Chess forum by Grandmasters

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. 

Where to download pgn files?

I am still new here.  I am starting the new courses on openings, and would like to access pgn files if they are available.  (it was advertised as such).  Can anyone point me to them please?

Thanks.

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I am one step ahead of myself!  I see that in the courses, the pgn is included after the presentation of the material.  I guess the point is to ask us to work as we go, since this helps retain the information by having to write it down or enter it into a drilling program.

I plan on doing just that, and not cheat :)

you have to download chessbase. Probaly I have chessbase and when I download pgn files it automaticly goes to chessbase.If I could somehow help you plese like my reply so I can have some moodcoins. Thanks a lot.

Modern Maroczy Bind Mistake?

Hi, it was in  the Modern Maroczy Bind section 6. Not sure if anyone mentioned it before, but in the line where Black chooses to play Ne6 after b4 in the main line, which then followed Rc1 a5 b5, Nb4 (mentioned in the video ) seems like a blunder as White can just play Ne1 and threaten a3. If Bxc3 then Rxc3 Nxa2 Ra3, where Black is losing a piece. Again not sure if anyone mentioned it but if not i hope that this is useful. 

Ps:  Please Correct me if i am wrong :P

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Hey Keok! 
Can you add a screenshot? 

Curious Fortress

Hi! Watching kings indian videos in the classical games section made me remember this game i played almost 2 years ago. Unexpectedly, my opponent sacrificed his queen and i thought it was an obvious mistake and I was going to win easily. But with every move I made, it became more difficult to find the right plan. Is there anything better that what i did? Of course i know that the last rook sacrifice is wrong, but I think the first one is correct if you want to push for a win.

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Hey Rolando! 
In your previous post we had technical issues, just edited your file. 
Thanks for understanding :) 

This is really amazing fortress. 
I checked engine is showing +7!! :) 
But really, there is no way to breakthrough... 

Thanks for sharing this. 

Modern Pirc

Hey, champions! 
As we have Grandmasters in our PRO Members team and people like Kevin D and Nicolo Passini who are experts in openings, I would love to hear your opinion about 1...g6 with Bg7. 
With our Grandmasters team, already a long time we are analyzing different lines.
But still can't figure it out what is the line that is easy to learn and it gives White easy game or easy attack. 

My intuition says, that I'll get now a long response from Kevin :) 
And I'll be very glad and thankful. 
I love that we have people like him. 
People who learn, give good questions and at the same time help others in the forum. 

Thanks in advance. 

P.S I would love all of your thoughts, even if your rating is less than 2000 and you don't know much about this :) 

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Hi Avetik,

Thanks for reaching out, as I mentioned in a previous post the Modern with 1...g6, Bg7, d6 while delaying Nf6 is a very tricky and flexible opening, and it's easy for White to get confused in the labyrinth of possibilities that Black has. Ideally what we want as White is a universal setup that can be tailored against the entire family of Pirc, Modern systems, that is both effective and relatively straightforward for White to play. Before I continue I should confess that often many of the questions I pose on the forum are not necessarily for myself but what I think could be on the mind of some members. Now back on the topic of the Modern, I noticed that GM Anish Giri who is not only a very strong GM but also a renowned theoretician has been using the following move-order in most of his games including Blitz, Rapid & Classical, this suggests that he really believes in it:

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 d6 4.Be3!? [I already indicated why I think the popular 4.Bc4 is overrated in another post]  

The above moves look innocent enough, but now the most popular and widely recommended advice for Black is to transpose back to the regular Pirc with 4...Nf6 when after 5.Nc3 we reach the so called 150 Attack as it is dubbed in the U.K. The question then becomes how dangerous is the 150 Attack really, the answer is extremely lethal as there have been quite a few important discoveries in key lines that refute many Black recommendations presented in repertoire Books and DVD's. In fact I have been unable to find a completely satisfactory solution for Black if he enters the Pirc proper, and if he does not enter the Pirc the options don't look that appealing to me either. Ok I have done  enough marketing now, and have already proven Avetik's intuition right with another long post. :-)

To conclude I would suggest you take a close look at Anish's games and his 2018 chess.com  online blitz match with Mamedyarov where the pirc/modern featured in some of the games. Match Link here,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSsCy09Nyx4 take note of Giri's h4, h5 in game 1, this pawn sac is very poisonous and a recurring theme in White's setup, Shak Mamy is no bunny but is quickly routed in this game. Watch the entire match when you get the chance. Attached is one of my personal files based largely on Giri's ideas, with many improvements on existing theory given in the notes. I hope you find it both useful and inspiring.

Kevin, thanks for the long answer! 
We were working a lot on Pirc, and we spend lots of time on Nf3,Be3 setup. The problem was when Black plays without Bg7. 
But when Black starts with Modern Pirc with early Bg7, then Nf3 with Be3 becomes strong.
Kevin, have you seen the game Fressinet - Almasi? 

And thank you for the link. I didn't see their match :) 

I was almost starting to record a course when one of our coaches offers something incredibly strong against Modern Pirc. 
Soon it will be added in the courses :) 
Stay tuned. 

Kevin, you are great! :) 

Game 187

Why was this a draw? Black has got an extra knight, one would think that is an advantage.

Taken from 

Last move Kh5

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Hi Dan Valahu

Black has a knight and bishop. White has two bishops. Both bishops and knights are worth 3 pawns.

/Kim Skaanning

Game 186

Why was this position draw? Black got extra pawn though.

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Hi Dan Valahu

The game could continue with 1.Ne6xg7 Ng6-e5 2.Ng7-f5 Ne5xg4 3.Nf5xh6.

Noone cane make checkmate anymore.

/Kim Skaanning