Chess forum by Grandmasters

Names of your fav. Mentor?

Hi, I hope you all are great. I wanna know that who is your fav. chess mentors after chessmood mentors?

For me? It's Var Akobian and Yasser Seirawan (for positional games analysis )  and Maurice Ashley ( for attacking Games analysis)

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Facing a Sicilian with 2..e6

I'm probably facing the Sicilian this week.  I'm learning to play 2.Nc3, but haven't learned enough to be confident AND my opponent played 2..e6 the only time he faced it and that's not covered in the course.  The course, somewhere, gets to a Grand Prix attack against 1..c5, but I don't know if it's appropriate to try for that against 2..e6.  I liked to play the Smith-Morra, have spent more study-time that and my opponent accepted the gambit (and lost) the only time facing it.  Any ideas/advice?  We're both in the middle-1500s in Lichess classical and the game will be 45+45.

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Good chess players are known for their attention to detail, did you really check the Sicilian Courses for 2...e6. :)

https://chessmood.com/course/sicilian-defence-part-3

~ Tag- Fav. ChessMood Member ~

Hi guys, I am sure you all have your fav. ChessMood friends or players. Here in this post tag your ChessMood Besties!

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For me it's @Jay_Garrison , @Devansh_Shah . All of them are strong players and my study partners and because of them I learnt a lot about chess.

ChessMood team in Bundesliga

Hello champions! 
We have decided to participate in the Bundesliga on lichess.org... And of course, win it :) 

Our team will consist of ChessMood's coaches and PRO Members(only)! 

Anyone who wants can join our team! The team can have many members, the best 5 results of the team players will be calculated. So, everyone is welcome! 

The tournaments will be on Thursdays and Sundays at +3 ChessMood time (11 AM PST) 

Here is the link to the first tournament https://lichess.org/tournament/k0vKJOel
If you're not our team member on lichess you, please join us here: https://lichess.org/team/chessmood-pro  

Let's win the Bundesliga? :) 
Right Mood - Right Move! 
 

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Nice!! Let's win it!

The link to the tournament does not work because of the "." at the end, maybe it can be modified.

Commented Classical Games - great course

Just to say this is one of the best courses I've ever watched (and how I found out about ChessMood). A lot of love and care has gone into it, and am learning lessons every game.

The only improvement I can think of suggesting is by adding the main positions/lessons of each game as a number of pgn flashcards (or a pdf document) to make review later easier to keep memories of those games fresh. I'm doing this myself with my own custom software (and to be fair what I find interesting might differ to another person), but would be a useful touch.

Thanks,

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There have been some conversations in this forum about this already. Main ones I remember:

* there is a quiz for the main positions (https://chessmood.com/quiz/commented-classical-games)

* Coach recommended going through 1 game a day, to let the information sink in

I suspect @Abhi_yadav will have some further tips on how to approach studying these games.

Hey David! 
Thank you very much. 

Have you seen this quiz? It should be useful :) 
https://chessmood.com/quiz/commented-classical-games 

Chess.com Club League

Hey Guys! Me and my OTB Club are participation in the chess.com club's League... We are search of strong and experienced players I hope one of you can help our team win! 
All those who would like to play can type their chess.com username under this forum and I will invite by my chess.com username skipper_chess! here are the important details about the matches we will have

If you join our club, then matches will start : 

10:30 PM IST 

early November

every Saturday!

I hope you guys play for my OTB Club!

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Your Chess Room

I know many of you heard of chess table. Here for me it's chess bed hehehe. I sleep with chess books. 14 more books need to finish alone in next 4 months hehehe. I know my bed is not well organized but still it's my chess life and my own world. A world where no one bother me.

Share your chess room pic

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~ Commitment- Oct ~

Hi everyone, I hope you all are great and working on your skills to become a master or Grandmaster. I made this post to know about your commitment for this on going month. If possible then share it so I will learn something from your commitments.

Note: My commitment list is gonna be long so better I won't type heheeh. But it will be interesting to know more about chessmood family members

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What do you think about this chessvariant?

Bollwerk 178 is a chess like complex strategy game for two players.

Each player has 20 spectacular pieces and 25 supplementary stones at their disposal. The game is played on a board with 178 squares. The game board is in a constant state of change due to the supplementary stones.

The goal of the game is, occupying the opponent’s end field with a piece or a bomb. Whoever captures all his opponent’s pieces or immobilizes their opponent also wins.

Due to its complexity, the game is hardly predictable for humans, so that intuition, alert senses and strategic skills are required!

