The Scotch Game - The Beginners Mind - Part 03

We're back and just to recap, the position under consideration is the following:  1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nxd4 This continuation for whatever reason is very popular at the 1200 - 1700 level. Now if you have read Parts 1 and 2 you may have come away with the impression that 4...Nxd4 is a very bad and naive move, but truth be told the move is not as bad as it looks provided it is connected with the right idea. If you doubt me and think that 4...Nxd4 isn't worth taking seriously,  then just know that Ex -World Champion Boris Spassky has used  the move on more than one occasion to defeat strong opposition, and I will show some of those games in the final instalment.

The correct continuation after 4...Nxd4 5.Qxd4 is 5...Ne7 but why? Isn't the f6 square just  a better and more active square for the Black Knight, the answer is yes and no.  Yes in general  Knight's are best placed on f6 and f3 in the opening, controlling more central squares and protecting one's Castled King especially the vulnerable h2 and h7 pawns. However Chess is not a game of generalities, generalities are best used as guidelines not doctrine, Chess is a game foremost of specifics, priorities and problem solving. The problem Black has to solve here is how to dislodge White's dominating Queen without compromising his structure or losing too much time and 5...Ne7 intending 5...Nc6 satisfies those objectives. Curiously a move such as 5...Ne7 would rarely occur to a 1200 - 1700 player because that level  hardly thinks in terms of specifics, they just want to attack something immediately or if they must defend it has to be a against a direct threat to one of their pieces or pawns.  

Before we delve further into the position after 5...Ne7 I want to mention that in another thread the question was asked 'How to improve calculation' and I commented that this was a very complicated topic with many layers, I will now reveal a secret tool used by strong players to help them calculate better and find the right moves and plans and a given position, are you ready, the secret tool is called "Comparative Thinking" this is when you borrow  known ideas from a similar position maybe even another Opening and try to apply them to the position in front of you, this is where your knowledge of Classical Commented Games could come in handy. Now back to 5...Ne7, and a personal experience to illustrate how comparative thinking could work in practise, many years ago I played some Blitz Games with black against the strong Cuban GM Jesus Nogueiras and he crushed me badly with the following line as White: 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Nf6 3.Nc3 Nxd5 4.Nxd5 Qxd5 5.Ne2 Look familiar :) at the time I was very angry with myself, I mean how could I lose to such a ridiculous move, true Jesus was much stronger than me but still. Jesus had sensed my frustration and after the blitz session had finished he graciously agreed to analyse the above position with me and the lessons learned I can now apply to our Scotch position after 5...Ne7 today and that's pretty much how comparative thinking works, a pattern triggers a déjà vu moment and you use it to help navigate and evaluate the current position before you. This is also why it is so important to analyse your own games, it helps you build a mental rolodex of positions, plans and structures that you will probably meet again and again.

Okay, moving on 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nxd4 5.Qxd4 Ne7 I can bet that one reason why this move escapes attention at 1200 - 1700 level is that on the surface the pin  6.Bg5 looks extremely unpleasant now there are two ways to go about solving this problem:

Way 1  is brute force calculation which should lead you to work out that 6...Nc6! is both safe and strong, this is why I emphasise that at 1200 - 1700 level learning to count efficiently is much more important than trying to memorise reams of opening lines, why, because if you cannot figure out over the board that 6...Nc6! is working, then how will you be able to find and play the correct strategic move 5...Ne7 without prior knowledge. The weakness of brute force calculation, at least for humans, is that it costs lots of energy, energy that we would like to conserve for more critical moments later in the game, which brings us to......

Way 2 Pattern recognition that we call up from our mental rolodex, we have seen a similar construction before and intuitively know what tactics to look for and what manoeuvres work best. This approach is used heavily by strong players when evaluating positions, with brute force calculation only coming into play to verify the details.  

Let's stop here for today and I will leave you with this question. What are the possible drawbacks of Black's 5...Ne7 to c6 manoeuvre. While you ponder that please check out the following link which is not entirely relevant to our discussion but I enjoyed it alot and thought that you might too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LHDaV5Dih8

Hope to see you soon with Part 4

Part 2 Here: https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/the-scotch-game-the-beginners-mind-part-02

Replies

Thanks again, eagerly waiting for part 4.

After 5......Ne7, the possible drawbacks are:

1. Black wastes time.

2. We have a strong e4 central pawn. Yes, they do can play d6 but it will not be as strong as our e4 pawn.

That's my point of view. Waiting for your kind reply :)

Low rated players think that if they bring our queen out in the centre, they can attack it, but in reality the queen is staying very strong on d4 square.

Kevin, I've no words to explain how much I appreciate all the help you provide to our Family members!  Thank you! 

Thanks for the valuable tips and insights provided in respect to game play and the thinking process to employ. Respect for anyone who selflessly shares knowledge gained to the ones who are working hard on improvement.

Great articles about the Scotch, Kevin ????

Post your craziest chess moments!

For me it's about Bobby Fischer and I cried 2 hrs when I thought of him after I saw pawn sacrifice movie. I am a big fan of him and once my game will improve I will study all his classics win and I will try  to learn from his games more because he is my idol

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Mine is when I lost against my friend and wouldn't stop crying! (c'mon! I was 7 that time!)

books for middle-game and end-game?

Hello, I am new here, just joined.

I would like some books recommendations (in English or Russian language) for middle-game and end-game improvement/study.  My long-time-control rating (OTB, over-the-board) was probably in the 1900-2000 ELO range (former USSR Cat-1 norm, back in 1977!!) and I want to to aim for ELO 2200 on long-time-control, i.e. USSR Candidate-Master norm. I currently train playing against Stockfish engine version 10/11 on long time controls, over-the-board.

