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Chess forum by Grandmasters
Game database for a Mac
What database program do you recommend for viewing PGNs, saving my OTB games, etc? I have a Mac.
Replies
Free or not free?
I use, and am very happy with, Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro (on my Mac): https://www.hiarcs.com/ The software is very solid and has good database features. It handles PGN files smoothly or you can use their database format which is said to be faster for really big databases. It can also import Chessbase files. It comes with the Hiarcs engine which is decent but you can also install any UCI compliant engine. I've installed Stockfish and mostly use that, plus I also have Leela installed.
?Sorry Dennis, none of us have a Mac… I guess chessplayers we all use Chessbase and windows (well, some linux too)/…?
I expect scid will work if you have the right things installed. Chessbase 11 might work under wine, but you need to know the workaround as you can't register (I don't want to disclose that publically), plus in the recent year they broke the kibitzer meaning the engine can eat all the CPU, so I use scid now for analysis.
I'm using https://mygames.chessbase.com/ cloud version for chessbase. You need user with csy I think 10 dolars per year. There is option to import from .pgn and save database
ChessMood Openings in Practice - Best of the Streams
Hello Champions! ?
Today we’ve something very exciting to share with you!
We’ve added a new category “ChessMood Openings in Practice - Best of the Streams” under the course page.
We chose the most instructive games from the streams, edited and organized them into sections based on the openings.
Now you don’t need to go through thousands of hours of previous streams to find the instructive games. All the hard work is done for you.
So, after watching an opening course you can come here and watch games with live commentary based on the opening you’ve learned!
You’ll not only remember your learned variations better, but also understand them much deeper, and in the process, improve your chess level significantly!
https://chessmood.com/course/rock-n-rolling-with-white
https://chessmood.com/course/rock-n-rolling-with-black
Others will be out soon!
Have fun watching them! ❤️
Replies
Been looking forward to this. Very nice!
Superb idea! Thank you :)
Thank you. This is great addition. Hopefully more gains will be added as we go along.
Thank you for this amazing collection! ? Will repeat one opening at a time and watch the right section.
Thank you so much, another excellent time saver for us!
Excellent stuff. Makes it easier to appreciate the flow of the game and also see tactical and positional ideas come to fruition. ??
(9.Bg5) in the Anti Sicilian Course pt 2
Towards the end of this video: https://chessmood.com/course/sicilian-defence-part-2/episode/783 9. Bg5 is presented as a means of putting pressure on blacks development. The computer seems to more prefer 9. a4 in this position, but Im trying to understand more the ideas behind the Bg5 move. Blacks best response here looks like: ... f6, Be3 e5, Qd3 Bb4, a4 bxc3+, bxc3 (Qxc3 loses the pawn on e4) and here black looks fine Other options for black seem to be: ... h6 (doesn't seem to do much) ... d6 (with ideas of eventually playing e5 at the expense of a weak d5 and d6 square, plus the dark square bishop is now bad) ... Nf6 , e5 (the knight is now awkward and should move back to g8) Is the idea here that Bg5 stifles most of blacks common development moves, thus its up to black to find ...f6?
Replies
Yes and I can assure you even up to people as strong as norm hunters and new GMs will not find this move, unless they are diehard researchers of this exact line. Quoting the answer to a typical coach Avetik question: "play ridiculous looking move and get banned." xD
Hello Joseph,
Bg5 is a good provocation to try to weaken the opponent's position as well as white develops the piece. The line you are mentioning sounds like an engine line as black, and players below 2300 hardly will ever play it, though even after Bb4 which you mentioned white can create pressure on Queenside with a4 and those are very playable positions.
Let me mention that the 9.a4 instead of Bg5 is also a good decision trying to attack the black pawn immediately.
Good luck!
Dutch attack
I cannot find the Dutch attack course.
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Hi Dennis! ? You are right, you cannot find it, no one can yet… Avetik is still recording it. It will be uploaded when it is ready.
We will have to wait a bit more… ? But I am sure that it will be worth the waiting! Stay tuned!?
SUBSCRIPTION CHANGE
Hi Sir, I was a regular PRO member of chessmood family but I had to interrupt the subscription of chessmood because I had to use my friends bank account. I subscribed yesterday but this time I was charged with 49 dollars. As per our conversation earlier could u give me the earlier price 29 dollars.. and refund the remaining amount or else can I just pay the extra amount of just 9 dollars next month. Total 49$dollars I gave.. If u take 29 dollars this month and carry forward 20 dollars I just need to pay 9 dollars remaining
Replies
Probably best to correspond via the contact us option rather than the forum.
Dear Sreenath,
?All the personal matters regarding to the accounts must be discussed with the support team, not in an open forum.?
Please write the support team using the following page:?
They will be very happy to help you.?
