Continue with Google
Continue with Facebook
Chess forum by Grandmasters
Kubbel 1 May
Today's daily puzzle was very good! It had me stumped for quite a while but eventually I had that satisfying aha moment. Definitely one of my favourite puzzles so far.
Replies
I find the puzzles quite challenging on some days and quite easy on others. The difficult problems I find is when there are many promising candidate moves to win but only one that actually works. In the Kubbel problem I l could visualise the solution but struggled with the retreat of the knight - creating the mating net.
Just adding a link to the puzzle for future reference: https://chessmood.com/daily-puzzle/01.05.2022
Thank you!
The best feelings for me, when I started ChessMood were:
* Meeting cool people around all the world
* Being able to provide value and help others
* Seeing the growth of our students
* Working with my great team at ChessMood
* Being a part of this great community, and family, that we've created all together.
And here I'm adding a new one.
* Feeling your support
Thank you, everyone!
* For your encouragement
* For your support
* For your understanding
* For your ideas
* For feedback
* For helping each other
* For the positive emotions, you share
* For being awesome!
I'm very grateful, for where I'm in my life now.
And while I'm the founder of ChessMood, this atmosphere, this community and the ChessMood family has not a single founder. We all are the founders.
Thank you!
#ChessMood Family
Replies
Thank you for your vision Coach! I am so glad I have been along for this amazing ride! I look forward to all the new places your vision will continue to take us over the next few years!
We're honored to have been part of your wonderful idea, Grandmaster... Although we are all thousands of miles apart, we feel at home together at ChessMood!
GM Avetik, Coach, Mentor - you are awesome and your team is amazing, thank you for putting together such a wonderful community!
Kudos to you Coach Avetik, you definitely created something special with Chessmood. PS Since there are so many CM members all over the world, maybe time to add a map showing where pro members are? (for people who feel like sharing this of course!)
THANK YOU!!!!!
The best games of April, 2022, and the prizes
Hello ChessMood family, hello champions and future champions!
Welcome to the "Best games of April, 2022" competition.
Under this post, we invite you to post the best games that you will play this month.
The Prize fund is 350K MoodCoins which is equal to 350$.
The 1st prize - 150K
The 2nd prize - 100K
The 3rd prize- 50K
The 4th prize- 30k
The 5th prize- 20k
Good luck with your games and keep the Right Mood!
#ChessMood
#Right Mood - Right Move
P. S.
Here are the winners of March, 2022:
Vedant Garg
Akiba Rubinstein
Mogens Nielsen
Yuma Okabe
Lebuta Dampty
Replies
There were some really nice games you all played during the last month.
Here’s the list of winners for the best games of March 2022:
1. The first prize goes to Vedant Garg for the game below where Black nicely maneuvers all their pieces and finishes it off with a Ninja checkmate. https://lichess.org/8gXI2UB1/black
2. The second prize goes to the great Akiba Rubinstein who bags the 2nd prize for this crazy attacking masterpiece. https://lichess.org/nb1fO46v/white#16
3. Mogens Nielsen takes home the 3rd prize for punishing his opponent in the Scotch Game after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 ed 4.Nd4 Nd4 5.Qd4 and ending the game with a nice finish.
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/41262001365?tab=analysis
4. Yuma Okabe takes home the 4th prize for this beautiful attacking game in the Caro-Kann. https://lichess.org/EcUwqs8o/white
5. The 5th prize goes to Lebuta Dampty for orchestrating an assault in the game below against White’s King and capping it off with a nice Rook sacrifice. https://www.chess.com/game/live/40040363195
Congratulations to all of you! And thank you everyone for sharing your games!
Keep the right mood and keep crushing! See you in April month’s contest!
Online games: Funny queen trap https://www.chess.com/game/live/42752366377 Crazy caro e5 aggro var game https://www.chess.com/game/live/42830941535 Classical OTB games: GP for black, murder on the long diagonal https://www.chess.com/a/2iTq4JY9tZT2S Crazy french game Bd3 https://www.chess.com/a/2d9brh5TtZT2S
[Round "9"] [White "Daksh Jain"] [Black "Ainikkal Shaheen"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B12"] [WhiteElo "1105"] [BlackElo "1315"] [PlyCount "59"] [EventDate "2022.??.??"] [SourceVersionDate "2022.04.01"] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 dxe4 4. fxe4 g6 5. Nf3 Bg4 6. Bc4 e6 7. O-O Bg7 8. c3 Ne7 9. h3 Bxf3 10. Qxf3 O-O 11. Bg5 h6 12. Bf6 Nd7 13. Bxg7 Kxg7 14. Na3 Ng8 15. Rf2 b5 16. Bb3 a5 17. Raf1 a4 18. Bc2 Qe7 19. Bb1 b4 20. Nc4 bxc3 21. bxc3 Ngf6 22. e5 Nd5 23. Qd3 Qg5 24. h4 Qg4 25. Bc2 f5 26. exf6+ Rxf6 27. Rxf6 N7xf6 28. Ne5 Qxh4 29. Qxg6+ Kh8 30. Nf7# 1-0 An OTB game I played against an opponent rated 200 points higher than me. This was a classical game, played in Dubai. I was 6/8, and in a must win situation to get a prize. I attacked like crazy and won! (with a beautiful tactic in the end, see the game to find out!) I finished 7th in the tournament (starting rank of mine was 43) and won 500 AED (roughly 130 USD!) I gained 100 points in this tournament. My only loss was against the eventual winner, Dimarucut Francis who is rated 1950
Almost queen trap then checkmate!! https://lichess.org/RLLD1YRZL6DK
Hi Chessmood family! I would like to show my game vs one of my friends. I just really like the rook sacrifice on move 26. I am black. https://lichess.org/YkNqhcMT/black#52 Rxc3+ is also the only winning move.
