Chess forum by Grandmasters

How to enjoy my games without pressure?

I really want to enjoy my games like before, but I also get very nervous and anxious and it affects my game and I end up playing not to lose instead to win. I really love this game, I really enjoy playing against very high rated/strong players because only then I can explore new things or experiment without getting scared of losing elo. Because the more I enjoy the game the better I play.

Replies

Hi, honestly I've been experiencing the same problem myself and I've come with few useful things that have helped me go thorough it. 

1. Create a second account - Chess.com allows you to open a new account as long as they approve it (and they do approve in most cases). With the new account you can try new things and explore what fits you the best so if you lose ELO, you won't care, at least not as much. 

2. Try to play with longer time controls- Time is a very important resource that we should always pay attention to. Time trouble makes you much more stressful, and longer time controls might be a good way to reduce the number of times that it happens. 

3. Play unrated games- There are a lot of strong players in the unrated pool, playing against them might help you learning without losing ELO.

Oc that all of the things that I just wrote won't eliminate it completely but you'll feel it much less.

Hey Mr. (Ms?) anonymous,

Try:

https://chessmood.com/blog/detachment

There are a LOT of articles in the blog that address the mental and emotional side of the game. I feel like i should be paying counselling fees!

As far as ELO goes:

Is there any free course?

Is there any free course which I can join?

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There are a couple of free courses: The Opening Principle course and the first three “In Grandmasters' mind” courses (Avetik, Gabuzyan, Danya) are free.

It would be nice if you champion grandmasters covered all these cheeky lines in the course

For Example, as black, after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Bd3 Nc6 4.c3 dxe4 5.Bxe4 Nf6 6.Bf3 e5! 7.Bxc6+ bxc6 8.Qe2 where he only way to not get a worse position is the insane 8…a5! move. I did not find this in the game and I lost a very long endgame being pawn down.

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It is covered in the advance openings ("Step by Step Opening Repertoire for White"). Look in this course in the advanced section. There is one covering 3. … Nc3

Ohhh, I didn't know you were referring to the advanced section, but honestly, I still like the e5 line a bit better because no one really knows that move and I've played it lots of times and barely face problems with e5. But yeah, Avo didn't mention what to do and we just get pawn down middlegame.

Hi Eli,

This line is not covered as we are not playing it for White.
Of course, there are so many interesting lines, but as a course creator, I can tell it's impossible to cover everything; each opening course will be 15h+.

Thanks for understanding, and Happy New Year.

Help with this Dutch game

I lost on time,but what could I have done better ? should I have kept the king in the center ? what about c5 that I played? 

any input is appreciated 

Replies

Dear Zaid,

Your opponent chose a very specific rare setup - I think in this case you could play with g6-Bg7 and castle short as it feels dangerous for the long castle.

C5 looks also practical to fight for the center.

Tactic Ninja: Pins

Hello all,

Happy New Year! I was wondering if anyone was in a similar situation to me. A little about myself… I am 31 and started playing chess about 3 years ago. I am 1250 rapid rated on chess.com. I completed the rise of champions course and moved on to tactic ninja. I started the pins section and felt it was pretty straight forward until the training level 1 and 2 puzzles at the end. Some I solved and others I was completely clueless on. Is there a way to train more on those puzzles to become stronger? 
 

Thanks, 

Vito

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Dear Vito,

The best way to improve tactics is to solve them repeatedly. The Tactic Ninja course just introduces the patterns, but to become better every day, try to solve puzzles for 10-20 minutes, depending on your available time for chess.

SITE DOWN????

IS THE SITE DOWN     FOR LAST 4 HOURS VIDEOS ARE NOT LOADING

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Hey there,

It was a temporary issue, fixed now :-)

Hi Chessmood's website is still down for me for the last 2 days, from my laptop. I'm getting the “Connection timed out” Cloudflare error.

Browser (me) working > Singapore (Cloudflare) working > www.chessmood.com (Host) error.

But I have no problems when using my phone or tablet. I'm sending this message using my tablet.

Thanks

Alex

Playing partner

Hi i am 2100+ on chess.com and lichess. I can play practice games and can train. If interested send a request, my id rama-chandra

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What should the puzzle section final score be for us to get the certificate?

