Chess forum by Grandmasters

I have a lichess study so here it is: https://lichess.org/study/EGrhMKyO

If you could make a course on the open sicilian it wouls be good.

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For white chessmood doesn't recommend to play Open Sicilian with 2. Nf3 because it has very much theory. Some variations are even bigger than some openings.

Chessmood has already made courses on the Sicilian for black. You can find them in the category “Step-by-step opening repertoire for Black”

King activity

Hi, I've recently played two games where I reached the endgame. Now, my question was, in those specific positions, should I get my king active and around what move? There are 4 pieces in total plus pawns, and I had fear that activating my king would have led me to lose my pawns and then get into difficult position. However closing my king around my pawns got me checkmated in one game (even thou it was a blunder, but the point is that if I had activated it before it wouldn't have happened) and almost in the second. The position are from these games: 1. https://www.chess.com/game/live/95796901953 here I was black      2. https://www.chess.com/game/live/95939036395 here I was white

also don't look at the other moves in the games, they are terrible, but I'm learning. thank you

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Hi there.  

I haven't been playing for very long so keep that in mind!  

I've read that, as a general rule, if the combined value of the pieces (not pawns, just the pieces) for both you and your opponent is less than 12 then it is time to start bringing your king towards the centre of the board and to use him to attack your opponent's pawns.  So, for example, if you have a rook (5) and a knight (3), plus pawns, and your opponent has 2 bishops (2 x 3), plus pawns, then you should bring your king out.

Caro Kann Doubts

e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Bd3 Bd6 

How to continue after black plays bd6 .a lot of players are playing bd6 and I am not confused about how to continue .

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This variation makes no sense, this is some French exchange and we do not play this Ar ray, please check your move order… 😀

So shall I delete this thread as it is the doubt itself is wrong and it can confuse other players ?

WhiteMood #2 Scotch

Hi GMs and everyone, I am really enjoying the progressive courses and also the section on the Scotch, my favourite. I have a question on one of the tips in section 9 “plans against passive moves”. Suggested moves are: 

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. f3 OO 8. Qd2 d6 9. OOO

My question is what happens if Black have a wake up call and play 8… d5 instead? 

Thanks 

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Why don't you play exd5 and go Bg5 and try to create some weakness on c6 later? This is what I would do but there are several moves possible… 

about certificates

I took the quiz of the black mood opening and got 49 out of 49 but it is clearly wrong because I did significant number of mistakes and tried again after finding the right move.

I have no problem of giving me the option to try again but I think you should count lines that I failed in the first try as a mistake in calculating the score.

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Thanks, we will maybe consider this for future updates, but this is not an essential priority at the moment.Thanks anyways.

lines that I find hard to memorize

In this thread I am going to post lines that I find relatively harder to memorize in the starter white mood or black mood course with the hope that posting them here will make it easier for me to memorize the line and maybe other people will give tips how to memorize them.(I will start in this post with 2 lines)

1)1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Qf6 5.Nf3(the natural move for me seems to be 5.Be3 to develop pieces and also defend the knight).

5.Nf3 defends against the idea of Qxf2 mate but Qxf2 mate is also not a problem after 5.Be3

2)1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 Nf6 4.dxe5
4.d5 seems to me more natural for white

I understand that 4.dxe5 is also good because after 4…Nxe4 white has the option of Bc4 with some threats but  dxe5 is against my instincts that want to have my knight at e5 earlier than the opponent knight at e4 that is the situation in 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6

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about quiz and idea for improvements

I have fun with improvement so I decided to take the Tactic Ninja quiz and to do it again and again in order to do it faster.

The first step was to do the first 180 problems without measuring time.
I had few mistakes(after a mistake i thought and found the correct move).  Then I decided to see how many I can do in a an hour with a rule that I stop if I get 3 mistakes).

First try 74
Second try 143
Third try 186
 4th try 211

I do not plan to do all the 777 in one hour because it seems to me an exercise of moving the mouse fast(and I am not good in moving the mouse fast with no mistakes) and I think at some point after I get more than 300 in one hour I am going to increase the time that I allow myself to solve the quiz when my target is to do all the 777 in 2 hours.

More comments:
1)I would like to have an option for random order of the problems because when I solve the quiz again and again my memory may also remember that after move A in puzzle k there is move B in puzzle k+1 that help to solve the puzzles faster but does not help in chess.
2)I would like to have an option when I cannot play a move as a solution and need to post all the lines that I need to consider to solve the puzzle.
Practically there are cases when I memorize the first move but do not memorize the justification(I can calculate the justification but if I do it then it is going to take me more time and if I need to post all the lines that I need to calculate before the first move to have a correct solution then I think it may be a better training).
The option to write all the lines that I need to calculate may be useful also to check that when I calculate I do not miss some important line that I need to calculate but is not in the solution because the solution has only one line.
Note that I do not suggest this option instead of what we have but as an additional option because I think that memorizing the moves without calculating is also useful because it can be productive to start  calculating the right lines when you think and not the wrong lines. 