Accelerated Dragon 18..Bxb3! https://www.chess.com/live/game/43239606937
Hello ChessMood family, my coach suggested me to submit this game on the black side of a Rossolimo for game of the month contest, since i am a good student, here it is xD: https://lichess.org/4TBGgZL2/black
Anti sicilian works again :) https://lichess.org/0Bpe9wQYBGrC
Beating the French Advance with 3...Bd7 and 4...a6. A very late 0-0-0 settles the matter. https://lichess.org/ARFk7jbh/black
Rxa4! and nice checkmate which covered in chessmood course! https://lichess.org/OjmMXfiK/white
Triple pawns and the betrayed rook in 3.Bb5 Grand Prix Sicilian. https://lichess.org/y13O25sS/white#0
https://www.chess.com/live/game/44012122441 White opening was a bit weird I got inspired by the Model attacking games for the finish!
https://lichess.org/k5nyZr0YQQ6R Pasini variation strikes against the Modern.
https://lichess.org/danvePYy/black#0 Played as black and my king spent most of the game vulnerable to white's attacks and I still managed to win.
Scotch, Steinitz Qh4 https://www.chess.com/live/game/44132144671
https://www.chess.com/game/live/44284814349 Winning from the start, ended with a NINJA CHECKMATE!
https://lichess.org/UofL73FZ/black#44 Beating the French Advance with ...Bd7 and ...a6.
Sicilian I forgot 9.f5!! (explained in the course) but won a nice game anyway. https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/43509587341?tab=review
https://lichess.org/oijEjsqo/black#51 Played as black and was losing, and my opponent made a blunder.
Scotch - nice double check Lf7+ https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/44543435247?tab=analysis
Quick https://www.chess.com/game/live/44696413569
Here is a game outside of our repertoire just for fun! Maybe something for the future?
Lovely Game i am black https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/pgn/4VpPSaHCGN
Nice Game https://www.chess.com/game/live/44897364835
Here is a blitz game I won with the 8.h4 Scotch: https://www.chess.com/live/game/45003638081
https://lichess.org/HNL5MGozKE5w
Never Give up! https://www.chess.com/game/live/45070846511
This is a Grand Prix with persistent Kingside attack. The finish is a Queen sac for Matador Mate!
Caro Kann (trapping the knight in Chessmood CK), 16.Qd1 is even better https://www.chess.com/game/live/44891353983 Cute finish https://www.chess.com/game/live/44888415223 https://www.chess.com/game/live/44535644797 Missed c5 but still wins https://www.chess.com/game/live/44524231103 Chessmood French https://www.chess.com/game/live/44476245303
Lost on time against 2133 rated player on lichess but it's a nice scotch game tried to follow CM suggestions. https://lichess.org/4po3wOn4vSa1
Hello champions!
Thank you for sharing all your games! The way you all are grasping the openings, implementing the ideas in the middlegame, fearlessly attacking makes us feel extremely proud! Especially what you do with WhiteMood and new BlackMood opening repertoire is fantastic!
Keep up the good work!
Moving on, here’s the list of winners for the best games of April 2022:
1. Mik B takes home the first prize for this fantastic 22-move game in the French Attack. The moves 15…Kd7!, 18…Rxh2!! were simply brilliant! https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/42593965293
2. Michael Larsen takes the second prize. The fearless sacrifice with 19.Bxd5, and the follow-up just shows the power of strong central pawns despite being a piece down.
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/43509587341?tab=review
3. John Fallon bags the third prize for this nice attacking game in the Sicilian Grand Prix Attack that finished with a beautiful mating pattern! Find the game on the page below. https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/the-best-games-of-april-2022-and-the-prizes?page=1
4. The fourth prize goes to Regis H for crushing with the French Attack in just 17-moves! https://www.chess.com/game/live/44012122441
5. The 5th prize goes to Mogens Nielsen for the fine-attacking finish, starting with 21.Rxe6!! https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/44543435247?tab=analysis
Congratulations to all of you. And once again champions, thanks for sharing your games!
Till then, keep the right mood, play the right moves and keep crushing!
All the best for the May month’s contest!
Request for Refund
How can a member get a refund of their hard earned money when they don't get any chess related growth from your content even after trying for months?
