Seeing Some Success!

I've been on Chess Mood for probably 10 months now. I started at 1100 on lichess, and today I just hit 1500! Thought you guys might appreciate hearing about a success story. I may not have progressed as fast as some of the others, but I'm very happy with the results and feeling a lot better about how my games are going.

The main courses I've studied are the white/black mood openings and Tactics Ninja. I have struggled to complete the full Tactics Ninja course, watching it halfway through, feeling unable to solve the more advanced tactics (decoy was too much for me originally) and then watching the first half all the way back through again.

Recently, I've shot up in rating very quickly, and I think it is due to adding tactical puzzles to my training regime. I recently read Avetik's blog post on Improving Chess Tactics: https://chessmood.com/blog/improve-chess-tactics and he recommended Chess ART-6 software for training tactical puzzles. I bought that and started with the beginner program that had me just solving hundreds of mate-in-one, winning exchanges and winning piece type puzzles. All very simple stuff, but it has dramatically increased my tactical vision. Now that the basic patterns are better trained, it is much easier for me to understand and see the more complicated stuff, and it has had a huge impact on my games, allowing me to actually recognize my opponent's mistakes. I feel like doing the puzzles locked in the tactical theory I was learning from Tactics Ninja and brought everything together.

Anyway, just want to share. I'm excited about reaching the next level of my game, and feel like I have a clear path to get there. The next goal is rating of 1800! Here we go!

Replies

That's great news indeed Jarred!😁 
We love that you are telling us your experience! thank you very much!!!!

Yes, keep practicing your tactics and at this level it will make a big difference. 

By the way, some concepts more advanced in the tactic ninja course can be trained as a tactical theme in CTART. After a while when you will solve more complicated puzzles, then go to the concepts that you struggle more (decoy as an exemple) and practice them one at a time… Suddenly you will see the same themes appearing in your games very often… It's good that you are opening your tactical vision, chess can only get funnier!!!! Way to go Jarred!!!😃And remember, always Good mood!

Jared, congratulations! 
It's really cool that you achieve your goals and don't compare with others. 
Comparison is the thief of joy, as Roosevelt noticed. 

Thanks so much for sharing and inspiring others!  

About tactics:
We're in the process of adding thousands of training examples into Tactic Ninja courses, which will be divided into 2 levels.
That should help a lot! 

Good luck, and keep updating us on how it goes! 

Article: How to Find the Right Chess Coach | Ultimate Guide

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Well I prefer to choose Kramnik and Peter.  But if he wants to learn how to play mindblowing moves in time trouble then Grischuk is best in the world. 

My fav. Coach lists includes.

1. Coach Avetik.

2. Coach Gabuzyan

3. Anonymous my teammate mentor hehehe.  

For Question 1, I would say Svidler!

1. I would love to have a world champion who has already achieved the title as my coach like kramnik or anand etc

2. to be honest i have never had "coaches", chessmood is the first place where am meeting strong trainers like GM Avetik 

Ans 1 ) Leko

I really like the article and have just filled out the form for finding a coach.

The sentence that gives (for me) the most important point is:

Therefore you want to work with your coach on things that you couldn’t have done alone!"

What does this mean for me being an "Adult Improver" (wife and two kids, full-time job, 49 years old, FIDE ELO around 200): 

I do know "how to study" and I have a general idea of drawing a study plan that fits my needs and framework conditions.

I do have the ability to focus and work hard for my goals. But sometimes I do need a kind of external "push". Taking part in the closed tournaments and webinar is an important "push" for me as I can see how fellow PRO-members improve and compete for our coaches's praise.  And do want to beat Tom soon :-)

I have a limited ability to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses or to put it differently my understanding/knowledge and the ability to apply it in a practical game. Therefore, I can not put together the best possible study plan and cannot adjust it as early as possible. I guess this would be the main field of work for my coach.

Hello!

Do you have any suggestion on how a chess coach like myself who has a full-time job unrelated to chess, but loves the game and loves to coach, can improve his skills as a coach? 

