Chess forum by Grandmasters

NEW COURSE: Rook vs Pawn

Champions, we've added one more course in the endgame sections.
This one, not 1 section, not 2 - but the whole course with 11 sections!

https://chessmood.com/course/endgame-rook-vs-pawn 

With our team we spent a big amount of time, to provide you the best quality, all must-know positions and ideas without overwhelming your brain.

Hopefully, you'll love it.
#COGRO (Constant growth) 

P.S 
If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments section. 

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Blindfold Chess

When did you play blindfold chess last time?

How do you think does it help us to develop our vision or memorizing?

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well it did not helped me. May be I was just new so I understand. The concept which helped me in memorization is Ian books on visualization. I imagined more. well after I did part 1. 

I gave up on blindfold for some time because I wanna focus on more chess books. I did ok when I played online blindfold but issue comes with pawn formations. When I forget pawn formations in my mind then I lost game without much play. So, i decided to work on all pawn formations so I wont mes up in pawn case and then it will be easier for me to remember pieces !

It definitely helps, but last time I think I played around 10 years ago and not serious :D

Last played blindfold one or two years ago against a weaker opponent. Could not exactly remember where everything was at all times, but managed pretty well and won. I feel like playing blindfold can improve visualisation and memorisation, but to a small extent. I had to start over from the beginning and play through the moves in my head when I eventually forgot something, so obviously not very efficient time-wise.

I played before this covid-19 pandemic with one of my friends. It went more than 35 moves and ended in a draw. When we analyzed it later, we found out that we missed many small things. That was my last time. Lichess has a 'blind chess' feature, but I don't like it.

NEW ARTICLE: Organize Your Day, Organize Your Chess Journey

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Coach, it's so wonderful article. The only thing which Iam not doing well is opening prep but your article opened my eyes. Now even in my long to do list file I will add opening prep daily too. I love to write my daily study updates in your chessmood forums because I love it. It motivates me a lot and I am also working with 4 training partners. 2 are positional players including @Jay_Garrison and 2 are attacking players . So , with your support I am on the right track to win !!!

 https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/daily-study-updates

Two things:

It's more than a having plan for achieving. Plans get derailed (unrealistic or discovered not to be  a good one), and need to be flexible. You say you're going to do X, but they you realise it's too hard going, and to do X you need to Y and Z better first. So you need to put plan X on hold while you work on Y and Z. It might even be it takes an ah-ha moment to find or work out how to achieve X. That ah-ha could be a long while later because you'll read, or hear something that suddenly clicks that this is your answer, or maybe it isn't and it'll take several of these. Some of it might be easier if you can bring in parallels from other things you know or read to try to apply to learning X.

An example: Let's say I overlook knight forks, so I decide that I want to plan to see knight forks and be better with the knight in general. What should I do?
A naive plan might be to go study lots of tactical problems. Yes this one will probably work eventually, but isn't perhaps the best approach and as studious as you are, it's not going to give the best results.

A better approach might be isolate the knight from the other elements first - find exercises that train with the knight, but how would you do that? So by luck you find a book which has the following problem - given white pawns on c3, f3, c6, f6 - place a black knight on a1. Visit each square a1-h1, h2-a2, a3, b3, d3, e3,... and so on, skipping and never landing on squares which have the pawns on or the pawns attack. You try first time and you do it in a pitiful 10 minutes. However after keep doing it, you can do it sub 2 minutes and in your head.

You also note (now being an expert) the fact that in all cases you need 2 or 3 moves to get to the next square except for 3 transitions which take 5 moves. Well it's interesting, so given a clear board, what's the most moves to get from a1 to any other square. Quite rightly you suspect it's going to be g7, g8, h7 and/or h8 as your longest path. So you print out a blank chess board with a knight on a1. Finding a felt-tip pen, you colour b3 and c2 with one colour, that's where you can get to in 1 move. Now you repeat for all places you get in 2 moves in a different colour, then 3, 4, 5 and 6. Oh that's an interesting pattern. Note that b2 takes four moves due to the edge of the board and also so does c3 - that's something interesting to conclude - squares adjacent diagonally take 4 moves to get there. Also the worst case? It's h8 which takes 6 moves, and g8/h7 take 5. g7/f6 are only 4.
You might also then try the same exercise with a knight starting on e5 and note the symmetry and also that the worst case is 4 to any square (each of the squares 2 diagonal away, and the far corner). What does that tell you? Well it say a lot about the power of knight forks.

