Chess forum by Grandmasters

Best May game

I am playing in an online, USCF rated tournament for our local clubs and look at this beautiful Bd3 anti-french! 

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Thanks again coaches, your selections for the openings are always on point :) 

Here is one where I play against the Marczy! 

Nice games!

Prophylaxis vs restriction

Hello chess friends. My first post on this forum. Is there a difference between restriction and prophylaxis? Ie based on your definition and understanding? Maybe you can use the opening systems recommended to show 

thanks very much 

kayode

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They are very-very similar, dear friend. 
If your rating is less than 2600 you don't need to go into this topic further. 

Morra Smith Gambit

Hello chess friends. What is the recommended way for chessmooders to play against the morra Smith Gambit

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Hi Kayode

We play 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 Nf6 or 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.c3 Nf6.

They hate that!

/Kim Skaanning

Hi Kayode!

Yes, as Kim mentioned, we can just transpose the game into alapin's system, which is very detailed analysed in the Gabuzyan's anti-sicilian course. But I believe that we can pose serious problems for white if we accept the pawn's sacrifice, and leave in the following interesting way for black:  1. e4 c5 2. d4 cd 3. c3 dc 4. Nxc3 Nc6 5. Nf3 e6 6. Bc4 a6!? 7. 0-0 b5!? 8. Bb3 Bb7!? 9. Re1 and here 9 ... Bc5! a very simple but at the same time strong developing move. Now black has an interesting Nce7 resource at 10. Nd5, forcing white to exchange his strong knight, and if 10. a4 b4 11. Nd5 black will not take the knight, but will play coldly with pawn on d6, ignoring all white’s ideas and continue to calmly go on remaining development moves with an extra pawn and depriving white of any significant positional compensation.

9.Qe2 is very stereotype decision here for white and black is already can fight for advantage after 9...Nge7!? for example 10.Bg5 (10.a3 Ng6 11.Be3 Be7 12.g3 0-0 13.h4 h6 14.h5 Nge5 15.Nxe5 Nxe5 16.f4 Nc4! Bxc4 bxc4 18.Qxc4 d5! (18...f5!?) it seems what black is clearly better ) (10.Rd1 Ng6 Nd5 Na5 Bc2 Rc8!? ignoring knight on d5 and it's very difficult for white to find a good plan here) 10...Na5 11.Bc2 f6 12.Bf4 Ng6 13.Bg3 Rc8 14.Rad1 Bc5 15. h4 0-0 16.h5 Ne5! Bxe5 fxe5 18.Nxe5 Rc7! position is still not so cleare but black objectively better and have a very good chances to win.

Dorfman method

Hi guys! I would like to know, what do you think about Dorfman method?

1) Is this method suitable for all kinds of chess players?  
2) What are the disadvantages of this method?
3) Do you use this method in your own practice?
4) Is this method relevant for study and understanding? 

I will be glad to hear any of your thoughts about it :)

For those who hear about this method for the first time, here is a brief description:

The Dorfman method is a two-fold scheme for finding good moves.

The static elements

The first fold is the static elements of the position. These are 4 elements in decreasing priority:

1. The king position: whose king is better positioned and protected.
2. Material correlation: material balance, and combination of pieces. For instance, Dorfman considers 2 knights + bishop as being often more effective than 2 bishops + knight since the former can triply coordinate on the colour of the bishop.
3. Which side will stand better after a potential trade of queens. This depends on which side has a more active queen, and whose endgame play is favourable.
4. Pawn structure. Central outposts, number of pawn islands, pawn weaknesses, pawn majority, doubled-pawns, domination of light/dark squares such as the grip provided with the Moraczy bind, etc.

Dynamic play

The second fold is short-term play provided by dynamic play, which roughly constitutes:

• Being ready to opt for extreme measures, such as piece sacrifices,
• Create threats,
• Preventing a king from getting castled,
• Drastic change of pawn structure, and liquidations,
• Quick pawn advances on either flanks.
• etc.

Critical moments of a game

The scheme then is basically: At each critical moment of the game, each player has to decide whether to play statically, i.e. to improve their longterm play, or play dynamically for short-term advantages to possibly stir up the static balance of the position.

Critical moments are defined as moments when there can be:

• a possible exchange of pieces,
• a change in the pawn structure,
• and the existence of forced sequences of moves.

