Chess forum by Grandmasters

Idea: Events on Weekends

Hey there :) 

Was wondering if events on weekends is something that could happen in the future?

The reason behind it: I have a full time job and can't join the events live on weekdays because I am usually at home around 6-7pm (events start at 5pm my time). Maybe other chessmood pro members have the same problem.

All the best!

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Hi, welcome to Chessmood, you can still watch the recordings of all the pro members events. If you have any questions about any position which you cant understand during you see recordings then let us know. Thanks

Hi Jonas! 
For sure. 
As much our ChessMood Family grows, we'll be able to reinvest in ChessMood more, hiring more GMs and to add more events. 

Starter course: Winning with white - pgn file?

Would it be possible to add a supporting pgn file to the this course?

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Hey Petter. 
We'll add after we finish the start course, which is still under construction. 

What Benko Gambit can do for you

Hi family! I just wanted to share my experience:

Last night, in a online 15+10 game, I voluntarily accepted isolated double pawns on b column with white after a Queen's Gambit. It was not as in some London lines with black when you let him exchange Queens on b6, because you can advance your b pawn and it is not a weakness. I accepted the weaknesses of the b2 and b3 pawns and b4 square, because I was confident I would make proper use of a and c colums (he had played b6, so a7 and c7 were backward paws.

The point is that a few months ago I would not have allowed isolated doubled pawns under any circumstance, but Benko Gambit has made me feel more comfortable using open lines.

Go Chesmood Openings!

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Ole, ole, ole.... !!! 

The Golden Question

Another wisdom gem , reinforced by Avetik....Thank you!

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Thank you, Ovi! 

Only BLIND CHESS to improve Chess Calculation?

Only BLIND CHESS to improve Chess Calculation?

Any other good technic method to improve our calculation skill significantly?

Thank you for solution. 

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Heri, of course not. 
Blind chess is just for improving visualisation. 
There are many different calculation techniques. 
In the future, we're going to add a course, but it's gonna be only after the course "Tactical Mastery"

Middle Game and End Game Course Order

ChessMood is offering middle game and end game courses. Is there a best order for studying these? Thanks.

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I think first of all if u are below 2000 then work on middlegame courses first. 

1. Watch daily 1 classical commented game.

2. Watch 2-3 videos on happy pieces or rest is up to you.

Once you will finish middlegames then work on endgames because right now chessmood is making contents for beginners so it will take some time for the intermediate endgame courses so in this mean time better work on middlegames and chessmood openings and streams.

Hey Tom! Not really. 
You're new in ChessMood right? If you haven't a 1-1 call with a GM yet, feel free to reserve a call and get a personalized study plan. 

New faeture idea

So I was reading through a few of my favourite blog posts, I have them all bookmarked on my web broswer currently.

Howeever, I think it would be great to be able to add blog posts to favourites. That way everything you need can be stored in favourites list and easily access from one page.

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Hey Jamie! 
Thank you very much for the idea. We liked it too :) 
We'll put in the to-do list of our developers. 
By the way, which ones are your favorites? 

A silly question about PRO membership

On the website it says: 

29$ is only for our first 100 PRO members.

But seeing the number of views on the PRO Member posts the numbers vastly exceed 100, the price still seems $29, and it seems like a contradiction. 

Am I missing something?

By the way, I am not complaining in any way. Chessmood has been tremendously useful to me.

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Regarding the view counts: every time you refresh a post you'll see it get +3 views. For example, look at the screenshots I've attached for this post: I refreshed the page once in between those.

Regarding the discount, it's not impossible that there are more than 100 pro members at this point and that the promotion still holds; it says the First 100 get a discount, it doesn't say the rest do not :p Joking, mostly.

I also hit the renew button :P

There is a +6views only from me (I did that twice)! And yeah obviously everybody else did the same thing as well :)

I honestly don't care if it is just marketing or not. I can afford it, I like it, so I am staying! And yeah I have seen results in tournament play (+200 elo rating performance in just a few months). If it was 99$ I wouldn't be here...

Inguh, you are right. 
We had the intention to raise the price after we got 100 PROs, but then we realized that the company will not survive... 
Soon the price anyway are going to be raised (not to 99$ maybe), but for all the past PRO members the old price will be keeped. 

Hunan, you're right. We have many bugs on the website, and now I'm hiring developers. 
Hopefully, soon we'll be able to execute a new designed and fresh fast working website. 
Sorry for the inconvenience. 

opponent played 5..e6 in Caro-Kann

https://lichess.org/rDS30QGhFlWF

I think I hadn't seen the e6 videos during preparation for my game, but I did afterwards.  Is the idea
the same and I should have played f4?  I didn't know about that so I played Nf3, figuring that his lsb was now blocked.