Take this problem: Place a pawn on e5, how many other dark squares are there where I can't place a pawn, then place a knight which will fork both pawns? The question is the same as asking how many dark squares can't I visit in 2 moves from e5 - 5 again. Am I on the right track and this is something strong players have done themselves? Well I asked GM Speelman the question and he instantly said 5, so that's a good hint that it's one of those ah-ha moments strong players discovered also.

So what next? You might notice that the shape of knight forks are different, and because of the different shapes they take, that is why people miss them. So what if we tried to find all the shapes so we've seen them and can recognise them, how do to this? Well place a knight on e5, now place a pawn on f7. There are 7 other places to put a pawn where it will be forked with the original pawn (knight can move to 8 squares in the centre minus 1). Chess has rotations and/or reflections, so if we designate the type of fork is the number of squares horizontally from one pawn to another (plus the starting square) by the number of squares vertically we can enumerate them - since a 90 degree rotation makes horizontals verticals and we don't want to count that twice, once the fork is measured, put the smaller number first. So if a pawn goes on g6, that is 2 horizontally from f7 pawn to g6 pawn (counting the start square), 2 vertically - i.e. 2x2. Now go 'round the clock' with the g6 pawn for the others: 2x4, 1x5, 3x5, 4x4, 2x4 (a repeat), 1x3. That makes 6 unique ones. Are we done? Well we can transpose the starting f7 pawn to all other knight attacking squares using reflections, so yes. Now you know what the 6 forks like. Looking them a few times, you might also start to see them more often.

I won the under 125 (~1500 Elo) British championship in 1998 and win it 5/5 of which this training was a big part (as I outplayed with the knights in two of the games).


The second thing to consider is hunger and ability to stay the course. The plan will only be followed (or at least it'll not be like pulling teeth after a while) if you're hungry for it (and probably if it starts showing results too). You did mention burning desire in another article, but it's more than that. Think about being hungry. You're trying to do something you enjoy, but you note you need to stop and get something to eat. At first you ignore it and continue. Then in a bit, you feel it again, it's a bit strong, a bit louder you are hungry. Again you ignore it. Eventually it's 'shouting' so loud you can't concentrate and you go eat. If you keep eating you'll stop wanting to do it and eventually get sick even though it was something you really wanted to do not long ago. Once you've eaten, it will go away and not bother you until you're hungry again. Studying something is pretty much like (the shout gets louder and louder until we start, and as we do it, it gradually decreases in volume and too much makes us feel bad); we also need little rewards (even feedback) to keep us going. You need both a desire to want to do it, but you also need to do the right amount in each session, and get some feedback (such as winning games, or understanding more complicated material, better scores on puzzle rush etc). Too much study with too long a time until feedback, and it'll be burnout and hard slog, too little and you'll not accomplish quickly, or lose the hunger now you 'achieved' as you don't see any apparent results. Sometimes something like a deadline can help override the burnout for a bit. Also having other interests, or priorities will steal or increase your hunger and derail you plan (life got in the way) or make you want to get back to it as soon as you can with new fervour.


I'm also considering that there is a sweet spot for how much to learn in any one sitting. New neurons/connections have to be built. Too much learning and only some of what you learn will be learned (including other stuff not in your task), too little and you're going to take longer. How much is a real question and I don't have that answer. I do know that a learning session generally makes me tired and a nap is often wanted. I've read in one article that it takes 6 hours to build, so that's at least how long you should wait before another session. Also sometimes walking away (literally) can help find new ideas or help process the material/solve problems in new ways better than continuing staring at it. The same article also suggests that you need to vary what you learn or how you learn in each session, so again a static plan following a course or book might not be very good for you (this makes sense in that often it's needed to recruit other neurons otherwise you feel overloaded in a task, or any distraction or difference means you can't perform that task). The question is vary how, by how much and so on, but the article doesn't consider this. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-johns-hopkins-study-reveals-the-scientific-secret-to-double-how-fast-you-learn

Great article, as usual.

