Chess forum by Grandmasters

Anti-sicilian system part 4 (White repertoire) Unusual move order

Hello, tomorrow I have one game in a championship where the opponent (KM and rated more than 300 points higher than me) usually plays the anti-sicilian system on the part 3, but on the move 6 it deviates... I already looked at his games and at the engine(s) suggestions, but I was wondering if someone faced already such a development and how did they tackle it.

The opening variation is in the pgn, along with some comments. If anyone has some suggestion, it will be more than welcome. Thanks!

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Stockfish likes the line you gave, if your opponent goes there he will be in trouble.

Fantastic! :) 

Heavy piece endings + defensive Nb3 in the French

A couple of points from this game. The first is the opening. In the French dxe4 line with c5, there is the Onischuk game which (Ne5 and Be7) which runs 9... Be7 10. Qe2 Nxf3 11. Qxf3 O-O 12. O-O-O Bd7 and now 13. g4 Qa5

In a similar line of the game Black delays Nxf3 with 10... O-O (computer prefers Bd7 with Rc8) 11. O-O-O Qa5 and now 12. g4 is marked as a mistake by the computer. True enough the g-pawn does become a problem and getting it to the f-file didn't help start an attack since the knight and bishop can defend g7. I'm being aggressive against opposite wing castling yet repeatedly the computer is saying that the defensive Nb3 to chase the queen instead of g4 is much better, and again later instead of Nf5. How to deal with these sorts of positions where there is a balance between defensive moves and aggressive ones?

Finally the game goes down to Q+R vs Q+R with pawns on both sides. Both sides have their chances plus blunders and it ends in a draw. Particularly in low time (both sides eventually) trying to work with heavy piece endings is really difficult. How to deal with these?

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Hi David,

It's a nice question. Usually, it happens at the end of the game and sides are being in time trouble as you mentioned. There are 2 factors that I think are important. First is the king's safety. For example in the game you posted even being a pawn up white is having issues because of the open king.

Another thing assuming kings are safe is the pawn structure ( weak pawns, passed pawns)

How I usually play this position trying to keep my king safe, and making problems for the opponent's one.

Of course, this question doesn't have a concrete answer because it's always different.

I just tried to share with you my opinion and experience.

Scotch ...Nf6 with 8.h4 Qe6

Hi fellow Chessmood members,

What do we play when Black plays 13...h5 here?

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Hi Thomas,

My recommendation will be 14.g5 with a better position for white. There are many possible options for black after this move, but everywhere white has something. This is too complex but better for white.

If you like this kind of position in order to play it some extra work with the engine will be required.

Or if you want something less complex you play after 8... Qe6 9.Nd2 move also described in the course.

I think this is a mistake

Hello, ChessMood Family! In the course video (https://chessmood.com/course/sicilian-defence-part-2/episode/787) on 1:48, I think White could play exd5 instead of Qxd5. I think White is better after that.

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Yes it's possible, but if we don't change the knights it is stronger because knight goes to b6 

I believe that Black will get themselves involved in a lot of unnecessary hot water regarding their queen if they decide to capture on c2 after Qd5. Qd5 is in line with a positional principle, to never play ed in the presence of that particular pawn structure, so that black's backward d pawn will always be exposed, instead of covered up by white's own pawn. A very notable example is the 6th game from the 1999 WWCC between GM Xie and IM Galliamova. In many analytical sources, white was blasted for allowing black to play Bd5 and covering up the d6 pawn, which ultimately enabled black to focus on launching an all out Kingside attack and win the game. 

Abracadaba requests

Hi everyone,

Don't know about you, but I really loved the new course vs the Latvian Gambit. I thought it might be a good idea for members to post what annoying dubious openings ('Abracadabra Gambits', as GM Avetik calls them) we're having trouble against, maybe as a guide to what we'd like to see covered. 

So my question is: which dodgy openings do you wish you felt more confident against?

For example, recently at fast time controls, I've had a good few people try the Stafford Gambit against me (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe5 Nc6?!), and this is doubtless because of all the YouTube videos where some high-rated player is 'demolished' with this secret weapon. Personally, I'm happy if my opponent plays this, because it's basically losing by force if you know what to do. If it's giving you trouble, I recommend Daniel Naroditsky's video on how to meet it.

