The best games of April 2021 and the prizes

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 Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/OCLdwe6Z/white#0

Queen's Pawn Game: Symmetrical Variation

https://lichess.org/vEx9J3c3/black#0

Attack Attack and Attack

A game without a mistake or blunder.

An attacking game in berserk mode in 3+0

Winning against 2340 rated opponent.

One of the best move I have ever played.

23 ... Rxg2

https://lichess.org/JTLInLWK/white

French Bd3 Nc6 pawn trap on d4

Mate with Bishop and Knight vs Rook and two passed pawns.

Positional play in Italian Str. Training.

https://lichess.org/sp9mYlM3nCCJ

https://lichess.org/QqfGD5pc/white#49

Cool Knights!

Scotch Game

https://lichess.org/WWA7cNzR36tK

Sicilian Defence

https://lichess.org/YrMaoXeY/black#0

Sicilian Defence

https://lichess.org/ZssPZGFW/white#0

Tactics in Bullet

Again Tactics in Bullet

Found 24 ... Qc2 !! in Bullet.

A win over 2400 with GP

https://lichess.org/tuexbf22sZS2

My best SLP ever against 2500+ titled player

https://lichess.org/aY3r10fJbzvu

No blunders, no mistakes, no inaccuracies, 7 average centipawn loss, I might get banned :)

2 pieces sacrificed for the initiative 

https://www.chess.com/a/2JH4nuUD4Knk6

17 move grand prix win

https://lichess.org/Lrar0n3ZlvfK

SLP against 2400

https://lichess.org/XLdxLybGWZGq

Beating the Scandinavian ...Nf6

Black mixes up two plans?!

ThoNoJu vs Henkyhenk: B01 Scandinavian Defense: Modern Variation • lichess.org

Saving a lost position and winning against 2120 rated opponent. 

Saving a lost position and winning against a 2150 rated opponent. 

https://lichess.org/a0AbWTVQlSfE 

https://lichess.org/Dtr8yGuhtQTp 

May the Pasini be always with you :) (Unfortunately due to possibly the website outages, uploading a PGN file appears to be too bugged to do so at the moment.)

[Event "Live Chess"]

[Site "Chess.com"]

[Date "2021.04.08"]

[Round "?"]

[White ""]

[Black ""]

[Result "1-0"]

[ECO "B06"]

[WhiteElo ""]

[BlackElo ""]

[TimeControl "180"]

[EndTime "10:34:54 PDT"]

[Termination "White won by resignation"]

1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 a6 4. Be3 d6 5. g4 b5 6. Bg2 Bb7 7. h4 h6 8. g5 hxg5

9. h5 gxh5 10. Rxh5 Nd7 11. Rxh8 Bxh8 12. Qh5 Bg7 13. Bxg5 c5 14. e5 dxe5 15.

Bxb7 cxd4 16. Bd5 1-0

https://lichess.org/cFlrYVHm 

Beautiful king hunt leading to checkmate

https://lichess.org/p1BPQVvToKEj 

AntiSicilian quick win against 2450

French squeeze 

Caro attack

Blundered the bishop with later rook sacrifice

SLP after blundering the whole rook

French Defense squeeze.

Win with Scandi

https://lichess.org/8rErmdsrhgPC

Without Moving My King

https://lichess.org/Yy0st2IB

Modern defence, strong attack after bad start

https://lichess.org/8brsFlvDCoUn

Positional play training so no openings stuffs

https://lichess.org/lFUNZqDPyNvH

https://lichess.org/DMIL2mt29tLM

a fine win in Benko with black : 

https://lichess.org/8LzuZYcolsGs

https://lichess.org/VPRUp363xnJB 

And SLP in the old sicilian where I saved a position my opponent had +4.7 engine edge. 3 forks to win.

What about a mix of the Taimanov variation with chessmood openings? My mixes of the sicilian variation when I am on the black side have given me about 50 rating points. 

https://lichess.org/akdCfNOe/white

Fighting Benko against 2400 strong opponent

Trompowsky for black

Latvian gambit, of course forgot the refutation, just tried to play with normal moves ;))

 Alekhine Defense

https://lichess.org/Mw44nsEu/white#0

A perfect game

<iframe src="https://lichess.org/embed/0Pe3jF2K?theme=auto&bg=auto" width=600 height=397 frameborder=0></iframe>

https://lichess.org/akdCfNOe/white

Bf4 versus the Pirc

https://lichess.org/yF09FVFmWYdg 

Caro attack

https://lichess.org/4pCsipMz92vi

Cute mate

https://lichess.org/5uzb5ouJHAfX

Crazy

Crazy AntiSicilian from todays Bundesliga

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/Xk8Gxfuj/black#0

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/IwWQK4Sq/white#0

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/e6A2tjCk/white#0

I knew ideas and forgot line of caro still was able to won against 2500+

https://lichess.org/MwVn4SQcxXbH

https://lichess.org/akdCfNOe/white

So do men play against carokann... ;D.  https://lichess.org/AhxGThy8

Typical exchange sacrifice on c3.

