Chess forum by Grandmasters

How professional chess players use chess Softwares

Hi Friends,

1-How professional chess players use chess Softwares and Engines?  (Fritz, Chessbase, ...)

2-What is the best way to learn them? Do you know any offline or online course? 

Note: Of course software manuals are available to us, but I am not sure reading hundreds of pages would be the best approach.

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Daily Chess Puzzle - 10/15/20

Hi all,

I enjoyed the creative 3 move checkmate in today's chess puzzle.  But it also seems after White’s first move, if Black captures the rook instead, then after 2. Bd5 check and 3. Bxa2, White can also win, even though he will lose the f-pawn, and will have the wrong colored bishop for the rook pawn on the h-file, because the White king can come around the back and win Black’s h4 pawn just in time to shoulder the Black king from reaching the h8 corner, for the typical draw (against a rook pawn on the h-file and a light squared bishop).   Is this correct?  If so, the f-pawn is critical to both winning variations (otherwise the Black king would head immediately to the corner). 

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Your assessment is correct - in your line Black wins the f2 pawn and then White moves his King to f4 (opposition) and then wins h4 and promotes the white h3 pawn (one possible line could be ... Bxa2, Kf5, Bb1+, Kf4, Kd4, Kf3, Ke5, Kxf2, Kf4!, Kg2, Kg4! ... +-

Without a white f-pawn and without a black h-pawn, the white pawn on h3 could not win, as the black King would go directly to the h8-corner, which cannot be prevented

Study- Happiest Moment

It's always amazing whenever we study something and learn and grasp ideas from our study and dedication. Here I wanna share my story and commitment which I made on 13th sep. I made a commitment that I will finish Part-1 of Ian Anderson's Visualization Book. It covers 800 puzzles based on different ply and themes.  My training started on 13th but in the middle I took 2 days of fun break but then I came back to my book and now tonight I finished it. All 800 puzzles I did and I also felt the results during I was doing this book. My training partner Jay noticed a huge difference in my visualization skills. He said, Abhi, you are improving. I also felt difference in the way I analyze positions. My intuition and my feeling of resulting positions improved rapidly. Now tonight in 27th day of duration I finished the book and it motivated me so much. It was simple book for those who are like good in visualization but not for me who played with his knowledge of classics and intuition. But I knew my vision is so bad. So I worked and finished the part-1. Now I am gonna take a week break from visualization book training and I will start the Part-2 next week and then I will commit myself again for one month. I know next book will be super complex for me because it will be based on combinations but after solving this book I felt like yes I will also finish that one in one month. 

Anyways happiness time for me. Hard work pays off!!

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Amen!

Congrats @Abhi_yadav! Please, let me one question: Do you recommend to make the visualization exercises looking directly at the book diagrams or using a real board?

Up-to- date?

How are you guys? Are you guys up to date with chessmood contents?  I am not. I worked on a lot things but I missed few things like advanced section of french, happy pieces sections and few streams. Rest I did ok!

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Shortest game

What was your shortest game and what was the result?

If you remember that game, share it here.

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This is a funny one:  I lost in 6 moves. This was before joining ChessMood family.  I was playing Black. The notation is,

1. e4 c6

2. Nc3 d5

3. Nf3 dxe4

4.Nxe4 Nf6

5.Qe2  Nbd7

6. Nd6#  :)

Mysterious Moves in Chess

Hi guys, I hope you all are okay. I have an interesting question in my mind. Do you guys ever think about how to find mysterious moves in chess? I felt it today when I was analizing a position in Panchenko Mastering the Middlegame book. I saw 2 positions in which my mind was so stuck by the move of players because it looked not natural to me. It was deep move and unusual for me too. So, I called it mysterious move.  They are mysterious because the patterns behind the moves are not familiar to my mind.  My questions is how to find those mysterious moves in our own games or how to find these kind of moves during we analyse?  Is there any book based on mysterious moves?

In the first diagram you can see a mysterious move Re7!!. It's so mysterious to me and I think I saw this kind of move first time in my life. Position is extracted from Karpov vs Kasparov Moscow 1985. 

In the second diagram we see another mysterious pattern of Qh5-d1-Qa1-Qa3.

This kind of patterns forces me to think about how can I work on these kind of patterns so I i will find this kind of moves in my own games and also confuse my opponents too. I know these patterns are deep but if we find right resources then it will be easier for us to master this kind of typical patterns and we will improve rapidly. 

For example: In chessmood we already have wonderful courses but it would be superb if coach will think of making a course in future about mysterious moves so they will be normal for all of us.

Note: I do know the importance of classics and I am working on them but it will be wonderful if I will see courses on mysterious moves in chess or may be some books based on mysterious moves in chess so I will recognize those patterns in my own games too.