Replies
What is your elo? And what are the courses you watched? It's impossible not to improve with all the great content here. If you are a beginner, you should use all your time with Tactic Ninja, Mating Matador, Opening Principles, WhiteMood Openings & BlackMood Openings. If you are >1500, the Must-know classical games are just incredible. I'm rated 2200/2300+ online, and I feel so much how the course The Power of the Bishop Pair was an eye-opener. Instead of asking for a refund, you should continue to work with the RIGHT courses for your level, and you should also play lots of games to put everything into practice. Chessmood gives you all the great content, but you are the only one who can make the hard work for you. Please trust the process, I can assure you that your chess will grow, even if it takes time ;)
It's hard to imagine how you could not improve after really studying the material here. I've only been here for about a week but I literally haven't found anything better out there. Can you be more specific about what you've tried and what hasn't worked?
What refund? For that, you would first have to become a Pro-Member rather than a Troll-Member. So please satisfy your tuition requirement first before speaking of refunds. :-D A novel idea of a school refunding tuition because a student is somehow unable or refuses to learn. Hypothetically should that be the case, then simply do not renew your subscription when it expires.
I'd find it unlikely that anyone under 2200 FIDE wouldn't find something useful here. Whether it translates to increased rating is a wider issue as you'd have to play appropriate tournaments and other attributes come into play beyond what you know, rating pools etc.
This is indeed a very good question, capable of generating lots of very good questions.
Since we are all chess players, we should evaluate the situation, and look for answers in the available data.
The right question is the most important thing in chess, what is my opponent trying to do, etc.
In this case, after reading your first message asking for your money back directly, not for help about how to improve, I looked at your profile to see how MANY MONTHS were you struggling to study our courses without any success.
And here comes my first surprise: You created your account this year, on February 16th. That is 2 months and 10 days before your post.
We also have all the login days that you accessed the web and the info on the videos watched since this is all registered. We had to check this to validate your claim.
Now, let me ask you:
Do you really believe that you studied enough in these 2 months in order to improve?
I used for the first time the dashboard to see which videos you watched:
9 sections of Tactics ninja
1 game from Classical attacking games
Half course of the Opening principles
8 videos from the 168 available of the Whitemood opening repertoire.
How do you measure your chess related growth?
In your profile you state that you are 1168 elo, but you need to put the effort and work in order to get better, this is common sense. This elo was before working with the courses, or after?
Which elo did you hope to achieve after these 2 months of struggle?
How do you define “trying for months”? Because it should be related to the hours spent working…
If you had any problem economically and needed the money back, you could have asked nicely. Avetik’s heart is bigger than the moon, he is too kind and I am sure that something may have been worked out.
But I do not think that you acted in good faith as I showed with the data. I may even think that you are trying to discredit our work for unknown reasons. Otherwise, there is no way that anyone would ask a refund in your case.?
Fortunately it is never too late to rectify: ?
I recommend you to work with the courses, finish Tactics ninja, watch Mating matador, finish the Opening Principles courses, then learn a proper repertoire with the Whitemood and Blackmood courses.?
Then tell us if your rating improved or not, otherwise we may have to think about changing our teaching style if after REALLY “trying for months” your rating does not increase.
Happy learning and happy studying my friend! ?
I don't know any chess learning platform which gives best bang for your buck so to speak than Chessmood. I mean monthly subscription cost the same like one training session with decent player on chess.com for example. Just recently I asked one GM how much he asks for training and it was 60eur/h, so come on. And I'm not speaking how much other chess videos, courses cost. I think it's clear that awesome GMs and team at chessmood care deeply about teaching, quality and chess improvement than about money. And though I too might be struggling at times, but there's no better learning platform for me atm and I can only blame myself if I'm lazy or not commited 100% at times ? There are so many awesome courses here, so my deepest respect for Avetik, Gabuzyan and chessmood team! Keep up the good work! ?
Just recalled Jim Rohn's quote. “You can't hire someone else to do your push-ups for you.”
When you subscribe to a GYM, no one promises you'll get muscles. There is work you should do yourself, and the GYM provides the instruments.
To see such a post is very painful to me.
And for this, I blame all the websites that promise quick results and market their products with beautiful words written by marketers, who have no idea about chess. “Become a Grandmaster in 1 year or “the only 10-min training you need to have in 1 day.”
And I also just recalled Michael Jordan's commercial. “Maybe I led you to believe…”
https://youtu.be/9zSVu76AX3I
FIDE Rapid Chess Tournament Improvement Guidance.
