Damiano Variation trap in the Petroff (Nxe4)

[Edit - this is covered in the advanced section, but at least mentioned of the trap and what move to play instead should be in the main section. Any advanced details could be left for pro if it's really for 2000+ players, otherwise this whole part should be in the main course].

The coverage of Nxe5 Nxe4 cuts off too early that White is just a pawn up.

There is a nasty trap as I found out:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 Nxe4 4. Qe2 Qe7 5. Qxe4 d6 6. d4 dxe5 7. dxe5 Nc6

and now 8. Bb5 is the computer's recommended move to hang on to the pawn 8... Bd7 9. Nc3

9... Nxe5? 10. Nd5+ Qd6 11. Bxd7+ Kxd7 12. Bf4 Re8 13. O-O-O Kc8 14. Rhe1

9... Qb4 10. Bc4 O-O-O 11. a3 Qa5 12. Bxf7 Qxe5 13. Qxe5 Nxe5 14. Bb3

however if 8. Bf4? g5! and if 9. Bg3?? f5!! with e5 to follow  9. Bb5 Bd7 10. e6 is still better for White, but one would expect much more.

The video probably should be slightly extended to note the trap and correct play, since this will be seen quite often in the lower ratings.

Replies

Maybe even a quick section in abracadabra gambits?

Hi, the book by John Shaw, Playing 1.e4 by Quality Chess also gives the same line. Here is the whole line in the book. I hope that this helps in the meanwhile.

All of this, including the trap, is covered in "Advanced Section - More about 3...Ne4".

More Chessmood Opening Model Games

There was a pgn containing 100 Chessmood model games. It's very nice.

Can we add more model games to this pgn please? Thanks!

Replies

Was, where?

Attacking and Defending

Which is easy to learn and improve, what is your playing style?

Replies

Attacking is real fun and easy, just bring everyone to the party and enjoy the feast !! .... As they say, sac, sac , sac and mate :)

Although I defend good, and mostly when I face 2000-2200 online players, I make a draw after defending in the whole game... On the other hand, I enjoy fast attacks. But my favourite sacrifice is an exchange sacrifice when defending. 

learning to attack is much easier because there is a lot of material to attack, more than defense, I think I prefer attack, but of course both are very important.

Streaming

Hi everyone, I would like to know how many of you are interested in streams?

Do you watch streams and who is your favorite streamer?

Are there streamers among Pro members?  

I know one among our Pro members, she is my best friend too she has just started her journey and I recommend to follow her and support :)  www.twitch.tv/susikgaboyan 

Replies

I watch all ChessMood streams. I also will watch Twitch streams from time to time. I have watched Hikaru, John Bartholomew, Robert Hess, as well as a couple others. 

I have debated starting to stream my self. While I am not a titled player and less likely to get large audiences, I believe it would actually be good for the thought process of deciding moves, since we are speaking out loud our thoughts, we may be able to better fix the errors in the way we think.

Aww thank you so much <3

For fun:

CHESS BRAH (or chessbrah): Eric Hansen and Aman Hambleton.

Botez sisters

For serious studying:

"From 800 to 2400 on chess.com" (ChessMood)

Hikaru Nakamura, John Bartholomew, Sergei Zhigalko, Alexander Zubov, Zaven Andriasian and all chessmood streams.

One of the best streams for learning is Daniel Naroditsky Speedrun to 3000

(431) SpeedRun - YouTube

I have been following Twitch chess streams for years now. To clarify, I started Twitch chess before GothamChess(IM Levy Rozman), before Anna_chess (IM Anna Rudolf) and before GM Hikaru Nakamura had streams on Twitch. In fact, back then I used to chess stream regularly myself and I still very occasionally do still do my chess stream. Currently I follow one Chess Mood streamer (Susik Gaboyhan) that I know of but I maybe following other members that I do not know of. Perhaps someone should maintain a list of Twitch chess Chess Mood streamers? Do you Twitch chess stream? If you do, I may be following your stream, but some chess streams  are not as notable as others! Still gl with your stream if you have one & never forget, Right Mood Right Move on and off stream ;-)

