Chess forum by Grandmasters

Benko Gambit 4...a6 5.b6

I can not find 5.b6 in the Benkö gambit repertoire. Would appreciate it if anyone would direct me to the right video.

It is not in the pgn-file either so perhaps it is not covered?

Replies

Hi Göran,

I play d6 and continue development. The pawn is finally captured by the knight: Nb8-d7-b6

For example:

5.b6 d6 6.Nc3 g6 7.e4 Bg7 8.Nf3 0-0 9.Bg2 Nbd7 10.0-0 Nxb6 or

5.b6 d6 6.Qb3 Bb7 7.Nc3 Nbd7...

Did you watch it?

https://chessmood.com/course/happy-chess-pieces-the-art-of-keeping-your-chess-army-happy/episode/1489 

Probably the most lovely video of mine from Chessmood.  :) I just don't want people to miss this amazing game! So happy to see it included in courses!

Who has already watch it?

Replies

I had already watched it before Chessmood, but I never get tired of watching it again 

Yes, the whole "Happy Pieces" is outstanding. I knew this game but Avetik's explanations makes it really easy to understand. When I saw it in other books or videos, the explanation was much shorter on the possible opponent moves. When you listen to Avetik's explanations it is clear why this move is possible, and that is something that not so many people can do... I also liked a lot the section on the rooks! Making your rooks happy is wonderful, in my last games, I activate them all the time an many games I see one of my opponent's rook still in the initial square at the end of the game... 

Yeah I saw this too, it an amazing idea :) the course is also amazing.

New course - "Defend with Honor"

Hello, champions! 

I'm happy to announce that GM Johan Hellsten joined ChessMood team and started to record a course about defensive play in chess. 

The first 2 sections are uploaded. 
Enjoy, while others are on their way. ​​
​​
https://chessmood.com/course/chess-defense 

If you have any questions related to the course - feel free to post them here. 

Replies

The picture is amazing :D gonna watch it soon.

I had not watched any content from GM Hellsten before, but now I can say that I like his style as well as the content.

Defense is not generally as well covered as attack in Chess literature. 

Welcome and Thank you GM @Johan_Hellsten and thank you @ChessMood_

Champions, GM Johan Hellsten has added one more section - Blockade! 

Merry Christmas

Hello ChessMood Family, Hello champions! 

From all our team we wish you and your families to have a smile in your souls, and that all our dreams in chess and life come true!

 With love and best wishes, ChessMood team

Replies

Merry christmas to my mentors. Thanks for providing wonderful courses for us. Because of your team I am alive in chess world and working a lot. Thanks and have a wonderful time!!!

Merry Christmas Chessmood family! Thank you for all that you do to help me improve. I am really excited for what is to come in 2021

- Mateo

Merry Christmas Chessmood

Happy new year! Good time to make a new year's to-do list

NEW ARTICLE: The Golden Question You Should Ask Before Resigning

Replies

Helpful article, as usual. Thank you!

I ask a similar question.

I put in the shoes of my opponent and ask/ Is winning this position for me just a matter of technique

If the answer is yes, I resign

one of the best articles that i have ever read for sure , thanks GM Avetik

Awesome Article!

In general I agree with this article as usual but here I feel like it misses one aspect of not resigning. Being a warrior is important and can help you save dozens of points. The same goes for resigning though. By playing a lost position you spend a lot of time and effort which can be physically and emotionally tiring potentially resulting in losing the next game maybe saving 1/2 from the first game but losing a game you expected to win. 

With resigning there are two sides to the coin considering practical play.

My long time rule on this comes in four stages (I am roughly 1950 USCF [pre-covid, I have learned stuff since then] which translates to roughly 1850 FIDE) :

1) At the beginning of the game, regardless of what color I have, I play for the win.

2) As the game goes on and playing for a win becomes too far fetched, then I play to save a draw.

3) When I can no longer find a way to save a draw, I look for a way for my opponent to blow the win and keep playing, keeping in mind time left and opponent's strength.

4) When I can no longer find a way for my opponent to blow the win (same caveats as part 3), then I resign, and I do my best to do so gracefully and not ruin my opponent's joy at winning.

The only real exception to this is when the end is near, and my opponent can mate me in a nice way (i.e. not a mundane checkmate), and then I won't resign and will instead let the mate play out. I take pains to let my opponent know afterwards why I didn't resign so s(he) won't be insulted at my forcing the game to be played to checkmate.