The Method

At each such critical juncture in the game, the method says:

• Study the static balance of the position in order to decide whether to play dynamically or not.
• The balance constitutes comparing the 4 elements one-by-one between the two sides, starting from highest priority.
• One side is deemed statically better if it stands better in any of the higher priority elements. For instance, if king positions are about the same, but one side has a stronger material correlation, then that side stands statically better even though they might be worse in the 3rd and 4th elements of the static balance.
• The side with a favourable static balance should play slowly and find moves that further improve their longterm static advantages.
• Conversely, the side being statically worse, should opt for dynamic play and establish a short-term advantage, in order to ultimately stir up the static balance in their favour.
• Ideally, the dynamic play should aim to establish an advantage in terms of a higher priority static element. For instance, if we are statically worse because our material correlation (2nd element) is worse, then by playing dynamically we should try to worsen our opponent's king position relative to ours, i.e., establish an edge in a static element higher in priority than the one we're doing worse in. So in this example that higher priority would be the king position (1st element).

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Yes it sounds like a good technique and should work out well

NEW ARTICLE: How to Become a Chess Grandmaster - Is it Easy?

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Opened my eyes to the journey of becoming a gm

Coach, my eyes were already opened from 2017 when my first good mentor told me how he prepared against GMs and how he crushed them. I left him bec of financial issue. But we are still in touch. I know it wont be easy to achieve GM title and I do know it's not a joke. 

I am happy that I am not too old and I can work hard and learning smart work from your community too. So I know I will improve more because now I have proper guidence and I will achieve my goals

Cool! 

Scotch Opening

How to further prepare the Scotch after watching the course? Or is the preparation in the video course enough?

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I've found it more than enough. Most people that play against the scotch seem to be out of book after move 6ish and you easily gain a sizable advantage. At worse, I've found myself in very complex games where I am pressing.  I LOVE the Scotch course on here.

Create a database of Scotch Games, and keep it up to date with the latest tournament games as well as your own. Pay special attention to the heroes that play our line regularly to see if any promising new ideas or problems have cropped up. The main heroes of our line in tournament practice include: 

GM Ian Nepomniachtchi 

GM Alexander Morozevich

GM Ivan Cheparinov

IM Thomas Beerdsen

Feel free to compile your own list and if you run into problems in your games don't hesitate to ask for advice here.

Good luck

Apart from the players that Kevin D mentioned you to follow, you may wanna take a look at Kasparov's games in the Scotch. Even though he didn't play the lines that are recommended in the course, he( apart from being an ex-world champion) was one of the experts of this line, so you will get a lot of ideas and plans by watching his games. I hope this will be useful for you as it was for me :)

No need to prepare further if you are not 2600+ Grandmaster. 
Scotch we covered very-very deeply in the main course and in advanced courses. 
What you need now, is to play, play and play! 
And at the end, if you have a coach, or someone better than you, who also knows these lines, ask him to check your games and help you with fixing the mistakes. 

Sicilian 2.Nc3 line is surprising strong against 2100 player

Dear Chess friends,

I am new to this repertoire, and wanted to test some of the ideas online. I was able to play this game as white and was surprised how much i was able to keep the initiative and continue to push my opponent back. [White "Kayode"] [Black "marcaliplayer"] [Result "1-0"] [UTCDate "2020.04.28"] [UTCTime "11:47:46"] [WhiteElo "1924"] [BlackElo "2107"] [Variant "Standard"] [TimeControl "180+2"] [ECO "B23"] [Opening "Sicilian Defense: Closed"]  1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 e6 { B23 Sicilian Defense: Closed } 3. f4 d5 4. Nf3 d4 5. Bb5+ Nd7 6. Bxd7+ Bxd7 7. Ne2 Ne7 8. d3 Nc6 9. O-O f6 10. Ng3 Bd6 11. Qe2 Qc7 12. e5 fxe5 13. fxe5 Nxe5 14. Ne4 Nxf3+ 15. Qxf3 O-O-O 16. Nxd6+ Qxd6 17. Bf4 e5 18. Bg3 Rhf8 19. Qe4 Rxf1+ 20. Rxf1 Re8 21. Qxh7 Qe7 22. Qg6 e4 23. dxe4 Qxe4 24. Qd6 Kd8 25. Qc7+ Ke7 26. Re1 { Black resigns. } 1-0

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yeah its true and it is even strong for 2300 if you have detailed analysis of all lines.

