Chess forum by Grandmasters

Streaks and slumps

I'm wondering if people have the same experience I do - I go through periods of streaks and slumps and I can't really figure out why.  Some of it is definitely my day-to-day mood (right mood right move!) but it's not all of it.

There are days when chess almost feels easy for me - my pieces all work together and everything flows seamlessly.  But there are also days when I can't make the right move at all.  As an example: last week over 3 days I won 4 games and lost 13 on lichess.  But then, over the last 4 days I won 22, lost 7 and drew 4.  

It's like night and day.  I really think if I could figure out the root cause it would make a huge difference.  Does this happen to anyone else?  If so, have you been able to figure out the reason/ways to combat it?

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Ignoring 'mood' and what frame of mind you are in, could it be just coincidence and you notice several wins or losses together more than a mix of the two? Thus simply just randomness.

I have this situation very often, I also struggle, but inside myself I know what mistakes I make, in general I know the reasons, I just need to work on them.

For me the hardest job is to break bad habits. I need to study this article very well :) https://chessmood.com/blog/organize-your-day-organize-your-chess-journey 

Karl, streaks always will be. It's important the size of the streak :) 
If +100 points and -100 points, it's a signal that something is wrong. Otherwise - 50 points is fine. 

Interesting a4 move in the Sicilian Rossolimo Bxc6 line .

I was playing a strong player rated 2500 in chess.com and I played the Sicilian Rossolimo which was recommanded in the course. My opponent played the interesting a4 move and play two game which give me some trouble in this line. 

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6318676707

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6318789906

The first game, he played a4 and I reply with a5 to stop the advancement of pawn. But he reply with an interesting maneuver Bd2 and Bc3, Na3 and Nc4 that put big pressure on my e5 pawn. 

The second game, I tried to avoid playing e5 but he instead played e5 himself. I was not sure how should I continue the game. I tried to check what if I meet his a4 move with a5, but he has an interesting idea of Ra2 after Nf8 Bd2 Be6 and b3. Where he still prepare Bc3 to exchange my bishop on g7.

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The game

It is already shown in the model games (e.g. Sjugirov vs Grigoryan) that a4 is conceptually wrong because white would like to reserve the opportunity to play a3 b4 later. My take is that we can be flexible and apply the plan B structure in which the course recommends, playing f6 and Nf8 to e6 to f4 and possibly stage a home invasion against the white king later on. I think you did the right thing by playing answering a4 with a5.

Wenstin, after the opponent castled, we don't worry anymore for Be3,Qd2,Bh6, as was showed in the course. And our main plan against random moves of opponents are 0-0,Ne8,Nc7, Ne6 (or Bg4 then Ne6, or e5 then Ne6). 
For example: 7.a4 0-0 8.a5 Ne8 9.Nc3 Nc7 10.Be3 (If 10.h3 then 10...e5 with Ne6) Bg4! 11.Na4 (11.Bc5?! Ne6 12.Be3 f5! 13.h3 Bf3 14.Qf3 f4 with Nc4 - a very strong compensation) 11...Ne6 12.Nc5 Nc5 13.Bc5 Bb2 and Black is fine. 

Thank You

Hello ChessMood Family,

I am happy to inform you guys that I crossed my goals in both rapid and blitz on Lichess. I crossed 2300 in Rapid and 2200, nearing 2250 in Blitz.

I couldn't have done it without the ChessMood coaches! Thank You very much ChessMood community. As Coach Gabuzyan said in his article, online chess ratings indicate if your overall skill is improving, and I feel it is.  

Thank You

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Congratulations!

Aww that's so nice of you! Congratulations and keep growing! :)

Congratss!!!!!! I swear, I prefer to hear this kind of news each day than a big box full of chocolates  (P.S. I adore them the most) :D I'm soooo happy for you and the people who achieved their goals with chessmood openings! I know they are many :) 

Super! 
Congratulations, Sriram! What's the goal for this year? 

SLP demonstration stream - Tues 16th 3pm GMT

As this hasn't been announced yet and isn't a regular event.

