Caro Kann Opening

You keep on missing Nxd4 in this video: https://chessmood.com/course/caro-kann-defence/episode/702

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when exactly?

That's true Kevin! 
My bad... :) 

Questions, possible suggestions

I have two questions and not sure where I should put this.

1. Can we have it to where "My courses" are listed on the start up page? 

2. Is there a forum we can post our games for discussion?

Thanks!

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Hey Jesse! 

You can add it to favorites and then click the love heart on the main page to get there faster.

Rossolimo part 23 Black's Kingside execute with Bh3

Hello friends! At the very end of the line with Bh3 followed by Qg3 and h3 check and then Ng3, if white responds with Qf3 and we trade into endgame with Qf1 and Be5, how much advantage does black realistically have? I was uncertain since white's pawn chain from a2 to e4 will be intact for the most part and all 3 pieces on c1,b1 and a1 can develop very quickly so :p

P.S. after Be5 it will be 7 vs 5, so black will be only up 2 pawns and not 3 .

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Hey! 
Please, post questions with screenshots or with the exact link. 
It's very tough to answer like this. 

P.S 
If you're a PRO Member, please put the question on the "PRO Members" channel, so they are 100% answered. 
In the main channel, we may miss questions. 

Today's puzzle of the day 11-2-20

Hi all,

I enjoyed today's puzzle of the day and found the solution.   But was wondering if after 1. Na6, Black could defend better with 1...Bf1.   If White takes the bishop then it seems to me that after 2. Bxf1 g2, White's best would be to take the pawn and give a stalemate.  But after 1...Bf1 White can play 2. Bf3 instead of taking the bishop on f1.   Now 2...g2 loses to 3. Kc7.  But Black can try 2...Be2!  with the same idea of giving up the bishop and pushing the g-pawn, when White does not have time to set up a mating net.  So it seems after 1..Bf1, 2. Bf3 Be2, White should play 3. Bh1!  Now there is no way to give up the bishop, except to play 3...Bxa6 and after 4. Kc7 White eventually gives mate on b7.   Does this make sense to others?   Thanks in advance - Sarathi  

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Nice observation. You are righ, and Bh1 is a wonderful move.

Taking on f1 is also working. After g2 white gives check Nc7 then take Bg2. Bishop+Knight is winning. Do you know how to mate with bishop and knight?

Wow!!! 

Tactics/attacking course suggestion

Often these courses have positions to solve, but they also make you lazy in that to make a winning attack, often you need to find something forcing such as a check, sacrifice a queen, etc and it just works. Thus sometimes the solver isn't really looking at all the oppenents options. In a real game, some of the combinations and attacks fail against best, or even reasonable defence.

A chess club which I used to belong to had a number of puzzles where sometimes the tactics/combination/attack didn't work. It was your job to find a winning line if one, or if the move that looked winning didn't work, to say why. This avoids lazy calculation. Perhaps a such a course should have some examples that follow this idea?

(Also given some of the openings Scotch, Caro-Kann and Sicilian's middlegames are often summarised as 'throw everything at the king', knowing when to attack, determining whether it works, and what to do instead when it doesn't work is important, particularly in longer time controls against better players).

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Nice suggestion

David, nice suggestion! 
In the courses "Tactical Mastery" and "Calculation", which we're preparing, often there will be obvious move, which in reality doesn't work. 
So you have to be alert :) 

g3 Maroczy Bind and English Opening.

Hello, I have questions regarding Maroczy Bind and English courses. In Maroczy Bind course after 1. c4 c5 2. Nf3, GM Avetik shows Nf6 as a response. However, the English course recommends black to play 2 ...g6, as the most flexible move. I am creating a consistent c4 repertoire, but this got me a little bit confused. Of course everything leads to traspositions, but as you know move order is extremely important in chess. 

1) Are you planning somehow to unify these openings? 

2) Is g3 section of the English, which transposes to g3 Maroczy, going to redirect to these course or it will consist of another ideas for black?

3) What do you finally recommend to play? g6 or Nf6?

Thanks for all the answers and good day to everyone reading this!

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I’m pretty sure that the new, current recommendation by chessmood ist to play 2…g6 rather than 2…Nf6, as 2…g6 is much more flexible and allows the option of a later e5 and then Nge7 (depending on how White plays). The 2…Nf6 continuation in the Maroczy course is from Febr. 2019 and outdated and will most likely be replaced by 2…g6 at some point, as it would take away from Black the option to play a later e5 (because then the N on f6 would be misplaced!)

Hey! 
In Maroczy course, I didn't pay attention on the move order. 
But as Gabuzyan showed in his course - we're playing with 2...g6, which is the most flexible one. 

How Chessmood affected me

It's a little embarrassing for me to go into details, but I just want to say...

That phone call with GM (or Jim I think) Avetik really got to me. It is really amazing how that short call affected me much more than any articles or stuff on the internet, even if their quality is good :)

I experienced, for the 2nd time in my life, how powerful an influence a chess mentor could be... (1st was IM Alexandru Manea)

Now I've been working on chess more than I ever have! (Although, I confess not exactly as Jim(?) prescribed...)