"100 Classical Masterpieces" like books for IM
I was wondering if you can recommend chess books that explains chess like your excellent, "100 Classical Masterpieces" course at IM/GM level. Thanks.
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Books aimed at IM/GM level would be different in style to the "100 Classical Masterpieces" course such as Kasparov's "my great predecessors". However similar in style I think would be the following suggestions aimed at players of club/strong level. Try "The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played" by Irving Chernev (though this is aimed at club players/ early intermediates). Also there is a whole series of books by Everyman Chess : the move by move series. They have collections of games by great players (Rubinstein, Alekhine, Capablanca , Lasker and Nimzovic plus many more) with explanations and questions you on what you would play. In addition John Nunn "Understanding Chess move by move, Richard Reti "Masters of the chess board" So you can see there are so many good books to review classic games - and I'm sure I've failed to list many great books.
As Norbert says, there are simply loads of best games collections. You can't make a list without probably forgetting some great book so I'm not even going to try. My top 5 favourites that I can whole-heartedly recommend are: 1. Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953 by David Bronstein - My Desert Island Book, if there was such a thing. 2. My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer 3. The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal by Mikhail Tal 4. My Best Games of Chess 1924-1937 by Alexander Alekhine 5. Secrets of Grandmaster Play - John Nunn and Peter Griffiths Hope that helps.
I'm assuming the OP is an FM (https://ratings.fide.com/profile/6000029). I wonder if this Gelfand book might be the sort of thing you are after to help take your positional play to the next level? I haven't read it, but I noticed a number of guests on the Perpetual Chess podcast were speaking highly of the Gelfand books. https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/products/2/247/positional_decision_making_in_chess_by_boris_gelfand
Coach vs ChessMood
I have just ended a year of working with a chess coach once a week online. I started from the very basics of chess and got up to a 1400 rating on Lichess. It was very helpful and I learned alot. I just found ChessMood and I am intrigued by the idea of using ChessMood. If you had to choose between a 1-1 coach or ChessMood which would you choose?
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I prefer a family of coaches instead of one coach only if this is what you ask ?
For starters, it doesn't have to be one or the other! Many people who are trying to maximise their improvement are spending multiple hours per day on chess, so there is plenty of space there for ChessMood plus a 1-1 coach. I imagine that most chess coaches will assume you are also studying from other sources, so in that sense ChessMood can be in a similar category as chess books or online services like Chessable. Also note that some coaches are comparatively expensive compared to ChessMood. If you want or need a GM coach, expect to pay 100 USD or more per hour. So rather than 4 coaching sessions with a GM coach each month, I would choose 3 coaching sessions plus keeping my ChessMood subscription and having some cash left over too!
You could always do both. Coaches are great as they can go over your games and help notice you patterns or blind spots in your current thinking. Pre-made courses are great for helping you work on specific things like tactics, endgame, openings, etc.
Question about Rossolimo
If i am not wrong in the Rossolimo course you d ont have the modern variation. 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3Bb5 g6 4 O-O Bg7 5 c3 Nf6 6 Re1 O-O 7 d4 d5 8 e5 Ne4 9 Be3 or Bxc6 bxc6 and then Be3
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I asked the same question in this thread as I remember https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-channel/rossolimo-5c3-d4-line-question
Doubt in sicillian
Hi all, I just played an online game. In which my opponent went for some strange setup with ...e6 and ...g6.In the game I did not now where to develop the Bishop because on c4 it would anyway b limited with e6-f7 pawns and Bb5 was always comming under ...a6 {at that point there was no piece on c6 to exchange with}.It would be very helpful if anyone could tell me how to solve this problem. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thank you in advance
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Very hard for anyone to answer without some specifics such as a position or link to a game. Chess is almost always a team effort with the material so whether or not Bc4 is the right move depends on everything else. As discussed quite a few times in the courses and streams, e6 with g6 comes with the drawback of weakening the dark squares around the king. If the dark squared bishop can be swapped these holes can become homes for pieces. A knight on f6 and a queen on h6 is scary business for Black all things being equal. So what about the light squared bishop? The danger on c4 is d5 supported by say Ne7, which is mentioned several times in the part 1 anti-sicilian course. However it is useful if you can get f5 in since either it's diagonal gets opened or it might prevent a recapture with the fpawn after fxg6 plus pressure on e6. Similarly on e2, which sometimes is passive, a h4 h5 push is supported. It all depends on the specifics.
?Yes, exactly as David said, we need more details because it is impossible to recommend anything with just this explanation. Please add the move order or the game in order to be able to help.?
The move order is 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.f4 e6 4.Nf3 Bg7 this was what I was talking about
Benko vs 1.e4?
