Chess forum by Grandmasters

Suggestion for Webinars

Due to a demanding job, I cannot attend most of live events, but I like to watch the recordings in the evenings. It is a pity, because I miss the interactive part that is very important, but I will go straight to the point:

Currently, we have:

- Insightful Chessmood selected opening courses with continuous updates

- Invaluable Classic games analyzed by a GM in depth

- Unique "Happy pieces" positional course

- Step by Step Endgame Course (in inception, but growing )

- Streams with the Chessmood opening played by a GM

- Webinars to review common mistakes in the openings

- Great Interactive lessons with GM

- Simul games with GM

- Other events

MY SUGGESTION:

During the Streams of blitz games (for example, the "From 1600 to 2400" series), I feel I miss a lot of things that are happening in the games and the GM has no time to explain it properly. However, the blitz game included in the Advanced section of the Rossolimo course (Ma3eledonia vs Avetik) is superbly analyzed and commented and it has seemed really interesting and instructive to me.

My suggestion would be to create a periodic webinar where GM Avetik analyzes and comments in depth the more interesting games played by him with Chessmood Openings.

Just my two pence ;-)

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Hey Sergio! 
Thank you very much for all good words and suggestion. 
I have thought about that and I think you'll like my ideas. 
After each course, I'm going to add 2 section. Model games - where I'm going to comment the most instructive games played by me, you, any of our ChessMood Family members. 

And the section "Typical mistakes" where I'm going to show typical mistakes that our team is doing. 
How's that? :) 

Can you guess it? :)

We just launched a new course :) 
Can you guess the name without watching in chessmood.com/courses ? :) 

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Left to right:Paul Morphy, Mikhail Tal,Alexander Alekhine

benko gambit

hi in the karpov-salov game of the mainline of benko gambit,salov played Bd4 to prevent Ne3 followed by Nc4 but what if we play Ra4 and stopping Ne3 by attacking e4 pawn and when white plays f3 to defend it we play Bd4.... Can anyone help pls

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cant you just throw this line in an engine?

Hey Sharan, you are a PRO Member right? 
The main channel questions I may miss, so please post in the PRO Members channel. 
And please add screenshots of the question or send a video link and mention the moment. 

Tactics from day 1 of FIDE olympiad

Hello,
I am FM Nikhil Dixit,
I and my friend started a website called https://chessarticle.com/ where we post new articles and book reviews. already we have published more than 28 articles. we publish articles every Monday, Thursday and Saturday. 

here is our latest article link in which we have selected tactics from FIDE olympiad day 1 - https://bit.ly/3aRDrHR   
I hope you will like this if you like then share and subscribe to our newsletter, thank you!

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Cool! 

Benko gambit

Hi sir , when are u going to release other advanced section videos for benko gambit and what about 4. A4 and nd2 lines??

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Sharan, I'm rerecording now the full course, adding lots of new interesting stuff. 
Against Nd2 and a4, I recommend to play b4. Check it out the last webinars. 

Guess the move

Today, during analyzing the game of my student, which was played in the Olympiad, we reached to this funny position. Guess what was White's last move :) 

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Nh8 threatening mate? 

Nh8 threatening mate by Neg6

Nexg6# or Nhxg6# !!

Nexg6 or Nhxg6

Yeah, was Nf7-Nh8! :) 

Anti Sicilian Part 1

Hello GM Avetik

There is some problem with one of your recommended variations in anti sicilian course . here it is :

1.e4 c5 2.Cc3 d6 3.f4 g6 4.Cf3 Fg7 5.Fc4 Cc6 6.0-0 Cf6 7.d3 0-0 8.De1 e6 9.e5 Ce8 10 Fe3 b6

so here . What if black plays 10.....d5 instead of b6 ????

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If C=Knight, D= Queen and F= bishop 1st how the bishop can come to f3 from c4? and 2nd F means both Bishop and Rook? Because I know russian characters K=Knight, C= bishop, Λ=rook, Φ=queen, Kρ= king. Please clarify the symbols and then I think I can help.

If you mean 10. Be3 d5 then a playable variation occurs after 11. Bxc5 dxc4 12. dxc4 Ne7 13. Rd1 Qc7 14. Ba3 a6 15. Qf2 f6 16. Bd6 Qd8 17. Ba3   the Knight on e7 is pinned and you have a very easy game. English symblos kNight, Bishop, Rook, Queen. Correct me if I am wrong sonewhere. 