Super! 
Just a piece of advice. Don't take on d7 early. Let him to play a6 and spend a tempo on that :) 

NEW ARTICLE: The Art of Trading Pieces in Chess

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Great article. waiting for the coarse. When will it come sir?

Very useful article. I am waiting for your courses about trading pieces.

analyzing your own games

What is the best way to analyze my own games in chessbase 15

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Same as with CB14 or CB13 or CB12. Analyse without engine first, then compare it with engine analysis. Check for blunders and when critical position was reached. If you have a database it couldn't hurt to see how your game compares with others, in that way you may learn new ideas, strategies and typical recurring patterns.

You can analyse it from Engines

I have same problem.

The steps of analyzing as told by many GMs-

1.Write down the time in the scoresheet to know where you have time troubles.

2. Insert it in the chessbase.

3. Give some thought or psychological issues after the moves(optional).

4. check the reference.

5. Compare with the engine.

6. give conclusions about what you learn from the game at the end.

hope it will help!

Can I become GM

I am now 31. I am a college professor and researcher of Mathematics. Although I can spent 4-5 hours in a day. Can I become GM or at least a fide title holder like CM or FM, specially in this age? 

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You should check out our last article - https://chessmood.com/blog/how-to-become-a-chess-grandmaster-is-it-easy 

It's possible to become a titled player but you need three things:

1) You have to really want it.

2) Study the ChessMood Openings and Classical Games.

3) Most importantly you have to play a lot and study your own games. Use this play and study routine to create your own feedback loop and make adjustments to your play accordingly.

Tip: Adult learners and academics tend to overthink things, this can hinder rapid progress in chess.  While learning how to do raw calculations is important, it is just as important to develop and hone your intuitive thinking, that is knowing what plans to adopt and moves to consider purely on instinct and muscle memory (Pattern recognition). Such instinctive play only comes from lots of experience playing lots of games, after that your subconscious should let you know when your position is becoming critical long before calculation confirms it,  call it your 'Sense of Danger' or 'Spidey Sense'. 

When you start effectively using calculation and intuition combined your chess results and understanding should improve rapidly. 

Tanmoy, I know a certain thing: if you have a burning desire of becoming a GM or any tirled player, you will achieve your goal very quickly. Anyone who has a burning desire, it's not difficult for him to make right decisions and find good coaches books etc. You should invest into yourself smartly, if you want it. Motivation and desire is the key to get our goals reached.

yes you can! follow your dreams and work hard!

1. Um, I think if you have a goal like why you wanna become gm then you already have motivation to do ex. So search your goals like why you wanna achieve the title. Be committed. Don't say like oh I wanna be a GM. Show self dicipline and be committed to achieve your goals.

2. Do study classics by heart. I am following 50% benefit rule right now so I can grasp books faster instead of analysis. I talked to Avetik sir about that. I asked coach how much I learn from a game if I watch it carefully and try to understand concept. He said you will get 50% benefit from that game and if you analise a whole game then 100% benefit. I replied 50% better for now because I am notin the condition to analise games well so before working on analytical skills I need to work more on classics so I can understand the positions well and my assessment will improve.

3. Importance of openings. Many people write yeah opening matters but why openings matters is sometimes skipped by them. Openings decided the long term middlegame plans. For example if you play Chessmood Grand prix then most of the time our main plan is to attack the castled king. On the other hand if you ignore openings then you will have no idea about where to place pieces, pawn structures and breaks, typcial positions, some known endgame position of that opening etc. So work on your opening ideas in depth and you will also do well. I prefer to learn openings 2 hr a day in lock down time and next day before you go to next lesson then always check the base file of previous lecture so you will not forget ideas because material is too much in chessmood openings so it take time to grasp concepts.

4. Endgames- I learnt from Avetik sir that classics matters for below 2000 level and if you only know basics of endgames and some basics positions then you will do very well. But yeah it does not mean ignore endgames. If you think you need to learn more then go for it. 

5. Be motivated. No matter people will laugh on you or make fun or you or call you anything just try to ignore them and focus on your goals. This is what I am doing too. People laughed on me when I started my chess community to help beginners and see now I am hellping a lot people.

