Chess forum by Grandmasters

Being Dangerous From the Opening

Hi, I am having a (to me) important OTB Tournament by the end of May, and I am trying to improve as much as I can toward that. I am a 1780 FIDE player who is regarded as being very tactically sharp, but a GM saw some of my games and told me "Al, you are too well behaved in the opening phase, you have to learn to be dangerous from the very beginning of a game". I became recently a pro-member thinking that the "100 Classical Masterpices" course was maybe what I needed, but I am thinking now that, timewise, maybe I would be better off following the "100 Classical Attacking Games" course. Any thoughts you would share with me about the former? PS. Highest rated players in that upcoming closed tourney are 1900 FIDE rated

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You don't have to make a choice between the Chessmood courses, enjoy them all! If you look closer, you will see that the "100 Classical Attacking Games" is incomplete yet. So from now until your tournament, you can combine both courses by looking one game per day :) For the rest of your available time, you should watch some others courses from "Middlegame Mastery" (Happy Pieces, Speedboat Adventures, The Power of the Bishop Pair...) and work on your openings. If you didn't use it yet, you could use your 1-1 PRO Call to receive a study plan with one GM from Chessmood!

Hello Al, I support Akiba's answer that no need to choose since you can combine. As well our starter courses can be good kind of opening preparation and if you have more time you can try to follow the main repertoire as well! On top of this to strengthen your chess skills overall take a look at all of the courses in the middlegame mastery section! Good luck )

Blackmood openings - video 16

After ...Ne7 it is mentioned that Ne2-f4 can be countered by ...Bb5, exchanging the bishops. But what if White then plays Nf4-d3?

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Just be happy that White keeps moving the same piece endlessly… :-) The knight from e2, to f4, to d3… 3 moves in a row with the same piece in the opening… You should use this time to develop and follow the normal plan… Did you watch the opening principles course? Piece development is paramount in the opening.

Now taking this into account, let me ask you Thomas Maes: What would you play as Black?

Hello Thomas, First of all, I would like to mention that when white knight goes to d3 our Bb5 will become a good piece overall, playing well on the diagonal. Also often after Nf4, we can pressure on d4 pawn with c5 moves as due to the absence of knight on f3 it can be weakened.

French Exchange (video 22) - when White is the first to attack (queenside)

Hello, I would like to continue discussing with you about GM Jesse Kraai's ideas on the French defense and how to counter some of the lines he suggests with White. On a Youtube video, he handles the French exchange like this: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.c3 Bd6 6.Bd3 Nge7 7.O-O Bg4 8.Nbd2 Qd7 9.Re1 O-O-O 10.b4 ... 11.Qa4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfXLB-XfXV8&t=201s) This is a response to video 22 (7:20). When I watched video 22, I immediately thought that White can come on the black king quite quickly using their initiative. I know the purpose of this Starter course is to draw the main lines and I guess this topic will be covered in the advanced course. That said, I was wondering if anyone had a game that illustrates how Black can defend while still pushing kingside.

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when will the French/Dutch for black be published

Firstly congra with your new site!! I read somewhere that you will start courses for black on the the French and Dutch. When will this courses start/be published

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The French is already published as part of the BlackMood Openings course: https://chessmood.com/course/blackmood-openings. From some of Avetik's comments in the course I got the impression that more advanced French material will eventually be added. I don't think the Dutch has been published yet.

We never provide exact dates but we are working on them. 

The French Attack, basic section has been uploaded in the Blackmood openings course.

The Dutch basic part will be published very soon too as part of the Blackmood openings course.

Then more advanced courses will follow. This is the plan.

In the French - BlackMood, isn't the 2nd option (video 6) a bit weak?

Greetings to all, I would like to discuss with you GM Jesse Kraai's ideas about the French Defense and how to counter some of the lines he suggests with White. GM Jesse Kraai tackles the variation that trades the light squared Bishop in video 6 - 2nd option of the Starter Course - BlackMood Openings with the following line: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Qb6 5.Nf3 Bd7 6.a3 Bb5 7.b4 cxd4 8.Bxb5+ Qxb5 9.cxd4 The whole idea is to grab space on the queenside with the thematic pushed a3-b4 while Black sets up his exchange device. White's next move: 10.Nc3 develops with tempo. I have a feeling Black's plan isn't that effective. I am delighted to see that ChessMood recommends the 3rd option (video 8). I gladly make mine this surprising weapon!