But recently, I tried out the website openingtree.com, which allows you to analyse your results by opening move, and I found that I'd lost an embarrassing number of games against the Grob (1 g4?!). So for me, that's my request. I guess it's not played so often, so probably this can't be a priority, but I'd love to have some ChessMood repertoire against 1 g4.

What do you think? If you could request a ChessMood Abracadabra Antidote, what would it be?

Nick

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I had the borg (1... g5) played against me by a strong player - almost beat them as well. Took it as a waste of time weakening push in the dragon / accelerated dragon and almost beat them (I overloaded a win).

Yes, all kind of abracadabra gambits is on the list of TO DO SOON. Do not worry, our GMs have been very busy winning the Armenian National Championship and they will continue recording all the courses pending very soon. Gabuzyan deserves some rest and I would like to give some days to Avetik too, but the guy cannot stay away from Chessmood more than 5 min. ;-) In the meanwhile I recommend you all to watch the Daily Lesson 42 (if you haven't already) which already gave me 3 victories against 1...b6.

Hi Nick,

First 1.g4 ? haha) I am always happy to see this for black honestly! And I have my beloved system

against it. I play 1...d5 and after 2.Bg2 Nc6. It's leading to positions where black is having big control over the center and followed by e5 will be controlling lot of important territory.

Meanwhile, white pawn on g4 will be weakened and short castle will be an issue.

I would recommend Night on g8 to develop from e7-g6 to use weakened squares by g4 move.

1.g4 d5 2.Bg2 Bxg4 is a near-winning position after two moves and super easy to learn for Black:

my problem is againdt 1.b4

How to play againts e4 e5 Nf3 f5 and e4 e5 Nf3 d5 ?

How to play againts e4 e5 Nf3 f5 and e4 e5 Nf3 d5 ?

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I think these were covered in the courses.

Once again now that we have our 'Ending the Elephant Course' I thought it useful to stimulate conversation by lifting this thread from the archives. Also I would like to take this opportunity to commend Nicolo, Pasini on his successful use of the ChessMood Scotch, albeit with a twist, even against GM opposition: I say twist because Mr. Pasini has been experimenting with the very interesting variant 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.Nd2!? [6.e5 being the current ChessMood recommendation] This was an old favorite of  Saviely Tartakower which Vassily Ivanchuk also seems to have a soft spot for. The idea is to attempt to play for a tiny but risk free advantage due to our better pawn structure, especially after the most popular reply 6...d5, however 6...Bc5 is a more critical test and I leave it to our ChessMood family, and hopefully even Mr. Pasini himself, to explore more fully and share their thoughts with us.

Happy hunting :)

Last ChessMood article

Hello ChessMood family and Happy New Year! Wish you all the best!

"P.S. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the effectiveness of your time management last year? What changes are you going to make this year?"

What is your answer for this questions? :)

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I would rate my time management to the scale of 6. But this year I will definitely try to reach the scale of 10 in time management.

Question

Is 4.Sf3 covered in Benkogambit course?

Kind regards,

Martin

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Yes, it is.

In video 33 4.Nf3 is just mentioned along with 4.a4, 4.Nd2 and 4.Qc2 - when white refuses the pawn sacrifice. It is said that 4.Qc2 is the best of this options, and it is only about this move in the next videos.

But anyway, the Benko course will be revised, when they find the time to do so. I believe this was said in a streaming

Hi Martin,

Yes, it is covered as others as saying as well.

In general, it's not dangerous at all move as it gives black a pleasant choice of developement.

A Very Brave ChessMood King

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/81st-armenian-championship-2021/8/1/6 Is the Black King being lawless or demonstrating true valor? 

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By no means. the Black King is being lawless, but in fact it is demonstrating true valor, because there was no way that white can attack the black king. It was a perfect game played by Black.