I really liked the article and have will fill out the form for finding a coach.

to answer the 2 questions:

1...Caruana?

2...since in the article you wrote to think big...then 1 Magnus Carlsen 2 Garry Kasparov (he was born 13th aprile if I'm not wrong, like me...but that's all we have in common I suppose :) :) :) ) 3Judith Polgar

Question 1, Svidler Maybe, he seems like a good coach .  I applied for the google form.  when should i expect to get a reply?

Question 1: doubtless Peter Svidler

Question 2: My #1 although I know is unaffordable, would be Jacob Aagaard, I have read many of his books and he was an attacking player.

My #2 Vladimir Akopian. Must be expensive but he was in the Botvinnik-Kasparov and he won everything under 20. So too much talent and light disposition to fuel it all. I think now he is composing Studies

My #3 there is draw here. Paco Vallejo because beside his rating he is spanish best player of all time and I am from Barcelona-Catalonia (Spain). Paco is from Mallorca. The other guy is A.Volokotin, I read his book (exercises) Perfect Your Chess and I read recently in an interview to promote his serial about Decision Making in Chess, he mentioned Perfect Your Chess as a very good book.

I also have a look at lichess.org and chess.com coaches (basically there are the same guys) and called my attention a 25 y.o. active GM who wants to coach, with a rating +2650, the azeri Nihat Abasov. He doesn't publish his fee, only tell to contact for an agreement. But reading your article I doubt so young he is an experience coach and probably he just wants to improve his finance.

Thanks for your time

Is the form still here ? (for finding a coach ) I can't find it.

Very good blog and well worth reading. A few years ago a parent during the British Championships expressed her horror to me at a titled player offering coaching between rounds of 75 dollars an hour only to find 9 other juniors being coached at the same time. And all the titled player did was set one problem to one and move on to the next with a similar problem. She said to me that most parents did not realise this and saw it as child minding ! On the positive side the advice on doing your research is key. I knew what I wanted was a player stronger than me but not a GM and approached an old school IM who had helped Jonathan Hawkins become a GM and was turned down which I fully respected.

Thank you for this incredibly helpful article!!!!!!!!! Could you please post a/the form for finding a coach?

hello, Thank you very much for sharing all this precious information.

I mostly play online so I don't have any suggestion or information from coplayers about theirs coaches e.t.c. I have visitited lichess coaches and just got lost. 

I would love to fill the form that you talked about in the article but I can't find it .

Thanks again.

French Tarrasch, how to push pawn to e5

Hello ChessMood friends and coachs ! I have a question regarding the French Tarrasch, Guimard defense (3. … Cc6) when white plays the 4. Cgf3 variation.

I was recently outplayed in a french tournament against fide 1900 player because i was not able to find the correct way to push e5 which appears to be the goal according to the course. Here is the line : 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nc6 4. Ngf3 Nf6 5. e5 Nd7 6. Be2 f6 7. exf6 Qxf6 and i was willing to push e5 but my opponent played 8. Nf1 and i found myself in trouble because pushing e5 would let d5 undefended ! game continued with 8. … Bd6 9. Ne3 0-0 10. 0-0 and i just tried 10. … Ne7 11. Ng4 Qg6 12. h3 c6 but i never could push e5… Instead it is my opponent who took the e5 square and later won the game :-(

My question is : How can i deal with the position after this 8. Nf1 move (or any moves against e5 push) ? what is the best plan and strategy for black here ? 

Many thks and keep the Good Mood since this site is a jewel !!

Replies

Hi Haik, the move 10…Ne7 is not my preference, I would play 10…Qg6 first to prevent Ng4 and freeing the square for the N on d7. Then there are many advanced variations and many moves like 11.b3, or Bd3, or maybe the main line that would be c4. You should check the databases and see how Black plays from here, but the main thing to remember is Qg6 and Nf6… Let's see if the next time you will remember this.

