Chess forum by Grandmasters

About the classics and the Evans Gambit

Is it possible to play the Evans Gambit in the classics?

control 90+30

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Absolutely! I was surprised when I checked that the computer only gives black -0.2 after b4, which in my mind means that it is totally playable. Of course, the biggest factor is if you understand the resulting middlegame positions and typical ideas better than your opponent. Some gambits like the Halloween Gambit or the Alien are probably only good for blitz and bullet, but the Evan's is one of the more serious ones.

how do you handle chess nerves?

i have this tournament where I'm feeling really nervous about it.i have a feeling that I didn't prepare well enough for it. i really dont want to mess up my tournament, my parents said this is my last chance to gain 150 points from 3 tournaments (they have really high expectations, its either they expect a lot or won't care at all.) I just lost 40 points from a tournament which my parents spent a lot of money for and they got really mad. i don't really want to disappoint them since this might be the last month that i can pursue my chess career.
Since I'm in the philippines, I have to adjust my sleeping time and it really sucks because I tend to overthink before going to sleep, the thought of losing haunts me every nnight (i dont mean to be dramatic). Every night I wish that I could go back to december-january where I gained about 300 rating points in 1 month (it was because my rating was only 1600) and my parents expect me to do the same again. I just hate feeling anxious, it makes me mess up my games which makes things worse, it makes me feel unconfident. I really need your help please :(

(sorry for the trauma dump)

please give me some tips on how to stop nervousness, and maybe some mental preparation if its okay :)
Hope you have a great day!! 

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Managing parental expectations can be really tough!  A big part of growing up can be to figure out what you actually want and becoming your own person with your own values and goals.  This is often associated with happiness.

You mention that this is the last chance for your chess career, but it sounds like you have a long life ahead of you which chess can be part of or not, as you decide.  The number that gets thrown around is 30.  That's how many people in the whole world can actually make a living from only playing chess.  Everyone else has to do things beside chess to make their way through life.  Perhaps tailoring your expectations better and assuring yourself that eventually it will be up to you whether you play chess or not and that, realistically, your life will be much richer than just going from chess tournament to chess tournament may help with the nerves?

I am not sure about your exact circumstances, but I am 49 and my life turned out completely differently than I thought it would when I was young and I am very happy about that!

That sounds really tough, having to handle those high expectations! I think the most important thing is trying to really enjoy what you do, because nerves will only put you down.

Tips:

• Play for yourself, not for your parents.
• Try to find aspects in the game that you know you're really good at aand think about those.
• Do breathing exercises to calm your nerves. Also before going to bed.
• Still your thoughts before bed. Everytime your thoughts go to chess, go back to breathing, meditate until you fall asleep.
• Try to ignore the people around you and just play your best chess.
• If in the worst case you won't get the necessary rating points but really want to keep pursuing chess, try to save up for your tournaments. I know it's incredibly expensive and it will take more time to get where you want to be, but persevere!

French Bd3, Nbd7 and Be7 Line

Recently I played a classical game using Chess Mood Bd3 line and I meet this position. I not sure whether my approach of playing with this line is correct, if yes what is normally white plans after that? Should we play on Queenside with the pawns or play in the center with pieces. 

 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Bd3 dxe4 4. Bxe4 Nf6 5. Bf3 Be7 6. Ne2 Nbd7 7. O-O O-O 8. Nbc3 c5 9. Bf4 cxd4 10. Qxd4 Bc5 11. Qc4 e5 12. Bg5 Qc7 13. Be3 Qa5 14. Bg5 h6 15. Bh4 Re8 16. Bxf6 Nxf6 17. Ng3 Be6 18. Qb5 Qc7 19. Na4 Be7 20. Qxb7 Qxb7 21. Bxb7 Rab8 22. Ba6 Bd7 23. b3 Ba3 24. Rab1 h5 25. Nb2 Rb6 26. Be2 h4 27. Nc4 Ra6 28. Nd2 Rd6 29. Nge4 Nxe4 30. Nxe4 Rd4 31. Bd3 Rc8 32. Nd2 Bc6 33. Nc4 Rg4 34. f3 Bc5+ 35. Kh1 Rg5 36. h3 e4 37. Bxe4 Bd7 38. Rfd1 Bxh3 39. gxh3 Rg3 40. Kh2 Re8 41. Rd5 Be7 42. Nd6 Rd8 43. Nf5 1-0

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Dear Soul Chess,

After 8…c5, your Bf4 is possible, and you played the game quite well, making a mistake a little later in the game.
Overall, your strategy was interesting, and I also like pressing on the Queenside. But this position isn't very concrete and hard to advise what to do in general, as that depends on the opponent's moves.