P.S. I have played against some pretty strong youngsters who refused to resign in dead lost positions, and I simply tell myself that a coach somewhere along the line probably told them to "never resign" so instead of getting mad I simply take enough time to make sure I don't move too fast and blunder away my win out of frustration.

f4 Grand Prix variations

Variations (all played by strong players) not covered, and all very likely over the board.

1. e4 c5 2. f4 d5 3. Nc3 - the so called 'toilet variation' - evidently where it was thought up.
 d4 or dxe4 here?

3. Bb5+ - Bd7 is the main move but then maybe Nd7 here to try to transpose to 4. Bb5+ ?

3. d3  - looks dumb after dxe4 dxe4 Qxd1 Kxd1, but Sokolov has been on the White side of this, so is it as bad as it seems?

Even 3. Nf3 has been played, after dxe4 4. Ng5 Nf6 5. Bc4 e6 6. Nc3 White gets the pawn back - but why is Black better after Be7 7. Ncxe4 Nxe4 (unclear if this is right) 8. Nxe4 Nc6 9.c3 and Bc8 might be going to b7, but if it's going to be watching TV the knight has to go to a5 which seems out of play.

Replies

After 3.Nc3 I play... dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6

After 3.Bb5+ I play... Bd7 4.Bxd7 Qxd7

After 3.d3 I play your line

After 3.Nf3 I play... dxe4 4.Ng5 Bf5

Today's puzzle

I'm just in love with today's puzzle! I always wanted to separate which one is the best of all time, and just today I've understood it!

Isn't it the coolest?  

Have you already got your 500 moodcoins? 

Replies

Indeed quite cool puzzle. 

I saw this before, that's why I didn't get much exited, but I remember I was so impressed when I saw it for the first time :D

I got 500 miodcoins starting with Qd5+

Chess originated in ...?

India?

What is your version?

Replies

India or Iran. Each claim to be the origin land and have their evidences... 

I think Europe(Note I am an Indian)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeB-1F-UKO0 -Source

but there are 3 places we should consider 

1st India

2nd Persia

3rd Europe

 The Idea Of the Game Came From The Game of  Chaturanga Which has its origin in *India*

then 

When This Game Reach *Persia*

it Had Very Important Changes/Addition

Like Of Word      šāh māt (the king is dead) As know as CheckMate

And When It Reach *Europe*

It Took the Modern Form As We Know Now

finally, it doesn't matter where or who invented this game 

the thing that matters is to ENJOY This Beautiful Game!

Question in Queen vs Pawns course

In section 5,

38. Dero's puzzle, at 2:34, the move Qc3+ is given and the following maneuver is nice, but it seems  Qb5 is much simpler. What do you guys think?

By the way, great course! The puzzles are no joke ;)

Replies

Is it something that can be checked with a tablebase? You can get Lomonsov 7 piece tablebase app for Android for free.

A Fact

What do you think?

Replies

yes 

there are 10^120 possible games in chess whereas number of atoms are 10^82 if I am right

Wow, that's crazy.

Visualization in Chess

Dear Pro Members,

While working on the courses I am facing a different situation when I have to put some arrows on the board and tell about things happening on the board. I got curious how many moves can you calculate and after how many moves are you still able to clearly visualize the positions?

Replies

If the line is forced I can usually go as deep as necessary, my problem comes when they are too many branches and deciding how deep to go in each branch and how to manage my time efficiently. Also when to stop calculating and start evaluating and how to decide between equally tempting options. I  passed through a phase where I tried to consciously use Kotov's method of calculation as laid out in his book 'Play Like a Grandmaster,' but it cost me many points and I concluded his method was flawed and much too rigid to be effective in practical play.

Edit: The book could have been Think like a Grandmaster instead of Play Like a Grandmaster now that I reflect on it. Thanks Jamie.

I think visualization depends strongly on player strength. So if  the courses are meant for a broad range of players it could be worth to include some arrows or even show the variation on the board in the most critical variations. As for myself I can usually visualize 8 plys right. From 8 plys on I may begin to mess it up, depending of the complexity of the position

Can we have an article about visualization and how to improve it? :) 

After 6-8 plies it start to get foggy - forget pieces far from my focus point.  The horse start to get problematic even in my focus point. Difficulty in perceiving especially diagonals. 

