Chess forum by Grandmasters

FIDE Rapid Chess Tournament Improvement Guidance.

Hi, Yesterday. I played in my first FIDE rated Rapid chess tournament which was 10 minutes plus 5 second increment. I am requesting for inputs from chess improvers who have gone through this phase. My score was 3.5 with 3 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses. Tournament performance of 1029. I don't have official FIDE rating and am 35 years old. 1. Non-chess tricks: Chess academies have taught kids distraction tricks to win in losing positions. On a board next to me a kid claimed illegal move when he was losing. The arbiter rule in favor of his adult opponent and gave him 30 seconds extra. I overheard the kid speaking to his friend outside and mentioning the adult hadn't pressed pause on his chess clock and his time had gone down from 2 minutes 56 seconds to 18 seconds. I asked the adult and he said as we play online chess a lot more than OTB, clock thing doesn't strike us. Another kid starting saying bishop, bishop, bishop on every move when the kid was losing in front of an adult. Have you faced any such situations in your games & how do you prepare for these? 2.e4 or c4/d4 : I played e4 as white 3 times and lost all 3. While two time I played the London system and got 1.5 time. The draw was my mistake as I stalemated my opponent in a winning position. The kids are honest and told us that their chess academies teach them traps against e4 as many people play e4. I work full time and have limited time to work on chess, shall I focus on d4 or c4 to have better chances & ROI in the game? 3. Transition from online to OTB: I found it difficult to play on an actual chessboard as I don't have that experience. We don't have a chess club culture in the city so OTB is nearly impossible outside of tournaments. Have you guys tried any method that has helped you to transition from online to OTB at home. 4. Positional Chess : I had fought hard against two FIDE rated players who were rated 1299 and 1316 respectively. One of them played a magnificent tactic and I resigned. When I congratulated him on his tactical mastery, he said that I didn't give him any free chances in the game and he had to improve his position to finally get a good tactic. The other guy said I had cramped his position and he was finding it tough to get his pieces active but one of my pawn move gave him a square to fight for & then he was able to break through and win. Many masters have said that at lower levels positional chess is tough to understand and implement. However, these guys were doing it. Shall I invest time on positional chess at my rating? 5. Casual or Rated chess on chess.com and Lichess: I saw a 1196 FIDE rated kid destroy a 2000 Lichess rated person (poor guy played e4 and lost due to a trap). People with 1400 FIDE had 2200 Lichess rating. So, is it advisable to play casual games online with no stress of rating or online rating is also important for chess growth? 6. Study plan for Rapid chess : I spoke to the organizers on future tournaments. One of them said that due to covid uncertainty, most organizers want the tournament to planned and completed in one day. Other one said that over the weekend participation is higher as kids are accompanied mostly by both parents & working adults participate too. Also, the sales of food and chess material is much higher. So, there will be more rapid tournaments in the city rather than 5 days classical chess events. Do you have suggestions on a study plan specific to rapid tournaments. 7. Tactic Study: Many masters say that 5 puzzles per day is best for long term retention of a pattern and the same puzzles should be done three times a day. While others say that 50 puzzles per day should be something that you should be doing. What's the method that is right one to follow at around 800-1000 level.. Theses challenges were faced by many adults who participated in FIDE OTB tournament for the first time and we shared these observations during the free time between the rounds. All of us understand that we won't be GMs. However, we would like to compete with ourselves to get more wins/points/lesser blunder and improved ratings in future tournaments. Any suggestion from players who have gone through this phase and have improved by overcoming these barriers will be highly appreciated. Thanks!

