Your Last Tournament

Hello ChessMood family ! (after this sentence I wanna say "GM Avetik is here with you"...) :D

Well, tell us what was your last tournament? how did you play and how much do you miss OTB chess (on the board)?

I never thought that I would miss OTB tournaments, but now I feel that I really miss it, my last tournament was in January, 8 months without tournaments, the last 18 years this has not happened to me :D

Replies

My last tournament was Nov 29-Dec 1 last year. I was 3/6 and didn't feel I played well. I had 2 games that I threw away big advantages in, one draw one loss from those 2. Unfortunately that was the first 2 rounds, and was hard to recover. 2 1/2 of the last 4 was not a bad finish, but I expected more of myself :)

My last OTB game was Dec 2019. Yes, one thing this situation gave us is appreciation for the 'obvious'. It wasn't so obvious, it was precious!

Who knows when it will end? In 1 year? 10 years?

Around 2007 was my last tournament over the board! (I gave up chess for over 10 years)

Hi

I promise myself to play 40 OTB games this year, I have a good start 5 in january, 9 in february, but since then only playing online, some slow games, but mostly blitz/bullet.

Here in Uruguay they are coming back with OTB tournments, so I am considering coming back in november probably.

Best Regards

marc

16 years ago, I won a tournament at Paris. I won the first prize scored 8.5/9 and won 1000 euros 

It could be the beginning of my chess career, but I have stopped playing chess after that event, until this Covid 19 lockdown, when I made a mistake twice: playing chess again ... after 16 years :D

Psychology in Chess

Some players quote the phrase of the famous chess player- Bobby Fischer: I don't believe in psychology, I believe in good moves!

What do you think about this? Do you believe in psychology or not?

I totally disagree with this, I believe in psychology and sometimes it's even more important than good moves. For me, chess is 50% psychology :)

I want to know your opinion on this.

Replies

Psychology definitely plays a roll in chess! I believe that because our minds are our weapon in chess, anything that effects our mind, will effect our game.

This could be little things like lack of sleep or distraction, or bigger issues like the lack of confidence. 

This is another reason Coach @GM_Avetik_Grigoryan is so great as a coach. He addresses psychology in our chess growth before most people even realize it,  just by the name of the company: ChessMood! 

Anything we do to make our minds stronger can only make our game stronger in my opinion.

Jay

It’s chess pieces, not a man I play against! Svetozar Gligoric

Can't we just play against pieces and enjoy the game??

Of course psychology is important.

I remember one time playing a game (2016), bad opening, weird moves and was a pawn down. Understandably, my mood wasn't good. So I went to the bathroom, splashed water on my face, enjoyed the good feeling of that, and giggled a bit =)

Probably others thought it strange but I was feeling much better when I returned to the board.

And I won that game!

Preparation before tournement

How well prepared do you think is nessesary before a tounement?

Replies

As much as you are able to. But the last week before the tournament you should take a break. Preparations have not to be only chessy, but the physically and psychologically too

https://chessmood.com/blog/the-right-way-to-prepare-for-a-chess-tournament I think you haven't read this yet :)

2-3 months of intensive chess trainings, 3 times in week physical activity, and how to prepare mentally, I think it's individual, you should find what makes you happy, gives positive emotions and relax.

Thankyou so much for your answers and recommendations for article to read.☺️

What's the Assessment of this position?

It's white to move.  Write down your assessment!

Replies

Alekhine defence 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 dxe5 5.Nxe5

Hi everyone. Dear Avetic Grigoryan yesterday i played Rapid game ( in lichess Alekhine) defence with withe . My opponent have a 2520 elo my elo 2086 . We played 1. e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 dxe5 5.Nxe5 c6:   i played 6. c4 Nb4 7.a3 Qxd4 :  I have watched Alekhine defence course in chessmood , and you said that it is a better variation of Scandinavian defenc which i also watched.  Now my question. Please can you explain me more about ideas of this variation, i send you my game: https://lichess.org/zFciz1PD/white

Replies

I think that this 4...dxe5 line is not yet uploaded to the course, I also was looking forward to see what the Chessmood team prepared. Even if you watched the course this line was not yet there I think. I will follow this thread with interest, thanks Gor!

Gor, the course is not completed, the other sections are coming. 

@Kevin_D, have you seen Topalov's game with a4 Ra3? 

Hi everyone, I also encountered the same Alekhine variation in my slow game. I lost, mainly because my openent played without mistakes according to engine and I was in general too passive.

We definitely need the some ideas for White.

What is your assessment?

Which side would you prefer to play, and why?

Replies

In positions only with rooks, columns matters more, in my opinion White is better, have g column to access black King using h pawn to open g file,  black counterplay on c column isn't that clear,  they must press on b column, but is less direct

Whose turn is it to play?

Material: Even

King safety: Even

Pawn Islands: Even

Pawn structure: Even

Space: Black slightly better

Activity of the pieces: Even. Black may control b and e file. White may control g and d file. 

Plans: White wants to play b3 to cause weaknesses

Black wants to play f4

I see it as a fairly balanced position, but I would choose black due to slight space advantage and piece activity

I think black is slightly better because of the small space advantage and the king can come to the center easier, but in the end it will be draw :D

Thanks everyone that answered! I was wanting to see if my assessment was correct, with out influencing the answers you all would give.

The way I saw the position was a slight edge for black, because the b file could be a problem for white more then the d or g file would be for black.

