Chess forum by Grandmasters

Chess is life?

If I ask you one thing choose chess or your love then what will you choose? For me I choose chess and trust me I care for people but if anyone come between me and chess I ignore them no matter it's my family or anything. I don't let anyone to come between my chess goals. 

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How to train

How to train

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Train what?

Hi 

I’m new here. Wonderful community you guys have here  :)

There are so many great video/openings to learn in here. How should I practicing. 

Should I practicing one opening for a week and then shift to another the next week or should I finish one opening and understand it 100% before picking another one?

Andy

What do you think about the King's Indian Defense?

Dear GM Avetik and Chessmood friends I have a problem:

I love playing the Accelerated Dragon, But I am struggling with the Benko Gambit.

I am considering replacing it by the King's Indian Defense.

What do you think? GM Avetik, you saw the way I play chess. Do you think KID fits my style?

I love the KID and I hate the Benko Gambit !

I do not know if KID would be a good match to the Accelerated Dragon and the rest of Chessmood Black repertoire?!?!?!?!?

Please let me know what you think and let me know if there would be any issue replacing Benko by KID. 

Thank you all

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Hi Kourosh, I appreciate KID as a solid and good opening when playing against 1. d4 but this opening has 2 main drawbacks, in my opinion: 

• Firstly, you need to learn much more stuff than the Benko Gambit and get more dangerous and complicated positions. For example, I admit that it is very difficult to handle your opponent's initiative. Most times my kingside gets vulnerable, especially in the 4 pawn attack line, but I manage to survive and get into an unclear endgame with damaged pawn structure on the kingside and in the centre.

• Secondly, if you aren't a positional style player and hate space disadvantage, you will face problems when playing the KID ( look how deep are Peteosian's ideas in the commented classical games ). Someone should be better prepared both in strategy, handling opponent's initiative etc. Personally I find it difficult to play in closed positions.

• Finally, I believe that a lot of players face problems and "hate" the Benko Gambit, because the have not lost the fear of sacrifising a pawn. I were in such positions when I was lower rated. I don't think that there is sth else preventing you from crushing your opponents with BG. 

Tell me your ratings and I think I would be able to define the reason you can't play the Benko Gambit "well".

I don't think you will face any technical issue. KID matches with chessmood openings for black pieces.

Hey my friend! 
KID is a good repertoire as well. 
But what's the thing? Why Benko is going bad? 

Have you read this article - https://chessmood.com/blog/learn-the-right-lessons-from-your-mistakes 

Maybe I'll add a closed webinar for only PRO Members, and you can send all your questions. 
We'll see what problem do you have in Benko. 

Endgame

How to move for white to win the game 

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Nice position I like to solve endgames. I would recommend you this one: 1. Bc4 Qc1+ 2. Bf1 h5 3. g3 Bxg3 4. Qxh5 Bb8 5. Qxf5 Qc7 6. Bc4 Qe5 7. Qg4+ Qg5 8. Qxg5+ fxg5 9. Bd5 Bd6 10. Bxe4 Bb4 11. Kg2 Kf6 12. Bd3 Kg7 13. Kf3 Bc3 14. a3 Kf7 nice simplified endgame. Correct me if I am wrong anywhere.

Hi,

You can use online tools to analyse chess positions:

https://lichess.org/analysis

go to Tools

then, go to Board Editor

and set your board, and then Analyze Board... (Turn On the engine on top right )

I hope it can help you

Who is the world champion who joined us?

Avetik Sir, you told that a former world champ joined us.... now can you tell us who it is???

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Look there are 4 possibilities of former world chess champions: Kasparov, Karpov, Kramnik and Anand.

It's a secret :) 

Maybe Ruslan... Just a guess

Maybe Ruslan... Just a guess

Coach said on stream that we are thinking to narrowly, it could be a youth world champ, or a senior world champ. For all we know it could be a correspondence WC, or even a blitz WC, the possibilities are far greater then we thought! 

100 Must-Know Classical Games

The first partnership with Ichess ????
✅100 commented classical games
✅ 25+ hours of material
✅50% discount for the next 48 hours.