Hi, Yesterday. I played in my first FIDE rated Rapid chess tournament which was 10 minutes plus 5 second increment. I am requesting for inputs from chess improvers who have gone through this phase. My score was 3.5 with 3 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses. Tournament performance of 1029. I don't have official FIDE rating and am 35 years old. 1. Non-chess tricks: Chess academies have taught kids distraction tricks to win in losing positions. On a board next to me a kid claimed illegal move when he was losing. The arbiter rule in favor of his adult opponent and gave him 30 seconds extra. I overheard the kid speaking to his friend outside and mentioning the adult hadn't pressed pause on his chess clock and his time had gone down from 2 minutes 56 seconds to 18 seconds. I asked the adult and he said as we play online chess a lot more than OTB, clock thing doesn't strike us. Another kid starting saying bishop, bishop, bishop on every move when the kid was losing in front of an adult. Have you faced any such situations in your games & how do you prepare for these? 2.e4 or c4/d4 : I played e4 as white 3 times and lost all 3. While two time I played the London system and got 1.5 time. The draw was my mistake as I stalemated my opponent in a winning position. The kids are honest and told us that their chess academies teach them traps against e4 as many people play e4. I work full time and have limited time to work on chess, shall I focus on d4 or c4 to have better chances & ROI in the game? 3. Transition from online to OTB: I found it difficult to play on an actual chessboard as I don't have that experience. We don't have a chess club culture in the city so OTB is nearly impossible outside of tournaments. Have you guys tried any method that has helped you to transition from online to OTB at home. 4. Positional Chess : I had fought hard against two FIDE rated players who were rated 1299 and 1316 respectively. One of them played a magnificent tactic and I resigned. When I congratulated him on his tactical mastery, he said that I didn't give him any free chances in the game and he had to improve his position to finally get a good tactic. The other guy said I had cramped his position and he was finding it tough to get his pieces active but one of my pawn move gave him a square to fight for & then he was able to break through and win. Many masters have said that at lower levels positional chess is tough to understand and implement. However, these guys were doing it. Shall I invest time on positional chess at my rating? 5. Casual or Rated chess on chess.com and Lichess: I saw a 1196 FIDE rated kid destroy a 2000 Lichess rated person (poor guy played e4 and lost due to a trap). People with 1400 FIDE had 2200 Lichess rating. So, is it advisable to play casual games online with no stress of rating or online rating is also important for chess growth? 6. Study plan for Rapid chess : I spoke to the organizers on future tournaments. One of them said that due to covid uncertainty, most organizers want the tournament to planned and completed in one day. Other one said that over the weekend participation is higher as kids are accompanied mostly by both parents & working adults participate too. Also, the sales of food and chess material is much higher. So, there will be more rapid tournaments in the city rather than 5 days classical chess events. Do you have suggestions on a study plan specific to rapid tournaments. 7. Tactic Study: Many masters say that 5 puzzles per day is best for long term retention of a pattern and the same puzzles should be done three times a day. While others say that 50 puzzles per day should be something that you should be doing. What's the method that is right one to follow at around 800-1000 level.. Theses challenges were faced by many adults who participated in FIDE OTB tournament for the first time and we shared these observations during the free time between the rounds. All of us understand that we won't be GMs. However, we would like to compete with ourselves to get more wins/points/lesser blunder and improved ratings in future tournaments. Any suggestion from players who have gone through this phase and have improved by overcoming these barriers will be highly appreciated. Thanks!
Replies
Congrats on getting through your first rapid tournament! My thoughts to your questions below: 1. As you improve, and get to play stronger opposition, this sort of thing should be much less common. Unless it's really bad, I'd say the best thing to do is just concentrate harder and continue to focus on playing good moves. If they're resorting to these tactics they probably have a bad position, so enjoy your good position and make the most of it. 2. If you want to maximise the value of your ChessMood subscription then you'll base your repertoire around 1.e4. Playing something solid like the London is of course possible, and has some advantages, but it also has its limitations. This is a personal choice - you could just do what you're most comfortable with. Of course improvement tends to come fastest when you get out of your comfort zone. 3. I learnt OTB, so this is less of an issue for me. Having said that, I am online a lot so will sometimes set up a difficult puzzle on a real board and stare at it for a while so I'm used to looking at a real board. 4. I'd say focus on the basics like development, central control, piece activity, and king safety. But also start thinking about more advanced stuff. There are lots of tips in the CM opening videos and streams about how to play the typical middlegames that result from ChessMood openings. 5. Play rated games online but don't stress about day to day rating fluctuation. Long term trends will show whether you're improving or not. If you're very tired, or there are a lot of distractions, then playing unrated makes sense. 6. The study plan for Rapid Chess is much like the study plan for any other type of chess. The great thing is that you can more easily play online at the exact same time control you'll use in the tournament. So be sure to take advantage of that. 7. Tactics Study. I don't think there is anything special about doing exactly 5 puzzles/day, and repeating puzzles 3 times/day does not seem like a good use of time. Here's my general tactics advice : - Solve some tactics every single day. It could be a certain number of puzzles, or it could be spending a certain amount of time solving puzzles. The key thing is to make it a habit, and do it every day. - Solving puzzles grouped by theme is a good way to learn or reenforce tactical patterns which is what is needed at your level. - Some amount of repetition is useful to further reenforce what you've learnt. If you're working through a tactics puzzle book, then at some point you should repeat the book. Or you could repeat each chapter as you go. There's something called the Woodpecker Method that takes this further, but I don't think it's necessary. Good luck!
1) Call the arbiter/parents. Watch & work with Chessmood courses and maybe you will discover tricks we use against kids ? 2) WhiteMood & BlackMood openings are designed for players U2000 who are busy/should also work on tactics/middlegame/endgame. Watch the courses, do your file, play the lines, improve your file, play the lines, improve your file etc. There are nice articles about how to make you own file. 3) If you have a chessboard at home, you can play longer games online and put the moves on your board. You can also use it when you are working with chess books. 4) I'm sorry but no one is playing positional chess at your level. As mentioned in the other post, you should focus on tactics with Mating Matador/Tactic Ninja for now. 5) Lots of players didn't play for a while with the pandemic, that's why they improved their online rating but not the OTB one as it was difficult to play tournaments. You should play online games rated, put in practice everything you learn here. The rating is here to help you to have an idea of your progress. There is no reason to be scared of it. Btw, the only important rating is the classical rating for OTB chess. If you want to maximize your chances, read the article Golden Method to Increase Online Rating ? 6) Study plan is the same. Work on the courses designed for you, plays lots of games. If you improve at classical chess, you will improve at rapid chess too ;) 7) It just depends on the time you can dedicate to chess. Patterns should be learned, repeated, again & again until you know them. So there is no reason to use 20 years to learn them by doing 5/day if you can do 50 or more/day. Sorry for the English but I wrote everything quickly ?