We can play Bishop to b3, then follow with c3,d4 and set a rock-solid center.After that we will focus on a kingside attack without an open centre and queenside.We can practice that line if you want, on chess.com

Hey Javad. In the adv. section, I recommend Bb5 move instead of Be3. 

Which is better?

Should we play Maroczy Bind or Modern Maroczy Bind as black

If we play 1st, we have to leave the 2nd and vice versa

Both are equally interesting

What to do?

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play some games. and then decide, what kind of position do you prefer

I prefer modern Maroczy bind, as 1 pair of knights are exchanged in the very opening and I have less space disadvantage with black, then applying TVC and solving all my problems. And I also know how to punish my opponent's mistakes from the commented games with Maroczy bind structure.

Devansh, you should play Maroczy first, understand the positions, the structure. 
Then would be good idea to switch to Modern Maroczy.

Accerelated Dragon

E4 c5

Nf3 nc6

D4 cxd4

Nxd4 g6

Nc3 Bg7

Be3 nf6

Nxc6 bxc6 

E5 Ng8

F4 Nh6

Qd2 was main line but what to do after Qf3

My engine is showing d5 as equal but soon the evaluation is changing

How to play

Please guide

Thank you

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I would play:

10.Qf3 0-0

11.0-0-0 d5 (threatening Bg4)

and then my plan would be f6 freeing the Bg7 bishop, Nf5 and attack his king the usual way: Qa5, Rb8... In fact, 12...Qa5 should probably be the next move, in order to exit the pin of the rook in d1 and  avoid Bc4.

Hey even i feel d5 is nice as suggested by engine if u see we have ideas of Bg4 and after all blacks main objective in most sicilian lines is playing d5 also called as sicillian break i feel Qf3 misplaces whites queen????

Devansh, no need to go so deep. Qf3 it's a very rare move. 
And really after d5 Black is fine. Then f6 as Sergio offered. 
Additionally Black has ideas Rb8,Qa5. 
White king might be in a danger soon. 

Sicillian accelerated dragon

Hi i have a doubt in the knight takes c6 and e5 line when we go back to g8 and he plays f4 we get nice game after nh6 but what if he doesnt play f4 and instead plays Bd4 with idea of e6

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It's covered in the course

The Rossolimo - White's early 0-0 and a3,b4 plan

Hey champions! 

I've added around 1-hour material in the "Nightmare of Rossolimo" course. 
https://chessmood.com/course/nightmare-of-rossolimo 
​
Both are adv. sections, but this one I absolutely recommend to watch. 
There are included model games, and after watching these sections, you'll have a much better understanding of the Rossolimo positions. 

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I have just watched the new content and updated my PGN. It is advanced indeed. I have had to watch some videos twice, but it is highly instructive and has allowed me to understand the Rossolimo more deeply.

There is a big difference between "learning" an opening and understand it in depth. I believe that when you learn the best lines of a opening by heart, you are just learning an opening, that you will forget if you do not play it often or you will mess the variations.

However when you are able to understand the opening deeply, you are not just learning an opening, you are improving your overall chess. Moreover, you will remember  the variations better or even if you forget them, you will be able to come up with a good plan.

As far as I have seen,  Chessmood opening courses are superb in making you understand openings, not just remembering lines.

Thank you GM Avetik and the rest of the team.

Accelerated Dragon 10.Qd2

In Section 3-> 10.Qd2, minute 1:04, after 14.Be3 d4 we are supposed to win a piece. However Stockfish has found resource 0-0-0! pinning our d4 pawn to our Queen so we cannot take the bishop

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Ah,,, Right :) 
Then Bh6 instead of d4 :) 

Najdorf Course

Will there be new parts added to the najdorf course?

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I doubt it. My understanding is that a decision was made to remove the Najdorf course and focus on the Accelerated Dragon course.

