Chess forum by Grandmasters

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

How do I study classical games on my own?

The ChessMood classical game masterpieces are too expensive for me. So how do I study classical games on my own? Do I think about the moves and then check the annotations? I am a 2000 rated USCF player. (I know that all the courses are unlocked this week but I am in a tournament in this week and have very limited amounts of time since im playing chess. After my tournament is finished, then the unlocked courses will be locked...)

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My tournament's last round is at Feb 20th and I will have to study classical games at Feb 21th where the courses are locked.

I believe that this is the best way to study games:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Tw1iNDfas&t=387s

I believe the best way to study classical games on your is by picking your chess player first, but my suggestion is not to study many modern top-level games, because even though you learn these new ideas those ideas will definitely be too advanced for 2000. Instead, I would recommend you study more ancient games such as Karpov, Botvinnik, etc. The best way to do that is to use ChessBase, save all the games you want to study, and do not use stockfish while you're looking at the game. During the game, you want to try to guess the next move played by the player, if you are right good! but if you are wrong try to figure out the idea of the move the player played. Good Luck on your journey!

Re: Must-Know Endgame Theory U2000

Dear ChessMood Family, The conclusion video for Section 15, Bishop and Knight checkmate is incorrect. It is a duplicate of the conclusion video for Section 17 Checkmate with 2 Knights?! An excellent course for the target audience, keep up the great work guys.

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Thanks Kevin D!!! 😍 Long time to hear from you! I hope you are doing well and keep practicing and improving a lot!

By the way, were you not supposed to publish a Chessable course? We are looking forward to it too! Any updates? Did you already published it under a pseudonym?😀

Fixed!💪

MUST READ ARTICLE ON SPACE REPETITION CHESSABLE

Impressive article by IM Junta Ikeda. I agree with absolutely everything. I thought that most of you will find this interesting too. Maybe we can still save someone. https://juntaikeda.substack.com/p/3-lifetime-repertoires-the-10-pitfalls

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I suspect that most people come to these sorts of conclusions eventually.

I don't think it's really a criticism of spaced repetition. He mentioned repetition is overrated, but that's about it [repetition is the most important memory technique though]. When you read what he writes it's not that repetition is overrated, it's repetition without context and continuous repetition of different lines (my interpretation) since he mentions then about getting it in your games which is repetition just by playing and happening to stumble upon the line (outside of training games). I also get a hefty dose of buyer's remorse given he performed badly in a tournament. He also states that just parroting lines to go into a dull position you don't understand is a problem, and yes I agree totally. However I often think there is too much criticism without any real effective alternative to dealing with the opening. Unfortunately it's a problem with chess in that there are plenty of not so playable lines or easy places to go wrong when you're up against a knowledgeable opponent, and some lines allow your opponent to be more familiar than you with it, especially when it's a rare line. [Maybe should be solved by letting players use a standard database - also a good way to teach that knowing everything won't help if the rest of your chess is poor] Point 2 'understanding why you play each move'. Do you really (honestly?) remember why you play each (and every) move (or even ~50% of them for that matter?) that is available to you when you play a game of chess in an opening line you might not have played against in the last 3 months?; Given there are thousands of moves even in the Chessmood repertoire let alone a Chessable lifetime GM one? I totally agree when it's something quite obvious, visible over the board if you think about it, or related to good healthy chess. However how often do you hear (and this are Chessmood issues singled out since it's easier to quote, though I think Chessmood does opening teaching better than other sources): . 'We play this move' - without any good reason why . 'We play this move to avoid "big theory"' - especially when the theory move is the most natural - how would you know over the board not to play that move because it'll lead to lots of positions you don't know . 'We play this move [because alternatives are refuted / concrete reasons]' - can you really refute that line over the board, or are you going to have to use your memory not to play an alternative? . no reason at all - it was just an arbitrary choice, preference or related to some GM or engine analysis / training that this move came out top With the examples above I think it's unreasonable to understand the ideas behind the moves or why you play each move. Sure the first 10 moves of say the mainline dragon are really good for ideas behind the moves (and usually the first few of any opening), but in such an opening that isn't going to help you much. To also avoid not offering a solution, I'd suggest this instead: . Understand the positions you play - there are far fewer positions than moves, and they are more unique than say Nf3 which appears in almost every line, as well as positions crop up in different openings and are part of your ability to play chess since themes like good/bad bishop etc pop up which can be trained in those positions helping crystalise knowledge gained from elsewhere. . Focus on the moves where - there is an obvious and clear mainline you can remember/understand especially to take your to your positions and/or it's concrete and tactical and/or where choices might lead to a set of positions you don't know. . Avoid openings that give your opponents plenty of choice, but you have to find exact moves, especially where your opponent will see it much more than you - that's just asking for it to go wrong.

Personally I like Space Repetition. But this of course depends on how you use it and how much time you spend. 1) I have 2 Life time repertoires bought in Chessable with white and 1 with black, as well as some specific Courses on openings I am interested in 2) I checked all my courses once/twice, but I do not come back to them so often now. It was a good start because I returned to chess after a long period of not playing and I wanted to have new repertoire. 3) These courses are especially useful for me when I am preparing against opponent - I just repeat all variations I need 4) I also come to Chessable when I am analysing online or OBT games. It is just Chessbase alternative in this case. 5) Additionally I have created my own PGN files where I added missing moves or alternatives, my own comments. I have converted some of them into my own private Chessable course. I have converted to private Chessable only those PGNs that are more or less done. 6) I am trying to understand moves. If I do not understand or I have additional candidate moves, I am using Lichess for analysis. 7) I am trying to spent time on other parts of chess not only openings Otherwise I agree with these: 1) You should not spent too much time on it (those XPs etc. never was motivation for me, so I come back to Chessable when I need) 2) It is true that sometimes especially with black I do not want to play the variations that are given because I want to outplay much lower rated opponent in more complex position 3) It is true that sometimes you need alternative to play against specific opponent or because you just have different mood 4) It is true that it is helpful to have more than one alternative in some positions (but anyway usually you have one main line with white and black) 4) It is true that there are a lot of non-critical variations in the course and you should not spent too much time on them 5) It is true that sometimes repertoire author doesn't describe all ideas and plans, but only moves. This could be problem, but if you add additional effort by yourself you can understand them better... Even just playing more and more helps you understand given lines better. The repertoire itself without playing is nothing. You remember better lines you face during practice. So Chessable for me is just another tool to supplement other ways of learning.