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Congrats on getting through your first rapid tournament! My thoughts to your questions below: 1. As you improve, and get to play stronger opposition, this sort of thing should be much less common. Unless it's really bad, I'd say the best thing to do is just concentrate harder and continue to focus on playing good moves. If they're resorting to these tactics they probably have a bad position, so enjoy your good position and make the most of it. 2. If you want to maximise the value of your ChessMood subscription then you'll base your repertoire around 1.e4. Playing something solid like the London is of course possible, and has some advantages, but it also has its limitations. This is a personal choice - you could just do what you're most comfortable with. Of course improvement tends to come fastest when you get out of your comfort zone. 3. I learnt OTB, so this is less of an issue for me. Having said that, I am online a lot so will sometimes set up a difficult puzzle on a real board and stare at it for a while so I'm used to looking at a real board. 4. I'd say focus on the basics like development, central control, piece activity, and king safety. But also start thinking about more advanced stuff. There are lots of tips in the CM opening videos and streams about how to play the typical middlegames that result from ChessMood openings. 5. Play rated games online but don't stress about day to day rating fluctuation. Long term trends will show whether you're improving or not. If you're very tired, or there are a lot of distractions, then playing unrated makes sense. 6. The study plan for Rapid Chess is much like the study plan for any other type of chess. The great thing is that you can more easily play online at the exact same time control you'll use in the tournament. So be sure to take advantage of that. 7. Tactics Study. I don't think there is anything special about doing exactly 5 puzzles/day, and repeating puzzles 3 times/day does not seem like a good use of time. Here's my general tactics advice : - Solve some tactics every single day. It could be a certain number of puzzles, or it could be spending a certain amount of time solving puzzles. The key thing is to make it a habit, and do it every day. - Solving puzzles grouped by theme is a good way to learn or reenforce tactical patterns which is what is needed at your level. - Some amount of repetition is useful to further reenforce what you've learnt. If you're working through a tactics puzzle book, then at some point you should repeat the book. Or you could repeat each chapter as you go. There's something called the Woodpecker Method that takes this further, but I don't think it's necessary. Good luck!

1) Call the arbiter/parents. Watch & work with Chessmood courses and maybe you will discover tricks we use against kids ? 2) WhiteMood & BlackMood openings are designed for players U2000 who are busy/should also work on tactics/middlegame/endgame. Watch the courses, do your file, play the lines, improve your file, play the lines, improve your file etc. There are nice articles about how to make you own file. 3) If you have a chessboard at home, you can play longer games online and put the moves on your board. You can also use it when you are working with chess books. 4) I'm sorry but no one is playing positional chess at your level. As mentioned in the other post, you should focus on tactics with Mating Matador/Tactic Ninja for now. 5) Lots of players didn't play for a while with the pandemic, that's why they improved their online rating but not the OTB one as it was difficult to play tournaments. You should play online games rated, put in practice everything you learn here. The rating is here to help you to have an idea of your progress. There is no reason to be scared of it. Btw, the only important rating is the classical rating for OTB chess. If you want to maximize your chances, read the article Golden Method to Increase Online Rating ? 6) Study plan is the same. Work on the courses designed for you, plays lots of games. If you improve at classical chess, you will improve at rapid chess too ;) 7) It just depends on the time you can dedicate to chess. Patterns should be learned, repeated, again & again until you know them. So there is no reason to use 20 years to learn them by doing 5/day if you can do 50 or more/day. Sorry for the English but I wrote everything quickly ?

Lots of questions here and great to see lots of answers as well. There are always those the few who try to use other means or technicalities to win games. If someone is being distracting ask nicely to be quiet or with a polite shush, if it persists call the arbiter. I think it is reasonable to stop the clock if it is very distracting or the arbiter is not nearby or you have low time, as distractions are an infringement of the rules. Usually arbiters are good at handling this before it becomes an issue, but in large junior tournaments of if you're the last to finish with lots of people starting to talk it can be hard work It's also worth asking the arbiters for advice how to handle such situations. Whatever the best way, it's worth building some resilience to distractions in your training for example. In chess there is so much you can study, it's having the right plan to study the most useful things first. Pro-members get a session with a GM so it's worth bringing up those questions if you've not had it yet. Keep it simple. I would suggest starting with e4 as the chess is usually more attacking which helps you build tactics and attack which are skills to work on early. Positional chess is something to study above 1500, but for now try to play healthy chess (active pieces, safe king, good pawn structure...). A course on playing healthy chess (which could be tailored to all levels) would be useful to have here. It's worth recording moves (in games that are 15 mins or longer) and going through the game after with the opponent and/or a stronger player. As well as identifying mistakes for both sides and improvements, it can highlight areas for appropriate study as patterns emerge. If there are no physical clubs, try to find one online, there is also a lot of support for junior chess usually. Asking arbiters or tournament organisers for example may be able to provide some options.