I like Attila Turzo's streams and RB Ramesh's streams. Very useful for serious chess study. Links -

Attila Turzo: https://www.twitch.tv/attilaturzo

RB Ramesh: https://www.twitch.tv/gmrameshrb

ChessDojo is one of my favorite streaming channels, one of the very best in my opinion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuI6GHmu19s&t

- Entertaining

- Educational

- Fun

Unlock courses

Hello everyone. I am dhruvil. I have just become a new member of chessmood. Plz unlock courses for 2 days so I can see what's inside the course. If you will not unlock course I couldn't decide that should I buy  or become a pro member or  not? So my advice is to unlock the courses for 2 days so I could decide. 

Replies

Hi Dave,

I am a PRO member and believe me the courses are of high quality.

Havinbg said that the biggest benefit  to gain is when you also embrace the Chessmood oppenings repertoire, not just the ideas presented.

I'm a Pro member too...I want add that each course has it's unlocked videos, that show what is the course about

You can always try it out for a month and then cancel?  With your idea, people can just watch a course in two days, copy all the lines and then have a free repertoire where GM's put a lot of work in. 

@Dhruvil_Dave, GM Avetik has recorded a video on Latvian Gambit...you can check that out, if you like the content, you can consider PRO membership then

hi there!

All courses are unlocked for 32 h ... https://www.facebook.com/chessmood/

so you can check them out!

have fun! 

Dhruvil, it's one of the most surprising posts I've ever seen in ChessMood. 
No one ask you to become a PRO Member, and we don't sell you anything. 
It's your life your decisions. 

We didn't unlocked our courses, so people see how cool they're and become a PRO.
This was a gift from us. Hopefully you'll appreciate. 

Good luck. 

P.S 
You can't ask someone's password. It's not just unethical, but also when our system notices different IP addresses from same account, the account will be banned. 

4NCL tournaments

http://www.4ncl.co.uk/

The 4NCL is the equivalent of the Bundesliga for Great Britain (4 Nations Chess League). That doesn't mean that only UK / Irish players are accepted and there are entries from outside.

There are two online 45 15 congresses coming up (I believe the only requirement is if you're not an ECF [English Chess Federation] member you probably will need a FIDE membership as well as the need to pay an additional £5 for entry). I'm not sure how Scottish Federation grades are handled.

The first is the spring congress which is a game on Tuesday 7:30pm GMT every 2 weeks. This one starts this Tuesday so the deadline for entry is close. Note also the clocks go forward an hour in the UK on Sunday 28th March during the tournament (I assume the organisers will send a reminder).

The other is the 5th Online congress which is the weekend 19th-21st February.

Details, entry costs and timings are on the website.
Also note the fairplay rules prohibit streaming.

Time to unleash the Chessmood repertoire.

Replies

Bishop Pair Webinar Recordings Problem (29/1/2021)

Hello! Yesterday's (29/1/2021) Bishop Pair's webinar recordings is not working. It was looking like this (image below) for a lot of time and it is also showing started streaming 11 hours ago. Is the problem from my end?

Replies

Hi Sidharth,

This happens sometimes. After a Live event, Youtube (not chessmood) automatically encodes the file and also do the transcript for the subtitles, while classifying the video, checking if it is appropriate, etc. This is an automatic process that lately Youtube has implemented with a big delay. I think that Youtube is just overwhelming with so many videos uploaded and this process takes more time than it used to.

It is not a problem in your end, neither a Chessmood problem. That said, normally with this kind of events, when they last 1 hour, it takes 13-14 hours for Youtube to do their magic. After this 14 hours I am always able to watch any event without problems. Before this time, it is impossible to watch it properly or without stops many times.

I hope that this helps and since this happens often, we should maybe create some kind of sticky post...

Reasons why you love ChessMood

Hey ChessMood family,

Let's write at least one reason why we love ChessMood.

The first reason for me is that only cool and nice people are here! and many more about the courses...

Let's continue the list :)

Replies

1. fantastic courses where I have almost nothing to ask

2. forum with rewarded best answers

3. consulting blog

4. everyone is trying to help each other. Finally I see more posts in the forum and I try to reply as soon as possible.

are among the best features of our chessmood family

Because of...