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Well, today is half your lucky day, because I remember the second diagram manouver. It is a Rozentalis game, and I saw it commented in Seven Deadly Chess Sins of Rowson first, and then here on the commented games by Avetik. So go straight there and look for the Rozentalis game and the wonderful explanations of your coach ;)

About the first move, who better to explain it than Kasparov himself? He says it's the most difficult move of his career...     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j1dgH9LyT0

Deep prophylaxis at it's best

I think I saw these examples but definitely forgot :D for me the second is more logical than the first, the first looks like a very deep move, I would never think about Re7.

Congrats!! Chessmood for another success story

Today, I have gone through an article about Kevin Goh Wei Ming-latest GM from Singapore & in this article he gives credit to prestigious chess coaches for his achievement.Here he discussed about chessmood & guidance of GM Avetik Grigoryan.

You can check the article:

https://chessbase.in/news/How-Kevin-Goh-Wei-Ming-became-a-Grandmaster

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How do you learn all the openings?

Wanted to see how people are approaching learning everything.  There’s just so much!  Thus far I’ve gotten a basic overview of the white openings, but none in real depth. It’s been hard to focus on just one because opponents can play anything and I find it more effective to learn by actually using them, rather than just watching the videos. Basically, I experiment with them as people play different lines, and then I go back to look at the different variations after someone plays something I’m not yet familiar with.  I’m about to start on the black side but I wanted to see if people have suggestions for approaches that might have proven helpful.  Thanks and keep improving!

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Hi Karl,

In the following post you can find some good advice:

https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-members/chessmood-opening-courses

Hi Karl

Coach has created very useful blogs on this topic.

https://chessmood.com/blog/how-to-memorize-chess-openings-variations

https://chessmood.com/blog/the-most-effective-way-to-create-chess-pgn-files

For myself, these approaches have worked very well, as it's better to understand the ideas rather than the exact moves. 

Hope this helps.

Crazy Game)

Hello Everyone!

Got lucky to play one of the most exciting blitz games in my life!

Here is the link  https://lichess.org/m1OXWRRja0og

How do you like it ?)

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Qh3!!! Great game sir!

Interesting & Instructive game.Qh3 was wonderful move.

Wow !!!! I'm so impressed. This is what we call "Gabuzyan style" :D

Names of your fav. Mentor?

Hi, I hope you all are great. I wanna know that who is your fav. chess mentors after chessmood mentors?

For me? It's Var Akobian and Yasser Seirawan (for positional games analysis )  and Maurice Ashley ( for attacking Games analysis)

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Facing a Sicilian with 2..e6

I'm probably facing the Sicilian this week.  I'm learning to play 2.Nc3, but haven't learned enough to be confident AND my opponent played 2..e6 the only time he faced it and that's not covered in the course.  The course, somewhere, gets to a Grand Prix attack against 1..c5, but I don't know if it's appropriate to try for that against 2..e6.  I liked to play the Smith-Morra, have spent more study-time that and my opponent accepted the gambit (and lost) the only time facing it.  Any ideas/advice?  We're both in the middle-1500s in Lichess classical and the game will be 45+45.

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Good chess players are known for their attention to detail, did you really check the Sicilian Courses for 2...e6. :)

https://chessmood.com/course/sicilian-defence-part-3

~ Tag- Fav. ChessMood Member ~

Hi guys, I am sure you all have your fav. ChessMood friends or players. Here in this post tag your ChessMood Besties!

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For me it's @Jay_Garrison , @Devansh_Shah . All of them are strong players and my study partners and because of them I learnt a lot about chess.

ChessMood team in Bundesliga

Hello champions! 
We have decided to participate in the Bundesliga on lichess.org... And of course, win it :) 

Our team will consist of ChessMood's coaches and PRO Members(only)! 

Anyone who wants can join our team! The team can have many members, the best 5 results of the team players will be calculated. So, everyone is welcome! 

The tournaments will be on Thursdays and Sundays at +3 ChessMood time (11 AM PST) 

Here is the link to the first tournament https://lichess.org/tournament/k0vKJOel
If you're not our team member on lichess you, please join us here: https://lichess.org/team/chessmood-pro  

Let's win the Bundesliga? :) 
Right Mood - Right Move! 
 

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Nice!! Let's win it!

The link to the tournament does not work because of the "." at the end, maybe it can be modified.

Commented Classical Games - great course

Just to say this is one of the best courses I've ever watched (and how I found out about ChessMood). A lot of love and care has gone into it, and am learning lessons every game.

The only improvement I can think of suggesting is by adding the main positions/lessons of each game as a number of pgn flashcards (or a pdf document) to make review later easier to keep memories of those games fresh. I'm doing this myself with my own custom software (and to be fair what I find interesting might differ to another person), but would be a useful touch.

Thanks,

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There have been some conversations in this forum about this already. Main ones I remember:

* there is a quiz for the main positions (https://chessmood.com/quiz/commented-classical-games)

* Coach recommended going through 1 game a day, to let the information sink in

I suspect @Abhi_yadav will have some further tips on how to approach studying these games.