There is a SLP (saving lost positions) stream on Tuesday 16th Feb at 3pm GMT. If you've watched old streams before (or been a member that long), a piece will be given away in a very obvious manner to a strong player and then will be systematically punished for having the audacity to take it. It also appears that hippo style positions get adopted (pawns to 3rd rank, Ns to second rank, with a fianchetto) so is also a lesson on the dangers playing against of such positions.

There was talk of a theme tournament on this basis at some point so would be good prep if that arises.

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Spam posts - do not click on links

There are daily spam forum posts from bots, and it'll be 'whack-a-mole' until there is a better registration system.

Don't click on any links in posts unless it looks like a bonafide post about chess from a regular member as tempting as the description of the link may be. Even then be wary. Some of the links may well try to install malware on your system.

They'll post in the main channel at least as they won't be pro members.

Another solution (with a moderator) would be only release main channel posts to the forum when they have been vetted. This would be a little slower for non-pro members, but as most of the posters are pro and the only benefits of non-pro outside of special unlock days are seeing the free courses, as long as they do get approved is unlikely to be much of a problem. Most main channel posts from non-pro members would be about the site and membership so a moderator might be a good person for an initial answer anyway.

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(and yes I might be stating the obvious which could come across patronising to a few, but it's amazing how many people get fooled by obvious scams so I don't assume anything :) )

When motivation drops What do you do

What do you guys do when you for a while loose motivation? Do you take a breake? Do you change your approach or something entirely else? I have not lost completely motivation just it s up and Down. Btw the artikler about sports psychology was interesting 

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There are several factors in motivation including:

1> Do I know what I'm doing, or is it an uphill struggle (lots of having to think, work stuff out, every task finds more problems). It's hard to work through difficult tasks than ones you can just turn off and do. Can it be rearranged to mix different types of work.
2> Am I making some kind of progress. Even if it's not an improvement, am I moving towards something (even if it's a point I can say I'm done). How far am I from that point, how am I moving towards it. Some people need to also reward themselves for progress.
3> Competition - think of parts of the brain competing for attention. You'll notice this if you try to do something while you're hungry, but when you eat that part of the brain is now fulfilled and stops bothering you. If you do something enough it will be fulfilled, but nothing else will and other things will start to try to compete for attention.
4> Time to grow - It's suggested that it takes several hours for new neurons to grow, as well as reinforcement to happen. Sometimes you'll take stuff in and need to sleep it off. Any more and it gets tiring and frustrating.
5> Tiredness
6> Necessity - more motivation towards deadlines
7> Balance - exercising, sleeping well, eating healthy
8> Follow the shiny thing - novel, interesting, latest and greatest, getting ahead of the crowd, solves other problems - all these things can make this task more or less interesting compared to others. Often the curse when it comes to trying to complete chess books when another one comes along.

I'm going to the Chessmood blog and reading the motivating articles, there are many :) 

Tina, myself I spend 30 minutes each day (in the morning) on personal growth. 
Readying something, watching a podcast, hearing the greats. 
It helps very much. 

Overall, for motivation there should be a strong WHY as I spoke about many times in the articles. 
And I'll write a separate topic about motivation. 

I can also recommend you some good books, if you want. 

The keys are to seek empowerment instead of motivation. 
And that whatever we do, is to weather gain pleasure or avoid pain. 
So we should find out some pleasures or what kinds of pain we're avoiding with doing this. 

Avetik, sure you may recommends some books. I like to read also in the morning, which I am already doing. But I m open for new books 

Benko: 4. Qc2 with f2-f4 and a quick e4-e5

Hi CM team!

What about the following variation?

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5 4. Qc2 b4 5. e4 d6 6. f4 g6 and now 7. e5!?

The engine seems to, at least at first, give while an edge here, and certainly it doesn't seem pleasant for black.

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My engine likes the last position for black after Nfd7

An interesting question. 
Well, after 7.e5 Nfd7 Black is really fine at the end, but I have an interesting weapon to offer you. 