I'm gonna break some serious boundaries in my life!!!

Have a nice day, everyone!

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Thanks for the message, it was a pleasure to read, wish you good luck :)

Same in my case, he is the first person who motivated me to work well in chess. My besties do motivated me but they were not Grandmaster. They were just hoping to see me win but I was losing and losing but after I joined chessmood I feel improved daily. Daily I am installing something in my brain and also trying to apply them . Before chessmood I had a dream of becoming 2000 and I thought I won't achieve it because I found no right mentors and I found no useful resources. But once I met coach he not only motivated me well but also his contents made me super nice.

Great, Inguh! 

Classics?

How many classics you watched in the past one year? 

Watched is not mean you and lappy and pop-corn. But focused on video and grasped concepts well.

How many classics you analyzed with your training partners this year?

How many hours you guys spent on one game analysis?

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Now I watch classics from our lovely ChessMood. Recently I was watching Capablanca's games, but I did't finished it

Great move!

Black to move and win! 

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Ng3 simple, but a super unusual way to win. But it's so disgusting that my mind can't remember the player's name. I can remember positions which I saw in past.

Intuition vs Calculation

How much percent of intuition do you use while playing?

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Well after I joined chessmood coach toldme  the importance of learning classics. I did more than 800 classics study in past 8 months so I felt so improved and my intuition is developed too. So in xase of online if I do not mess up in openings then I find best moves most of the time.

In case of calculation. I am working on it with @Jay_Garrison. He is telling me how much I am improving so I am slowly but surely becoming good in calculation. 

maybe about 70% :D 

Anti-Sicilian Part 2

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Black is going to continue with c4 and get clear equality or favourable positions for him, this position has'nt been discussed in the courses, what should white play here.

Ι recommend firstly to play e5, locking up the centre, and then completing the development with O-O and close the "d" file as well if needed. It would be also good to fianchetto the dark squared Bishop if black plays O-O.

~~ Pawn Str. Training effect ~~

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Chess Quotes

Share your favorite :) 

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Chess is Life - Bobby Fischer.

The reason I follow this one is because I have only 2 besties from US and one real life friend. I am different personality!

It's also my favorite, I use it in some of my social pages :)

But as you already wrote it. I'll share this one.

Play the opening like a book, the middlegame like a magician, and the endgame like a machine. ~Rudolf Spielmann.

“Tactics is knowing what to do when there is something to do. Strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do” - Tartakower

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat" — Sun Tzu

“You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.” ~ Mikhail Tal

Against Smith-Morra Gambit

How can I take advantage against Sicilian Smith-Morra Gambit as black?

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The simplist way is 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 Nf6 and transpose to Sicilian Alapin variation as given in the Anti Sicilian course or you could meet 3.c3 by pushing past with 3...d3, lastly you could accept the pawn but this allows White an initiative and gives him what he wants, having said that I like accepting and then adopting a fianchetto setup which fits perfectly with our Acc Dragon Rep. If you decide on the latter route they are some concrete lines you need to know to avoid early traps, but once you do I think Black is fine, in fact I think the fianchetto line against the Morra is underated.

"Mayhem in the Morra" deviates from the annotated game with 11.Qd2 Nf5 12.Rad1, and offers responses to 12..Qf6, 12..Na5 and 12..Re8.  It doesn't matter at my level, but I thought I add this to answer the comment that Esserman's book doesn't help here. :-)

Funny story- Funny my Life

I wanted to share two funny story about my life. I know it's chess forum but I can make you laugh may be. 

First one: My Brilliant English!!!

So, it was last year of my school, I was new in chess. I learnt ok there are two chess moves e4 and d4 and they are good but had no idea why hehhe. I started playing it. Then my friend told me about Vishy Anand. I said oh one day I will beat him  hehehe. He said he is world champ and I was like huh I can't beat him then. Next day he said you can see videos on chess games on Youtube and I said my internet speed is 3kbps. Then I texted another friend and asked him to download a video on chess for me. He download the video which I am going to share in the bottom.

The video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6ItLX-q3_I

When I was watching this video I was so irritated. It's not because of the openings or middlegame. But it's because of the name. I thought who is this guy " Queen's Gambit Accepted Alexi Shirov" and how can anyone write so long name in Score sheets. I thought may be they write like QGAA Shirov. Another thing which bother me was variations. The commentator was sharing variations and my poor knowledge of english called it takeback and I felt like wtf they both are doing. They call them world class players but on every move they are doing takebacks. Next day, I met my friend and asked him, who is this " Queen's Gambit Accepted Alexi Shirov" once he heard this he started laughing on me and said hey Queen's Gambit Accepted is an opening and Alexi  Shirov is a player's name. I said ok and next thing I asked to him was about why they are moving pieces back on every move. Then he again laughed and said hey they are showing variations which both players may considered during the game. After I saw him laughing on me I started to find more ways to improve my english and now I am able to speak like native and I can confuse a lot non natives by my accent. 

