Chess forum by Grandmasters

Modelling Magnus Carlsen!!

Hello chessmood, recently I have been reading the book unlimited power by tony robbins. In that I read that we can model someone to achieve our goal. So I decided to model Magnus but the problem is I dont know how to get an in depth understanding of his chess journey. Is there any book or resource about him and his journey? 

Thanks!!

Replies

Hi Pranav, 
There are not so many books biography style, but you can get some inspiration by the books presented in this article.
Perhaps the best one is this:
How Magnus Carlsen Became the Youngest Chess Grandmaster in the World: The Story and the Games
written by his coach in the early days Simen Agdestein.
Also in the following blog article there are a couple more suggestions:
https://lichess.org/@/Minckwitz/blog/book-review-updated-five-works-on-magnus-carlsen/agsl3Tlo

💪I think that this should be enough to start… Don't you think?😁

How to play faster with accuracy

As GM Gabuzyan suggested in our 1-1 call, I've been playing 10+5 games online since I was not used to even slightly fast time controls.  I'm sometimes losing or drawing won positions because I blunder with less than thirty seconds left on my clock – or in a couple of cases, I have simply lost on time.  These problems seem worse when my opponent plays much more quickly, so I don't have as much of the opponent's time to plan my own moves.  When I analyze my games, I look at the move times as well, and I see that I will take over a minute on some moves that seemed difficult or unclear during the game.  Sometimes that's fine – I sometimes win with less than a minute on my clock when my opponent has left much more time on theirs.  There's no prize for leaving extra time on the clock.  But, sometimes I'm not winning games I think I could win if I did something different with time management.

Do we have resources or tips on playing faster without losing very much accuracy?

Replies

Hi Andrew,

Please check these 2 threads were we talk about time management:

I'm sure that you will find them useful:

https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-channel/time-management

https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-channel/how-to-play-in-time-trouble

In these threads you will find the links to several time focused webinars. Please watch them all and see how it goes!
Happy games!!! 💪

Problem of the day

I don't know why Kf6 is not correct. 

I think it also works.

Thanks!

Replies

It works, i checked with computer. Cf another thread in this forum with the same topic.

Todays (5/28/24) Daily Puzzle: Double Answer

Todays daily puzzle has two answers. Nf6 is considered incorrect but the engine says it is also winning.

Was this a mistake or intentional?

Replies

No! Nf6 is not a right answer :) 
There is a tricky defense with black!

1.Nf6 Qg1 2.Re8 Kg7 3.Rg8 Kh6!! and draw
You have to go Nh5 after 1.Nf6 Qg1 and get the initial position and then go with 1.Ng7!!

Daily puzzle of 29/05/2029

Why 3. Kb7 is wrong ?

3.Kb7 or 3.Kd7 is winning the queen by force

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I agree with you, whatever the king move it is winning (checked with computer). I am surprised I choose the right one!! I had one chance over 4.

I am ICC Fischer

I wont say who I beat online 8-0 in a blitz match, i will only say that it was a top 5 world player in 2001 on the ICC(Internet Chess Club) and the person went to the press saying that bobby fischer had beat him

Replies

Dear Alan,

This is your first post but we have 0 tolerance policy towards silly posts. Our team knows about your experience posting in other sites and how you were banned from them. 

As an example: https://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=13109

We will not allow this to happen here and we will ban you immediately if you don't stop.

Sicilian Dragon Accelerated winning chess opening

Hello

I am building my pgn files with the first one being Sicilian Dragon Accelerated opening as black. Here is a recent game I won on against 2300 player  Memorial day.  Thank you Chessmood family and Coach Gabuzyan for helping me with pgn files. It really makes a difference. 

Replies

I think that you forgot to attack the link to the game if you want to share it with us …

Sorry I forgot to attach the link to the game lol.

https://lichess.org/GZZPWxfV/black#41

Nice 👍 🙂 attacking game. You should post your best games in the “games of the month” thread instead of opening a new one though, that would be great 😃.

How to spend mood coins

I have been quite confused on how to spend the mood coins. Becuase ChessMood claims that you can buy courses with mood coins. But I don’t see any way to do it. 

Replies

Hi there,

Try this:

1. Go to the Courses page and pick your course
2. Select the option “Or get lifetime access”
3. Select the option “Buy the course”
4. In the right-hand section titled “Choose your payment method” the last option will be MoodCoin.

