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Jobava Line - 2.Nc3 instead of 2.Bf4

Hey everyone!

I started watching the "Jobava Line" video repertoire and I noticed that Avetik only covers 2.Bf4, giving 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 as the line.

However, if White starts with 2.Nc3, then White has some tricky options. For instance:

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5!? stopping g6 systems.

Alternatively, if 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.e4! is achieved.

So my question is, what is the best way to approach 2.Nc3? I presume playing 2...d5, and then learning some extra theory if 3.Bg5...?

Replies

I think d5 we should play anyway

You can't avoid the position after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5 anyway because it can also be reached via 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 d5 (our move) 3.Nc3. Would be good to have this covered in the course.

Yeah, it's not Jobava anymore. It's Veresov, which will be covered. 

Trap in the Closed Sicilian 2...Nc6 4...e6

In the 2...Nc6 course in the advance section 4...e6 video 18. Introduction the following variation is discussed 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Nf3 e6 5. Nxd4?! cxd4 6.Ne2 Nf6! 

However in one of my recent games with a strong opponent even better move was played:

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Nf3 e6 5. Nxd4? cxd4 6.Ne2 Qg5!!  The engine gives -1.28 big advantage for Black. 

Somehow I managed to survive, I'll post the game if I find it.

Do not fall for this trap :)

Replies

Hence O-O being the move here whereas Nxd4 for g6 I believe assuming I've got that right.

Could really do with a summary course to the closed sicilian to help navigate through the move-order thicket - particularly as some move orders may be between two different lines.

Ok we just play 5.O-O :)

hahahah thanks for the warning! :) 

Robert, that's true! 
But anyway, we don't play 5.Nd4 :) 

By the way, these lines you'll see soon, when we cover how to play against our openings from the Black side :) 

3....e6 versus the Sicilian. What to do?

3...e6 versus Sicilian.

Hi Guys,

I'm wondering how I should set up versus: 1. e4 c5, 2. Nc3 Nc6, 3. Bb5 e6. I can't find any info on this line in any of the courses (have I missed something?), and yet I also can't find any real advantage against this system. How should I play against it?

Many thanks for your help!

Replies

Moves other than 3...Nd4 are briefly covered here:

Anti-Sicilian with Nc3!? Part 2
1. Welcome

I think you should play f4 and after d5 Nf3 transposed to the position covered in Sicilian part 3

Hi Jeremy!

I do like taking in these positions on c6 as in that case light-squared bishop of black is gonna be limited because of a pawn on e6. Later on, playing with f4 and Nf3 is what I am doing as well.

Also, I think pawn, later on, should be placed on d3 to limit this bishop's abilities if it goes to a6.

Good luck!

Question about Caro-Kann 4..Nf6

I couldn't find the following move order in the course: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nf6 5.c3 Bg4

This is from a recent repertoire book on the Caro-Kann by Francesco Rambaldi. Does it transpose to one of our lines? All the moves in the course have Nc6 played before Nf6.

Replies

The same move order was also played by Alireza as black in the last Norway Chess tournament. 

Aryan Tari vs Alireza Firouzja (2020) (chessgames.com)

After 6.Qb3 black played 6...Qc7 and I believe there is no way the position would transpose to any of the ChessMood lines.

After 6.Qb3 Qc7 7.h3 Black has a choice. To go Bh5 and sac. a pawn after g4 with idea g5 and win the d5 pawn. 
Both are advanced, and I just add to my to-do list, to record and add in the the course. 

Beating anti-sicilians 2. Bc4, missing transpositions

Looking at https://database.chessbase.com/?lang=en some main transpositions are not covered, or maybe will be covered in upcoming course sections (Bb5, and perhaps Be2):

After 2) Bc4 Nc6 3) Nf3 Nf6 4) Bc4 e6 - White now has the 'crafty' 5) Bb5 (~2000 games). The idea is if Nd4, then e5 is available and if Ng4 Bxc6, which differs to the line as White since the knight is not on f6 at that point. One suggestion is the knight goes back to g8.

Also instead 5) Be2 [and as mentioned Be2 could do with some coverage (either as a GP, retreat, or even 2) Be2 appears which was covered in the Pert Fighting Anti-sicilian DVD), so if that was added perhaps this transposition could be added here.]

5) Bb5 also appears in the 2) Nf3 Nc6 3) Nc3 g6 4) Bc4 Bg7 5) Bb5  - a Rossolimo a tempo up (800 games) - how best to use this tempo?

Finally after: 2) Bc4 Nc6, there is even 3) Bb5 (2600 games). More amusing is 3...) Nd4 4) Bc4 appears often (White can't makeup their mind!). Again given the popularity it could do with a mention perhaps in the upcoming Bb5 course.

These might seem usual sidelines, but the lines covered in the course often are in single figures compared to hundreds or thousands of games of these lines with average of 2300 FIDE or so. Often all that's needed is a plan if the idea is innocuous - i.e. which of several plans in similar positions is the best here and why.

Replies

Hi David,

Some of the variations you are asking for are under construction and will be appearing on the website in near future.

Good luck!

David, I didn't understand the 1st question. 
You said Bc4 two times. 
I didn't get where Bb5? 

About 2.Nc3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nd4 will be a different section. (in the Bc4 section was covered just Bc4 systems) 
About 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 g6 4.Bb5 Bg7 transpoces to Rossolimo. 

London 5 Be2 Option 1 8 Nfd2 9 Bg3 improvement

After 9. Bg3 Nxg2+ 10. Kf1 the video gives Nh4. However, looking at this on the computer, stronger is 10. Bh3 and now if 11. Kg1 Qc8 12. Bf1 Nh4 - the rook on h1 is out of action.

