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London System Be2 option 2 (c5) issue

For Be2 two options are given - option 1 7... g5 is equal after 8. Nfd2 and 9. exf4

Option 2 is given with 7... c5, however after 8. c3 g5 only 9. Nfd2 is covered. Better is 9. Bg3 and now the plan in option 1 of responding e6 is not possible as White now has dxc5. After 9... Nxg3 10. hxg3, cxd4 can be answered by cxd4, which wasn't possible in the option 2 8. O-O line since c3 has been played. Now the Bg7 isn't so useful. This perhaps why option 1 is more frequent.

In Win With the London System, not much space is devoted to the d6 variation, and it gives Option 1,  8. Nfd2, 10... c5, but now considered 11. d5, however the analysis breaks down at move 18, where 18... Kf8 gives an equal position instead of the stated inferior Nxd4.

Replies

Note the London is the theme for this week's theme tournament.

bishop stays normally, take it easy :D maybe later will be used e5 move.

They're very playable positions, David. 
You can try them from the White's side in the tournament and ask questions during the webinar. 
The key is to try to open the position and not hurry up with castling and showing the cards. 

Software for memorizing the lines

Hey Champions! 
I see that many of you have problems with memorizing variations. 

There are different solutions, like Chessbase trainer, lichess or chessable move trainer. 
We decided to create ours. Some kind of dream software. 
The head of the technical department assured me, that whatever I want, they can create. 

Now, I would like to hear your thoughts. 
What kind of options you would love to have? 
What options from other Softwares you like? 

Any option, that comes to your mind, just tell us. 

We are going to build something super useful for you guys. 
Looking forward to seeing your thoughts. 





Replies

This would really help everyone, Coach!  


Things I like about Chessbase opening trainer ("COT"):

1. You can start to train on any move, so you can drill sub-variations until you have got them, and then branch out

2. It has a strong engine you can turn on, which shows some ideas for why the position is good for you and some plans, that you can glance at when you get to the end of the line.

3. It has a hint feature, so If you can't remember, it nudges you by telling you which piece moves

4. It connects to their big database, so you can identify quickly top games in that position.

5. You can have the software play you through the lines (it goes over each 3 times on autoplay), which is helpful if you haven't looked at them for a long time.


Things I don't like about COT:

1. COT stores all your white moves, and all your black moves, in one big file, and links to your chessbase repertoire databases.  This is generally the right approach, but sometimes I'd like the opportunity to only load up elements of the repertoire.  It also gets confused where you play an opening both with white and black, and displays the lines jumbled up.  Also, where you have old lines there you used to play, it can be hard to get them out of the drills without deleting them from your repertoire databases.  

2. COT doesn't identify transpositions

3. COT seems to assume that as you are drilling  you'll want to add known theory/moves to your repertoire, and be browsing around in the trainer to add to your lines.  Chessmood repertoire is often going way beyond known lines, and when that happens there are confusing messages displayed.  What I want is a clean "line driller".

4. COT sometime suggests opponent's replies that are in known theory, but not in your lines, and tries to drill you on them.

5. COT seems to get fixated on one line, and as you are drilling, you need to repeatedly enter that same line again and again even after you have definitively remembered it, while there are still other variations that are not being displayed at all.  Let's say there are 20 lines in the segment you are drilling - COT might select them as 1 2 1 3 1 1 4 2 1 1 3 4 1 1 5 etc, so in 15 drills you'll go through line 1 7 or 8 times, and take forever to get to lines 6-20!  That obsession with line 1 might continue for hours, until you are screaming at it every time it selects line 1 to drill again.  Getting the algorithm right so there is good balance between the lines it selects to drill, the time to get through all the lines, and the ideal number of repetitions, is clearly tricky but COT doesn't do it well.

6. There is no way to identify when you last looked at a particular sub-branch, and whether you have missed bits entirely.  Could the program display the lines as an organogram, and color code each line (i.e. red, never drilled; amber, drilled in last month; green, drilled in last 2 weeks).  Cool to be able to click the organogram and be taken directly to a drill on that line and all its subvariations.

How about awarding us chessmood coins for each segment where there is say 20+ lines and we complete a drill perfectly?  How about a tree of PRO members to show who is leading the ability to remember (say total number of lines perfectly drilled in last 2 weeks?  A bit of competition would really encourage us! 

Fantastic initiative if you can come up with something that helps in Opening preparation. I found this simple yet effective site to do it https://www.studyopenings.com/.