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My chess study journey

Hi everyone, first of all thanks for the answers you gave me the previous days. So, I'm writing this post because last week I've created, following the articles here on chessmood, a study plan to improve my chess. I'm currently rated 1300 rapid on chess.com and around the same blitz. From now on I will commit to write one post per week, updating you with my current status. Why? Well, first because writing every week will force me to follow the plan, second, because I want to encourage you doing the same with studying your chess. My goal is to reach 1800 within June 2024. Wish me luck, see you in the first update next week

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That sounds like a good plan! 👍

Good luck on your chess journey!

Excellent.  I look forward to reading about your study plan and your weekly progress.  Good luck! 😎

Sicilisn Defense

What to do after (white to play) (anti sicilian with Nc3 and d6) Be3 then d5 threatening d4 winning a piece

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Continue watching. Originally, 10.Be3 was proposed, but some later it was corrected to 10.Bb5!

Scotch Game

What to do after - 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Qf6 5. Nf3 Bc5 6. Nc3 Nge7 7.Nb5 Bb6 8. Be3 Bxe3?

Thank You!

😀

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Take a look at the picture attached, this is the continuation that I would do. We probably worked it out time ago with Avetik, but I do not remember exactly when. Anyway, it shoud be more than enough…😃

A bad blitz game with the what avetik call the french attack

https://lichess.org/MsXrjUURiTin

4…e5 is theory but 5.Bb5 is not covered in the starter course.
I needed to play 5…exd4 but did not evaluate correctly the line 6.cxd4 dxe4 7.Nxe4 when I cannot capture d4 because of a pin and also memorized Bb5 dxe4 Nxe4 Qd5 that is not in this position but in position when the pawn is still at e6 so playerd dxe4 Nxe4 Qd5(exd4 is still better at this point but white can reply Nf3).

After my opponent found the best move 7.Qe2 I blundered by 7…Bd7(7…Nf6 is the only move but I did not like Nxf6+).

I thought later that I could play 7…f5 but analysis by the computer after the game showed me that 8.Ng3 Qxg2 Nf3 is winning for white.

My opponent failed to punish me and gave me a second chance when I needed to play 8…Nxe5 but I did not like 9.Bxd7+  when Nxd7 losing to Nf6+_ and after Qxd7 I did not like a possible pin of the knight so I played.
8…Qxe5 that allow my opponent to get a decisive advantage by 9.Nf3 Qe7 10.Bg5(my opponent gave me another chance by 10.0-0 but I decided to castle and only after it understood that I needed to play 10…f5)
After 11.Re1 the move f5 is also not good and I decided to develop my knight 
When I played 12…Qxe4 I already planned the game line 14…Nd6 but only after playing this move I understood that white has Bxc6 so it does not win a piece(otherwise I could try 14…h6 .  Inspite of it I went for Nd6 with the idea that at least I make my bishop active and missed 14…Nxf2 when 15.Bxc7 is not good for white because of Bc5(when the computer suggested in the analysis 14…Nxf2 my first thought was that it is not good because of 15.Bxc7 but I knew that the engine saw something after 15.Bxc7 so continued to think and found Bc5)

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Dear Uri,

Bb5 is not covered in the Starter Course and neither is in the main books that offer this variation. The reason is simple: it is not a good move that automatically allows us to destroy the center with exd4 and dxe4 equalizing and having a good game, probably with the Bishop pair too if White wishes to take on the Bishop. 
Ask yourself constantly about the opponent threats instead of memorizing lines, that should reduce your blunders I believe.😀

December 6th Daily puzzle

Today's daily puzzle is a nice stalemate trap, but on the last move if you attempt to promote to a rook it doesn't mark it as correct, eve though a queen or rook would work. Am I missing something?

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Promoting to a Rook would also be correct, even though it is not recognized by the official cm solution. In a few cases this has happened before with other puzzles as well, but the main thing I guess is that you recognized the stalemate idea of the solution

Any advice for a classical chess tournament?

I have my first classic chess tournament in 7 days

Are there any tips or articles I can follow to achieve a good result?

I usually play online and have only played OTB a few times. What advice would be helpful?"

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https://chessmood.com/blog/how-to-win-chess-tournaments-7-key-principles

this article should help. One of the main tips I can give you is to just enjoy the game! Otherwise, why are you playing chess?