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Suggestion in Blogs

Hi, I was thinking it would be nice to have comments in a blog.

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Yeah true. 

The chessmood app?

Hello everyone! This is my first ever topic in the forum!

I have been making an app yesterday on appsgeyser.com and I found that there is a option to turn a website into an app and its very cool! How good it would be to have our own app and publish it to play store! The website is absolutely free for making such apps. The app can be downloaded by anyone whom the creator sends the link of the app and it is free! But when you will be publishing it to the play store, it will cost 25 dollar.

Let's come to the conclusion:

Creating the app and sharing the link to download is free!

Publishing it to play store costs 25 dollars!

Give your feedbacks and suggestions on this plan and Avetik sir plz also reply sharing your view.

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Um normal app can be designed by any app builder website but I do not know how effective they are but in case of a normal programmed app .It will take minimum 3000 to 5000 usd and even more and its expensive too because I think every feature take time and money. For example coach wants a voting system during we play against him so making this kind of system in app is super expensive I am sure. 

Once coach will get donations and have enough budget then he will def do best for us. He shares best knowledge so the quality of his app will be tremendous too. He won't compromise in quality!

Hey Jyotisko! 
Thanks for your nice words and for the idea. 
I didn't know about that websites. 
App - is of course a great idea. Soon or less, we'll have it. 

Everything - one by one :) 

How to play against 1.e4 Nf6

How to play against 1.e4 Nf6

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I don't know which line is chessmood proposing, but I prefer theres two:

• 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. c4 Nb6 5. f4 Alekhine defence 4 pawn's attack dxe5 6. fxe5 e6 7. Nf3 Be7 8. Be2 O-O 9. Be3 Nbd7 10. Nc3 f6 11. exf6 Nxf6 12. O-O 

• 1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. d4 d6 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Be3 Nbd7 8. Nc3 f5 9. exf6 Nxf6 

These lines can occur in 1600-2000 levels quite many times, although Alekhine's defence is a rare opening. Correct me if I am wrong somewhere.

Accelerated Dragon vs Rossolimo (Movement order)

Hi!, how black should play against Rossolimo variation with this order of movements?

A) 1. e4 c5, 2.Nf3 Nc6, 3.Bb5 g6, 4.Bxc6 dxc6, 5.0-0 and now?!

B) 1.e4 c5, 2.Nf3 Nc6, 3.Bb5 g6, 4.Bxc6 dxc6, 5.d3 Bg7, 6.0-0 and now?

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I had the variation A a couple of times, I like to play 5…Bg7, d3, Nf6, h3, Nd7, Nc3, e5 (a few strong GM’s have played like that)

Arturo, great question. 
I'll cover in the upcoming webinar for PRO Members. 

French 3. Bd3 Nf6

I have two questions about this line:

(1). What should White do if Black chose 4. ... Ne4 rather than Nfd7

(2) What should White do if Black chose an early ...f6 (or even ...f5, which I have faced in some other variations), say, instead of 7. ...Qb6, so 7. ...f6?

Can White gain an advantage anywhere here?

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Okay first of all against Ne4 you have few nice options such as Qe2 and Ne2 etc. I like Qe2 because it activates the queen on a decent square with tempo and put black's knight into question. Let me show you a game in the bottom and you will see why white is better okay.

Game 1 

[Event "Valencia Preferente"]

[Site "Valencia"]

[Date "1995.??.??"]

[Round "?"]

[White "Mora Martinez, Luis"]

[Black "Monmeneu Chulia, Vicente Jose"]

[Result "1-0"]

[ECO "C01"]

[Annotator "abhic"]

[PlyCount "55"]

[EventDate "1995.??.??"]

[EventType "swiss"]

[EventRounds "9"]

[EventCountry "ESP"]

[SourceTitle "EXT 2010"]

[Source "ChessBase"]

[SourceDate "2010.11.25"]

{check sample line one too} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Bd3 ({tarrash variation} 3.