Replies

David, I just showed that Black is fine. Often it's easier to explain the variation with 2nd best move, than to show the 1st line which goes a few moves. 

French 3... dxe4 5... Bd6

Interesting idea to play 5... Bd6 instead of c5, and I didn't handle it right. The aim is to keep the queens on and cause problems in turn on White's queenside, which happened. Looks like the correct way to deal with this was Nd2-Nc4 after Black castles instead of castling myself (which seemed natural, but it's too slow) gaining a tempo on the bishop and putting the knight somewhere useful.

Fortunately Black rushed the endgame, so instead of converting it, lost it.


Replies

Hi David! 
That's correct. 
The biggest downside of Bd6 move is Nd2 with Nc4. It's better to do without casting and don't show our cards. 

ChessMood - Interesting additional weapon: 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.f4 g6 4.d4!?

A fresh and interesting try that fits in well with our ChessMood repertoire:

Replies

The above line is a favorite of the Cuban GM Holden Carmenates Hernandez

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.f4 g6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Qxd4 Nf6 6.Bd3!? Bg7 7.Nf3

The variation compares favorably to a line of the Austrian Attack against the Pirc [1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 c5 6.dxc5 Qa5 7.Bd3 Qxc5 8.Qe2 0-0] with an extra tempo for White, and offers similar attacking chances of the type we get with the ChessMood Courses.  Please note the Chessmood line is perfectly okay, but it pays to have viable options so as not to become predictable.

I hope you like my suggestion and enjoy success with it.

Where is this idea from? 

NEW ARTICLE: What’s the “But” that’s Holding You Back?

Hey Champions!

We have this topic in our Blog: 

https://chessmood.com/blog/what-is-the-but-that-is-holding-you-back

If you have any questions, comments or you just liked it, feel free to share your thoughts here.

Replies

At the end of 2013 I had a tough tournament which ended with a very painful lose against a 2100 (at that moment my rating was 1780). The guy played 1.d3  2.g3  and so on. I didn't know which pawn structure to adopt against this setup and I chose a very bad one because he 0-0-0 and pawn storm me. When I arrive home as always the 1st. thing I do is to analyze and annotate the game. When I finished entering moves and glanced at the final position I wanted to cry. All my Qside pieces where in their initial position. Shocked by his opening I forgot to develope my pieces. All what I learned beginning with Morphy's games didn't served at all. I got so depressed that I said to myself> chess is not meant for you, so I threw the towel.

At the end of 2018 was the Magnus vs. Caruana WC match and I decided to follow it. There was such a good coverage by the media that I got excited with chess and decided to give it a last try. So I nearly had no time to train online because I wanted to begin OTB with the coming 2019. 

What a disaster, I played 37 games and lost 220 rating points so instead of playing in the A group now I was relegated to the B group. Things are curious in the B group. They basically don't have an opening repertoire and to my Najdorf they meet it with Closed Sicilian or Maroczy Bind structures. The Caro-Kann is also quite popular in group B, followed by the French and something I didn't know that existed. To 1.e4 he played 1...Nc6. When I arrived home I run to the opening explorer and learnt that it was called the Nimzowitch defence. Well, in resume, nobody in the group B plays the Sicilian so in 37 games, lets say 18 with white playing 1.e4 not a single time it was met by 1...c5.

Well after losing all that that material and blundering a lot I decided to leave OTB but this time not to throw the towel but to study chess. At the end I thought, what Fischer did in 1968-69? In 1968 he played only a couple of medium tournaments in Europe and in 1969 there is only one game registered vs, A.Saidy. Then he came back in 1970 with a never seen force. Crushing all his opponents until he achieved his goal. He wanted to destroy the soviet chess dominance and be crowned chess World Champion. Once accomplished his mission he retired.

Then what he did in 1968-69 without playing chess to come back with such a strength? He studied chess. So the lesson I take is that playing chess is fun and is important but studying chess is not such fun but at the end of the day is what pays off the most,

GM's not active on the forum?

In every opening course, you mention if we any questions we can ask in the forums. But the last few weeks I noticed there are a lot of pro member topics with questions about opening courses, but none of the staff is responding. What is the reason behind this? From the pro-member section:

"In this "Only Pro Members" forum channel all the discussions and topics are on a higher level, and our Grandmasters are there to answer all your questions."

I expected a bit more of this. 

Replies

I will have to second this one, especially as there are only a few pro-member questions per day. Overall I'm super satisfied being a CM member, and I really appreciate the obviously hard work that @GM_Avetik_Grigoryan is putting into this, but quick forum answers from the CM team was a huge selling point for me so I hope this could improve.

Btw - maybe Discord would be a better option...

I agree with Yair. One of the problems of having so much stuff in flight, there are so many hours in the day and only so much that can be done.

There is spam starting to appear in the forum which doesn't need a GM to deal with. Hopefully the new website will have a captcha system to stop bots, because otherwise the site could get flooded.

Also everywhere there it mentions 'ask in the forums if unsure', and when that is not being responded to (most are eventually) or is slow (more than a couple of days), plus the issues already mentioned with events, it doesn't look a good advert to get pro member signups or to keep interest for some who have.

On the flip side some good material has come out recently and the Friday tournament coverage events are really useful and it's clear there is a lot of hard work going in.

Perhaps it's a priority thing, but also some patience our side too.

Getting current pro members significantly improved is more of an advert than anything else, if volume of signups is a problem. Plenty of places offer material (of various quality), but which ones can show massive improvements through all rating levels?). It seems to have been more personal in the past (this was the aim as well as a family feel looking at some of the old events and posts a couple of years ago). Now outside of a few places (Friday tournament feedback and daily lessons) it seems to have lost much of that and despite some really good material, is in danger of becoming just another site.