Chessmood Puzzles ...Super Help

The Chessmood Puzzle collection has helped me (last month) more than any chess.com/Li puzzles over the last year. Great Job Avetik, G and team!?

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Missing Variation From French Defense Section?

Hi All, I'm studying the French Defense, de variation, Bb4 position. However I cannot find a continuation in the Advanced section (Avetik says its there) after Nxf3, Qxf3, a6, a3. What exactly is white's plan after axNb6, axBb4? Thanks in advance https://chessmood.com/course/french-defence/episode/137

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Hi Ovi, 

Black has a big issue with Queen on e7, as Bc5 is the threat if they castle. If black captures on b4 white has the option of Qg3 move trying to weaken a lot of black's dark squares on the kingside. After both castles, even though white is a pawn down, there is very nice compensation on the kingside.

Caro-Kann main line with 7.. Qb6

I'm very often facing the main line Caro-Kann with 7.. Qb6 and while black players at first all pause to think after 10. Na3, usually they play 10.. e6 and 11.. Kd7, and after that I struggle to see what white's plans should be and to prove any advantage. Ideas will be appreciated.

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Did you see this video?: https://chessmood.com/course/rock-n-rolling-with-white/episode/4208

Hi Yair, 

I recommend here the idea of Ne2 and whenever black goes Bg6, white goes Nc1. As we know from different Caro-can positions knight stays super strong on d3. It helps to control square on e5.

Scotch Bc5 line with Nf6, early 7...a5

Good day! Saw one game from the Lithuanian chess league between FMs using chessmood line, but black played very interesting early a5. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nb3 Bb6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Qe2 CM recommended intending Be3/Bg5 with 0-0-0 and now black played 7...a5!? white responded 8.e5, but 8...0-0! and now if exf6 then a4! winning the piece back. In the webinars of opening mistakes I saw one idea that against a5 we play a3, but that happens after white already 0-0-0. So how should white react to this early 7...a5!? Is this a novelty for black? Thank you. P.S. In the database I see that GMs Malakhov, Eljanov, Fressinet used this move, also Carlsen played it once, so must be good move for black

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What is the problem with 8. a4 and then the "standard" setup - Be3/g5 and 0-0-0? Is there a concern re king safety after a4? A drawback of a7-a5 might be that black needs to capture on e3 after Be3 since there is no more axb6 opening the a-file for the rook.

I'm curious if you're running the engine on positions like this? Is it bad form to post engine analysis in the forum? FWIW, I'm running Stockfish 14.1 NNUE on this position. 8.a4 is consistently the top move thru the various depths. Up to depth 37 so far and a4 is the only move that scores above 0.00. I agree it's a little unusual to play a4 prior to castling long, but compromises must be made sometimes!

@ Paulius Juknis 8.a4 should transpose to the lines considered in the course.

Hi Paulius,

The a5 move you mentioned is super-super advanced. I will just say that a4 is the best and its playable position. We might record that move in the future though if we record all of the GM analysis our courses will become 100 hours each. The most important for us is to provide material that is easy and comfortable to learn and play for our Pro-Members.

Good luck!

Hi would like to share a game I just played. https://www.chess.com/game/live/44717440807 After I played our move Nb3, in less than 1 second my opponent immediately played a5. So remembering this thread, I played a4. Certainly the both of us didn't play the best after that but if Black makes "routine" Scotch moves like Qf6, if we follow our general strategy he can still easily get into trouble very early on.