I want to play a5-a4-a3 with rooks on a8 and b8 Benko style. I also like the push f4, although I think the a5 -a4 plan is more straight forward.

Thanks again for your replies and if someone has more insights then what I saw @GM_Avetik_Grigoryan?) I would love to hear your thoughts!

Jay

An interesting position. It very depends on whose turn.
If white - then after 1.b3 black pawns structure will be crushed, and after 1...cb3 2.ab3 Black's a7 pawn become also a weakness.

If it's black to move - should be something around equal, but to play with Black gonna be harder, as they should be careful with b3 and e4 breakthroughs. 

How to break rating Barrier?

From the past 2 months I am stuck around 2100 elo online and sometimes I lose like melon. I am studying a lot but also I am trying to apply what I am learning but still I do not know why I am losing so much. I keep right mood during I play but still I do not win winning positions. On the other hand when I analise games I am able to see more deeper and clearer lines.  Here I saw 10 ply deep and image was also clear in my mind that h6 was his only move to defend the position but still during I play I am not able to win those games which I am supposed to win. 

Note: Is is due to over training because I am currently doing:

1. Paul Morphy Move by Move 

2. Petrosian Move by Move.

3. Silman's Endgame Manual.

4. Pawns Structures (current one is KID).

5. How to reassess your chess 4th edition

6. Beginner Pattern Recognition.

7. Capablanca's Best Endings 

8. Visualisation Training daily 30 puzzles from Chess Visualization Course: General tactics Book by Ian Anderson

I am not saying I should be 2300+ online right now but due to this training and right mood playing I think I deserve minimum 2200 elo strength online. Because I already maintained 2100 2 months ago. 

So I am super eager to know why I am just losing. Even though I studied more than 600 classical games. I can even sometimes remember those critical positions. All suggestions will be useful. I am not demotivated. I am just curious to know why I am losing. 

Replies

Hi Abhi,

I am sure all your hard work will pay off. You just need to be patient.

I hope this quote helps you:

"You work for a long period of time and the results don't really show, but at some point everything just comes together and you start to play better, or get more confidence."

Fabiano Caruana

Sometimes it is a good idea just to take a break! You are burning out.. Slowing down might be the answer for you. Stop playing and studying chess for 2 days, preferably when you don't work and relax. When you get back after 2 days analyze your last games and you will understand what you need to fix.

My feeling is that you try to play all openings instead of focusing in a few. It's better to master one opening than to play 10 in medium level.

Hi Abhi,

I made the same error as you when I was much more younger : I thought that studying day and night a lot of chess books (I own more than 1500 in 7 languages ?!) would make me a better player.

But  a tournament chess game is not like a scholastic exam. Knowledge is not sufficient ?! To know is the first requirement, but to know "how to do it" is much more important. Example : you have studied 3 or 4 books explaining how to treat positions with Isolated Queen Pawn the pros and cons.

That doesn't mean you are suddenly become a stronger player  winning in the process 100 points Elo or so. You are now aware of the pecularities of that structure and your theoritical judgment has made a jump forward but practically you remain at your level. Now you KNOW but you don't yet KNOW HOW which is most important for your game. Only after having played many many games with IQP you will become an expert of that structure.

This is the response I have made for myself about the question "Why is it so difficult to progress in chess ?". I hope it will be of some help for you also.

Jean-Marie

I think you have a lot of pressure during the game that prevents you from playing well to the end.

Thanks for the answers. I loved the quote by 

Sergio Carrera

I feel more motivated and I am gonna work more. 

Your favorite course

How many courses did you watch completely and which is your favorite?

Replies

I finished all the courses. When I joined chessmood I finished all the courses in less than 20 days and made my own pgn files because I loved the contents. Let me tell you something about my opening history.  I was always a e4 player. In the bottom I am not only sharing about my fav. courses but I am sharing why I love them.

Accelerated Dragon was my first opening and my fav, one too because I won tons of games with it. I left that because that time I had no knowledge of Qxd4 lines in Hyper Accelerated Dragon and I had no ideas how to play Nc6 well because of Bb5 but when i joined chessmood I saw it so well and loved it.  Finally my love on AD came back due to amazing contents and my fear of Rosolimmo was solved.

Benko Gambit again was my last opening which I added in my repo. I learnt it from other sources but never got results like I got when I joined Chessmood. I loved the Benko Gambit so much . This is also my fav. and familiar opening in chessmood repo.

Against London and Trompowsky I just loved what coaches shared. I also love KID pawn formations and I am learning KID  structures. So I am happy  to play against London System because some players allow KID pawn formations and I win a lot games without any efforts. I call it cheating hehehe because coach told me never play new opening but only add new openings in repo once u will become 2000+ but with KID str. I am crushing people in London System.

I also loved the content of Maroczy Bind. The game of Li Quem Liem is still in my mind and it's super explained by coach . I decided to work on maroczy first. As coach said don't go for modern one in the beginning so I only saw it once and I forgot ideas of Modern one heheeh.

I also loved the content against Scandi. I searched a lot but never found any ideas well to play against this opening. But chessmood gave me hope and I started to play against it with confidence with Nf3!

I also saw and loved the content on GP. Or I can say 1-0 for me hehehe. I am winning almost all my games with GP. I rarely lose any games with GP. So I love the setup of GP against Sicilians and d6. I decided not to revise lines of Bf4 which coach explained against Pirc. I saw it once made my base and never came back to that because GP is superb.