Hey guys! 
I express my apologies for the delayed answers in the past month. 
And also thanks for all the words, which were related to understanding us. 

It's true, that there is a limited time, we all have. 
Especially when me, or GM Gabuzyan are getting sick or we are in another accident, it's becoming tough. 

It's also tough to launch so many courses, articles and the rest at the same time. 
Many changes are coming with new Website, and many things will be fixed. 

One thing I can say for sure, is that ChessMood will never ever become like other websites. 
Now we're bringing more Grandmasters to ChessMood, which are related with big expenses. 
And thanks to many of our students, who're referring to their friends, we survived already 2 years without investors. 

Thanks for your understanding and patience. Tomorrow myself, I'll answer all the unanswered questions.  




Solving puzzles

Just wondering...Do you find it easy to decide whether the puzzle to draw or win?

Replies

I realize it always when I have to form a fortress and draw the game. Blockading moves are difficult for me to find, although my puzzle ratings is 2019 on chess.com and 2043 on lichess. When it is to win, I get some trouble and usually can't solve it by the first time.

How to overcome time pressure?

 Today, I played a blitz session with 9 Games. (Time control - 3+2) Got 6.5 out of 9. But, in almost all the games I was in time trouble. In one game I was in time trouble just before reaching the middlegame (I was below 20 secs), but somehow I won that game. My question is how can we overcome this?

Replies

Hi Sidharth

Caoch covers this in the webinar on Time Management

https://chessmood.com/event/webinar-time-management

Hope that helps!

I would compare with 90/30 time control and ask yourself if you can convert the same position with 90/30 in an offline environment. If the answer is yes, then there should be no regret or hard feelings to losing on time. After all, people are not invited to tier S events because they have a 3k online rating. 

Your fav. Chess Piece?

We all love chess but in chess we sometimes starts to like a piece a lot. May be it can be knight or bishop. So what's your fav. chess piece. 

Note: Forget about board piece placement.

Mine is Bishops. Because in my life there is no Queen heheeh. 

Replies

Strong piece :D

I don't know. Maybe the knight. I love maneuvering with my knights and double attacks. Well, in closed positions, if I have a 2 knights advantage, I win the game. 

all of them! <3

Rook, I love Rook lifts.

Is playing Daily Chess the best way for improving analaytical skills?

Hello everyone! I saw some articles on chess.com saying Daily Chess is very useful for improving analytical skills.

Replies

It depends where you play, how strong are your opponents, and if you get everything that you learned into the game. Look, I learn from chessmood courses every day, then I solve some puzzles on chess.com or lichess and then go for a seesion of my preffered time controls (3+0, 5+0, 5+3, 10+0, 10+5, 15+5, 25+0).

I can recommend listen to the latest Perpetual Chess Podcast with Andras Toth. Very interesting stuff about improvement and time controls in general!

I play daily chess, much less nowadays, because the games take too long to complete and the flow of thinking is kind of a broken.

For me the best way to improve analytical skills is to analyze any game afterwards. Most of the time for blitz and rapid games analysis  takes much longer, sometimes even up to an hour.

Quote from one of the Chessmood's  article :) 

Today, I saw the webinar of Time management held on 18 May. In that, Avetik sir said that he don't recommend playing Daily Chess because there is a lot of difference between knowing chess and playing chess.

The best games of January and the prizes

Hello ChessMood family, hello champions and future champions! 
Happy New Year and welcome to the "Best games of January" competition.
Under this post, we invite you to post your best games that you will play this month. 

The Prize fund is 350K Moodcoins which is equal to 350$.  

The 1st prize  - 150K
The 2nd prize - 100K
The 3rd prize-  50K
The 4th Prize- 30k
The 5th Prize- 20k

Good luck with your games and keep the Right Mood! 
#ChessMood
#Right Mood - Right Move 

P.S
Here are the winners of December: 

1st-  K H
2nd- Michael Larsen
3rd- Kourosh A
4th- Wenstin           
5th- Aayush Shirodkar

Replies

Cool Rook Endgame

https://lichess.org/rGAEWbXN/black

Fun start to the new year!  Played Bf8 as white :)

https://lichess.org/MqkYgHav/white

Scandinavian defense - 12 move mate.

https://lichess.org/ERj5hWqd/black#24

https://lichess.org/xcAfJ0SvzyCA 

Bad opening against AD won.

https://lichess.org/3unRb9gi/black#52

Played against squares

https://lichess.org/LjLPgVRoSNeg

Opening I messed up but later Zukzwang was cool I think

https://lichess.org/jQzLjwhXxkfU

Caro-Kann Defense

https://lichess.org/bSeQg8WQ#2

Coach, had a calculation blindspot. I did saw Bf2+ in this game but I forgot that he can't take my Ne4. Rest all I did was attack and attack and attack.

https://lichess.org/JStjLf7h/black#49

Slav Defense

https://lichess.org/dAMLCXKT/black#0

Queen's Pawn Game


https://lichess.org/mImu86HP/black#0

https://www.chess.com/live/game/3713810691

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6123726538

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6123785232

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/6131538317

This was a really interesting game.  By move 13 I had my opponent almost completely tied down


Scotch Game

https://lichess.org/mVJK9IWW#5

https://lichess.org/kvTZyEuq There are blunders but the person was rated 900 points above my rating and I got a checkmate in. The person may have been on auto pilot but a win is a win!

https://lichess.org/q95EtRgA

A crushing attack with a nice piece sacrifice!

https://lichess.org/jJs58xksKIan

It was simple and fun

 Quick!