Found the same problems when working with Chessbase Trainer as mentioned here.

Coach, I personally use chesstempo opening trainer and as far as studying the openings go, it is really useful. I just wish they had an area where you can easily enter in comments about the position that you can see. They have a comment area, but it is not very user friendly.  Overall, I do enjoy the chesstempo site for just going over the lines. Additionally, I am a huge fan of chessable and use their site quite a bit too, but it is a lot more time intensive to create your own "book." 

That is a good point just made about chessable.  It does seem you really need to spend some time just to get the repertoire in the program.  That being said, here I some quick thoughts I have.

BookUp/Chess Openings Wizard (COW):

Taking the best from here, I like that it is a positional database, not a move base.  ALL transpositions are caught.  Input is simple, and drilling the lines is a breeze.  Very simple to use.  I hate you cannot print out your repertoire in ECO format anymore.

Chess Position Trainer(CPT):

I like that you have a nice box in the left corner which summarizes your repertoire as white and black.  (There are some youtube videos about this program that illustrate that well) EDIT:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OHSJ8ZL680 for example.  In COW, you have to remember what files you have but CPT lays it out much better graphically.  This is also the first attempt to systematize learning by making you keep the lines in your head.  It allows you to just follow their study plan and you can review things when they get older and you have to convince the program you still know your lines.  It is basic though.

Chessable:

It looks like they took the no special features drilling of COW, saw how CPT improved it, and then went all 'sciencey' and took FULL advantage of repetition learning.  I do believe that this is as close as chess has gotten to professional level memorization.  It just feels like you are doing this the best way possible.  What I do not like is the effort to enter things.  If you make a mistake or need to edit something, it is not so straightforward to fix it.  This may be much improved in Chessable 2.0 just released.

Chess Base:

I cannot improve on the post above me in relation to ChessBase.  I think you can start to see the blend of how each of the existing programs has some great features, but no one program has them all.  Chess Base access to Megabase et al is really a strong feature.

StudyOpenings.com:

As mentioned in the forums less than a day ago, this has some potential for an effective working system that is simple to use.  I would look at this just to see how easy the interface is.  It also seems to have some statistics but I have not used yet so I cannot comment.

Summary:

If Chess Mood is going to write a new program to do things like this, I think you can cherry-pick from each of the above.  All seem to have one great feature not all of them have.  So we need a blend of all of these things.

Comment:

This seems to me like an extraordinary step to be writing something like this.  I have no feel for how much time this would take or how detailed the final vision would be featurewise.  But chess.com and so on required a LOT of programming time to get to where they are, and would it not take away from things like lesson creation, etc?  I worry that you could be reinventing the wheel somewhat?  On the other hand, if you were to mesh all the above into one easily usable program, I think you might open up a new business for yourselves!

I will be watching this thread with great interest and high hopes :)

Hi Coach, is the project to build a software to memorize opening lines still in your roadmap or it has been cancelled. It he answer is, yes it is on the roadmap, then could we have some rough estimate when it could be available.

Tnx.

Sicilian Defence Accelerated Dragon

Yesterday I played a tournament . Two of my opponent played against me following line. I was black .

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6

5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. Qd4

I have a good preparation of Accelerated Dragon according to our chessmood opening as   i was expecting accelerated dragon.  What is the best continuation of above line.

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I just met this line too. But it does not look dangerous. I played 6...Nf6 7.e5 Nd5 8.e6 f6 9.exd7+ Bxd7 and Black seems fine

I've been facing this line a lot in Internet Blitz. Here is what I have in my file (arrows are lost in PGN export). These lines are loosely based on what GM Avetik has played in his "Crushing with ChessMood openings" and  "from 800 to 2400" streams, which I *highly* recommend you to watch (more so than going over my lines).

Peter is right. 
I have played against it and showed during the webinars 2 ways. 
Both 8...f6 and 8...Nf6 are fine. 

After 8...Nf6 the key variation is 9.ef7 Kf7 10.Bc4 d5 11.Bb3 e5! 12.Qe5 Bb4+ with Re8! 

After 8...f6 9.ed7 Qd7 (Bd7!?) Black is fine too. Soon e5 is coming, and black has a pawn in the center. 
You can also play at some point Qg4 exchanging the queens. 

So both are fine. 
After 8.Nc3 Black gets a good play with different ways. 8...Bg7 is best, but simple 8...Qb6 also solves the problem. 

