"The Power of the Bishop Pair" course

This course https://chessmood.com/course/Bishop-Pair-power reminded me of a very painful game played by me, if you don't know yet, I will say that I am a big fan of the two bishop advantage and usually I play well when I get it. Once a disaster happened to me. I felt that this was my worst lose. My opponent's rating was 300 less and I got this position for White. I could manage to lose this game :D I was completely tilted and so disappointed that day. The problem was that I was too sure that I will win the game anyway, I lost my concentration, I didn’t think at all, I was sure that my opponent would make a mistake and I will win very easily. Now I look at the position again and still can't believe how did I lose it :D Btw I didn't blunder, I lost slowly slowly :D

A small advice,

Never think like Susik :D

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Of course, we can all relate to losing ;) It doesn't feel good, although I guess we do learn from them. Almost all positions have a risk of losing I think.

I can see why you think that is was painful to lose this one.  When it was not due to a fork, how to lose it? But these things happen...

Was it played in Turkey? You could lose this only in that tournament :D

1+0 Bullet chess

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Don't make me feel bad every time when I want to play bullet lol

Benko Gambit Endgames

For those of you with Chessbase premium account, there is an interesting video on endgames resulting from the Benko structures:

Benkogambit (chessbase.com)

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Thanks for the information. 

Scandinavian 5... Qh5? gambit

Might be worth having a section on dealing with this, or at least in Abracadabra Gambits.

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nf3 Bg4 4. Be2 Nc6 5. h3 Qh5?

6. O-O Nf6 7. hxg4 Nxg4 and now I played 8. d4 (d3 better?) and got into a mess after the dubious e5 and 9. d5?? rather than 9. exd5 where Ncxe5 10. Bf4 covers h2. and if 9... Rd8 10. Bd3. If instead 8... e6 intending Bd6 then 9. Bf4 Bd6 10 Qd2 O-O-O 11. Bxd6 Rxd6 12. c3

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Wow, I see this gambit for the first time :)

Instead of 12.c3 you have a better move 12.Qg5!

Did you check it with the engine? seems this sacrifice doesn't work

Nb6 or Nf4?

Which one would you take? :D

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If it was 3 minute blitz I would take Nf4. But as it is I would take Nb6 :)

Now already Nb6 :D

Webinar tournament coverage on the 25th

Just checking this event is definitely going ahead given it is set on Christmas Day and whether it would be sensible to postpone it? I think, 'Honey, I know you've been slaving over Christmas dinner all morning, but do you mind if I take it upstairs to watch chess?' might not be a highlight of my marriage, so if it is going ahead, I would more than likely be watching it later. I suspect others may have other commitments as well.

Since it's 3pm here and that's usually the time of the Queen's Speech, will there be an alternative speech given by GM Gabuzyan? Queen's accent optional :)

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Ps. My wife said it wouldn't be the highlight, it would be the end :)

Question about Grandmasters

How do you think, what country has the most number of Grandmasters?

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I would say Russia overall. If we take into account GM/inhabitant, I believe Armenia would be in the top 5 of the list

Russia for sure.

Chess Opening for my Style

Hi I am Colden. I am rated around 1600. My style is turning attacks from my opponent around on them. I am currently playing the Caro-Kann. Is this the right opening choice, or are there better ones for this style?

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If you like to counterattack, then I think the Sicilian is the best weapon. Do you know the Gran Prix attack? Have you checked the chessmood courses? The openings can fit such a repertoire like yours until you become an IM. 

https://chessmood.com/blog/5-reasons-to-play-sicilian-defense-for-black Did you read this article? 

1.e4 e5  and 1.d4 d5 ( queen's gambit declined) are my suggestion for 1600 ELO.

They are the best for learning and practicing chess basics, (center etc.), and you can play them up to GM level, because they are rich and give you variety of options as Black.

Caro-Kann and Slav are very solid and reliable as well, but 1.e4 e5 and 1.d4 d5 are better for learning chess and getting better; You will improve faster.

I dont know of you have looked at it but the queens gambit accepted is very underrated

It can lead to quite dynamic play especially in some of the nf3 variations if you choose bg4 as a response.

It's also pretty sound as well, plus you avoid lots of move order stuff and pretty much always get into it outside of random queens pawn openings

Slav is also very solid and QGA often leads to a lot of slav type positions due to the structure.