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6178190932

I really like our Scotch repotoire - I tend to have good results with it

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/6179942119?tab=report

Alright. This game is perfect. Flawless. Also probably my first ever for blitz. I loved today’s lesson webinar. You’ll see. https://lichess.org/Th4X0wyb/black

[Event "Rated game, min"]
[Site "Main Playing Hall"]
[Date "2021.01.09"]
[Round "?"]
[White "EdgarsHerreraMX"]
[Black "SidharthS"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "2076"]
[BlackElo "1575"]
[PlyCount "78"]
[EventDate "2021.01.09"]
[SourceTitle "playchess.com"]

1. g3 d5 2. Bg2 e5 3. b3 Nf6 4. Bb2 Bd6 5. d3 c6 6. Nd2 Nbd7 7. e3 O-O 8. Ne2
Qe7 9. O-O h5 10. e4 h4 11. exd5 cxd5 12. Nf3 Rd8 13. Nxh4 Nf8 14. Nf3 Ng6 15.
Nd2 Bf5 16. f4 e4 17. dxe4 dxe4 18. Qe1 Bc5+ 19. Kh1 Ng4 20. Nc4 b5 21. Ne5
N6xe5 22. fxe5 g6 23. Nf4 a5 24. Bxe4 Rd2 25. Qxd2 Bxe4+ 26. Qg2 Bxg2+ 27. Kxg2
Ne3+ 28. Kf3 Nxf1 29. Rxf1 Qb7+ 30. Kg4 Qe4 31. Rd1 f5+ 32. Kg5 Be7+ 33. Kxg6
Qc6+ 34. Kxf5 Qc8+ 35. Ne6 Qxc2+ 36. Kg4 Qxd1+ 37. Kh3 Qc2 38. Ng5 Qd3 39. Ne4
Qxe4 0-1

Yesterday, I saw the game Rotlewi,G - Rubinstien,A from Classical Commented Games (I have seen it many times but not in this course.). Today I used the same idea!

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6184486024

https://lichess.org/4hkIihmN

Crushing!

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6186930991

I can not say a superb game but it's decent one because I found an attacking move g4!

https://lichess.org/e1a6qy9OeRKR

https://lichess.org/spW7H5cq/white#38

Amazing attack and king hunt in a variation of the Sicilian which is not included in the courses. I am playing black.

According to the lichess analysis, I had a perfect game here - no inaccuracies mistakes or blunders!

https://lichess.org/7ceGI76R/white

Modern Defense

https://lichess.org/yG26Kjzs/white#0

Caro can  1928 vs 2252 1-0

https://lichess.org/UB5z5WEb

He missed f5 but I won later by queenside expensation

https://lichess.org/1IlixTmP/black#49

Just rolling up the kingside - attack basically played itself

https://lichess.org/9CglQf4j4zsA

Miniature with grand prix

https://lichess.org/NCly8BTrmYQN

16 move petroff Miniature

Find noly move to save the game after Qg4 

https://lichess.org/fKczenSl2Y7G

Yes, i forgot line but later I played positional chess and won

https://lichess.org/DjUBCkJMg4W0

 Queen's Pawn Game

https://lichess.org/ExfcXiC7/black#0

King's Pawn Game'

https://lichess.org/7gVbfcSX#0

Sicilian Defense:

https://lichess.org/loWxVmtq#0

 Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/GrDNvNTC/black#0

https://lichess.org/dvfCV0lkyToI

trap in french from white side.

https://lichess.org/Uqv45uhMFqwS 

winning a nice positional game against Ginger GM ! ( GM Simon Williams )  

https://lichess.org/pvk5NJRMXRbH

Very pretty mate in this one

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6229221368

Two sicilians

https://lichess.org/rOQQaIIqEw6j

https://lichess.org/XOgaPkpS

more sicilians

https://lichess.org/KZ41p2hg

https://lichess.org/8S6nXUPl

https://lichess.org/HjF2gVHh/

https://lichess.org/YJpmhe93/

https://lichess.org/13xcQ9lu/

https://lichess.org/RPo7ac9F

https://lichess.org/XdFDpUBI


my favorite sicilians

https://lichess.org/5B6dWo5a

https://lichess.org/LWnFxhX8

GP fun

https://lichess.org/4eXuY4sSSW9V

Caro Kann Knockout

https://lichess.org/ZNypj97RQuuR

French positional win

https://lichess.org/xWGkSZER2pKI

Closed Anti Sicilian

Benko

Squeezing in Anti sicilian 

Anti sicilian attack

Queen's Pawn Game

https://lichess.org/6vlo55B3/black#0

 Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/QYls7V4Z/white#0

Scotch Game

https://lichess.org/kfiAUyqo/white#0

Slav Defense

https://lichess.org/phMXFbmI/black#0

Philidor Defense

https://lichess.org/5VXtZQKU/white#0

My Tal style game :) I'm playing black

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/6256534429

Anti sicilian attack with many mistakes, but the game itself was fun to play.

Modern defense

Roller coaster in Antisicilian :))

Quick punishment in French

https://lichess.org/NS2hWL2ubvxO

Nice co-ordination of pieces

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6261530102

King in the center

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6261575404

Power of Bishop Pair

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6261718441

Active play to save pawn on b7 and gave me point

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6262932268

Played with gusto :)

knowing openings is good true but sometimes I love to check my positional play so I played like this. Yes black may refute it in classical but online positional training is good

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6264161964

Miniature when I decided NOT to play with chessmood repertoire (blitz online rtg: chess.com=1871, lichess=1876). 100% accuracy 

https://lichess.org/IyfmmMlqwCLG

Powerful attacking game :)

I'm trying to change my style of play by trying to play games where I sacrifice material for unbalanced positions where (even if the computer disagrees with me) my opponents lose under heavy pressure

Those are the games: 

https://lichess.org/BzG6BbWQ (crushing the Trompowsky!! Thanks GM Avetik :)

https://lichess.org/SEEh6NwU (Sacking pieces for the action)

French defense 1978 vs 2172  1-0

https://lichess.org/mUZPeqy7#1

MMA choke in the Scotch, perfect game...