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ChessBase Question

I have a question please for those pro ChessBase users. I see in the videos where GM Avetik will make multiple moves with the same color pieces. For example when showing an ideal position he may move the Black pieces 4-5 times back to back while none of the White pieces move. How is this done and how can I recreate it if anyone knows please. Thank you, Leslie

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This is easy Leslie?, this is the “Enter null move” command. 

In the ChessBase board window, go to file (upper left), and then customize. Here you will see all the commands shortcuts. I always replace the enter null move shortcut so it's the "n" key or whatever you like. Much better than Control + Alt + 0 which is the combination by default.?

Hey Leslie :) Not related to your question, but I've started to use Chessbase recently and wanted to know how good is your experience with it? For my part, I still feel more comfortable to work on my openings with Lichess (DB & studies) and I'm not sure how good was my investment! But maybe I need more time to be well-acquainted with the software! Have a nice day :)

How to see future events on the new site?

Hello friends, When I go to Learn->Events, I only see a list of events that are already completed. Earlier on the old site, I could see the future events along with completed ones. Am I missing something or is it a bug? Also on that page, I do not see dates listed for events, maybe because I am only seeing the completed events. Can someone please help me. I'm attaching a screenshot of how the page looks for me.

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The other day there was a very useful list of upcoming events that were listed left to right but it seems to have now changed, perhaps this is part of the tweaking of the new website? I also thought there was a planned stream this morning on chess psychology but when I went to attend it was no longer there, it may have been cancelled.

5 important updates

Hello Champions! 
After launching the new website and a few sleepless nights, I finally found time to write you ? 

I wrote you emails, but in case you missed it, I'm posting it here too. 
We have 5 important updates. 
Let's go one by one ?

1. Quizzes

On the new website, we’ve added quizzes that are attached to the courses. 
So, after finishing each course, you can solve the offered positions and master the acquired knowledge.  

2. Tactic Mastery 

We’re working on special features to help you to improve your tactics. 

Meanwhile, we’ve added a quiz to our most popular course - the Tactic Ninja. 
There are 777 tactics! 
It’s gonna be super useful for you. After finishing the course, you can spend 5-15 minutes every day to refresh your mind, or warm up before an online session.  

Here is the link: https://chessmood.com/quiz/the-tactic-ninja

Similar warm-up you’ll find in the Mating Matador course. 

3. New events for PRO Members 

We’re going to have more streams, webinars, games with GMs, and interactive lessons (only for PRO Members.) 

Here are the upcoming events: 

March 5 - Interactive lesson “How to counter rubbish over-aggression in the opening?” 

March 8 - Webinar “Questions and answers with a GM” 

On Tuesdays reaching from 1200-2200
On Saturdays reaching from 2200-2800 

Note: They’re separate streams, and based on your level you can attend the one you’re more interested in. 
In both, we’re going to play and stream with only ChessMood openings!  

4. Tech issues 

As we informed you earlier, you pay the same amount you used to pay before raising the prices. 
In case, you have any issues with your plan, please contact us. 
Our tech support girls will help you to resolve any issue you have. 

Yeah, and if you find any bugs, or have suggestions related to the new website, please let us know. It will be very helpful.  
 

5. Terms of service 

Soon we’re going to update our terms of services. 
We’ll add a very important point. 

If any of our students don’t raise their rating (online or offline) after a few months of joining ChessMood, we’re going to sue them. 

Our lawyer prepared the documents already. 

Hahaha ?
Joking ?

But if seriously, 
the best compliment you can have for us, which is more than any nice words, it’s your chess growth, raised rating, or positive changes in your life. 

I officially promise to do my best to help you. 
Hopefully, you’ll do your best on your side. 

With a smile and love,  
Avetik ❤️

#CoGro (Constant growth) 
#RightMood_RightMove 

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Thank you for everything you are doing for us! :)

Uh oh... Champions, we are in trouble now...See point 5.Terms of service & being sued for non rating growth. GM Avetik is getting serious & about to kick my xxxx! I had better start learning & winning some games quick! Failure & non improvement is NOT an option! I do seriously need this kick up the rear & to get moving here and there is many a true word spoken in jest (apparently?!). When the going gets tough...the tough get going (I just have to toughen up!). Thanks for all your hard work & I am sure all these improvements will work wonders for me & every champion! Keep it up coach & Chess Mood team...RMood/RMove & COGRO all!