Yes! Sicilian will be the best choice for you. Myself I play Sveshnikov, but I am gonna learn this 

Accelerated Dragon course from ChessMood.

Alcohol and Chess

Let's see how many of us drinks alcohol? :D

Do you like it or not? Have you ever played a serious game when you were drunk? 

This happened to me several times, especially before the important games, I didn't drink a lot, just a little to make me feel a little less nervous lol.

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first of all, I am 10 :D second of all, I never plan to Drink as its bad for health....

I do not think alcohol is the best thing for not being nervous before the game, but I do not want to sound like a father ;-)

I am sure other relaxation technniques like meditation, or simply listening to your favourite quiet music on headphones before the game is much better.

I have never drunk alcohol before a game. It is much better have a beer or a glass of wine after the game, with your team mates or even the opponents (if you are over 18 and with moderation)

I once had some drinks the night before a serious morning game. It wasn't best, as I had a slight headache. 

When I reached my first wgm title in the last game I was drunk deadly the day before and I slept 2 hours in the night and the game was 11 am :D 

I avoid drinking before any match game. I think a small amount might help occasionally, but it's easy to go beyond that and your ability to concentrate and your reflexes generally decrease unless you've build up enough tolerance by drinking regularly. Afterward in a social situation drinking a little is fine (I get ill if I drink too much despite being able to).

I would echo the point about not using alcohol to steady nerves (same thing is why some people smoke). It can become a crutch and a dependence and there are other ways. One of the things I was getting at in my post about The Queen's Gambit was whether there was widespread doping in chess, particularly in the East, to either calm nerves, to relax or concentrate/focus better and whether it actually worked. Not advisable and perhaps having that as a plot point isn't a good idea as it might encourage a few to take tranquillisers to try to copy what they see (lots of stories of careers and lives ruined in the US, e.g. Hollywood).

I have several chess friends who have a bad relationship with alcohol including GMs which undoubtedly affects their health (some obviously in weight problems as beer has lots of calories). When you're away for days at a tournament, in the evenings there can be little to do but to eat, drink socialise. Also Alekhine was another who had a problem with drink, perhaps (although not known if)  it contributed to his death. So for me alcohol in moderation, and you controlling it, not it controlling you.

Some world champions suffered from  alcoholism: Alekhine and Tal!

Sometimes Tal had been carried away from the game because he was so drunk and Alekhine lost his world title to Euwe in 1935. How can it be good?

In our days we have many alcoholic GMs as well, I cannot mention their names here. Their brain gradually lost its sharpness and became old very fast.

Brain cells can rejuvenate in a "Natural" way if we put an end to any internal and external conflict. No need for anything artificial. 

The Power of the Bishop Pair

Dear Pro members

Happy to let you know that we have added 2 more sections in the course ''The Power of the Bishop Pair” 

Watch and hopefully enjoy :-)

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thanks 

Something to listen for your motivation

The Perpetual Chess Podcast is the reason why I have joined the ChessMood community, after I have listened to the episode featuring Avetik.

For all of you (like me) a bit older and wanting to get a master title, this episode is really fun to listen to:

Episode 204- FM Nathan Resika — The Perpetual Chess Podcast

Enjoy!

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thanks!

Cool! 

I remember Nathan from his days at the Marshall in the Village.  Really nice guy who worked hard to improve.  He was really good about going over his losses and he had a good coach, iirc.  

Chessbase repertoire feature

Hey Guys

I made a short video on this feature which is very handy. I made one error in the video in that searching a position from a game you played in the 'rep' database will not return a result unless the move played is main theory. So when your opponent plays a sideline you have to search the move before and then look at your 'rep' variation for the analysis. 

Hopefully this video makes sense and is clear. I have found this feature really handy along with replay training. 

https://youtu.be/PbwJHytxfE8

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Aww thank you soo much. This was very helpful, I use chessbase more than 10 years and I think for every chess player it's a must have program, but I didn't know a lot of features that you showed lol, thanks again.

@Robert_J. I guess whatever works for u. I tend to put all analysis into the sperate database and then copy across to the repertoire database once I am happy with it. Think of the specific opening database as a working base is how I see it and the rep database is almost like the finsihed article.