Also, instead of 9.Bf4 - I would invite your attention to 9.Re1, that also seems interesting. Rook comes to a half-open file, often making it harder for the opponent to play with the e5 move.

Thank you Chessmood team!

Just recently hit over 2000 in online rating after applying consistent study, practice and analysis as recommended by the team of awesome coaches here. 

Have lesser time to work on chess improvement nowadays because of work and family obligations but even with an hour's worth (at the max according to my schedule) of consistent work as recommended by the coaches really works 😊

Just wanna convey my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the coaching team for always delivering excellent and quality content and instruction that always works 😁 

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Dear Shawn,

I want to express big gratitude to you from me and our team for your kind words.
It's the best feeling for us to see a message like this from our student.

Keep going! Keep Growing!

Wishing you the best of luck!

study partners

hello everyone i am 1900 chess com and 2000 lichess ,contact me for being study partnerr

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Hi there,

You'll have more luck if you post in the dedicated thread for study partners here:

https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/studysparring-partner-1362

New article: Wobble Your Way: Advance in Chess Without Knowing it All

When learning a new opening, there’s a mistake many players make.

They try to have the perfect preparation before playing a single game in that line.

And it holds them back.

Why does it happen? How do you fix it?

Learn more in today’s article ⬇️
https://chessmood.com/blog/wobbling

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Just going to go and not play chess until I've read every book in my chess library. LOL!

…and I thought I had preparation anxiety.
 

Your article is so well written and so timely! I am a professor that teaches accounting and taxes to students at a university. I tell them all the time to sit for the CPA -Certified Public Accountant exam in the USA which is the top accounting designation. I encourage them to invest in themselves after earning a Master's in Accounting degree. Only 1 or 2 out of 10 will do it and when they do they are suprised when they pass it! You do not need to know it all I tell them but you know more than you think you know. It will not be easy but with proper studying you can do it! Yes you will "wobble" but you can succeed! The biggest hurdle in most success is the first step! I further encourage them by telling them that nobody will ask you how many times did you take the CPA exam? The client just wants to know are you a CPA? I am so happy that I found Chessmood and am a part of this family. Keep up the great work! 

nice article!!

Hi Ave you are right !!!!! 

I'm a member of Chessmood and though I 'm  learning following the courses  just for a few months

I wobble less and less……..till flying  
Cheers

I know the Bishop Opening. I played it all 2019 but I played it with a gambit, the Urusov gambit. After 2.Bc4 mostly you will get the response 2….Nf6. Then 3.d3 and 4.Nf3 transpose to the Giuoco Piano Italian. But the gambit is 3.d4 right away. Here most amateurs are already out of the book and they will play 3….ed or Nxe4. In the first case 4.Nf3 attacking d4 but you also can take directly Qxd4 which will be met by 4…Nc6 attacking the Queen. Is a dubious gambit to play +2000 rated. Or in Nigel Shorts quote when he played the Budapest against Karpov, “is like the WC paper. A one time use.”

About leartning openings I try to memorize the minimum, just what I think is necessary to remember. My method is look for +2700 games and analyze them because these guys understand what they are playing very well so going over their games I think is the best way to “get a feeling” of the Opening in question.

Good luck with your wobbles ;)

Nice article! When are you releasing your book? I assure you I will buy it! I can't wait!

“Go wobble yourself. This was an awful article.”

;)

No, this was not an awful article.  I am so glad that i stumbled upon you folks … for a variety of reasons.

For starters, this article hit me right where it counts.  That fear of, i’m not sure what?  Failure?  Sure.  Not being perfect?  Sure.  It is a common refrain in your blog that the point is not elo points, but getting better at chess and enjoying the process of getting better at chess and being curious about the process of getting better at chess.