One advice for not having too many to-do items I found useful is to work from a Calendar, rather than a todo list, because the calendar time-boxes everything.

Accelerated dragon 5. Nxc6

Hi, had this played against me a couple of times now. after bxc6 Qd4 is the main move, taking advantage of Bg7 not played yet (though c4 or Bc4 might be interesting). Now Nf6 7. e5 Nd5 8. e6 f6 maybe - and now what's the best way to continue? Any chance of adding this to early deviations in the course when there is a moment as I'm guessing this is something we'll face a lot.

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First of all 5.Nxc6 does not look great for White from a positional point of view, as Black can reinforce his center with 5…bxc6. Also, 8.e6 is not scary, White only attacks with 1 piece, which is his Queen on d4, and after 8…f6, 9.exd7+, Bxd7 Black has already an advantage in development having 2 minor pieces developed. Next Black plans e5, kicking the white Queen, e.g. 10.Bc4, e5 or 10.Nc3, e5 and Black is at least fine!
A potential line could be 10.Bc4, e5, Qh4, Bg7, O-O, Be6, Nc3, O-O, Rd1, Qc7 … (very good development for Black and better control in the center, and Black should not be afraid “losing” a pawn after trading on d5, as at the end c2 is hanging!)

Guess the Webinar!!!

How many of you remembered this position. I remembered coach showed this position in a webinar and asked us questions. 

Do you remember the name of webinar coach ?

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Chess and War

is it the same thing? I think it is...

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well for me when i play chess idc who is playing in front of me. Even in analysis sometimes I force my partners to follow my ideas hehe. Ask @Jay_Garrison he wil tell you. Sometimes he say like Abhi I have a lot defenders and I keep saying like hey no you are lost hehehe.  This happens normally when we analyze games of Capablanca Best Endings Book.

In case of rl play, when I play chess I feel like I wanna beat my opponent no matter he is male or female. Sometimes I heard players saying life they lost because they felt attracted to the female player who was sitting in front of him. I feel like you went for play or dating? When I play chess my goal is to crush my opponent's king. No matter I face males or females. Another thing is I show no mercy too because no one gonna show mercy to me if I am losing. So for me rl chess is just a war. Our main goal is to win the war with our army.

Puzzle of the day

Hi - did anyone solve today's puzzle (11/21)?   After 1. Nc7, Qc7, I couldn't decide between a4 or c4.   The puzzle likes 2. a4 and after Ka6, 3. a8(Q) Kb6, I could not figure out the rest of the solution?  I imagine the solutions is connected with why 2. a4 is necessary instead of 2. c4, but I am still stuck :)

Sarathi

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c4# is the last move ;) think again 

opponent plays 3..Nf6 Sicilian

I've played this person before and want to be prepared if I get a similar line to what he's/we've played before.  I've attached the study (gamelink - https://lichess.org/uFFcw1Wh/white) and have a few questions:

1. Is it correct to play 4.Nf3 and hope it transposes back to the ChessMood line?
2. Was 5.Bb5 better than 5.Bc4?  My thoughts are that the B can't help attack on the king-side from there, but can take the N on c6.
3. Was 7.d4 forgiveable?  I don't think so, but the engine's analysis isn't horrible if I had recaptured with the Q.

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I think Bb5 is correct and the line went like Bd7 but if  any other move then Bxc6 stops all black's queenside counterplay and we are better positionally. Bxc6 is move. There is no g6 in this line so bishop is not gonna go to c4. You did okay with Bb5 but just missed Bxc6 

Jim, Nf3 is correct! 

Bb5 is an interesting option. But you can play just Bc4 transposing to our variations. 

Old Opening Repertoires vs Chessmood repertoire

Hi. I am just curious how the more experienced members  manage the differences between their old opening repertoires and the chessmood repertoires.