The quizzes in particular are a significant step forward for ChessMood! I feel fortunate to have joined at a great time (about a week ago).

The new website looks great ! Can you please advise how to get to the tactical mastery (point #2 above with link) from the main Chessmood page? Thanks much!

I hope this isn't a silly question, but yesterday I signed up as a pro member, and when I go to chessmood.com (signed in), it still says things like "Become a pro member" and I do not see any acknowledgement that I am already a pro member. How do I confirm my pro membership?

Where should i solve puzzles and train tactics

I could like to solve puzzles and train tactics but i dont where to do can some of you suggest some good websites or books or pdfs

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Events: how to interact or hear what the others participants say?

I suppose that I have to do something on my PC but what? thanks for your response.

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You need to view the live stream from youtube via the link - participants type in the chat. This is also a problem with the replays now are embedded so the chat is lost. Perhaps the presenter could repeat any questions before answering which would help embedded viewers.

When you follow the event live, you can interact trough the youtube chat (you must log into youtube with your account and it is free). 

Then when watching the replay if you want to see the comments on the chat, you can easily access the youtube page from the event page in Chessmood. You just need to click on the title on the top of the video and you will be redirected to youtube. 

In the pic attached from yesterday's event, https://chessmood.com/event/counter-rubbish-overaggression-in-opening

 you can see the title on top, this is where you must click to go to youtube.

Power-points of Webinar counter over-agression in the opening

Dear champions here is attached the power-point of the Webinar when we talked about how to counter rubbish over-aggression in the opening.

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GM Gauzyan, Excellent stream, I had to watch it on delay but am very glad I did as there were several very valuable learning points. Thank you for putting this on and thank you for the slide with the important take home points! Have a great day! Leslie

Keeping track of progress

Hello, Is there a way that your progress is tracked? After you watch a game of the 100 games you should know, is there a way to see what you have already watched? Similarly, if I watch a video and have to leave before it is complete, is you place kept somewhere? Thank you

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agree, would be extremely useful.

Yes, it would be very helpful! It would also give a feel of completness to have a tracker showing we are working :)

Time Zone

Hello! I am in the Kolkata/India, Chennai/India, New Delhi/India, Mumbai/India Time zone. In the earlier website it was showing the time according to this time zone. Now, it's showing Singapore/Asia time. May I know how to change the timezone?

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Location in your profile is probably the source for this assuming it's not a bug. Worst case you could always go on holiday to Singapore and fix the issue that way ;)

Yes, my timezone is incorrect too: it is 2 hours out. My location is correctly set so that's not the problem. In any case, even if the system was getting your timezone from your location that would not be a great solution because you can only select a country for your location and plenty of countries have multiple timezones. The simplest and best solution would be to add a timezone setting to the profile so we can set it ourselves. Update: things are more complicated that I realized. The wrong timezone is used on the events page, but the correct timezone is used when I click into the event.

How do I get my courses back?

After the site update, all the courses I bought using Moodcoins: the courses about the Nimzowitsch Defense, the Elephant gambit, and the Stafford gambit disappeared, and now I only have the free Whitemood openings course. How do I get them back? ?

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Vladimir, please use the following page to contact support and explain exactly what is happening, you had also a different account that you also posted about in a different thread. They will happily help you, do not worry!

https://chessmood.com/contact

After your confirmation that you sent the email I will delete this thread and the other one since they are not exactly “chess related”. Thank you very much and sorry for the “bug”. 

Bird opening

How can we play against bird opening as Black

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Is the Bird so difficult to meet?  A very simple setup that gives black a fully playable game is Nf6, d5 then Bf5.  Or fianchetto the kings bishop instead of Bf5 if that is more your style.