Which brings me to more general reasons why i am enjoying ChessMood so much: Not only is the content absolutely first rate (which i suppose is the main point, right? :), but there is a humanness here which is impossible to miss. You are not afraid to point out that some of the lessons we learn by learning more about chess are similar to lessons we learn when we are learning about life.  Yikes! That was a mouthful, but it’s true.  We are living in terrible times, i’m afraid, but eavesdropping on this little community has been nice.

I wish you all peace and kindness.

love The wobble concept, there is another concept that goes along with this called weeble wobble, you can look it up but it’s like you can get pushed down but always try to get back up

Top motivational article GM Grigoryan, sky is the limit!!

In italian we say “Barcollo, ma non mollo”, a sort of “I wobble, but I don't give up”, obviously with a different harmony of the words :)

I think this is the spirit.

You're experimenting with the bishop's opening as an alternative to the scotch? Ok, but what about the king's gambit? I think it is a very underrated opening and maybe it might be a nice alternative to the scotch. Of course, you are a GM and I'm only 1500, so you know much better than me, but I'm just wondering if you considered it. 

This article was amazing like all your articles, by the way!

I thought I was running a race but now understand I'm trying to drive a plane, I've made it long while wobbling! So time to make that sharp turn into 1600s to get a little fluent.

Waiting for two years: Benkoupdate

Waiting for two years: Benkoupdate

Two years before the answer was:

Benko updates course is under construction and will be recorded in the future, although for sure not in the next few weeks as its and enormous work, and as you can see we are also actively recording other courses as well :-)
Thanks for your patience and good luck!

What time the update will come?

You have any   new informations?

Best wishes and thanks for your work

Christoph 

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Dear Christoph,

The reason we were delaying the Benko course - that this is specific opening course may be interesting for x% of students on our website, in a meanwhile we focused more on the courses that will be uselful for everyone on different levels - Benko is personally my favorite opening and I always wanted to start working on that- and you know what?

Just these days, the moment I am answering your message, the re-recordings start!!!!

So you can expect the Benko course in the very near future!
Thanks for your patience and waiting,and I hope you will enjoy it a lot.

Best wishes,
GM Gabu 

Isnt it today's daily puzzle same as June 19th/18th one

Duplicate daily puzzle

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😀

Yes, I thought I'd seen it before! 

Hey there,

I informed our technical team.
Thanks for informing.

Anti-Sicilian Part1

Hi!

How to respond to: 

1e4, c5

2Nc3, e6

3f4, a6 

?

a4?  or g3?

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Dear VIcentiu,

In that case, I would recommend playing with g3 and Bg2 - later on, you might advance on the Kingside with h3-g4-Nce2-Ng3.
It would be nice to check some anti-Sicilian model games and the course content.

Good luck! 

2000!!!

Finally got there!

That game 

When I subscribed to ChessMood, that number seemed very far away, I don't think I was thinking about reaching it. According to what I wrote in my profile, I was 1729 elo rapid on chess.com when I first got on chessmood. I just had an interresting tournament (6 out of 9) but I thought I could have done better. I had a clear objective in mind: work on my endgames, understanding better positionnal chess. 

So now, about 10 months laters, I've completed 4 chessmood courses (endgames roadmap, essentials endgames u2000, pawn endgames and blunderproof), significantly advanced in others (SLP, Silent Strategy). I gave myself that rule of playing regularly rapid chess, (almost) always three games at a time, no more, no less. 
I earned my spot in the best players of my local club, and althought I'm not the best, there is none I haven't beat at least one time.
In a 5 round tournament in december, I've got a 3 out of 5 against higher rated players. 

Funfact: I have a sparring partner, she was kind of the opposite I was: I was strong on openings, attack building, tactics; she was a solid positionnal player, bored with openings. During this year, we kind of changed our roles: I became more positionnal, delibaretely avoiding study the openings, and began to win endgames; she got better openings and became a fierce tactical player, and sacrifice more. We've learned from each other and from our independant sources of learning. 

