Chess forum by Grandmasters

Your fav. Chess Endgame Studies?

In this post you can share an endgame studies which you loved the most !!!

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My favorite study is a composition by A. Wotawa. I don't have the PGN but here are the starting positions of the pieces:

White: Ke3, Ba7, Nf1, d2, f2, g2, g4

Black: Kh4, a3, d3, d5, d6, e5, g5, g7

It's a really beautiful one. 

Closed Sicilian with Nc6, e6 and a6 setup

I played a game today 30m+30s. My opponent choose quite unusual setup.

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Nf3 Nxb5 5. Nxb5 a6 6.Nc3 e6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Qxd4 Ne7

I played 10.Bf4 Nc6 11.Qd2 and achieved a bit better position.

At this moment my computer prefers  prefers 11.Qd3 (+0.36) or 11.Qe3  (+0.32) before 11.Qd2 (+0.16). I will let it run overnight to analyze further.

Now the question is, how would one describe differences between these three moves? They look more or less the same.

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If you prefer a tactical question instead of a positional, then in the line 11.Qd3 in another game players reached the following position.  It' s White to move. What would you play?

Trompowsky 3. h4 vs Torre 4. h4

With the Trompowsky (not a suggested line in the course) after 2... Ne4 White can play the tricky 3. h4 hoping to open the h-file if Black takes. c5 is one of the main lines. There are lots of games.

However, in the Torre (or as in the course if White decides to play Nf3 instead of capture), after 3... Ne4 4. h4 hardly figures as a move and c5 is doing really well against what little games there are.

Why the big difference? Only thing I can think of is in lines with h4, Nf3 is delayed so if Black castles short then after e3/e4 Qh5 comes with a mating attack.

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Quiet People

I found that people in this community are super quiet. I wanna know why?  Are you guys super intelligent or you guys have nothing to ask or you guys like to hide what you already know. 

I am not trying to insult anyone, I just wanna know why people have no interesting in sharing what they know and what they study. Even GMs are hding themselves like if anyone find that they are from chessmood then other gms can prepare for them. 

This make me sad when I see only one or 2 new topics in forums and except opening people don't like to ask anything, Not even chess position but all they like to do is quiet.

Sorry, If I annoyed anyone, I just feel frustrated when I ssee people are quiet. But yeah it's their life and their choices. I don't blame anyone but I just like active people. 

Chessmood gave us so much so I love to share everything which I learn daily 

I decided not to post any new topic and I decided not to answer any post. 

TC good bye

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Quiet isn't necessarily a bad thing. All forums have their busy and quiet phases. I'd rather see a few interesting posts, that provide value to someone, than lots of irrelevant ones, or worse incorrect information. Look at chess.com for example. I asked a question there and expected people to answer the specific question only if they had real input and to post their rating (I asked) so I knew roughly how much to take from their answer. I ended up with one decent reply and two pages of useless replies as if people need to say something even if it's not helpful. It's meant to be a useful tool, not boredom relief.

The primary function of the forum should be a communication between users and ChessMood, for questions and feedback when they have them. Obviously the ChessMood team are really busy so perhaps only get to read through posts once or twice a week which might put some people off. I'd rather have fantastic content (as there is); for non-ChessMood specific questions there are plenty of other places to ask if answers don't appear here. As for other people, as well as busy enjoying the content here, they have jobs and school to attend to, so maybe don't have the time to post lots of updates.

Perhaps people only want to discuss chess. If I look now on the 1st page of the forum 9 topics are basically not chess related.

Secondly forums as a means of communication are kind of dead. I play poker for a living and the biggest forum for poker is perhaps a 10th of the size compared to say 5 years ago. All the players have private facebook/Skype/discord groups etc.

Real Time interaction is more valuable for a lot of people.

Or perhaps people like to just lurk and not post. Its fine either way and I would not get too hung up on it if you already met good people via chessmood.

don't be disappointed with that Abhi, I like your posts and even I've learned somethings from them. So I got very sad reading this

A question for you as I'm a little curious. Is it what you write literally about little interaction that is bothering you so much to write such an emotive post, or is there something else?

Just sometimes there is that's all. No worries if there isn't or its not something you want to share.

I am sorry to hear that. Remember that I answer to your posts quite often. I hope you will change your mind ... anyway good luck.

