Chess forum by Grandmasters

French Attack with 2.b3?!

I've been enjoying studying and playing the ChessMood openings, but had an OTB tournament game Saturday with black in a variation that I don't believe is covered in the course. It started 1.e4, e6; 2.b3. I wasn't quite sure what to do, but continued with 2...d5; 3.Bb2, dxe4. Any guidance on how to play this variation?

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Hi! I think this is quite playable line (definitely not dubious) for white as game from olympiad when GM Christiansen almost lost showed. https://www.365chess.com/game.php?gid=4357841 Black can get into trouble if he's not careful I had one OTB classical game (as black) vs this line and I played: 1.e4 e6 2.b3 d5 3.Bb2 dxe4 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Qe2 Bb4 (I like this move instead of defending e4 pawn, focus on development) 6.0-0-0 (of course he cannot take yet on e4, as d2 would hang) Qe7 7.Kb1 (after 7.Nxe4 idea is Ba3!? 8.Nxf6 Qxf6! 9.d4 Qe7 with ideas of a5, Nd7 I think black has reasonable counterplay) Bxc3! 8.Bxc3 Bd7 (in order to defend central pawn with Bc6) and I think black has very reasonable game, now 9.g4 is white's best (in the game it was 9.Qc4?! Bc6 with edge for black) h6 with messy play and chances for both sides, but as black we can be happy. Of course there are other ways for black to play with example Nc6 after Qe2, but I like this simple approach

Hi Randy,

First of all, I see nothing wrong in accepting the pawn and developing through the center, however, to break the opponent's gambit spirit we may even continue with 3…c5 - Nc6 just developed the pieces through the center, positions are not concrete and good central development is a good choice! 

I think 2.b3 should be !? as intereting move definitly not dubious?!. It's very dengerous move especially for blitz/rapid/ I'm playing this sometimes as white and I propose for black 3.Bb3 Nc6!? not taking pawn and quickly prepare 0-0-0. In my oponion taking pawn e4 require good preparation from black becasue white has easy attack Qe2-g4 or just sacking for attack

Feeling struck while solving puzzles

While solving puzzles, almost everyone sometimes gets a feeling of being "struck" at a position, especially when going through books of Aagaard, Volokitin, Ramesh, Hort, Nunn, and most importantly, Dvoretsky. So what you people do in such cases? I would love to hear out from our mentors!

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What's your rating? A lot of the time having to solve the puzzle is not the best attitude to have. If it can't be solved in a reasonable time play through the solution and try to figure out if and how you'd have solved it and maybe learn a new pattern.

If I'm stuck, sometimes I'll just go away from the puzzle for a few hours and come back to it later. It's amazing what a fresh perspective can do! If you've set up the position on a physical board, probably the first thing to do is double check you've set up the position correctly :-).

Also, getting stuck while solving puzzles is our bread and butter… Everyday happens, we usually do not spend more than 20 min in a position, in a real game you would not have so much time either. Then check the solution, understand the reason of your miss, and take note of it.

French Attack - Bishop exchanges

Hi I just played a game as black which went 1.e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. ed ed 4. Bf4 (not covered in the course) I responded 4. ... Nf6 5. Nc3 c6 however I see that most grandmasters play 4. .... Bd6 and allow the dark squared bishop to be exchanged. In the course it is emphasised that this is the wrong bishop for us to lose. I have looked at a few games and black does get equality, but I'm rather confused at what should be the strategy. I know that these rules of thumb don't apply in all situations but I don't understand why it is ok here. Any thoughts?

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I'd argue that once Bc1 has reached f4, it's no longer that bad of a bishop, and it's OK to trade it. Furthermore, ..Bd6 comes with tempo. Black gets to play ..Bd6 in one move (without first playing ..Be7 and ..0-0) and forces White to react. If White trades, Black's queen lands on a nice square (now Black controls the b8-h2 diagonal), and Black is ready to castle. Compared to ..Be7, the e-file also stays open for a rook. I'd argue that ..Bd6 is more of an attempt to equalize (by trading a piece), whereas ..Be7 keeps the game more complicated. Perhaps a better way to apply the good/bad bishop rule to this type of position is the following: When Black plays ..Bd6 before White has played Bf4, it's often a good idea for White to challenge this bishop with (say) Nc3-e2 and Bf4. Likewise, Black will often challenge White's Bd3 with (say) ..Nc6-e7 and ..Bf5.