Hi guys, I’ve completely finished the puzzles for tactic ninja and mating matador, and I got a certificate at the end of mating matador but didn’t get any at tactic ninja. Does it depend on any minimum score or something?

Replies

I think so, it does say to watch till you understand and can solve the quizes without knowing theme, my tip go through the course again. Get a good score!

Happy New Year!

Hello Everyone!

I became a Pro ChessMood student at the end of October 2025 and I just wanted to express my deepest gratitude and heartfelt thank you to the entire ChessMood team for providing such great chess education.  I have been playing chess my entire life (born in '73), but never had access to content such as this…one-stop-shop for all your chess education needs.  I have been learning a tremendous amount and having so much fun learning along the way.

I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your hard work and effort that goes into ChessMood.  You truly have an amazing program!  So thank you again!  

Happy New Year to all!!

Glenn Turpin

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Dear Glenn,

Thanks for the kindest words!
Happy New Year and lots of luck in 2026 :-) 

Accessing PGN files

Good morning. I can't figure out the best way to use the PGN files from the ChessMood openings courses. I can download them, but I'm not able to open them fully in Lichess. Is there another (preferably free) application that I should be using for these? Or is there a way to just interact with them directly on the ChessMood site? 

Thanks! And Happy New Year!

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Sicilian or e6? Chessmood vs chessmood?

When learning french and dutch with e6 it was said that it is a lifetime opening, but it seems chessmood recommends sicilian for higher levels, but still said that nc3 grand prix can defeat the sicilian but if chessmood is recommending sicilian then the grand prix must have a way to be defeated. In blackmood grandprix was introduced to defeat sicilian and pirc, but if it has fighting chances for both like nf6 against slechter and the big gambit then the way it was introduced is defeat but changes to fight.please solve. we all have to play black and white and sometimes have to suddenly play against higher level players.

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What is your level?

For Black, I believe the Sicilian is recommended for more advanced players because it is more complex and requires more theoretical knowledge compared to the 1…e6 setups suggested in ChessMood. There’s nothing wrong with either 1…e6 or the Sicilian—both are fully playable—but ChessMood GMs advise starting with 1…e6 and switching to the Sicilian later as your level increases. You need a foundation before you evolve, and the Sicilian can be more complicated for both sides. So if your level isn’t very high yet, it’s easier to get confused in the Sicilian. That’s why starting with 1…e6 ChessMood variations makes sense. Personally, I find the Dutch a bit risky at the 2000+ level, but that’s just my preference. Many IMs and even some GMs still play the Dutch successfully. 

If you study any opening course—learn it, watch model games, and play training games—you will get a good position out of the opening. Your main hope is not to “defeat” opponent out of opening, but to get good/normal position you understand better.

In general your main hopes when getting out of the opening phase are:

1. Your opponent doesn’t know the theory and makes an early mistake, giving you a “winning” scenario right away out of the opening.
2. Your opponent knows some theory, but you know more, so you get a “better or winning” position out of the opening.
3. Your opponent knows the theory or finds the right moves over the board (high rated oponeng scenario?!), but you have studied the specific variation more deeply. Even in an equal position, you hope you understand the ideas, plans, and typical structures better because of your practice and studies.
4. Your opponent spends more time trying to figure out unfamiliar positions and ends up in time trouble.

Against higher‑rated opponents, your biggest practical chances usually come from points 3 and 4. Of course sometimes 1 or 2 also happens.

None of these openings give a “lost” (as you call “defeat”) position by force. They simply give you fighing chances (as described above). The goal of the ChessMood repertoire—whether Sicilian with Black or Sicilian with White or anything else —is to reach fighting positions. If you know the variations well from both sides, you’ll consistently get good, playable positions.

Eventually, you’ll be at some point out of theory and have to play real chess in an equal or slightly better position.

And at the end it is completly find to switch openings or to have 2 playable openings like 1…e6 or sicilian at some point. Switching between openings can help you broaden your understanding of different structures and improve your overall chess strength.

A question concerning a variation in Trompowsky attack

In this episode
https://chessmood.com/course/crushing-d4-sidelines/episode/422

at 2:35 after white plays d5 then
…b5
Bb3 b4
Ne2 c5 to prevent trading of black's dark bishop.
WHAT IF instead of Ne2, white plays Na4 preventing direct …c5 and intending Nc5 which is impossible to kick the knight out without trading both of the queen and dark bishop and finishing the attack of black?
What should be played then?