Haha, I just want to say I admire your obvious passion and dedication for chess. Even if I don't reply to your posts, sometimes I have hit the thumbs-up button

I know after reading all my reply some may call me arrogant in their mind or some may say I am idiot or whatever. But I seriously do not care anymore.  I respect what coach done for me and that's why I will share chessmood everywhere because because of coach i am alive in chess. So, salute to him but no salute to quiet people, no salute to those who hide themselves , no salute to those who just wanna sit like anonymous .

Goodbye to my wonderful forums.

Will only be active on chessmood best games page because I love to see games there and in my daily update forum post!

The courses are UNLOCKED for 72 hours!

Dear ChessMood Family! 
Instead of Black Friday, we have Golden three days :)
We've unlocked all the courses until the 29th of November. 

Take as much value as you can. And if you were thinking about becoming a PRO Member, but was not sure, this is a perfect chance to see what is inside of our courses. 
https://chessmood.com/courses  

Good luck! 

P.S if you want to give something back to us, just share this with your friends 

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yeeeey!

Wow! Let's finish the new sections of the French defence!!

Pirc tourney

So this Saturday, the pirc features. I've already planned ahead and completed the base course.

Is the Czech Pirc fair game as Black, or will we be asked not to play that?

Also what's the current state of affairs of the GP line vs Bf4 - has one become a clear preference since the course was recorded? I'm also guessing that if Bf4 is played there will be need to study some of the advanced material as the main course doesn't cover too much.

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I also would like to know what will be the starting position for the Pirc.

I asked this directly.

If White plays in a way that means the Czech Pirc is playable, then yes it's allowed.

Not only Chess

What if I post here questions or some interesting, motivating quotes not only about chess and try to create an interesting discussion area? Or you want to see only chess and nothing else as this is a chess forum.

Waiting for your answers :) 

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The only problem is if it descends into general chat (not helping chess or one's ability to improve in some way) then it might be harder to find the chess topics. If the forum could be grouped for example, chessmood courses, chessmood events, help, general discussions then I think that would be better.

Well, I decided that I will not post any answer in any chessmood topic. People just like to stay quiet. So I give up posting, I will only post in my daily chess update post. 

Games from Tournaments related to ChessMood Openings

Hi, 

I will post here games from tournaments that have been  played recently and relate to the ChessMood openings. If wish to post here then please wait until the tournament has finished or at least after a phase of the tournament has completed, like preliminaries.

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Skilling Open Preliminaries

Wow!! Good Games. I Like the Karjakins Attacking game in the Philidor Defence.

A candidate topic to be pinned? @ChessMood_

NEW COURSE: Rook vs Pawn

Champions, we've added one more course in the endgame sections.
This one, not 1 section, not 2 - but the whole course with 11 sections!

https://chessmood.com/course/endgame-rook-vs-pawn 

With our team we spent a big amount of time, to provide you the best quality, all must-know positions and ideas without overwhelming your brain.

Hopefully, you'll love it.
#COGRO (Constant growth) 

P.S 
If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments section. 

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Blindfold Chess

When did you play blindfold chess last time?

How do you think does it help us to develop our vision or memorizing?

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well it did not helped me. May be I was just new so I understand. The concept which helped me in memorization is Ian books on visualization. I imagined more. well after I did part 1. 

I gave up on blindfold for some time because I wanna focus on more chess books. I did ok when I played online blindfold but issue comes with pawn formations. When I forget pawn formations in my mind then I lost game without much play. So, i decided to work on all pawn formations so I wont mes up in pawn case and then it will be easier for me to remember pieces !

It definitely helps, but last time I think I played around 10 years ago and not serious :D

Last played blindfold one or two years ago against a weaker opponent. Could not exactly remember where everything was at all times, but managed pretty well and won. I feel like playing blindfold can improve visualisation and memorisation, but to a small extent. I had to start over from the beginning and play through the moves in my head when I eventually forgot something, so obviously not very efficient time-wise.

I played before this covid-19 pandemic with one of my friends. It went more than 35 moves and ended in a draw. When we analyzed it later, we found out that we missed many small things. That was my last time. Lichess has a 'blind chess' feature, but I don't like it.