How do I buy courses with moodcoins?

I am unable to buy moodcoins to unlock "9.Attack Against Caro-Kann with the Exchange Variation".I am unable to find how much moodcoins is needed to unlock the whole lessons and also the button to redeem it as well :/ By the way,how many free videos in the course am I legible as a basic member?For example : chess.com allows one video to be unlocked every week. thanks!

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You can buy the courses with moodcoins. Just select “Get lifetime acces for  …dollars”, click the button, and in the next screen you will see, there is the option of making the purchase with MoodCoins among others. We will have to improve the system to make it clearer but this is the way to do it at ?the moment.
As a basic member you can see all the unlocked videos, but no videos are unlocked every week.

After Endgame Roadmap

What's recommended to work in after the Endgame Roadmap course. Is the theoretical endgames course a good immediate follow up?

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Hi Dave,
Yes, I think that if you are studying endgames, this should be the best choice. 
After that, by all means check the the classical endgames course which is more advanced but you will be able to see many of the principles and moves studied in practice.
https://chessmood.com/course/classical-chess-endgames
Good luck and happy studying!!!? 

Not blunderproof yet.

Black to play and blunder.

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1..Qa5?? lol 2.Nxb5 or 1..c4?? 2.Nxb5 these would be obvious blunders ?

Tripling Best Pactice Question

Why is tripling in the order (Rook - Queen - Rook) the preferred method? R Q R Thanks in advance!

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The best is to have the queen behind both rooks. This is called "Alekhine's Gun", and you can find the classical game Winter - Alekhine, 1936 ?

Anti-sicilian part 3 dxe4 Nc6 a6 - video 7

Note there is a small inaccuracy here. 9... Bxe4 is not the only move to save things. After 9... Nf6 10. Neg5 if Black doesn't play the losing h6, and instead plays Bxf3 11. Nxf3 Qd5 12. fxe6 Bd6 - it's also 'level' though practically it's interesting. However it would be harder to see as well as parting with the B for N and Qd5 there is a further pawn sacrifice. Though I think 9... Bxe4 going to be much more likely for those who know what they are doing, and assume those rated 1900+ that play this line in long play might well know the trap at least. Am curious still what the intended material for the advanced section that didn't materialise was going to say about the position with or instead of 12. d4 in this line.

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Moodcoins

Just wondering, can moodcoins buy anything? And, if so, how?

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You can buy lifetime access to courses using moodcoins (or real money). Click on the orange "Get lifetime access" link for each course. The attached screenshot is from the Tactics Ninja course.

Hans Niemann: Cheating

Did Hans Niemann cheat vs Magnus Carlsen? Why does Magnus Carlsen think that Hans Niemann is cheating? If Hans did cheat, how?

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I don't think he cheated vs Magnus. The whole thing seems ridiculous.

?We do not know what happened but I found this thread on reddit that follows the latest developments if somenone is interested. Still maybe it would be better spending your time improving your game rather than reading gossips but nevertheless, here it is> ?

https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/x7igg5/megathread_hans_niemann_allegations/

Now with Aronian saying "Hans play a strange move,its a strange game" may spice up the whole situation!

Could i skip scotch games?

I ever use scotch games before meet chess mood but uncomfortable and low performance on the games. Should i try again and analysis? I feel uncomfortable and happy about position all the time

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I use the scotch game to reach from 1800 to 2200 elo in lichess so it is not a bad opening ? You need to make sure what happen to your games by analyzing them (lichess.org is always free for unlimited game analysis).A good opening is not enough to take you to a higher rating,you need to improve your middlegame by solving puzzles and study some endgames.Remember that low performances in your games does not always mean that there are problems with your opening ? All the best!

Model Classical Dutch Game

I've not looked at the Chessmood repertoire to see what the move order is in our lines, but just seen this demonstration of the classical Dutch in a Ginger GM speed run (1st game of the video) and it is a great illustration of Black's plan. No doubt something similar could happen from our English repertoire (or even in reverse Grand Prix as well). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xdg7yEUuG0

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All online chess account exposed

I have several chess accounts on several platforms,and sadly all of them are known by my opponents(even though I never use my real name).I am scared that they will make full opening preparation against me and so what should I do?Deleting my accounts or any other ideas?

