Chess forum by Grandmasters

Chess variants

Do you think playing chess variants helps or hurts your abilities to play standard chess? Are there any variants you think are particularly helpful for improving your standard chess? I am thinking of, e.g., King of the Hill, 3 Check, Crazyhouse, Capablanca's Chess, and Glinski's Chess. Of course there is also Chess960, but that is much closer to standard chess.

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Steven, personally I don't play other variations. 
But chess 960 is useful for sure. 
Another question is - Is it the most effective? :) 
As was spoken in the article:  https://chessmood.com/blog/the-game-changer-question-in-chess

Anti-Sicilian Part-1 3. ... Qb6 line

After 1. e4 e5  2. Nc3  Nc6  3. Bb5  Qb6 how should we approach?

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Tanmoy, 4.Nge2 and if a6, then 5.Bc6 Qc6 6.d4 cd 5.Nd4 winning many tempos. 

Anti Sicilian Part 2

After 9. ... e6 surprisingly my opponent resigned. Also engine shows +6 advantage for white. How can I win this position?

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+6? :) Wow! :) 
Bg5 should be the move. After 10...Be7 11.Nd6 Kf8 12.Be7 Qe7 he's just in zugzwang. You can even play 13.a4 and I don't see a way how he can save the knight :) 

French 3.Bd3 c5

Is there a plan for a section in the advanced part on how to play the IQP positions arising from 3, Bd3 c5. I play these positions with Black (also after 3. exd5 exd5 4. Bd3 c5) and are in general quite happy. With White I tend to get stuck at some point.  

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Hey! 
Yeah, I'm going to record the adv. section and upload soon! 
In the next 10 days for sure. 
Especially I saw that Giri recommends c5 against 3.Bd3. 
I'll show the power of 5.c3 which he misses in his course. 

Modern Maroczy Bind. Section 4 - 9.0-0

Hi all, I recently had my first game in the Advanced Maroczy Bind OTB, and I won, but not because of my good play but my opponent bad play... Anyways, I wanted the ask the opinion since in this line after 9.0-0 - 0-0 10.Qd3 is the normal move, Avetik says: With the idea of playing Be3, Bd4. The minus of this move is that is on the route of our knight that should go to c5 or e5.

But my opponent played 10.Qd2, blocking his own bishop, this should be very bad, and I wanted to  proceed with a5 in order to play a4 and then continue with Be6 and the knight transfer to c5,

So after Qd2 I played a5 but then he played a4 stopping the pawn advance.

Here I have 2 questions.

After Qd2 when I connect Stockfish, it says that the position is 0.0, how should I proceed? Is there any way to punish the blockade of the Bc1?

Why is a4 not played normally in these kind of positions? because it leaves b3 free I suppose, but this really hinders our advance on the Queenside...

Thanks in advance and best regards to everyone reading this question!! 

Replies

Hey Ed! 
Well, white always tries to avoid a4 move. 
As in many variations they need to keep the plan a3,b4. 
Also a4 weakens the b3 pawn, and the knight on c5 would be a monster. (no b4 anymore).  

After Qd2?! I think10...a6 would be interesting to, trying to play b5 using different tactics. 

scilian grandprix move order

hi all,  i have been encountoring e4 c5 nc6 bb5 g6?! whats the correct move order to punish black and if i takes on c6  it seems black seems to get c4 pawn push somwhere and ba6.

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Hi Ash

My understanding; it is always best Bxc6 - as bxc6 giving Black bad pawn structure (weak c5-pawn) and also stops Black's attack of Rb8 with b5-pawn push. If Black plays Ba6, you can neutralise this with b3 as your d3 and b3 then cover any Black c4 pawn push. Likewise if Black pushes c4 before you have played b3, then push d3-d4; this then locks in the Ba6 keeping it's scope limited.

1.e4 c5. 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6 bxc6 5. f4  OR 4... dxc6 5. d3 Bg7 6.Be3 aiming for c5-pawn with plan Qd2 and O-O-O

Hope this helps

Ash good question! 
Will add in the adv. section. 
I play f4,Nf3. 
And d3 only when he plays Nf6. 

The Greatest Classical Endgames

Hello champions! 