2021 I will work on visualization. But for now it is usually at most 6-8 plies. Independent of complexity.

Would be nice with a course or an article.

To know the colour of the squares could be one part of training visualisation.

On https://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-visualizer-square-colors.php you may train just that. On that site you will also find two other ways of training visualization.

Concentration

Hi ChessMood family,

I think concentration is one of the important factors in life and in chess as well.

I want to know what methods do you use to distract yourself from unpleasant things and focus on what you really need.

Are there methods to train the brain for better concentration?

Thanks in advance.

Replies

chessmood has an article about it. Have you read it?

Maybe... Physical Training....
1. Yoga
2. Mediation
3. Brain Gym
4. Improve Endurance & VO Max

Chess Diet Nutrition....
1. Fruit for Brain
2. Food for Brain
3. Pills for Brain Nutrition
4. Caffein  

Internal and external conflicts are the source of energy dissipation and prevent Natural flow of energy. You do not need any pills, self hypnosis, self suggestions, alcohol, delusion, etc. (they are limited and cause long term dullness and self destruction). Just listen to Cello! Know Thyself; seeing the truth (not according to any system or anybody else) will end conflicts, and brings peace.

@WIM_Siranush_Ghukasyan, @Krystof_Mikulas_Travnicek, @Heri_Darmanto, @Kourosh_A 

Thank you all for your help and helpful advices. :)

I was hoping you would have some advice for us. :)

Why is it dangerous to play bullet?

Dear Pro members,

Was thinking about bullet game issues. I am sure many of you like to play bullet and probably very often are playing. But from a learning perspective, I think it's gonna be not so good and I will explain my opinion, but firstly I would like to figure out what do you think about it? Do you also find bullet games dangerous and why?

Replies

If you play Bullet you think less... And thats not good for classical games... 
The second reason is that even if you play TOOO much of Bullet AND get a rating of 2900 online, Bullet doesnt make a GM... Classical games do.

I can't play fast enough for bullet. It can be good training for low clock time and spotting important things quickly. The problem is too much can encourage play on autopilot (and its nature encourages either long sessions or using it as a break from something else). The other thing is bullet would be good for practising openings if it wasn't also about playing awful but tricky moves to waste the openents's time. The latter point is perhaps the most significant problem.

I could argue too much blitz is also bad for your chess as well (perhaps not to the same degree). It's great for practising openings and working on tactics and feel for positions, but deep calculation is out. It also sometimes gives the illusion that dubious or tricky openings are sound when they'd get taken apart in long games, something I worry about some liens in the opening repertoire here given most/almost all of the demonstrations and model games are blitz.

I recall an article years ago about different time controls.

It argued bullet was terrible for improvement and essentially does nothing for you.

Blitz is OK especially if you are using it for opening training etc.

Rapid it argued is also very bad in that its too long really for volume of games regarding openings and too short to really calculate properly.

I think it was Dan heisman who wrote the article and he essentially said that only something like 30+30 was worthwhile.

I dont really know the validity of his statement or if he had anything to back it up and alot of what he says is a bit old school and outdated. I actually had a lesson from him many years ago and it was the single worst coaching experience of my life actually. From someone who had likely had hundreds of hours of coaching (for poker not chess). That said he may well have a good point here.

As for myself I am terrible at bullet and hate it because I get in this almost drug addicted state where I play tons of games in a row just getting a hit and not really playing chess just moving pieces.

my opinion in one picture :D

I think bullet is dangerous for <2200 players for all the reason mentioned before. Players >2200 know openings much better and calculate much faster, and have a much more developed intuition, so it could be useful for them to some extent 

In my case, I never played bullet until joining Chessmood, I was very slow in Blitz and I tried to get some speed, playing bullet helped me to be faster. That's it, now I am faster at Blitz. The other thing I did is practice openings very fast with bullet, but without caring not even for one second for the result. I am playing bullet when I am tired and have some spare time to test my recently acquired openings, and I even analyze the openings many times to see where I went wrong. But for sure is not good to develop a proper thinking process since you do not have time. What it can be good for is for implementing a plan that you know in the opening and following it through. When you are tired your mind kind of goes on autopilot mode - if you know your opening and have the plan well learned-, it's a good way to test it. That is how I use bullet mode.