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What is your rating? In general, I think you should not be afraid of opponent's preparation if you are below 2000. If you know well your lines from Chessmood, they will not surprise you (: But there are two solutions: 1) You can close your accounts and make a new one (but you should be sure they will not be able to access your games even if you closed your accounts) 2) You can make a new one where you practice your openings and start playing new openings with your others accounts. Like that, they can think you play new openings and prepare against them while you are just tricking them. Avetik also recommends to play 9 games/day with your "main account". So you can use your others accounts to play more games or when you are tired etc.. ?

@Iz a78 How would your opponents know all your accounts? That seems highly unlikely.

Troll them and play 1.c3 with White :D If 1...e5 you play 2.c4 and you got Sicilian with colors reversed and after 1...d5 2. Nf3 c5 3. c4 you're going into Benko Gambit :D

Scotch -8.h4

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.e5 Qe7 7.Qe2 Nd5 8.h4 Qb4 9.Nd2 Be7 10.c4 Ba6 11.Qe4 Nb6 12.a3 Qa5 13 Rb1 0-0 14.Bd3 g6 15.b4 Bxb4 16.axb4 Qa2 17.Rb2 Qa1 18.0-0 Rfe8 19.Nb3 Qa3 20.Rb1 Qxb4 21.h5 d5 22.Qg4 Rxe5 23.hxg6 hxg6 24.Bxg6 Qxc4 25.Be4 Kf8 26.Ba3 Ke8 27.Qg8 Kd7 28.Qxf7 Kc8 29.Qf8 1-0 Played in a tournament 90 min 40 moves, 30 min for the rest and 30 sec from start. Offline. Denmark. I was trying out Avetiks idea 8.h4 - today it went well.

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Nice game Erik!?

Next time please post it in one of the following threads accordingly, these are the threads to post our best games so everyone can learn from them and not have hundreds of individual posts.

Thanks!

https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/the-best-games-of-september-2022-and-the-prizes

https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/model-games-with-chessmood-openings-1513

recommended opening vs 1.Nf3 (2. g3, 3.Bg2...)

What is the recommended chessmood opening vs 1.Nf3. I understand that it can transpose to many different openings later on, so I guess we start with 1. .. Nf6 and if they continue with g3/Bg2 etc. J.

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I just copycat :)

https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-channel/1-nf3

1...Nf6 or 1...c5 would make the most sense.

I play 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 g6 and I will transpose to a Fianchetto Grunfeld most of the times, but one where White has lost his critical options of cxd5 because I basically go dxc4 whenever I can. Im not sure how consistent that would be for a Benko player though

If speaking about Blackmood we are going to choose the 1…e6 or if about the main repertoire we are choosing c5 setups with different transpositions.

Where are the course PGNs?

I'm an essential - not pro - member. I'd like to download course PGNs, especially the ones for the new Endgames Roadmap course. But I can't seem to find them anywhere. Can someone point me in the right direction?

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Hey, Not all the Chessmood courses have PGN. Usually, they provide PGNs for openings. They give the main lines and you have to complete them once you watched the full course to see if you memorized/understood everything correctly ?.

We provide the course pgns normally when all the course is finished and all the sections have been uploaded, never in between. Although it is true that not all courses have pgns, some have the quizz only. ?

Promotion idea

Why not offer say a few 6 month memberships as prizes to tournaments. In return ask they announce the prize at least once, add on the entry form if not too late and/or on the online entry for prizes / sponsors / prize donations, and ideally will leave a number of flyers with the other upcoming tournament info if you mail them. The prize could be a grading, junior or rated section prize where it's more likely to benefit to an improver. The idea targets would be large national tournaments that don't already have a 'competing' sponsor such as Chessable. For example Hastings: https://hastingschess.com/

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Not a bad idea. It would take some time and involvement in local tourneys though.

