Chess forum by Grandmasters

Dear sirs

Dear sirs, why do I not get any of these little coins for successful solving the Daily puzzle? Do I just have too many already? :)))

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Dear Martin,

This is the first message that we have regarding this issue. I will inform the technical team. If someone else is experiencing the same problem please let us know too! Thanks!!!

Dear Martin,

To get moodcoins you have to solve the puzzles, I checked your profile and I could not see any of the usual messages in the logs after you successfully complete a puzzle. Are you solving the puzzles correctly?

That said Edo Tokyo's logs show perfectly that he solved the puzzle correctly the first time and therefore received the moodcoins automatically. (Thanks a lot Edo for your help!)

This is getting weird, if someone else can verify if they get the coins, it will be deeply appreciated. Today's puzzle is not so difficult... ;-)

Finally OTB tourney

hello chess friends
finally otb tournament in 4 months
how to prepare?
of course tactics....
what about the rest? have no opening repertoire , middle game and endgame knowledge kind of poor 
Rating USCF 1318 chess. com around 1700
plan is to get these 7 games in tournament conditions then  will find a coach
thanks for advice
Wilson

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I think you should learn the ChessMood Reportoire. For Middlegames, I am not the best person to ask. Endgames - I would suggest Jesus De La Villa's 100 Endgames You Must Know. I would recommend learning Silman's Complete Endgame Course first and then the 100 Endgames.

I think the answer is to have some sort of plan that you track, and some kind of goal. 4 months isn't a lot of time, but with regular study of the right things you might be able to do much in that time.

I'm all for lofty goals, "I'm going to win the open section outright(!)" but I would have a realistic goal and a stretch goal. The realistic goal will be better than you can do right now, the stretch goal would be, if would be even better if...

In coming to a goal, you've also got to remember that other players will have been studying and improving, as well as some stronger (on paper) players will not have been playing much. Thus not to beat yourself up too much if a 'weaker' player puts up a good fight, or if you get some higher player's scalp, it doesn't mean you're suddenly Magnus ;)

The questions you want to ask is:
  . What do I realistically think my rating should be (P.s. almost every player at some point thinks they are underrated :)?
  . What section do I want to be in? (Could I handle getting a hard lesson every game, or do I need to be beating most of the field to feel happy)
  . How much time could I spend _every_ day up to the tournament?
  . What are my strengths and weaknesses?
  . Whether I'm going to try to get a coach before the tournament, perhaps to consult every few weeks to help keep the plan on track?

  The other questions to ask are about your own games at roughly the time control of the tournament:
  . Do I still often blunder pieces and pawns without being in extreme time trouble?
  . Do I get a playable middlegame position most of the time (ignoring the times where your opponent knew a trap you didn't)?
  . Do I spot tactics (2 or 3 forced moves) both that I can play, and are played against me?
  . Do I always get the right result in K+P vs K, K + B + P vs K, and know the fundamental positions (e.g. Lucena, Philidor, Vancura) in K + R + P vs K + R?
  . Do I struggle to play with or against the knight (more tactically [forks] than positionally)?
  . Do I have some kind of strategy (that is kept to) for what to do when it's my move, and when it's my opponent's move (ensuring to check what the opponent is trying to do, blunder checks, dream positions, looking for forcing moves [checks, captures, threats]?
 . Do I try to set problems for my opponents constantly, do I try to punish bad moves - irrespective of opponent's rating?

So some suggestions:

At rating 1300, enter the under 1700 section (or whatever section is less than that rating, but at least 200 points above yours).
Goal: To score > 50%, beat most players under 1500
Stretch goal: To finish in the top 8 (of say 30 players)
Time spent: 1-2 hours each day, 4 hours each weekend day split into 2-3 sessions (please balance this with school/college work if young)

The top seeds at around 1700 may be playing at the 1900 level, but I think it's reasonable to get from 1350 to 1600 at least in 4 months if enough study and the correct study is put in.