Over 2000 moves are available for just the first move, so that opening theory plays no role at Bollwerk 178.

A Kickstarter campaign is planned for the end of November 2020.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bollwerk178/bollwerk-178

The pitch video is allready online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4GPYG9gK0I

For detailed movement of the pieces and the game rules, please visit our website

www.bollwerk178.com

What do you think about this game?

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Here is the correct Link:

https://www.bollwerk178.com/

Another question in the Attack Against Caro-Kann Course

After 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.ed cd 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.Bf4 e6 (About 15 seconds into section 1, video 5) the move 7.Nf3 is presented. And after 7...Bd6 8.Bxd6 Qxd6 the next move is 9.Qe2 to prevent ...Ne4.

But what if Black goes for the idea 7...Ne4 and ...f5 (before Qe2), as the e4 square is attacked only once?

* I will mention I asked a similar question before, in a different position.

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I think after Ne4 we can continue the development of our pieces like Nbd2 or 0-0. After 0-0 if f5, Ne5 then Qh5 is coming, it looks dangerous for black.

Inguh, Ne4 with f5 is a good idea when we played f4 already.
When our pawn is on f2, in future we'll always play f3, asking the knight to go back and continue to play chess with his very weak pawn on e6 and weak square on e5. 

Chessmood opening courses

So I have been studying the Chessmood opening courses, but I don't seem to bee retaining the material very well and I'm getting hammered at online blitz, which drives me crazy.   The Maroczy Bind and most of the white opening  material has been especially difficult for me.

So what do I do?   Quit blitz for a month and just study, an idea I am toying with?  Go back to my old openings - Tromp, Jobava London, KID/Modern - which I really don't want to do.   Is there some sort of magic Chessmood order or way we are supposed to study that I'm missing?  

I see a lot of others succeeding here and that's great!  I mean I can't be that dumb! :-)

Any suggestions?  Thank you in advance!

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Can we talk on discord. So I can help you in better way? Without knowing a lot about ur knowledge and stuffs hard for me to judge why you are losing. If you are in chessmood discord group then ping me. I am chesslectures there. I am sure I will give u solution of your issues!

1- Play rapid games, or Blitz with increments: at least 5m+3s

2- Add new openings to your old repertoire one by one. You have give some time to yourself. Do not play all of them at the same time. for example start wit Chessmood black repertoire first, and continue playing your old white repertoire.

3- be consistent and persistent.

4- Do not play an opening if you do not believe in it. For example I do not trust the Benko gambit, and it has some psychological effects on me. Each time I play it, I feel guilty ;D , even when I get better positions, I feel I have cheated or something and I do not deserve winning with such a dubious opening ;D

Reversely, when I play the Nimzo/QID set up, I put all my energy to defend my opening choice, and it gives me extra motivation and energy, because I deeply love and believe in them. 

Note: In one of his courses, Ivan Sokolov says: LOVE the openings you play. That's the key

Hard to advise you what to do without seeing the types of mistakes you are making. Post some games and we can go from there.

Tom. have you reserved a welcome 1-1 call with our Grandmasters? 
It seems, no right? 
If so, please do, to get a study plan, which will be personalized for you. 

"Dont's" - Explaining typical errors in the opening

Hello!

I was thinking today about a possibility for the opening courses which could be quite helpful for us trying to learn them from scratch. Besides all the explanations of the lines and the model games, maybe there could be some short clips called "Dont's", with some typical strategic/tactical errors which are usually committed by less experienced players when putting the variations into practice.

For example, this morning I was playing a 10+5 game online in the 4...Bc5 Scotch and I managed to get an excellent attacking position in the less common 6...Qf6 line. As I was storming the kingside, I decided to sacrifice my g-pawn in order to open the column for my heavy pieces, but apparently if Black takes the g-pawn with the queen it is possible that the black queen itself can halt the attack by blocking the h2-pawn, and surprisingly it is not so easy to remove the blockader.

It might be instructive to have short clips explaining little motifs like this which may happen with some frequency, and maybe give them a fancy name (e.g. "the blocking queen"). It does not need to be from our personal online practice, but maybe from games in the streams where the GMs may find interesting motifs to explain.

It is just some thoughts, what do you think?

Cheers!!

Alex

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Hey Alex! 
Now we're recording "addition" sections for all the courses, where we'll cover moves, which are not good, but you're meeting often.
For example In the Scotch 4...Nd4? 

By the way it's already uploaded. 