The first order of business is survival. Everything else is in essence secondary, if the business is not making a profit and/or the cash burn is an issue against agreed drawing facilities. However, for a niche hobbyist education business like Chess Mood, the input costs are likely to be low and the operating costs not high. So the strategic imperative revolves around how best to grow the revenue without a parallel increase in operating costs ? That leads to two potential business models or at least two marketing strategies. Namely --either focus on growing the customer base through cost effective engagement with the defined target market or segmenting the product offering and charging different prices for different levels of membership ( say Bronze <> Sliver <> Gold ). These are not mutually exclusive. Yet making the primary focus (and workload) on increasing and enhancing the existing product offering at the same price point IMO only works medium term if 1) you already have a very profitable business where customer retention is therefore key 2) all these incremental product benefits you are organising, enable you to develop a more successful promotional campaign and grow the customer base more effectively &/or charge more in the future. Within the promotional mix your idea David seems to have merit and is worth exploring. My son tells me that even some savvy IM's are making six figures ( $$$$$$) per year from Chess on Twitch. Maybe a Twitch profile with some feedback loop to the Chess Mood website is another idea. Or maybe that is just a time sink that deviates from what Chess Mood have as their mission. But it is easy to spend other peoples time for them !! So presumably the CM leadership will be working through how they want to proceed.

Question on Closed Sicilian (Nc3 and g3)

Hi all, I recently played a rapid game with an WFM in the Closed Sicilian: 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.d3 d6 6.h3 e5 7.Nge2 Nge7 8.Be3 Be6 9.Qd2 O-O 10.Bh6 f5 Then I faced a fast kingside attack. White exchanged the dark-squared bishops, castled long and pushed h4-h5-hxg6 and doubled rooks on the h-file. I played Rf7 to defend h7, later White made a mistake and in the end the game was drawn. Here's what I understand from comparing it to the course Sicilian Sidelines (Nc3 g3) No.9 (6.Be3). 1) I should have castled long or just play Kd7. I think my opponent was waiting for me to castle short first before launching the attack. 2) 6...e5 was wrong because White hasn't committed the knight yet and can play Nf3, although Ne2 was played in the game. If White plays f4 and keeps delaying moving the Ng1, Black should play e6 to make f5 hard to achieve. 3) 10...f5 was inaccurate, Qd7 was better not committing the king yet. Is this a fair understanding of what Black should do in such positions? Thanks, Alex

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Hi Alex, 

Not really Kd7, the center is not very closed and the king can be dangered, you did play well with e5, if you check out the course you will see there are very similar positions, I would recommend thinking about Nd4 to attacking on c2 and trying to distract the queen with that threats.

good luck!

Chess Books Reading Partner

Hi guys, I hope you all are wonderful. I am seeking chess training partners to read some books which I mentioned downwards. Interested players can comment or share it with other strong players so I will get serious teammate for study. Thanks. Books list: 1. Improve your Practical Play in the Middlegame by Alexey Dreev 2. Middlegames Dynamic and Subjective Features by M. Euwe & H. Kramer 3. Aagard Strategic Play. 4. Yusupov Series. 5. The Complete Manual of Positional Chess Vol-1&2 by Konstantin Sakaev & Konstantin Landa Note: Books are gonna be complex so I suggest players who are online 2200+ or FIDE 1500 or USCF 1500+ are welcome to join. In short only serious players can join the study with me. All study we can do using three platforms Skype, Google Meet, Zoom. Note: You guys can also suggest any good book too for reading. I do respect my teammate's opinions about books or courses. Thanks for reading my post. I hope to get some serious teammates.

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Maroczy bind

http://view.chessbase.com/cbreader/2022/9/6/Game1776097625.html My computer is giving almost +1 in that line of the ACCELERATED DRAGON . i dont know where i could improve. Let me know if u have an idea. tx guys :)

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Black has an advantage in that position.

Hello Jonathan,

I am a bit surprised as playing for a long while that positions I always feel comfortable. As you might know in our courses the goal is to provide practically playable positions, where we explain the middlegame ideas and don't try to depend only on the engines as everyone can do. 

Secondly in the variation, you mentioned you missed the opportunity to transpose to the modern maroczy which is my personal preference. Either way both positions are Maroczy transpositions, and I recommend you to check that courses as well.

All the Best.