Stockfish on Steroids

If I read this right, Stockfish now has a NN version.  (That means it's now LC0-like).  There has been no update to normal Stockfish for a while now and it appears all the work is now on the NN.  When they tested it, instead of normal +2.3 rating point improvements, they got something like +90  !!!   

https://abrok.eu/stockfish/?page=3 

*******************BEGIN CUT/PASTE********************

Author: nodchip
Date: Thu Aug 6 16:37:45 2020 +0200
Timestamp: 1596724665

Add NNUE evaluation

This patch ports the efficiently updatable neural network (NNUE) evaluation to Stockfish.

Both the NNUE and the classical evaluations are available, and can be used to
assign a value to a position that is later used in alpha-beta (PVS) search to find the
best move. The classical evaluation computes this value as a function of various chess
concepts, handcrafted by experts, tested and tuned using fishtest. The NNUE evaluation
computes this value with a neural network based on basic inputs. The network is optimized
and trained on the evalutions of millions of positions at moderate search depth.

The NNUE evaluation was first introduced in shogi, and ported to Stockfish afterward.
It can be evaluated efficiently on CPUs, and exploits the fact that only parts
of the neural network need to be updated after a typical chess move.
[The nodchip repository](https://github.com/nodchip/Stockfish) provides additional
tools to train and develop the NNUE networks.

This patch is the result of contributions of various authors, from various communities,
including: nodchip, ynasu87, yaneurao (initial port and NNUE authors), domschl, FireFather,
rqs, xXH4CKST3RXx, tttak, zz4032, joergoster, mstembera, nguyenpham, erbsenzaehler,
dorzechowski, and vondele.

This new evaluation needed various changes to fishtest and the corresponding infrastructure,
for which tomtor, ppigazzini, noobpwnftw, daylen, and vondele are gratefully acknowledged.

The first networks have been provided by gekkehenker and sergiovieri, with the latter
net (nn-97f742aaefcd.nnue) being the current default.

The evaluation function can be selected at run time with the `Use NNUE` (true/false) UCI option,
provided the `EvalFile` option points the the network file (depending on the GUI, with full path).

The performance of the NNUE evaluation relative to the classical evaluation depends somewhat on
the hardware, and is expected to improve quickly, but is currently on > 80 Elo on fishtest:

60000 @ 10+0.1 th 1
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f28fe6ea5abc164f05e4c4c
ELO: 92.77 +-2.1 (95%) LOS: 100.0%
Total: 60000 W: 24193 L: 8543 D: 27264 Elo +92.77
Ptnml(0-2): 609, 3850, 9708, 10948, 4885

40000 @ 20+0.2 th 8
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f290229a5abc164f05e4c58
ELO: 89.47 +-2.0 (95%) LOS: 100.0%
Total: 40000 W: 12756 L: 2677 D: 24567 Elo +89.47
Ptnml(0-2): 74, 1583, 8550, 7776, 2017

*************END OF CUT/PASTE*************

Right now it is being tested on https://tcec-chess.com/#/    and it is tearing up the field.  Get ready to switch over to $1400 video cards, but there is a new sheriff in town and it is taking names and kicking butts.  

Note this timeframe.  Chess engines just took a giant leap.  Aug 2020.

Replies

Interesting, especially that it can run efficiently on CPUs despite being NN-based. Thanks for sharing.

My Test on Stockfish NNUE

HOW I CAME ACROSS IT 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey guys! The day I saw that Stockfish NNUE was out, I downloaded it! :) Developers claim that it has a 90 (!) ELO point deference then the previous version (Stockfish 11) I wanted to put it to test straight away! I downloaded Stockfish 11 so that I can make the engines play against each other! As I knew that it won't be easy to make the engines play each other in ChessBase (as if I wanted to, I would have to make the top moves of engines manually! I wanted a software that makes the engine's top move after a certain period of time...) I then came across this software : Arena chess GUI It is a very nice software to make engines play against one another! (here is the link to download it : http://www.playwitharena.de/) Then I loaded the engines!


THE GAMES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I first made the engines play a 10+5 game and the result was not very much of fun.... It was a draw :(

P.S. If you want to download the software I used, then here is the link : http://www.playwitharena.de/

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I had made the engines play in a 90+30 game and they started playing the game about 3hrs ago.... the game just ended and once again, I was not satisfied with the result :( 

Which time control do you use playing online chess?

Which time control do you use playing online chess and why?
Feel free to share your thoughts. 