Remember that $1 = 1,000 MoodCoin.  So, if the course costs $300 that is 300,000 MoodCoin.

Need to earn some more?  Details are here: https://chessmood.com/moodcoin

Hey there, Chessmood team. Can you please pin this topic, because i noticed that someone asks how to spend moodcoins about once for every 3 week (I also did it once)? It will be really helpfull.

Best regards!

https://chessmood.com/moodcoin

$1 = 1,000 MoodCoin

The windmill concept from Tactic Ninja came in handy

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/110618521699?tab=review

Replies

Great Moves Forums

I know we already have the pinned contest and model games threads for sharing great games, but I wanted to create a forum specifically for sharing amazing combinations. Sometimes I find myself really proud of a specific move, even when the game as a whole was not impressive. If other people are interested, I thought we could post and appreciate great moves here.

I'll start. In this game https://www.chess.com/live/game/109884694063 I played the opening in dubious fashion, but was very happy with the finish.

Post EDITED by Chessmood Odysseus to delete the solution. Check the image and find the move that was played if you can. You can check the move played in the link.😀

Replies

Ok, that could be nice to try, but please do not post the solution in the explanation, let the people come out with the solution, just the link to the game and the image attached. 

I'm assuming that people will view and solve (or not!) the puzzle before reading posts by others.  So …. look away now if you haven't.

Yay, I spotted the Bg1 discovered check move immediately - that's good for me!  On the downside, I then spent a good 3-4 minutes before I spotted why white wouldn't simply g4xh5!! I got there in the end.  Nice moves 😎

I have another position I would like to share. With the black pieces, can you find the most forcing path to equality?

This game got me to the 2100 chesscom rapid milestone, but my opponent actually resigned in an equal position! Here's the game link if you care to investigate: https://www.chess.com/live/game/110490170843 

This one is completely positional: I found it in a 3+2 game but it cost me 40 whole seconds!

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/110129471707?tab=analysis&move=26 (Blacks 14th move)

ALERT: Hint incoming.

Hint 1: Find the best square for each piece

ALERT: Hint incoming.

Hint 2: The bishop belongs on f5, and the rooks on b8 and b2. Where does the knight belong?

ALERT: Hint incoming.

Hint 3: How do you get the knight to the b4 square?

ALERT: Solution incoming.

Solution and Explanation: The correct move is 14.. Nb8!!

Black does not have much time in this position or so it seems. Clearly, we need to activate and coordinate our pieces. Its not hard to see that the other rook will be developed to b8 and the bishop will be amazing on f5. However the knight seems to be doing nothing. The standard idea f5-Nf6-Ne4 is very time consuming, it will kill our bishop on e6, and give White the e5 square. After a bit of searching, the b4 square seems to be really excellent as the knight will be really active there, threatening to take the a2-pawn and go to the nice c2 square. The question remains how to get there. The maneover Nd7-b8-c6-b4 calls itself. This is the solution.

Along further inspection with the engine, I find that this is also the best move and idea by a lot!

Sorry for the very long post, but I hope that you learned something from this explanation :)

Opening against e4

Hey everybody,

I don't know what to play against e4. I tried out the Caro Kann but I didn't like it very much. I experimented with the scandinavian and thought that you could easily get a good position as white. I also don't wanna play e5 because it feels like there are endless posibillyties for white. What do you think that I should play? (playing strength: 1600 FIDE classical, 1900 rapid lichess, 1700 rapid chess.com)

Replies

Hi Matteo,

The ChessMood recommendation against 1.e4 is 2.e6 (the French Defence).  You can learn more about it here: https://chessmood.com/course/blackmood-openings

Hope that helps.

Why aren't modern games more studied than classics? + What makes a game "classic"

Basically the title. When you get to study games almost all recommendations refer to learning classics, not something more recent. Why is that? Is it because of style of play? Are they easier to explain? Is it because they have been analyzed more carefully? Or just the passage of time? I believe some newer games when analyzed carefully would make better examples than their older counterpart. 

Also what makes a game “classic”? I don't think some games from late 2000s - 2010s have been considered classic.