I feel bullet is at least worth experiencing (hey, Chess.com is even hosting official Bullet Championships, with cash on the line). For some, I reckon it can even be used for training. After all, it's just a quicker version of blitz.

But moving instantly doesn't seem to be a great habit, especially as Classical is the 'real chess', just as slow food is the 'real food'.

I like playing bullet so much, and I think sometimes I play well, but anyway playing bullet is not a good idea to improve chess skills. Bullet is only for fun and nothing more.

So guys will share now my opinion as well.

I guess many of us are enjoying bullet, but from learning perspective it's spoiling our chess as we are playing with a huge feeling of adrenaline (because of low time) and it doesn't allow us to think properly and test our just learned variations.

If you are very experienced player with high elo you can try time to time play bullet to have a fun, but players who are just learning on working on chess level it's gonna a  trigger for negative outcomes in classical games.

Crush the Sicilian with 2.Nc3 (lecture by IM Rosen)

I enjoyed this lecture by IM Rosen. The lines he shows are very much in the spirit of (but not always identical to) our Anti-Sicilian repertoire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnm7yXtx6yw

Replies

I am gonna watch this, thank you.

Philidor 3... f6

How to play against this move which I faced in blitz and has almost 200 games in the database. I'm guessing the idea is to strong-point e5 and later decide on d5 or f5 depending on how White plays. It wasn't so easy to break it down in blitz, though it scores very poorly (probably because the Black player is usually weaker to play such an offbeat move). The cost of course is a bad bishop on f8.

Replies

3…f6 is a weak move, as it makes Bf8 bad, takes away the best square for Ng8 and really weakens the black King, therefore, White should continue with 4.Bc4, strongly pointing into the black King position!

Hey David!

Definitely its not a move to be worried about!

This is killing bishop on f8, but as well weakening a2-g8 diagonal where white bishop will be placed very well! I think whites games os very easy, bishop will stay strong on c4, you can 0-0 play nc3 while black will have problems playing 0-0 as it's unclear how to develop the kingside!

"The Power of the Bishop Pair" course

This course https://chessmood.com/course/Bishop-Pair-power reminded me of a very painful game played by me, if you don't know yet, I will say that I am a big fan of the two bishop advantage and usually I play well when I get it. Once a disaster happened to me. I felt that this was my worst lose. My opponent's rating was 300 less and I got this position for White. I could manage to lose this game :D I was completely tilted and so disappointed that day. The problem was that I was too sure that I will win the game anyway, I lost my concentration, I didn’t think at all, I was sure that my opponent would make a mistake and I will win very easily. Now I look at the position again and still can't believe how did I lose it :D Btw I didn't blunder, I lost slowly slowly :D

A small advice,

Never think like Susik :D

Replies

Of course, we can all relate to losing ;) It doesn't feel good, although I guess we do learn from them. Almost all positions have a risk of losing I think.

I can see why you think that is was painful to lose this one.  When it was not due to a fork, how to lose it? But these things happen...

Was it played in Turkey? You could lose this only in that tournament :D

1+0 Bullet chess

Replies

Don't make me feel bad every time when I want to play bullet lol

Benko Gambit Endgames

For those of you with Chessbase premium account, there is an interesting video on endgames resulting from the Benko structures:

Benkogambit (chessbase.com)

Replies

Thanks for the information. 

Scandinavian 5... Qh5? gambit

Might be worth having a section on dealing with this, or at least in Abracadabra Gambits.

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nf3 Bg4 4. Be2 Nc6 5. h3 Qh5?

6. O-O Nf6 7. hxg4 Nxg4 and now I played 8. d4 (d3 better?) and got into a mess after the dubious e5 and 9. d5?? rather than 9. exd5 where Ncxe5 10. Bf4 covers h2. and if 9... Rd8 10. Bd3. If instead 8... e6 intending Bd6 then 9. Bf4 Bd6 10 Qd2 O-O-O 11. Bxd6 Rxd6 12. c3

Replies

Wow, I see this gambit for the first time :)

Instead of 12.c3 you have a better move 12.Qg5!

Did you check it with the engine? seems this sacrifice doesn't work

Nb6 or Nf4?

Which one would you take? :D

Replies

If it was 3 minute blitz I would take Nf4. But as it is I would take Nb6 :)

Now already Nb6 :D