Hello, May I suggest two (or three) ways to handle the Bird opening with Black ? 1) GM Sam Shankland's idea (Chessable - Lifetime Repertoires - Black vs Sidelines) Here is a sum up: "The Dutch is not great but is not terrible either. (...) A Dutch with a tempo up can get you into trouble. (...) If White gets e4 under favorable circumstances, he's going to end up with a comfortable position. If Black can prevent that, he is generaly doing very well." 1.f4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 White has a choice to make on how he want to develop his f8-Bishop. Classical Set-up: e3 → Be2 (→ d3) Reverse Leningrad: g3 → Bg2 vs Classical: 3.e3 Bf5 ==> London-like set-up vs Leningrad: 3.g3 e6 4.Bg2 b5 ==> Opposite fianchetto with queenside expansion 5.O-O Bb7 6.d3 Nbd7 ==> it's hard for white to execute e4. 7.Nbd2 Bc5+ 8.Kh1 O-O 9.Qe1 Black couldn't prevent e4 by force 9...Bb6! 10.e4 dxe4 11.dxe4 Nc5 12.e5 Nd5 The d5-Knight is ready to jump to b4 and Black's active pieces mean a bit more than White's space with e5. "Black is already a bit better." The reason why ...Bf5 is less strong vs the Reverse Leningrad is because such line : 1.f4 d5 2.Cf3 Cf6 3.g3 Bf5 4.Bg2 e6 5.O-O Be7 6.d3 O-O 7.Nfd2 The g2-Bishop does a great job along the long diagonale and e4 is coming. 2) NM Bryan Tillis (Chessable - Opening Oddities): 1.f4 Nh6!? An astonishing move at first glance that make sense when you look deeper (Tillis:"an underrated move against the Bird"). I think this approch needs more study but is really fun. I remember these three lines to show the interest of such a move: ===== 1.f4 Nh6 2.e4 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 Scandinavian Defense but with the moves f4 and ...Nh6 thrown in. It seems to me that the h6-Knight is more useful for Black than the f4-pawn for White. 4.Nc3 Qe6+ followed by g6→Bg7 ...Na6 if c7 need to be protected. The Queen can eventualy be relocated on b6 with tempo on the castled King. ===== 1.f4 Nh6 2.e4 d5 3.e5 c5! Improved French Defense with the e-pawn waiting to be pushed and the h6-Knight on a natural square vs the f4-pawn. ===== 1.f4 Nh6 2.b3 preventing the Black's kingside fianchetto 2...e5! From's gambit but with an extra piece on the field! 3.fxe5 d6 4.exd6 Bxd6 5.Nf3 Ng4 and the fun is starting so does the memorization in some lines. Let's end with: 6.h3 Bg3# :) ===== 3) One last suggestion is 1.f4 g6 as already mentionned above by Peter. I have never looked at the variation. I only know that Bryan Tillis has worked a bit on it. Hope you will find your happyness among these lines! Take care.

Change email

Excuse me, how do I change the email of my account? I made accounts for both emails, deleted the second one, but it still shows that this email address is already taken.

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I think u should delete your profile first,then refill the blank and Save the information you have done.

Hi Vladimir, is this solved already?

Watching and learning from super GM life Tournaments

My question is: With the possibilities to follow super GM matches life with online commentators which is certainly nice and entertaining. But, how to make something/most out of it is my question.

Certainly half following during a couple of hours is not the best but.. how to do it better?

thanks for your views on this.

michael 

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Maybe take some notes of interesting ideas/unseen patterns and begin to store/group them. Also, checking your opening pgn on what GM played to refresh the memory also helps, especially if opponent tried some dubious move, which wasnt in the course, then the ideas should really stick how to punish that type of play.

Should Blitz be played?

I play rapid (10+0) time control most of the time. Is playing blitz bad for my overall game? Will it reduce my planning skills which are required mainly in rapid and longer time controls? If not, how many blitz are fine every day?

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I joined recently, and reading through various blog posts I was happy to see that Avetik is quite positive about playing blitz. He also has some excellent advice regarding blitz: Here he talks about the importance of analysing your blitz games if you want to improve: https://chessmood.com/blog/analyze-blitz-chess-games Here he talks about session length and generally having some discipline and structure around your blitz sessions: https://chessmood.com/blog/golden-method-to-increase-rating-in-chess And here he talks about time controls. Basically, using increment is important for improving. Particularly endgame skills!: https://chessmood.com/blog/what-chess-time-control-to-choose This last one has been a useful catalyst for me to start switching my time controls for bullet/blitz from 1+0/3+0 to 2+1/3+2. I will probably just keep one account where I play 3+0 so I have a reliable way to measure improvement. Btw, on chess.com even 5+5 counts as blitz. For a game that goes over 60 moves, which is not that uncommon, this time control gives you more total time than 10+0.