Things to work on:
. Tactics - ensure you can recognise all tactic types, all knight forking shapes, you can calculate mate in 5 moves (if few sidelines), you spot most obvious tactics in 2 or 3 forcing moves. A server like chess tempo, own experiments, books like art of the checkmate, chess combinations for juniors.
. Endgames - Silman's endgame course for example, or the easier chapters in 100 endgames you must know (especially simple pawn, rook endgames in standard positions, B + P with right and wrong rook queening square)
. Opening - Study the scotch course here (don't worry so much knowing the tricky h4 lines) - get a feel for opposite castling and the kingside attack; study the sicilian - at least the d6 (kingside caveman attack), Nc6 and g6 courses, but have a little familiarity with e6 and a6; study the anti-sicilian course; study the philidor course; study the London system course; know the basics of the petroff course; study all the abracadabra gambit courses. For the others d6 and g6 you'll play the GP system, scandinavian and caro have a look at the summary sections. Maroczy structures swap pieces, try to leave White with the bad light squared bishop. That's more than enough for 4 months, just try to play chess if the opponent plays something else. Try not to know or learn everything, but to get a feel for how to play the positions and have the ideas in mind.
. Middlegame - look at the 2 bishops course, and happy pieces. Try not to spend too much time into the details but get a feel for good and bad pieces and how to use them.
. Practical play - play a 1 hour game (30 mins each) every 2 or 3 days and try to analyse it after before going to the computer. Try to get a feel of where the critical points where and where tactics were missed. Also note when your thinking was faulty or you forgot your thinking structure, such as checking what the opponent was trying to do, or making blunder checks.

Keep notes on what you learn and your progress. Also use notes on openings if you get 20 mins or more before a round, try to find what your opponent plays - e.g. chessbase online - I think chessdb is now dead. Consult your notes before the game to refresh your mind of the ideas.

And good luck, it's not the performance in one tournament, it's the bigger picture of becoming a better player.

Request for a "Watched Video" function

Hello ChessMood team, 

What a great product, I am here every day learning and improving.

I have a request please, when a video is watched can you make it possible to show the video as already having been learned? I would like to be able to see what new or what updated videos have been added to a section or be able to clearly track what training I have left.

For example, today I received an email with this message, "We've uploaded one more section in the course "Happy Pieces"." How can users distinguish which is the new video from the list? Ideally there would be a function where a watch video automatically changes its status or we can manually change the status to show that it has been watched/learned. Additionally perhaps new videos can have a time/date stamp on them showing when they were posted.

Thank you very much for an outstanding product, you guys are great!

Leslie Smith 

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It seems a great idea to me! Currently, I keep my progress in an excel file

Hi @Leslie_Smith! I thought that I already replied to you but I must have dreamt it! We took note of your suggestion and we will take it into consideration. Thank you very much for your feedback!

Best regards and keep learning and improving!!!

Stream Suggestion

Hi, I hope all the cm coaches are happy and safe. I have one suggestion about chessmood streams. They are super instructive but one thing is missing in them. That is game reviewing. My suggestion to all mentors is that whenever you play blitz with random people in stream then after every game in 1-2 mins can you go through the whole game and share your thoughts about it. I know you guys share it during you play but issue come when people ask questions so sometimes I see that a lot questions are not answered. But if you add this reviewing thing then it will be so simple for you guys to answer the questions. 

For example Yesterday I saw my friend Avinash had some questions in mind when coach Gabuzyan was playing but coach was unable to answer it because due to playing and commentary he forgot  in which position Avi had questions. Coach said in the stream that clarify position so sometimes he did clarified because he is strong player but players of my elo and those who are super low rated can't clarify these things. But if you add review option then it will become simple. 

I know we can ask questions in forums about anything but if we ask questions about positions then it will fill forums sometimes. So for easy convenience please think about this suggestion.

I hope this suggestion will be helpful and make stream more interactive. We enjoy chessmood lessons but I feel this change is essential for below 2000 players. Online below 2000 players I mean.

Thanks for the wonderful lessons.

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Would very much like to see this as Abhi suggested. Less games and more games review.

And a separate video on how one should analyze his own blitz games would also be interesting.

Yeah I would love to see this. This reviewing games will give a lots of insights like where the game went wrong or right, Crucial moments and atlast answering to peoples questions. I hope that this reviewing option makes the stream more instructive as well as interactive.                                                           Thanks!

Yeah, that's important I think.

Hi Abhi,

This sounds reasonable and if it is supported by other Pro members as well, we will discuss this idea and let you know!

Thank you for kind words :-) 

Hey, hey, as Jay always says...

How did you like the recent streams? I had the chance to see Gabuzyan in action, and he is a machine providing explanations and writing arrows in the board... I think that everyone is enjoying it a lot with the game explained in detail once finished. We hope that you like it too, but please let us know your opinion in this case... Thanks in advance!