I like your idea, but think the Opening courses are becoming dense enough already and should retain the current format of important theory, trendy developments and relevant model games, what you are proposing will bloat these courses unnecessarily and is much better suited for the Middlegame Mastery section. Moreover there is a danger that students maybe tempted to follow  do and don't guidelines dogmatically not understanding that there are many exceptions to such rules.

It would be more efficient to use the Middlegame Mastery section to discuss things such as do's and dont's of the various Opening Courses, as in that section more space could be devoted to delving into such guidelines in  depth.  Meanwhile the Opening section should as much as possible continue to be kept tidy, concise, well organised and relevant. 

Perhaps a Middlegame Series based on experiences in the streams could be added instead, entitled something like:

Typical Mistakes (Benko): 1600 - 1900

Typical Mistakes (Scotch): 1100 - 1500

Just some rough thoughts.

Chess = Life or Life= Chess?

How many hours of your daily life you are using for chess studies? 

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Visualization Training Methods?

I know there are a lot ways to improve visualization. What was your method to improve your visualization? 

Mine:

1. By Ian Anderson's Visualization Course one. I am now able to see 10 ply depth so easily.

2. I am doing blindfold piece training and soon gonna play blindfold games online.

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I'm using "Visualise 1" by Benedictine on Chessable.  I can see three or four ply, but not consistently and sometimes it takes a while.

Just play lots of blindfold chess :) 

Openings

What was the last opening you stopped playing, and why?

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for me, Guico piano with c3-d4 as that was not something I was comfortable with in the middlegame!

Abandoned Ruy Lopez for Scotch. Also no more Queen's gambit :)

I stopped playing Hyper Accelerated Dragon because I was uncomfortable with Qxd4 lines, despite knowing the theory. I switched to Accelerated Dragon, because I am more comfortable with Rossolimo with black

I stopped playing the London system. I am aggresive and chessmood repertoire fits my style well.

I started playing Scotch instead of Spanish because it suits my style of attacking chess

I used to play 1...g6 to create winning chances as Black. It works well against weak players, but if the opponent knows what he is doing, Black will get bad positions right from the opening. After playing different Sicilian set-ups and comparing them, I think Najdorf Sicilian is the BEST opening for Black if he wants to play for a Win, in a positions with Equal Chances for both sides.

So, why playing 1...g6 when Najdorf is available?

I played the Trompowski for 20+ years until ChessMood. 

Since coach said it would be best for my game, I have actually given up my entire previous repertoire and converted to all ChessMood openings. It has made me a much more aggressive player.

Ruy Lopez Videos and Books

Hi  GM Avetik, and Chessmood friends,

I am adding the Ruy Lopez opening to my  White epertoire:

I need your help to find out the best resources on it.

My Questions:

A) What is the best resource (Book, or Video course) to learn the Ruy Lopez for White? 

There are many books and videos out there. I am seeking for the best, and the most reliable.

B) Do you have any idea/suggestion about the following video series?

Which one is the best and the most reliable:

1- Complete Ruy Lopez Repertoire, by GM Marian Petrov

2- Navigating the Ruy Lopez Vol.1-3, by Fabiano Caruana

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Kourosh, we have not done research on Ruy Lopez yet, what are the best sources. 
I think Kevin D will help you here :) 

Why opening is so important??

Hello everyone

I am doing well with chessmood courses. here and there i am getting few good result with our chessmood opening as well as . And now one question arise in my mind which is bothering me (may be  this the resistance?? ) past couple of days.

My question  is is  it ok to spending so much time in opening where most of the great player suggested to spend time in so called pure chess like middle game strategy, endgames study, solving studies? because many believe that only knowing the opening principle one can get good results?

I am glad that that i have chess mood family to express such questions.

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Hi Shahinur,

I think it depends on your strength and your approach to the openning

At the lower levels it makes no sense to play the opening like a GM and then blunder a piece or lose the game to a simple tactic. That is why it is recommended to spend more time on fundamentals and less time on openings.

However, Chessmood openings are selected taking in mind that they are openings that will help you to grow. The key is not to learn moves by heart, but to understand what is happening in the position, the strategy behind that opening, the pawn structure and why we play that move and why other moves are not right. This way you are not just learning an opening, you are improving your overall chess knowledge. You will notice Chesmood Openings Courses are different from others in that respect.

For example, Benko Gambit, forces you to play with a pawn disadvantage. That helps you to not fear sacrificing a pawn for activity in other phases of the game of other openings. Benko Gambit also helps you feel the use of open lines and attack. You need to attack because you are behind in material

Each part of the game is important equally.