Now against Caro Kann. I always played Caro Kann exchange before chessmood. I loved this opening due to my knowledge of Carlsbad Str. I studied this str. in so depth so I am crushing people at my level like melon.

Here is an example:

https://www.chess.com/live/game/5494218858

   For my own detailed ideas about this game then kindly visit my post and if I missed anything in the ideas section then let me know . Thanks.

https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/carlsbad-ideas-lets-debate

After reading my above posts and watching my game you will understand why I loved this caro kann a lot because it's reversed carlsbad and it gives additional advantages for white.  So I just love Caro kann and I am winning tons of games with Caro Kann Exchange Variation.

Scotch I also loved a lot. It was my first time ever when I learnt scotch so in the beginning it was tough for me to remember lines but now I am winning a lot with Scotch.

Philidor and Petroff I saw once but not revised the lines yet. The reason is that they are not common at 2100 level but before rl events I will def. gonna revise the lines 5 times.

My score against French is not so good. I can say it's due to my lack of knowledge but content is superb and tricky one too.

I haven't finished yet Alekhine course due to my tough training schedule.

So that's all about my fav. openings lines and variations and reasons that why I love them so much.

Summary:

Fav. Openings are : Caro Kann Exchange Variation, Scotch, Benko Gambit and Grand Prix.

Final words I forgot to tell about amazing Classical Commented Games. I just loved it so much. In the beginning I had issue in answering the questions but now I am doing a bit better. I saw more than 700 classics in past 5 months and grasped positional and attacking and strategic eye. I also loved the content on happy pieces.  Now my next step is to see 2550 games based on 25 chess patterns. I wanna finish this work in 5 months from now.

English opening 2. g3 line

Am I right in thinking this is the line you were recommeding agaist 2.g3 ? Was there a course coming covering this? I'd be interested if so!

https://www.chess.com/explorer?moveList=c4+c5+g3+g6+Bg2+Bg7+Nc3+Nc6+Nf3+e5+O-O+Nge7+d3+d6+a3+O-O+Rb1+a5+Ne1+Be6+Nc2+d5+cxd5+Nxd5+Ne3+Nde7+Nc4+Rb8&ply=21

Replies

Hi Thomas,

The Black repertoire against the English is coming really soon, GM Gabuzyan is already recording the videos and the first part will be uploaded very soon. This is the latest info as in yesterday's streaming the first game played was in this line. I am attaching a picture for your reference and entertainment of the moment when Avetik says to Gabuzyan that this month they are going to upload the first videos.

Check the stream if you want to follow the game!

Best

New openings

What opening would you like to see that's not yet in ChessMood courses?

I would like to see Sveshnikov :)

Replies

King's Indian Defense for Black

Against 1.e3 and 1.b3

Against Stonewall for Black

Against Veresov, Torre 

Against Kings Indian Attack for Black

Pawn structures (if possible)

Open Sicilian for White after 1 year (once I reach 2200 fide), currently 1628

Technical techniques to convert winning positions into win video series

I Hope that it will take everyone's game to the next level

Thank you

1- Sveshnikov or Taimanov Sicilian for Black

2- Black repertoire against the Minor Openings: 1.f4, 1.g3, 1.b3 etc.

3- Ruy Lopez for White

4. Something other than Benko Gambit for Black. 

( Benko Gambit: I think anyone with half a brain knows that White is objectively better, but of all the lines that Black can choose where he accepts a worse position for practical chances in an unbalanced game, I think the Benko is one of his best options.) Sam Shankland

Against the Sicilian I would be happy to see Shveshnikov, Taimanov or Schevenningen variations & I am waiting for a full cpuese against the english opening, because when i play against the english I go to the symmetrical variation and either trying to transpose into Maroczy Bind, or playing like against the Gran Prix attack, fianchettoing my king's bishop and advancing my queenside pawns. Grünfeld would be also interesting for black. For white a course against Nimzowitch 1. e4 Nc6 defence is completing the repertoire. 

Modern Benoni for sure.

I am afraid that I would like no additional openings in Chessmood because I think it would defeat its purpose. I think the point is to have just one Repertoire so we can be specialists in it and practice , watch the repertoire  in the streams and fix our errors. 

I mean that we should not have different openings against one opening (One Sicilian is enough ;-). I would focus on adding advanced content to the existing openings, Model games, Common mistakes, etc, and adding courses against openings not fully covered yet (English Opening) or against sideline openings

Some may dislike it, but it is my opinion ;-)

The KID and Sveshnikov, which I can play, but not that well.  

I'm not faring too well with the Maroczy Bind, whichI don't love, but I'm giving it a shot here.  :-)

I would like to see against e4 c5 Nf3 d6 Bb5 Nd7 and Ba4! 
This is what GM Max Illingworth play and has quite good results! I would like to know how to play this as Black!

https://www.chess.com/blog/Illingworth/a-leading-expert-shares-his-best-anti-sicilian-weapon this is his Blog where he has mentioned this Variation!

Thanks everyone for your answers.

Quiz - Scotch Game

Hey, champions! 
I am happy to announce that our technical team created the first quiz. 
It will help you to memorize the variation, field where you have the biggest challenge. 
It should help you very much. 

This is a test version. 
I would love to see your feedback and ideas on how we can improve it and offer you even better version. 

https://chessmood.com/quiz/attack-with-scotch-game 

Enjoy :) 

P.S 
Here is my result :) 
I could solve a quiz I created myself :D :D :D  
Can you? :) 

Replies

Due to streams I remembered most of the ideas. I got decent score. Ineed to work on scotch anyways. 