Depends what you want. Sometimes blitz is all players want as they like to play the game but don't have time (or perhaps the patience) to be sat for hours or to want to think deeply. If your goal is your long play and blitz is a way of improving that, then blitz can be useful to practise your opening repertoire (since you get through a lot more games) and also to help pinpoint weaknesses, intuition and judgement issues which perhaps are hidden in longer play since you have more time to correct faulty thinking. Analysing positions (and getting the right depth and accuracy), looking at and weighing up alternatives and thinking more about what your opponent should play and longer term plans is something that doesn't happen so much in blitz, so you want to balance your play and play longer time controls when you can. That said I find 15 5 or so a good happy medium which is good also for practising for 30 minute rapidplays.

Advice for new, lower ranked players

Hello ChessMood family,   I am relatively new to CM. I am a lower ranked player (around 1300) and an adult. I have time to study. I have greatly enjoyed CM so far. After my GM 1:1 call, I have focused on Tactics Ninja (almost done), the Speedboat course (loved it!), and Openings. I am looking for Pro Members advice for my level. My only difficulty so far is that CM seems well suited to players above 1700 or so. 

I specifically am interested in thoughts on CM's new release of a condensed repertoire for lower players. WhiteMood was perfect as I had become established with the Scotch and Grand Prix. But I am a bit unsure about BlackMood. I have enjoyed learning the Accelerated Dragon and Benko. But I realize they have a lot of sidelines. Now I am offered the French/Dutch system. I am incredibly thankful to have these options and they reflect the intense time and effort the CM grandmasters have put into the site. But I am unsure where to put my time, especially as I want to keep my Opening study to 25% or less of my total time. I realize solid advice for someone at my level is: minimal opening study, don't blunder pieces, work on tactics!!

Thanks in advice for your thoughts!  John

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Below 1700 games are decided pretty much on tactics and basic endgames alone. Other than dropping material, a tactical blunder will appear, or poor endgame technique with pawns or rooks will decide the game. As long as you avoid a known trap or a complicated tactical position your opponent knows parrot fashion, you're still be at the level where opponents either want to avoid opening theory, know a mainline and little else once they're out of it, or out of the book quite quickly. Set them problems and watch them fold.

The openings 101 and Whitemood courses are at the right level. Get a feel for the openings and play healthy chess (i.e. basics avoiding bad pawn structures without compensation, play for quick development, the centre where appropriate, get your king safe...). After each game you can then learn a little bit more of the opening, what was the suggested line, and if you deviated did your move have drawbacks compared to the main line. If a line is proving particularly problematic, then you can go for a more detailed look.

As for the Blackmood course, I can't comment having not looked at it, but IMO the courses for the black openings aren't _that_ complicated that you can't learn them, although there isn't the overview for them. Your opponents at that level won't be able to play them either, the question really is whether they know the basic plans and can improvise better than you can. I suspect you'll get more sicilian deviations than the open sicilian or rossolimo, and the maroczy won't appear at all (or if it does your opponent will be clueless). Expect 2. f4, GP attack, closed sicilian etc. As for the benko, I'm not sure how weaker players deal with it (since c4 is quite common) but I suspect they'll avoid the mainlines. There will be a number of d4 deviations, the London and Jobava in particular. c4 might occasionally appear, but again just knowing something about the key positions should be enough.

Don't spend all your time on openings (as you've identified), but do view it as a long term process so that as your other skills improve you're not having to start from scratch.

Thanks, I reviewed your forum post and it's very helpful. I will look for some streams where the "master" is playing someone around my range. I'm very familiar with Gotham and Ginger GM, will look on Youtube. Also I have watched about 4-5 of the CM streams and was awestruck: it was amazing to watch GM Gabuzyan beat players easily with our openings, while he was explaining his thoughts, in a 3 minute game, then look and see that his opponent was rated 2500! 

New Website

Will there be a TACTICS TRAINER in the New Website?

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Seems so. Cf. the end of the Ninja course.