Thanks to coach @GM_Hovhannes_Gabuzyan  for changing stream concepts.. I am glad all cm members understood the importance of my suggestion and it is useful for all of us.  Soon I will share more ideas by which you guys take full advantage of great cm streams. But yeah for that I need to think.

The bravest in candidates

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First of all he had one whole year to prepare any opening which can be superb for him . He could learn classical variation or Svenikov and shock caruana on board. I do not know why he is so stuck to najdrof and even in Candidates where he have chances to win. Who knows why he is showing so brave attitude. In my opinion his brave attitude invites only problems for him. Yesterday I was watching the commentary of Alehendro Ramirez, Yasserr Seirawan and Maurice Ashely and before this commentary I was watching commentary of Magnus also . Magnus thinks that this is not a good line to play at top level. I mean this Qxb2 positioned pawn. He thinks it's very risky. He said in one year MVL could have prepared any openings like svesnikov or french. It was MVL who allowed all mess especially the Bc4N.  But due to his precise play atleast he survived mate in middlegame but the endgame which he got was also not so easy. All the commentars were confused then Ramirez showed the idea like place king on h5 for white and win and place knight on g7 for black to get draw. But in practical game it was tough. Acc. to Ramirez Caruana is familiar with a lot unusual endgames like this but he was not sure that Caruana knew this endgame . Anyways MVL tried to defend well but in the end he lost. 

In the end I just wanna say. he defended well but it was invited mess. In one year he could have learnt something else to confuse Caruana. Like Fischer did in game 6th of 1972 WCC with 1.c4. Even though Spassky's team had prepared Tartakover against it but still Spassky had nothing in that game. I forgot the history words but I remember Spassky deviated from his team prep and then he lost. But still key learning is deviate from Najdorf will be so shocking for Carauana to face.

In the end, I am just 1400 so I dont think i have right to say something to greatest but in my opinion he invited the mess so he lost.

Your rating is not your strength

Have you ever heard someone say, "I know I am rated (insert rating here), but I clearly play much better. I am way underrated."

I have heard this, or variations of this, more times then I can count. I must admit, I have said it myself more times then I can count as well. I would be willing to wager it is near the top of all phrases uttered by chess players to other chess players, at almost every level.

I am sure many of you have had similar experiences. This conundrum has vexed me for a long time, and as I continue to grow in my knowledge from ChessMood, it has been a question I asked myself more and more, because my rating (I am speaking OTB rating) hasnt grown as much as I feel it should have. (I confess my online rating has jumped higher then ever, but that story will be saved for another time)

When I started ChessMood, my OTB Rating was 1750ish USCF with a peak of 1816. Since I hadnt played OTB for almost 2 years before ChessMood, my rating dropped at first to 1675ish (this is most likely also attributed to the fact you usually go backwards before going forwards when learning something new.). After that initial drop I quickly raised my rating back to my peak of 1816, a gain of 140 points! But then I stayed there until COVID hit and OTB tournaments halted.

Since games started back up a couple months ago, I have played in 5 tournaments, and have promptly fallen back to 1750. Part of this can be attributed to lack of playing OTB, but my opponents had the same break from playing, so I know I cannot use this as an excuse. I know my knowledge has increased in an uncalculatable amount since joining ChessMood, yet I am not gaining in rating like I would think I should. So this has got me thinking about what rating really is.

It was then, as I was thinking more and more about this, that I realized, RATING IS NOT YOUR STREGTH AT CHESS! Your rating is your performance from playing! 

I have  experienced many times while analyzing with an opponent after a game and thinking to myself, "How is this guy rated 200 points higher then me? I know as much as he does!" I have also had times where the opposite is true, and I think to myself while looking at a game with a lower rated opponent, "There is no way this guy should be lower rated then me!"

I have realized as I have reflected on this that it doesnt matter how much more I know then my opponent knows,  if I dont apply it, my rating isnt going to go up! At the end of the game, the player who wins gets the rating points, not the guy who studied the most.

So, what can we do to address this issue?

I started by looking back at my history, and looked for patterns in the times I gained the most rating points. The biggest thing I noticed, is I gained the most when I played the most. 