Hi coaches and CM family! Had a new interesting idea vs 1.e4 it's 1...b5!? and we play in the benko style, just against 1.e4. Of course white would be too scared to take 2.Bxb5 as we gain tempo with a6 and b file. Even stockfish 18 agrees with this. I also checked this with cloud 100.000K engines and we're good to go. What do you think?
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Happy April fools Day, Paulius! ;-)
Nice April Fools from a chess supplier today. Watch 100,000 ideas played at 30 frames a second to absorb everything in an hour. Yours for 499 dollars. On a serious note has high speed training like this ever been tried? I don't imagine it would work.
Ahahahaha :D :D :D
Nice one! I didn't notice it was posted yesterday. Was almost getting a heart attack and was about to exclude you from the ChessMood team, Paulius :D :D :D
DOUBTS REGARDING BENKO GAMBIT
I HAPPENED TO PLAY BENKO GAMBIT d4 Nf6 c4 c5 d5 b5.. what if he plays next move b3.. how to attack it.. and make weakness for white and win for black
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b3 is solid but seems a little passive. White isn't losing though, so no guarantee of a win :-) I think there are many good moves after b3. The one time I faced it I played e6 which was fine, and I ended up winning the game after some mistakes by my opponent.
Hi Sreenath,
The overall downside of that decision is the opened b file after black takes on c4. Black can use it for heavy pieces. After building fianchetto and castling it's logical to put the rook on b8 and fight for the file.
Sicilian GP 2..a6 OTB game, some questions
Hello! During the weekend I finished playing OTB in Lithuanian chess league and had some interesting games and now questions where I made mistakes :). I present you my 5th round game vs 2270 elo player. Feel free to make your suggestions. I'm especially interested what are white's plans after 9...Ng8 or 10...Kf8. I thought about it long during the game, but didnt find good solution. Thanks for your input. For some reason I cannot attach the pgn in the post (maybe too many comments or smth), so here it is https://www.chess.com/a/2c9GQ4H6EZT2S
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I noticed the interesting possibility of 8.Nf4 which threatens e5 winning 2 pieces for rook+pawn. Did you consider this possibility? I then put the position into Stockfish and let it run to depth 42 where it slightly prefers Nf4 to e5. I played down a few of the lines and it looks like a reasonable way to fight for the advantage. It might not be any better than e5, but I personally would be happier playing that position with my king's bishop still on the board :-)
bumping this thread, would like CM GM opinion on this game, thank you.
Forum - New Policies
Dear friends,
I want to reveal one thing.
One of the most common advice I'm getting from business advisers is that we should remove the forum…
“What if in the future you have 100,000 students and everyone writes 10 questions a day… ” - they say.
And they're correct. The business model with the forum is weak and vulnerable.
But…
As I didn't create ChessMood for making money or for making a billion-dollar business, but to help chess players, I want to keep forum very-very much…
I want to help our students whenever they have questions. Myself, when I was climbing to GM, I didn't have people to ask questions…
However, recently some of our students are just bombarding us with deep questions, much more advanced than their levels.
Here is the thing:
Each time you ask a deep question and we spend 30 minutes answering it, we could record material for you in that time.
Please, keep this in mind. Please!
We aren't in the Maldives chilling and drinking cocktails from Pineapple. (Like I used to do in Thailand ?)
We're working 6 days a week, coming office at 8 AM, leaving it at 10 PM.
Today is Sunday, and I'm at the office, with the chess team working on the course about “How to stop blunders”…
We're working on many courses, adding features… And much more.
One day, I'm going to record a video and show what's going on here, what's the process behind every 1 hour uploaded video.
Yes, we created this forum, so we can help you any time you have a question.
But when some of our students start to abuse this option, bombard us with many questions a day, questions that would be advanced even for Super GMs, it's making us exhausted… We're stopping recordings to answer that questions, instead of recording super important courses which will immediately improve your chess.
And it'll make us think about options:
1. Change terms of service
2. Refund and remove some of the students
3. Add forum polices
4. Add a different plan and allow asking questions to forum manually
Or something else…
Which will be very sad for me to do.
You're welcome with smart questions! We're very happy to see them. We're happy to see whenever we made a mistake in the courses.
But not happy to see a long message, proving that Alpha Zero shows +0.25 instead of Stockfish s suggested move, after which it is +0.02.
When on move 27 instead of our suggested move where is +3 winning, there is an option to get +3.5…
I'm not going to mention someone particular who touches our mood negatively with long posts and advanced questions.
I'm just kindly asking you to keep in your mind, whenever you ask a question, that,
Each time we come to answer your question, we were recording something important for you.
Thanks for understanding my dear champions.
I love what I do. Our team loves what we do. And we love what we have created so far, people whom we found through ChessMood, the amazing students we met, and celebrated success with them.
And I really hope, we'll never need to change the policies of the forum.
Thank you!