I'm thrilled to announce that we started to record a new course - Instructional Classical Endgames. 
It will be in the same format as was "Commented Classical Games" and the "Attacking Classical games" which I'm recording now too. 

In the initial plan, it's going to be 100 games, but it may be more. 

I noticed that many of you had problems playing endgames or hate when the queens are not on the board anymore. 
This course will be the medicine and I believe it will become your favorite course soon. 

​​​​​Enjoy it. 
The first game is uploaded - a masterclass by Rubinstein.  

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Fantastic! I love studying Classics. It will be the perfect complement to the Theoretical Endgames Course that was born recently

I am eager to learn Endgames from Capablanca and Avetik ;-)

Prophylaxis in attack - Interactive lesson, 25.08

Hey Champions! Here is the link to the lesson "Prophylaxis in attack"

https://lichess.org/study/8LqrmqH2
Would love to see your takeaways in the comments. 

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my most important takeaway from the stream:

the three golden rules what's my opponent's idea, my opponent's plan and next move

The golden question ask to myself what opponent is thinking? what move he want to play?

When it is not needed badly do not play move like Kb1 or Kh1.

When there is no force checkmate ask yourself how can opponent avoid checkmate?

1. golden qn on what my opponent is planning to do

2. making effective moves than just useful moves

sir how am i supposed to access ur lichess study ? it is coming as private study not accessablee

Anti Sicilian part 5 pgn

Hello Chessmood friends

My name is Marc , from Uruguay, about 1500 FIDE player, 55 years old, learn to play as a kid , but started to learn , play and train recently, after grow up 3 sons .

 I am moving from 1.d4 (London and company) to 1.e4,after many years without playing it.

On the weekend  I play about 30 games , while watching openings videos from Avetik, and following pgn, to catch ideas, results are promising.

 Unfortunately I cannot find anti-sicilian part 5 , pgn file , I am searching in the wrong place ?

Best Regards

Marc 

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Hi Marc

Our coach did not make a starter pgn for Anti-Sicilian with Nc3!? Part 5. Not every course has a pgn. I make them myself :-)

Sincerly Kim Skaanning

Hey Marc! 
Sorry, my bad. 
Will add it this week. 

Accelerated Dragon section 2, clip 6 8. Nb3

Maestro Avetik, here you comment that the position is an English opening with a tempo down for Black. I don't understand that, there's a white pawn still on c2. Or did you mean an English opening with colors reversed? Could you please explain this, because I am not very familiar with the English opening.

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Hey Ramon! 
Yeah, I mean the 2nd. 
And as I said earlier, now we're re-recording the course, adding all the missing or changing the confusing stuff. 

Quiz to classical commented games

Hi Chessmood family!I would like to suggest its possible that we can have the answer in each puzzle given? 

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Rod, what do you mean? 

Attack Against Caro-Kann

Dear GM Avetik sir,

I have a question in the following variation.

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.Bf4 Bg4 7.Qb3 Qd7 8.Nd2 e6 9.Ngf3 Bxf3 10.Nxf3 Bd6 11.Bxd6 Qxd6 12.O-O O-O 13.Rae1 Rab8

How to continue? ...because now our idea of Bxh7 or Nxg4 is no more and Black's minority attack ...b5-b4 is coming fast.

Note:- In your course 12...Rab8 is discussed in Section 2. But the difference is in that variation, Black has not traded his Bishop with f3-Knight.

Please guide... 

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Hey Jay! 
You play 14.Ne5! with idea f4. 
And now if Black goes 14...b5 you take 15.Bb5! 
I offer you try to see the difference between this line and when there was a Bg4. 
Why we can take here 15.Bb5 and before we couldn't? :) 

Trampowsky line after our Bc7, Qd6 plan in Nge2 variation

Sir, what should be black's plan after g3 by white to protect the h2 square?
I've faced this move very often and couldn't think of an effective plan to break the weakened king-side pawn structure, sometimes I sacrificed the knight on g3, it worked half of the time.

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Vanshaj, g3 is weakening too much. You can push h5,h4 as well. 