After 6.f4 e5!? The idea after 7.fe5 is to play Ng4! 
Sacrifice a pawn and get a good compensation.  If 8.Nf3 Nbd7! 

If 7.Nf3 then ef4 8.Bf4 Bg4! fighting for e5 square. Very interesting and playable positions. 

London System Be2 option 2 (c5) issue

For Be2 two options are given - option 1 7... g5 is equal after 8. Nfd2 and 9. exf4

Option 2 is given with 7... c5, however after 8. c3 g5 only 9. Nfd2 is covered. Better is 9. Bg3 and now the plan in option 1 of responding e6 is not possible as White now has dxc5. After 9... Nxg3 10. hxg3, cxd4 can be answered by cxd4, which wasn't possible in the option 2 8. O-O line since c3 has been played. Now the Bg7 isn't so useful. This perhaps why option 1 is more frequent.

In Win With the London System, not much space is devoted to the d6 variation, and it gives Option 1,  8. Nfd2, 10... c5, but now considered 11. d5, however the analysis breaks down at move 18, where 18... Kf8 gives an equal position instead of the stated inferior Nxd4.

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Note the London is the theme for this week's theme tournament.

bishop stays normally, take it easy :D maybe later will be used e5 move.

They're very playable positions, David. 
You can try them from the White's side in the tournament and ask questions during the webinar. 
The key is to try to open the position and not hurry up with castling and showing the cards. 

Software for memorizing the lines

Hey Champions! 
I see that many of you have problems with memorizing variations. 

There are different solutions, like Chessbase trainer, lichess or chessable move trainer. 
We decided to create ours. Some kind of dream software. 
The head of the technical department assured me, that whatever I want, they can create. 

Now, I would like to hear your thoughts. 
What kind of options you would love to have? 
What options from other Softwares you like? 

Any option, that comes to your mind, just tell us. 

We are going to build something super useful for you guys. 
Looking forward to seeing your thoughts. 

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This would really help everyone, Coach!  

Things I like about Chessbase opening trainer ("COT"):

1. You can start to train on any move, so you can drill sub-variations until you have got them, and then branch out

2. It has a strong engine you can turn on, which shows some ideas for why the position is good for you and some plans, that you can glance at when you get to the end of the line.

3. It has a hint feature, so If you can't remember, it nudges you by telling you which piece moves

4. It connects to their big database, so you can identify quickly top games in that position.

5. You can have the software play you through the lines (it goes over each 3 times on autoplay), which is helpful if you haven't looked at them for a long time.

Things I don't like about COT:

1. COT stores all your white moves, and all your black moves, in one big file, and links to your chessbase repertoire databases.  This is generally the right approach, but sometimes I'd like the opportunity to only load up elements of the repertoire.  It also gets confused where you play an opening both with white and black, and displays the lines jumbled up.  Also, where you have old lines there you used to play, it can be hard to get them out of the drills without deleting them from your repertoire databases.  

2. COT doesn't identify transpositions

3. COT seems to assume that as you are drilling  you'll want to add known theory/moves to your repertoire, and be browsing around in the trainer to add to your lines.  Chessmood repertoire is often going way beyond known lines, and when that happens there are confusing messages displayed.  What I want is a clean "line driller".

4. COT sometime suggests opponent's replies that are in known theory, but not in your lines, and tries to drill you on them.

5. COT seems to get fixated on one line, and as you are drilling, you need to repeatedly enter that same line again and again even after you have definitively remembered it, while there are still other variations that are not being displayed at all.  Let's say there are 20 lines in the segment you are drilling - COT might select them as 1 2 1 3 1 1 4 2 1 1 3 4 1 1 5 etc, so in 15 drills you'll go through line 1 7 or 8 times, and take forever to get to lines 6-20!  That obsession with line 1 might continue for hours, until you are screaming at it every time it selects line 1 to drill again.  Getting the algorithm right so there is good balance between the lines it selects to drill, the time to get through all the lines, and the ideal number of repetitions, is clearly tricky but COT doesn't do it well.