Lots of questions here and great to see lots of answers as well. There are always those the few who try to use other means or technicalities to win games. If someone is being distracting ask nicely to be quiet or with a polite shush, if it persists call the arbiter. I think it is reasonable to stop the clock if it is very distracting or the arbiter is not nearby or you have low time, as distractions are an infringement of the rules. Usually arbiters are good at handling this before it becomes an issue, but in large junior tournaments of if you're the last to finish with lots of people starting to talk it can be hard work It's also worth asking the arbiters for advice how to handle such situations. Whatever the best way, it's worth building some resilience to distractions in your training for example. In chess there is so much you can study, it's having the right plan to study the most useful things first. Pro-members get a session with a GM so it's worth bringing up those questions if you've not had it yet. Keep it simple. I would suggest starting with e4 as the chess is usually more attacking which helps you build tactics and attack which are skills to work on early. Positional chess is something to study above 1500, but for now try to play healthy chess (active pieces, safe king, good pawn structure...). A course on playing healthy chess (which could be tailored to all levels) would be useful to have here. It's worth recording moves (in games that are 15 mins or longer) and going through the game after with the opponent and/or a stronger player. As well as identifying mistakes for both sides and improvements, it can highlight areas for appropriate study as patterns emerge. If there are no physical clubs, try to find one online, there is also a lot of support for junior chess usually. Asking arbiters or tournament organisers for example may be able to provide some options.
Chessmood Puzzles ...Super Help
The Chessmood Puzzle collection has helped me (last month) more than any chess.com/Li puzzles over the last year. Great Job Avetik, G and team!?
Replies
Missing Variation From French Defense Section?
Hi All, I'm studying the French Defense, de variation, Bb4 position. However I cannot find a continuation in the Advanced section (Avetik says its there) after Nxf3, Qxf3, a6, a3. What exactly is white's plan after axNb6, axBb4? Thanks in advance https://chessmood.com/course/french-defence/episode/137
Replies
Hi Ovi,
Black has a big issue with Queen on e7, as Bc5 is the threat if they castle. If black captures on b4 white has the option of Qg3 move trying to weaken a lot of black's dark squares on the kingside. After both castles, even though white is a pawn down, there is very nice compensation on the kingside.
Caro-Kann main line with 7.. Qb6
I'm very often facing the main line Caro-Kann with 7.. Qb6 and while black players at first all pause to think after 10. Na3, usually they play 10.. e6 and 11.. Kd7, and after that I struggle to see what white's plans should be and to prove any advantage. Ideas will be appreciated.
Replies
Did you see this video?: https://chessmood.com/course/rock-n-rolling-with-white/episode/4208
Hi Yair,
I recommend here the idea of Ne2 and whenever black goes Bg6, white goes Nc1. As we know from different Caro-can positions knight stays super strong on d3. It helps to control square on e5.
Scotch Bc5 line with Nf6, early 7...a5
Good day! Saw one game from the Lithuanian chess league between FMs using chessmood line, but black played very interesting early a5. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nb3 Bb6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Qe2 CM recommended intending Be3/Bg5 with 0-0-0 and now black played 7...a5!? white responded 8.e5, but 8...0-0! and now if exf6 then a4! winning the piece back. In the webinars of opening mistakes I saw one idea that against a5 we play a3, but that happens after white already 0-0-0. So how should white react to this early 7...a5!? Is this a novelty for black? Thank you. P.S. In the database I see that GMs Malakhov, Eljanov, Fressinet used this move, also Carlsen played it once, so must be good move for black
Replies
What is the problem with 8. a4 and then the "standard" setup - Be3/g5 and 0-0-0? Is there a concern re king safety after a4? A drawback of a7-a5 might be that black needs to capture on e3 after Be3 since there is no more axb6 opening the a-file for the rook.
I'm curious if you're running the engine on positions like this? Is it bad form to post engine analysis in the forum? FWIW, I'm running Stockfish 14.1 NNUE on this position. 8.a4 is consistently the top move thru the various depths. Up to depth 37 so far and a4 is the only move that scores above 0.00. I agree it's a little unusual to play a4 prior to castling long, but compromises must be made sometimes!
@ Paulius Juknis 8.a4 should transpose to the lines considered in the course.
Hi Paulius,
The a5 move you mentioned is super-super advanced. I will just say that a4 is the best and its playable position. We might record that move in the future though if we record all of the GM analysis our courses will become 100 hours each. The most important for us is to provide material that is easy and comfortable to learn and play for our Pro-Members.
Good luck!