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I think the above is clear plus very fair and reasonable Avetik. As somebody who spent over 30 years in 'corporate life', latterly in directorship positions I can empathise. Dealing with the expectations of the general public can be problematic and when your product is aimed at an 'intellectual hobby' for most but one that can induce obsession in a minority, then you really do have to manage expectations and establish protocols that enable the business to focus on product development and positioning. However, I would venture to suggest to you that there is another reason to retain the forum. It engenders a sense of community. In the several threads I have initiated I have been pleased at the level of very useful input from other Pro-Members and sense of collaboration in a common purpose. In fact, I feel that most of my questions are already partly answered by other members more skilful &/or experienced than myself. Unlike say a soccer forum, where some threads can descend into acrimonious arguments, I like the obvious goodwill within the ChessMood forum and want to compliment you on setting the right tone that engenders this culture.
I agree with you. People are like that because the chess industry lets you think you constantly need to buy new books with last novelties if you don't want to be out-prepared by your opponents. And here we are when buying books after books prevent you to improve! ? We should not forget about middlegame and endgame! By the way, Chessmood commented games are just wonderful for that! ? I hope people will understand, and I hope they will continue posting on the forum. I like when people share their tournament games with analysis, ask for advice and recommendations, look for sparring-partner, want to organize training tournaments, etc ? Eagerly waiting for the next courses ?
"Spirits that I've cited - My commands ignore." Coach, I do agree. But having in mind the way ChessMood promoted its courses ("crushing") and site ("all prepared/answered by Grandmasters"), I won't be too surprised about members going (too) deep into the lines with the ultimate authority on their hands. You and coach Hovhannes pointed it out many times: There might be some kind of ultimate truth/authority, but ChessMood is dedicated to people who are not scientists playing correspondence (email) chess but who play OTB or online against other humans with a limited amount of time and who like to win even if "objectively" they had missed "better" moves in the opening. Why not do the following: If in your opinion a question goes way too far over what the course is about - why not channel it to a dedicated deep (engine) dive thread. Those who like to scientifically work on opening theory can discuss the question. But you and your team can focus on the content that fits most of the members' needs. And now and then you and your team can jump on of the scientific discussions if you want (I guess somehow those questions sometimes are some kind of challenge to you, too).
I don't know if I'm in this category, but if I play a game (blitz/rapid/OTB) or see someone played it in suggested course line, then it means it's a valid question. First I try to figure it out on my own via searching database using engines and usually find answer for myself and mark it in my pgns, but if it's still unlear about the plan how to proceed in that position then of course I'll ask players who are better than me - GMs, better players in this forum. If my question is 'super-advanced' and 'only on GM level' I don't agree as that position was played on my or similar FM level and can be played next time, so I wanna be prepared and I wanna learn. I can stop asking this stuff, but then what's the purpose of this forum if I can't?
?GM Avetik I have just started to watch your webinar for today 29/3/22 and stopped the recording at 8:26 when you tripled 0(O-O-O). Without any recourse to engines I said why cant your opponent play Rxe7 ? Bxe7 Nxc6 bc6 Ba6+ Kb8 Qb3+ 1-0. Please point out my errors. Thank you Mike
Hi Avetik, I think the courses, the events and the content you give at ChessMood are really top class. I will be looking forward to any courses you produce and don't want the fact that you have to answer forum questions to delay the process of producing great content. As a member, who wants to improve I would much rather you spend time preparing and producing courses and events. Sadly, having a forum where all the questions are answered by GMs is not scalable as a business model and while the forum is nice from a community perspective it isn't worth your or Gabuzyan's time. Think of it like this, as pro-members we are collectively paying your business money to create content to help us improve. This money is not well spent on answering forum questions and so we don't want you distracted by the forum. The courses and events are where the real value in ChessMood comes from. A question should only attract your attention under certain circumstances. 1. If there is an actual error in one of the given lines that should be put forward in a separate thread called "Possible Corrections" that someone in the team other than a GM can then check with an engine to see if it is correct. If they agree they can add it to your re-recording schedule at a later date and add a quick reply to inform the membership that this is scheduled to be worked on at some point or tell the questioner that they are mistaken. 2. Anyone can add a question and then people can donate Mood Coins to the question - using the coins as a kind of voting mechanism Only when a question has received more than 500 or 1000 Mood coins, for example, does the GM need to answer as you will know that plenty of members are interested in it. Then Qs about move 27 in some line just won't get the votes to qualify. The simple Q's asked by beginners answered satisfactorily by 2000+ rated players also won't get the votes to qualify as they will already have "Accepted Answer" status. Members can either donate Mood coins to the question or vote on an answer already given as an accepted answer. If I asked "Who invented Tom and Jerry?" it wouldn't need a GM response because it also wouldn't receive the votes because it is a silly question. But feel free to answer it if you want ? Then you will only be left with the gems that the community as a whole really want you to answer. This is my favourite idea. What do you think of that? This is actually a small policy change from "every question will be answered by GMs" to "every question has the potential to be answered by GMs if the community hasn't already answered it satisfactorily. " This will be much more scalable and will allow the community to continue to interact and support each other and allow you to concentrate on creating great courses! Thanks to you and all the team for everything you're doing.