Thanks in advance. 

Replies

Simply take cd5, and you still have a very comfortable position, as you have a pair of bishops and the position is rather open. 

MoodCoins

Hello,

I'm not sure what to do with MoodCoins.

Replies

Depands how much you have.

If you have 100 000 or more you can buy some courses for lifetime.

The main function of Mood Coins is to purchase courses without needing to use actual money. It takes quite a large number of these coins to do so, but you can earn them by referring a friend, solving puzzles, answering questions in the forum, etc. 

I hope this helps!

They are the site's currency if you want to purchase a course. You could get the coins by posting in forums, winning the game of the month contest, solving daily puzzles (though very less compartively) and refering ChessMood to friends. 

My personal opinion is that this feature needs some changes. Like maybe, they could insert a 3-minute puzzle storm into the site, and your total score of puzzle storm = the number of mood coins you get. 

This feature would be great because you ensure that players don't cheat for moodcoins (cheating in puzzle storm is very impractical) and also that the site retains many users and helps them improve their chess. 

How to understand where to work on when reviewing games

When reviewing my games, I can understand why the move I made in the game was not good. But how do I turn that into a lesson that I can apply to my future games? I don't know what conclusions to draw from my mistakes or what I should work on

For example, I played this game:

https://www.chess.com/game/live/147402692816?move=0

And 41. h5? was a mistake. After analysing, I understood why 41. h5? was a mistake and why 41. Kf6 followed by 42. Ke5 was better. However, I am still unsure what to take away from this game. I am unsure where to work on to improve. 

So, how do I understand where I should work on after making a mistake in a game?

Replies

Dear Teddi,

This question has a large explanation; it depends on too many things - I have seen that you booked a 1-1 call, and it will be more efficient to discuss this together.

Watching courses

Hi everyone. 

I have joined ChessMood recently, and I have already watched a few courses during the Gratitude 1-month gift period.

However, I have always been wondering if I have been watching the courses the right way. I am wondering if I should go through the courses one-by-one (meaning I don't start a new course before finishing the course that I have started) or if it is fine to watch multiple courses in a day.

For example, in my case, I was watching 1 section of the Silent Strategy in the morning and 1 section of Tactic Ninja in the afternoon. I'm not sure if I should have watched the entire Tactic Ninja course before watching Silent Strategy, or whether my current approach is fine.

Any help on this would be appreciated, Thank you!

Replies

Dear Teddy,

Do you have access to a 1-1 call? During that I provide study plans for each student.

Searching for Rare Model Games

Is there a way to search for a Model Game when it is not in the Black/Whitemood model section? For example I found it tricky to play and eventually made a poor OTB 12+d3 (blitz) decision after 5…Bg4 in the Petroff which appears to be a fine non-covered move. Obviously from below I can improve my game a lot with engine analysis and some additional common sense about keeping queens on, but I suspect I'll face this opponent again at the club level and Model Games are always great resources to feel the position better.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7 Kxf7 5.d4 Bg4 6.Bc4+? Be6? [6...d5 7.Bxd5+ Qxd5 8.exd5 Bxd1 9.Kxd1 Nxd5-+] 7.Bxe6+ Kxe6 8.Qf3 Qe8 9.Qb3+ [9.e5! dxe5 10.dxe5 Qh5 11.exf6 Qxf3 12.gxf3 Kxf6] 9...Kd7 10.Qxb7?? [10.0-0! Qxe4 11.Nc3=] 10...Qxe4+ 11.Qxe4 Nxe4 12.f3 Nf6 13.Nc3-+ and I went on to lose 0-1

Replies

Dear Matt,

Now we don't have an option to search for the model games, but we write down the variations when adding them>
This line is very rare, so that's why not many games happen.
As a piece of advice, you can playwith f3 - and after that Be3-Qd2 with the attack on the Kingside.

 

Help with PGN files

I cannot get Chess.com to accept the PGN files in the attachments sections of the lessons, so I am posting here for help.  Here is the process I am using.