4... Nb6 in the Alekhine

After 4... g6 we play Bc4. My opponent played 4... Nb6 first then 5... g6. What should be done against this move order?

Replies

https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2021-armenian-championship-1st-league/05-Shahinyan_David-Danielyan_Vahe :)  
Just answered in another threat :) 

The TODOs in the Alekhine course

Worked through this one now, and as it's work in progress trying to work out what is missing:

. 4...  Bf5
. 4... dxe5
. 4... c6
. 4... e6 (looks dreadful, but some 2000+ encounters so maybe a word or two on how to punish Black for blocking in his bishop)
. Early deviations (there was a course being sold on the Brooklyn defence - 2... Ng8 which I've played against a couple of times). Also dealing with Ne4 probably should be mentioned as it occasionally gets played but is dismissed as only beginners play it (which is why there are grandmaster encounters in the database then!). There are even 20 games of Ng4?? - certainly that knight is going abracadabra and doesn't need mentioning in the course, but interestingly 2 games of 2200 players have 3. d4 as the next move - paranoia or a late night drinking and automatic play (sadly they win their games, as failure to punish the opponent should also be punished!).
. Probably 3rd move deviations should get a quick mention - Nb6 (must transpose surely), e6, Nc6 (another transposition likely), c6, c5 (probably just c4 here - Black must be hoping White will over-expand, but the more cautious c3 means you have to learn a lot of c3 sicilian theory), g6 (transposition or a mistake?)
. Model games
. Advanced section (14. Bd3, Ng5 against g6 line)

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4... Nb6 followed by 5... g6 (no Bc4 now) - asked about this in another thread.

The missing ones are coming. 

Chessmood vs the Clemenz opening

So as everyone knows, the Clemenz opening is 1. h3. Usually it's just a wait and see transpositional trick, but sometimes it has a life of its own with g4 and g5 (Grob style which I guess where that plan will be eventually covered), where Black needs to decide to play h5 or h6, or neither.

The question is what is the right way that gives you the greatest chance of a Chessmood opening transposition (or a easy refutation). I went for c5, which gives White a choice of transpositions to an English with h3 (not good for White), a Sicilian accelerated dragon or sideline where h3 is just about okay in some of those lines and not in others, a London (the expectation) or a Colle setup which happened in the game.

Although my combination was in error (forgot the 3rd rank opens) I bumbled through for a win, I wasn't so happy with castling queenside and hope to push the kingside pawns to exploit h3 as the centre wasn't fixed and I could come under attack, but life looked worse on the kingside. Certainly although the Colle without an e4 push makes White's bishop bad, just where do I place mine? I'm not sure h6 Bf5 and the forced swap on d3 is the best line.

So:
1> What is the guidelines when facing h3 (given White can play quite a few things)
2> The suggestion/improvements against the Colle style position where it ended up

{and yes, bonus points for knowing the origin of my opponent's handle]

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Opening-wise there is an interesting comment from the engine. It proposes 5...cxd4 instead of 5...Bf5 after White's 5.b3.

Can we explain the reasoning of the engine?

The engine suggests that since White decided to fianchetto their Bishop they will of course want to open the a1-h8 diagonal, to activate the Bishop, and by 5...cxd4 6.exd4 Black could make it more difficult for White to achieve that goal.

You'll love the daily lesson 42 :) 

Pirc course vs. Marin's book

Hi,

Just studied the Pirc course: well done!

I have one question.

Marin in his 2017 QualityChess book on the Pirc gives following line: 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Bf4 c6 5.Qd2 Nbd7 6.Nf3 and now 6...Bg7!

I don't think this was covered in the ChessMood course. What are your ideas on this?

Greetings,

Thomas from Belgium

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I think that the line that you are looking for is in the Advanced Section /Bg7 with c6. Check it out!

https://chessmood.com/course/11-crushing-the-pirc/episode/1320

My recommendation after 6…Bg7 would be to play 7.Bh6, waiting for 7…O-O (after 7…Bxh6 Black loses a tempo and White has a great game after 8.Qxh6) and then the usual strong attacking idea h4/h5!

Hey Thomas! 
Overall Nf3,Bf4 with Qd2 setup is a very dangerous one for Black. Played by Giri a lot and there is a very nice game Fressiner - Almasi on it. 
https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2018-bundesliga/05-Fressinet_Laurent-Almasi_Zoltan 
  
Black's best way to fight against the system is to delay with Bg7 and 0-0 moves, but play Nbd7,e5, c6,b5.