There will be some replication of course but to make use of the search and training features of a repertoire database its worthwhile and only a drag and drop in terms of extra work

Thanks a lot for this explanatory video. I knew almost everything but I never thought of comparing it with the games of the Chessmood GMS database. By the way, how did you downloaded the Chess.com games? They do not allow to download them in bulk, do they?

Thanks Jamie for helping with this short video. Have been working with Chessbase 16 and loving the new features. The Chessmood GM streams is what I was missing. Hopefully, I can download and create the reference DB to compare all the lines.

Thank you! I learned the `variations fold` feature from your video. It's Life changing! 

Thank you very much for the video @jamie_Wilby. Very useful tips!

Wow Jamie! 
You're doing super job! 
Not just how seriously you work with ChessMood, but also your kindness, sharing value with others. 
Thanks so much! 

Jamie, do you know, does chessbase offer the following feature: 
You download all your games and click "compare with repertoire", and it shows all the games you went wrong comparing to your repertoire. 
We're now working on adding nice features in ChessMood, which will help you guys to memorize the variation easier. The one I said, I didn't find anywhere, but I might be wrong. 

With best wishes,
Avetik 

ChessMood Logo with a christmas hat by me(LOL)

I made a ChessMood logo with a christmas hat because of boredom.It is not so good but I am not a professional about editing photos.I think it is funny lol

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This is a very cute idea! :) 

Aww that's so cute <3 :)

I like it :-)

Wow!

Nice-nice!!! 

Where were you and what did you do in the battle?

Yesterday saw Chess Mood team doing battle in lichess team battle 13A.

CRR was there, where were YOU?!

Fellow Chess Mood warriors, Chess Mood team needs you!

Come & help Chess Mood win these battles. Right Mood,Right Move COGRO!

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I had the same question, you're right we need them :)

Oh! 
Richard, as a PRO Member, you can participate in both teams you know? 
We have 2 teams - ChessMood and ChessMoodPRO (for only pro members and our coaches)

Power of ChessMood Scotch

When you want to reply no, because it wouldn't be Scotch again :D

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lol nice 

Haha :) 

Gabuzyan quote

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Didn't Tal say though you can only take one hanging piece at a time?

Hey Mogens!

Thanks for paying so much attention while I am streaming! Appreciate it :-)

Nice :) 

Pirc Defense question - 3....Nd7

Hi! I played in the Pirc tournament for chessmood members earlier today (amazing by the way, I plan on playing in more).

My opponent played a line that I don’t recall seeing in the opening series videos.

Can you advise on the best plan for white? I prefer the Bf4 setup to the Grand Prix.

the game went:

1. E4 d6

2. D4 g6

3. Nc3 Nd7 

Thank you. 

-Ben

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Benjamin, check out Modern Pirc course, Pasini variation! 

Course suggestion - Unhappy pieces

Unhappy pieces - the art of making your opponent's army miserable

Might work as a good companion to happy pieces. This time on exchanges, space gaining, pawn wedges, overloading, making pieces passive, no available / not having a plan / strategically lost and so on, the idea being that causing problems with the opponent's army gives you the better position (and how to convert it to something more concrete).

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Hehe :) 
David, we're planning to add this course! 

Another tactical trick in c6 Modern (Pirc)

[Note it is often just known as the Modern, although it's also known as the Robatsch defence]

In the 3... c6 line, 6. Nxd5 is refuted, but 6. Nxb5 with the same idea isn't mentioned (my first thoughts about the position], but it also fails due to Qa5+ 7. Nc3 d4.

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Nice! 

Sicilian 2... Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6 bxc6 and other questions

Only dxc6 is covered directly here (bxc6 is mentioned in the rossolimo course, but then that has Nf3 played). It seems there are quite a few games in the database 200 or so in this line (about a tenth of dxc6) so would be useful to have some instruction what to do here if the opponent captures that way (specially here and/or in general the difference is handing the pawn structure).

I think I asked before (but can't find a reply) that there is reference to good rossolimos tempos up with f4 played before Nf3 in the d6/e6/g6 lines, however there is no guide to playing this as White. It might be a good position, but what's the plan from here?

Also why after f4 being played in the g6 lines is Nf6 now played and not the idea of playing c4 as in in the Nf3 lines of the Rossolimo course? How does it differ here that this plan isn't the best now (e5 ?) ?

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Hey David, 
We'll add all these in the section.