I gained 220 rating points in 5 months about 20 years ago. I played almost every weekend for that 5 months. Coincidence? Maybe. But I also ganed 140 rating points in 10 weeks about a year and a half ago. Want to guess what I did for those 10 weeeks? You are right! I played almost every weekend! Still a coincidence? Unlikely.

Knowledge is very important, and I am glad I found ChessMood to help me gain that knowledge (I am sure many of you are as well!) but all the knowledge in the world doesnt help if we dont put it into practice. More accurately, continuous practice. 

I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this, including our illustrious GMs who teach us, and see what other things we can learn! I am also going to put this to the test. I am going to play 5 tournaments over the next 6 weeks ( I would play the 6th but I am moving to a new house that weekend, and cant be in 2 places at once!) and will report back the results. I am currently rated 1764 USCF. Any one want to guess what I will be rated at the end of the National Open in June? (Full disclosure, I am playing the open section in every tournament I am playing in, and will be close to the lowest rated in the section every time.) My wager is on my rating will be rising past my current peak. 

Only time will tell!

GM Jay

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Super post my fav. endgame mentor. I am also gonna follow your path. I learnt so much and now it's action time. I hope events will start here too so I can easily play but still covid sucks. So, I just hope to play atleast local events. I am prepared. I am glad to be in chessmood because I found "The Best Chess Team" of superb players and I am glad we all are improving together. My guess that you will reach 2100+ by the end of your upcoming 6 events and soon I will call you Master @Jay_Garrison

That seems pretty accurate comment on rating & playing strength. Over 5 years ago when I wanted to improve I played about 6 or more blitz games daily in my narrow repertoire and assessed (analysed) the games after and went to 1800 after 5 months. Then I started studying chess & my rating is now anywhere from 12-1600 5 minute blitz and I may just play 3 or 4 blitz games a day. 5 days ago on lichess I played a game in our ChessMood tourney & beat one of the members here, rated 2120. That was in the Vienna game opening (I was black), an opening I know very little about. How often can you beat someone 583 points higher with no special study or theory? I often go close in games with higher rated players, but make a small mistake and that is all it takes to lose (as all players know). So, I agree that playing regularly & playing openings mid & endgames you are familiar with & like to play will help you win more & improve your rating, while too much study will probably do the opposite!

Good luck in your tournaments and you should certainly gain over 100 points rating! Right Mood, Right Move..GO JAY!

good luck Jay.....dont worry about ratings ... hope u get chance to implement chessmood openings...

I guess we all feel underrated because we feel the pain of losses that should have been draws and draws that should have been wins and even losses that should have been wins!  These happen when we make a blunder or a minor lapse of concentration that lets the advantage slip.  So we say they don't reflect our true strength.  We are probably right but it is still our own fault that the results don't match the strength while others get better results than their strength.

A large factor can be the number of juniors in your area.  Because young players tend to be rapidly improving their rating is often out of date.  They play much stronger than their published rating.  This means you can often find yourself in a position where you are playing someone rated much lower where your expected score may be 80%+ but because their published rating is lagging behind your actual expected score could be much closer to 50:50.  This will inevitably cause you to lose rating points.  What makes it worse is young players who do this grow up, go to University and move out of the area.  The net effect is that they have sucked the rating points out of your local area and you can end up in a position where everyone is a bit underrated.

Conversely, if you play in tournaments where there are not so many youngsters you will find everyone is a little bit overrated.  

You can also have 2 guys with the same rating but with very different strengths.  The first can be sharp, play lots of tactics and have just good enough technique to convert when they are a large amount of material up and the second can have a good understanding of chess but is very prone to making some tactical oversights losing rating.  This second group don't make the mistake every game so you can find yourself playing someone much stronger than their rating suggests.  You have to be practical and try to steer the game where it is uncomfortable for your opponent to maximise your own chances of success.  If you get the choice wrong your practical chances diminish.  Style matching or mismatching is an art I think and the reason why it is good to have at least 2 different opening repertoires -your sharp fighting one and your quiet let's go to a more technical position where we know the ideas one.  

So what can you do in your tournaments?   These are some things I do that I hope you will find useful, if you don't do them yourself already. 

1. Watch other games going on in the tournament and make a mental note of the sort of openings the other competitors are playing.  They are a strong indication of the type of player they are and if you can remember what they played it will be good for you if you want to do some prep before the game. 