Blundered the whole rook on 9th move. But didn't give up...

Positional Scotch against FM

Attack in Caro-Kann

French with multiple mistakes from both sides

I do not post here many games because they have many misses, but this is one of these games where you feel very proud, after sacrifices, pressure and everything. It shows the power of development, fading advantages and having a passed pawn against an slow king side development. The Re3 was inspired by the game Carlsen-Radjabov of the Philidor course that I just finished watching before playing.

https://lichess.org/C77jfvZO2d43

Well, it seems that today I am playing with the right mood. After the Chessmood Accelerated Dragon opening played at lightning speed, and giving me the advantage, I kept the trapped knight on h6 the whole game...

https://lichess.org/gbhdoKGpv2f9

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6280396112

Thank you Chessmood for opening course lesson.

Bishop sacrifice for attack, difficult to defend...

https://lichess.org/cGk7abBKVGDE

fine positional domination ended with a deadly kingside attack  against 1...d6 2...c6?!

https://lichess.org/F0NqhKcZexrW

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6284342159

attack    

Passive Bc4 against Sicilians won

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6284463103

13 move Grand Prix

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6284507690

https://lichess.org/8526Mm2k/white#19

This was an interesting game

https://lichess.org/Sjy9htiQ

This was the second round game of our club championship (not rated) with 60+30 time control Due to covid, we had to play online. My opponent's ELO is 1851, mine is 1991. I was White.

The opening

I expected the 2. ... Nf6 line in the Scandinavian Defense. In his older games, my opponent answered 3. Bb5+ with the more solid 3. ... Bd7. In his more recent games, he played 3. ... Nbd7 4. c4 g6. For the latter, our course includes the following lines after 4. ... a6 (instead of 4. ... g6) 5. Bxd7 Qxd7 6. d3 e6 7. dxe6 Qxe6 8. Ne2 and 5. ... Bxd7 6. Nf3 e6 7. Qe2 Be7 8. dxe6 Bxe6 9. d4.

I liked the setup with d3 and Ne2 (and a later Ng3-e4) and to decided exchange my Bishop against the Knight on d7 even without a preceding a6. In the previous gams of my opponent, White tried to keep the Bishop but I got the feeling that Black's Knight was more active. 

The Middlegame and Tactics

I am quite happy with how I played the middlegame. I had active pieces, kept the pressure in the center, and prevented any major counterstrike of my opponent. We both thought that Black should not play f6-f5 and allow an exchange of the dark-squared Bishops. However, Shredder considers this a better move for Black on move 16 and 17.

On move 17 I considered Nc5 (instead of g3, protecting the pawn on f4) during the game and had the feeling that this might work. However, the variations were quite complicated and would have led to some danger for my king. So I went for the safer g3 assumes that I still had some advantage (the engine agrees on that).

The same is true for 24. Ne4. I had started calculating 24. cxb5 and was quite sure that this could be stronger. However, Black could get some counterplay on the b-line and continuing with Ne4 was a safer way to keep the advantage for me.

On move 26 I missed a tactic (26. Rxe7) but preserved a clear advantage with 26. Qc2.

The endgame and tactics

d6 on move 31 would have won faster. Again, I chose a move that seemed to be "safer" (31. Re7) and kept my winning advantage (the engine agrees on that).

Conclusion

After a well-done preparation, I had a plan for the middle game that was able to implement. There were no mistakes on my side that could have resulted in me losing my advantage. I missed one tactic, only. 

Queenside Majority

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6289617366

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6289412570

grand Prix Kill

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6291577177

Attacking Game!

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6301810191

Cool Game!

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6301896310

https://lichess.org/Ex7AgsRVtGh2 

This is a game I played on lichess.org. I am playing Black. In this game, on move 14, I made an exchange sacrifice for initiative. This is that game. Hope you will like it.

This is the pgn:

[Event "51st tournament"] [Site "https://lichess.org/jobZYRxp"] [Date "2021.01.21"] [White "johngalt1618"] [Black "chessplayer476"] [Result "0-1"] [UTCDate "2021.01.21"] [UTCTime "12:30:01"] [WhiteElo "2091"] [BlackElo "1891"] [WhiteRatingDiff "-9"] [BlackRatingDiff "+28"] [Variant "Standard"] [TimeControl "900+5"] [ECO "B22"] [Opening "Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation, Stoltz Attack"] [Termination "Normal"] [Annotator "lichess.org"] 1. e4 c5 2. c3 Nf6 3. e5 Nd5 4. Nf3 Nc6 5. Bc4 Nb6 6. Bb3 { B22 Sicilian Defense: Alapin Variation, Stoltz Attack } g6 7. O-O Bg7 8. d4 cxd4 9. cxd4 O-O 10. Re1 d6 11. e6 fxe6 12. Bxe6+ Bxe6 13. Rxe6 Qc8 14. Re1 Rxf3 15. gxf3 Nxd4 16. Bf4 Qf5 17. Re4 e5 18. Nc3 d5 19. Rxd4 exd4 20. Ne2 d3 21. Ng3 Qxf4 22. Qxd3 Rf8 23. Kg2 Qc4 24. Qd2 Qd4 25. Qa5 Nc4 26. Qc7 Be5 27. Qxb7 Bxg3 28. hxg3 Rxf3 29. Qc8+ Rf8 30. Qe6+ Kh8 31. f4 Qe4+ 32. Qxe4 dxe4 33. Rc1 Nxb2 34. Rc7 Re8 35. Kf1 e3 36. Ke2 Nd3 37. Kxd3 e2 38. Rxa7 e1=Q 39. f5 Qe3+ 40. Kc4 Qxa7 41. fxg6 Qc7+ 42. Kd5 Qd7+ 43. Kc5 Rc8+ 44. Kb6 Qc7+ 45. Ka6 Ra8+ 46. Kb5 Rb8+ 47. Ka6 Qb6# { Black wins by checkmate. } 0-1

