Chess forum by Grandmasters

Grace Alekhine~~~ WoW

Wow, she was so beautiful and the wife of Legendary Alekhine. 

Who is your fav. Female Chess Grandmaster and why?

Right now my fav. one is Judit and soon I am gonna work on her games.

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I don't know much about her. Fourth wife according to Wikipedia. She stayed with him until his death. I wonder how she coped with his alcohol problems?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Alekhine

How many children they have?

Bishop+ Rook vs Rook

How many of you guys know this endgame by heart? I know it's for advanced players but my intuition is saying to me so bad that I must learn this particular endgame. In past when I was beginner my intuition said same about learn bishop+knight vs lone king. And in the very next tournament I had to win with bishop and knight and my opponent who was 1400 said to me draw? I said no it's win. He said can you win? I said yes. I was unrated that time.

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Would suggest looking at the games of GM Arkell to find examples (I expect there are some that made it into the db). He's an afficinado of this ending, as well as rook endings.

Learnt the ideas of Cochrane defense and now I remember the Philidor's winning formation too. Still need to play it through training to master both attack and defense but I am glad I am able to understand this advanced ending concept too.

Hi guys! 

If someone needs a help with this engdgame there is a chapter dedicated to it in J. Hawkins's book: From amatour to IM.  It is very well explaind and easy to understand...

Good luck! 

I learned this about 3-4 times. Every time I promised myself that I will remember but it didn't happen :D I think this kind of endings should be repeated often 

Do you agree with this statement.

Acc. to Var. Akobian- When Petrosian Attack it's Mate!!!

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hello

can explain me---- " acc. to var?"

for me, he is a strategical player/positional player 

According to kramnik he was a tactical player with a highly developed sense of danger!

He meant that he attacked very rarely, but when he attacked, he was sure that he's going to mate. I think it's kinda true.

English Opening c4 c5, Nc3 g6, d4

My first correspondence game I have played against the English opening and I meet the following line.

1. c4 c5

2. Nc3 g6

3. d4 Bg7

4. d5

Looking at the move explorer , it looks like my best chances involve some play I don't understand. Not sure if I should be going here :) 

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After 1. c4 c5 2. Nc3 g6 3. d4 why are you avoiding the obvious and natural 3...cxd4 which seems more in keeping with our repertoire. Sometimes I wonder whether some of you really pay attention to the course material and the key themes and ideas involved. :-)

Thanks for you answer, it does make sense , I could tell I'd ventured away from positions I understood! 

Strengths / Weaknesses

What are your Strengths / Weaknesses in chess? 

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https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/share-your-chess-strengths-and-weaknesses

well I made this post and got some answers!

~~Share your chess strengths and weaknesses~~

I am good looking so I bother my chess opponent by my look- Abhi Yadv

My strength is positional play and slowly I am also becoming an attacker too.

My weaknesses is calculation and visualization abilities and I can't play blindfold even if I want too. So I am working on my weaknesses. 

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My strength is my fast attack, and my exchange sacrifices to open my opponent's king. I can also play very patiently and cautiously, waiting for my opponents to show me their cards at first. My weakness is deep positional undersating, long calculations and visualisation. 

I think my strength is my tactical vision because I solved puzzles too much since I'm playing chess

And my weakness is definitely  openings, but now I improve them with ChessMood :) 

Do you agree with this statement.

Acc. to Var. Akobian- When Petrosian Attack it's Mate!!!

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But he was not an attacking player

You have to answer :)

Would you take the risk of playing completely new opening in a very important tournament / game?

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Obviously no !

Well, I can!!! I think if my middlegames and endgames will be okay then I can be able to play anything. Openings are important but they are not everything. It works in below 2400 sections.

Absolutely.

If the match up I have dictates I have a better chance to winning against my current opponent, then I will play the new opening.

That being said, I am not going to sit at the board and suddenly say, "Hey! I know I am an 1.e4 player, but just for fun, lets play 1.b3!"

That isnt going to happen hahahahaha

@WIM_Susanna_Gaboyan

Re: Would you take the risk of playing completely new opening in a very important tournament / game?

It would depend on how well I had prepared the Opening or specific line and also on my opponent's style, temperament and predictability. Bobby Fischer shocked Spassky with 1.d4, a move he had never used before, in one of his Wch games and won brilliantly against Spassky's favorite Tartakower Defence of the QGD. Spassky should have smelt a rat, but I guess he was supremely confident or was just too curious to see what Fischer had up his sleeve. 