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3+0 , 3+2 , 15+10! one of these time controls... I play blitz because I find tactics Faster in blitz as my Brain thinks that I am low in time!  I also have beat a LOT of good high rated players in blitz and my highest win is against a 2300+ rated FM..My blitz rating is currently 1600... (Do you think I am underated? check this out : https://www.chess.com/games/archive?gameOwner=my_game&gameResult=won&gameType=live&gameTypeslive%5B%5D=blitz&gameTypeslive%5B%5D=rapid&ratingFrom=2000&ratingTo=3000&timeSort=desc) I play Rapid (15+10) because only playing blitz does not improve your game! My highest Win in rapid is against a CM (https://www.chess.com/games/archive?gameOwner=my_game&gameResult=won&gameType=live&gameTypeslive%5B%5D=rapid&ratingFrom=1700&ratingTo=3000&timeSort=desc these are my games against 1750+ in Rapid that I won!)

3+2, 5+0, 3+0, 15+10 sometimes

I love 3+0 and 5+0 blitz, I also play 10+0 or 15+10 rapid, and sometimes 25+0 classic. Both on chess.com and lichess. Lichess has an advantage as you can play in almost any time control you want.

I usually play online:

5+3 and 10+0-> to test openings

30+0-> for serious games

I do not like blitz because I make terrible blunders and also because I get very nervous when both players are nearly out of time and moving quickly and guessing pre-moves. I do not play 3+2 anymore ;-)

I guess blitz would be good for me to make me think faster and see tactics quicker...

g15/10

10 min ????

sicilian grandprix move order

hi, what to play against e4 c5  nc3 e6  f4  a6!? it seems black is mixing up?,thanks

Replies

Hi Ash! Good question.
I'll add it to the adv. sections very soon. 

How do you study?

Hello friends. How do you study? Specifically, how do you work with the course materials?

- Do you use the PGN files? What's your process?

- Do you memorize everything? Just the key moves?

- Is there software you use that's helpful?

- Is there something very important missing from existing software that would help you study?

Replies

I do not like to use PGNs made fron others. I like to make my own PGNs beacuse I learn in the process and I write my own notations, and use the structure I like. I do not even use the draft PGN provided in Chessmood courses.

I make complete PGN with all the variations and then a summary PGN with the strategic ideas and just the first moves of every variation. I first study the summary PGN and when I know the summary PGN well, then I study the main variations with more depth. Every time I play a game, I go back to the PGN of the opening and review. Every week, I review my Opening PGNs

I use Chessbase as a tool, but lichess studys can also be useful. Chessbase training tool is not great.

I think you can also create your own openings in Chessable, that is a better trainig tool,  but I have not tried yet.

A great question!

My favourite chess software is Chess Position Trainer (CPT). It is intended for opening study but I import whole games and manage to use it for whole game training. This morning, unrelated to ChessMood I imported x2 V Korchnoi Modern 1.e4 g6 0-1 games as I lost badly in a Modern defence game of mine yesterday & I get fine inspiration checking how the best GM's play such games!

As far as ChessMood openings go though, I have most covered in CPT software also & I enjoy finding ChessMood openings by great GM's and adding them to my CPT database. For example, did you know GM R Fischer played CaroKann Exchange 3.Bd3 Rubinstein vs Tigran Petrosian & Moshe Czerniak 1-0? I like playing through these games and so, I try to learn to play better myself!

Goodluck with your chess study & play! ;-)

Hey, nice questions. 

First of all in the beginning I worked on all video course and made my own pgn files so I don't need to check for video all time. So when I prepared my files I went through those openings first which are common at my level .For example Scotch and Anti- Sicilians. I used a real board to move pieces and I saved my pgn in chessbase 14 software. After I finished revision of those openings then I applied the woodpecker method for revision of most of the variations.  Yes, I can't remember all lines but I understand and remember most of the ideas of variations. If you are below 2200 then don't try to memorize all lines. It's good if you can but if you can'y then work on ideas and dont miss any chessmood webinars and streams so the openings and middlegame ideas will become fresh in your mind.

Conclusion:

1. Watch most common openings first which come on your level of play. Learn ideas and play games and then check the games after your training session with your pgn.

2. Don't miss any streams so  the ideas of openings will always become fresh in your mind and this way you will not only remember ideas but your mind will capture variations too and you will learn how to punish the bad play by opponents.