Book recommendation

Hello friends

Wilson here, USCF 1318 I guess like 1200 FIDE even less. Please recommend a strategy / middlegame / positional book appropriate to my level I should read cover to cover. Thank you

Replies

Before I recommend you any books, I would first like to read this blog first which will help you immensely to determine which books should you read.

https://chessmood.com/blog/which-chess-openings-books-courses-to-learn

Scotch with 4...Nf6 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. e5 Ne4!?

Hi, I'm new to the ChessMood community.   I have recently started playing the Scotch in my online games after beginning with the course and I faced this unusual 6...Ne4 in 2 games against the same opponent.  It looks very strange but I couldn't find an instant refutation.
I ended up playing 7. Nd2 Nc5 8. Nb3 Ne6 9. Bd3 and ended up winning in both games in the end but wondered if anyone had already worked out the strongest continuation against this rare move.

Creating my pgn file I added it and the engine seems to think 7. Nd2 is a good response but what's the best plan here.  I went Nb3 because I wanted to prevent Bc5 later and didn't want to restrict my f-pawn.

Any ideas on how to approach this would be welcome!

Thanks a lot!

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Hi Adam,

This is a bit rare move, I checked it out with a strong engine and the recommendation is Nd2 with a better position for white.

If Nd2 we play bd2 and white is ahead in development with space advantage as well.

If Nc5 seems that nb3 is the best response again. 

In both scenarios white is much better.

Book recommendation

Hello friends

Wilson here, USCF 1318 I guess like 1200 FIDE even less. Please recommend a strategy / middlegame / positional book appropriate to my level I should read cover to cover. Thank you

Replies

Probably only ones I can think of for that level are the Winning Chess Strategies, Simple Chess and a skim of My System.

At 1200, you'd be better working on tactics particularly with focus on checkmates (The Art Of The Checkmate), basic tactics (on chess tempo / winning chess tactics for juniors), basic endgames (silman's complete endgame course - the older volume 1 course by Silman will be harder to get I'm assuming this is the same material / pandolfini's endgame course), learning to use the knight to see forks etc, avoiding dropping material in blunders and simple tactics. For strategy just worry about active pieces, good squares and basic opening principles. Develop quickly and try to attack, avoid dropping pieces and take what your opponent drops (checking that it's not a sacrifice with compensation).

Until then (1500 at least) I'd keep the strategy (and opening) work light as is all in vain if you drop material or cannot capitalise on a better position.

Simple chess by micheal stean

Try the steps method. There is a trainer's manual for each step/level one can use for self studying. And there a different workbooks with plenty of exercises. And don't hesitate to start with level 1. The exercises are well chosen and even I (ELO 2000) profit from them when teaching my kids. 

Try blindfolded chess

Have you ever tried to play blindfolded chess ?

Lichess allows this mode , Go to preferences and the last option is to play blindfolded and make it yes,

You will play without seeing pieces on the board

Try it and tell us the results :D

This is the only game I managed to win : https://lichess.org/Qhq5WAbLryiZ

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I used to use a handle BlindDrunk on FICS. I played pretty much like that too.

Caro-Kann Bg4 Qb3 line

Hello,
In the Bg4 Qb3 line, I liked the Ng5 idea. I tried it against my sparring partner and won a good game. When analyzing, he suggested 14...Qd8!? with the idea Ng5 Nh5. I guess this is a novelty and an interesting one ?
The next game he played it, I answered 15.Bg5 but was not convinced. Maybe 15.h3 a6 16.a4 is better ? Then I studied 15.h4 a6 16.g3, in the spirit of the ChessMood course, which is the most promising I guess. The critical line looks like 16...b5 17.a3 Qb6 18.Ng5.
What do you think ?
Thanks a lot,
Sylvain

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Hi Ravot,

Thanks for sharing your question, It's so nice to see someone new utilising the forum. In the diagrammed position the Engines love 16.g3 which is okay I guess, but in positions like this and similar ones, if Ng5 is not working I usually try to switch to the 'Plan B'. Plan B involves Ne5 transferring the Queen to h3 (Not possible in the engine g3 line) and looking for opportunities to plough ahead on the Kingside with a later h5, a crude plan admittedly but not easy to meet and totally in the spirit of the position. I have a Model Game in mind and will post it if I can track it down, 

I agree with you Ravot that h4 followed by g3 as the Engine suggests is definitely the best approach here, and it's very strange that Qd8 has not seen any practical tests as yet.  Thanks for the info about the Dzinzi - Karpov clashes, I think I also may have heard in an interview that Dzinzi was Karpov's coach for awhile.