1. The most compassionate coaches are here.

2.Courses are much more than they cost.

3.We get answers in a very short time when we have questions about courses.

4. The most friendly and warm atmosphere is here!

Quite unique concept on openings:

Well done video courses with basic and advanced sections

Show how the opening is applied against opponents of different strengths (streams)

Closed tournament on a specific opening with a webinar afterwards

Forum for further questions

Online blitz and goals

Hi dear chessmood family!

I would like to know how much is your current online rating (blitz) and what is your goal?

Replies

Well, to be honest - my focus is still OTB. However, I try to get better at blitz as a preparation for time trouble. For that, I found the last two closed tournaments very helpful as they showed me how easily I could loose "simple" endgames when short of time. So I will work on my blitz to get it to my OTB rating (+100) in Q1 2021.

2250 on lichess, just reached my top, plan is to get to 2400 this year.

My rating is 2200 in lc and want to cross 2300.

I want it to get 2000. I have 1910 on lichess (peak) and 1876 on chess.com. 

My long term goal (3 years) is to play consistently on 2300 Blitz/Rapid. Currently I am 1700  (lichess.org) and the first goal is to play on 1900 and above end of 2021.

After streaming I dropped my rating -150 points :D from 2450 to 2300 

My rating on lichess right now 2356 (2407 highest) and 2217 on chess.com (2371 highest), usually play3/2. I have some troubles playing in titled Tuesday, too much pressure, losing points there. And somehow playing in Bundesliga with the team feels much better :)). I don't have any specific goals, maybe it's not good, just trying to improve and learn new things in chess.

Chess and World Leaders

Hello ChessMood family,

Today I read an interesting question for me which made me think.

"If all world leaders played a chess tournament among themselves, who would win?"

What do you think? :D

Replies

certain world leader with nearly 250 GMs at his service might have good odds in this epic fight.

Alone or with the help of GMs? A lot of them don't even know how to move the pieces!

Bishops or Knights?

Dear Pro members,

While working on daily lesson material interesting question came to my mind.

Did everyone know in which situations bishops pair is stronger than the knight ones and why?

Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas, I will share my opinion once I hear from you.

Thank you!

Replies

Bishop Pair is stronger in an open game with pawns on both sides of the board. The Knights are better if they have secure outposts and the position is blocked. I must confess though, that the power of the Bishop Pair is often overestimated by commentators. Nakamura's endgame play in the following game made an impression on me when I saw it live:

Yep, we have watched your course on this topic :)

Will there be a section on how to avoid making poor decisions that will make the enemy knights stronger than our bishops? 

My thoughts on bishops against knights based on prior learnings: if knights cannot work together with nearby pawns to forge a positional stronghold, then they will lose to the bishops 10/10 times.

What do you think about John Nunn's books?

Do you like them? They seem to be no joke.

I've been reading Understanding Chess Endgames (finally almost finished after a long time) and it seriously kept my nose to the grindstone. It was supposed to be an introductory endgame book, but even reading 4 pages a day was taxing. Or am I stupid?

This guy seems to interpret endgames tactically, maybe his style is like that. And Dvoretsky seems to have endorsed Nunn's books.

Any opinions?

Replies

I love his books, in general I'm not a fan of reading books, but I remember that his books were pretty nice, he explains very well.

Hi KIm,

I have reviewed some of his books in the past, and I find them really interesting ones. He has a specific sharp style which is entertaining for me.

I love "Chess move by move" 

"Secrets of practical chess" is my favorite, I recommend

Best author ever! This guy knows how to write a chess book and his books have educational value. Most of the authors include random positions, random ideas with no structure. That is not the case with John Nunn! I admit I am a huge fan!

PS. don't read his book on rook endings unless you want to analyze 300 positions of rook and pawn vs rook  :D

Daily Chess Match Challenge!

Hey ChessMood Family!

Having spent the last few days wasting countless hours on 3|0 online blitz, I finally decided to quit my addiction and set myself a fun challenge instead!

I call it, the Daily Chess Match Challenge!