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Here we have a bishop on c1 so direct f4 is better option. If black wanna play e6 then better was to first of all let white to play Bf4 then e6. But now due to direct e6 and bishop is on c1 then white has additional f4 option and it's best.

I found this game exciting!

https://www.facebook.com/374333479894337/posts/637597313567951/?vh=e&extid=LeGgkdNcyxkDZAWG&d=n

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Is it still possible to buy PRO with MoodCoins?

Is it still possible to buy PRO with MoodCoins?

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Slobo, it's possible to become an affilate partner and make $. Which you can withdraw or pay for Membership. 
You can message to our support team and we'll be happy to have a partnership with you.

P.S We remember you very well :) Thanks for everything! 

bad response to Sicilian Accelerated Dragon

I have a game in a few days against someone whose history shows that he plays 3.Nc3 and 3.Bb5.  I haven't seen these in the videos (yet?) so I'm thinking they're bad moves.  How should I prepare to respond if they happen in our game?

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For reference, we're both rated u1600 Lichess classical.

I didn't see that there were any videos for these moves.  They're not in the PGN that comes with the course, either.

Hi JC,

For 3.Nc3 I would just continue with g6, Bg7, Nf6. Normally it transposes to the normal dragon, otherwise there is no worries in the center.

For 3.Bb5 this is the Rossolimo Variation, covered in a really good but a bit advanced course by GMs Avetik Grigoryan and Hrant Melkumyan.

https://chessmood.com/course/nightmare-of-rossolimo

Take a look at the basic ideas, it is really complex this variation and enjoy the learning!!

Hello,

I am brand new, in fact this is my first post on chess mood! Does the Nightmare of rossolimo cover 3 Bb5?

https://lichess.org/V0YcO9Xn

The game followed the Accelerated Dragon plan for six moves, but my opponent played 7.Nxc6.  I was happy with the evaluation for most of the game, but blew my advantage toward the end.  Thankfully my opponent returned the favor.

Grand Prix Attack against Pirc (after 1.e4, d6, Nc3, Nf6, f4, g6, Bc4, Bg7, d3, O-O, 6.Nf3, c6)

Dear coach Avetik,
in your video you covered 7.Bb3, d5, e5 … - but how best to continue if Black goes for 7…b5, O-O, Nbd7? Still going for 8.Qe1/9.Qh4 and GP Attack or maybe inserting 8.a3 (to cover against 8…Nc5 and prophylactic against a possible 8…a5) and then the standard attack with Qe1/Qh4 etc.?

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Hey Didi! Both a3 and Qe1 is possible. 
After Qe1 we'll give the Bb3, but the opponent loses so many tempos, that we should be in time to play f5 and then weather Bh6, or right away fg6 hg6 and Ng5 with Rf6 idea. 

Grand Prix with ...Na5!?

Hi Maestro, I just played this game that started: 1.e4 d6 2. Nc3 Nf6 3.f4 c5 4.Bc4 g6 5.0-0 Bg7 6.d3 0-0 7.Qe1 Na5!? I later lost a horrible game...

Is this move covered in any of the courses? I can't find it! What is White supposed to do here?  

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Hi Ramon, I assume you missed the Nf3 Nc6 in the above move notation .. all this is in the Sicilian Part 1 Advanced Section 6..Na5

https://chessmood.com/course/sicilian-defence-part-1

The general approach is Bb3 and then still to follow the Qh4, f5 and Bh6, Ng5 attacking plan .. depending on Black's Bd7 or Nxb3 reply

Pawn Structure Training?

As coach suggested to work on openings courses and then play more and more games of that openings and then check your pgn files for any mistakes. By this way we can memorize not only the variations and ideas but it will improve our speed of play too. But what about pawn structures? I am working on pawn structures with my friend. We chose those pawn formations which may arise in chessmood openings. I am sharing my current structures training in the bottom.

1. Carlsbad Structure. (Before chessmood I studied and loved this structure and this structure motivated me to learn classics of Karpov so after coach taught me learn classics I chose Karpov).  Another point of learning this pawn formation is to improve my caro kann exchange variation play. Because Chessmood presents Caro exchange so we have carsbad in exchange variation too.

2. KID structures. The reason behind learning this structure is that sometimes in London System we get some versions of KID. So I decided to learn the structure.

So my question is how do you guys revise pawn formations ideas? For example, for me carlsbad main lines are so easy to understand and I can even dominate people using carlsbad ideas but KID is tough and new structure for me. So is it good for me to play games with this new structure then check the ideas with book of structures that I did well or not. 

Any suggestions about working on pawn formations are welcome.

I am using this book because it not only show games but the way author explained ideas improved my positional understanding to the next level. I am also thinking to apply the woodpecker method in case of pawn structure training.

https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/products/2/235/chess_structures_-_a_grandmaster_guide_by_mauricio_flores_rios/

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Hi Abhi,

To try to understand pawn structures, I use a book by Andrew Soltis named Chess Pawn Structures or something like that (I owe it in Spanish). I think it does a decent job explaining the most common pawn structures and typical plans.

