Chess forum by Grandmasters

Should I practice ChessMood opening recommendations before I have had time to learn them?

Hi, I am roughly 2050 chess.com and am wondering if I should start playing the ChessMood opening recommendations from the step-by-step openings course before I have looked at many lines. It might be good to test them out to learn things about the opening while playing and gain experience but I might be crushed in the opening and lose a lot of rating because of it. My old repertoire is 1.d4, caro-kann and slav so it is a very big change in style.

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Presumably you're talking online blitz in which case why not? I tend to start by going through the courses first, building my PGN files as I go, but I don't think that's the only way to do it. For some initial inspiration you could watch a few model games from https://chessmood.com/course/rock-n-rolling-with-black and learn the theory gradually when you review your blitz games. Also, you don't have to adopt the entire repertoire right away. You can do it piece by piece. You might even settle upon a hybrid repertoire that is a combination of ChessMood openings plus your own favourite lines.

I just started the black opening course and after the first 2 sections only , I went on lichess to play 5m+2 to try some ideas with the French . I was able to maintain a 1930 level winning most of games with black ! ( I m 1600 for blitz on chess.com . (1870 rapid ) . I m a Dutch player but no experience with French ( I play the exchange variation with c4 as white with very good result usually ) . I m trying to check after each game where it went away from the minimum I known. I m also writing down the game on a note book ( just started that on feb 19 ) and the some main moves and recommendations from the course . With minimum work, I feel very positively about this new opening for me .

Interactive Quizzes within Courses

Hi everyone, I am just going through 'Tactic Ninja' and realized today that there are new interactive quizzes within the chapters in addition to the questions/quizzes normally included in the course. Is that something new or has it only been added to 'Tactic Ninja'. I think it's a lovely idea; and for the developers; maybe it would be lovely to be able to resize the board. I don't know whether ChessMood wants us not to be able to draw lines etc., but that could be a nice addition. What do you all think?

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Hi Selim,

💪Thanks for your kind words, we are doing our best and the interactive quizzes are being added constantly to most of the courses. Of course, we will improve the functions too and add more cool features but at the moment we are very happy that we have quizzes! 😅

Blitz chess

I've started the study plan that is now offered on Chessmood. I've been playing for a few years (I'm retirement age) and over the last few months with ChessMood I've reached a rating of 1070 in Rapid on Chess.com. The guide for what study plan to use is based on your rating. So with the rating chart provided a 1025 Rapid rating on Chess.com should translate over to an 800 rating in Blitz chess. I'm doing the 5/5 Blitz. Just started today. I started out at 300. I played 13 games and won 7. Now my rating is 320. Is it just me or is Blitz so difficult? Am I missing something to know as to how to play Blitz successfully? It's pretty demoralizing.

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Blitz is tough, for sure. Particularly if you haven't played it much before. But it does get easier! There will be an adaption phase as you develop and internalise a rhythm that works for 5/5 time control. I bet you will increase 100-200 points over the next couple of weeks Of course it's super important to review your games and take note of the worst mistakes. Anytime you see you've made a bad blunder, like overlooking checkmate or giving away a piece for nothing, spend a little time figuring out what you should have played. It doesn't necessarily have to be the top computer move, just a move that avoids the blunder. It should be a move that makes sense to you. Then spend a little time stepping back and forward through moves around the blunder and imagine yourself being more aware of the situation and playing the better move.

Dear Allen, 
You played 13 games… Please check this article and apply it… 
https://chessmood.com/blog/golden-method-to-increase-rating-in-chess
As a general rule, the older you are the faster you lose focus. (Please check when you lost more games, at the beginning or at the end… Normally at the end you will lose focus). 

Also read our blog to find many good recommendations on how to play and analyze blitz or rapid games.

I always recommend my students older than 50 to play 3 games rapid max., or if Blitz 5 games. Full focus, analyze all the games together (not one by one after playing one game), then take a rest and if you still want to play, then do the same. Decide beforehand how many games and do your best. 
To play a lot of blitz games in one session is not beneficial for your growth…