(sorry for the overreaction, i'm acting as if these newer games won't be considered as classic some 80 or 100 years later)

Replies

Studying any master game will be beneficial, whether old or new. However, I do think there are some legitimate reasons that classical games are studied more.

First of all, people are more familiar with historical games. Any chess coach is guaranteed to have studied the “classics”, whereas not every player necessarily keeps up with current events. I suppose the older games have proven their worth intellectually.

A more significant reason has to do with style of play over the decades. In the earlier stages of chess history, nearly every game was played with the open 1.e4,e5 and games were often decided by a tactical combination instead of grinding positional endgame. The same is generally true with modern chess beginners! A newcomer to chess may be able to understand Morphy's attacking plans and developing moves easier than Carlsen's slow waiting moves. We often show inexperienced players the classical games for the same reason we tell them to devote lots of time to puzzles: the basic tactical themes are most important at a lower level of play.

I don't know what specifically constitutes a game as a “classic”, but they're certainly worth studying. Then again, so are modern master games. Ultimately, analyzing any game can be productive, whether it's from 10 days ago or 10 decades.

Hi cate and Jake! The main thing is that classical games were played normally with one player being much stronger than other and the plans were not so known as nowadays. Therefore in the game when one mistake was made the master would implement a good plan making it a model game… This plan could be followed by others in the future. Nowadays games are much more difficult to understand because both players know these old plans and the overall level of the strong players of our age is much stronger, therefore it's very difficult to learn from these games. That is why in the classical games, one mistake creates a very good chance to learn from it. Nowadays chess masters would not normally the same kind of mistakes (again normally). 
I believe this is the why we study classical games, or why classical games are more suitable for teaching and learning from…😀

So yes, when we talk about a classical game, we talk about new plans, new strategies and tactics💖, that's because of absence of social media, websites, plateforms… to share knowledge and exchange experiences, we talk about a time where nothing else of self-taught except with a lucky help or coaching.😞

Analysing a classical game express the human's complex capacity🧮 of planing, thinking, and predicting  opponent's moves. So that nowadays, every moves of every opening or tactic is clearly known and explained.

Thats why classical games are more studied that modern one.😉

Caro game

https://lichess.org/hyKarXVxonG0

First time facing this line of the caro….I know my opponent didn't play it well….Is it a popular line?

Replies

Hi Mike

The repertoire gives Bc2 instead of Bb5+, then we play against the isolated d pawn. As a secondary issue black's d5 pawn restricts his light squared bishop so it probably makes sense to not exchange off the bishops. 

Anyhow, well done on such a quick victory! 

Missing PGN(s)?

Hi Chessmood family!

    I couldn't help but notice that there is no PGN file for multiple courses. For example. When I tried to get a PGN on the ‘Countering all the Sicilian Sidelines’ to study it, I couldn't find it. Can someone please explain the situation? Is chessmood updating the files?

Sincerely, Pengcheng

Replies

You have to be PRO member to download files. They are at the last section. Hope this helps!

Hi Pengcheng!

Yes, we are updating some files and we are aware of it. We will upload them one we are finished.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

😅

New success story: Blunderproofing her Game and Mindset to raise 550 points

Blunders stole her rating. Blunders destroyed her mood💔 

If you've played chess, you know the pain.

However, our student — an adult improver with little experience — found a way to reduce her blunders, stop them from driving her crazy, and raised 550 points 📈🤩

No magic pills. 

She reveals how she battled one of the most painful problems in chess:
https://chessmood.com/success-stories/jessica-metaneira
 

Replies

Woohoo! That's me 😀

Congrats Jessica, I want to learn from you too, as blunders also affect my game!

Thanks for sharing your story. It was very inspiring fir me.

nice

Just a heads up - the PGN on this page is still faulty. The actual knight annihilation from one of my games is gone. No biggie but thought it might be worth raising.

Mating Matador

I am beginning my journey through Mating Matador and have quickly realized that, although I have been playing chess for a long time, the patterns are not lodged in my memory. I therefore need to calculate them from scratch, a severe restriction Which means I fail to visualize many check mates.

The Blog article The Complete Checkmate Patterns List (with examples) will be an excellent resource when I’ve completed the course. However, is it possible to reproduce the article without examples as I am looking to print out an aide memoire of the patterns and this would be easier without the examples.