For instance as Black I play the Leningrad  Dutch and the Slav against 1 d4 and against 1e4 I play the French and the Sveshnikov. With White I play 1 e4 but the only place where my old repertoire  and the chessmood repertoire meet is against the Philidor and the Petroff.

I don't feel like giving up my old repertoire but learning a completely new repertoire at my age while also being busy with things like family and work is a bit difficult.

I do like the thematic tournaments but one week preparation is a bit too short for me. I try to watch the videos at higher speed (1.5x or 1.75x) once before the tournament but that is most of what I can manage. 

So here are my questions:

1) For chessmood staff. Would it be possible to learn the thematic tournament schedule a bit earlier. Then I could prepare properly for fewer tournaments rather than the haphazard preparation I do now.

2) For the experienced (older) pro members. How do you mange your old repertoire and the chessmood repertoire. 

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Hey Till! 
We didn't have 1-1 call right, do I remember correctly? 

If so, please reserve a seat. 
Personalized study plan - is what all about are the 1-1 welcome calls.

You can reserve a seat here: chessmood.com/events

Skype for phone works well 

Also how do you watch videos on 1.5x speed its soemthing I have been dying to do when doing a rewatch of the videos.

Growth_Hacking

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Play longer than 3 min games?

Time: for example he was playing in the evenings but he started to win in the mornings :D

probably making him change his openings towards "chessmood openings"  :-)

Only play when he is not tired and have the time to be properly concentrated. (When I try to play at home with my wife or kids, they always come in between the moves. even if I only play one game, they will need something at that moment for sure... )

Play a fixed number of games? For example, 10 games and stop, whatever the result so he/she is more focused

Getting in the zone

In the stream yesterday I asked GM Gabuzyan about how to avoid blunders (particularly thinking about my game in the thread below when I played the dreadful c3 and should have considered what I would do as the opponent, but rushed it: I thought it was a move that needed to be played and my time was getting low). The response was about having heightened concentration and feeling part of the board/game etc (hope I got that right). What seemed to be described was what sports players refer to being 'in the zone' or psychologists refer as being in a flow state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

Obviously experience and practice contribute to this a lot, but how should one look at developing that state and enter/maintain it as one starts to play?

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Entering the zone, seems interconnected with understanding the position. If you have enough time, look at the nuances. Small details matter in the long run. Eventually, you'll subconsciously drift into focus mode. 

As long as the character of the position remains roughly the same, you can remain in this state with little effort. Unfortunately, a sharp change in the position like a blunder (either from you or the opponent) usually jolts you out of it. You need to constantly ask yourself what changed or risk getting lulled into a false sense of security.

Check out this article as well, you'll find lots of useful tips.
https://chessmood.com/blog/7-tips-how-to-keep-concentration-during-a-chess-game

Playing the GrandPrix against Philidor Video

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Bc4 was mentioned in the philidor video course by GM Grigoryan (https://chessmood.com/course/philidor-defense/episode/1168 time 0:49s) but i couldn't find the section where a full analysis was given  . All the analysis looks to be for 3.d4 followed by 4.Nge2. I would like to play the 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Bc4 line, can anyone help point me to the correct section? i've seen its in the pirc course but that's different as g6 is played.

Thank you chess friends

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Kayode, do you watch the streams? 
There we had a few times this. 
White gets a very easy game. Just 3.d3, then 4.f4 , Nf3, 0-0... 

Question about a move in Caro-Kann course

I believe it was recommended that after 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.ed cd 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3, if 5...e6, 6.f4 first, and after 6...Nf6, 7.Qe2 to prevent the ...Ne4, ...f5 idea.

However if Black instead plays 4...Nf6 5.c3 e6, it seems our plan doesn't work if we continue 6.f4 Ne4, as 7...f5 is coming next and we don't have time for Qe2 to pressure e4. 

So what do we do here? 

(Admittedly, it does seem a little strange for Black to move a piece twice in the opening, but still...)

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How about 6. Qe2 stopping Ne4 and then if Nc6 7.f4

Inguh, minimum you can play Bf4 transposing to the course. 

And if Black instead plays 4...Nf6 5.c3 Bg4, what are the recommended moves and plans?