I think it was decent. My opinions are mentioned in the bottom.

1. If possible then include hint and hints will be shown to the user only if a user fail to find the move. For example in scotch test there was a position in which Qd2 and Qd3 are options and only one is good and vice versa. So if a user fail in the position then hint will help him a bit.

2. If possible then include the specific video from which the position is taken. So if we fail to understand why we missed the idea or any other thing then we can directly click on the video and see why our move was wrong.

That's my two opinion.

I am out of words to explain how the website is improving!

Keep it up chessmood team!

my score is 16/20

It is great. It is much needed for our practicing the lines.

Kudos to the technical team for executing this quiz idea along with the Coaches. Looking forward to quizzes on all the courses. My idea for bettering it would be to show the move that wasn't found by the one taking the quiz after an 'x' number of attempts.

This is great. "Show hint" is needed - didn't remember a few positions and literally tried 20 different moves.

Using quizs to reinforce opening memory is the best feature I've been waiting for! Huge Thanks, GM Avetik and team. 

Sir where can we found this course except forum? In the courses? 

I managed to get 20/20 ( lnot more that 3 tries in 16,17,20) but when I go to profile and then certificate, it says that Jora Aleqyan is a Pro member. Well, I am not Jora Aleqyan although I am a Pro member and have completed the quiz. Please fix this bug!

I think I got much  higher score that I expected. I have just finished the course and went to the quiz :) It is amazing that Chessmood does so big progress. Keep up the good work!

It's a very great idea

Got 17/20

I like to do this test from time to time, in order to refresh my opening. I think that this is a really good idea, a good way to practice the opening.

That said I would like to ask to put this link to the Quiz in the Scotch Game course. I know it is not maybe the definite one, but even writing (Beta) Quiz to the Scotch somewhere in the course page will be helpful and more convenient for everyone.

The same goes for the quiz with the 100 Commented games, I wanted to do the quiz again but now I could not find the thread easily and instead I am writing it here. Everything related to the course in the same page can only help.

(Actually looking for "quiz" in the forum search will do the job, but I forgot the word "quiz" and was difficult to find)

Best regards and keep up the good job!

Happy I got 20/20 and having lots of fun with scotch, its my favourite opening already!

anyway great quiz and hope to see more of them!

That was cool 19/20. I expected Kd1 position but it wasn't there :D

MoodCoins

How many moodcoins do you have and how did you earn it? mine is still 12.000 by solving puzzles. When I was new in chessmood I always forgot to move pieces on puzzles :D

Replies

I earned some coins by solving puzzles. But I am a book guy so I like to solve positions from books so I feel more motivated. I earned most of my mood coins by winning chessmood best games event. I am so happy that coach liked my games and thinks that I am improving. Another thing I did was sharing chessmood on fb and even destroyed my old fav. fb account hehehe. I shared chessmood in my own 22k fb chess team and there I try to help beginners whenever I can. I asked them to join and some above 1500 players joined chessmood.

I got 9000 out of the 55000 moodcoins I have by having the best answees in forym conversations. Now I am in the top 10 with best answers.

Chass game embeded in the form post

Hi everyone,

I've see some people posting forum message with a game viewer emebed. See an example

https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-members/alekhine-defence-1e4-nf6-2e5-nd5-3d4-d6-4nf3-dxe5-5nxe5

I wonder how to do that? Tnx.

Replies

Hi Robert,

You just need to attach it to your post or your reply. Attach your pgn file of the game by pressing the "Add New File" button, on the bottom left side of the text box where you write your message. That's it! Easy! Looking forward to see your games!

ChessMood openings

Which Chessmood opening is your favorite and why?

Replies

I love Anti Sicilian Grand Prix. If you ever followed my games on fb then you already know the reason hehehe. I am crushing almost all time 2100 elo players on lichess with my GP knowledge.

In case of Caro kann I am also doing fine against it. Almost 1-0 in sidelines and decent results against main lines.

Caro Kann

https://lichess.org/ibX5TTKH#38

Crushed a 2100 using chessmood opening theory. If I am not wrong then e5 move is in advanced section and c4 is mentioned in the main course for a player who is not advanced but I liked e5 more.

https://lichess.org/gkv4zfY0#25

https://lichess.org/ygcjJagh#38

A very interesting question, let me start by saying that I heard about this site by accident and didn't really expect to find anything special here. There are many many chess websites out there promising more or less what ChessMood offers, but most of them are not worth your time and I can detect very quickly the conscientious ones from the ones that are just in it for a quick buck.

My expectation was to quickly peruse the site extract anything useful from it that I could and quickly move on.  Then a curious thing happened when I examined the Caro Course: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.Bf4 Bg4 7.Qb3 so far everything is typical, however I was blown away when I saw that ChessMood also covered 7...Qb6?!/!? in their course, I have been studying the exchange caro for many years and have many respected sources such as Perelshteyn, Dzindzichashvili, Nigel Davies, some Chessable.com sources and others and none of them  take the time to consider the best way to meet this move. Every successive author lazily copying from each other while offering very few new insights, you would almost think that 7...Qb6  was an outright blunder not deserving any attention, but you would be wrong as it has been played at GM level with success! I had to work out on my own the best way to meet this rare but playable line. When I reviewed the ChessMood video covering 7...Qb6 I immediately understood this site was different, and that this was a conscientious team serious about delivering topnotch instruction and knowledge to all levels of chess player without relying on transparent and widely used marketing gimmicks. 