I won using the Latvian gambit

Eu ganhei usando o gambito letão 

[Evento "Jogo rápido avaliado"] [Site "https://lichess.org/6rMn8gwg"] [Data "2020.08.29"] [Branco "AmandaKetley"] [Black "MagicIrair"] [Resultado "0-1"] [UTCDate "2020.08.29"] [UTCTime "00:15:56"] [WhiteElo "1881"] [BlackElo "1749"] [WhiteRatingDiff "-8"] [BlackRatingDiff "+10"] [Variante "Padrão"] [TimeControl "900 + 10"] [ECO "C40"] [Abrindo "Gambito da Letônia: Defesa Fraser"] [Rescisão "Normal"] [Anotador "lichess.org"] 1. e4 e5 2. Cf3 f5 3. Cxe5 Cc6 {C40 Gambito letão: Defesa Fraser} 4. Qh5 + g6 5. Cxg6 Cf6 6. Qxf5 d6 7. Qg5 Tg8 8. Bd3 Rxg6 9. Qe3 Bh6 10. f4 Cg4 11. Qf3 Nd4 12. Qf1 Qe7 13. Nc3 Be6 14. f5 Nxf5 15. Qe2 Nd4 16. Qf1 OOO 17. Kd1 Rf8 18. Qg1 Nf2 + 19. Re1 Nxd3 + 20. cxd3 Nf3 + 21. gxf3 Rxg1 + 22. Rxg1 Qh4 + 23. Kd1 Qx2 24. Tf1 Bh3 25. Te1 Txf3 {Branco desiste. } 0-1

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Unusual chess puzzle (99% player don't know this)

In this puzzle white have king and 3 pawns and black have only king. You have to arrange position which is forced draw. Following are certain conditions for this puzzles.

1-Arranged position will be white to play
2-White will play for win
3-No double or triple pawns are allowed (for e.g. a2,a3 or b5,b6,b7)

post your answers here
Answer will be published tomarrow on same forum

If you cant wait to see answer then you can see the answer here - bit.ly/3gEE48N

Replies

I can imagine that this puzzle is very hard to solve manually, but the result is quite interesting. I brute-force checked all the possible KPPPvK setups from a tablebase with a script and there are 4 different solutions, but due to symmetry there are essentially only 2. Furthermore the pawn structure is the same in both, only the position of the Black kings is different. Here are the FEN codes:

8/8/6Pk/4P3/8/7P/8/7K w - - 0 1
8/8/kP6/3P4/8/P7/8/K7 w - - 0 1
8/6k1/6P1/4P3/8/7P/8/7K w - - 0 1
8/1k6/1P6/3P4/8/P7/8/K7 w - - 0 1

What is the puzzles answer?

Below are some puzzles... Solve them...Both are white to play

Replies

1.Simply Play Rg5 and win

2.Rg8+ and bring the Knight to 1st rank and win.

Interactive lesson - The logic of the openings

Hey guys! 
If you have problems with the "Join event" link, here is the link to the lesson. 
https://youtu.be/kLO3DObOG-Y 

Replies

cool

Crazy or Genius?

Very interesting but white opening like this seems extremely dangerous.

https://www.facebook.com/374333479894337/posts/622994801694869/?vh=e&extid=UYynwAw5u6Hx9SYF

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Hi Brad,

Nice game by Marshall, I did not know about this one. It was fun to watch it, but yes, Black did not play the best moves I think...

Some Advices About Weekly Tournaments

Hi GM Avetik.I have some advices about weekly tournaments:

1.Time control should be 5+3

2.Tournaments should be swiss.So we can play chess.In arena tournaments win streak is more important than number of matches won

3.Also 5+3 a little bit long.So tournaments can be start at 9 AM PST time.

4.Number of rounds can be 9

I think tournaments will be more fun if rules are look above.Also you can add more advices at comments

Replies

Agreed!

I live in India and when the tmt starts, It's already like 11:30 PM! I sleep at 10:30 so I can't play... Can you make it like 1-2 hrs earlier and Swiss so that it's not to long?

Where we can find Chess Mood weekly tournament information?

Visualization

Hello everyone

I am practicing visualization from 1 week

I think I can see the board clearly

I have seen 71 move games also with accuracy of 90%

I can also see the diagonals

What step should I take next to improve it?

Replies

I have been playing 1-2 blindfold games daily against Ahbi to help with visualization. Not only am I seeing the whole board and where the pieces are in my head, I am also getting much better at calculating variations accurately even with out seeing the position on the board.