1. I go to Library
2. I select “Create a New Collection” and name it (Chess Mood - Tactics Ninja, for example)
3. Under that Collection, I select Add Game

4. Under Add Game, I select Load from Fen/PGN(s)

5. I have tried two things under here, both with the same failed result.

5.a. I drag the PGN into the window

5.b. I select upload file and select the appropriate PGN

Both option do the same thing - they fill the game window with text.

6. I press the “Add Game(s)” button that is now clickable (prior to 5.a. or 5.b. it was greyed out and could not be clicked).

I get the following from Chess.com - “Oops. Looks like there was an error. Sorry! Please refresh.”

I do a browser refresh and nothing has been added to the collection.

What am I doing wrong?

Replies

Paul,

Hmmmm… I don't use the Library on chess.com, but I tried what you did with the pgn file from Tactic Ninja and got the same behavior. 

Now the pgn file has a LOT of games in it, so the library may be barfing because of that.

(1) Try this:  in chess.com go to Learn→Analysis. Then click “Upload File", and select the pgn file that you downloaded. Then click “Add games”

This should take you to the starting position (the first entry in the pgn is just the starting position with no moves!). Look in the pane on the right side. You'll see “Starting Position” which is the name that the pgn file gives the first position. Look up and click on the “Games” tab. Now you will see a list (very long) which starts with 2. PIN, and then has a list of positions under it. Click on one of these (like "Intro) and the first puzzle appears!  Voila :D

(2) I tried a couple of quick experiments to see if I could figure out why this isn't working in the Library. If I use a small pgn (I just cut one position out of the Tactical Ninja pgn), that loaded in correctly.

If I get a chance, I'll try to play with this some more.

Cheers,

Jeff

Dear Paul,

Understood your issue. Our PGNs contain null moves, and that can be the reason of issue on chesscom.
This can also be helpful for yoy https://chesstempo.com/pgn-viewer/

Anti-Sicilian when opponent doesn't castle (8...Bxf3 9.Rxf3 Nd4)

I responded to the threat on the rook with 10.Rh3 Nxc2 11.Qh4, and things went poorly from there.  With the opponent's rook still on h8 and no pin on the f-pawn, I was not sure how to continue the attack.  Should I have responded with 10.Rf2 instead (as the engine suggests)?  If so, what would be the strategy to continue?  Or, should I have played something else (at that point, or earlier)?

https://www.chess.com/game/live/147265436658?move=18

Replies

Instead of Qe1 here, you could have played h3-Bxf3-Qxf3-Nd4-Qf2 - with a little better position.

While Black isn't yet castled, the sacrifice on c2 doesn't work :-)

Countering the Black Lion

At least two of my regular opponents play the Black Lion. I like the idea of the Bf4 line against the Pirc, as in the course, but if starting with 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 then what to do against 3…e5, or 3…Nbd7 followed by 4…e5?

Alternatively, if playing the Grand Prix attack, what to do against 1.e4 d6 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.f4 d5? (I think this is a recommended line for black in some Black Lion course.)

Replies

Hey, Konrad

Here you go this is all the lines for grand prix attack with commented plans -

1. e4 d6 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. f4 d5 4. e5 Ne4 (4... d4 5. Nce2 Nd5 (5... d3 6. exf6
dxe2 7. Qxe2 gxf6 {opponent's pawns are ruined but play with g3-bg2 and c3-d4})
(5... Nfd7 6. e6 fxe6 7. Nxd4 {setup is obvious}) 6. Nxd4 Nxf4 7. Nb3 {your plan
would be d4 - bd3 - nf3 - O-O (doesnt have to be in order but this is the
setup.}) 5. Nce2 {If you have the opportunity you can trap the opponents knight
if not play with c3-d4} *

Daily Puzzle didn't increase MoodCoins.

Hi there.

Last night, when I entered the site, I received another puzzle. I did it but, when I logged into my account, it changed and I was awarded. 

Today, I didn't get any rewards by completing the Daily Quiz (because it was the same one).

Thank you for your support.

Replies

Hi Batistuta!

It sounds like this might be a time zone issue. Since our server runs on a specific time (UTC), it is possible that when you solved the puzzle 'last night', the new server day had already started. So, you effectively claimed 'today's' reward yesterday.

To confirm this, could you please let me know:

• What is your Time Zone?
• Approximately what time (your local time) did you solve the puzzle last night?

Once I have that, I can check the logs!