Hi, Allen! I can sympathize, I've also recently made a return to serious chess study & play (I'm approaching retirement age) and my blitz results are horrendous! I'm hovering around 900-1000 on chess.com mostly playing 3+0. One thing to note about blitz is that the different blitz time controls are really very different games, and the player pools are very different as well. My impression is that the 3+0 pool is the strongest, it is also the fastest blitz option, being right on the border with bullet. That's the one I've been playing, but I think I'm going to move to slower controls and to controls with increment, because the time scramble aspect of zero-increment blitz is not something I really enjoy, and I like to be able to win easily theoretically winning positions, which with a 3 or 5 second increment is much more doable. One thing I think beginner players are lacking is the built-in habit of looking for opponent strong replies (checks, captures, threats) before making your own move. It is in my opinion the single most important habit to develop (every move of every game!). It is the single most important factor (I think) separating beginner and stronger players. In playing blitz, while there are many benefits (you exercise your opening repertoire a lot, and get exposure to a lot of different kinds of positions more quickly), the player tends to fall back on his/her habits. If the player doesn't have the habit of considering opponent replies, playing a lot of blitz may just reinforce this bad habit and make it harder to eliminate. Of course beginners need to sharpen their tactical vision via tactics courses and quizzes, especially doing tons and tons of really simple tactics to deeply ingrain the basic patterns so that when the appear on the board, you see them instantly. What many don't realize is that the single most frequent use of tactical vision is *defensive*: when visualizing your planned candidate move, pretend you've made the move and the position is "your opponent to move and win": did you just hang a piece? Remove a defender of a pawn? Allow a pin/fork/skewer/mate-in-one? Your opponent may never give you an easy tactic (at lower levels they often will, though!), but if you don't look before you move, you're almost guaranteed to give one to your opponent at least once a game! It doesn't have to be super deep looking ahead, either, try at first just considering ONE opponent reply before moving -- but look for strong moves, as if you were in their shoes after making your planned move. For beginners, this takes time to find these moves and analyze them, but as your board vision and mental calculation gets better and you'll be able to do this faster. It's important to force yourself to do this every move of every game. Never move without first considering your opponent's strong replies. Incorporate this into all your study: all tactics positions, all quizzes, all game play. This does take time, so to start with, perhaps focus on longer blitz controls, or even rapid / classical play. Good luck! If you want to play some games, I'd be happy to play with you and go over the games afterwards. My chess.com username is "keaaww". Regards, Ken

ChessMood Study Plan (new @ 140223)

I am very pleased to have an email from coach GM Avetik today, promoting the new study guide (& interactive quizzes). I have made a start on the Study Plan Roadmap for Improvement for 1500-2000 rating. Hopefully, I can complete all parts & I am accountable for this & hopefully it will be worthwhile & bring rating improvement, better knowledge & understanding & more chess enjoyment! Thanks ChessMood! Right Mood Right Move! ;-)

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Yes, these are very good developments! The study guides should be useful for a lot of people and the interactive puzzles are a big step forward. For interactive puzzles, I have one main request: I would like to see an improvement to what happens when a correct solution is given. Right now a big green tick is displayed for about 1 second and then the next puzzle is shown. The problem I have is that the green tick completely obscures the final position (see attached image). I believe this detracts from the learning experience because often we are still staring at the position and processing the patterns involved. Having just received the positive feedback that our solution was correct, I suspect it's a particularly important moment of time for cementing our learning so one last glance at the final position is likely to be useful. Solution: There are a few possibilities. Maybe just move the tick to be next to the board. Or just give the tick image a transparent background so we can still see the position behind it.

Ye, I am still waiting for 2000+ rating Study plan. For interactivity - I like it very much. I am missing some features that can be included in the future: 1) All failed puzzles could be collected somewhere to repeat them again 2) Sometimes I would like to load analysis board. Maybe it is not important if everything is clear, but sometimes it is really helpful to analyze move that you do not understand 3) I would like to know on which courses there are interactive puzzles added 4) There are "Quizzes" after some courses and I have not really noticed them before (not sure when those appeared). I would love to seem them inside the course and not as separate button :D

Mood coins

How i can use it and how many does I need

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E.g. for buying a course just select "or get lifetime access" on the right side of the page, then click buy the course and among others there is the option of making the purchase with MoodCoins - just one more hint: if you type a few key words (such as e.g. moodcoins) on top of the forum in the search window, you can easily find answers that have been given before, which might be useful for us chessmood students

Hi, One place you can use the coins is to buy a course as lifelong. The number then depends on the course, and the duration for example you require 500k for some. One good way to gan more coins is through solving the daily puzzles.

Question on an interactive quizz

Hello, is there an error in the quizz in tactic ninja course, clearance section, 5th interactive quizz, exercise 7? I dont see the solution...

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Thanks for reporting this, we will fix it asap.😅

Always trying to improve and do our best! COGRO!!☺️

Fixed!👍

Scotch Game 4...Nxd4 5.Qxd4 Ne7

Hello ChessMood Family, Recently, in one of my games against a friend, he played 1...e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 and Scotch Game and later on, on the 4th move he took on d4 which is covered in the courses, I played 5.Qxd4 Ne7 6.Bc4 Nc6 7.Qd5 Qf6 8.Bg5 Qg6 (This is not covered if I am correct) 9.0-0 and he played 9...Bd6, I found it a bit annoying, he then played 0-0 and got a not-bad position, after the game was over when I checked with the engine it was showing that 9...Bd6 is the best move and it was around equal at first around depth = 30, after that it changed but still I would like to know what to/you all play against 9...Bd6. Hope to hear from you!

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Instead of 6.Bc4 followed by 0-0, I'd play 6.Nc3 Nc6 7.Qe3 followed by Bd2 and 0-0-0. White is much better here.