And, this is the GIF:

https://lichess1.org/game/export/gif/black/jobZYRxp.gif

 Scotch Game

https://lichess.org/Y1bGjjf0/white#0

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/QTBFaV4T/black#0

Slow chess and I did atleast okay

https://lichess.org/TXJMEZ0QCDO9

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6312224475

B/b vs b/n endgame

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6316466247

https://lichess.org/dFQDE3pU52w0 

Having just finished watching the ChessMood Rossolimo video repertoire, I was very proud of this game! (Also incorporates "Daily Lesson #11" - using my bishops to annihilate white's queenside!) Enjoy :D

Caro win

https://lichess.org/QRJbh0KK3uQW

Power of Space

https://lichess.org/IlGbJsfUX0FN

Accelerated Dragon line which i forgot i think

https://lichess.org/vcCXZXXSMPw7

Scotch Game 

https://lichess.org/8MR6AlO9NaYZ

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/HeVvBorm/white#0

Philidor Defense

https://lichess.org/v49P58Wu/white#0

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/H61wWtI4/black#0

Totally outplayed him.

https://lichess.org/wEEwnXWBSuHX

https://lichess.org/mZ1qUsxEorHb 

Fun king walk!

https://lichess.org/UV5s4Lk0/white

Caro can 2003 vs 2202 1-0

https://lichess.org/8evXVpjy/white#53

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/rSPiB0X5

King's Pawn Game

https://lichess.org/KPTpIJBo

Knightmare in the middle of the board:

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6244143758

Power of the bisoph pair inspired by GM Hovhannes:

https://lichess.org/CwWu7HbrSJ5K

Trap an IM in London (98%):

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6241301723

Why never make long castle in exchange slav:

https://lichess.org/7mOidrc6/black#1

Importance of pawn structure:

https://lichess.org/0raDgEIw#1

Trap the king in the middle of the board:

https://lichess.org/AumestFFz3N5

Well played, nothing more to say.

Very Nice Game!

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6342084291

https://lichess.org/xyAQQVYJ7zpk 

Scotch Game

https://lichess.org/Hc7uIpqk#0

Slav Defense

https://lichess.org/R5McGQZe/black#0

Russian Game


https://lichess.org/23jdwoHe#0


https://lichess.org/ukMHYaoT2OEg 

From move 23 great attack (98%)

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6342794021

Winning with Chessmood openings:

https://lichess.org/hz3ES1jK/white#33

https://lichess.org/bR1Jhcc4/white#57

https://lichess.org/YPXTkdMn/white

Winning with Modern Benoni:

https://lichess.org/zhwEtQ9N/black#52

Crushing Alekhine’s Defence:

https://lichess.org/2RzFyJA5/white#43

https://lichess.org/oxD0zBHZfrGW

Crushing the Scandinavian

https://lichess.org/yqT2piRx/white#43

Killing the Stafford Gambit

https://lichess.org/ER2uXohk/white#41    

.

https://lichess.org/VStXrxM9Jswb 

https://lichess.org/joslyzkF/white#47

https://lichess.org/JqNisagw/black#60

https://lichess.org/Q5g05QldConJ

Live Chess - Chess.com

I wont say it was super sound sac on f6 but I just wanted to use light weak squares.

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6360509131

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6360572276

Caro Kann Win

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/hQctqXyj/black#0

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/4aYXbPr6/black#0

Very interesting Scandi with a minor piece sacrifice for the attack.

Crazy Game 

https://www.chess.com/game/live/6362663175

Zero mistake, all move green 

https://lichess.org/WDyogzLj/white#1

Taking advantage of what my opponent gave me

This game I won against 2257 and I was 1802. It was just attack and attack and then I made a tactic to win his queen

https://lichess.org/GYXBtrBz/black#94

This game I won his queen early in the game but it was very hard to convert but it went rather smoothly.

https://lichess.org/znwFxGVb/white#120

https://lichess.org/pNnPPqS8/white#49

Hey everyone, I’m new here and excited to learn. Here’s a mate in seven I was able to pull off with sacrificing two pieces for the attack :)


10 move trap in AntiSicilian

Scotch pawn storm

Benko

English for black

.

.

.

Nice game but Blitz without increment really is not healthy for chess.

https://www.chess.com/game/live/6370246351

Caro win against over 2400

https://lichess.org/5WIx5I9sVl30

Crushed Black with the GP Attack.

https://lichess.org/k1l9kpMnromE

One more victory with GP

https://lichess.org/OEucdYmX/white

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/XDQPoysD/black#0

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/vrFpKYnS/white#4

Funny King Walk

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6393730093

Super bad against GP destroyed

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6393719121

 Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/tbp5rNIo/white#4

Win against 2400. I was lucky. Unfortunately this opening line is uncommon so it's hard to remember all ideas of advanced section but I tried my best.

https://lichess.org/hqBdZQAfxMs0

.

.