Shahinur, it very depends on level. 
For example for below 2000 level players, we recommend not to touch advanced section. just learn the openings, know the plans etc... 

It's important to play right openings, so you grow faster, instead of playing openings like London system and getting the same time of position all the time. 

And we had told many times in the forum, that it's a big mistakes if someone rated 1800 is trying to learn what happens after 35... Blacks Na4 move which is a novelty. 

You shouldn't learn openings on Grandamster level if your rating is not 2500. 
More is covered in the article: https://chessmood.com/blog/how-to-memorize-chess-openings-variations

Sicilian Defence with white playing 2.Bc4

I have had white play 2.Bc4 against my Sicilian in three consecutive games by different opponents, is this a new trend?

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I dont think so, as it isnt challanging for black

This happens a ton at the under 1800 range. Coach ran into it a lot on the streams where he plays from 1200-2400, and he shows how to handle it.

Coach also said they are revising some of the videos to include these lines repeatedly faced by us, so you will get it added to the opening videos in time.

When white plays 2. Bc4 we employ an e6-d5 set up, but you will be best off finding it in the streams and hearing how Coach talks about it.

I hope this helps,

Jay

2.Bc4 by your opponent indicates a lack of theoretical knowledge and you must be flexible enough to employ a setup that takes advantage of the premature posting of the Bishop on c4. Therefore in order to be able to punish sub optimal moves/lines etc. it means you have to study the Sicilian structures as a whole (Not Just Fianchetto) to gain a broader overview of ALL the typical plans and ideas at your disposal.    

Derek. during the streams and in your games we have seen that below 2000 player plays a lot with Bc4, and we're going to add a section about it in the Sic. Sidelines course. 
In a few words, we will play 2...e6, then Nf6 and d5! punishing opponent's early Bc4. 

We have played a lot during the streaming series, if you check the streams, you should have already a good understanding how to play next. 
Anyway, the section is coming soon. 

Chess is a lonely sport. How do you deal with it?

I've seen top players mention this, and presumably studying chess is mainly solitary (For me it is, anyway). Is this an issue?

Obviously this is a philosophical question, I've also read that loneliness occurs because we're not totally focused.

What do you think?

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For me I am tired of making fake friends. So, chess is like amazing for me. Everyday I learn something new. I also think that books are best friends of human. So loneliness never affects me. In past it did but now I stopped expecting people to stay with me. I gave up on friendship things. But I have only few close friends. I just left trusting people. So I do not feel irritated if I am lonly due to chess and stuffs.  I love it and I love my chess. 

I am not trying to show how negative I am. I am just writing what this life showed me. When you are good people are with you and when you are loser then people laugh on you. That time only close friends stay with you and motivate you to work well. I am glad due to chessmood I found some very nice friends as @Jay_Garrison @Devansh_Shah @Avinash_Ramesh. All of them are so dedicated to learn chess and have goals.

Find a trusted sparring partner or partners that can offer feedback and provide motivation for you to press on.

What is your main motivation... 

Many great chess players like Vasiukov, confessed in their autobiographies that they played chess as a refuge from the ugly world around them, the World WarII, the corruption and violence of human beings...

Even Fischer suffered a lot when he was a child... Fischer started to hate chess when he got older, he said that he preferred  being a Jaz musician, than a chess player. He said, men become wiser, when they get older. A very honest beautiful man he was

Nobody can answer to your question, but you.

Start by WHY? Why you play chess? What is your main motivation ... 

Having sparring partner/s or even a team, would be very helpful. 
And if you really love chess, it'll always be fun. 

karo kann openig struggle

hello everybody! I have a question regarding our repertoire against the karo- kann main line after black's 7Qb6 then 8Qb6 ab6 9 h3! Bh5 10Na3 e6 11Nb5 then black just plays Kd7 and apparently is completely safe! I struggle everytime to find a plan! Any suggestions? 

Thanks guys 

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Check a good database look for model games with this structure, even Exchange Slav positions could be helpful. White is for sure better, but this is the type of long term advantage that requires patience and good technique to convert. To get you started see the illustrative game below, compare the play with yours and see if there are any ideas you can take away for next time:

Kevin's answer is great as always! 
Thanks. man!  

Lucio, after 7...Qb6 there is also 8.Na3 very tricky move. 
The idea is we want to play Nb5, and if he takes on b3, we're happy with ab3 pawn structure. 
In the last streams I had 2 games with Na3 move. 

Now we're recording model games for all the courses, and those game I'll comment and add in the course, so you know the ideas better of these positions.

Avetik