How about awarding us chessmood coins for each segment where there is say 20+ lines and we complete a drill perfectly?  How about a tree of PRO members to show who is leading the ability to remember (say total number of lines perfectly drilled in last 2 weeks?  A bit of competition would really encourage us! 

Fantastic initiative if you can come up with something that helps in Opening preparation. I found this simple yet effective site to do it https://www.studyopenings.com/.

Found the same problems when working with Chessbase Trainer as mentioned here.

Coach, I personally use chesstempo opening trainer and as far as studying the openings go, it is really useful. I just wish they had an area where you can easily enter in comments about the position that you can see. They have a comment area, but it is not very user friendly.  Overall, I do enjoy the chesstempo site for just going over the lines. Additionally, I am a huge fan of chessable and use their site quite a bit too, but it is a lot more time intensive to create your own "book." 

That is a good point just made about chessable.  It does seem you really need to spend some time just to get the repertoire in the program.  That being said, here I some quick thoughts I have.

BookUp/Chess Openings Wizard (COW):

Taking the best from here, I like that it is a positional database, not a move base.  ALL transpositions are caught.  Input is simple, and drilling the lines is a breeze.  Very simple to use.  I hate you cannot print out your repertoire in ECO format anymore.

Chess Position Trainer(CPT):

I like that you have a nice box in the left corner which summarizes your repertoire as white and black.  (There are some youtube videos about this program that illustrate that well) EDIT:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OHSJ8ZL680 for example.  In COW, you have to remember what files you have but CPT lays it out much better graphically.  This is also the first attempt to systematize learning by making you keep the lines in your head.  It allows you to just follow their study plan and you can review things when they get older and you have to convince the program you still know your lines.  It is basic though.

Chessable:

It looks like they took the no special features drilling of COW, saw how CPT improved it, and then went all 'sciencey' and took FULL advantage of repetition learning.  I do believe that this is as close as chess has gotten to professional level memorization.  It just feels like you are doing this the best way possible.  What I do not like is the effort to enter things.  If you make a mistake or need to edit something, it is not so straightforward to fix it.  This may be much improved in Chessable 2.0 just released.

Chess Base:

I cannot improve on the post above me in relation to ChessBase.  I think you can start to see the blend of how each of the existing programs has some great features, but no one program has them all.  Chess Base access to Megabase et al is really a strong feature.

StudyOpenings.com:

As mentioned in the forums less than a day ago, this has some potential for an effective working system that is simple to use.  I would look at this just to see how easy the interface is.  It also seems to have some statistics but I have not used yet so I cannot comment.

Summary:

If Chess Mood is going to write a new program to do things like this, I think you can cherry-pick from each of the above.  All seem to have one great feature not all of them have.  So we need a blend of all of these things.

Comment:

This seems to me like an extraordinary step to be writing something like this.  I have no feel for how much time this would take or how detailed the final vision would be featurewise.  But chess.com and so on required a LOT of programming time to get to where they are, and would it not take away from things like lesson creation, etc?  I worry that you could be reinventing the wheel somewhat?  On the other hand, if you were to mesh all the above into one easily usable program, I think you might open up a new business for yourselves!

I will be watching this thread with great interest and high hopes :)

Hi Coach, is the project to build a software to memorize opening lines still in your roadmap or it has been cancelled. It he answer is, yes it is on the roadmap, then could we have some rough estimate when it could be available.

Tnx.

Sicilian Defence Accelerated Dragon

Yesterday I played a tournament . Two of my opponent played against me following line. I was black .

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6

5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. Qd4

I have a good preparation of Accelerated Dragon according to our chessmood opening as   i was expecting accelerated dragon.  What is the best continuation of above line.

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I just met this line too. But it does not look dangerous. I played 6...Nf6 7.e5 Nd5 8.e6 f6 9.exd7+ Bxd7 and Black seems fine

I've been facing this line a lot in Internet Blitz. Here is what I have in my file (arrows are lost in PGN export). These lines are loosely based on what GM Avetik has played in his "Crushing with ChessMood openings" and  "from 800 to 2400" streams, which I *highly* recommend you to watch (more so than going over my lines).