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/6397993978

Strange transposition to Scotch, afterwards it was one way ticket :)

My entry for this month..93% accuracy according to chess.com

I do not expect this to be anywhere good enough for you higher rated players but at 5 minute blitz for me it is...sick bro.So just give me a prize for once! Thank you for your kind attention & don't forget Right Mood Right Move...COGRO

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2021.01.31"]
[Round "-"]
[White "playe4"]
[Black "Nic19917"]
[Result "1-0"]
[CurrentPosition "r4rkb/4Np1p/pq3Pp1/2p1n1B1/2P5/3P1Q2/PP4PP/1R3RK1 b - -"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "B23"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Sicilian-Defense-Grand-Prix-Attack-3...e6"]
[UTCDate "2021.01.31"]
[UTCTime "01:21:14"]
[WhiteElo "1209"]
[BlackElo "1238"]
[TimeControl "300"]
[Termination "playe4 won by checkmate"]
[StartTime "01:21:14"]
[EndDate "2021.01.31"]
[EndTime "01:25:24"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/live/game/6400840762"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 e6 4. Bb5 d6 5. Bxc6+ bxc6 6. Nf3 g6 7. O-O Bg7 ± 8.
d3 e5 {INACCURACY (+2.82)} ({(+1.70) The best move was} 8... Ba6 9. e5 d5 10.
Na4 Bf8 11. b3 c4 12. Be3 cxd3 13. cxd3 Nh6 14. Nc5 Qc8 15. Bf2 Ng4 16. Bd4 h5
17. Qe1 Be7 18. b4 Bb5 19. a4) 9. f5? = {MISTAKE (+0.65)} ({(+2.82) The best
move was} 9. fxe5 dxe5 10. Be3 Nf6 11. Bxc5 Nd7 12. Be3 O-O 13. Qd2 Qc7 14. h3
f6 15. Rf2 Rb8 16. b3 Bb7 17. Bh6 Bxh6 18. Qxh6 Qb6 19. Qd2) 9... d5 ±
{INACCURACY (+1.82)} ({(+0.65) The best move was} 9... Nf6 10. Qe1 Rb8 11. Kh1
O-O 12. b3 gxf5 13. exf5 Nd5 14. Ne4 Bxf5 15. Nh4 Bg6 16. Nf5 Nb4 17. Qd2 Bxf5
18. Rxf5 f6) 10. Bg5 Nf6? {MISTAKE (+4.11)} ({(+1.36) The best move was} 10...
Qd6 11. Nh4 f6 12. Bd2 Ne7 13. b3 Ba6 14. Qe1 O-O 15. Rf2 g5 16. Nf3 Kh8 17. h3
Qd8 18. Rd1 Ng8) 11. Nxe5 O-O {INACCURACY (+4.48)} ({(+3.51) The best move was}
11... Qc7 12. exd5 O-O 13. Bf4 Qb7 14. dxc6 Qxb2 15. Qd2 Qb4 16. Be3 Ng4 17.
Rab1 Bxe5 18. Rxb4 cxb4 19. Ne4 Nxe3) 12. Nxc6 Qc7 13. exd5 Bb7 14. Nb5?
{MISTAKE (+3.45)} ({(+5.06) The best move was} 14. Qf3 Rac8 15. Nxa7 Rce8 16.
Nc6 Qb6 17. Rab1 c4+ 18. Kh1 cxd3 19. cxd3 Nxd5 20. Nxd5 Qxc6 21. Ne7+ Rxe7 22.
Qxc6 Bxc6 23. Bxe7 Ra8 24. f6 Bh8) 14... Qd7 15. c4 {INACCURACY (+3.07)}
({(+4.00) The best move was} 15. Bxf6 Bxf6 16. Qf3 Bxb2 17. Rab1 Bf6 18. Kh1 Kg7
19. Rb3 a6 20. Na3 g5 21. Rfb1 Bxc6 22. dxc6 Qd4 23. c3 g4 24. cxd4 gxf3 25.
dxc5) 15... Bxc6 16. dxc6 Qxc6 17. Qf3 Qb6 18. Rab1 a6 19. Nc3 Nd7? {MISTAKE
(+7.28)} ({(+3.78) The best move was} 19... Rae8 20. fxg6 fxg6 21. Nd5 Nxd5 22.
Qxd5+ Kh8 23. Rxf8+ Rxf8 24. Be3 Rf5 25. Qa8+ Rf8 26. Qe4 h5 27. b4 Rf5 28. Qe7
Re5 29. Bxc5 Rxe7 30. Bxb6) 20. f6 Bh8 {INACCURACY (+9.48)} ({(+6.37) The best
move was} 20... Nxf6 21. Bxf6 Bxf6 22. Qxf6 Qxf6 23. Rxf6 a5 24. Rbf1 Rac8 25.
g4 h6 26. Ne4 a4 27. R6f3 Rb8 28. Nf6+ Kg7 29. Nd7) 21. Nd5 Ne5?? {BLUNDER (♔
Mate in 1)} ({(+9.86) The best move was} 21... h6 22. Nxb6 Nxb6 23. Bxh6 Rfc8
24. Rbe1 Rc7 25. h4 Rac8 26. h5 Nd7 27. Bg5 gxh5 28. Qxh5 Rd8 29. a3) 22. Ne7#
1-0

Hi, I played the Anti Sicilian with 2.Nc3 and won this game after sacrificing almost everything.

https://www.chess.com/game/live/6402403705

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/tFhPUirA/black#2

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/mgzfSp1a/black#3

Scotch Game

https://lichess.org/LLbpADlN/white#7

Caro Kann aggression even though i forgot theory

https://www.chess.com/live/game/6403368422

https://lichess.org/mFAtHu2C/white

The Stafford Gambit is unbelievable bad: https://lichess.org/7NkOqn7v/white#61 

Last game, the best game....