About Queen Gambit Structures, I bought "Understanding before moving 2" by Herman Grooten and I liked it because it uses a lot of text to explain the concepts and schemas and has a lot of diagrams, so it can be studied without a board and has some nice model games

After playing games with these structures, I review the books and try to grasp the ideas better.

Hello Abhi

About KID structures specifically, there is a good old book by Robert Bellin and Pietro Ponzetto titled "Mastering the King's Indian Defence". The book chapters are not divided by opening variations, but rather by the different structures which can appear in the King's Indian Defence: "Mar del Plata Centre", "Petrosian Centre", "Sämisch Centre", etc. Besides general concepts and pawn and piece configurations, they also provide several model games to understand each of these structures.

I believe analyzing model games is still the best way to come to understand pawn structures, by having a feeling based on pattern recognition of where the pieces want to go, which exchanges are favourable, etc. Also, playing them in training games is very useful to develop your own experience and understand your difficulties.

Cheers

Alex

The Right Way to Prepare for a Chess Tournament

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This is an excellent article. One question I have is how to train visualisation skills? Apart from solving problems are there other things I can do??

Many thanks and keep up great work

Pre game rituals such as eating blueberry parfaits, listening to Jerry Garcia, Tupac, and Chuck Mangione, while smoking mad blunts to the dome and getting highly medicated puts me in the perfect state of mind to dominate on the chessboard and do really well in chess tournaments. I also reccomend bananas, gatorade, and chocolate to help fight off the chess dementors. No this is not a joke.

it good article i really like it thank you toyou

Very good article. Eating well, exercise and good study habits are key to help maintaining balance during the stress of the battle.  Thank you for sharing it.

Try BENKO GAMBIT in Chess Correspondence (ICCF)

I'm trying BENKO GAMBIT in Chess Correspondence (ICCF) as BLACK. May I get good lesson from this game.

https://www.iccf.com/game?id=1184790

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Correspondence chess will really be a tough test for Benko Gambit. Please, let us know how it goes

If you want to really improve in chess, I mean in real chess, you should stop playing Corr. Chess. 
It kills many important skills as a chess player. 

Best Bullet Ever!

Omg, coach this is first time ever I crushed a 2500+ player in Bullet. I did not used the Chessmood Openings but as I am studying Carlsbad Structure so I tried to apply it in my own games. Due to bullet some ideas I missed and black got a decent position but I had time and I won on time. Thanks you very much for coach Avetik sir for his valuable video lessons and his study plan improved my game on the next level. 

https://lichess.org/48w9ZBfAbGF3

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well done Abhi ... now the self belief grows, the wins will follow!

The best answer to 1. -- c6 if we start with 1.c4 ?

Hello Chessmood friends,

What would be the best answer to 1. - c6  if I start with 1c4?

Does playing 1c4  gives us any advantage facing the Slav? or playing the main lines Slav/Smi-Slav still remains the best way to get the most out of opening for White?

I know that I can enter the Panov Attack via 1. c4 c6 2.e4 move order

Also I can enter Reti by delaying d4 and playing e3 and Cf3

I am wondering if these systems impose more problems to Black than main lines Slav/Semi-Slav.

What do you think?

Is there any advantage for white against 1.--c6 if he starts with 1.c4 or not?

Thank you all

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Hmm looks very passive for me.I think you can play e3 Nf3 b3 and delay d4.Because you can play with a hedhegog setup.Also you can push d4 if you want.

But if you ask my opinion,play 1.e4 chessmood openings.They are best :)

how should there be. You will most probably transpose to a slav, semi-slav whaever where I think black is doing okay. The Panov is non critical. And the e3, b3, Nf3 setup isnt better than the one with d4 and the normal meran.

So I think c6 is super solid and one of the best moves against c4

As per the other post (related to benoni/benko)

1.c4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 is interesting to avoid main line Slav:

White can delay d4 (Delchev, The modern Reti) and also play only for some lines while encouraging Black to enter very tricky systems with Bg4/f5 when white will often play Qb3 and/or cxd5 when favorable (Smith, e3 poison)

New events for PRO Members

Hey Champions!
We know that many of our PRO Members have never played against a GM, and we decided to host a bonus event for you. 

On the 1st of October, we'll have a simul game. 
GM Avetik will try to play on 20 boards against you and stream it. 

NOTE: Anyone who wins me, he'll be out from ChessMood team! 
Haha, joking :) 

Also, we've added a Webinar on the topic "Prophylaxis in chess" on the 17th of September. 
The details of the events you can find here: https://chessmood.com/events 

See you soon!

P.S We'll do our best to speed up your growth and we hope you'll also do all you can to accomplish your goals faster.

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