Positional squeezing in AntiSicilian with exchange sacrifice

A good match:

https://lichess.org/WZF6m6SjTzaX

An interesting match:

https://chess24.com/en/game/AyrHMg9zQHePWfVzXdBNSQ

Scotch against 2400

Scotch attack against Qh4, missed checkmate in one move though :))

https://lichess.org/DhqE5QqK6AuG

I won by mounting pressure on my opponent until he cracked!!! I also Sacced TWICE!!!

Sicilian Defense

https://lichess.org/s8OutgOn/black#0

 Russian Game

https://lichess.org/tZE2JC4k/white#0

 Caro-Kann Defense

https://lichess.org/3DP0k9Vn/white#0

Power of Space

https://lichess.org/i2dqZyqAuMHQ

Power of minority attack

https://lichess.org/zV23aC1jNHA7

Power of initiative

https://lichess.org/xNeWL9Y7hUDk

Good french against 2400, ending was bad but managed to win in time trouble

Countering the Scotch ...Qf6

Beating the Alekhine ...Bg4

Beating a weird delayed ...Qd6 Scandinavian

Carlsbad Nd6

https://lichess.org/1Blxn9xDqyLd

Positional play in double fianchetto

https://lichess.org/UxrEJj7HBliQ

Testing double financhetto

https://lichess.org/76xVrx4QMCPD

Attack in stonewall str.

https://lichess.org/0uQwN2z5O0mh

Positional play 

https://lichess.org/7Sv1PlGiLTgF

Caro str. win

https://lichess.org/nvo9z3NmmUHz

SLP str.

https://lichess.org/k9nywvmqKpHZ

https://lichess.org/sYGBw4gg 

Testing positional play

https://lichess.org/5vgXvxgdKBxV

English opening play!

https://lichess.org/vPR5dljs#65

Grand Prix is fun but I am sad that I mixed up lines I think in game

https://lichess.org/WXogWs9D3d7S

Testing positional play 

https://lichess.org/L1ge3gvozAKE

Short kings gambit game

https://lichess.org/study/3dJhG6Ay

Again handled 2400 well positionally

https://lichess.org/89sCE4VlqQJT

A Qb4 Chessmood surprise in the Nc6 Sicilian

Fun finish to this one!

Rubinstein str. training 

https://lichess.org/yefg28hw/black#62

Testing positional play

https://lichess.org/67jrIcPElHSK

Catalan pawn str. play

https://lichess.org/aBOIZk6UsAAF

Minority attack!

https://lichess.org/ZXIwm2imZYCv

Power of Space

https://lichess.org/X3PqllRefo0K

Caro crushing win

https://lichess.org/gAFFfcP1ARiM

This game made my day. This game gave me valuable point to reach 2299! My best rating ever and funny thing is that Grand Prix was my first cm opening which I studied. My feeling of this opening is amazing!. My opponent felt like hell during this game facing Rxf6 then facing Bg5 then Bb8!!. I dont know what engine may say but it's one of my best games of my life. Crushing an almost 2400 in style. All credit goes to cm Grand Prix and presentation of coach @GM_Avetik_Grigoryan .My feeling of Grand Prix is superb !!!

https://lichess.org/AEBO7hKdDmzP

Take a look at pawn storming!

https://lichess.org/YNrOyCrz/black#14

Testing my positional play

https://lichess.org/oaqeKx3wH9HS

18 move english win

https://lichess.org/UJuKuVvz4ZQt

Learnt this c5 move against catalan from live commentary and tried to apply it in practice

https://lichess.org/DWtegeuV/black#34

Power of bishop pair

https://lichess.org/zHk45lY4/black#54

attacks in pirc with Bf4-Qd2

https://www.chess.com/game/live/8444585457 

https://www.chess.com/game/live/12075220253

https://lichess.org/vSfsATpQaZLW 
 

Attack!!

https://lichess.org/H0tibkn3

btw i am white in the game(EighthAccount)

Chess is fun

Achieved highest elo in my life on my second account 2300+ using cm line. This was my last game French Bd3

https://lichess.org/fHt9I2YdX1bL

https://lichess.org/heCudvmn/black

Caro-Kann Defense

https://lichess.org/x360f66W/white#0

Test my catalan str. feeling

https://www.chess.com/game/live/13359233333

Good Game!