My plan is to play a new opponent every day for a whole month, and try learn something new from every match. The format will be four games of 5|3 blitz, plus a post-match analysis call to discuss the openings/resulting positions :)

So let me know by replying to the thread if you'd like to play together :D I'm looking for 2000+ rated opponents (my lichess rapid is 2404, @PonzianiMaster).

Also, if you're interested in taking up the challenge yourself, I can send you a copy of the calendar template I made! Just send me an email at [email protected], and I'll reply with the word doc!

In the wise words of GM Avetik, "Let's go!" :D

- Michael

Replies

Hello Michael, 

I like this idea. Although I am not too much concerned about my Blitz rating with a peak around 1900 on lichess, I will now try to get it to 2000+ within the next three weeks (with a budget of around 3 to 4 sessions of 9 games 5+3 per week) and then take your challenge. 

Cheers

Nils

Sicilian Sidelines Course Question

Hello,

In the introduction video of the Bc4 section in the course "Sicilian Sidelines", Coach Gabuzyan mentioned that in one of the videos he would cover what we do against our own variation:

1. e4  c5

2. Nc3  Nc6

3. Bb5

I was looking for the video but didn't find it. At first I thought it wasn't a big deal since nobody played it, but now people are playing it more often. Kindly show me where to find it.

Thank You

P.S:

Thank You ChessMood team for the wonderful courses and blogs. I am getting so much value out of them! 

Replies

From the black side this is in the Rossolimo course somewhere I think.

Besides that: the current Sicilian sideline course is centered around d6 move order because before the Acc Dragon they had the Najdorf as a main recommendation. I read somewhere on the forum they are re-recording the Anti-Sicilian lines course with Nc6 move order because the problem of the d6 move order is that white can force us in a regular Dragon in the Bc4 sidelines. 

Hey dear @Sriram_M,

Thank you too for your kind message.

https://chessmood.com/course/nightmare-of-rossolimo here is the course about 3.Bb5 and also "Sicilian sideline" course is not completed yet. 

Hi Sriram,

Thank you for being careful and checking the options.

Some variations in Sicilian Sidelines will be added in the very near future and one you are asking is included! Just wait for it and I am sure you will not be disappointed :-)

NEW ARTICLE: Latvian Gambit | The Refutation

Replies

Abracadabra, goodbye Latvian :)

Great article coach. Thank you.

ChessMood_Pro Bundesliga

Hey dear Pro Members,

How many of you play in the Bundesliga?

Replies

Rarely..but I do ))

My 500 pages dreams openings book

My 500 pages dreams openings book

As an amateur competitive chess player, I would like a 500 pages book about “My Openings”. Not “Any Book”, but “My Book” with the moves I am going to play, and only the moves I am going to play.

The book is made of 100 fragment games, 50 with White and 50 with Black. The total number of lines is ~ 2,000 (i.e. average of 19 side variations per fragment game). Each game can be printed on 3 to 5 pages (average 4 pages), with 4 to 6 diagrams per game. The last 100 pages are for index games (games that mostly direct to other games). It feels like the right size from many angles.

This book should be customizable. What it means is that I should have the PGN source. It is super important because there are multiple reasons why I may prefer another move than the one recommended by a GM, by an engine, by your statistics, etc. Another reason why I may need the PGN is that I want to add my own notes, or I want to use it on chessable.com or with ChessBase’s opening trainer.

95% of the variations should have been played more than once by humans. A corollary is that the number of novelties (unless talked about in a chessmood.com class or in a book) should be as low as possible.

This is my dream openings book: only openings I play with notes, content-wise proportionally adjusted to moves frequencies (ChessBase Big Database 2020, chess.com Master’s database, Lichess 2200 and 2500 databases, my games database, video time on chessmood.com, number of games in books).

But whatever your level is, this book is a solid foundation, and the overall size makes sense:

• Book can be read in 40 hours

• Full run of variations on chessable in 20 hours

• If you make flashcards out of the ~500 diagrams, you could go through all of them in 10 hours.