In our case after 6...Bg7 7.Bh6! 0-0 8.h4 or 8.0-0-0 first, White gets a very dangerous attack. 

Banned from ChessMood

Dear PRO Members! 
Unfortunately, recently we've informed, that some players during the ChessMood tournaments are sending offensive messages and behaving very badly... 

Please, please, please!!
Whenever such things happen to you or you witness it, inform us. 

We'll not let anyone ruin the nice atmosphere and friendly mood of our ChessMood Family. 
Such people will be banned from ChessMood. 

You can just email us. We'll keep your name anonymous, of course. 
Thank you very much! 

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I had an accusation of playing far better than my low 1885 blitz rating in one of the tournaments.

I'm not going to name, and I respect there are players online who do cheat, but in a tournament designed to help learn with no prizes, aside from an ego trip (winners don't get named on Chessmood which I think is good policy) I don't see what anyone would gain. After a frustrated outburst at the opponent for the disrespect while trying to play (I lost on time in an equal position in the end, but so what), we looked at the game after and I believe the outcome was amicable.

I would ask that if you think someone is potentially being dishonest, don't accuse particularly during the game. Look at it after the tournament on analysis to also check your own play too, perhaps some of the other games they played, gather some evidence and contact Chessmood for an opinion. That way it stays friendly.

Please, guys, inform us in such cases https://chessmood.com/contact 

Sicilian with 2.Bc4

How to play against 2.Bc4 in Sicilian? 
We've uploaded the material. 

Check out here: https://chessmood.com/course/crushing-all-the-sidelines-of-sicilian 

Replies

Big thumbs up from here. Bc4 is usually dismissed in the books as play e6 and you'll be okay. In practice though lower rated players often get an advantage against inaccurate play by Black.

A question is whether 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 [Edit: yes it is, with the 2nd and 3rd move swapped] and 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Bc4 (abracadabra, the pawn just got gambitted with maybe c3 to follow or c3 now then Nxc3 and/or Bc4) get covered here, or are they coming later?

Also Chess and Bridge have noted that GM Pert has released a Chessbase DVD on anti-sicilians for a 2... Nc6 repertoire (https://chess.co.uk/collections/new-chess-products/products/a-black-repertoire-versus-the-anti-sicilians-nicholas-pert-pc-dvd?mc_cid=23efdf3277&mc_eid=8b2935913f). As well as covering the Chessmood 2. Nc3 3. Bb5 variation and all the usual lines there is an interesting minor line 2. Be2 which I've never heard of or seen. Nf6 is suggested against 2. c3 as well. Might be good additional / support material for the course here, as well as, given parts of the course are still in (re)writing interesting source material to evaluate or even improve upon.

Nice add on. However, I was hoping for some more concrete theory on the move 4.d3 next to the model games. 

The move 5.Bg5 is the most popular choice in this line. This move is mentioned in one of the model games but you mention in the following line that white shouldn't give up his dark-squared bishop so easily and we should take with the queen and take b2. But this looks pretty good for white? The computer also likes it. 

1. e4 c5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. d3 e6

5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 d5 7. exd5 exd5 8. Bxf6 Qxf6
9. Bxd5 Qxb2 10. Nbd2

Isn't taking with the pawn 8...gxf6 and castle long much better for black?

Bo Schlechter

I had my doubts about how well the Schlechter variation in the French (3. Bd3) would stand up against strong players. Although I forgot the key move 8. Ng3 I managed to hold it together and eventually win due to a blunder against a much stronger player (~2200).

Replies

Nd2 with Nc4! against early Bd6 moves :) 

Question about the London System

Hello everyone!

I liked a lot our system against the london opening, but recently I played against 2 Fide masters and both played me Bd3 instead Be2 with the idea to push the pawn on e4 later. I don´t know how to react in this kind of situations. 

Thanks for reading and I hope your kindly answer soon. 

Best regards. 

Replies

Bd3 is supposed to be wrong when d6 is played. I've caught a few in the e5, e4 trap before.

Play e5 the Bishop hangs on d3 if White captures twice on e5. 

Where Bd3 exactly?

This is a good point, we'll wait for the answer from the grandmasters, but maybe we can do the same as against 5.Be2, I'm not sure.

Hello Again!

I think my question is very obvious because I said Bd3 instead Be2 and I asked about the plan in general. I don´t know where is the confusion 

The order is d4, Nf6, Bf4, g6, Nf3, Bg7, e3, d6, h3, 0-0 and Bd3, but to be honest I think it´s unnecesary to put all the moves. 