In the last three months, I got this strange feeling that I was playing worst and worst… but numbers were saying otherwise: I was at my peak! I realized that it was a sign of progress: my learnings were there, I was seeing my mistakes more clearly, I was just seeing them a few seconds after playing them… but it meant that if I was persisting, that learning would seek in deeper in my mind, become instinctual and I would play better. That gave me confidence in the process. 

Friday, I ended my training session on a very nice win in the slav defense, pressuring from the beggining to my opponent's resignation. And I realized that I was at 1993, basically one victory to 2000. Should I play a fourth game? No, I thought, I would stick to my routine. 
Yesterday, I called a player from my chess club, we went to play OTB at a local park, enjoying the nice weather. He's one of the strongest. We played four games, I lost 4 out of 4. He had identified some weak spots in some of my lines, we discussed it. 

Today, it was time for a new training session on chess.com. I thought I would blunder because I would be nervous. I would lose rating and I was ok with it: three games, and analyzing the games, that's the process. 

The first game was a little bit strange. My opponent let me build and attack. How could he let me do that? My position was crushing. The conversion was not the cleanest, but the opponent had to sacrifice a piece to survive. 
And…
there is poetry that I won the 2000 elo by converting it to a winning pawn endgame. It kind of reming why I got on chessmood in the first place. 

Here that game
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/139897552932?tab=review

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Many congratulations Bernard - that is a fantastic achievement! 😎

And what a great review of your progress.  It gives all of us something to aspire to.

So, once you have enjoyed the moment and the euphoria has dissipated, what is the next target?

A few additions/corrections.
In the chessmood I've made there is also the Spartan Shield. I was an attacking player, but was lacking knowledge on how to defend. 
I should also mention, very importantly, the strategic and endgame masterpieces courses, I'm at 44 strategic masterpieces and 9 endgames masterpieces. I think thoses were very importants in my progresses, alongs with the endgames courses. 

Congratulations Bernard,

It’s amazing!

Thanks for details!

Keep going 💪💪💪

Thanks for sharing your progress as well as your process, Bernard.  Congratulations!

Thank you for your congratulations everybody :)

Issue in the silent strategy course

Issue in the silent strategy course

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What issue did you face?

Hi Rudransh! 👋
Thanks for your message. If you'd like a smoother watching experience without interruptions, you can use the Filters button in the top-right of the video list.
Just uncheck Quizzes and Trainings, and only the videos will play — making it easier to continue watching the course without breaks. 

Also, in some cases, if you're using Safari or Mozilla Firefox, those browsers may have autoplay restrictions that stop the next video from starting automatically. You can adjust the browser settings to allow autoplay, and it should work fine.

If you need help with that, feel free to let me know!

You have bought the course or you are watching it for free? Because from what you are saying only the introduction is playing, wich is free, and not the rest of the course. In other worlds, only the free part of the course is playing. If you want to see all of that you have to buy either a chessmood membership, either full access to this course only.

From what I gather, you do not have a membership/own the course. So only the Introduction is unlocked, and you do not have access to the rest.
This is perfectly normal.

New article: Why Pushing Harder Might Be Holding You Back

All effort. Zero results?
Sometimes the biggest mistake is running the wrong race.

A story, a reminder, and a solution 👇🏼
https://chessmood.com/blog/why-pushing-harder-might-be-holding-you-back
 

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Great article Avo. 

Just out of interest, could you give us an update on how the development of the AI coach is progressing? 

Interesting, indeed I've done that many times, pushing it all in the wrong direction.

Interesting, keep up the good work!

What is your lowest accuracy rapid game you won this week?

I just had a game I won with an accuracy of 66 according to chessdotcom, still I got a winning position after some mutual blunders😃

So, can you guys win with a lower accuracy?

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Not this week, but I won a rapid game recently with an accuracy of 56 using chess.com engine analysis. My opponent was rated 1640 in rapid at the time, so no slouch, but his accuracy during the game was 35. It really didn't feel like we were playing that badly however the post-game analysis was very revealing. 

Essentially, the game was complex and sharp with opposite sides castling. (I had White and played the Jobava.) There were a number of situations where the engine felt that only one move was working (and we both missed them!). Also, for a lot of the time in this game I had forcing continuations that were difficult to assess but were winning for me, except I didn't play them (considered a ‘miss’ by the engine) and chose somewhat slower moves. At the same time, my opponent was also not defending against these threats because he/she was also not seeing them. So, we were both blind to a lot of what was going on on the board. 