I have read Nimzowitch My System and Romanovsky Middle Game (Plan) books and read also

book by Issac Lipnitsky titled

Looking for more books and also for suitable end-game books for Cat-2+ players of 1800+ ELO.

Thank you

Replies

Welcome to ChessMood @yuri_budilov!

It sounds to me like you have been playing chess for a long time! 

At the bottom of the page, there is a link that is titled "We Recommend". In that link, Coach gives the books to start with for study. I am sure you will find several that will interest you as well as be instructive.

I hope this helps!

Hi,

For practical endgame:

Vasily Smyslov: Endgame Virtuoso

Shereshevsky: Endgame Strategy

For middlegame:

Books written by Dvoretsky, and Sokolov

+ Best games written by world champions: Petrosian, Alekhine, Karpov ... 

I Think, First You Should Learn 1.e4 Before Learning 1.c4 ,Because From 1.e4 You May get Positional Positions,Strategic Positions,Attacking Positions and many Important Types Positions.So you will get Knowledge Of All Kind of Positions.You May Improve in all these types of positions.Here in Chessmood you can learn 1.e4 For white(full repertoire).Here We Have Very Tricky Openings.

With Chessmood Openings I have Won with Many IM'S in Classical Tournments and My Student Also won and drawed with Many IM's and WGM(Only Because Of Opening).Here you can learn Many Different Opening Ideas Aganist (Sicilian,Scotch,French and all Other Openings). For Your Aim I think these Openings Easily Helps You.For the study plan,Books you may call to Coach on Skype. 

Hey Yuri! 
check it out this page - https://chessmood.com/we-recommend 

I don't think to learn 1.c4 is the best approach for your level, but if you really want it, Marin's book is quite good. Many variations are old, but for your level, it would be ok. 

Change Weekly Arena time control?

Can we change Sunday's ChessMood Arena from g3+2 to g5+5 please? Or alternate between g3+2 and g5+5?  I think g5+5 is better for chess training. Thanks for considering.

Replies

Yes, I have trouble to play with such time control as i am a rapid player. Yesterday I lost 3 win games on time :(

not a bad idea @ARNAV_maheshwari! let us share our lichess ids... my id is jyotisko06 

yes, I would love to play with you guys.

my chess.com id is kevin_mx_sun

There is a public group: https://www.chess.com/club/chessmood. 

Are you suggesting to create an invite-only one for students? We can ask coach to decide.

Daily puzzles

D*mn those puzzles are hard! 

Replies

Try to determine the theme of the puzzle first, it makes it easier to find the solution. :)

Ramon, these puzzles are for developing the creative parts of our brain. 
After solving 2 weeks, every day, everything will become much easier :) 

The kew was in the 2nd move - Ne5! 

That same thing happened to me when I first joined Chessmood family...... After solving them for a week or two, I realized that they are not the usual puzzle and you have to be creative while solving......Now I almost face no problem in them:)

You will also understand the theme after a week or two...

I solved today's one because it was simple and yeah creative too. Thanks to woodpecker method book for improving my pattern recog. I normally don't ;like to solve puzzles on screen because I can't focus well on screen in solving positions. 

Final Position in the Scotch

I compared the lines given by Chessmood with the ones, in Jan Gustafsons Lifetimerepertoire. He ends his analysis with the words: "And it is white who has to be careful here". Which is according to the engine completly true. (8.h4, Qe6 9. g3, d6, 10. exd, Bxd) If we play your reccomendation (10.c4) the engines still gives a small edge to black, and no way to win for white at all. Especially through the active pieces blacks game is quiet easy. If we play your 2.nd option (9.Nd2) the engines and Jan see very good compensation for the bad structure. It would be great if you could give us some more ideas in this lines, as it seems like a great position for black. Thanks in advice! Christoph

Replies

Hey Christopher! 
Don't go so deep. 
You'll need to know more if your rating is 2600+.
After Nd2, the position is very fighting. + there is a3!? novelty, which is also very interesting. 

Second Part of Modern Pirc

Hello,

I like the first Part of the Modern Pirc.

When will the second Part come out?

Best Regards

Christoph

Replies

Hey Christoph! 
This month :) 

Rubinsteins game , Alternate move

https://chessmood.com/course/chess-classical-games/episode/1474

Actually while the video was paused here I did not see Qf1 move , instead I was thinking Kf2-e2 , then Nd2 .... and force queen exchange . Is it risky or would be same ?

Replies

Looks good as well! The only problem is that after you bring your King to e2 and then play Nd2, you may have issues with Qd7,Qh3. 

How to continue

I saw this game from part 4 of the 1600-2400 series. It was a beautiful move, but the computer didn't like it. I want to know how you would have continued if the opponent played gxh5 instead of Nxh5

Replies

I would prefer this line: 1. Rdf1 Ne5 2. Nd5 Qf8 3. Nxf6+ Bxf6 4. Bb5 Qg7 5. fxg4 Bxg4 6. Nf5 Bxf5 7. Bh6 Qg4 8. Rhg1 Bg6 9. Rxg4 Nxg4 10. Bxe8 Rxe8 more playable for both sides.

Kevin, the problem of weak engines, is that they don't feel the attack. 
There is even a big difference between stockfish and LCV. 
Stockfish feels attack much better. 
So when I'm making material for course, usually I check with both of them.

Chess.com engines are weak and often they will tell wrong things. 

This is a nice example. 
Even my computer engine shows that the position is unclear. 
But if you put to the cloud engine and give you a few seconds, he'll show that white's attack is winning. 

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

Replies

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 

Replies

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???

Replies

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.

Replies

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.

Replies

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

Replies

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?

Replies

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?

Replies

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.