This was recently played by Tari vs. Firouzja in Norway Chess (10/2020), the game continued 6.Qb3, Qc7, h3, Bd7, Nf3, Nc6, O-O, e6, Re1, Bd6, Bg5N ... and Black won

Online chess vs OTB

Do you like to play online or OTB? and why?

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both. I wanna elo so I wanna play now rl so bad because I know how well I am prepared now. In past I never had confidence like that but now I feel like I will crush a lot players like melon so I am super interested to play rl. Once I will play rl my online elo will improve too so I wanna play rl

MY concentration level is so high in rl games so I wanna play rl

I prefer OTB. I like to look at the opponent and experience the visceral feelings of winning or losing.

OTB for sure

OTB by far.

I love feeling the pieces, the real board, look at the eyes of my opponent, notice if he/she is nervous, happy, sad, shaking hands at the start and at the end, pressing the clock... It is a much more real experience.

Also I am much more focused in OTB games.

Guess I am in the minority I hate OTB and like online.

Travelling to some dingy playing venue to play in person versus playing from comfort of home.

Only advantage is you can be fairly sure there is no cheating going on.

OTB.

Net chess is more for fun, and harder to concentrate and usually faster. Often used as a test bed for openings.

Much prefer longer time controls.

Yes the travelling and staying away is often a pain.

I much prefer to play OTB. I feel more connected to my game when playing in person. 

Playing online at home, there are far too many distractions. TVs, spouses, kids, phones, dogs, etc. And as much as I try to isolate myself from all of these things while playing, they still sometimes distract me. While at a tournament, these interruptions to concentration are far less likely to happen.

I also like the travel and meeting of new people. To me this is like a vacation as well. I look forward to traveling to many places in the world to play and meet many wonderful people!

Decision-Making: The 40/70 Rule

 I was reading the thoughts of Colin Powell and I'm thinking how we can implement this idea in chess.

 "One of the greatest barriers to quick decision-making is the ever-present feeling that we don’t have enough information to make the “right” decision. Colin Powell, former secretary of the USA, addresses this with his 40/70 rule.6 His rule is to never make a decision with less than 40 percent of the information you are likely to get, and to gather no more than 70 percent of the information available. According to Powell, anything less than 40 percent and you’re just guessing. Anything more than 70 percent and you’re stalling over making the decision. Of course, this means you need to be comfortable with the possibility that you’re going to be wrong, which is necessary in any case."

I have my own thoughts but would love to hear yours first.

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IMO There is the danger of overthinking and thought paralysis by trying to calculate everything (especially imperfectly). Pressure can also aggravate that (I've seen players have long thinks in low time when there is only one obvious move, supposedly they are looking ahead at their fate). In chess one has to ask how critical the position is, the type of position (positional, sharp) and balance it against how much time is available and one's skill. 100% information is not available in many positions and the skill is knowing when to cut loose and when enough has been covered. Or avoiding positions too much above your skill level where it's blind luck whether you survive depending on what you saw vs what your opponent did.

Also similar to the pareto principle (80/20).

I have a question :)

Would you want your child to play chess professionally? 

I have not children, but I don't know why this question comes to my mind very often :D 

I know many strong chess players who don't want to hear about that, but I don't know why.

Maybe because they should be a coach without a salary? :D

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Chess in a lot of countries is a hard way to scrape a living due to the cost of living and little sponsorship money being in chess compared to other sports and games. Only the top 10 or so make serious money in chess and the rest are reliant on coaching and training materials. Many chess players also have a poor relationship with alcohol as staying in hotels for weeks on end there is little to do except socialise with other chess players. Having a family is a difficult balance as a professional player. The attributes that make a good chess player also make a good programmer or banker and those pay a lot better and the income is more stable which is also why a number of GMs get involved in finance for example.

It's not for me to say what my (one day) children should do for a living, but my advice is hobbies such as chess should take a back seat to education and career advancement  unless there are some serious results achieved, and even then to have a back-up option. You might lose your chance to become a strong GM, but you'll have the funds to play and study chess when and where you want without having to worry that a bad tournament might be the difference between being able to afford the rent or not.