I really like to play new things, even I have several stories when I went to bed, then before sleep like  Beth Harmon started thinking in my head what I am gonna play the next day, then in the morning I checked 10-15 minutes and played, such games there were the most successful games for me, I have very good results with this preparation lol.

I remember once it was the last round I had to play with higher rated player than me and I wanted to win so badly, I was d4 player I checked his repertoire and I saw that he plays KID, against which I didn't like to play at all. Then I went to bed and started to think what I am gonna play against 1...Nf6 then I was ok I am gonna play 2.Nc3. I had no idea about this move at all, and the next day I checked it for 15 minutes then went to a game. I remember I won very nice game. I have a lot of this kind of stories and mostly I succeeded. 

I've risked once and it didn't have a happy ending :) So, maybe not

A must-know plan in the Scandinavian Defense

What's the standard plan in the Scandinavian pawn structure? White to move. The full game with the comments, you can watch in the link below, if you are a PRO Member. https://chessmood.com/course/classical-attacking-games/episode/2079

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Zen Mode on Lichess- Boom for my Chess

How many of you think that hiding chess ratings will improve your playing results. I am stuck to a barrier and I am trying to break it. Recently I tried a new thing which I heard from my strong friend and training partner Jay. I thought to hide opponent's ratings so I can play a game of chess without knowing my opponent's ratings. Guess what happened?  

I started to winning a lot games and my SLP also became super well. In the bottom I shared some of my games.

Attack

https://lichess.org/A3LsZ6qn7ABX

SLP:

https://lichess.org/j1osvJeBcvT6

Attack:

https://lichess.org/A3LsZ6qn7ABX

Crushed a 2200 positionally

https://lichess.org/rv4O3mUvyMxk

Win against 2200+

https://lichess.org/2t4aTqNLgrWZ

Crushed a 2200+ again

https://lichess.org/uFJjECl5LONU

Missed mate but nice king hunt I think

Yes, I do not say I played superb chess but I am starting to play without any fear. I do not have a lot experience so I it annoy me when I see ratings. Esepcially online. Offline I never felt fear because I have a lot time to think. 

So, what's your approach guys to play online chess?

Now my goal is to break this 2300 level. I am trying to keep my elo to 2200 but it goes down and then back to 2200 then down. Slo up down is going on here but Zen Mode is superb

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Wow nice, and nice idea, I liked it, how you do it?

Another victim of Zen Mode

https://lichess.org/72O6zC7AWlGX

I agree Abhi. Zen Mode is really good. I've tried it and it helps me focus on the position in front of me instead of the opponent or their rating. 

Thanks for the idea. Really nice, it also prepares you to play OTB games against higher rated players without fear.

Can you record your streamings Chessmoodteam in Bundesliga for later

Hello everyone!

Could you record your streaming for later? I would really appreciate to watch the tournement later i case I can t watch it live!