My apologies for the brief digression above but this has been an opinion I have been meaning to articulate for some time now. To get back on track, my favorite opening so far has been how to meet the g3 Maroczy Bind as Black:  1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 g6 6.g3 Bg7 7.Bg2 0-0 8.0-0 I am primarily a King's Indian player and this position which can be reached by many move-orders is very important for my repertoire as a whole. The reason why I love this line so much is because of how practical it is, if I choose to play Benoni it works, If I choose KID it works, if White plays 1.Nf3 it works, if White plays 1.c4 it works, you see where I am going with this :-) The line is virtually move-order proof and can be employed in many situations.

Looking forward to reading the what and why of other subscribers. :D 

Postscript: I forgot about Nightmare of Rossolimo which is also an extremely impressive course, it is the most well explained and lucid coverage of this line that I have come across to date. So for the moment it's now a tie as to my favorite Opening course.

Sicilian 2.Nc3 lines...I was looking for something new against c5 and I’ve found it in ChessMood :) 

Benko Gambit is a very dynamic opening against 1. d4, which I am broadly using. Comparing to my King's Indian, although it is a good opening and I maintain it, as well as Modern Benoni, for my aggresive style, Benko Gambit is my first choice against 1. d4 fitting well to the fact that I love to attack.

Rossolimo, Maroczy and Accelerated Dragon.

- Acc. Dragon because of Re8! move

- Maroczy because of the strategic ideas

- Rossolimo is probably my favourite. You can find decent courses on Acc. Dragon and Maroczy in other sites (not nearly as good as Chessmood, but pretty decent), but Chessmood course on Rossolimo is truly unique.

Before ChessMood, I was a 1.d4 player. I preferred quiet positional struggles and slowly torturing my opponents.

Since ChessMood, I have fallen in love with the Scotch opening. It has turned this passive player into an attacking monster that will hit your king hard and fast!

for me it is the coverage of the rossolimo. 

What about you?

The following courses I like most:

A) Maroczy Bind, and Modern Maroczy Bind

Because I like to play it as White, and the best way to learn an opening is to play it with both colors.

B) Accelerated Dragon.

Because I like to play it as White with an extra tempo:

1.c4 e5 2.g3! Playing the same pawn structure with  a tempo down gives me a better understanding.

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

I have a question for you Susanna:

What is the best book on Sicilian Sveshnikov?

What about this book on Chessable.com : 

"Fight Like Magnus: The Sicilian"

I used to play the Sveshnikov Sicilian 16 years ago, and I had very good results with it.  I have stopped playing chess since 2004, and now I am working on my chess opening repertoire. I am 2130 at Chess.com now.

Thank you

Svetozar Gligoric Award

It’s chess pieces, not a man I play against! Svetozar Gligoric

Svetozar Gligoric was one of the top players in the world and one of the World’s most prominent, owing to his particularly engaging personality.

At the chessboard, Gligoric was an uncompromising fighter and at the same time a symbol of gentlemanhood and correctness. 

Last year, at the first quarter Presidential Board meeting, FIDE decided to establish a fair play award named after Svetozar Gligoric.

Read the full news here:

https://fide.com/news/205

Replies

just watched the "exchanging bishops" video and played a few games

I just played white against the French and followed the few moves I could remember (I had prepped for the Sicilian; he wanted to try something new against much-lower-rated me).  I got to this position and wanted to trade my dsb but Stockfish hated it - https://lichess.org/5LBQQLrj/black#19  I eventually got a crushing advantage (!) but gave it back and ultimately lost.  Was my thinking correct that my dsb was bad, but my execution off?

The rematch was my horrible attempt to defend against 1.d4.  I got to this position where I thought it would be good to defend my K with my lsb and trade if he wanted to - https://lichess.org/HntdT6lm/black#18  Again, the computer evaluation was horrible in my opponent's favor, and got much worse with that move.  What was wrong with my thinking?  His thinking turned bad a bit later when he blundered the initiative and I found the win. :-)

I understand that the two-bishop advantage exists.  Should I not have been thinking of exchanges in these games?

Replies

Can anyone answer my questions?  I'm U1600 Lichess classical so the answer doesn't have to be very deep!

The biggest problem with the DSB trade in the first game is you demolished your own pawn structure with the trade. It created 4 very weak pawns in your structure.

In the second game, the biggest issue game the move before with the b6 move. This severly weakens the light squares on the queen side. Then the next move you trade off your LSB (The defender of the light squares) which made your weaknesses more pronounced.

This is the basics to why these 2 exchanges were bad, and others may want to add more.

I hope it helps at least a little and I wish you all the best as you continue to grow! #COGRO

Jay

Your Chess Crush?

Who was your first chess Crush?

For me it was Judit Polgar. I thought she is of my age but she was not hehehe and I felt in love with her attacking and speed chess. I was new in chess and I felt like wow this girl is so fast.  I saw many of her games.

Here is the one I loved so so much! I do not know theory but I liked the way she created e5 square for her pieces and demolished Alexi Shirov.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1111195

Replies

Capablanca's Best Endings (Test-1)

Hi guys today I am gonna show you a cool position. I was analizing a game from the book Capablanca's Best Endings  and we reached this interesting position. It's white to move and how will you continue guys here. Keep that in mind that in the end black also found the only resource to save his middlegame and reached an inferior endgame. But still I am glad that @Jay and I both found the right plans and ideas and best ways to meet all black's resources.  Now it's your turn to find a nice plan for white!