2. Go into the analysis room when you finish your game.  Analyse it with your opponent and learn from it but then stay and watch a few other post mortems from other competitors.  Make a mental note of the sort of player each of your potential opponents is so you will know the best way to approach the game if you draw them in a future round or tournament. 

3. If you play a stronger opponent - relish it and focus.  If they see your rating is lower they may well make the mistake of not concentrating 100% too and relax too much.  You can catch them off guard and take the points.  This is often the reason people make those blunders in winning positions we hear about all the time  This will automatically reduce the difference and improve your chances. 

4. If you play a weaker opponent.  Also focus 100% as you don't want to make the same mistake and they may well be underrated.  So beware!  

5. Enjoy the game and play interesting chess.  This will keep you motivated and in the right mood.

Good luck.   Don't get disheartened if you continue losing in the Open tournaments at first.   You will be improving by playing stronger opponents.  If you improve to 1950 and play a 2100 you will still be the underdog and could lose the game but you will learn just a bit more and at some point you will pass a threshold where your results improve fast.  The rating points will then follow.   I will follow your progress too and wish you all the best.

Anti sicilian part 4 5/6... h5

I'm having a look through Gabuzyan's games in the Sicilian a6 line. Only one follows the course move-order (5. d3) but it seems there are a lot of games with h5 on move 5 or 6 which is not in the course. I've not taken a look at the games in any detail yet, but I'm assuming that given b5 is played, it's just an attempt to restrict White's kingside build up (idea also seen in the Modern), rather than to leave the king in the centre and try to punish Nh3.

Given it's a very common occurrence, what's the plan against it, and maybe a suggested course inclusion?

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Note that h5 is also asked about when the knight is on f3 instead in the 2... e6 lines.

Hi David,

Mostly h5 is a waste of time for black, and after he we are usually able to play g4. Since there are no many pieces on the kingside for black,  pushing 5 pawns is not dangerous for white.

Yanish's Gambit

Hello Chessmood I knew a new lesson for you its Yanish's Gambit for black Hope you will show how we can play with black in Spanish Gambit

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This gambit makes no sense for Chessmood users since we play the Sicilian as Black. The Chessmood GMs work in the lines offered in the repertoire, not random lines or openings... And I hope that you were talking about the "Danish Gambit" because I could not find any reference to the "Yanish Gambit"... ;-)

NEW ARTICLE: Achieve Your Chess Goals Using Warren Buffett’s 5/25 Rule

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I think the bigger lesson is you can't have it all (irrespective of what you are told).

Trying to put numbers of things is artificial, but I would go as far as saying if it's not your focus, you probably won't excel at it. You have to compromise, and sometimes you have to enjoy what you have even though you can't get (significantly) better. That's not to say that if it is your focus you will definitely get better, there are lots of reasons. Nor is there any definition of excel.

In 'Think and Grow Rich' the central message (and I could pretty much save you reading the whole book) is that to get rich you have to have a single focus and Napoleon Hill believed you had to burn all your bridges - no going back to get there - do or die (there is dispute as this being the only factor that some of the big names he investigated also were in the right place at the right time - see Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell). I suppose by the same token that getting rich as your only focus, you miss out in life and ironically have lots of money, but aren't really able to enjoy it so you better be enjoying the business you set up as that becomes your life.

More points and expansions in further replies.

As to excel - what is meant by excel in chess that means a goal is reasonable given the time or amount of focus you can put into it. In Lasker's day you could be WC or a strong 'master' and not just be solely a chess player, there wasn't so much to learn and 'common sense' and study of a few greats could take you a long way. You could also be a 'master' of many other things - the investment of time needed was not as great.

Nowadays, to reach a similar percentile it's a lot harder, and even those who do/did other things often got their big chess rises before going off to do other things (Sadler and Kamsky being good examples, but there are plenty of titled players that work in finance for example as it pays a lot more, yet remain pretty strong players). The reason being that there is tons of theory, lots to learn, the competition is stronger - to get there you need to spend so much more time.

It becomes a career, and sadly for most, chess' payback financially isn't enough to support a life much more than getting by (unless you have a lot of students and are well known, or can make it to the top few in your country or the top 20 or so in the world). It's not worth it for that small chance of being successful chess player.