Peter is right. 
I have played against it and showed during the webinars 2 ways. 
Both 8...f6 and 8...Nf6 are fine. 

After 8...Nf6 the key variation is 9.ef7 Kf7 10.Bc4 d5 11.Bb3 e5! 12.Qe5 Bb4+ with Re8! 

After 8...f6 9.ed7 Qd7 (Bd7!?) Black is fine too. Soon e5 is coming, and black has a pawn in the center. 
You can also play at some point Qg4 exchanging the queens. 

So both are fine. 
After 8.Nc3 Black gets a good play with different ways. 8...Bg7 is best, but simple 8...Qb6 also solves the problem. 

4... Nb6 in the Alekhine

After 4... g6 we play Bc4. My opponent played 4... Nb6 first then 5... g6. What should be done against this move order?

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https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2021-armenian-championship-1st-league/05-Shahinyan_David-Danielyan_Vahe :)  
Just answered in another threat :) 

The TODOs in the Alekhine course

Worked through this one now, and as it's work in progress trying to work out what is missing:

. 4...  Bf5
. 4... dxe5
. 4... c6
. 4... e6 (looks dreadful, but some 2000+ encounters so maybe a word or two on how to punish Black for blocking in his bishop)
. Early deviations (there was a course being sold on the Brooklyn defence - 2... Ng8 which I've played against a couple of times). Also dealing with Ne4 probably should be mentioned as it occasionally gets played but is dismissed as only beginners play it (which is why there are grandmaster encounters in the database then!). There are even 20 games of Ng4?? - certainly that knight is going abracadabra and doesn't need mentioning in the course, but interestingly 2 games of 2200 players have 3. d4 as the next move - paranoia or a late night drinking and automatic play (sadly they win their games, as failure to punish the opponent should also be punished!).
. Probably 3rd move deviations should get a quick mention - Nb6 (must transpose surely), e6, Nc6 (another transposition likely), c6, c5 (probably just c4 here - Black must be hoping White will over-expand, but the more cautious c3 means you have to learn a lot of c3 sicilian theory), g6 (transposition or a mistake?)
. Model games
. Advanced section (14. Bd3, Ng5 against g6 line)

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4... Nb6 followed by 5... g6 (no Bc4 now) - asked about this in another thread.

The missing ones are coming. 

Chessmood vs the Clemenz opening

So as everyone knows, the Clemenz opening is 1. h3. Usually it's just a wait and see transpositional trick, but sometimes it has a life of its own with g4 and g5 (Grob style which I guess where that plan will be eventually covered), where Black needs to decide to play h5 or h6, or neither.

The question is what is the right way that gives you the greatest chance of a Chessmood opening transposition (or a easy refutation). I went for c5, which gives White a choice of transpositions to an English with h3 (not good for White), a Sicilian accelerated dragon or sideline where h3 is just about okay in some of those lines and not in others, a London (the expectation) or a Colle setup which happened in the game.

Although my combination was in error (forgot the 3rd rank opens) I bumbled through for a win, I wasn't so happy with castling queenside and hope to push the kingside pawns to exploit h3 as the centre wasn't fixed and I could come under attack, but life looked worse on the kingside. Certainly although the Colle without an e4 push makes White's bishop bad, just where do I place mine? I'm not sure h6 Bf5 and the forced swap on d3 is the best line.

So:
1> What is the guidelines when facing h3 (given White can play quite a few things)
2> The suggestion/improvements against the Colle style position where it ended up

{and yes, bonus points for knowing the origin of my opponent's handle]

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Opening-wise there is an interesting comment from the engine. It proposes 5...cxd4 instead of 5...Bf5 after White's 5.b3.

Can we explain the reasoning of the engine?