The winner may be get the title of Chessmood CM heheheh

Replies

Chess is hard work

Chess is hard.

All of us work to improve our game. We work on tactics, openings, endings, classics, planning, visualization, and intuition. We also work on psychology, fitness, nutrition, endurance and yes, keeping the right mood!

Chess is hard.

To help us improve, we buy books, video series on openings, middle games, and endings. We buy software for storing files, have computers check for blunders and novelties, and hire coaches to help us fix our weaknesses and improve our strengths.

Chess is hard.

Anyone who has been around ChessMood for any time, knows that I have chosen to climb the mountain on a path no one has yet traversed. A year and a half ago, at the age of 46 and rated 1700 USCF (about 1600-1650 FIDE), I chose to start the path to Grand Master. I knew when I started, it was not going to be easy. If it was easy, it would of already been done. (Those that have achieved the GM title after 40 were all expert/master in their teens)

Chess is hard.

The first 6 months went very very well. I jumped to over 1800 very quickly, and was winning many games against 2000+ rated players using ChessMood openings. But then I hit a wall. I started losing odd games vs players much lower rated then I was. I would win a nice game against a CM, then the very next game lose to a 1500. 

Chess is hard.

I grew very discouraged. I still woke up every day, ready to hit the books, study my openings, watch the streams and work towards my destiny, but I started to fear playing. I would get on the streams, and get 90% of the answers correct, know all the main lines of our openings, and see the plans clearly while Coach Avetik was playing, but I couldn't do it when I was playing. 

Chess is hard.

I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I would play the openings we are taught, and would almost always get an advantage coming out of the opening. I would continue to build on the advantage, but somewhere along the line, I would miss a tactic or blunder away my advantage. It became difficult to keep a good mood, and made me even more fearful of playing. I was also embarrassed that I stopped improving, so stopped being as active in our community, which is the worst of all, because there is no better place for support then right here at ChessMood.  

Chess is hard.

Despite all these feelings of despair and failure, I kept working. I followed the plan laid out for us by Coach Avetik. When I found the courage to play, I would check the games against my opening files, which continued to grow, as well as checked for blunders (Which were numerous). I looked for patterns and worked to correct my mistakes, but kept losing to simple tactics or just hanging a piece. 

Chess is hard.

So to fix my problem I started working on tactics. LOTS of tactics. Anytime I had a few minutes, I would open my phone to the chesstempo app and do a tactic. I would spend 2 hours a day minimum on tactics. I was improving my tactics rating slowly, but I was excited to be working on my weakness and seeing an improvement. I gained almost 300 rating points on tactics in about 3 months (I know I am not setting any records) and thought I had to have improved in my games for sure! But alas, I was still losing to simple tactics and hanging pieces.

Chess is Hard.

But I continued to work. I started to work with a partner, Abhi, as we both are focused on improvement. We worked on blindfold chess, middle game ideas, books we are both reading, as well as analyzing ending together. As we were studying, he kept saying how he couldn't believe how fast and accurate my calculation was, or how he wished he could see as far ahead as me. (For the record, Abhi is much better at this the even he believes, and is easily my equal if not even better then I am) Then in middle of an analysis, I would look at a move and totally miss one of my pieces hanging, or overlook a simple reply by my opponent. 

Chess is hard.

It is at that time, Abhi helped me realize my true issue. I don't have a tactics problem. When presented with a tactical opportunity, I can usually see the idea very quickly. He helped me see my problem is really what we decided to call "Blind Spots" In the middle of analyzing, I suddenly become blind to a piece or a square. I just completely don't see it. We had a position today, where I said if we move our knight, we will discover an attack on our opponents unprotected piece, so we looked at Nh4 for a couple minutes and decided it wasnt quite working and moved on to other moves. Then we started looking at Ne5 (same knight) and I said that wont work, he will just capute and move his other piece away from our pawn that recaptures. He politely reminded me that the opponent wouldn't be able to save both his bishop attacked by our pawn and the piece we discovered an attack on when we moved our knight. I was suddenly totally blind to what I had just seen and known a couple minutes before.

Chess is hard.

I have heard of players, even top GMs, that have these blind spots on occasion, but never to the extent I seem to have them. As I have gone back through a ton of my games, the pattern has suddenly sprang to light with complete clarity. Blind spots. And just as suddenly I have renewed confidence, as I now know what to be working on.  

Chess is not hard... Chess is hard work.

We all face difficulties as we work to improve. We just need to remember, when we hit a wall, don't continue banging your head into it, waiting for it to fall down, it would instead be more beneficial to have a partner or coach show you the doorway through. Thank you Abhi for helping me see and diagnose this problem of blind spots, it is the doorway for my to cross through the wall I have faced for a long time!

Chess is hard work.

Now I go to work on fixing the problem of blind spots in my game. If anyone out there knows how to overcome this issue, or has had the same issue and has over come it, please share with me the way to cure my ailment. And if anyone else has this issue, and is also looking for a solution, let us work together to overcome it! 

Thanks to all of you who took the time to read all the way though this lengthy post, and I hope it turns out to be helpful to all in some way.

