Chess forum by Grandmasters

Dave Airey told me to ask for free chessmood. GM Gabuzyan PLZZ

COULD I HAVE FREE CHESSMOOD? 

IM BROKE 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

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ChessMood Coach

I'm interested in working with a coach and it makes sense to me to work with a coach who is familiar with ChessMood openings and the ideas behind them. Thought being, I'm not interested in learning new opening theory right now and would like to continue using CM openings. 

Is there a list of ChessMood coaches that are open to taking on students?

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Dear Jason, 

I asked our client support team to send you a private message.

Thank you.

Maroczy Bind Doubt

Hello, 

As my elo is getting higher and higher, more and more of my opponents are preparing the Maroczy Bind against me, especially because of some annoying dgt board games. I had one tough tournament game today where I got absolutely no counterplay and I am wondering what to do in this position. 

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 d6 7. f3 Nxd4 8. Qxd4 Bg7 9. Be3 O-O 10. Qd2 Be6 11. Rc1 Qa5 12. Be2 Rfc8 13. b3 Rab8 14. O-O a6 15. a3 

Up until 15.a3 was all covered in the ChessMood courses, but after this move I cannot take the pawn and eventually White gets b4 and I cannot even go for b5 and the queen had to come back to d8 in the game. I checked with my ChessBase engine and it gives pretty good advantage for White and I don't see a clear way to continue here. Although I was able to hold, I had to suffer so much throughout the entire game. 

Any recommendations here? 

Thanks!

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Hey there,

I am familiar with this idea as well, and I think there are a few moves here for Black.

15…b5 is a little concrete - you can check with the engine for the exact lines, 15…Qd8 is my preference, as now if b4 you can capture the c4 pawn :-)

Fritz 21 custom opening book

Has anyone tried to make a custom Fritz opening book using ChessMood PGN files we create? Usually one creates a custom opening book from a set of games from which Fritz creates a position based tree. It would be nice to use Fritz to practice against. Fritz has gotten so good that it uses its super strength to figure out how to lose brilliantly against you. Very fun.

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Fritz 21 has the option of playing from a custom openings tree but now also has the much easier option of File >> Open >> Database Book, because many users have their repertoire in variation files like ChessMood does. Thus, if you import your ChessMood PGN files into a Chessbase database, then you simply point to that, and it works. So, you can open a Friendly Game at whatever level you want to play (like CM), then add the Database Book, and you play against your PGN files. This is described here: Opening books from databases | Fritz 21 Handbook.

French advanced section

Hi Chessmood team,

In the French course, Avetik mentioned several times to go to the advanced section for more info/deeper analysis of a position , but I cannot seem to find this “advanced” section of both the French and Dutch.

Where can I find it?

Thank you!  

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Dear Aaron

We are planning to have the advanced courses; however, we don't have any estimated dates. We would love to provide more info, but now it's unavailable.

Thanks for asking and being concerned :-)

Goal: 2000 Chess.com & FIDE | Playing N4 Interclubs | Is this stack enough? Hi everyone,

​Hi everyone,

​I am building a dedicated roadmap to reach 2000 Rapid on Chess.com and 2000 FIDE OTB.

​My Current Profile:

• ​Chess.com: 1472 (Peak: 1528)
• ​OTB: 1650 club rating, assigned to play in Nationale 4 this season (recent classical results: loss vs 1598, draw vs 1851).

​My Resource Stack:

• ​Tactics & Pattern Recognition: Tactic Ninja, Checkmate Pattern Manual, and The Woodpecker Method
• ​Endgames: 100 Endgames You Must Know (Jesus de la Villa)
• ​Calculation & Strategy: Yusupov’s Orange Series (Build Up / Boost / Evolution 1)

​My Questions:

1. ​Is this stack comprehensive enough to carry me to 2000 FIDE as I play N4 games, or do I need to prioritize a fixed opening repertoire?
2. ​What is the best way to structure weekly study between deep Yusupov calculations on a board and faster Woodpecker tactics?

​Thanks for your advice!

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Hey Sathish, so I can give you some input here as I have looked at and read some of these books. I'm around 2100 rapid chess.com so take this opinion for what it's worth. 

First regarding the Yusupov books. I've finished Build 1 and am on chapter 6 in Boost 1. These books alone are going to take a significant amount of time if you do them the way he describes in the introduction chapter. Estimate about 1 hour per chapter and 1+ hours per test. I disagree the orange books are 1500 FIDE level. Some of the puzzles are very tricky, and I failed a chapter according to his scoring system. Specifically the opposition chapter #10 in Build 1. It took me a few months to complete Build 1 and that was all I was studying, but I have a full time job so I can't commit more than an hour or maybe 2 a day. I ended up with around 35 pages of variations in a written notebook for Build 1. Note that the entire Yusupov series is somewhat weak on opening theory. 

My opinion is you don't need much else for Tactics or Calculation because the Yusupov series is very calculation heavy. However, if basic patterns are still a problem, then Tactics Ninja is great. Note I did the entire Tactics Ninja course before Yusupov Build 1. That took a while as well.