Well, I never thought of marrying. I am single and I am ok with it. I am ridiculous if I love anyone. So better stay alone. My dream is to adopt a kid one day and then I will teach him or her chess only if they wants to. Even though I will be super happy if they will love chess so I can improve their skills so fast because I know basics well. Also I wanna make them spiritual I know people don't believe in spiritual things. I have only one thing to say. Talk to me and I will prove God exists. 

I think it is important to support your children in their passion (as long as it is legal LOL). If my children wish to be professional chess players, then I say to them, follow your dream! At the same time I will remind them that the world will not give them a living, so then need to find a way to support themselves as they pursue their dream. 

I do not think i will be a GM because of my age and current rating. I really want my child to play chess and become GM. Hopefully they will love the game like me.

This is interesting to consider. I don't have children either, but I think a parent should expose their children to a variety of things in life (science, math, sports, art, music, language arts etc) and let their children gravitate towards the things they enjoy most. Then, support them the best you can.  

12. Nd5 better for white?

1. d4 Nf6

2.c4 c5

3.Nf3 g6

4. g3 Lg7

5.Lg2 0-0

6.0-0 cd4:

7. Nd4: Nc6

8.Nc3 Qa5

9.e3 Ne5

10.Qe2 d6

and now 12. Nd5.

Gives this move an advantage for white?

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Sorry!

I mixed things up.

Clearly better for black.

Book- Grünfeld Defence

I am interested to know if there is any book which covers Grunfeld pawn formations in depth then I wanna know about it. I am working on new pawn formations and that's grunfeld one. So deep ideas of pawn formations will be useful for improvement. Thanks

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Problem with the Grunfeld is there are multiple plans, so which one?

You have the exchange lines with e4 d4 c3, you have e4 d4 in the Russian system, then various systems with the f2,e3,d4 pawn chain, there are g3 systems with a fianchetto...

There is positional chess there, there is dynamic chess, it's a complex opening with difficulties for both sides.

The only non-repertoire book which talks more about the plans and structures rather than the moves is IM Rowson's Understanding the Grunfeld

I used to play Grunfeld, but unfortunately didn't read any book about it, I saw once, if I find I'll write the name.

Avrukh's book(s) on Grunfeld seem to be good, a lot of content in there. Although if you want to focus solely on the structures...

I've heard Zherebukh has a good book about it. 

Hey Abhi, check out Mikhail Marin's Positional Grunfeld Repertoire. He has intro sections discussing the pawn structures and model games if I recall correctly. Also Rowson's classic booking the Grunfeld deals with a lot of Grunfeld themes like the passed d pawn etc.

Hi Abhi, you might try Chess Structures by Mauricio Flores Rios (Quality Chess) since it covers some of our ChessMood Openings (and Benoni), too. An excerpt including the content is here:

https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/Flores_Rios_Chess_Structures-excerpt.pdf

Pirc Defense with 3...e5

On Lichess, my opponents often choose a setup: 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5

It prevents 4.Bf4 variation suggested in the course. I have tried 4.dxe5 dxe5 5.Qxd8+ Kxd8 with limited success.

Looking at the games in my chessbase mega database the more common way of playing is: 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.Bc4 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. a4.

However this is not at all described in the course. What are your suggestion?

Of course, one of the possibilities is to play Grand-Prix setup against the Pirc.

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I just noticed that this has been covered in the Philidor Defense as a side-line where Black play 1...d6 instead of 1...e5. Suggested continuation is: 4.Nge2 c6 5.a4

I need to watch the Section 6 Modern Philidor or Modern Hanham Variation of the Philidor Defense course.

Share your Chess Playing Style?

We all wanna become Universal in chess in order to play overall chess positions well. But still we have our own love about different styles. So in this post share what kind of positions you like the most and what's your strengths and where you feel most comf even against strong players?

For me I like positional play a lot. My love for positional play came when I first saw llessons on Carlsbad Structure. I saw many Karpov games which inspired me to work on positional play and I felt more happy when positional positions come on the board.

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I haven't discovered my playing style yet :D