GM Jay 

Replies

Thanks @Jay_Garrison. Yes, right now I don't have this issue but at some point may be I will face this issue so I am excited to hear what coach thinks about this problem. I an so happy to have a great chess studying partner like you and I feel super motivated whenever we talk. I feel like yes I can do it and I can achieve my goals with you!

Thank you very much for the post @Jay_Garrison. I feel very identified with you. I am 48 and started playing chess online in December 2018 (I already knew how to move the pieces because I had been taught  when I was a child). I did not know any opening, so I bought and started reading the following books that I saw recommended in Internet and began to play the first moves of those openings without really understanding them:

- 1.d4 Repertoire, by Boris Avrukh

- Chess Openings for Black, by Lev Alburt

Then I bought "Reassess your Chess", by Jeremy Silman and I read it in a few days and I fell in love with Chess and in April 2019 I played my first OTB tournament and in June 2019 I joined a local club. Currently, I am 1320 elo FIDE and 1650 on chess.com  and 1970 on lichess and I would really love to improve, and I am decided to improve.

The more I learned the more I realized how hard chess is. And it was time to set my goals. My job is very demanding, so I decided I could not invest more than 10-15 hours a week without taking too much time from my family. With that in mind, my short-term goal is to achieve 1500 elo FIDE by  March 2022 and 2000 elo FIDE by March 2027.

I must confess I also suffer the "blind spots" problem that you describe. I am able to achieve a slight advantage against stronger players and make it grow little by little and then, I blunder it away. But in tactics or calculation exercises I do reasonably well for my level and when I try to dive in the reason why I blundered in the games I realize I have those "blind spots"

I am afraid I do not know the cure. I suspect it has something to do with concentration or fatigue. Or maybe we need a more structured approach beacuse our brain decides to simplify too much...

I am convinced that your partnership with Abhi is the way to go and it will be very beneficious for both. I wissh you the best and if yoy find the cure for blind spots, please let me know ;-)

I too have had this issue, as perhaps everyone has. I think this might be a matter of awareness. For instance if you're focused on one thing you forget about the rest of the board or other possibilities (as I experienced today, missing a variation in a simple mate-in-2 problem).

Or perhaps it may be a matter of needing to work more on basic tactics. I remember working on Chess Vision drills (as described by Michael de la Maza in his book) and it definitely increased my awareness in that regard.

Hi Jay,

I feel you, I understand your frustration and your feelings, however, do not worry, you will overcome this for sure.

I am no IM, or FM or anyone with a lot of rating but I have been studying chess for long time, more than 12 years now, I have all the chessbase dvds, all the books you can imagine and I did for 3 years particular lessons with an IM via internet. In all the dvds, from chessbase you will not find the answer, in almost any book is written either, or is written in a difficult way I think. Chess24 tried to do some series about this, but they also missed some important points although it was pretty good. This is not an easy issue, but the answer has been out there since the beginning of chess practice I believe.

We are really lucky because we have a strong, I would say spectacularly strong opening repertoire, which is clear not the thing that is wrong. Then we have here in Chessmood lots of instruction about the middle game, endings, everything at your disposal, right? Then what is missing? 

The thinking process is not the optimum one. Plain and simple. Do not think that is lack of concentration, or bad mood, I honestly believe that this is normal.

In order to help to overcome this blindness that you said, chess schools like the Russian, Ucranian or Chinese have been using for years the Algorithms in order to help the thinking process. GMs like Avetik or Hovhannes do this automatically and they do not even think about it. Lesser mortals like us, we must get used to think the right way, because we never did it yet.

I guess that this should be a topic for a couple of blog posts, but I will do my best to explain it a bit for you, this way I am sure that in a couple of months you will be again much stronger:

Avetik always says, what is the opponent thinking, what should be his next move? This is part of a thinking process that should be embedded in your brain. This kind of automatic questions are missed by us all the time. We must get used to think and answer these questions EVERY move!

The algorithms that I know were explained to me in Spanish by the excellent and great person IM Raul Ocampo from Mexico, but I am sure that you can adapt them to English, also you are in Arizona, you should speak Spanish too, it should only help, ;-)

He used to tell me:

The proper formulation of a problem is in most cases more important than the solution.
ALBERT EINSTEIN

To remember the algorithms, we use acronyms and since the vast majority of games are decided by tactics, I will start here. There are acronyms for middle game, endings, attitude at the board, when your pieces are attacked, etc. As I said, this is a remarkably interesting and complex part of chess study.

LET'S BEGIN, prepare your tea, and fasten your seat belts! (in Avetik style)

TO SEE (as a contrary of being blind) is easier with tools, and these are enriched at the same time if we develop the HABIT of examining each square on the board with our eyes or with our mind.
Some positions seem simple and easy to see and observe but they are not. Every square in every type of position of our pieces deserves our attention and we carelessly throw our work overboard when we do not pay attention.

The first question we should ask ourselves as chess players, out of habit is: What our opponent wants to do, and an easy way to find out is asking yourself ALWAYS: If my opponent played again, what move would he play?

This would be the acronym PARA, and you should always force yourself to ask and answer this, 

PA_ ¿Para qué? ( Why?)

R_¿Repitiendo qué haría? (Repeating the move what would he do?)

A_¿Adónde? Where (is he heading)

This is easy right? Do we do it at every move? we do not, GMS do it unconsciously. We must get used to do it at every move.

Another acronym is (the main one for tactics):

JACAS

JA_ Jaques (Checks)  You have to check out all the possible checks

CA_ Capturas (Captures) You have to check out all the possible captures

S_ Saltando (Jumping) Same as above but jumping, for exemple x-ray positions, pins, etc.