Hi would like to share a game I just played. https://www.chess.com/game/live/44717440807 After I played our move Nb3, in less than 1 second my opponent immediately played a5. So remembering this thread, I played a4. Certainly the both of us didn't play the best after that but if Black makes "routine" Scotch moves like Qf6, if we follow our general strategy he can still easily get into trouble very early on.
Hi, I think even more chalenging for white is a5 with connection 6..d6 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nb3 Bb6 6.Nc3 d6 7. Qe2 a5 played as black by Topalov, Artemiev. Recently strong GM crushed me with idea 8.a4 Nb4! and white need to play accuratly to not lost control after long castle. My proposal is to play 7. a4!? GM Rublevsky played a few times idea to provoke a6 and then 8.Nd5 Ba7 9. or 10. Bd3 with short castle or 10. Qf3 with idea Be3-g5 and 0-0-0 I think it's new trend for black so it will be great to add something in advance section by our GMs.
Ninja Puzzle Solution Imposible?
Hi all I'm going through al 777 Ninja Puzzles and became stumped by number 333. After my best efforts , I turned on Stockfish but none of the solutions suggested work either. Anyone want to try? https://chessmood.com/quiz/the-tactic-ninja
Replies
Why not just copy n past the problem puzzle here rather than makes members click through 332 in order to help you.
Are you talking about this position? I checked (with Stockfish, too) and there is exactly one winning move in this position and it is accepted as a solution.
We checked this in order to find the ultimate truth and there is only a solution in the puzzle 333, maybe you were referring to another one. Please see the attached picture for reference.
Spoiler: It shows the right solution.
Organizing the BlackMood Starter Course
I finished the WhiteMood starter course (which was great) and now I'm working through the BlackMood starter course. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Dutch Attack parts! I'm also working on some tactics, middle game, endgame courses, and annotated game courses. I have a recommendation for the BlackMood course, and I wonder if it would help anyone else. Instead of one 2-hour section on the French Attack, could you break it down into smaller sections? I feel like this would make this a bit more consistent with the other courses including the WhiteMood starter course. Here is how I organized it for myself: - Section 1 - Introduction (current introduction videos 1-4) - Section 2 - French Attack - Advance Variation (videos 1-19, 38 minutes) - Section 3 - French Attack - Exchange Variation (videos 20-32, 32 minutes) - Section 4 - French Attack - Tarrasch Variation (videos 33-38, 13 minutes) - Section 5 - French Attack - Other Moves (videos 39-46, 27 minutes) - Section 6 - Dutch Attack... (To be determined) Thanks ChessMood team!
Replies
Hi Matthew,
Yes, since this course is not yet completed, we will reorganize the sections later on.
It is in our todo list, and this also means that Avetik has to record the introductions in order to do a good job, let him finish the Dutch attack first, everyone is waiting for it!
Thanks for your feedback!?
I saw this was updated today. Thank you! It looks great and I'm looking forward to the next set of videos.
Thanks, Matthew, for the great suggestion.
We've uploaded the Dutch attack in the same way :)
I am not ready yet to attack with the French
Hello CM Family, The last question I asked two months ago about the French Attack is unfortunately left unanswered. Guess I'll have to wait for the main course before fully embracing this opening. Reminder: Which plan/moves can be played in the following position? 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.c3 Bd6 6.Bd3 Nge7 7.O-O Bg4 8.Nbd2 Qd7 9.Re1 O-O-O 10.b4 f3?! 11.Qa4 Importantly, White spent their time developing (much like the way Caro-Kann is attacked in the WhiteMood Opening) and preparing for a queenside attack instead of weakening their castling with "h3?!". White strike first and I don't know how to react. Today, I struggle against another position in the French Attack, more precisely in the Tarrasch variation with 4.Ngf3. 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nc6!? 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nd7 Here Avetik explains that the Knight on d2 blocks the view of White's pieces and starts showing the plans for Black without White being able to play. Usually, I like this way of learning because it allows me to feel the position better. But recently in a blitz game for fun, a friend completely crushed my opening on this line after the following sequence: 6.Nb3 (Knight no longer blocks White's position) 6...f6 7.Bb5 (the so-called hard-to-defend e5-pawn is doing very well) 7...fxe5 8.fxe5 Be7 9.Nbd4 Nxd4 10.Nxd4 and I blundered with 10...O-O?? I wondered what satisfactory plan to apply against this White deployment: 6.Nb3 f6?! 7.Bb5 (pinning one of the Knights if the other moves) Maybe I should castle first to unpin with 6.Nb3 Be7 7.Bb5 O-O. What do you think ?
Replies
I'm only starting the French Attack course so I can't help much there. But in your first position, I think you have a mistake as 10...f3 isn't possible. I'm assuming you meant 10...f6 as that's the most popular move according to the lichess database. The engine likes: 11...Bxf3 12. Nxf3 Ne5 13. Qxd7+ Nxd7 But it also thinks short castling is better in this position. If you had played 9...f6 10. b4 O-O, the position would be more equal. For the other game, after Nb3 the best move is a5, bringing a4 later to force the knight back; so of course white will play a4. The best move next is 7...Be7 which develops a piece and defends the g5 square, and also defends f6 if you play that. If white still plays Bb5, then the a7 square is open and you can play Na7, which also attacks the bishop and forces it to commit or retreat. In most of the games I've seen in this position, the bishop retreats. White will likely instead play something like 8. Bf4, which allows you to then play 8...f6. White will follow with 9. exf6 and you can take bak with Nxf6. You can optionally castle before playing f6. Now with a knight on f6 it gives you easy access to e4. This is just my opinion; I'm not familiar with the course so I'm sure others will give better answers.