Tried to follow chessmood opening & win the match.

https://chess24.com/en/game/94Zoy9n8QNuA9-MBSR8Zvw

Good win.

https://www.chess.com/game/live/12583130567

I’ve begun transitioning from 5 minutes to 10, as I find I need the longer time to really think through the positions.  As a result, my rating in the longer games has gotten over 2300.  

https://lichess.org/ihLewUnI/white

Stafford Gambit

I usually use a system with 6.Se3, but now I've tried the Avetic weapon.

https://lichess.org/QrE3KWOu#7

Hey, champions! 
Thanks for all your posted games. 

The 1st place goes to Claudio Thoux for his crazy attack! 
https://www.chess.com/a/2JH4nuUD4Knk6 

The 2nd place goes to Vladimir Bugaev for killing with Grand-Prix attack 
(The game you can find on the 2nd page)  

The 3rd place goes to Tiraturyan David for his nice tactic. 
https://lichess.org/2oGKGXry#32 

The 4th place goes to Abhi Yadav, for his very deep positional game. 
https://lichess.org/aBOIZk6U#40 
Abhi played another cool attacking game. Here is the link:  
https://lichess.org/AEBO7hKd#31   

The 5th place goes to Paulius Juknis for crushing the Pirc defense.
https://www.chess.com/game/live/8444585457 

Thanks for your participation. 
Keep the growth. 

Right Mood - Right Move! 
See you in May. 

Why are you losing?

One thing that is mentioned in Wetzell's "Master at Any Age" is 'getting the best bang for you buck'. That is older players may not have the luxury of being able to spend time everywhere, nor may an experienced player need to. There are usually one or two areas that are causing the most points/games/problems in someone's game and time spent there is going to pay more than on other areas (It's perhaps not so simple as that as sometimes you need to build foundations for later too).

Here's an idea. Go through your last 20-30 standard length games. If you don't have a lot of time, use auto-analysis on lichess or chess.com. For each game irrespective of the result, try to find 3 errors (I also note the move number and url). Move the pieces if necessary to try to understand why the computer marked it as an inferior move. Note the errors, and also if you were in time trouble (difficult to define since go for long enough and time will usually become a problem, but worth noting if the game finished with less than 5 minutes, and your opponent had significantly more time - or if one of your chosen errors happened in low time).

The aim is to look for patterns. I seem to be quite often opening up lines for the opponent's pieces. I also get into time trouble a lot (45 or 60 minutes even with 15 or 5 seconds increment is not a lot for me, so much of this will be less of a problem when going back to over the board chess).

Here's my last 10.

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Sorry if you need to 'go to specsavers' to read the above post - the editor decided that the whole post should be in a small font.

IoI... great job! 

Twitch chess Chess Mood course streaming

Hi all

I just finished watching GM Hohvannes Gabuzyhan webinar on Modern Maroczy a few moments ago, which was great (as all Hohvannes webinars) and after this, I went to Twitch chess and to follow some chess streams, where I am seeing a streamer (ChessLifestyle) streaming "Chessable + Chessmood" training and Rook vs Pawn course (by GM H Gabuzyhan). Is this all good & acceptable to ChessMood? Are some ChessMood courses public and available to stream? Are there Chessable & ChessMood courses and these are streamable? What is the Chess Mood policy on any & all of this? (btw I posted on the same issue on the Chess Mood Facebbok group too).

NB Apologies..I tried to upload a screenshot but without success..yet..I will try again!

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wow!! I am sure that is not acceptable! 

I'd use the contact us link, you'll get a response faster.

Hey champions! 
Thanks for informing :) 
These are good guys and are our affiliate partners. 

This way they want to introduce others to ChessMood. 
They will not stream all our videos :) No worries :) 

Who is the strongest Chessmood student?

I was just curious and wondering who is the strongest OTB member of Chessmood (without of course taking into account Avetik et al.)... 

I have seen a couple of players over 2200 fide, I wonder if we have an IM or FM between us??? 