I find these kinds of complex games are often unforgiving when you get to the post game analysis. But it was an interesting one to try to learn from.

How about you? Was it a similarly complex or sharp kind of game that you played and won with accuracy of 66?

In theory you can win with an accuracy of near 0. Almost every move a blunder, just the last one was the opponent leaving a mate in 1 on. Unfortunately 0-0 can't be awarded as a result for that. Other than a bit of fun I wouldn't read much into accuracy or rating for a game, particularly with a low depth computer generating it and no real study into what exactly accurate means.

It is a couple of weeks later, but I just got a win with 56 accuracy. 😃Interestingly the blunders are not at all straight forward, it takes an engine power thinking to spot them. But I had 4 blunders.

That would be that one, wich still has a nice SLP at the end. 73.2 vs 73.1 accuracy, very close :P 
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/139752382068?tab=review&move=80

Course Reset Option

Hi,

Big fan of your work.

I do have a small suggestion though. It would be nice of there was a reset option that would allow to reset all the quiz and/or training exercises within a course. 

I sometimes like to go over a course one more time as a refresher from time to time, but have to manually reset all the quiz and training section one by one. Not fun 😉

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Best response against queens gambit

what do you guy recommend kings indian slav or anything

else im currently 1400

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You are on this site, so why not giving a try to the Dutch?

You could watch the Dutch course here and then see if this opening is to your taste.

Just for your information: The Queens Gambit implies that Black played ..d5 at one early point.

🙂

It depends. If you play D4-D5 you can go into the Queens gambit declined. I quite like those lines but i believe there is quite a bit of theory. If you follow chessmood openings you actually avoid it all together by playing E6 then F5 going into a Dutch attack. 

I personnally play the Slav, if I can the Chameleon (or Chebanenko) variation. But it's because I stick to the opening I had before subscribing to ChessMood. Here you can follow the BlackMood repertoire and play the Dutch attack, or take the course on the Benko Gambit. Both are quite interresting.

My ongoing tournament

Hello!

After a whole year, I am able to play on an OTB classical tournament. These is  going to be the U16 Greek Youth Championship (here you can find all  the participants Chess-Results Server Chess-results.com - 2025 National Youth Championships). There are a lot of strong U16 players, higher rated and more expirienced than me ( here is my fide profile Deliezos, Anastasios FIDE Profile). Also, it will be the first time I play all the ChessMood opening repertoire. As you can see, my fide rating is just 1700, but in the past I have won against higher rated oponnents. What should be my goal for this tournament? For example, finish in the top-5 or beat all the below-2000 rated players?

Thank you

Anastasis

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Hey there Anastasis,

Awesome to hear that you are participating in a tournament!
The goal is always to play the best possible chess you can and see what happens - don't limit yourself with extra thoughts, just do as good as you can with the right mood and full concentration!

Wish you good luck, let us know once finished :-) 

New podcast with GM Fressinet: The Untold Stories of Carlsen & Kramnik

GM Laurent Fressinet, former World Top 30 and second to both Carlsen and Kramnik in their World Championship matches, shares stories and lessons from inside the world of elite chess.

Hear it now on the ChessMood podcast! 👇

YouTube
Spotify
Apple Podcasts

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Very interesting and enjoyable thanks!

Great talk with such a nice person.

Thank you!

Is it possible that the quie to game Nr. 3:  https://chessmood.com/course/laurent-fressinet-best-games/episode/7885/4092#2 is not working properly?

French defense

Kindar suprise variation

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Bird Opening

What do I play when my opponent play bird Opening after 1f4,e6

        2.Nf3,  and also when opponent play 1f4,e6

                           2e5

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Chess Blindness

In analyzing my games and even puzzles a constant theme has developed.  There will be a pawn push that I will miss and it leads to complication or an outright loss.  For whatever reason, when I calculate a position I am simply blind to pawn pushes.

Is there any recommends on how to work on this issue?

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Dear Kory,

Are you specifically blundering pawn moves? 
This issue is a little unusual, to be able to answer I will need more information - please provide me with more details so I can give you a reasonable answer.