You also must free your imagination. How? Imagine that your pieces can jump, the same as those of the opponent and start thinking about:

• All possible checks if “the pieces would jump"

• All possible captures if “the pieces would jump"

These 2 acronyms: PARA and CAJAS, we will have to repeat constantly to avoid committing serious tactical errors. CAJAS IS FUNDAMENTAL. It takes time at the beginning to think like this but is the base of all growth.

The third one for tactics is: PLUS Which is the same in English

Piece
Limited
United
Loose.

You must look for signs in the board: pieces limited with no space, pieces united in the same diagonal, etc. or my favorite one, loose pieces. (I have an obsession, when I see a loose piece, I look for a combination that will allow me to capture it, I succeed many times!)

At the beginning when I started the courses, my coach made me do every day 20 min. of tactics at least. With well-chosen problems but with a mandatory thing to do:

Apply the algorithms at every problem!

I had a checklist that looked like this provided by him:

-          Check what the opponent menace is (PARA)

-          If the opponent would be able to repeat would play:

-          A) Checks ___  ___ ____

-          B) Captures ___  ___ ____

-          C) Checks jumping ___  ___ ____

-          D) Captures jumping ___  ___ ____

-          My candidates moves are: ___  ___ ____

-          I did CAJAS of every candidate move. YES or NO

-          I have a final evaluation of each of them. YES or NO

This was the list of questions I had to answer, sometimes I could see the solution right away, but we are trying to fix our mistakes, our thinking process, that is why you should do this slowly, writing, checking every move. We are trying to learn how to think properly at the board. At the beginning is slow, then it will become fast and automatic. GMs do this in a second, it will take us more time, but we should get there if we have the right way…  

I had hundreds of paper sheets written with this checklist, when solving Tactic problems, replaying master games, etc.  I even did it when playing practice games OTB with my friend. This helped me a lot to avoid blunders, which, let us face it, is the main reason why we lose games at our level.

Jay, I hope that this will help you, this simple system helped me a lot in the past, it makes no sense to build the house by the roof since our base is weak. Fix the base, grow up stronger! And above everything: Enjoy what you are doing!

PD: I am sure that the are many other ways and our dear Chessmood team will know better but this helped me a lot and I am 100% sure that it can help you too.

This post is poetry, is music. It's honest, wise, inspired, and inspiring. I'm glad you've identified the next milestone to overcome; it probably won't be a one-time fix, but will over time raise you to even greater heights. Good luck on further progress. I believe in you.

What a post and what kind of cool comments!!! 

Blind Spots Anyone?

The title of this post maybe a little misleading but it was inspired by the recent thread Chess Is Hard, that thread made me reflect on many things I took for granted and I wanted to respond in that thread but decided to hold back in fear of not articulating my thoughts clearly enough. However today I was watching a Blitz Game online (see screenshot at end of post) and in the position on the Board I immediately wanted to play Qxh6 check followed by Rh4 mate, there were only two problems, Rh4 is illegal and even if it were possible Qh5 stops mate LOL. The reason why I immediately spotted the idea of Qxh6 check followed by Rh4 mate is because this is a typical mating pattern known as Anastasia's Mate. What makes the position a little unusual  though is that this mating pattern more often occurs on the seventh rank rather than the sixth and is usually taught that way.
 

From the screenshot position Galchenko  finished off his GM opponent in prosaic fashion,  but can you find the more aesthetic path to victory. :-) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7_HSwaOkWI&feature=youtu.be&t=483

If you did then that is an example of the opposite of Blind Spot, you visualise the final position and work backwards from there to find the solution if one exists. When you can recognise typical patterns in an actual game, and understand fully the features that make them work as well as what makes them fail , then it will help you eliminate Blind Spots. As I mentioned in a previous post, calculation is not a very efficient way  to find combinations for humans, primarily calculation is the means human chess players use to verify whether a combination works or not, but the actual spotting of a combination is more often prompted by pattern recognition  and intuition. Pattern recognition is self explanatory, but intuition is a bit more abstract so I will give a small example, look what happened in the Galchenko  game his experienced GM opponent kept moving his pieces away from his own king while at the same time virtually forcing the opponent ones into more attacking positions. Intuitively anytime someone abandons the defence of their King to create threats on the other side of the board a strong player will automatically focus their attentions on constructing direct attacking possibilities,  patterns, combinations etc.  

To sum up, to help eliminate Blind Spots it is not enough to improve calculation we also need to create  a large mental database of typical mating and other  attacking patterns, strategic themes and tactical motifs, and all of this must eventually become second nature .

Yes,  Chess is hard but that is what makes it so much fun and rewarding. :)

Replies

Kevin, thanks for this post!

I am working on this issue with any way I can. Pattern recognition will help for sure! 

Sometimes I feel like my brain just shuts down and doesnt want to see a certain piece or square, and that is the most frustrating of all.

I also saw a different line then what was played in the game you linked. I saw 1. Rf7+, Kg8 (Rxf7 leads to the same finish, just faster) 2. Rf8+, Kh7 3. R1f7+, Rxf7 4. Rxf7+, Kg8 (Kh8 then Qxh6 and Qh7)5. Rg7+, Kh8 6. Qxh6#

Not sure if I missed anything (blind spot?) but I saw it very quickly.

Thanks again!

Jay