The best games of March, 2022, and the prizes
Hello ChessMood family, hello champions and future champions!
Welcome to the "Best games of March, 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 February, 2022:
Ilja Haitin
Mik B
Green
Rob Dzedzic
Yuma Okabe
Replies
Hello ChessMood family!
Thank you for sharing your games! We’re very proud of the chess you’ve played and the ideas you’ve implemented from the courses! Keep up the good work! :)
Moving on, here’s the list of prize winners for February month:
The first prize goes to Ilja Haitin for their classic-style attack in this game.
https://www.vint.ee/en-gb/replay/12642824/
The second prize goes to Mik B for showing how to crush Black after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nxd4 5.Qxd4 c5?
https://www.chess.com/game/live/39401970291
The third prize goes to Green for finding some beautiful attacking moves in this game!
https://lichess.org/bBkjTEWG#56
Rob Dzedzic takes the fourth prize for showing great understanding in the Caro-Kann Exchange variation.
https://lichess.org/s21DLVWu#20
Yuma Okabe bags the fifth prize for this attacking game in the Pirc.
https://lichess.org/nIBnnJT3/white#39
Congratulations to all the winners and thank you once again everyone for sharing your games!
https://lichess.org/3uG5DDgfwol1
https://lichess.org/XaTsv5IsKun8
Whose king is unsafe? https://www.chess.com/game/live/40040363195
super attacking game!! https://lichess.org/Ss46RsL1/white
how to play GP vs 2..a6 variation https://www.chess.com/game/live/40242659747 quick GP knockout https://www.chess.com/live#g=41282444801 acc dragon attack on the q-side typical plans in Re8,e6 var https://www.chess.com/game/live/40417201297 acc another game, good I remembered b6 theory idea vs aggro f4 line, txs CM! https://www.chess.com/game/live/40417781775 crazy pirc (as usual) https://www.chess.com/game/live/40504242655
Nice attacking game in Caro-Kann Exchange variation. https://lichess.org/5KGRca7s
https://lichess.org/41BwSy0g/black#43 Nice moves that I saw on move 22, after my opponent played Ra2.
https://lichess.org/YhqROmyu/white#67 I play against IM Eric Rosen and He played Stafford Gambit! I play chessmood Stafford Gambit Refutation line, and I got his queen and winning position!! But I used too much time and Rosen flagged me? But I played perfect!!
https://www.chess.com/game/live/40480856629 Beautiful game with a POG Sacrifice at the end!
https://www.chess.com/game/live/40533015549 I played against 1950 player. and I am 1850 player. And I have defeated him in 12 movies very badly.
https://lichess.org/nb1fO46v/white#0 Nice attacking game! I played one of the best move I have ever played (24th move - I spent 50seconds to calculate the variations and almost flagged because of that but I'm proud about the move + my calculation because it's usually not my strength!)
https://www.chess.com/live#g=40637435639
https://www.chess.com/live#g=40638048941
Sicilian Dragon, mouseslip on move 16 .. then SLP! https://www.chess.com/game/live/40618774517
Sicilian https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/40428627101?tab=analysis
Applying Coach Avetik's concept of a deadly pin... https://www.chess.com/live/game/40839032549
Another good game played in the bullet time control!
Game played in the seventh round of the Cannes chess tournament (my first tournament), open C, I had the black pieces. https://lichess.org/study/7HacmSfg/znbD2HsY
?Beating a 2252 on Lichess 5min+3 13/3/22 1Nc3 c5 2 e4 Nc6 3f4 g6 4Nf3 Bg7 5Bb5 e6 6O-O Nd4 7d3 Nxb5 8Nxd5 a6 9Nd6+ Ke7 10e5 Nh6 11Nfg5 f6 12ef+ Bxf6 13Nge4 Bd4+ 14Kh1 Nf5 15c3 Nxd6 16cd cd 17f5 Nf7 18fe fe 19Qf3 Qf8 20b3 Qg7 21Ba3+ Ke8 22Qxf7+ Qxf7 23Nd6+ 1-0
Outplayed opponent in a queenless game and prevented counterplay. https://lichess.org/MzjcFCL3VC2x
https://lichess.org/Z4v5cRuWduuB Draw with a fm.