Hi, I think even more chalenging for white is a5 with connection 6..d6 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nb3 Bb6 6.Nc3 d6 7. Qe2 a5 played as black by Topalov, Artemiev. Recently strong GM crushed me with idea 8.a4 Nb4! and white need to play accuratly to not lost control after long castle. My proposal is to play 7. a4!? GM Rublevsky played a few times idea to provoke a6 and then 8.Nd5 Ba7 9. or 10. Bd3 with short castle or 10. Qf3 with idea Be3-g5 and 0-0-0 I think it's new trend for black so it will be great to add something in advance section by our GMs.

Ninja Puzzle Solution Imposible?

Hi all I'm going through al 777 Ninja Puzzles and became stumped by number 333. After my best efforts , I turned on Stockfish but none of the solutions suggested work either. Anyone want to try? https://chessmood.com/quiz/the-tactic-ninja

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Why not just copy n past the problem puzzle here rather than makes members click through 332 in order to help you.

Are you talking about this position? I checked (with Stockfish, too) and there is exactly one winning move in this position and it is accepted as a solution.

We checked this in order to find the ultimate truth and there is only a solution in the puzzle 333, maybe you were referring to another one. Please see the attached picture for reference.

Spoiler: It shows the right solution.

Organizing the BlackMood Starter Course

I finished the WhiteMood starter course (which was great) and now I'm working through the BlackMood starter course. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Dutch Attack parts! I'm also working on some tactics, middle game, endgame courses, and annotated game courses. I have a recommendation for the BlackMood course, and I wonder if it would help anyone else. Instead of one 2-hour section on the French Attack, could you break it down into smaller sections? I feel like this would make this a bit more consistent with the other courses including the WhiteMood starter course. Here is how I organized it for myself: - Section 1 - Introduction (current introduction videos 1-4) - Section 2 - French Attack - Advance Variation (videos 1-19, 38 minutes) - Section 3 - French Attack - Exchange Variation (videos 20-32, 32 minutes) - Section 4 - French Attack - Tarrasch Variation (videos 33-38, 13 minutes) - Section 5 - French Attack - Other Moves (videos 39-46, 27 minutes) - Section 6 - Dutch Attack... (To be determined) Thanks ChessMood team!

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Hi Matthew, 

Yes, since this course is not yet completed, we will reorganize the sections later on. 

It is in our todo list, and this also means that Avetik has to record the introductions in order to do a good job, let him finish the Dutch attack first, everyone is waiting for it!

Thanks for your feedback!?

I saw this was updated today. Thank you! It looks great and I'm looking forward to the next set of videos.

Thanks, Matthew, for the great suggestion. 
We've uploaded the Dutch attack in the same way :) 
 

I am not ready yet to attack with the French

Hello CM Family, The last question I asked two months ago about the French Attack is unfortunately left unanswered. Guess I'll have to wait for the main course before fully embracing this opening. Reminder: Which plan/moves can be played in the following position? 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 f3?! 11.Qa4 Importantly, White spent their time developing (much like the way Caro-Kann is attacked in the WhiteMood Opening) and preparing for a queenside attack instead of weakening their castling with "h3?!". White strike first and I don't know how to react. Today, I struggle against another position in the French Attack, more precisely in the Tarrasch variation with 4.Ngf3. 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nc6!? 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nd7 Here Avetik explains that the Knight on d2 blocks the view of White's pieces and starts showing the plans for Black without White being able to play. Usually, I like this way of learning because it allows me to feel the position better. But recently in a blitz game for fun, a friend completely crushed my opening on this line after the following sequence: 6.Nb3 (Knight no longer blocks White's position) 6...f6 7.Bb5 (the so-called hard-to-defend e5-pawn is doing very well) 7...fxe5 8.fxe5 Be7 9.Nbd4 Nxd4 10.Nxd4 and I blundered with 10...O-O?? I wondered what satisfactory plan to apply against this White deployment: 6.Nb3 f6?! 7.Bb5 (pinning one of the Knights if the other moves) Maybe I should castle first to unpin with 6.Nb3 Be7 7.Bb5 O-O. What do you think ?