Studying Middle Games and Endgames.

How do I remember middle games and endgame position, and ideas?

Replies

Practice makes perfect, but a good way is to keep track of the positions that you like the most.
As a practical way, the ideas, positions that you move, can be added to a Lichess study as an easy option.

This way all the positions that you think are worth remembering you will have them in one place.
You can create different studies. For example I have one for my mistakes in the games, where I add all the mistakes that I do and the correct move and practice them from time to time playing the right move, of course.
💪Also I have studies on endgames that I review from time to time, or also good ideas in the middlegames that surprised me, this way you can check them from time to time and you will keep track of them too.😀

Missing moodcoin

I didn't get today's mood coin after completing puzzle 

Replies

Are you sure you found the correct answer? I found it and received the moodcoins! 

Yes, we did not have any problem with this feature, it worked normally. You need to find the right solution, not just completing the puzzle… 😀

London question - d4 Nc6

Hi all,

I've just played my second game experimenting with the London opening.  I opened with the usual d4 and black's response was Nc6.

As I saw it, the main options were as follows:

1. Attack the knight with d4 to d5.  This maintains tempo but the opponent is unlikely to allow the knight to be taken and I end up with an undefended pawn completely isolated.
2. I add further protection to the d4 pawn (it is already protected by my queen, of course) with Nf3, e2 to e3, or c2 to c3.  None of these seem terrible and all allow me to continue with the London opening.
3. I continue with the planned Bf4.  This also continues with the London opening and leaves the queen to protect the d4 pawn.

Reviewing the game now I see that Stockfish's preferred options (with not much between them are:

1. d5
2. e4
3. Nf3

Questions:

1.  I'll be honest, I didn't even consider the e4 option.  Is the rationale for this simply that it allows us to take control of the centre?
2. What would your move have been, and why? 

Replies

Apologies for the formatting.  When I type the reply it looks perfect but when I post the reply it doesn't look the same (for example, the numbering disappears) - what am I doing wrong?   

In that position, going with Bf4 and the London System is completely fine.

However, I want to give you some advice.

At your level, I would recommend not focusing too much on openings already 😁.

This is what I did to get to 1000 elo:

Watch the Opening Principles ( https://chessmood.com/course/opening-principles ) course and just  play logical moves (after watching the course you will be able to make them).

Remember you should spend just 2.5% of your time studying openings, the most import thing at your level is playing and learning tactics.

Good luck improving! 😃

P.S. Chessmood recommends to play 1.e4 instead of 1.d4.

1.d4 leads to more closed positions, while 1.e4 leads to more open positions where you can apply your knowledge of Opening Principles and Tactics.

Czech Pirc Defense

Dear Chessmood Team;

Although your site provides repertoires for white and black, this is the second time I find another opening (previous one was French Schlechter variation) where Chessmood provides an opening from the white side while not covering the black side.

“Counter the Czech Pirc” - this is a very good course but It is essential to provide the black side of this opening as Chessmood provides repertoires for both sides.

Would you take this idea of mine into consideration?

Replies

Hi,

the French Schlechter is there for both sides, since we play the French as black.

Czech Pirc isn't recommended for black here, so we only need it for the white side.

how to win in fide rated players

wanna ask that now i play start only play chess and play fide rated games,but people are strong have preparation and calculation,thay can see what i see also i am afraid to attack ,how to win games with people full time playing chess?

Replies

There is no magic pill, but a very good stablished plan and path ahead of you: (If you want to become a stronger chess player)

https://chessmood.com/chess-study-plans

Do not lose your time trying other things, follow this plan and you will improve for sure. People often try many things instead of doing them… 💪

download pgn files of videos

do we have pgn files of the videos if so how to download them

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https://chessmood.com/blog/the-most-effective-way-to-create-chess-pgn-files

In this great article, you'll find the answer and the reason.