Tried new French BlackMood opening, with nice tactical trick to win (saw the sequence after move 22) https://lichess.org/wE6L2HkaE9Cg
beautiful game! https://lichess.org/0BuCWmL7/white#0
pawn checkmate!! https://lichess.org/Dqofg6XL/white#53
Mating attack against English opening. https://lichess.org/2Xu3Kzp78HUx
Positional advantage!! https://lichess.org/Yi6VOTvr/white
Perfect game! https://lichess.org/Aqx6Mpi6/black#0
two games with rook sacrifice - scotch and caro-kann https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/41262001365?tab=analysis https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/41526674773?tab=analysis
Beautiful Greek gift! https://lichess.org/EcUwqs8o/white#31
A completely lost game, lost queen ultimately turned around by a persistent b1 knight Watch the knight from the beginning...what a game! Avetik's advice about not giving up pays off. https://lichess.org/9SodM6zh#0
An interesting exchange French - not boring at all! https://www.chess.com/game/live/41365305509
super fast development and attack! https://lichess.org/M6u2D9oa/white
What a swindle! Nd4!! and Rxd4!! https://lichess.org/7BGzS36a/black
12 move check mate vs 2300 https://lichess.org/JS6OrS5c5VsQ
17.Bxb6 and cute finish for a mating matador https://www.chess.com/live/game/42140356897
18...Nxc3! https://www.chess.com/game/live/40914613379
?8 move win on Lichess vs 2360 at 5 min +3. 27/3/22 Voprak v Nazs 1 Nc3 d5 2 e4 de 3 Nxe4 e5 4 Bc4 Bf5 (Be7?? Qh5 1-0) 5 Qf3 Qd7?? 6 Ng3 (Ng5) Bxc2 7 Qxb7 Qc6 8 Bb5 1-0.
Chessmood repertoire beats the French Advance. #frenchattack #Kd7!! https://lichess.org/zX8AsHnj/black#56
My first game in this early knight sacrifice line of the Petroff
Positional exchange Caro Kann, 7...Qb6 line https://www.chess.com/live/game/42319281143
https://lichess.org/8gXI2UB1/black My immortal 2 rook sacrifice
A nice win ! https://lichess.org/HsrK1weeBYjF
An interesting win https://lichess.org/ygFpLUgkdLzq
Our line against Scandinavian 2. - Nf6 https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/42450609749?tab=analysis
https://lichess.org/aZF1Sxcl Just 1 hour before the deadline I play a 2 rook sacrifice.
https://lichess.org/4Lkv041x A kingside attack with a Tactic Ninja finish
Day puzzle
Very instructive today! (I didn't solved it by the way...)
Thought I had to go 4 mate cause pieces were too far...but...
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Me too i had a problem with the today's puzzle. I think that it is the best way to keep your mind fresh
And today...I didn't realise I was losing the rook after pushing g4 but then I saw was mate with f5
01/06/2021
That was another tricky one... after the Q sacrifice I thought about draw by repetition and went 4 it but... I was wrong!!
Today's puzzle (2021-01-21) was quite difficult. I almost given up and wanted to play a random move, but finally I have solved :)
Today 24 1 seemed too easy... it was... if I had paid attention till the end????????????
Ohhhhhh... yesterday one...26 January was really tricky! Still not have learned to calculate correctly
Really tricky one today...seemed so easy, pay attention to last move!
It's much easier when there are not too many pieces ;)
Today again very tricky...I didn't thought about promoting to R.
By the way last move seemed the same Ra7+ or Rf5+... is it really the same? Seems draw anyway... what am I missing?
Ohhhh...today's one (8/4) again very tricky in last move... let's say... don't premove!
And although paid attention... last move was wrong 16/4/2021
And today, 1st time, I considered not to promote to Queen????????????????????????
IoI last two days'puzzles 30 April 1st may were very nice! No way to think about that!
But very instructive! I will in future!
04/05/2021 today again...distraction...didn't get it...
09 05 2021...& when you think you have done a great job... last move... pay attention at the last move! I missed that again... but one day I'll do the last move too!
23 5
Very difficult one
24 5
Again... tricky one... when will I learn?
14/6
Really nice one! Of course not solved at 1st attempt (think was 5th)
Easy one 1st & 2nd of july, solved fastly
Probably easy 3rd of July if you see mate pattern... not solved IoI
15 7
Very nice and instructive one... of course didn't solve it
16 july
Difficult one but 4 the 1st time I solved it!yesssss!
I solved today's one by using imagination. Once I imagined the idea then finding move order was not tough. After so long checked cm puzzle.
August 15
Very nice one and very glad I solved it! Impressive Knight power!
28 September 21
Tricky one today... pay attention till the end...
Wow!...5 right solutions out of six... and the wrong one only because of the move order but caught the idea! Today's one in few seconds! Amazing!
Today's one, pogozian, was repeated, I solved it in less than 10 seconds
Attention, ah no, distraction, no, ahhh tr ...