Replies

Unless you feel my suggestion is a good use of your time, please ignore it. The issue I was having was that the cookies permission request was obscuring the article. I’ve now managed to remove them all from the article and save as a pdf.

Apologies, I should have exhausted all possibilities before posting.

Overlooked checkmate in the Petrov course?

Hello GM Grigoryan.  I have reviewed quite a few of the opening courses on Chess Mood and everything is amazing!  However, I think I found a clever checkmate in the Petrov Defense course that may have been overlooked.  In Section 8 (Part 5 - Nf6) lesson 6: 11...h6? after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Nf6 6.d4 Be7 7.Bd3 O-O 8.O-O Bg4 9.h3 Bh5 10.Re1 Re8 11.Bg5 h6 12.Rxe7 Rxe7 13.Bxf6 gxf6 14.Nd5 Re8 15.Qxd2 Bxf3  you recommend 16.gxf3 because you state that after 16.Qxh6 Black can play 16...Bxd5 because the Black King can run to the Q-side after 17.Qh7+ Kf8 18.Qh8+ Ke7 etc.  HOWEVER, instead of 17.Qh7+ there's a beautiful mate with 17.Bh7+ Kh8 18.Bf5+! Kg8 19.Qh7+ Kf8 20.Qh8+ Ke7 21.Re1+ Be6 22.Rxe6+ fxe6 23.Qg7#.  Of course, Black can avoid mate by paying 22...Kd7 but then 23.Rxe8 wins a whole queen.

Thank you and I truly appreciate Chess Mood!

Chris Chambers - Atlanta, USA

Replies

Thanks Chris, we are aware of this and Avetik mentioned in some seminars. No problem at all since it's very advanced. 😅

overview questions by variation

Hello, I have a question regarding the Scotch (the line with 8. h4 a5 9. c4 Ba6 10. g3 g6 11. h5 Bg7 12. f4 f6). 

My question may already be asked by someone else, is there an overview where I can find possible answers? If I earch for “Scotch”, I find many dozen questions, in no specific order.

However, my question is: instead of answering 13. hxg6 with … hxg6, it would be my first intention to play … fxe5 and rip the center open (or even … 0-0-0). The black king will be relatively safe after 0-0-0, but where will white hide his king? The engine confirms, that 13. … fxe5 ist the better choice. How to answer it? 14. gxh7 wins a pawn, but after 14. … 0-0-0 I would prefer the black pieces a lot. 

Replies

Hi Alwin,

Your observations are interesting and I think White shouldn't take on g6.
Instead, I would suggest 13.h6 Bf8 and here White has tons of possibilities. I personally like 14.b3.

Good luck!

I created a new chess variant

I call it “Soccer Chess”. It only works with OTB chess. Here's how it works:

1. The pieces move the same way

2. To move a piece you have to pick up your king and make him kick it to the square you want it to go to (as long as it's legal)

3. If when you attempt to kick a piece and you knock it over, you lose that piece

4. To move your own king you have to take you opponent's king and kick your own king

5. If you knock over a piece illegally when attempting to kick it (such as blocking a check) the knock over rule doesn't apply

6. Oh and btw you have to hit the clock with your king too :)

7. You may move the pieces in front of your piece when making a move if you say adjust or j'adoube (This helps when moving knights from behind pawns)

Have fun! Any questions?

Replies

p.s Accidentally kicking over your own king doesn't count unless you're resigning (which you also need your opponent's king to do)

Help with PGN files

Hello everyone,

I met with coach and read the the article on creating pgn files. I downloaded the Sicilian Accelerated Dragon pgn to start. But when I tried to save it in word there is no option for a pgn file. 

Now I need help with the logistics of it. Do I set this up in a word document or do I have to have a chess program? Do I have to type in a certain font? How and where will I save everthing? Can anyone tell me how you set up your pgn files step by step because this is notin the article? 

Thanks for your help. 

Replies

Hi Henry!

pgn is a format for chess games.
Please read below in this article below all the info regarding this. I particularly like this article because it explains the origins and the history of this file format.

https://thechessworld.com/articles/general-information/portable-chess-game-notation-pgn-complete-guide/

Please check specially the part about how to open and the different options offered. 
The most easy way may be to create lichess studies though if you do not want to use a dedicated software.
Check it out and let us know if you have any trouble!😀