3.  Once you make all pgns of all openings then try Woodpecker Method on them. It will sharpen your openings revision and you will do superb in memorizing lines.

Good luck.

I will try to describe my process below hoping that it can help.

What I normally and ideally do is different depending on the topic.

For openings:

1st step, watch the videos in a big monitor, half the monitor for chessbase, half for the browser. I input all the moves, all the variations showed, even when Avetik explains why something does not work. I used to do this without writing too many comments in order to watch more and go faster. But for me this proved not good and I rewatched the courses and completed the files with the missing comments.. The latest courses that I studied I do it slower and I write almost everything that Avetik says, I add some comments on my own also.

2nd step, I create a copy of the pgn files with all the comments and the lines and I go one by one of the variations pruning them, eliminating lines that are not the ones we choose, leaving only one option available. I do this in order to make it easier to study. This is mandatory when you want to train with Chessable or CPT (Chess position trainer).

3rd step. Importing the pruned files to CPT.

I have been using CPT for many years and I like the interface and how easy it is to use, it makes it clear to have all the branches in your repertoire easily available and also you can practice the opening lines, I do not use the training interface of CPT, I just use it as a fast reference for the opening. Once I finish one opening I import it to CPT and is really easy to check the right moves when studying, verifying one opening.

4rt step. Importing the same pruned pgns to Chessable

I also had been using Chessable since 4 years ago and find it very good when used with responsibility. Avetik made a reference to it saying it was a "kindergarden" tool, but it can be very useful too if you are a pro member of Cheesable, if you are not, I do not think that you need it at all. Just with the pgns that one creates, should be enough.

Anyways, I import the files to Chessable and I create a book for my study, sometimes you get some errors but after a while I managed to understand how this importation process really works and now I almost get it right the first time...

I like to have all the lines in Chessable because it is really easy to access them trough the browser.

5th step. Practice the lines in Chessable. You have to adjust the deepness of the lines. When I do this I select first to practice the first 10 moves, then 13, 15, 17, 20. Sometimes more, but that depends on the opening.

I also adjust the repetition process of Chessable, my created books with the Chessmood openings are set to 1 repetition, not 3 as in a normal chessable book. 

Also another thing really important when practicing with this system is that you have to select the option to practice directly, you do not want Chessable to show you the right move first. You already watched the video, wrote the comments in the pgn, you do not need to see the move and practice it right away as per default! This is the point that I think Avetik dislikes the most about Chessable, you can disable it, do not worry.

This is how I do it, it takes time, but once I have the pgn files with all the comments, it is priceless, it's for a life time. This is the most important thing. Then use the interface that you fancy more, even studying the pgns in chessbase using the "training" option when you cannot see the next move is really effective.

For other positions and games:

The same process I will use it for the chessmood endgames.

As for the Classical Games, I always look for the game in the database, add it to my pgn, fill it with Avetik's comments and then I save it. I make one separated pgn with the position and the moves that Avetik said are key and some that surprised me, sometimes are not the same moves. Then with this file with the positions I also create a book in chessable to practice them, variations of 3-5 moves max. otherwise there is no end.  Then repeat from time to time...

I hope that I explained my process in a good manner, but let me know if you have any questions. Best regards to everyone and let's keep working my friends!

Can I have some sample pgn that you've made so that I can have a guide with the openings? Many thanks chessmood family.

Trampowsky Line after 9. H3 O-O

Sir, after the prophylactic H3, and castle, your suggestion is to go Bc7, Qd6 and attack the h2 square.
What if I go Be6 first?
If Bxe6 then we undouble our F pawns, if not, then we can activate our a8 rook first by bringing it to c8 and then go Bb8 and Qd6. What do you think about this line, sir?
Please let me know. 

Replies

Hey Vanshaj. 
That's possible, but we'll need the c8 bishop in the upcoming attack. 

P.S 
Please, all kind of questions about the courses, post in the PRO Members channel. 
Main channel's questions I may miss, while PRO Members I answer all. 

French Defense: Black's 3rd rare moves and 3...Nc6- covered!

Champions, today we added around 1.5 hours of material in the French Defense course, covering Black's rare 3rd moves and 3...Nc6 in the advanced section. 
https://chessmood.com/course/french-defence

Check it out, should be very useful not only for improving your opening. 
 

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