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I'm only starting the French Attack course so I can't help much there. But in your first position, I think you have a mistake as 10...f3 isn't possible. I'm assuming you meant 10...f6 as that's the most popular move according to the lichess database. The engine likes: 11...Bxf3 12. Nxf3 Ne5 13. Qxd7+ Nxd7 But it also thinks short castling is better in this position. If you had played 9...f6 10. b4 O-O, the position would be more equal. For the other game, after Nb3 the best move is a5, bringing a4 later to force the knight back; so of course white will play a4. The best move next is 7...Be7 which develops a piece and defends the g5 square, and also defends f6 if you play that. If white still plays Bb5, then the a7 square is open and you can play Na7, which also attacks the bishop and forces it to commit or retreat. In most of the games I've seen in this position, the bishop retreats. White will likely instead play something like 8. Bf4, which allows you to then play 8...f6. White will follow with 9. exf6 and you can take bak with Nxf6. You can optionally castle before playing f6. Now with a knight on f6 it gives you easy access to e4. This is just my opinion; I'm not familiar with the course so I'm sure others will give better answers.

Anti French

In the line against French opening 1. e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Bd3, dxe4 4. Bxe4, Nf6 5.Bf3 c5 6. Ne2 what if Black plays Be7 and Qc7 keeping not trading on d4. What should White do ? Thank you

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Let them do it… After 6.Be7, we just develop, healthy moves as Gabuzyan says, Nc3 could be good and then if Qc7 as you say, then just Bf4 will be good developing the bishop for free… Always think about development, healthy development and happy pieces… ?

Question regarding the black repertoire

Hi ! I hesitate to take a Pro subscription, after browsing the opening for black chapters against 1.d4 I couldn't find my answers, and I was told to ask them here : - Is there coverage of when white doesn't allow the Benko, for example starting with 2. Nf3, and if yes what is the recommendation there? - Is there coverage of the Catalan ? Have a great day

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?Rome wasn't built in a day. Mister Gaby and Mister Avetik are getting there. They have a list longer than everyones arms and it takes much work in producing their excellent videos. What you must do is not only work through the videos several times but tune in or watch later the webinars where they play the very openings they recommend which I think is unique and they do this week after week which is what you need to perfectly hone a repertoire. Remember joining ChessMood does not preclude you from looking at other material elsewhere such as Chessable which has excellent coverage of the Benko (Grover) or playing against the Catalan (Ganguly). This platform is the best out there for your buck. It's a no brainer.

You can always try for free during one week to see if you like it.? This is why we are offering the one week free trial.

Regarding your question, after 1.d4 we go for the Benko if possible, yes. In the new Blackmood opening repertoire, we are offering the Dutch Attack, which will be released next week but Avetil has been playing it in the streams for a couple of months already. 

When after d4, Nf6 White plays Nf3, we do not play e6 going for a Catalan, we play g6. This is consistent with the rest of the repertoire. After 2…g6, we can transpose to other different Chessmood courses like the d4 Sidelines, the English course, Benko, Modern Maroczy or Maroczy and also the accelerated dragon… ?
 

BlackMood Starter - Dutch

When will the pdf and pgn files be updated to include the Dutch Attack? Thanks!

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Soon my friend,? we will upload it once everything is finished and checked. In the meanwhile enjoy the Dutch course that everyone has been waiting for!

Happy learning!!! ?

Early Success at the Scotch Game

I just started going through the WhiteMood Openings course and got through the section on the Scotch Game. I'm horrible at rapid so have been losing a lot. But today I decided to practice the Scotch for the first time. I didn't get it perfect but I think I understood the basic principles. And, I was super excited when I won! Really thankful for this basic openings course and just wanted to share. Trying to share the game, hope this comes through properly.