The Forbidden fruit
When you were little, you have perhaps read a story about three daughters of the miller and an evil enchanter.
There was one room in his castle forbidden to enter. Where the daughters tempted? I am sure you know what happened...
Full story can be found here: https://storiestogrowby.org/story/spellbook-in-the-forbidden-room/
It is a bit like Chess Mood publishing the openings courses supported by deep computer analysis supposedly showing a path to become a grandmaster. have you been tempted, like me, to learn them, despite a warning that they are not suitable for my ELO range.
It is obvious that most users who are like me bellow 2200 ELO skip the warning and are doing exactly the opposite. Just look at the number of openings posts in the forums versus the rest.
Especially a good indicator are the posts claiming that the computer is showing a better continuation in the move ##. Who is at fault? The one who has made the forbidden fruit so tempting, or all of us who do not follow the guidance. Most likely, both parties are at wrong.
While I do not hold high hopes that users will change, Chess Mood should try to do better. I do not want to sound negative, so here is my proposal to improve the situation.
Personally, I find the best way to learn an opening is to analyze my own games and the model games. This way I get familiar with the ideas and patterns of the opening, but also with the middle game concepts out of the opening and with the typical endgames.
Usually, I would first find a model game that has already been analyzed online, preferable on YouTube. before watching the video, I would spend two hours analyzing the game, and writing down my notes. Afterwards, I would watch the grandmaster analysis and compare it to mine. I can guarantee 100% that this way you are better equipped to play the opening, and ideas stay much longer in the memory.
Now how could this be done even better on the Chess mood website? I have a very simple idea:
1. In the beginning of the week (i.e. Monday), Chess Mood posts a model game in the forum without commentary.
2. Chess mood users then have 2-3 days of time to analyze the game., without the help of the engines, which is a mandatory requirement.
3. Friday is the day when everyone uploads his or hers commentary as a reply to the same post, indicating their current ELO range.
4. On Saturday Chess mood uploads GM commentary, or even better links to a video analysis of the game.
This way the number of model games would significantly increase in time. Moreover, everybody could see how their commentary compares to other players at the same level, how it compares to higher rated players and finally how it compares to GMS.
What do you think?
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This is more or less the way I created my repertoire before joining ChessMood. I used the Yusupov books that have dedicated chapters on openings. First they lead you through some annotated model games with diagrams in between where you should think about the next move ("pause the video"). Then the chapter ends with 12 exercises and in the solutions you find more model games. Although the main courses do include more and more model games (especially on the Scotch Game and the English Opening if I remember correctly), the new WhiteMood course does not. But I expect that this course will too in some time.
One thing to add: Not model games in a strict sense, but still very instructive are the games from the Rocketing to ... streams. With opening tree ? it is very easy to download the games and play through them (before or after or even without watching the stream).
Robert, you're right. There were many business/concepts related mistakes we did. I was absolutely beginner.
And we're fixing now the gaps, as you can see.
WhiteMood,BlackMood openings for below 1,800 players…
Tactic Ninja… How to stop blunders, How to win the winning positions and much more are coming.
We're daily thinking and implementing things to help our students to improve faster.
Your last suggestion may possibly work, but then we'll need to create a separate pricing plan, as with thous thousands of students, it'll not work. It can work with group lessons.
Assessing weak pieces
Hi - I started reviewing PRO members materials and I am loving them. In a middle game beginners course, GM Avetik says the red circled pieces are weak pieces. I am an amateur player, but can someone explain why these two pieces are considered weak pieces. In any game, how do we identify the weak pieces. Any suggestions, champions????
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Both red circled pawns are backward pawns (which cannot be protected by other pawns), therefore, they are considered to be weak, and also both pawns are on half-open files, meaning they can be easily attacked by rooks or the queen
Larsen OP_1.Nf3 transposition
Hi chessmood family, My next opponent (with white) in a OTB tournament he'll play against me this line.. 1. Nf3 c5 2. b3 Nc6 3. Bb2 d6 How could we keep the idea of the Larsen OP (like coach Gabuzyan say, use the pawn structure against the enemy bishop) and play e5 closing the structure? White have d4 push and the enemy bishop stay very strong and open in the diagonal! Thank for the help!!
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Hi Furiosi This line is fully covered in the Larsen's Opening course, section 3. You will be well prepared!
English OP_ Botvinnik line sacrifice refutation with 7.d3...
Hi chessmood family and team, in my second tournament I played a 1817 elo player and used this idea against me. 7. d3...( maybe he was scared to enter in the sacrifice line). I don't know how to responde and this is the theory line that I found! It's interesting but black need some move to castle....I managed the pressure but I lost the game...I didn't feel comfortable with black in that position! please help me! 1. c4 c5 2. Nc3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. e4 a6 6. Nge2 b5 7. d3 Rb8 (very important to avoid the pin of the white bishop) 8. O-O d6 9. f4 Bd7 (white plan is f5 push) My question is (For coach GM Gabuzyan and chessmood family): what are our plans and idea? How to finish our development? I felt that It was a sharp and difficult position!
