certainly depends on the opening and skill) don't worry. So long as you know the main lines of play and why so you can handle deviations that should be enough. It's also not feasible to play every possibility, after the first 3 ply there are maybe around 8000 different sequences and no one plays through all that. In addition, even moves that could possibly be played as sidelines, maybe by weaker or trickster opponents there are going to be too many to look through and learn, so as said try to understand why a move is bad over the board by understanding why the mainline is what it is or general principles. Some moves just 'have a bad smell'. Looking for a trap and trying to understand what the drawback of the move is will serve you well most of the time.

So the advice is:

Learn the ideas and goals of the openings and in general.

Select a repertoire suitable for your style of play and chess level

Study that repertoire by learning the ideas behind the moves, reviewing model games ideally between master strength players

Don't worry too much about memorising initially, except where the move is non-obvious and deemed important or critical

You can practice opening sequences on software such as Chessable, but better would be to play games of reasonable time controls and work with sparring partners. After the game analyse and look for mistakes and compare against the recommended line or moves to avoid.

As mentioned look at the openings 101 course here which is a great introduction, there is also an introduction to some of the White repertoire, then start working through the individual courses.

Learning takes a lot of time and experience, and isn't 'magic' or unrealistic exceptional memory like in the Netflix series Queen's Gambit. Openings are important, but so are tactics and endgame so don't overlook those as many many more games are lost due to missing tactics and blunders than forgetting opening moves/ideas.

Good luck on your chess journey!

What is good alternative to Philidor defense?

When I play as black and white opens pawn e4 , then I move pawn e5, then commonly white will move knight f5

At this point in the game I am not a big fan of black knight to c6 because I try to stay away from that move incase white would counter with bishop to b5 and it kinda jams black up in the advancment of pieces.

The philidor defense seems to passive and feels like you are on steady defense from the very begining.

What would a good opening for black be to study in substitute of the philidor defense based on white's typical opening under these circumstances??

Your feedback is greatly appreciated!!

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With our team, we thought that the most active, tricky, easy to understand and at the same time the solid defence against 1.e4 is the Accelerated Dragon variation of Sicilian defense!

We understood that teaching you this variation would take a very long time from us, but we were okay with that. So we did huge work, researching all the tricks, best games, and made a step-by-step plan how to provide you all these information, to make it easy for you to digest and start to practice.

Check it out: https://chessmood.com/course/sicilian-defence-accelerated-dragon

If you choose to follow the chessmood repertoire, you will raise your ratings drastically. Then, if you find the Philidor passive, I am afraid tha there is no other good way to protect your pawn on e5 after Nf3. Maybe the reason you avoid Nc6 is the big theoretical lines, but this is not the best solution. Maybe you should try the Petroff defence, but if you play with a chessmood pro member, you will again be searching for something new. 

Nc3 Sicilian with 2.. e6 & 3.. Nc3

What is the CM recommendation after: 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 e6 3. f4 Nc6, with the intention of meeting 4. Bb5 with 4.. Nge7?

I can't seem to find this line in the course.

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In this line I believe that we play 4 Nf3, not Bb5. Is it not?

Hello Yair,

I support idea of @Chessmood_Odysseus. 
We will play with g3. 
If black goes with Qc7 as you mentioned it's still not a great move and we are fine to go to the closed systems.
In line with Nge7 we will continue our regular development. Once black tries g6 to play Bg7 we can play d4!

Blitz games

I read that you can't learn from blitz games. Why do you study blitz games?

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Take a look at this article and you will see why is good:

https://chessmood.com/blog/analyze-blitz-chess-games

And use a time control that allows you to play healthy chess. Just being fast and flagging your opponent in lost positions could be great for the rating but less good for improvement. And loosing winning positions due to time could be hard for ones motivation.