Thus my focus has to be on my work because that is what pays, and the time that is left gets divided up. Now if someone wants to pay my day rate for me to study chess and become titled I'm all ears ;)

It's also possible that you need to study, play and train a lot consistently in a period when you are growing up because of how the brain organises information. Those that start later or cannot put all this time in, may find an uphill struggle. The article does mention about the 40 year old trying to improve. Just how many 40 year olds that weren't pretty strong when they were younger go on to be GMs. Are there many modern examples? Any modern examples? Can other priorities alone explain it. What about retirees, maybe if lucky at 55 who take up chess, they might have time and resources to spend a lot of time on chess. How many 55 year olds went on to become Grandmasters? We know a few grandmasters were still playing at a high level in their 70s or beyond, so given the number that can retire at 55, have a strong passion for chess, and that chess at grandmaster level is not impossible at 65 to give 10 years to work at it, what explains the lack of retirees that make grandmaster level.

What if it's not just about conflicting priorities (real life syndrome) but it's that younger still growing brains can organise the knowledge better with less effort, where as an older brain is less plastic and also doesn't have so many less developed areas to store all the new knowledge arranged close enough together for it to be effective. An area for study perhaps.

Again I don't think it impossible, just it's harder work and then when you add in the other priorities it becomes unobtainable.

please help me

see when I play with black pieces against 1e4

i usually play C5 Sicilian defense but now i am losing a lot of games with it so what happened i went on to play the Sicilian defense but i mouse slipped and it became c6 caro kann and i went on to play the game and win it so now against e4 i always play c6 caro kann but my heart does not like it. it says play the dargon but my mind says play the caro as i have  very very good rate with it but dragon feels a part of my body but caro also so tell me what should i play if dragon then please send me its theory

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please reply

I don't know actually dragon's theory but you should listen to your heart and study it.

If your heart says that you want to play dragon you must play dragon but if you play dragon bad you must practice ot and after it you will play it well also you can try to play  c6 when you want

Bd3 French-A beautiful missed chance!

Analyzing your own games can often be the hardest thing to do. It's personal and somehow requires more effort. So when I'm done with that I often analyze the games of other players looking for the missed chances. I came across this position from GM Avetik's game on lichess. https://lichess.org/6jegRf37#15 

Definitely worth closer analysis for anyone playing this french. Since Black's King delays castling here as he often does, there is a real chance to play like Mikhail Tal!

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Right, Arrik! :) 
I always download my games and check the missed things. The first one was on 13th move, 13.Ndb5! which I had in my analyses but forgot during the game :) 

An Interesting way to avoid Petroff and get into scotch

1.e4 e5 2.d4 cxd4 3.Nf3, Now the petroff is avoided and if Black plays c5, White can go for c3 and I think White is slightly better here because of piece development. and the theory would be little. I didn't look at 3...Nf6 but I think that would still be good for white after 4.e5

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Now, I checked little bit. It leads to exciting position.

Interesting idea. It also leads to open, gambit like positions in many lines that might not be so suitable for the Petroff playes who prefer strategic battle.

The critical response appears to be 3...Bb4+.

seems like I am not the only one who does not like to see Petroff , I would look for this type of options if there were no course in chessmood for Petroff . Our included course is very deep and I guess good .

Then do you guys think it would be better not to study it thouroughly and look for short cuts ?

@Sidharth_Sreekumar 1.e4 e5 2.d4 is the Center Game. Not the most logical move as White is not yet prepared to recapture on d4 with a minor piece, but I am sure it has Fans - both in the Gambit- and in the Bring Out the Queen on Move 3 community.

2...exd4 is obvious, now if you bring out the knight as you suggested, the antidote is very well known for any e5 player, this is why this move order is not good for White 3.Nf3 Bb4+! If 4.Bd2 Bc5

White might win the pawn back eventually but it will cost him time.

 If 4.c3 dxc3 is natural.

I think that this is the right answer... Now you may trick someone playing Nf6, but I do not believe it is worth even the try. Instead the Petroff course is very good and very well researched, I have very good results with the Petroff, before I always avoided it but now I enjoy it very much!

Modern Maroczy tournament interest?

For the Maroczy tournament we had 7 players. This Saturday will be the Modern Maroczy. I wanted to check (if I went to the length of giving this serious study now, rather than a quick look at the summaries and to wing it), that there is enough interest. This is as it's course many wouldn't have taken because it's optional and was aimed at stronger players.

If I'm to be spending a lot of time, it will be a disappointment if there are only 3 of us for example.

So who is interested?