Chances are that even if you are ambitioning a higher level, let’s say 2400 FIDE, such a customizable book would still be a solid foundation because it still captures more of the important stuff. You can double the number of variations on the 50 most critical games and still have a manageable set of 3,000 variations.

Trusted sources: first chessmood.com PRO

Huge bias in favor of chessmood.com openings, but we welcome any reference. In the case of the Grand Prix, we welcome these references:

• chessmood PRO videos

• Databases, especially those that can be filtered for the 2200 FIDE level.

• Stockfish 12 and Houdini 6

• Starting Out the Sicilian Grand Prix book by Gawain Jones

• The Modern Grand Prix Attack chessbase video by Lawrence Trent

Why do this? Benefits for 1600 - 2400 ELO

The exercise involved in producing such content should be beneficial because it’s a chance to work with the material in a creative way. But on top of this, these 100 game fragments could be used like this:

• 1600 FIDE player: remember 80% and watch GM Grigoryan’s videos once.

• 1800 FIDE player: remember 90% and watch GM Grigoryan’s videos once.

• 2000 FIDE player: remember 95% and watch GM Grigoryan’s videos 2x.

• 2200 FIDE player: remember 98% and watch GM Grigoryan’s videos 3x. Explore further.

• 2400 FIDE player: remember 99% and watch GM Grigoryan’s videos 4x. Explore much further.

When I learn something, I live to have a story to follow. In this case, it’s the story of 100 games with a certain number of sidelines. I feel that it’s the right chunk size to digest.

What does it really look like?

Distribution of fragment games with White:

Distribution with White (Target 2200 FIDE database, Chessmood video time):

1... c5 16 (-4, +6)

1... e5 13 (+1, -7)

1... e6 5 (-1, =)

1... c6 4 (=, -1)

1... d5 3 (+1, =)

1... d6 3 (+1, =)

1... g6 2 (+1, =)

1... Nf6 2 (+1, +1) 1 1 1... Nc6 1 (=, =) 1 1

1... Nc6 1 (=, =)

Others 1 (=, +1)

You will realize that we are at most one off for all answers to 1. e4 except:

• 1… c5, 16 games (underestimated according to database frequencies, overestimated according to chessmood video time).

• 1… e5, 13 games (slightly overestimated according to database frequencies, underestimated according to chessmood video time).
  

Underestimating the share of 1… c5 is a deliberate choice. The idea is to reap off the benefits of selecting a side-line (Grand Prix) vs. a main line (e.g. 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 with the idea 3. d4). We can then “be generous” with sidelines. It is often very beneficial because splitting an opening in two (or more) is instructive and practical.

What comes next?

I am going to show you an example: “Index game for the Sicilian Grand Prix”. You will see the 16 diagrams that represent the Sicilian from a White perspective. If you somehow master these 16 positions, you have an awesome coverage of the Sicilian with White.

For those of you who are interested, I can show some of the foundational 100 games. It takes time (maybe 6 hours per game, hence 600 hours total for the entire project). It would be nice if this project would interest other people, because we could share the work.

Please let me know if there is any interest on your side.

Replies

16 positions in the Sicilian with White (PGN file)

Aside from the technical and correctness issues of the approach (there are some questions, but not something to discuss in this first reply), it's something that would be very useful but has a practical problem.

If this was all in a book which is shared, what is to stop it being shared with people that otherwise would have paid for a subscription that no longer feel it's necessary because they have the lines (even if all explanation was stripped which would decrease the utility). Projects such as to get Polgar's huge volumes on Chessbase had cease and desist orders for that very reason.

Certainly the approach and how to build your own should be discussed which helps students get the maximum out of the site.

NB. I think it's also the real reason full PGNs aren't available (you wouldn't need to hold on to a subscription as long). There might be some evidence for the stated reason, but I'm not sure scribbling notes or typing into chessbase and not having one's eyes on the videos helps learning either.

I agree with David that legally any such book should not be made public if it would contain more than certain percentage of copyrighted information from Chessmood unless prior agreement would be given.

What are you describing is actually a hard work that anybody who want's to become a titled chess player has to put in. Sharing the knowledge with few people (1-3) could be useful to progress faster.