Anti French
In the line against French opening 1. e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Bd3, dxe4 4. Bxe4, Nf6 5.Bf3 c5 6. Ne2 what if Black plays Be7 and Qc7 keeping not trading on d4. What should White do ? Thank you
Replies
Let them do it… After 6.Be7, we just develop, healthy moves as Gabuzyan says, Nc3 could be good and then if Qc7 as you say, then just Bf4 will be good developing the bishop for free… Always think about development, healthy development and happy pieces… ?
Question regarding the black repertoire
Hi ! I hesitate to take a Pro subscription, after browsing the opening for black chapters against 1.d4 I couldn't find my answers, and I was told to ask them here : - Is there coverage of when white doesn't allow the Benko, for example starting with 2. Nf3, and if yes what is the recommendation there? - Is there coverage of the Catalan ? Have a great day
Replies
?Rome wasn't built in a day. Mister Gaby and Mister Avetik are getting there. They have a list longer than everyones arms and it takes much work in producing their excellent videos. What you must do is not only work through the videos several times but tune in or watch later the webinars where they play the very openings they recommend which I think is unique and they do this week after week which is what you need to perfectly hone a repertoire. Remember joining ChessMood does not preclude you from looking at other material elsewhere such as Chessable which has excellent coverage of the Benko (Grover) or playing against the Catalan (Ganguly). This platform is the best out there for your buck. It's a no brainer.
You can always try for free during one week to see if you like it.? This is why we are offering the one week free trial.
Regarding your question, after 1.d4 we go for the Benko if possible, yes. In the new Blackmood opening repertoire, we are offering the Dutch Attack, which will be released next week but Avetil has been playing it in the streams for a couple of months already.
When after d4, Nf6 White plays Nf3, we do not play e6 going for a Catalan, we play g6. This is consistent with the rest of the repertoire. After 2…g6, we can transpose to other different Chessmood courses like the d4 Sidelines, the English course, Benko, Modern Maroczy or Maroczy and also the accelerated dragon… ?
BlackMood Starter - Dutch
When will the pdf and pgn files be updated to include the Dutch Attack? Thanks!
Replies
Soon my friend,? we will upload it once everything is finished and checked. In the meanwhile enjoy the Dutch course that everyone has been waiting for!
Happy learning!!! ?
Early Success at the Scotch Game
I just started going through the WhiteMood Openings course and got through the section on the Scotch Game. I'm horrible at rapid so have been losing a lot. But today I decided to practice the Scotch for the first time. I didn't get it perfect but I think I understood the basic principles. And, I was super excited when I won! Really thankful for this basic openings course and just wanted to share. Trying to share the game, hope this comes through properly.
Replies
??May this be the first of many Scotch victories!!! ?Good luck and welcome to the Scottish family!!! ?
Good news about weekly articles
Hey, champions!
As you know, after writing weekly articles for more than a year, we decided to make a tradeoff, and spend that time on producing more courses.
The good news I want to share with you today is that nice tradition is coming back very soon ?
We'll bring back our weekly articles.
We have already started writing them.
And we're trying to write more about your pain points.
Would love to hear your opinion, suggestions, pain points, desires and offered article topics.
We have made a list already. I will add your suggestions there too and go one-by-one.
Comment below please, if you have anything particular in your mind.
Cheers,
Avetik
Replies
I wold love a good tutorial about Q vs R. It is suppossed to be about the same difficulty as B&N v K, but I can do that but not QvR. Thanks - Murrel
If ChessMood could have a MoveTrainer like Chessable it would be perfect, because is much easier and didactical to memorize the Opening variations playing the moves rather than going over the pgn as most of us do. Maybe ChessMood could sell it's courses on Chessable and BTW reach a wider audience
I would be interested in tips on calculation and decision-making in general. Regarding calculation, I know that you should look for candidate moves and follow the check-capture-threat priority. I think there's more to it though :) About decision-making, I'd be curious to know how you make a decision when the continuation is unclear or there are several options. Is it just a matter of feeling and intuition? For example, it happens to me that among the candidate moves I see, I analyze one in particular because it's the most attractive to me. Then I don't find a convincing continuation, and I play a move that is not as attractive to me, but it doesn't have any obvious drawback. Often the most attractive to me was indeed the best move. I read that Tal would not necessarily calculate the whole continuation after one of his crazy sacrifices but his intuition would tell him that he should have a strong position and attacking opportunities. However, he still should see "deep enough" to assess that. I'd love to hear your thoughts on how to improve this aspect of the game! Thank you! Francesco
Time management. I recently played in a 5 round OTB tournament - time control 120 d5. All five games were decided in a time scramble with both players down to a few minutes or less. Unfortunately, I was usually the one who blundered in time pressure or ran out of time altogether. This is my pain point.