Nd2 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Bd3 c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. Ne2 cxd4 8. cxd4 f6 9. exf6 Nxf6 {

Black's main plan is to target the d4 pawn and play on the semi open f file

and at some point even sac on f3 to ruin white's pawn formation. Black can

also put more pressure by playing e5 and bother white with active pieces and

passed pawn d5.. Black can also activate his light squared bishop with

Bd7-e8-h5 to further increase the pressure on d4 pawn. Plans for white White

can use the weakness on e6. Dark squares in black's camp are weak that's why

if you trade daek square bishop here then it favours white because then you

will use e5 and c5 with your knight.}) 3... Nf6 4. e5 Ne4 5. Qe2 {this move

forced f5 because if you dance with Ng5 then h4 traps the dancing knight} (5.

Qe2 Ng5 6. h4) 5... f5 6. exf6 Nxf6 7. Nf3 Bd6 8. O-O O-O 9. Ng5 {prepares the

move f4 by targetting the weak pawns.} Re8 (9... h6 10. Nxe6) 10. f4 Bd7 11. c3

c5 12. Be3 cxd4 13. cxd4 Nc6 {Here we have same king of structure like I

shared in the sample line but issue is white have excellent grip in the center

and black's pieces are cramped} 14. Nc3 a6 15. Kh1 b5 16. a3 b4 17. axb4 Nxb4

18. Bxa6 Rxa6 19. Rxa6 Nxa6 20. Qxa6 Qb8 21. Bc1 h6 22. Nh3 Rc8 23. Ng1 Rc4 24.

Nge2 Bc7 25. f5 e5 26. Nxd5 Bb5 27. Nxf6+ gxf6 28. Qe6+ 1-0

can you show move orders of f6 and Qb6 lines so I can try to search something for it?

I am not able to make pgn files I do not know why

Hey Ramon! 
The 1st question - 4...Ne4? is a bad move, he'll be in a big trouble. 
Right now if we play 5.f3 Black has Qh4. 
But simple move like 5.Ne2 with a threat f3, gives white a big advantage. 

2nd question. 
f6 we meet always with f4, as you see in the streams. f5 is a bad move as well. You can push b4, getting space adv. in the queenside as well. In future the winning play will be with g4. 
Black pieces are staying horrible. 

The World Champion joined us! :)

I was proud that in ChessMood, among our students there are even 2600+ Grandmasters.
Today a former world champion joined us????

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Say it it's Magnus. I am so excited to hear the name.. Leave the suspense please

Pretty certain he/she is excited to see new analysed material and build on it.The Coach is certainly keeping the suspense on.

It's a secret guys :) 

course “secrets of the middlegame” downloadable in pgn-format?

Are the games from the course “secrets of the middlegame” also downloadable in pgn-format?

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The commented Classical games will be. Also it will come with a quiz! 

Karpov's legendary moves

Hey champions! 
How well do you know classics? 
In both positions is White to move. 
What to play?  

Here are the links of the games (for PRO Members), but please, first think about the positions and then watch the games. 
https://chessmood.com/course/chess-classical-games/episode/1472
https://chessmood.com/course/chess-classical-games/episode/1473

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I'm not a pro member (yet) and therefore have no access to the given links - but I remember the game in the first position, W played the somewhat surprising retreat Nb1, as Nc3 was totally out of the game and had no moves forward. After Rxd2 W would have brought his N back into the game with Nxd2 and otherwise, W could get his N back into the game later after removing Rd2 with e.g. Nd2/Nb3.

I don't know the 2nd game, but the situation looks similar - W probably played again Nb1, as Nc3 was totally out of the game and had no moves forward and W could later bring his N back into the game via Nd2 and later maybe to f3.

Caro Kann with early ...e6 Passive play

Maestro, in this section in the video course, in your second illustrative game where Black does a better version (i.e. 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6 5. c3 Nf6 6. Bf4 e6, not allowing an early f4!), your game continued 7. Nf3 Bd6 8. Bxd6 Qxd6 9. Qe2 0-0, 10. Nbd2 At this point, instead of 10…a6, can Black actually play 10….Nd7 with the idea of (1) preventing Ne5 and (2) play a quick ...e5 himself? What would you recommend against this line of play? 