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??May this be the first of many Scotch victories!!! ?Good luck and welcome to the Scottish family!!! ?

Good news about weekly articles

Hey, champions! 
As you know, after writing weekly articles for more than a year, we decided to make a tradeoff, and spend that time on producing more courses. 

The good news I want to share with you today is that nice tradition is coming back very soon ?
We'll bring back our weekly articles. 
We have already started writing them. 
And we're trying to write more about your pain points. 

Would love to hear your opinion, suggestions, pain points, desires and offered article topics. 

We have made a list already. I will add your suggestions there too and go one-by-one. 

Comment below please, if you have anything particular in your mind. 

Cheers,
Avetik 

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I wold love a good tutorial about Q vs R. It is suppossed to be about the same difficulty as B&N v K, but I can do that but not QvR. Thanks - Murrel

If ChessMood could have a MoveTrainer like Chessable it would be perfect, because is much easier and didactical to memorize the Opening variations playing the moves rather than going over the pgn as most of us do. Maybe ChessMood could sell it's courses on Chessable and BTW reach a wider audience

I would be interested in tips on calculation and decision-making in general. Regarding calculation, I know that you should look for candidate moves and follow the check-capture-threat priority. I think there's more to it though :) About decision-making, I'd be curious to know how you make a decision when the continuation is unclear or there are several options. Is it just a matter of feeling and intuition? For example, it happens to me that among the candidate moves I see, I analyze one in particular because it's the most attractive to me. Then I don't find a convincing continuation, and I play a move that is not as attractive to me, but it doesn't have any obvious drawback. Often the most attractive to me was indeed the best move. I read that Tal would not necessarily calculate the whole continuation after one of his crazy sacrifices but his intuition would tell him that he should have a strong position and attacking opportunities. However, he still should see "deep enough" to assess that. I'd love to hear your thoughts on how to improve this aspect of the game! Thank you! Francesco

Time management. I recently played in a 5 round OTB tournament - time control 120 d5. All five games were decided in a time scramble with both players down to a few minutes or less. Unfortunately, I was usually the one who blundered in time pressure or ran out of time altogether. This is my pain point.

Hi Avetik It's great to see the articles making a comeback. I would be interested in advice as how to make learning more active in chessmood courses (for example the classic games videos). I think with video learning it's too easy to be passively learning and not reap the benefits of the great content. I pause the videos and guess moves but I'm not sure I'm maximising the potential of the videos.

Thanks Avetik, I'm looking forward to seeing some new articles. I found some of the old ones quite helpful. Weekly articles sounds like quite a lot of work for you! I think every few weeks would be fine. Some big topics like calculation seem better suited to a course. I guess such a course needs a lot of examples for training on, as well as advice on calculation techniques etc. For players 2000/2100 FIDE or higher I suspect this topic is probably one of the most important. For articles, one topic I am interested in is different player types and how that should impact training, if at all. It's clear that some players are more intuitive, while others are more calculation focused. And some players love to sacrifice and attack, while others are more comfortable with a positional grind and/or heading for the endgame at every opportunity. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and how it flows into us amateurs trying to maximise our results.

Excited to learn more from the articles. Would like articles on Visualization and Calculation training. At what level to start training. How to Train. What abilities are expected at different levels just like the different levels of opening knowledge at each level (Whitemood openings, Chessmood openings, Advanced Chessmood openings). I am currently between 1200-1350 rating based on US Chess Federation system. I am able to solve 90% of the Tactical Ninja problems (1/2 way through course). However, I am unable to visualize/calculate all the different options the opponent had to defend (not using board to solve) position but I tend to be able to find the main idea/line. Thanks Bret

I would like to learn about what are the bad pieces and how to improve these pieces so they become active? How to think about a chess position? Improving calculation skills an visualisation from the beginning let say untill 2000 level. Coordination with pieces how to do that? Maybe sending games to you to analyse so you can discover our weaknesses. Some puzzle homework whatwecan do at home GR Dirk

Hi coach Mr.Avetik, I would like to know how to beat consistently ~1900-2000 elo players (I'm 2150). Against other levels I play ok, but against this group my results are tragic for psychological reasons, overpushes, many draws, I dont create imbalanced positions etc.