Thanks for all your replys and sorry for the confusion 

Guys, this is a question, you can ask in the upcoming webinar as well :) 
For now the biggest downside of Bd3 (Why Be2 is more common), is because it allows Nd7, Re7 e5 plan! 
With the Be2, Black can't do that, as after queen exchanges the e5 pawn will be lost. 
With the same reasons, White's not hurting up with Nbd2 move. 

Accelerated Dragon 7. Be2 8. O-O 9. Nxc6

This line isn't covered in the course.

So 7. Be2 O-O 8. O-O d5 9. Nxc6 bxc6 10. e5 - now Ng8 is not possible. Both Ne4 and Nd7 are suggested in the IM Greet book, however looking at the database, Ne8 is an interesting idea - looking to challenge 11. f4 with f6, then capture with the Bishop on f6 after exf6, and bring the knight to f5 via g7.

What's the consensus on this (and perhaps another line to add to the course when it's updated).


Replies

David, Ne8 with f6 is strong! (the 1st line of the engine) 
But Nd7, with e6 and c5 also good for Black. 

Commented Games or Happy pieces?

I would very much appreciate your help and  educated opinion.

I have a three year plan and this year I will totally focus on 1. ChessMood`s opening repertoire, 2. Tactics and 3. Playing.

I will however be able to squeeze in a fourth topic with low priority during 2021. I am thinking of either Happy Pieces or Commented Classical Games.

My current rating is about 1700 and I am very uneducated in either topic. When it comes to opening, middlegame or endgame I have without doubt best knowledge in the endgame.

I would very much appreciate any opinion on which of these two ( Happy Pieces or Commented Classicals ) I should introduce during 2021. Perhaps it does not matter which?



Replies

Goran, at the moment Happy pieces is still not very long, I think that you should do both. It does not take too much time and I am sure that you will learn a lot in both courses. I did all of the courses in Chessmood in one year, working, with 2 kids and many extra activities, you can do it too! Happy learning!

Thank you for your advice. Perhaps doing them in parallell would be nice. When time is available  I then may chose according to my mood. Have no commitment to finish both during 2021 though.

Goran, had you a 1-1 call with a GM? 
When you join ChessMood PRO, you get a welcome 1-1 call, during which we set up a personalized study plan.  
You can reserve a seat on the events page-> 1-1 calls 

Jobava Line - 2.Nc3 instead of 2.Bf4

Hey everyone!

I started watching the "Jobava Line" video repertoire and I noticed that Avetik only covers 2.Bf4, giving 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 as the line.

However, if White starts with 2.Nc3, then White has some tricky options. For instance:

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5!? stopping g6 systems.

Alternatively, if 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.e4! is achieved.

So my question is, what is the best way to approach 2.Nc3? I presume playing 2...d5, and then learning some extra theory if 3.Bg5...?

Replies

I think d5 we should play anyway

You can't avoid the position after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5 anyway because it can also be reached via 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 d5 (our move) 3.Nc3. Would be good to have this covered in the course.

Yeah, it's not Jobava anymore. It's Veresov, which will be covered. 

Trap in the Closed Sicilian 2...Nc6 4...e6

In the 2...Nc6 course in the advance section 4...e6 video 18. Introduction the following variation is discussed 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Nf3 e6 5. Nxd4?! cxd4 6.Ne2 Nf6! 

However in one of my recent games with a strong opponent even better move was played:

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Nf3 e6 5. Nxd4? cxd4 6.Ne2 Qg5!!  The engine gives -1.28 big advantage for Black. 

Somehow I managed to survive, I'll post the game if I find it.

Do not fall for this trap :)

Replies

Hence O-O being the move here whereas Nxd4 for g6 I believe assuming I've got that right.

Could really do with a summary course to the closed sicilian to help navigate through the move-order thicket - particularly as some move orders may be between two different lines.

Ok we just play 5.O-O :)

hahahah thanks for the warning! :) 

Robert, that's true! 
But anyway, we don't play 5.Nd4 :) 

By the way, these lines you'll see soon, when we cover how to play against our openings from the Black side :) 

3....e6 versus the Sicilian. What to do?

3...e6 versus Sicilian.

Hi Guys,

I'm wondering how I should set up versus: 1. e4 c5, 2. Nc3 Nc6, 3. Bb5 e6. I can't find any info on this line in any of the courses (have I missed something?), and yet I also can't find any real advantage against this system. How should I play against it?