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Hey Ramon! 
The problem of Nf6, is that he's going far from h7 and weakening his King. 
You can go, 0-0, Rae1 and Ne5 anyway. 

The point is whenever he goes with e5, after de5 he'll have a d5 isolated pawn. 

Happy Independence day & I'm back!

Hi everyone!

On this auspicious independence day, I have returned & so I am officially back!

Have a great day & I look forward to good times for the next 6 months here & to smash my goals and make GM Avetik proud! Let's go...Right Mood Right Move COGRO & NO HOODIE BLUNDERS! ;-)

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Welcome back Richard! 

Let's do that!! 

French Bd3 5. ...Nbd7 (15. ...Nf5!?=)

Dear maestro Avetik,

In the line 1.e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Bd3 dxe4 4. Bxe4 Nf6 5. Bf3 Nbd7 6. Ne2 e5 7. 0-0 e4 8. Ng3 exf3 9. Re1+ Be7 10. Nf5 Ng8 11. Rxe7+ Nxe7 12. Nxg7+ Kf8 13. Bh6 Kg8 14. Qxf3 Nf8 you suggest 15. Nh5 saying that Black's best is to go back with ...Nd7. However, my engine wants to play, instead of Nh5, the move Qf6 and shows that after Nh5 black can actually defend against Nf6mate with 15. ...Nf5!? evaluating the position as equal.

I would much appreciate it if you could comment on this line of play. Cheers! 

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Hey Ramon! You're absolutely correct. 
15, Qf6!! is winning.  

FIDE Rating System- Curse or Boom?

Is it tough to become Grandmaster now or it was tough to become Grandmaster in 90s?

Another question is do you guys like the K- factor thing in fide rating system .I seriously hate it. For example a guy of below 18 have huge advantage to improve and become GM on the other hand if a guy crossed 18 then K factor makes the task super complex. 

Coach how you guys handle this terrible rating system. I know talent matters and you can achieve goals but this is also truth we are not lucky to win all open events and achieve GM title in easy way.  For me all I can do is work hard and as coach suggested play events and analise your games with strong players but what to do against this rating system? 

Take a look at the article in the bottom and see a guy got 2500 from 2000 and he was below 18. I know he is talented so he deserve it but don't you guys think that this rating system helped him a lot. On the other hand if a guy who is same talented is above 18 then his rating graph won't climb up like it does in this case.

https://chessbase.in/news/vardaan-nagpal-reaches-2501/

Your ideas will be useful. 

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My opinion is FIDE must give equal chances to players of all age so we will see equal ratings at some point and a lot people who are stuck at 2000 can atleast get 2300 with K 40. Here I am 1465 and like all players I do have goals to become GM. I never give up and I am happy with chessmood but I seriously hate this rating system.

Dear Abhi,

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

Fide 2000

Fide 2200 CM

Fide 2300 FM

Fide 2400 IM

Fide 2500 GM

Reachimg each of them requires different strategies, and preparations.

You may reach FM and think about other aspects of life ... 

I have GM and IM friends that stopped playing chess as a pro, because it requires time and energy. They were frustrated and tired. Their ELO dropped 100-200 points and they stopped...   

We are human beings, everything moves and evolves in our mind. Flexibility is intelligence my Chessmood friend. 

Go step by step

That's true and don't worry I am also gonna start working on computer and job skills once my normal training is over and I live in present not in future. Who knows I will find love or not  and from past 7 years I only loved chess. rubic cubes, meeting besties from US in call and that's it. I am not a kind of person who feel attracted to a lot things. I don't even like to go out for fun. For me chess is fun and when i feel bored I watch chess movies or call of duty games. I know life is based on what you suggested but man I am super dedicated loser you ever found online. From 7 years of my chess journey I always lost and lost and after I found chessmood family my hope to become a GM is alive again. I know it's not gonna be simple but I will give my 100% on my game.

Find Love as your motivation, not Hatery my Chessmood friend, then everything you do is right (Dharma)

This poem I want to share with you:

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us — don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

Emily Dickinson

Best Combinations

In this post I want all ChessMood Family to post the best chess combinations ever which you ever solved or saw in any game.