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Hi David, I have planned to take part. But you are right. There is quite a lot to study for Modern Maroczy. Right now, I have watched the introduction and conclusion of all sections to get a general idea about the line. But I am not too sure whether I will be able to have a deep dive into it until next Saturday. But still, I would participate if nothing unexpected comes in between.

Yes, I'm interested and want to join the tournament. It's a great chance to practise. I couldn't  take part yesterday (Maroczy), but Modern Maroczy I should be able. I try to play Modern Maroczy , but there is a lot to learn

I will always play, I enjoy because this is my way to check my knowledge into practice, I think tematic tournaments is simple the best options for improve.

Thanks a lot for our chmood founder for this oportunities. It will be nice when sometimes some  Big Fish like Avetik will play with us xD

List of Streams?

Hi, is there a link to all chessmood streams?  I'd like to watch about one per day until I've caught up on all of them.

Thanks!

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Hi Anthony

Go to Events and search "stream"

Long, long list :)

Best games of April... working?

Hello, I wanted to publish one of my games under the above mentioned topic, but I cannot see it. Is there some problem and could you please solve it? Thank you a lot!

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Or, please just ask your senior programmer Jor to come back to his computer ASAP. :)

Martin, for me it is working. Could you try it again?

I have made a fix , I could see page 3 is loading .

Files uploaded by Vladimir Bugayev  was for some reason was breaking the content , although one of the pgn he uploaded looked to me perfectly fine and really cool game . I will upload that pgn for him in that section again since otherwise no one can see his game . One thing that can help is while you guys are uploading pgn or image file try not use very large descriptive name with lots of different characters in the file , I feel sometime its breaking due to some ( obviously they are valid , not arguing that ) file characters . Till I find actual root cause thats how you can help me . Sorry for all the trouble you guys have faced with such trivial things .

Best time to study courses?

I just opened ChessMood Caro Kann course to revisit it & re_study(?) it, but quickly realised a problem. I started too late tonight, close to midnight & i agreed with my wife to get to bed & sleep before midnight! So, my plan now, is to try coach Avetik's start early work ethic & get up early & do 1 hour on this course before breakfast & the rest of the day! I need to schedule my study!

Who likes study late at night (past midnight)? & who likes early morning study & anyone else in the middle?! ;-) Happy ChessMood course study all!

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Well, it all depends on timings. For a person like me who is focused on improving his skills and have no responsibilities and issue. I work almost whole day. I work well on puzzles in morning and other books in daytime and openings ay night. I only focus on plans and ideas. Rest I can find over board.  Night is perfect time for openings because we dont need to dive deeper in openings. For below 2000 we must focus on middlegames and little endgames is enough.

Openings: Plans and ideas and typical model games.

Middlegames: CM Classical games and a lot books.

Tactics: A lot tactics books.

Endgames: 100 endgames you must know and silman's Endgame Manual. I know on we recommend coach recommended the book on theoretical endgame but that endgame book is so tough even for 2000 elo players. 

Hi Richard,

I would say it works individually for everyone. Up to me, I guess morning sessions may be easier, as we just woke up and so on, but I know many guys doing it at night and feeling well about it)

Almost model game in Stafford Gambit...

...but turned into embarrassment showcasing my lack of knowledge of K+B vs K endgames :(

https://lichess.org/sJTMHIoP

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early Ne5 in the Scotch

It's no big deal bur out of interest as I've had this several times recently what is best after :--

e4:e5-- Nf3 :Nc6 -- d4 :exd4  --- Nxd4 then Ne5 ? 

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Can we go f4 as a response and if Ng6 then just Nc3 and black has knight on g6 and we already have f4 in for a ready made attack. With nornal plans of Qe2,Be3 0-0-0?

SLP

https://lichess1.org/game/export/gif/black/ksMdNCUz.gif

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10 h3 (and 10 f3) in the Maroczy with e4

Both moves aren't covered and are favoured by the computer. I played against 10. h3 tonight and drew, though there were blunders and chances for both sides to win. Opponent is 2100 (and also maintainer of TWIC - ironically [or purposely!] seems to have kept himself mostly out of the databases!), so a draw isn't too bad a result.

Suggestions of how to play against both would be useful (given the tournament is coming this weekend)

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Found reference to this thread:
https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-members/new-trendy-line-in-the-maroczy

Does go to show though that under 2200 it's not such a problem as there were mistakes to take advantage of, and not just a one way street.