NEW ARTICLE: Organize Your Day, Organize Your Chess Journey

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Coach, it's so wonderful article. The only thing which Iam not doing well is opening prep but your article opened my eyes. Now even in my long to do list file I will add opening prep daily too. I love to write my daily study updates in your chessmood forums because I love it. It motivates me a lot and I am also working with 4 training partners. 2 are positional players including @Jay_Garrison and 2 are attacking players . So , with your support I am on the right track to win !!!

 https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/daily-study-updates

Two things:

It's more than a having plan for achieving. Plans get derailed (unrealistic or discovered not to be  a good one), and need to be flexible. You say you're going to do X, but they you realise it's too hard going, and to do X you need to Y and Z better first. So you need to put plan X on hold while you work on Y and Z. It might even be it takes an ah-ha moment to find or work out how to achieve X. That ah-ha could be a long while later because you'll read, or hear something that suddenly clicks that this is your answer, or maybe it isn't and it'll take several of these. Some of it might be easier if you can bring in parallels from other things you know or read to try to apply to learning X.

An example: Let's say I overlook knight forks, so I decide that I want to plan to see knight forks and be better with the knight in general. What should I do?
A naive plan might be to go study lots of tactical problems. Yes this one will probably work eventually, but isn't perhaps the best approach and as studious as you are, it's not going to give the best results.

A better approach might be isolate the knight from the other elements first - find exercises that train with the knight, but how would you do that? So by luck you find a book which has the following problem - given white pawns on c3, f3, c6, f6 - place a black knight on a1. Visit each square a1-h1, h2-a2, a3, b3, d3, e3,... and so on, skipping and never landing on squares which have the pawns on or the pawns attack. You try first time and you do it in a pitiful 10 minutes. However after keep doing it, you can do it sub 2 minutes and in your head.

You also note (now being an expert) the fact that in all cases you need 2 or 3 moves to get to the next square except for 3 transitions which take 5 moves. Well it's interesting, so given a clear board, what's the most moves to get from a1 to any other square. Quite rightly you suspect it's going to be g7, g8, h7 and/or h8 as your longest path. So you print out a blank chess board with a knight on a1. Finding a felt-tip pen, you colour b3 and c2 with one colour, that's where you can get to in 1 move. Now you repeat for all places you get in 2 moves in a different colour, then 3, 4, 5 and 6. Oh that's an interesting pattern. Note that b2 takes four moves due to the edge of the board and also so does c3 - that's something interesting to conclude - squares adjacent diagonally take 4 moves to get there. Also the worst case? It's h8 which takes 6 moves, and g8/h7 take 5. g7/f6 are only 4.
You might also then try the same exercise with a knight starting on e5 and note the symmetry and also that the worst case is 4 to any square (each of the squares 2 diagonal away, and the far corner). What does that tell you? Well it say a lot about the power of knight forks.

Take this problem: Place a pawn on e5, how many other dark squares are there where I can't place a pawn, then place a knight which will fork both pawns? The question is the same as asking how many dark squares can't I visit in 2 moves from e5 - 5 again. Am I on the right track and this is something strong players have done themselves? Well I asked GM Speelman the question and he instantly said 5, so that's a good hint that it's one of those ah-ha moments strong players discovered also.

So what next? You might notice that the shape of knight forks are different, and because of the different shapes they take, that is why people miss them. So what if we tried to find all the shapes so we've seen them and can recognise them, how do to this? Well place a knight on e5, now place a pawn on f7. There are 7 other places to put a pawn where it will be forked with the original pawn (knight can move to 8 squares in the centre minus 1). Chess has rotations and/or reflections, so if we designate the type of fork is the number of squares horizontally from one pawn to another (plus the starting square) by the number of squares vertically we can enumerate them - since a 90 degree rotation makes horizontals verticals and we don't want to count that twice, once the fork is measured, put the smaller number first. So if a pawn goes on g6, that is 2 horizontally from f7 pawn to g6 pawn (counting the start square), 2 vertically - i.e. 2x2. Now go 'round the clock' with the g6 pawn for the others: 2x4, 1x5, 3x5, 4x4, 2x4 (a repeat), 1x3. That makes 6 unique ones. Are we done? Well we can transpose the starting f7 pawn to all other knight attacking squares using reflections, so yes. Now you know what the 6 forks like. Looking them a few times, you might also start to see them more often.

I won the under 125 (~1500 Elo) British championship in 1998 and win it 5/5 of which this training was a big part (as I outplayed with the knights in two of the games).