Hi Avetik It's great to see the articles making a comeback. I would be interested in advice as how to make learning more active in chessmood courses (for example the classic games videos). I think with video learning it's too easy to be passively learning and not reap the benefits of the great content. I pause the videos and guess moves but I'm not sure I'm maximising the potential of the videos.
Thanks Avetik, I'm looking forward to seeing some new articles. I found some of the old ones quite helpful. Weekly articles sounds like quite a lot of work for you! I think every few weeks would be fine. Some big topics like calculation seem better suited to a course. I guess such a course needs a lot of examples for training on, as well as advice on calculation techniques etc. For players 2000/2100 FIDE or higher I suspect this topic is probably one of the most important. For articles, one topic I am interested in is different player types and how that should impact training, if at all. It's clear that some players are more intuitive, while others are more calculation focused. And some players love to sacrifice and attack, while others are more comfortable with a positional grind and/or heading for the endgame at every opportunity. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and how it flows into us amateurs trying to maximise our results.
Excited to learn more from the articles. Would like articles on Visualization and Calculation training. At what level to start training. How to Train. What abilities are expected at different levels just like the different levels of opening knowledge at each level (Whitemood openings, Chessmood openings, Advanced Chessmood openings). I am currently between 1200-1350 rating based on US Chess Federation system. I am able to solve 90% of the Tactical Ninja problems (1/2 way through course). However, I am unable to visualize/calculate all the different options the opponent had to defend (not using board to solve) position but I tend to be able to find the main idea/line. Thanks Bret
I would like to learn about what are the bad pieces and how to improve these pieces so they become active? How to think about a chess position? Improving calculation skills an visualisation from the beginning let say untill 2000 level. Coordination with pieces how to do that? Maybe sending games to you to analyse so you can discover our weaknesses. Some puzzle homework whatwecan do at home GR Dirk
Hi coach Mr.Avetik, I would like to know how to beat consistently ~1900-2000 elo players (I'm 2150). Against other levels I play ok, but against this group my results are tragic for psychological reasons, overpushes, many draws, I dont create imbalanced positions etc.
Hello GM Avetik, Since there are so many GMs in the Chessmood team, it might be interesting for the members to see an article about the journey from beginner to GM from different perspectives - what the training looked like, what were the hurdles you had to overcome at various stages (beginner to 2000, 2000 to master, master to FM, IM to GM etc.), what were the critical changes you made to progress to the next change. Maybe psychological aspects, training, help from coaches, anything else.
daily puzzle
Is there any way that I can check the previous daily puzzles I did? or If I missed the couple weeks, How can I find them? Thanks
Replies
You can access previous daily puzzles by manually editing the URL. For example here is the URL for the puzzle from 7 April: https://chessmood.com/daily-puzzle/07.04.2022 Btw, today's puzzle was a fun one.
A possible method is to manually create a Chessbase file (or lichess study) and input and save the positions. I did that a little bit
Question from Caro-Kann game
In this position, Is Ne5 or Nbd2 preferable? I did post this in Facebook chat but would like a definite feedback.
Replies
Hi Inguh,
Both moves are good and logical. Ne5 is good as it's active, Nd2 continues the developement.
Good luck!
Schlechter Variation of the French Defense: Line After 9. a3 O-O
I've been studying the course on the Schlechter variation. I'm on 3...c5, specifically on this video: https://chessmood.com/course/french-defence/episode/129 Around 1:50 into the video it covers the line 9. a3 O-O 10. b4, and he says the following moves should be Bb2, Qe2, and Rad1. I've been playing around with this line in Stockfish and Qe2 never seems to be a good move. The best I can get is: 10...Be7 11. Bb2 Nd5 12. Qe1 a6 13. Rd1 This has an evaluation of about +1.1 But if I enter Qe2 instead of Qe1, the evaluation drops to about -0.3. I suspect it's because the black knight can then come to f4 and fork the queen and the bishop. The queen's forced to move anyway and the bishop is lost. I'm visually impaired and the video moves rather fast, so I could have missed something, which is why I wanted to post it here. Input would be appreciated.
Replies
Sorry, can't figure out how to edit my post, but here are the exact moves leading up to that line: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Bd3 c5 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. Nc3 Qd8 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. O-O Nf6 9. a3 O-O 10. b4
Qe2 and centralizing the rooks is a very good and general plan, that of course must be adjusted depending on what Black plays. In this structure after 11.Bb2 the knight on c6 is misplaced. In these structures, the knight should be on d7 to do a good job.
Again we cannot and will never analyze all the engine moves, but in this position both bishops are located in very good squares pointing to the king side, Black-s bishop is not developped and once you locate the rooks in the center it will be difficult to place it in a nice square.
After Nd5, as you said, Qe2 would be a mistake because it will allow Black to exchange the Light Square Bishop with Nf4 and we would lose our best piece at the moment without any compensation.
?In this case I would play just Qd2 renforcing the c3 knight and preparing ?the rook centralization, and see how the opponent moves…
Hi Brandon,
I do support the idea of ChessMood Odysseus, however, my attention went to another point.
The position you were playing around with an engine seems to be pretty deep and I don't believe it will happen super often.
The engine can be our friends, but sometimes it's not the best time investment to stick around some rare positions, looking for engine numbers.
I think that investing time to learn this game better through many practical courses which we offer will be better :-)
Good luck!