Alekhine defence 

https://lichess.org/sdgYY0j2/white#49 

An unusual Queen trap!

Nice Queen sacrifice

Hello Champions and future champions, hello ChessMood Family! 
Thanks for all your games. 
The quality of the games is growing and growing... 

The 1st prize goes to Meet Shah. As he commented "In this game, I sacrificed almost everything" -https://www.chess.com/game/live/6402403705  

The 2nd prize goes to Wenstin for his attack with happy pieces  https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/6131538317

The 3rd prize goes to Karl Strohmaier for his thematic attack with Scotch. 
https://lichess.org/MqkYgHav/white    

The 4th prize goes to Koek Woltek for his cool with Bh7 sac.  (the game is on the 1st page)

The 5th prize goes to Abhi Yadav, for his Rf6 exch. sacrifice and nice mat with minor pieces. 
https://www.chess.com/live/game/6360509131  

Additional 2 prizes are getting 
Sai Balkawade and Vladimir Bugayev for their cool attacks (10k each) 

Thanks, everyone for the games! 
See you in February! 

Tata Steel 2021 Drama - Alireza Firouzja vs Radoslaw Wojtaszek - R13

Hi Friends,

Extremely disrespectful and very unprofessional from the organizers to distract Alireza during the final game. They asked him to move! Alireza blundered soon after that discussion, and the game ended in a draw. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZPEH-T4kVA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUz4wVXwybQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BWYflxVoC4




Replies

I don't understand why they asked it? :/

Sopiko bullied Alireza? Holy... do you happen to have the link for that?

I don't accept what Arbiters did with Firouzja, they would never do this with Magnus!

2021 tournaments

Hi, dear Chessmood family.

I would like to read some options of you about this year's tournaments, especially like some big Open tournaments.

How do you think will such tournaments be organized or not? 

What about your country?

Replies

As said before unlikely before summer, looking more like at least autumn now.

There are online tournaments (open to international players) as I posted a few days ago in the 4NCL post. The 45 15 every two weeks closes for entries in a few hours, as well and the first game is tonight.

In India, the OTB tournaments are slowly starting. Some small OTB tournaments are there now.

We have a tournament very soon! and don't think that we are so excited about this :D

Memorization technique

Hi. While studying and watching the video courses I asked myself if there is any useful memorization technique to remember the opening lines provided in the courses. If you have experience with learning openings I would like to hear your suggestions or hints to remember the lines better. 

Replies

Hi Geitz

Coach has created very useful blogs on this topic.

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

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

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

Hope this helps.

Hi Geltz!

It's a very common question, and I would like to support the answer Mik provided below, check out the articles and you will definitely find your questions answered!

Good luck.

I put the moves in Chess Position Trainer and train them daily, mostly 12 moves deep. 

Chess Training

When I saw grandmaster wrote I was training for 8 hours a day. I always ask how he divided his time among different aspects like studying openings, studying grandmasters games, solving tactics or others.

What is the ideal way for chess training for 2000+ chess players

Replies

3-4 hours of intensive training is enough

I am pretty sure most GMs are not so dogmatic in their training. When they say they are training for 8 hours, it doesn't mean 3 hours of endgames every day, and 4 hours on openings and and extra hour reviewing recent theoretical games. 

More likely, they set out a goal of learning something (an opening, a concept, a theoretical endgame, etc.) and spend the time needed to master it, then move to the next idea, as well as take a little time to review their learning over the last few weeks to make sure they retain what they are learning,

How to overcome overconfidence?

Hello! I am seeing that when I solve puzzles etc. when I see a move and looks like it's good, I am becoming overconfident and play that move and often gets wrong. How to overcome this?

Replies

I get the same problem, and it's one with tactical puzzles, particularly timed ones.

Often the solution is mate the king via a sacrifice or attack something and win something else. This means you stop looking at the rest of the position and the consequences of your actions.

You could try mixing in longer games or even study classical ones where you analyse the position properly to get you out of that habit.

I also found this resource useful:

http://www.neoneuro.com/downloads/chuzhakinssystem.pdf

@Sidharth Sreekumar

Hi Sidharth,

I suspect your problem could be that you are relying on pattern recognition alone to solve the puzzles, however pattern recognition is just one component of chess strength the other being accurate calculation. Essentially once you think that you have hit upon the right idea, the next step is to find an accurate series of moves to confirm and successfully execute the operation, and in order to do that you have to pay careful attention to the details. 

An additional method you could try is once you think you have seen the winning or drawing pattern in your mind, put yourself in the role of defender and look for moves that interfere with the smooth implementation of your idea. Once you have identified the road blocks to your idea you have to search for move sequences to overcome them. Another useful technique is to have an internal dialogue laying out the position in your mind and verbalizing the problems and what needs to be done.

As an example I will shortly post one of the Daily Puzzles here and outline my thought process as to how I went about solving it:

Do you really calculate everything to the end, with all possible variations? Writing down your variation without moving the pieces is a good method. If you then get a move you didn't expect, you missed something in your calculation. This video is helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzzyR_YIZz0&t=135s

Hello Everyone!

I have seen you guys discussing here Confidence topic about the concrete moves and game confidence will try to share my opinion. 

About the moves, confidence is coming to me in case if I calculated all possibilities of an opponent after my move since I figure out there is nothing that I missed looks like a good spot to be fulfilled with confidence.

In the case of a chess game, you should be confident always! Even if you are a beginner first step in beating someone really stronger is to believe that you can. I recommend never to be scared of an opponent even if you are playing GM as once the game started and you are over the board you can't be leaving until it's over, so why not believe and give your best shot?

Good luck everyone!

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