The second thing to consider is hunger and ability to stay the course. The plan will only be followed (or at least it'll not be like pulling teeth after a while) if you're hungry for it (and probably if it starts showing results too). You did mention burning desire in another article, but it's more than that. Think about being hungry. You're trying to do something you enjoy, but you note you need to stop and get something to eat. At first you ignore it and continue. Then in a bit, you feel it again, it's a bit strong, a bit louder you are hungry. Again you ignore it. Eventually it's 'shouting' so loud you can't concentrate and you go eat. If you keep eating you'll stop wanting to do it and eventually get sick even though it was something you really wanted to do not long ago. Once you've eaten, it will go away and not bother you until you're hungry again. Studying something is pretty much like (the shout gets louder and louder until we start, and as we do it, it gradually decreases in volume and too much makes us feel bad); we also need little rewards (even feedback) to keep us going. You need both a desire to want to do it, but you also need to do the right amount in each session, and get some feedback (such as winning games, or understanding more complicated material, better scores on puzzle rush etc). Too much study with too long a time until feedback, and it'll be burnout and hard slog, too little and you'll not accomplish quickly, or lose the hunger now you 'achieved' as you don't see any apparent results. Sometimes something like a deadline can help override the burnout for a bit. Also having other interests, or priorities will steal or increase your hunger and derail you plan (life got in the way) or make you want to get back to it as soon as you can with new fervour.


I'm also considering that there is a sweet spot for how much to learn in any one sitting. New neurons/connections have to be built. Too much learning and only some of what you learn will be learned (including other stuff not in your task), too little and you're going to take longer. How much is a real question and I don't have that answer. I do know that a learning session generally makes me tired and a nap is often wanted. I've read in one article that it takes 6 hours to build, so that's at least how long you should wait before another session. Also sometimes walking away (literally) can help find new ideas or help process the material/solve problems in new ways better than continuing staring at it. The same article also suggests that you need to vary what you learn or how you learn in each session, so again a static plan following a course or book might not be very good for you (this makes sense in that often it's needed to recruit other neurons otherwise you feel overloaded in a task, or any distraction or difference means you can't perform that task). The question is vary how, by how much and so on, but the article doesn't consider this. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-johns-hopkins-study-reveals-the-scientific-secret-to-double-how-fast-you-learn

Great article, as usual.

One advice for not having too many to-do items I found useful is to work from a Calendar, rather than a todo list, because the calendar time-boxes everything.

Accelerated dragon 5. Nxc6

Hi, had this played against me a couple of times now. after bxc6 Qd4 is the main move, taking advantage of Bg7 not played yet (though c4 or Bc4 might be interesting). Now Nf6 7. e5 Nd5 8. e6 f6 maybe - and now what's the best way to continue? Any chance of adding this to early deviations in the course when there is a moment as I'm guessing this is something we'll face a lot.

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First of all 5.Nxc6 does not look great for White from a positional point of view, as Black can reinforce his center with 5…bxc6. Also, 8.e6 is not scary, White only attacks with 1 piece, which is his Queen on d4, and after 8…f6, 9.exd7+, Bxd7 Black has already an advantage in development having 2 minor pieces developed. Next Black plans e5, kicking the white Queen, e.g. 10.Bc4, e5 or 10.Nc3, e5 and Black is at least fine!
A potential line could be 10.Bc4, e5, Qh4, Bg7, O-O, Be6, Nc3, O-O, Rd1, Qc7 … (very good development for Black and better control in the center, and Black should not be afraid “losing” a pawn after trading on d5, as at the end c2 is hanging!)

Guess the Webinar!!!

How many of you remembered this position. I remembered coach showed this position in a webinar and asked us questions. 

Do you remember the name of webinar coach ?

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Chess and War

is it the same thing? I think it is...

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well for me when i play chess idc who is playing in front of me. Even in analysis sometimes I force my partners to follow my ideas hehe. Ask @Jay_Garrison he wil tell you. Sometimes he say like Abhi I have a lot defenders and I keep saying like hey no you are lost hehehe.  This happens normally when we analyze games of Capablanca Best Endings Book.

In case of rl play, when I play chess I feel like I wanna beat my opponent no matter he is male or female. Sometimes I heard players saying life they lost because they felt attracted to the female player who was sitting in front of him. I feel like you went for play or dating? When I play chess my goal is to crush my opponent's king. No matter I face males or females. Another thing is I show no mercy too because no one gonna show mercy to me if I am losing. So for me rl chess is just a war. Our main goal is to win the war with our army.

