Chess forum by Grandmasters

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.

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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! 

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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

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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

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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 ?

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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

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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

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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 

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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???

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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.

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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.

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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

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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?

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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?

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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. 

The World Champion joined us! :)

I was proud that in ChessMood, among our students there are even 2600+ Grandmasters.
Today a former world champion joined us????

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Say it it's Magnus. I am so excited to hear the name.. Leave the suspense please

Pretty certain he/she is excited to see new analysed material and build on it.The Coach is certainly keeping the suspense on.

It's a secret guys :) 

course “secrets of the middlegame” downloadable in pgn-format?

Are the games from the course “secrets of the middlegame” also downloadable in pgn-format?

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The commented Classical games will be. Also it will come with a quiz! 

Karpov's legendary moves

Hey champions! 
How well do you know classics? 
In both positions is White to move. 
What to play?  

Here are the links of the games (for PRO Members), but please, first think about the positions and then watch the games. 
https://chessmood.com/course/chess-classical-games/episode/1472
https://chessmood.com/course/chess-classical-games/episode/1473

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I'm not a pro member (yet) and therefore have no access to the given links - but I remember the game in the first position, W played the somewhat surprising retreat Nb1, as Nc3 was totally out of the game and had no moves forward. After Rxd2 W would have brought his N back into the game with Nxd2 and otherwise, W could get his N back into the game later after removing Rd2 with e.g. Nd2/Nb3.

I don't know the 2nd game, but the situation looks similar - W probably played again Nb1, as Nc3 was totally out of the game and had no moves forward and W could later bring his N back into the game via Nd2 and later maybe to f3.