The engine suggests that since White decided to fianchetto their Bishop they will of course want to open the a1-h8 diagonal, to activate the Bishop, and by 5...cxd4 6.exd4 Black could make it more difficult for White to achieve that goal.

You'll love the daily lesson 42 :) 

Pirc course vs. Marin's book

Hi,

Just studied the Pirc course: well done!

I have one question.

Marin in his 2017 QualityChess book on the Pirc gives following line: 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Bf4 c6 5.Qd2 Nbd7 6.Nf3 and now 6...Bg7!

I don't think this was covered in the ChessMood course. What are your ideas on this?

Greetings,

Thomas from Belgium

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I think that the line that you are looking for is in the Advanced Section /Bg7 with c6. Check it out!

https://chessmood.com/course/11-crushing-the-pirc/episode/1320

My recommendation after 6…Bg7 would be to play 7.Bh6, waiting for 7…O-O (after 7…Bxh6 Black loses a tempo and White has a great game after 8.Qxh6) and then the usual strong attacking idea h4/h5!

Hey Thomas! 
Overall Nf3,Bf4 with Qd2 setup is a very dangerous one for Black. Played by Giri a lot and there is a very nice game Fressiner - Almasi on it. 
https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2018-bundesliga/05-Fressinet_Laurent-Almasi_Zoltan 
  
Black's best way to fight against the system is to delay with Bg7 and 0-0 moves, but play Nbd7,e5, c6,b5.

In our case after 6...Bg7 7.Bh6! 0-0 8.h4 or 8.0-0-0 first, White gets a very dangerous attack. 

Banned from ChessMood

Dear PRO Members! 
Unfortunately, recently we've informed, that some players during the ChessMood tournaments are sending offensive messages and behaving very badly... 

Please, please, please!!
Whenever such things happen to you or you witness it, inform us. 

We'll not let anyone ruin the nice atmosphere and friendly mood of our ChessMood Family. 
Such people will be banned from ChessMood. 

You can just email us. We'll keep your name anonymous, of course. 
Thank you very much! 

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I had an accusation of playing far better than my low 1885 blitz rating in one of the tournaments.

I'm not going to name, and I respect there are players online who do cheat, but in a tournament designed to help learn with no prizes, aside from an ego trip (winners don't get named on Chessmood which I think is good policy) I don't see what anyone would gain. After a frustrated outburst at the opponent for the disrespect while trying to play (I lost on time in an equal position in the end, but so what), we looked at the game after and I believe the outcome was amicable.

I would ask that if you think someone is potentially being dishonest, don't accuse particularly during the game. Look at it after the tournament on analysis to also check your own play too, perhaps some of the other games they played, gather some evidence and contact Chessmood for an opinion. That way it stays friendly.

Please, guys, inform us in such cases https://chessmood.com/contact 

Sicilian with 2.Bc4

How to play against 2.Bc4 in Sicilian? 
We've uploaded the material. 

Check out here: https://chessmood.com/course/crushing-all-the-sidelines-of-sicilian 

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Big thumbs up from here. Bc4 is usually dismissed in the books as play e6 and you'll be okay. In practice though lower rated players often get an advantage against inaccurate play by Black.

A question is whether 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 [Edit: yes it is, with the 2nd and 3rd move swapped] and 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Bc4 (abracadabra, the pawn just got gambitted with maybe c3 to follow or c3 now then Nxc3 and/or Bc4) get covered here, or are they coming later?

Also Chess and Bridge have noted that GM Pert has released a Chessbase DVD on anti-sicilians for a 2... Nc6 repertoire (https://chess.co.uk/collections/new-chess-products/products/a-black-repertoire-versus-the-anti-sicilians-nicholas-pert-pc-dvd?mc_cid=23efdf3277&mc_eid=8b2935913f). As well as covering the Chessmood 2. Nc3 3. Bb5 variation and all the usual lines there is an interesting minor line 2. Be2 which I've never heard of or seen. Nf6 is suggested against 2. c3 as well. Might be good additional / support material for the course here, as well as, given parts of the course are still in (re)writing interesting source material to evaluate or even improve upon.