Sharing with many or with everybody would actually reduce your competitive advantage. After few games people would realize I am playing the ChessModd repertoire and they would have easy time to prepare for the OTB game.

So let's critique or ask some questions of the approach. It's not clear except for trying to aim for a certain size why what is suggested is adequate or 'correct'. It would be useful to understand why you came to those figures.

>  It feels like the right size from many angles.

Why is that? It seems a bit arbitrary.

> Benefits for 1600-2400 elo

This list seems arbitrary. What is your FIDE rating that would allow you to prescribe for a 2400 player?

> Distribution of fragment games with White

What methodology was used to come to these figures and make that division? For Black I did a quick look through my notes, and noted about 25 variations just for the accelerated dragon. Even if I could scrap half, there is the benko, plus anti-sicilians plus anti-d4 plus all the odd moves that are important but not covered yet, that even if you had one or two lines they add up quickly (f4, Nf3, g3, Nc3, b3, b4). How to make the magic number 50 without losing information you couldn't find over the board or covered by a game.

> The PGN

How were the fragments chosen? How was the depth each goes chosen? How do the games fit with the fragments? How to choose those games? How to ensure you can play the next few moves after the fragment and plan on to the middle game? How much word content is needed vs the moves?

Finally I believe in reviewing what you don't know and only occasionally returning to what you do. Also that just raw moves get forgotten particularly in lines you don't play often. We've observe the GMs do this in the streams and they should know them better than everyone else. Appropriate flashcards / diagrams (how to choose?), mnemonic devices, explanations, linking of lines and reasons why it's one way here, but not here and so on are going to be needed. I don't subscribe much to the chessable repeat repeat methodology with precise but very similar from line to line chess moves. That's not to say repetition doesn't play a part and spaced repetition can help the efficiency, but it's no silver bullet.

The utility of such a book has to be easy to retain than the courses alone (you're selecting and screening out what you know already or what is part of the presentation and getting straight to the facts), but it's also got to be usable for post analysis work and also preparation for different time frames, which might be 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week. The material to review and how to review it differs for each time frame.

I can tell you how this crazy idea came up. But first, let me say that I am not claiming any authority in terms of chess (neither in any topic for that matter). My highest USCF rating is 2119 and my highest FIDE rating is 2130. I resumed playing after a break of 10 years in 2017, but only on chess.com and a bit on lichess.org. On chess.com, my rapid rating is 2051 and my blitz rating is 1977. On lichess.org. I only play blitz and my rating is 2177. I am not a great chess player, but I am interested in learning about openings and other stuff. I mostly target players around my level, let’s say 1700 to 2400 FIDE.

Let’s take the example of the variation 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bb5

For me, it’s an important variation because I used to play 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bb5. It’s fantastic if Black lets you take in c6, but it’s not that great if Black plays 5… Nd4, and it’s in my experience the most frequent move.

On chessmood.com, the video is 2 hours 11 minutes. Processing the whole thing at the most basic level takes me about 10 hours:

• Watch the video and explore my own questions resulting in ~250 variations. I print these variations to PDF in Informator/Openings Encyclopedia format. It takes me 5 hours.

• Checking database for the frequency of moves of the kind of player I am mostly interested in (1900 to 2300 FIDE). I sentimentally keep variations that involve tactical tricks (they are easier to remember and structure the whole thing) and important games (famous GMs). But it still lets me cut more than half of the variations. I am down to 100 variations. I print these variations to PDF in Informator/Openings Encyclopedia format. It takes me 3 hours.

• I play these variations once on my wooden board, and I train them via chessable or Chessbase Openings Trainer for 2 hours.

What is missing? For these variations:

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. Bxc6!

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bb5 e6 4. Bxc6!

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6!

I have the equivalent of two “model games”. They both involve f2-f4. One goes Qe1-h4 with the idea Bh6-Ng5-Rxf6-Qxh7#. The other one goes b2-b3 with the idea of (a) pressuring the c5 pawn with Nc3-a4, Ba3 or e3, Qf2; and/or (2) locking the g7 bishop with e4-e5. They both have about 15 side variations. I mostly built these model games with my experience playing these positions, with the help of books, videos and engines. Cutting variations that are not played that frequently at my level is part of the job. I print these games in PDF, read them with Kindle, and play the moves on my wooden board. I also train them with chessable or Chessbase Openings Trainer. These variations in particular became my best winners, so I love the approach.