• Always focus on developing all of your pieces and connecting the rooks before engaging in tactical operations
• If there is a tactical opportunity before you developed all of your pieces (like the Bc8 in this position), try to calculate properly if it is working or not (I don't know what is your rating but with experience, it will not be too difficult to calculate this variation to the end or to understand intuitively than you don't have time for that as your development is incomplete + king is unsafe)
• In the middlegame, try to make a luft for your king when you don't have any useful/active idea in mind. Like that, you avoid playing a move without purpose by playing one that is useful. Just be careful not to waste time in all of your games to play a move like that as it is not always necessary (I think this also comes with experience but playing h3/h6 in all the games is also a typical mistake by inexperienced players because after falling for this tactic a lot of time, they decide to play this move in all the games to avoid future problems even if it's not necessary for certain positions or if they are wasting time to do that instead of developing a piece actively)
  • You can also focus on this aspect of the game in your daily training for a few days by doing lots of tactics about back rank, for instance by following this link: https://lichess.org/training/backRankMate

  After you worked on this subject for a certain amount of time, your brain will do all the work for you and you will not have to do that consciously during your games to do it! Hoping that will help you :)

  Yeah, like Akiba Rubenstein said, this comes from experience. You have to see these positions often. Working in tactics will often help develop these ideas. In general, these tactics come with repetition. There is a reason grandmasters make their moves so fast and so accurately, its because they have pattern recognition and realize where they have seen these types of positions before. Try to solve more and more puzzles, and remember them by occasionally (if possible) looking back on them. 

  I agree that avoiding these types of blunders comes from experience. Now that you've made this mistake, you will not make it again, as your brain will check if this back-rank tactic is available for your opponent when you are thinking of a move like this. This will apply for other types of mistakes too. Do puzzles and play games to gain this experience. Another thing to do is to never end a calculation on your opponent's move. Always ask yourself what they will do before making your move.

  look if your opponent has a trick or two. Maybe you thought he fell into your trap but you fell in his trap. 

  ;)

  Hi all

  i thought I was making alot of blunder until I created a spreadsheet and discovered I made few blunders but alot of misses which happen to be the same number of inaccurracies. Secondly, after watch the bulletproof and slp courses, I wanted to uses the lessons in pratice. So I made another spreadsheet as well. I amazing discovered how useful the lessons were when analyzing my game. Not only I identify my mistakes but the reason why the mistake was made in the first place.

https://chessmood.com/course/spartan-shield

If you still struggle with King Safety after the previous course, you can watch this course too:

https://chessmood.com/course/chess-defense

There is also a blog by GM Johan Helssten about it: 

https://chessmood.com/blog/how-to-defend-in-chess-8-must-know-defensive-ideas

Happy birthday to this wonderful sportsman and my friend, 
Ray Robson! 

Feel free to share your wishes to him here: 
https://twitter.com/GmAvetik/status/1717186168565964815 

Replies

What a great sport Ray was.  It's a pity that there aren't more like him.  (For what it's worth, there is no way that I'd want to win by forfeit in those circumstances either.  It just wouldn't feel right.)

I've wished him Happy Birthday on Twitter (I refuse to call it X!)

Happy Birthday Ray Robson! 😃🎉

🥳🙃🥳🥳Happy Birthday Ray!!! 🤩🥳 That was very nice of you! 
And Avetik, Nice picture!!! Brother, you look like a blind man with the sunglasses and the cane, I know that you were always wearing sunglasses, but Moscow with snow and Winter time is not so sunny… 🤣😂 

Learning Openings

Is it ok for me to put moves in a lichess study while looking at the opening videos? I always look back like a few seconds after I make the move on the video, then go back to the board. Video, then board, video, then board ,and on. Is this OK for me?

Replies

Hi Sabarish, 

No, it is not the best system, you do not pay attention to the explanations, you are just copying the moves. This makes no sense improvement wise.

Please check this post by GM Avetik where he explains what we think is the best way and why:  https://chessmood.com/blog/the-most-effective-way-to-create-chess-pgn-files

😃