Replies

We have GMs over 2600+ too

Ha, ha, ha... !!

That's a nice question, but I do not think that it will be answered. There are GMs, IMs., WGM, WIM, FM, CM and all kind of FIDE titles between our PRO Members.

 Saying their name publicly would mean an automatic advantage for their rivals. If the rival knows that you are going to play the line of our repertoire, then he could become a PRO Member or buy the course and prepare for that line specifically. (Note that they will not easily succeed though...)

 We have a blog post for our PRO members to do their introduction to the rest of the family, voluntarily, but many PRO Members did not do it. My guess is that many are trying to avoid this or there can be thousands of reasons for not doing it... Whatever it is, we love you all anyway!!! ;-)

 These are my four cents on this, and if you want to freely introduce yourselves to the rest of the pro members:
https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-members/chessmood-pro-members

Look here "A super game by our first Grandmaster PRO Member! Sargsayn S. - Kislinsky A."

https://chessmood.com/course/modern-maroczy-bind/episode/475

The 3 Rules....

Hola,

In an article of the blog GM Avetik recommends to follow the 3 rules before asking  for recommendation(s) to make progress. So let's go :

1.I'm an adult player (best french Elo 2100) fallen back to 1885 FIDE. My goal : to climb (if realistic to 2200.)

2.I've the chance to enjoy much time and can work on my chess at least 4h / day.

3.My weakest point is probably the opening (I now study intensively the ChessMood Repertoire but before I just browsed some opening books before an important game ?!). Contrary to most chess players I dislike opening study and like much more endgame or middle game study.

My question is :

1.How to organize my chess study time,

2.Which books or sources (aside ChessMood naturally !) could be recommended to attain my goal ?

Many thanks,

Jean-Marie

Replies

Could be interesting to try the exercise I mention in Why do we lose to make sure it's really the opening that is responsible for your problems so you can allot time and focus effectively.

Question about a position in anti Sicilian part 1

Hello,  

I have started to study this course above and have  played the opening with good result.  Thank for this valuable course!   

I have a question I would like to raise and I hope to get an answer.   What is the best plan for white  after those moves below. 

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3.  f4 g6 4.  Nf3 Bg7 5.  Bc4 Nc6 6. 0-0  Nf6  7. d3 0-0 8. Qe1 Bg4 9. f5 gxf5 10.  Qh4 Bxf3  11, Rxf3 

My question here is how to continue after 11. - Ne5...  It seems to me black and defend well  by Ng6 after Rh3..  

Thanks in advance for your feedback.  

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Do you guys see the picture? Because in my computer I cannot... Do you see it yourself Susanna?

This one has been asked a few times. If you search the forum you'll find something on it. Given it's a frequently asked question, perhaps something needs adding to the course.

Hi again Susanna,

Your position was analyzed here previously:

Check this thread

https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-members/nc3-sicilian-against-2-d6-the-8-bg4-variation-with-10-ne5

Hey Susanna! 
Thanks for your kind words. I'm glad you like the videos!  
9...gf5 is an engine move (not practical for human, as it weakens the king very much) 

Anyway after 10.Qh4 Bf3 11.Rf3 Ne5 12.Rf5 e6 White has 3 options:
1 - 13.Rf1 with a strong initiative 
2 - 13.Rg5!? 
3- And 13.Re5!? de5 14.Bg5!  

A. Wotawa's Studies....

Hi,

I like very much the studies composed by A. Wotawa and have tried in vain to find a book about this endgame composer. Can anybody of the "ChessMood Team" tell me if such a book does exist as Wotawa's studies are very often the "Puzzle of the Day" on the site ?

Many Thanks.

Replies

Hey! 
I had a very big database with of studies, which I can't find now :) 
Overall I've solved around 10.000 such studies, and then created a file of the best ones. Around 1000 :) 
From there comes the daily puzzles :) 

I think Dvorecky had a section about Wotawa's studies, but can't remember in which book :) 

Nimzowitsch...

I would like to know your opinion about his "Chess Praxis". (Not "My System" of course.) Do you think that it's a collection of games worthy of study to day or chess material completely outdated ?

Thanks.

Replies

No idea I never read it, sorry.