Hello GM Avetik, Since there are so many GMs in the Chessmood team, it might be interesting for the members to see an article about the journey from beginner to GM from different perspectives - what the training looked like, what were the hurdles you had to overcome at various stages (beginner to 2000, 2000 to master, master to FM, IM to GM etc.), what were the critical changes you made to progress to the next change. Maybe psychological aspects, training, help from coaches, anything else.

daily puzzle

Is there any way that I can check the previous daily puzzles I did? or If I missed the couple weeks, How can I find them? Thanks

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You can access previous daily puzzles by manually editing the URL. For example here is the URL for the puzzle from 7 April: https://chessmood.com/daily-puzzle/07.04.2022 Btw, today's puzzle was a fun one.

A possible method is to manually create a Chessbase file (or lichess study) and input and save the positions. I did that a little bit

Question from Caro-Kann game

In this position, Is Ne5 or Nbd2 preferable? I did post this in Facebook chat but would like a definite feedback.

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Hi Inguh,

Both moves are good and logical. Ne5 is good as it's active, Nd2 continues the developement.

Good luck!

Schlechter Variation of the French Defense: Line After 9. a3 O-O

I've been studying the course on the Schlechter variation. I'm on 3...c5, specifically on this video: https://chessmood.com/course/french-defence/episode/129 Around 1:50 into the video it covers the line 9. a3 O-O 10. b4, and he says the following moves should be Bb2, Qe2, and Rad1. I've been playing around with this line in Stockfish and Qe2 never seems to be a good move. The best I can get is: 10...Be7 11. Bb2 Nd5 12. Qe1 a6 13. Rd1 This has an evaluation of about +1.1 But if I enter Qe2 instead of Qe1, the evaluation drops to about -0.3. I suspect it's because the black knight can then come to f4 and fork the queen and the bishop. The queen's forced to move anyway and the bishop is lost. I'm visually impaired and the video moves rather fast, so I could have missed something, which is why I wanted to post it here. Input would be appreciated.

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Sorry, can't figure out how to edit my post, but here are the exact moves leading up to that line: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Bd3 c5 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. Nc3 Qd8 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. dxc5 Bxc5 8. O-O Nf6 9. a3 O-O 10. b4

Qe2 and centralizing the rooks is a very good and general plan, that of course must be adjusted depending on what Black plays. In this structure after 11.Bb2 the knight on c6 is misplaced. In these structures, the knight should be on d7 to do a good job. 

Again we cannot and will never analyze all the engine moves, but in this position both bishops are located in very good squares pointing to the king side, Black-s bishop is not developped and once you locate the rooks in the center it will be difficult to place it in a nice square. 
After Nd5, as you said, Qe2 would be a mistake because it will allow Black to exchange the Light Square Bishop with Nf4 and we would lose our best piece at the moment without any compensation.

?In this case I would play just Qd2 renforcing the c3 knight and preparing ?the rook centralization, and see how the opponent moves… 
 

Hi Brandon,

I do support the idea of ChessMood Odysseus, however, my attention went to another point. 
The position you were playing around with an engine seems to be pretty deep and I don't believe it will happen super often.
The engine can be our friends, but sometimes it's not the best time investment to stick around some rare positions, looking for engine numbers.

I think that investing time to learn this game better through many practical courses which we offer will be better :-) 

 Good luck!