Nice add on. However, I was hoping for some more concrete theory on the move 4.d3 next to the model games. 

The move 5.Bg5 is the most popular choice in this line. This move is mentioned in one of the model games but you mention in the following line that white shouldn't give up his dark-squared bishop so easily and we should take with the queen and take b2. But this looks pretty good for white? The computer also likes it. 

1. e4 c5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. d3 e6

Bo Schlechter

I had my doubts about how well the Schlechter variation in the French (3. Bd3) would stand up against strong players. Although I forgot the key move 8. Ng3 I managed to hold it together and eventually win due to a blunder against a much stronger player (~2200).

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Nd2 with Nc4! against early Bd6 moves :) 

Question about the London System

Hello everyone!

I liked a lot our system against the london opening, but recently I played against 2 Fide masters and both played me Bd3 instead Be2 with the idea to push the pawn on e4 later. I don´t know how to react in this kind of situations. 

Thanks for reading and I hope your kindly answer soon. 

Best regards. 

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Bd3 is supposed to be wrong when d6 is played. I've caught a few in the e5, e4 trap before.

Play e5 the Bishop hangs on d3 if White captures twice on e5. 

Where Bd3 exactly?

This is a good point, we'll wait for the answer from the grandmasters, but maybe we can do the same as against 5.Be2, I'm not sure.

Hello Again!

I think my question is very obvious because I said Bd3 instead Be2 and I asked about the plan in general. I don´t know where is the confusion 

The order is d4, Nf6, Bf4, g6, Nf3, Bg7, e3, d6, h3, 0-0 and Bd3, but to be honest I think it´s unnecesary to put all the moves. 

Thanks for all your replys and sorry for the confusion 

Guys, this is a question, you can ask in the upcoming webinar as well :) 
For now the biggest downside of Bd3 (Why Be2 is more common), is because it allows Nd7, Re7 e5 plan! 
With the Be2, Black can't do that, as after queen exchanges the e5 pawn will be lost. 
With the same reasons, White's not hurting up with Nbd2 move. 

Accelerated Dragon 7. Be2 8. O-O 9. Nxc6

This line isn't covered in the course.

So 7. Be2 O-O 8. O-O d5 9. Nxc6 bxc6 10. e5 - now Ng8 is not possible. Both Ne4 and Nd7 are suggested in the IM Greet book, however looking at the database, Ne8 is an interesting idea - looking to challenge 11. f4 with f6, then capture with the Bishop on f6 after exf6, and bring the knight to f5 via g7.

What's the consensus on this (and perhaps another line to add to the course when it's updated).

Replies

David, Ne8 with f6 is strong! (the 1st line of the engine) 
But Nd7, with e6 and c5 also good for Black. 

Commented Games or Happy pieces?

I would very much appreciate your help and  educated opinion.

I have a three year plan and this year I will totally focus on 1. ChessMood`s opening repertoire, 2. Tactics and 3. Playing.

I will however be able to squeeze in a fourth topic with low priority during 2021. I am thinking of either Happy Pieces or Commented Classical Games.

My current rating is about 1700 and I am very uneducated in either topic. When it comes to opening, middlegame or endgame I have without doubt best knowledge in the endgame.

I would very much appreciate any opinion on which of these two ( Happy Pieces or Commented Classicals ) I should introduce during 2021. Perhaps it does not matter which?

Replies

Goran, at the moment Happy pieces is still not very long, I think that you should do both. It does not take too much time and I am sure that you will learn a lot in both courses. I did all of the courses in Chessmood in one year, working, with 2 kids and many extra activities, you can do it too! Happy learning!

Thank you for your advice. Perhaps doing them in parallell would be nice. When time is available  I then may chose according to my mood. Have no commitment to finish both during 2021 though.

Goran, had you a 1-1 call with a GM? 
When you join ChessMood PRO, you get a welcome 1-1 call, during which we set up a personalized study plan.  
You can reserve a seat on the events page-> 1-1 calls