6. Find a good study partner or mentor for your rapid growth . Acc. to Avetik sir, a good mentor is a mentor who cares for your dreams but not care for money.  So sad that most people only care for money and can do anything for money. I do met a gm recently who is only worried about his sales and his way of talking showed me that he is greedy man. It's great if you achieve a title but if you can't help community or if you become greedy all time then you won't do well.  So, find a very good mentor who care for your goals not money.

. Apply all above concepts and if I miss something then let me know.  Yes, title of GM is not so easy to achieve but not impossible task too. Yes I do read Avetik's sir article but even before reading that I knew that getting 2000 is not tough but after that road will be tough but yeah my first goal is to get 2000 then I will think to hire super mentors like Avetik sir so I will improve faster. 

Suggested Opening and PGN files

Do we have here how to counter Alekhine Defense? and can you provide us a PGN file of Secret of Middlegame?

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Hey Rod! 
Yeah, Alekhine is coming. It will be the next course. 
And instead of PGNs of Commented games, it's coming much cooler thing. 
STay tuned. 

The Craziest Line Ever

We just uploaded one more section in the Scotch Game course! 
This is the craziest variation I've seen. 
Look at the position. 
White pawn is on a7 on the move 14! :) 
And can you guess what is White's best move here??!! 

If you are a PRO Member, here is the link to videos https://chessmood.com/course/scotch-game/episode/1338

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Wow, great! I waited a very long time for a detailed analysis of this lines. I tried earlier myself to analyze these crazy positions, but my eyes widened from the abundance of opportunities available to both sides. Many thanks, GM Avetik ;)

e4 e6 d4 c5

A trouble line. 

e4 e6 d4 c5

Now if i go for d5 then it will change into benoni structure and d4 game

If I go for dxc5 then bishop develop so not good.

What will be the fighting line against this move order?

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If I go for Nf3 then now open sicilian on the board.

I saw in past that d5 is best here but without long term ideas hard to play 

Abhi, you go 3.d5 and it'll be a very bad version of Benoni for Black. 
I'll add a few words in the course later. 

Drilling Software

In another thread, I was asking about .pgn files and how to access them.  They are presented in the courses, but you should only use them after you write the material down or enter the moves into a chess program. This is an important step in the memorization process.  After you do that process, it seems useful to have input this into a drilling software program.

My question is what do you all recommend in software to do this?  There are several I know of....

1.  ChessBase - it has come a long way in it's drilling ability to practice your repertoire.  I like that it prints out your repertoire on paper as well.

2. Chess Openings Wizard (first named BookUp) - This program started it all and Peter Svidler was an early adopter.  It does what it says, but there is some competition now with Chessable.  Your repertoire is stored as a series of inter-related positions.  It is very easy to use but not in Chessable's league regarding spaced repetition.

3.  Chess Position Trainer - I hear that this is an almost abandoned project now, but had loads of potential.  Not sure what happened to this one.

4.  Chess Tempo?  I think I saw this mentioned somewhere but have never used this feature on chesstempo.com

5.  Chessable - the most advanced spaced repetition learning system that you can use to train your repertoire.  I found the entry of positions to be confusing and not as easy to use as COW (#2 above).

Holy Grail - to me would be a smooth blend of COW's ease of use and Chessable's learning functions.

Comments appreciated.

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We use Chessbase.  
But I see many successfully are doing it in chessable.
About memorizing the lines, we are launching soon the Quizzes! 

`question about the pirc

what is the difference between for 4 Bf4 and Be3 and Bg5

they have a lot in common but?

Why are you choosing for Bf4 and not for Be3 or Bg5

Thx for the great move 0-0-0 you make me very happy with this move

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As was mentioned already, it helps with pushing e5 in many lines. 
It will be in the next section, the most important differences. 
Franck, please put questions in the opened topic. 

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Learning a whole new opening system...

...is tough! Having done the Sicilian, French, scotch and most of the Scandinavian, I have ventured on to lichess to start to try it all out.  Despite being probably only half way through the white repertoire, remembering the moves, the ideas and executing the great positions obtained when I get the lines right is really hard.  And of course I’m still winging it when my opponent plays a line I haven’t covered yet, but that matters not.  Having played 1.d4 and 1.c4 for the last 10+ years means I’m a 1.e4 newbie again!