Practical Skills

Hello everyone I feel that somehow when I actually play I don't really play at the level I would like to. I feel like I am lacking the practical skills I need. I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of some chess principles but I do not know whether I am applying the or not. Any suggestions or tips would be welcome. Thank you in advance

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Sounds like there is a vast possibility there which would be hard to give a useful answer to. Unless you can pinpoint to a specific area the only suggestion would be to get a master to look at some of your games and find areas for improvement. If you analyse and check / or use an engine are there patterns? E.g. getting a strong position the sabotaging it by giving away key points to the opponent. And then start to ask why you did that.

I agree with David - the description of the challenges you are facing is quite vague. If you are able to clarify or give more details then you might get more helpful responses. Other than that, the only tip I can offer is to try playing some slower games. It is quite difficult to apply newly acquired knowledge if you are playing blitz games and nothing else (assuming that is the case).

Evans Gambit

I've just started working with a coach recently and one of the openings he showed me was the Evans Gambit. I've found limited resources on it to see whether it is really a good opening or not. I'm still evaluating whether this coach works for me or not so I'm trying to look more deeply into the things he teaches me. Any opinions on the Evans Gambit? It goes 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 I'm new to this site so not sure if I'm posting this in the right place.

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I'd say the Evans is a fine opening for developing players to learn about the initiative and get more comfortable with sacrificing a pawn. It should score quite well unless the opponent is well prepared. For example I advised a friend to give the Evans Gambit a try and he did so. During the following 2 years his chess.com blitz rating went from 1550 to over 1800, while his rapid rating went from 1800 to 2000, and he kept playing the Evans throughout that period. For stronger players it's best as a blitz opening or perhaps an occasional surprise weapon at longer time controls. You can still get a ton of value out of ChessMood without playing all the openings. For example I'm selectively adding some CM lines to my repertoire but will probably never play the full CM repertoire. The middlegame and endgame courses are also tremendous and quite extensive. If you like both your coach and ChessMood then you should have a discussion with your coach about which parts of ChessMood to work on and which ChessMood openings to use.

Unless someone is playing at a super GM level any reasonably reputable opening is fine. Whats most important is that you play openings that you feel comfortable with.

Idea behind 10. g3 move in the 8.h4 (4...Nf6,6... Qe7) Scotch ?

HI Chessmood Family! Im trying to understand the purpose of the g3 move for white that pops up in variations of the recommended h4 line in response to black playing Qe7 in the Nf6 variation. I understand that benefit created by playing h4 (Potential to crash kingside, rook lift to attack Ba6, Bg5 move, prevention of ...f5 in some lines), however I do not feel I quite understand the reasoning behind playing g3 here. On the surface it seems the possible benefit of this move could be white strengthening the f4 square and making g2 available for the light square bishop (At the cost of losing the possibility of playing Rh3). However it seems like many of the standard plans that occur later in the h4 line still work regardless of if g3 is played. What am I missing here? Thank you :) Any thoughts?

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I'm not a GM o IM but I can say what I feel in this position (I played it but not occur very often). I think you could move Bh3/Bg2 and free the movement of the queen like Qe4 move that it's thematic/ and castle (you need to take care of the bishop on a6 first) it's possible. I think this position it's very theoretical and it's not simple this h4 line. GM Gabuzyan say in stream (the last one) that this opening line need some time to feel and play! The line is very strong and resourfulness.

Didn't Sensei provide a compare and contrast in the video discussing that position?

Hi Joseph,

The purpose of g3 is to develop the bishop and castle. White often take the bishop to h3. They are trying normally to continue the game with good development.

Good luck!

Avetik's chessbase board theme.

OK this is not about chess and unnecessary but I can't find Avetik's blue board theme.Where canI find it?

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I think it is custom made... To have a board different than the rest... It is nice, eh? At the beginning I did not like it, I even told him when talking the first day, but now I like it a lot! Long live the blue board!

No name :) Why you hide your name? :) 
It's custom build :) 
Credits goes to our magic designer :) 

I know this is an older post, but I also wanted to find this board theme. Since we couldn't have it directly, I just made my own. I attached an image of what I came up with. If you want the same textures I used, you can download them for free here: https://mattplayschess.com/chessbase-theme/