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Oh, you can see all the recordings of every stream in the event section. Just go there and you will find all recordings. But yeah I also can't see recordings of this particular event. Sorry.

~~~ Your assessment please ~~~~

Here it's white to move. How will you continue here. Once questions will be answered then i will share the book name and game number too.  Kindly don't use engines or books and if you know the name of players then keep it secret. Just share your assessment and plans.

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A queentrady, followed by pushing the a pawn looks promising at the first sight

1. Nxh6 Rxh6 2. a5 Rc8 3. a6 Rc7 4. Ra1 supporting the passed pawn.

Constraints and motivation

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-weird-strategy-dr-seuss-used-to-create-his-greatest-work

Nice article on motivation and constraints (despite the clickbait title) which relates chess players in terms of effective study/play time, using time on the clock, which openings they study / amount of theory and games they learn. Also some linked articles about motivation from it (have a plan, ritual)

To adapt it:
What if you only had 50 minutes a day to spend on chess, but stuck to it as much as possible? (a lunch hour or a commute on the train for many)

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Work on chess a day?

How many hours a day you work on your chess?

Are you doing smart work or hard work or combo?

How many training partners do you have right now and how many you wants more?

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I used to train for about 3-4 hours, but now, unfortunately I have a problem with concentration because of the war in our country...

I have not training partner I like to train alone

@WIM_Susanna_Gaboyan How many hours are you studying now a days?

Capablanca vs Conde 1919

Hi guys, I hope you all are superb. Here I am sharing a position extracted from the Book "Capablanca's Best Endings" It's game number 30th. It's white to move.

You have to tell:

1. Assessment of this position.

2. Is it good to take on f6 and if yes then kindly share your long term follow up or if possible share some lines which shows Nxf6 is good.

3. Do you ever studied this game?

I analyzed this game with my Endgame Teacher Jay Garrison. He is my mentor in positional and endgame play. I am glad because of him I am improving in endgames and my imagination is improving too. 

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Studied nothing today.

It sucks. Head hurts. I just woke up and its 5 41 pm. I miss my today's study

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Time Machine:

We all study classics so sometimes we feel attracted to the player who is our idol. No matter he is alive or died. It's so great if player is alive so we have chance to meet him or her one day. But issue comes when we realize that our idol chess player is not alive. So we start missing him or her. So what will happen if you get a time machine? Then do you think you will go to meet your idol titled player? 

About me:

I am Bobby Fischer's fan. I love the way he play. Even though I only studied his few games but mostly I worked on Karpov's games. But I am super attached to him so I wish to meet him and after him I wanna meet Tigran when he was on  his peak and ask him that sir why so much torture you gave to your opponent who is almost dying and third I wanna meet Tal and explore how he create mess and win a lot games with super messy attacks.

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Tactics+calculation

White to move and win!

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rxc6 bxc6 qc4+ kb7 qxc6!!+ kxc6 ne5++ kc5 nd3+ kd4 kd2 +- with the threat of c3

help needed

I am a passionate chess player. I didn't take chess so seriously earlier. But in the last six months, I witnessed a sudden blast in my rating on chess.com, as I started playing more frequently. at my peak, i was around 800 rating points higher than what my rating 6 months ago. (My peak is about 1651 in chess.com live ratings) but I am not able to cross this rating range. Please help me. 

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It's hard to say what you based on chess.com ratings. I tend to peak mid-1800s at blitz on there, which makes me think you're probably around 130 ECF (1600 FIDE). However it is blitz and that can be quite variable (for me at least).

When I play players around this range usually one or more of the following is true:
. Opening is usually a simple scheme opening (e.g. London System) which while is quite powerful in strong players' hands, they don't know it very well given it's their main White opening and usually entered vs whatever Black plays. Other than that something like the French Exchange to get drawish positions. Black they'll play something like the Petroff, Philidor or Scandinavian (poorly) against e4.
. They fail to set (m)any problems for the opponent
. They are often looking for a draw against a higher rated player and play solid, or for exchanges for that reason, even when they are given an advantage
. They miss tactics that are reasonably easy to spot (confidence maybe too to go for it), and in particular sometimes miss well known traps in their opening (such as e5 e4 forking in the London)
. Their endgame knowledge is poor (particularly basic pawn and rook and pawn endings), especially if they only play club games with rapid finishes after 35 moves.

I would take a look at that list and see if any or all of that is you. If you're a pro member and you've not had a call yet, perhaps bring up any of these points that affect you. Certainly the chessmood openings are not drawish schemes and do intend to set the opponents problems, so that with some more accurate tactics and some better knowledge of endgames could get you closer to 1700-1800 just from that.

Did you read this article? https://chessmood.com/blog/golden-method-to-increase-rating-in-chess 

5... g6 in the Caro Kann

An interesting idea was 5... g6 a move earlier in the videos, before Black has committed Nf6. Instead, Black plays Bg7 Nh6 and then plays f6 trying to get e5, or Bg7 f6. Unfortunately I fell into the trap that after e5 attacking bishop, e4 is coming forking bishop and knight, similar to the London System trap. Black can also transpose back to the line discussed with Nf6 before or after Bg7.

Any suggestion for the right plan for White? Is there room for an early deviations section in the course?

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The right way to meet f6 plans in all such position types is to prepare a quick c4, there are many model games in the Databases. I will leave you with just one typical example and let you have the pleasure to research others. By the way the following line is also related to your query so take note of it in your preparations and report back how you think white should play:  1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6 4.Nf3 d5 5.h3 Nh6 6.Bd3 0-0 7.0-0 f6.

Good luck and have fun.