Many thanks for your help!

Replies

Moves other than 3...Nd4 are briefly covered here:

Anti-Sicilian with Nc3!? Part 2
1. Welcome

I think you should play f4 and after d5 Nf3 transposed to the position covered in Sicilian part 3

Hi Jeremy!

I do like taking in these positions on c6 as in that case light-squared bishop of black is gonna be limited because of a pawn on e6. Later on, playing with f4 and Nf3 is what I am doing as well.

Also, I think pawn, later on, should be placed on d3 to limit this bishop's abilities if it goes to a6.

Good luck!

Question about Caro-Kann 4..Nf6

I couldn't find the following move order in the course: 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nf6 5.c3 Bg4

This is from a recent repertoire book on the Caro-Kann by Francesco Rambaldi. Does it transpose to one of our lines? All the moves in the course have Nc6 played before Nf6.

Replies

The same move order was also played by Alireza as black in the last Norway Chess tournament. 

Aryan Tari vs Alireza Firouzja (2020) (chessgames.com)

After 6.Qb3 black played 6...Qc7 and I believe there is no way the position would transpose to any of the ChessMood lines.

After 6.Qb3 Qc7 7.h3 Black has a choice. To go Bh5 and sac. a pawn after g4 with idea g5 and win the d5 pawn. 
Both are advanced, and I just add to my to-do list, to record and add in the the course. 

Beating anti-sicilians 2. Bc4, missing transpositions

Looking at https://database.chessbase.com/?lang=en some main transpositions are not covered, or maybe will be covered in upcoming course sections (Bb5, and perhaps Be2):

After 2) Bc4 Nc6 3) Nf3 Nf6 4) Bc4 e6 - White now has the 'crafty' 5) Bb5 (~2000 games). The idea is if Nd4, then e5 is available and if Ng4 Bxc6, which differs to the line as White since the knight is not on f6 at that point. One suggestion is the knight goes back to g8.

Also instead 5) Be2 [and as mentioned Be2 could do with some coverage (either as a GP, retreat, or even 2) Be2 appears which was covered in the Pert Fighting Anti-sicilian DVD), so if that was added perhaps this transposition could be added here.]

5) Bb5 also appears in the 2) Nf3 Nc6 3) Nc3 g6 4) Bc4 Bg7 5) Bb5  - a Rossolimo a tempo up (800 games) - how best to use this tempo?

Finally after: 2) Bc4 Nc6, there is even 3) Bb5 (2600 games). More amusing is 3...) Nd4 4) Bc4 appears often (White can't makeup their mind!). Again given the popularity it could do with a mention perhaps in the upcoming Bb5 course.

These might seem usual sidelines, but the lines covered in the course often are in single figures compared to hundreds or thousands of games of these lines with average of 2300 FIDE or so. Often all that's needed is a plan if the idea is innocuous - i.e. which of several plans in similar positions is the best here and why.

Replies

Hi David,

Some of the variations you are asking for are under construction and will be appearing on the website in near future.

Good luck!

David, I didn't understand the 1st question. 
You said Bc4 two times. 
I didn't get where Bb5? 

About 2.Nc3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nd4 will be a different section. (in the Bc4 section was covered just Bc4 systems) 
About 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 g6 4.Bb5 Bg7 transpoces to Rossolimo. 

London 5 Be2 Option 1 8 Nfd2 9 Bg3 improvement

After 9. Bg3 Nxg2+ 10. Kf1 the video gives Nh4. However, looking at this on the computer, stronger is 10. Bh3 and now if 11. Kg1 Qc8 12. Bf1 Nh4 - the rook on h1 is out of action.

Replies

David, I just showed that Black is fine. Often it's easier to explain the variation with 2nd best move, than to show the 1st line which goes a few moves. 

French 3... dxe4 5... Bd6

Interesting idea to play 5... Bd6 instead of c5, and I didn't handle it right. The aim is to keep the queens on and cause problems in turn on White's queenside, which happened. Looks like the correct way to deal with this was Nd2-Nc4 after Black castles instead of castling myself (which seemed natural, but it's too slow) gaining a tempo on the bishop and putting the knight somewhere useful.

Fortunately Black rushed the endgame, so instead of converting it, lost it.


Replies

Hi David! 
That's correct. 
The biggest downside of Bd6 move is Nd2 with Nc4. It's better to do without casting and don't show our cards. 

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