Hey David! 
Thank you very much. 

Have you seen this quiz? It should be useful :) 
https://chessmood.com/quiz/commented-classical-games 

Chess.com Club League

Hey Guys! Me and my OTB Club are participation in the chess.com club's League... We are search of strong and experienced players I hope one of you can help our team win! 
All those who would like to play can type their chess.com username under this forum and I will invite by my chess.com username skipper_chess! here are the important details about the matches we will have

If you join our club, then matches will start : 

10:30 PM IST 

early November

every Saturday!

I hope you guys play for my OTB Club!

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Your Chess Room

I know many of you heard of chess table. Here for me it's chess bed hehehe. I sleep with chess books. 14 more books need to finish alone in next 4 months hehehe. I know my bed is not well organized but still it's my chess life and my own world. A world where no one bother me.

Share your chess room pic

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~ Commitment- Oct ~

Hi everyone, I hope you all are great and working on your skills to become a master or Grandmaster. I made this post to know about your commitment for this on going month. If possible then share it so I will learn something from your commitments.

Note: My commitment list is gonna be long so better I won't type heheeh. But it will be interesting to know more about chessmood family members

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What do you think about this chessvariant?

Bollwerk 178 is a chess like complex strategy game for two players.

Each player has 20 spectacular pieces and 25 supplementary stones at their disposal. The game is played on a board with 178 squares. The game board is in a constant state of change due to the supplementary stones.

The goal of the game is, occupying the opponent’s end field with a piece or a bomb. Whoever captures all his opponent’s pieces or immobilizes their opponent also wins.

Due to its complexity, the game is hardly predictable for humans, so that intuition, alert senses and strategic skills are required!

Over 2000 moves are available for just the first move, so that opening theory plays no role at Bollwerk 178.

A Kickstarter campaign is planned for the end of November 2020.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bollwerk178/bollwerk-178

The pitch video is allready online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4GPYG9gK0I

For detailed movement of the pieces and the game rules, please visit our website

www.bollwerk178.com

What do you think about this game?

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Here is the correct Link:

https://www.bollwerk178.com/

Another question in the Attack Against Caro-Kann Course

After 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.ed cd 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.Bf4 e6 (About 15 seconds into section 1, video 5) the move 7.Nf3 is presented. And after 7...Bd6 8.Bxd6 Qxd6 the next move is 9.Qe2 to prevent ...Ne4.

But what if Black goes for the idea 7...Ne4 and ...f5 (before Qe2), as the e4 square is attacked only once?

* I will mention I asked a similar question before, in a different position.

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I think after Ne4 we can continue the development of our pieces like Nbd2 or 0-0. After 0-0 if f5, Ne5 then Qh5 is coming, it looks dangerous for black.

Inguh, Ne4 with f5 is a good idea when we played f4 already.
When our pawn is on f2, in future we'll always play f3, asking the knight to go back and continue to play chess with his very weak pawn on e6 and weak square on e5. 

Chessmood opening courses

So I have been studying the Chessmood opening courses, but I don't seem to bee retaining the material very well and I'm getting hammered at online blitz, which drives me crazy.   The Maroczy Bind and most of the white opening  material has been especially difficult for me.

So what do I do?   Quit blitz for a month and just study, an idea I am toying with?  Go back to my old openings - Tromp, Jobava London, KID/Modern - which I really don't want to do.   Is there some sort of magic Chessmood order or way we are supposed to study that I'm missing?  

I see a lot of others succeeding here and that's great!  I mean I can't be that dumb! :-)

Any suggestions?  Thank you in advance!

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Can we talk on discord. So I can help you in better way? Without knowing a lot about ur knowledge and stuffs hard for me to judge why you are losing. If you are in chessmood discord group then ping me. I am chesslectures there. I am sure I will give u solution of your issues!

1- Play rapid games, or Blitz with increments: at least 5m+3s

2- Add new openings to your old repertoire one by one. You have give some time to yourself. Do not play all of them at the same time. for example start wit Chessmood black repertoire first, and continue playing your old white repertoire.

3- be consistent and persistent.

4- Do not play an opening if you do not believe in it. For example I do not trust the Benko gambit, and it has some psychological effects on me. Each time I play it, I feel guilty ;D , even when I get better positions, I feel I have cheated or something and I do not deserve winning with such a dubious opening ;D

Reversely, when I play the Nimzo/QID set up, I put all my energy to defend my opening choice, and it gives me extra motivation and energy, because I deeply love and believe in them. 

Note: In one of his courses, Ivan Sokolov says: LOVE the openings you play. That's the key

Hard to advise you what to do without seeing the types of mistakes you are making. Post some games and we can go from there.

Tom. have you reserved a welcome 1-1 call with our Grandmasters? 
It seems, no right? 
If so, please do, to get a study plan, which will be personalized for you.