Puzzle of the day

Hi - did anyone solve today's puzzle (11/21)?   After 1. Nc7, Qc7, I couldn't decide between a4 or c4.   The puzzle likes 2. a4 and after Ka6, 3. a8(Q) Kb6, I could not figure out the rest of the solution?  I imagine the solutions is connected with why 2. a4 is necessary instead of 2. c4, but I am still stuck :)

Sarathi

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c4# is the last move ;) think again 

opponent plays 3..Nf6 Sicilian

I've played this person before and want to be prepared if I get a similar line to what he's/we've played before.  I've attached the study (gamelink - https://lichess.org/uFFcw1Wh/white) and have a few questions:

1. Is it correct to play 4.Nf3 and hope it transposes back to the ChessMood line?
2. Was 5.Bb5 better than 5.Bc4?  My thoughts are that the B can't help attack on the king-side from there, but can take the N on c6.
3. Was 7.d4 forgiveable?  I don't think so, but the engine's analysis isn't horrible if I had recaptured with the Q.

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I think Bb5 is correct and the line went like Bd7 but if  any other move then Bxc6 stops all black's queenside counterplay and we are better positionally. Bxc6 is move. There is no g6 in this line so bishop is not gonna go to c4. You did okay with Bb5 but just missed Bxc6 

Jim, Nf3 is correct! 

Bb5 is an interesting option. But you can play just Bc4 transposing to our variations. 

Old Opening Repertoires vs Chessmood repertoire

Hi. I am just curious how the more experienced members  manage the differences between their old opening repertoires and the chessmood repertoires.

For instance as Black I play the Leningrad  Dutch and the Slav against 1 d4 and against 1e4 I play the French and the Sveshnikov. With White I play 1 e4 but the only place where my old repertoire  and the chessmood repertoire meet is against the Philidor and the Petroff.

I don't feel like giving up my old repertoire but learning a completely new repertoire at my age while also being busy with things like family and work is a bit difficult.

I do like the thematic tournaments but one week preparation is a bit too short for me. I try to watch the videos at higher speed (1.5x or 1.75x) once before the tournament but that is most of what I can manage. 

So here are my questions:

1) For chessmood staff. Would it be possible to learn the thematic tournament schedule a bit earlier. Then I could prepare properly for fewer tournaments rather than the haphazard preparation I do now.

2) For the experienced (older) pro members. How do you mange your old repertoire and the chessmood repertoire. 

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Hey Till! 
We didn't have 1-1 call right, do I remember correctly? 

If so, please reserve a seat. 
Personalized study plan - is what all about are the 1-1 welcome calls.

You can reserve a seat here: chessmood.com/events

Skype for phone works well 

Also how do you watch videos on 1.5x speed its soemthing I have been dying to do when doing a rewatch of the videos.

Growth_Hacking

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Play longer than 3 min games?

Time: for example he was playing in the evenings but he started to win in the mornings :D

probably making him change his openings towards "chessmood openings"  :-)

Only play when he is not tired and have the time to be properly concentrated. (When I try to play at home with my wife or kids, they always come in between the moves. even if I only play one game, they will need something at that moment for sure... )

Play a fixed number of games? For example, 10 games and stop, whatever the result so he/she is more focused

Getting in the zone

In the stream yesterday I asked GM Gabuzyan about how to avoid blunders (particularly thinking about my game in the thread below when I played the dreadful c3 and should have considered what I would do as the opponent, but rushed it: I thought it was a move that needed to be played and my time was getting low). The response was about having heightened concentration and feeling part of the board/game etc (hope I got that right). What seemed to be described was what sports players refer to being 'in the zone' or psychologists refer as being in a flow state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

Obviously experience and practice contribute to this a lot, but how should one look at developing that state and enter/maintain it as one starts to play?

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Entering the zone, seems interconnected with understanding the position. If you have enough time, look at the nuances. Small details matter in the long run. Eventually, you'll subconsciously drift into focus mode. 

As long as the character of the position remains roughly the same, you can remain in this state with little effort. Unfortunately, a sharp change in the position like a blunder (either from you or the opponent) usually jolts you out of it. You need to constantly ask yourself what changed or risk getting lulled into a false sense of security.

Check out this article as well, you'll find lots of useful tips.
https://chessmood.com/blog/7-tips-how-to-keep-concentration-during-a-chess-game

Playing the GrandPrix against Philidor Video

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Bc4 was mentioned in the philidor video course by GM Grigoryan (https://chessmood.com/course/philidor-defense/episode/1168 time 0:49s) but i couldn't find the section where a full analysis was given  . All the analysis looks to be for 3.d4 followed by 4.Nge2. I would like to play the 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Bc4 line, can anyone help point me to the correct section? i've seen its in the pirc course but that's different as g6 is played.

Thank you chess friends

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Kayode, do you watch the streams? 
There we had a few times this. 
White gets a very easy game. Just 3.d3, then 4.f4 , Nf3, 0-0...