Damm I forgot the second story. For now enjoy this funny story. 

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NEW ARTICLE: How to Practice with Your Training/Sparring Partner (Part 3)

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Wow, coach you gave me super ideas. I tired SLP training in past but I will do it now daily. I am super happy that I have training partners for study!Thanks for your lessons.

Excellent Article !!

Covid 19

2020 was a year of failure for all of us. We lost a lot of time and opportunities to play tournaments and to realize our goals. I played only 2 OTB tournaments this year, it was in January and February. I miss the life we lived before and I miss tournaments so much.

We have a very good article about how to beat Covid boredom. I recommend you to read it https://chessmood.com/blog/how-to-beat-covid-19-boredom 

And what about you, how many tournaments did you play this year?

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1 in January with you :D

Well I played only 3 rated in my entire life. I played a lot local events. I missed them. Yes, this year is painful for those who lost their family members or friends but in case of me it's boom time for my chess life. I worked on all contents of chessmood. Finished 4-5 books already and by the end of this yeat I will finish 4 more books. So in chess studies I did ok and soon will improve my elo from 1465 to min 1800.

Moral is. I got the free time which  I wanted so bad. 

World and Chess

Is chess a popular game in your country?

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I think in our country (Armenia) chess has become more popular in recent years after included in school program. But anyway we had Tigran Petrosyan before and Levon Aronian now, who are the main reason to love and play chess in Armenia.

I think chess is dying.

Or better to say; it died after two matches in 1996 and 1997  between Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue. It is loosing its popularity exponentially everywhere for good reason; The engines!Almost all professionals are using engines as their source of inspiration!! Home memorization/preparation, heavily based on engine analysis is killing chess as an Art.

In some countries governments are still supporting chess, for some reasons... But chess itself is not anymore an indication of intelligence, as it was before. What is the value of memorizing engine based analysis and beating your non-prepared opponent? Does it mean you are more intelligent? Not at all. An engine is playing, not you!

It was totally different 50-100 years ago, most professionals were extremely strong endgame players... 

Nowadays professionals memorize engine analyzed variations..... and after all, they loose to a $100 chess engine. That's the bitter truth.

--------------------

There is still some benefits in playing chess, if we learn to play against pieces, and not against our opponents. 

Thanks everyone for the answers, it was very interesting to read all your comments !

Maroczy Move Order Discussion

https://lichess.org/cGvJaT8jVeKj

Today I played this game. I think from my side I did all okay but still I feel like maybe I messed up in openings a bit.

My first question is about capture on d4. Do you think I captured on d4 in the right time? I remembered that coach explained something when to capture when not. Sometimes early captures gives additional options such as Bd3 f4 and white attacks. 

My second question is about 16th move of white Rad1. In courses Rb1 and Nb5 was explained. I do know coach explained us idea of Qb6 is to prepare Qb4 and a4. My engine also liked my plan but I do not know how to follow it up well and what will be the long term plans. I do not trust engines in positional sense. It was saying Rfd1 Qb4 Nd5 Bxd5 cxd5 b5!? and then so on. So it will be amazing if you guys can see where I messed up.

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Hi Abhi,

I think you captured d4 at the right time, but I like to play Nf6 before Bg7, atacking e4. That forces white to play Nc3, then d6, preventing e5 and making possible Ng4. That forces white to play Be2. If white plays Be3 before Be2, as in your game, black has Ng4, attacking Be3, f2 and threatening Qb6 attacking also b2.

About your second question, I cannot help you. I would analyze the inmediate a4

Hi Abhi,

I believe the exchange on d4 was too early as it gives White an additional option of Qd3 after which he will get in either b4 (after ...Bc6) or f4 (after ...a5). This option is made possible because he no longer needs to spend a tempo with f3 as e4 is guarded by the Queen. To limit his options, the exchange should be delayed until after 10. Qd2 so we can follow-up with ...Bc6 immediately hitting e4 so that White spends time to play f3. Then we immediately play ...a5 on the next move and now we see that both f4 and b4 have been stopped.


Actually your opponent's Bd4-e3-d4 sequence did not make sense to me.. he declined to exchange dark Bs and then later went back (and of course, you did not have to be asked twice to exchange it :) ). Another plan connected to Qb6 besides ...QB4, ...a4 is ..Rfc8, h5, Qe8-f8, Kh7, Bh6 as mentioned in course for Lenic Luka - Le Quang Liem. I'm also not sure about ...b5 in that case. I suppose ...Rfc8 instead is natural and if Rc4 then Qxd2 and ...b5-b4. If Rc2 instead of Rc4, then after Nd7 we reach a position from Van Foreest - Reindermann where Black exchanged a pair of Rooks and Queens, and then prevented white from invading along the c-file with Bd4+ Nc5. This was followed up with ...f5. I dont know if this is better than the ...b5 given by engine but seems easier to handle in a game (at least to me)

My first reward

In verification i was rewarded.

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