Hi Sylvain,

This is a very nice question. Up to my records, we should play with h4 after Qd8. The idea as mention g3 - kg2 - rh1 trying to open the h file.

If after h4 black plays Nh5 then Bg5 move is coming.

Current Torre recommendation?

Referencing this post:

https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-members/torre-attack

Is the 'universal' d5 c5 Nc6 Qb6 still the recommended way to go against the usual set-up of e3 c3 Nbd2 Bd3 ?

Note that in the d4 sidelines course the Tromp move order is not possible since we play g6 against Nf3 (and the course covers Bg5 then Nf3).

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Hi David,

Can you please clarify the position for me?

The Section: Sicilian's Closed Systems - Update?

Another very instructive section as usual. But please allow me to bring to your attention two important omissions from the update, that I would like to see covered soon. The missing lines related to our repertoire are 6.Nh3 and 7.Nh3.

See diagrams below for details:  

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illustrative Games:

Hey! 
Yeah, true! 
Nh3 was also suggested by one of Armenian IM's. 
We'll add it, after Gabuzyan finishes his participation in the Armenian championship. 
In two words, the key of playing against it, is not to hurry with 0-0! 
But instead play Nge7, h6, Be6.  

Hi Kevin

We are working on this lines and in near future it will be recorded!

Chess improvement

Hello Good morning friends my chess.com rapid time control rating is 1754, my aim is cross 2000 rating barrier at end 2021, I usually invest around 7hrs per week for chess, I am not making any serious mistakes in opening but  let say after 15 or 20 moves i am not able to make a plan and do some serious mistakes and also i am very weak in analysing my game or any masters games. So how can i improve my level of middlegame and how can i improve in analysing my own games?  Please suggest in best possible way. 

Thank you

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I was also under the same problem before two years. It would be very useful to watch the courses of the commented classical games or endgames, which not have only perfect commentary, but also complicated plans that my opponents do not even know about. You can also watch the other middlegame courses if you are a pro member and if you are not, it is really worth your while. Some puzzles or compositions of the middlegame and endgame phase, which are categorized in chess.com and lichess may also help. I hope I tried to give you some good suggestions.

"Crushing All the Sicilian's Sidelines" course is updated!

Dear friends, dear PRO Members!
We just uploaded the 3rd section of "Crushing All the Sicilian's Sidelines" by GM Hovhannes Gabuzyan. 

Watch it here ? https://chessmood.com/course/crushing-all-the-sidelines-of-sicilian

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if i am not wrong you missed an dangerous line

1 e4-c5 2 Nc3-Nc6 3 Bb5 (wich is recommend for white

will there once come also a recommendation for black versus the Moscow 3 Bb5

Modern Pirc ---> Pirc transposition

I am not a PRO member now but I had watched the course previously when I was a PRO member. According to my files, I have a doubt. What do we do when Black plays 1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Be3 c6? I remember Avetik sir telling something like it transposes to the Pirc soon but what if Black delays Nf6 and plays b5 and Nd7? What is our setup here? Also, is it possible to play 5.g4?  Thanks in Advance!

Replies

Thanks a lot for your detailed reply, Kevin! I will certainly take a look at the setup you mentioned. Will there be an update to that course? I think it has been quite a long time since the courses were released right? Again, thanks a lot for your reply!!

Scotch ...Nf6 - advanced video 41

Hello  Chessmood pro family!

1k1r1b1r/p1pn2pp/2p5/2Ppp3/1P5P/RR6/P2N1PP1/2B2K2 b - - 4 19

In this position it looks better to me to play 19...Kb7 (preparing ...a6 and ...Nb8) then to bury the king with 19...Ka8 and ...Rb8-b7.

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