I believe that the effort involved in checking these variations and figuring out what the most frequent moves are, and how we are going to respond (you may end up out of book more often than you think) is a great way to learn the material. Watching video material 2x or more, or analyzing a game in a book 2x or more, is also very beneficial. Learning a reasonable set of variations with space repetitions is also great, but it’s much better if you can associate these variations to some “book” format game with English comments. At least, it’s what I have been doing the past 3-4 years, and I feel that my opening preparation is much better than it has ever been when I used to play over the board.

One thing is sure, I did not intend to steal anyone’s intellectual property. I should not have used the term “book” because the term is loaded, although I think “personal PDF book”. It’s what I wanted to say in this quote from the original post:

>> Not “Any Book”, but “My Book” with the moves I am going to play, and only the moves I am going to play.

>> This book should be customizable. What it means is that I should have the PGN source. It is super important because there are multiple reasons why I may prefer another move than the one recommended by a GM, by an engine, by your statistics, etc.

But it’s totally correct that if such a PGN file becomes widely available, and is formatted with Chessbase or other software, and ends up printed in a book sold on Amazon (paper or Kindle), there are copyright issues that pop up. The format (100 games and 2,000 variations) imply a drastic cut of the variations given in the primary source (book, chessmood.com video, chessbase video, Chessbase commented game), but whatever, I have other things to worry about. I am not interested in making money from chess, I don’t want my openings repertoire to be publicly available, etc.

The bottom line is that I would like to close this topic.

Let me give you an example. For the 1.e4 c5 2.b3 variation I have created 3 lines and one of them is where White take 4.Bxf6. In this line Chessmood has provided a pretty straightforward setup. However, after looking more in detail I have found 3 relevant games each with a slightly different setup. Especially, one game where White develops a Bishop on g2 instead of c4 made sense to investigate as this way White can put more pressure on d5, which is their main objective.

I am attaching a screenshot of my Chessbase repertoire.

As you can see I also enter a lot of comments. This is advice from D.Naroditsky, saying that otherwise you would forget what you were thinking when you have created the file.

The Bishop Pair course and the tournament

Hey, champions! 
 GM Gabuzyan has added 3 more sections in his course "The Power of Bishop Pair." https://chessmood.com/course/Bishop-Pair-power

 Also, on Saturday, instead of opening, we'll start the game from the following position.
https://lichess.org/analysis/2b1k1n1/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/2B1KB2_w_-_-_0_1  

Watching the course will be a nice preparation!
  #COGRO

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This is great, but again the tournament was announced very late and some might not join it if they feel they can't prepare enough by looking at the material. Again repeating myself, would it be possible to put the schedule in a couple of weeks at least in advance, and if they have to be cancelled because something comes up, so be it. It surely doesn't need too much detailed thought, and the links to the tournament itself can be added closer to the date.

Such a great idea! 

Sorry for inconvenience :) 
We'll try to announce earlier :) 

Daily lesson with Grandmaster

Hey, hello everyone. I want to ask that in YouTube channel of chessmood , the opening will be taught there that are not taught? Just give reply 

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The youtube channel will focus on strategy, openings will be covered here

I think all courses should be covered here. Then some of them (free/unlocked/other to ChessMood's descretion) could be replicated to Youtube. As a PRO member I do not appreciate being forced to look in different places to access my study material.

Hey dear @Dhruvil_Dave,

No, there are several short lessons on a wide variety of topics (opening, tactics, strategy and many more). 

Profile Image

Hi, I'm unable to save profile image. I've tried .jpg .jpeg .pgn .gif but once I crop and save in the profile, it reverts to no image and my name appears as the profile picture.

Any idea how to reolve this?

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Hey dear @Mik_B,

Once Avetik told that it's a bug, it happened to others as well, they're taking live the new website very soon, then it's gonna be alright :)