I have loaded all of the lines of the Sicilian, scotch and Scandi into the ChessBase opening trainer app and using that to drill and watch the lines, I’m going over the games I play, in which I’m still getting a pretty small percentage of the ideas right, and I’m rewatching the videos in lined that come up repeatedly. Not yet tried to find top GM games played from those positions to see the plans they used, but will.

I’m sure many of you have been in this stage in the past - helpful hints or guidance gratefully received!

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Nigel, this is great! You are doing exactly what you need to do to learn the new openings!

I too was a 1. d4 player for over 20 years before changing my entire repertoire to ChessMood openings! I have been doing the same as you are doing now, but for about a year now. I watch the videos, add lines to my ChessBase, try to play the openings, and review my games and compare to my notes to see how well I remember the moves and ideas. As encouragement to you, I will tell you I know these openings MUCH better now then I did a year ago. 

You will also continue to become more and more proficient as you continue doing as you are now. The process Coach has given us works, as long as we do the work, and it is clear you are doing the work! 

Trust the process and give it time! I look forward to seeing how much progress you have made in a few months!

Hey guys! 
Nigel, as I said earlier in other posts, the first three months will be tough. 
There is so much information to digest. 
However when you digest... 
It will absolutely another level. 

I recommend to play more and more and then check your games and see where you went wrong. 
And also not miss the streams. They help very much with memorizing the lines and understanding the position deeper. 

The greatest example, of course, is Kevin Hall, who is around 6 months raised 300 points.  

The 1st step is done, you get out of from comfort zone. 
Just don't give up. In a few months you'll remember this words :) 

Good luck and keep the Right Mood! 

Sounds like you're on the right track! Chessbase/Chesstempo/Chessable etc all allow you to train your openings, which worked really well for me. Of course playing slower games and going over the opening (and entire game) will help greatly.  

Wish you the best of luck! 

Anti-Sicilian with Nc3!? Part 3

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Hey! 
Yeah, Be7 is a good move. You continue with the same plan, with Bb2, 0-0-0. The key move is Qf2! 
Controlling the d4 square and go g4 with a very interesting position. 

New in Chess

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Are you referring to the 4-time per year publication called "New In Chess" which comes in book form and now also digital?  I have all the issues of that and do read it cover to cover.  It surely can be useful if you happen to run across something that pertains to you and/or your repertoire.  As strange as this may sound, more often than not I will read (skim) an opening article that likes some line against what I play or am thinking about playing.  The analysis is all computer checked too. I usually leave with the feeling that maybe I am not picking the best opening and start to go adrift in the Sea of Openings.

While this book is a good read, I do not think it is the best way to go.  By all means, if you have a chess library it does belong in there!  I just found that it did not specifically help me so much.  I love the book reviews, the 'What's new in the World of Correspondence" section, etc.  I have been thinking about this and I wonder if it is a 'too much information' situation.  

What I am going to do instead, is to trust the process of this whole website, and just learn the openings they are recommending. I figure I have a limited amount of time to devote to chess, and it will take a lot of it to get this repertoire down.  Add to that tactics, classic games, endings, online play, I am not sure at this time I have room for anything else.  I would defer the decision and work with the increasing amount of material here.  It is GM-guided and will take some work to absorb, but already it is proving very effective.  I am going to give this some serious effort.  :)

NIC is a very nice magazine and can be enjoyed on many levels. If you are a serious student, the annotated games often by the player themselves is invaluable, you get not only the raw analysis but also their thought process during the game and that alone is worth the price of admission.

Hi Abhi

Do you have this NIC magazin. It is free,

https://browserclient.twixlmedia.com/64405b80479198eb2373b5595d030073/202002/printedmagazine_spreads

/Kim Skaanning

Pirc deffense

Hello everybody!I was playing onlin blitz game and my opponent plays with black pirc. The bad thing is that he played like this showed in the photo.Please help me and say what I must play if black plays h5 with no castle and go to attack.

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Hi Suren

h7-h5 is bad move. It dont do anything for the development. 

Imagine Black played 0-0. White will quickly have a strong attack, with h3 followed by g4.

Just play standard moves like 0-0-0, f3 or Nf3. Everything cannot be theory.

Use normal development principles and positional understanding.

Kim Skaanning

Nice answer Kim! 
Suren jan, you just go Nf3, and then depends what will play Black, you go 0-0 or 0-0-0. 
Bc4, 0-0 plan is very good. Black's problem is that after we push e5, they will regret about h5 move.