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Hello Furiosi Alessio, What do you play against first move e4? I looked at the last position, it looks very similar to closed Sicilian positions but in my opinion much better version for black, cause white's pawn on c4 is a kinda target and we have a nice square on d4 for the knight, also whenever he plays f5 we get another square on e5 as well, it's not really easy for white to attack, whenever he pushes a pawn something weakens. I prefer black's position there.
Instead of Bd7, which is a good move, I would have gone already for Nd4, and make this square ours. It will limit his dark square bishop and if it gets exchanged we can have a passed pawn on d4 when they take on c4 and our rook will be very happy, if they don't do it, we can take also on c4. The positions may be similar to the Benko, but here you will have the pawn on a6 which makes it equal in pawns. The game will get very sharp but I believe that having a pawn on d4 will be very difficult for white. I hope this helps a bit too.?
Sicilian - Alapin - 2.c3
Hello champions! ?
We’ve already emailed you about the launch of “Countering the Sicilian Alapin” course, which shows you how to react against 1.e4 c5 2.c3.
If you missed it, here’s the link to the course ?
https://chessmood.com/course/counter-sicilian-alapin
So why did we decide to launch a separate course?
Well, the Alapin is one of the most important Anti-Sicilian sidelines and is especially super popular at the amateur level. So we wanted to give you in-depth and practical coverage of this opening.
In the old course, the focus was more on opening theory. But from our streams, we noticed that on low levels players don’t know how to deal against 2…Nf6 and often don’t follow theory.
In the new course, you’ll see how you can get a better position if White strays in the opening. Here the focus is not just on theory but also on moves you’re likely to face in a real game.
So even if you’ve prepared the Alapin from the old course, you can build on that knowledge by preparing for the moves you’re likely to face in a real game.
At the same time, we’ve also shortened a few variations so that you can prepare a basic repertoire against the 2.c3 Sicilian fast and go deeper later through our advanced sections.
Apart from that, you’ll also learn to play against:
- The Delayed Alapin (2.Nf3 with 3.c3)
- The dangerous Smith-Morra Gambit (1.e4 c5 2.d4)
- Passive options for White after 2…Nf6
We highly recommend you watch the course as it will help you understand the Alapin on a more deeper level.
If you have any questions related to the course, please ask them in this thread.
Enjoy the course!
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Thank you Chessmood ?
Thanks for the improved course! Just one thing I noticed comparing my pgn files in section 2 - 4.Nf3 video 9 around 0:25 there is mentioned again 9...Be6 move vs 9.0-0. Imo in this case it's not a good idea, as white has 10.Ng5! and we cannot take on b3 cause Nb6 and f7 would be hanging. Black would have to go then 10..Bd5 but then 11.d3 white gains some edge, cause e4 is good square for the N and Be3 is also coming. Thus i suggest an improvement 9..Bf5 with e6 coming next. Of course white now has tricky 10.Bxf7 but black is ok if he knows couple of moves.
Mister Gaby, Just to let you know I studied your new Alapin section up to the advance bit and for the first time picked up most of the ideas on my first studying. You are very good presenter. Very clear, structured and you answer all my questions as I am actively learning. Unlike Mister Avetik, who speaks too quickly and does not allow time for the learner to follow and only half explains points, you provide excellent coverage. I always need a second showing of Mister Avetik video and to sit down by myself and workout what is not included. I have always accepted the Sicilian Moria and have always played the line I worked out before seeing in a book 1 e4 c5 2 d4 cd 3 c3 dxc 4 Nxc3 Nc6 5 Bc4 e6 6 Nf3 d6 7 O-O Nf6 8 Qe2 Be7 9 Rd1 e5. First game after watching your Alapin and a 2300 player plays the Morra I play your suggestion transposing to the Alapin I play Be6 and get an easy draw !
Thanks very much for the new Alapin course! May I ask a question about the 3.d3 line. After 1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.d3 Nc6 4.Nf3 e5 (the original Alapin course recommended g6) 5.Be2 d5, I've actually faced this position many times. I also got very similar positions when I was playing 1.e4 e5 before. Here my opponents almost always play Nbd2, they never play exd5. They will secure the e4 pawn by Qc2 or c4 (forcing Black to exchange the d5 pawn or close the center with d4). The pawn structure in the center is fixed, then they go Nf1-g3-f5, or h3, Nh2-g4 and start a kingside attack. I've been crushed many times when I castle kingside and faced this attack. My question is: What is our strategy when they maintain the e4 pawn and go for this kingside attack? Thanks, Alex