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As you all know I am a big fan of Bobby Fischer and whenever I feel sad he is the only guy who motivate me even though he is not alive but his games and his movies and pictures everything makes me super motivated. About my fav. player read this post.

https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/your-favourite-player

So now let's move on to the topic. I wanna choose the position from a well known game of him called " The Game of Century" here in this position White just played Bg5 and better was to play Be2 and castles but see he not only lost a tempo by playing Bf4 to g5 but also violated an opening principle " Never Move the Same Piece Twice in the Opening without any good reason" now it was Fischer's move and his next move turned the tables and he went on to win the game. Let's see who can paste the whole lines without using computers and books. 

The Scotch Game - The Beginners Mind - Part 02

Ok guys we continue where we left off last time examining the ramifications of 4...Nxd4 against the Scotch Game, and we concluded that the commonly played 5.Qxd4 c5? or 5.Qxd4 d6 6.Nc3 c5? is just too weakening for Black, yes he dislodges the Queen temporarily but the price was too high as explained in Part 1.

So then is 4...Nxd4  just plain bad, or is the premature c5 the cause of all Black's problems or is it a bit of both. For sure if we can't do something soon about White's dominating Queen on d4 Black's position will quickly become more passive and more difficult to play, in another game played against Coach Avetik in his from 1600 - 2400 series  his opponent tried to solve his difficulties with 5.Qxd4 Qf6 challenging the Queen with tempo without compromising his Pawn structure and should White exchange Queens on f6 it would actually be Black that has taken over the lead in development. All good right, not quite, White being a strong player will not co-operate so easily and rather than exchange Queens a mini battle will now be waged  over  the fight for a lead in development and control of the Centre, the result of which will decide the outcome of the opening. 6.e5 was played and black continued 6...Qb6  again offering the Queen exchange seemingly without a loss of time,  and should White meekly move away without making a threat Black once again would  overtake the lead in development and the worse would probably be behind him.

There is a difference however between offering the Queen exchange on f6 and offering it on b6, on f6 Black could have recaptured with a piece speeding up his development and keeping his pawn structure intact but on b6 he is forced to recapture with a pawn damaging his structure and leading to an unpleasant endgame, sometimes the half open a-file in such positions offers sufficient counterplay to maintain the balance but I don't think that is the case here. White also need not exchange Queens here as 7.Be3 is an attractive alternative, allowing black to exchange Queens and avoid a damaged pawn structure but in return White will retain a lead in development and the Bishop takes up a dominant position on d4 cramping Black and making his position very uncomfortable to handle. We can stop here and conclude that White has won the opening battle and that 5...Qf6 while ingenious  does not solve all of Black's problems.

In the next instalment we will continue to drill down after 4...Nxd4, so far we have seen what Black should not do, let's see whether that knowledge can be used to figure out what he should try instead.

See you next time.

Part 1 here:  https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/the-scotch-game-the-beginners-mind-part-01

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Nice series you are doing on this topic. In fact it is really funny because I met this move many times in the last month. Maybe someone made a video on Youtube about "how to beat the scotch with NxNd4" "The unexpected move, making worthless all white preparation in the Scotch". It is a nice selling speech... Who knows... Anyways, nice work, I appreciate it! Best!

Wow!!! Kevin!! 
Amazing. 
Thanks for sharing so much value with others. 
One thing. After 6...Qb6 I think 7.Qb6 is a strong move too. After 7...ab6 we play 8.Nc3 and then Blach has issues with Nb5. 

Another thing, that is very strong too, is 6.Be3! 

Hey Kevin, 

Thanks for all these. These will help me in my future so I am copying and pasting them in Word so that I did not lose all the values you have given. Very well written English and inspiring tone. Thanks for all this. Thanks for your time.

@Kevin_D after Qxb6 I only see two long term advantage. One is space with e5 pawn then second is weakmess on c7 and after Nc3 c6 d6 will also become a target. Sorry I mainly focus on those lines which gives me a lot problems. The variation you chose is educational true but I never had any trouble in this line so I never dive deeper in this position. I play anything in rapid and blitz and win.