I haven't read it too... 
But overall, it would be a good idea, to write more about yourself. 
What's your level, how much time can you spend on chess, etc... 
Then it would be easier to say is it worth reading it, or there are better options. 
Have you read this article? 
https://chessmood.com/blog/which-chess-openings-books-courses-to-learn  

Sethuraman lifetime repertoire

Hey Chessmood family,

GM Sethuraman has just released part 1 of his 1e4 lifetime repertoire on Chessable. Apparently he also advocates 8.h4 in the Scotch. I will have to dig some more to compare the lines in this and other openings...

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Everyone is playing lately 8.h4... GingerGM with IM Robert Ris repertoire, now Sethuraman with Chessable... Maybe it is not such a bad choice after all, don't you think? Gabuzyan has been proving this line value for a couple of years now in the streams, with mythical clashes with Eljanov... We knew that we were into something good! Hopefully you will all feel the same...

It's Happened !

Somebody finally played 4:Qh4 against my Scotch . I played 5:Nb5 he replied Qxe4 + . I followed the standard advice with Be2 he chose Kd8 and I castled. So far so good feeling confident! But he then played 7: a6 attacking my knight on b5. Tricky I don't recall seeing this on the videos ! The dilemma is whether to play Bd3 attacking his Queen or Nc3 but which one ? . Alternatively to try to force his Queen off the fourth rank to get the b5 Knight back to d4 (  eg. N(1) c3 then g3 and if necessary a3 ).It was a 5 min +15 game and I wasted too much time thinking about all this. What does the coach or members think is best after a6. In retrospect it seems such a natural move. 

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The ChessMood repertoire is 5.Nc3, not 5.Nb5.

Question about maroczy bind

Hello,

Played a game in maroczy bind last year and knew 15..Be5 with e6 idea from other sources, but don't know if smth like this is recommended in your maroczy courses, cause in the game white was super solid and imo had an edge after the opening. Will try to watch the courses (can see you even have 2 on maroczy), but can you suggest some impro based on this game? Txs and cheers

Replies

Dear Paulius,

As a personal note, I recommend you to watch both courses on the Maroczy, but my favorite by far is the Modern Maroczy, after watching and understanding  the course it it will be like getting into the jungle knowingly because you feel like Tarzan... ;-)

Hey Paulius!

As already recommended you can watch the courses and will see our Ideas, regarding this game as you have mentioned in the analysis I believe 23...f5 was wrong, as it weakened black's position a lot.

I do like 23...h5 as mentioned again, trying to keep the pawn structure, looking for h4!

An interesting game though with f6-g5!

less Preferred Line

Champions!

I have got a question in my mind. As we are all playing e4 for white, which reply or variation are you less excited to see?

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I don't like to see e5 on board and I love to see c5. It's almost 1-0 when i face c5! Grand Prix and Alapin rocks.

The one that I don't like is the Scandinavian, I am having bad results altough in the opening I am usually better :-) And the one that I am excited to play against is the Caro Kann!

Same for me, I don't like the Scandinavian but I love to play against the Caro-Kann.

Petroff defence ...i hate it now ...must learn how to play against it, if failed to do it then I will learn how to play for Black and change my repertoire

I have been having trouble against the French after they exchange on e4. (I still win easily against the Nf6 lines, even when they avoid the Kevin Hall Trap hehe)

I love to see the Scandi. I have a crazy good score vs it. 

Sicilian Nc3 with B Bg4

Sicilian NC3

E4 c5

Nc3 d6

F4 Nc6

Nf3 Bg4

I've been studying the Nc3 Sicilian with B playing d6 on move 2.  My question is what seems an obvious Black  fourth move Bg4. I do not see this covered in the courses so wondering if it can be refuted? It looks like Bb5 may be a good reply.

Thank You

Replies

Hi Richard

You are right, 5.Bb5

Video 24 in the course (Minor Lines)

Dear sirs

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

Replies

Dear Martin,

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

Dear Martin,

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

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

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

Finally OTB tourney

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

Replies

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

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

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

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

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

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

So some suggestions:

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

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

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

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

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

Request for a "Watched Video" function

Hello ChessMood team, 

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

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

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

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

Leslie Smith 

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

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

Best regards and keep learning and improving!!!

Stream Suggestion

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

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

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

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

Thanks for the wonderful lessons.

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

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

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

Yeah, that's important I think.

Hi Abhi,

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

Thank you for kind words :-) 

Hey, hey, as Jay always says...

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

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

The bravest in candidates

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

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

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

Your rating is not your strength

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, what can we do to address this issue?

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

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

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

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

Only time will tell!

GM Jay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anti sicilian part 4 5/6... h5

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

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

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

Hi David,

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