Scotch Bc5 Bb4+ Be7

I know this has been mentioned on the forum before, but is there the possibility of adding an advanced section on this line. Here's a game I played today against a 2181. Both the engine and GM Ris suggest 8. Bg3 instead of Qd2.

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At the end of the game the engine says 0.0 and c5 is the suggested move, though I had 10 mins vs 27, so I think my opponent should have practically seen a few moves before offering a draw.

Sethuraman's "1.e4 Part 1" course on Chessable covers many Scotch sidelines and offers some interesting alternatives to the CM Scotch repertoire. The explanations are brief, but the lines are top-notch. (The video isn't worth the extra money.)

The chess song the world is waiting for

I have an idea for a chess song and i'm looking for some help to write it. In the idea, there are two voices, which represents two characters playing chess against each other. The first voice represents a nice guy who plays good positional chess and sings with a beautiful melodic voice. The second voice represents a villain who grabs a pawn and stubbornly tries to hold on to it, allowing his opponent to get a more active position. His voice is quite annoying too. Each verse, the first voice sings about something that gives him a long term advantage (space, activity, bishop pair, etc.) and the second voice will always replies screaming "I'M UP A PAWN" something like: i have complete control on the only open file I'M UP A PAWN my pieces works together in beautiful harmony I'M UP A PAWN and so on

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You might want to see what ChatGPT can come up with. It's quite impressive in this sort of thing.

The way your wrote 'I'M UP A PAWN' made me instantly think of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NisCkxU544c I know it has nothing to do with chess (or be helpfull for the song, sorry about that) but the idea is the same. Sentence Like a boss (i'm up a pawn) Sentence Like a boss (i'm up a pawn) ...

Where to start

Well, the title is a bit missleading and also not really. (Just to confuse you even more :-D) It's missleading as it's pretty obvious where to start on chessmood with the vids. It also isn't but that's just my chess in general, I really need some structure in my practice but march 3rd I have my 1-1 call. So looking forward to this! Anyway, back to the point ... I always had a bit of a FOMO but since I'm a member here it's skyrocketing :-D ... There is so much content to watch here in ChessMood, which is awesome ofcourse, but with the great additions lately I'm getting lost. I always want to stop with what I'm watching and watch the new content. Anyone else with the same feeling?

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Hi Gabriel! Welcome to the family 😍

The first thing to check is the study plan while  waiting for your 1on 1 if you are a yearly promember.

There you will find where to start and what to do according to your rating…. Check it out:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NyVJXCzrN6LoiJGZgUhkEeS5almcQbH8JzE2jJETBYA/edit

😀Happy learning 😉

1-time offer

I payed for the 1-time offer, my bank sent me a SMS about it but I don't see it on my profile; Is it OK from your side ?

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Hi Maurice, please use the  
https://chessmood.com/contact

page for this kind of personal questions regarding your account, payments and such, instead of the open forum.

If you prefer, you can also send an email to [email protected]

and explain your case. (Just copying and expanding a bit on the the above text will be enough.) 
Thanks! 😀

(As far as I can see in your profile you have payed an essential subscription but please check it out with customer support please)

Against Grand Prix

How do you think what is the best setup against Grand Prix in Sicilian? :) Not sure if someone will answer as this is ChessMood Whites repertoire :D

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Is there an "objective" answer to this question? :D Having played and analyzed both sides, I strongly believe in 2..Nc6 3.Bb5 and 2..d6 3.f4 for white, and I didn't mind 2..e6 3.f4 so much, but the issue there is white going back to the open with 3.Nf3 and I don't really want to play e6-sicilians, so... pick your poison XD The Accelerated Dragon player can choose to give a pawn with 2..g6 3.d4 (3.f4 is an improved version of 2..d6 in many ways which I think is enough to hold the balance) 3..cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.Qa4 d6 7.e5 dxe5 8.Nxe5 Bg7 9.Bb5 O-O, or maybe 8..Qd4 also seems quite interesting, despite the structural disadvantage. I haven't seen what the ChessMood recommendation for black is :D

Well we also have to face it when we play the Sicilian with the advanced repertoire: 

https://chessmood.com/course/crushing-all-the-sidelines-of-sicilian

😀Sections 3 and 4 deal with the GP attack… Check them out if you are interested… 💪

Let me remove prices banner

I don't see a way to remove the banner about price updates. I appreciate the notification but I should be able to remove it once I've read it. It consumes a chunk of screen real estate and is pretty annoying. Am I missing something?

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BTW, I should have said "please" in the subject but I don't seem to be able to edit it. So I'm adding a "please" here! cheers, Peter

Hi Peter,
No worries, we just removed the banner.😅
Now only non-paid members can see it.
I don't think we can add an x button to close it now, but for the next campaign we'll hopefully have one.

Peter, this is the reply from our wonderful Lily: 

Oh, seems like we forgot to hide it for the veeery old users, and Peter is one of them.
Fixed it now 

Thank you and thanks to Peter too 

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… 😅