Woodpecker Method. I use this as a general puzzle trainer because I really like their puzzle selection and they are vastly superior to chess.com or lichess.org puzzles (many of which aren't great imo) I never did the full method as in doing the same set 7 times. The advanced section I skip, because the problems are insane, but if you want calculation exercises that will take you 30 minutes or more go right ahead. 

Opening Prep - I use this site and some other online courses. Opening prep becomes more important as your rating gets higher and there's a hidden aspect to it as well. You will begin facing opponents who know all the lines and if you don't, you will get way behind on the clock trying to calculate and figure things out. So I feel it's better to know the openings well, so you can bank your time for later in the game. 

As to your final question, is this comprehensive enough to carry me to 2000 FIDE? Nobody knows. My opinion is if you enjoy the process of studying and playing chess then that is more important than the eventual result whatever that may be. 

Good luck.

Dutch Attack with white playing Ba3

Hello dear Chessmood follow mates,

Is there some videos dealing with the Dutch Attack when white plays quickly Ba3 (6th move, just after I traded my black bishop against his knight).

I got crashed quite quickly, playing the usual Dutch Attack plan and the engine did not give any human logical moves to counter that.

Thanks for the help and feedback. 

Take Care.

Paco

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Transposwiki - White change their mind - Nf3

Transposwiki - https://chessmood.com/course/crushing-d4-sidelines

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 d5 3. Nf3 Ne4 4. Bf4 f6! 5. c4 e5 6. dxe5 Bb4+  Chessmood's  move 7. Nbd2 lead  for Black to litle plus 7. Bd2 Bc5 (what else?)  8. e3 d4 9. Qc2 gives white  a advantage?

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Dear Helmer,

I checked the position with a super strong cloud engine ( see the picture attached)
7…Nxd2 8.Nbd2 dxc4 leads to a normal, playable position.

 

Whre can I post feedback on the course?

Epaulette actually comes from French, not english :) 

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Dear Richard,

Below every course, there is an option to leave the feedback :-)

CT-ART

In the blog about improving tactics CT-ART 6 is recommended. Is the newest CT-ART 20 therefore the best out there now? Thanks 

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How do i join the discord server?

I js cant find it, can anyone tell me exacly where it is?

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Can you please check this link?
https://discord.gg/w3mb9WUk6A

Question on Yesterday's Puzzle

https://chessmood.com/daily-puzzle?recent_date=21.07.2026 by Pogosiantis.

It wants you to Kg3 before moving Nd6>Nf7#, instead of Nd6>Kg3>Nf7# 

I'm trying  to understand why do Kg3 first when it works in either order.

Is the reason that when you leave your knight on e4, black has the chance to offer the draw by moving Ng5, and that gives him a reason to start chasing you and not watching his king?

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One reason is that black can go 1.Nd6 Nf8, and you don't get a mating net (for instance, if you now go 2.Kg8, the black king can simply go to g5 (which is no longer defended by the knight, because it moved first) and pick up the pawn on g4). After finding this, I checked with the engine, and actually Black can also just go 1. Nd6 Kg5 immediately and pick up the pawn on g4, which White cannot defend, after which White has nothing more than a draw

SIcilian defence part 1 ...d5!

https://chessmood.com/course/sicilian-defence-part-1/episode/758
Why after 10 Be3 not … d5!  11. Bc5 dc4  unclear or black  is better 

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Dear Helmer,

Thanks for noticing. Be3 is indeed bad due to d5 - here is what can play with the Bb5 move. This course is a little bit old, and in our plans we have to remake it with the correction of all mistakes.

We appreciate your help very much!

Pgn files in Chessbase 16

Perhaps a weird question, but I am not very tecknical with chessbase. So I want to know where in chessbase you guys store your pgn files?

When I save a pgn file I have worked on, then sudden I have many files. For instance I have over 10 files with Anticisilian part one, and then it is difficult for me to find the newest one.

Is there a way to keep only one file, so that you the next day if you choose to work on it you only have one file?

Keep the Mood

Tina

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Hi Tina

You can create just 1 file for 1 opening easily :)

Just open new board for every new chapter you want and put it in that database

Alternatively

You can put all the lines in just 1 board and save it as 1 big pgn

Hi Tina,

When you download the pgn file and open it in ChessBase it will be a PGN and in your PGN Files.
I created a new database called ChessMood and then when you get the PGN copy the games from the PGN and paste them into the database you created.  
Then you can work on the lines and organise them by opening line.

I've taken a screenshot of mine so you can see what I mean.

PS. Taking a look at Adam's example you can see:

He has split the ChessMood games into individual games for different variations

He has used the fields for the players names to describe the variations

He has stored all games in one single databasse.

In the database he has included real games too.

And he found a way to make the index of games a little bit more readable including games with players name "---"

Help me fighting anxiety

😔

Whenever there is a complex game going on and very im in a very complex position where some blunders can lead to checkmate, there i feel too much anxiety that my brain doesn't work at that time and also blunders happen, so how to deal with such situations

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I think there's a couple things to bear in mind here… First of all, as mentioned in the BlunderProof course: Everyone blunders from time to time. So if you make a blunder, especially in a complex position, you're not the only one who does this. Regarding the anxiety, I'd say you should first of all remember that no matter how much chess means to you, the worst thing that can happen through a blunder is you lose the game, it's not life or death, so there's not that much to be anxious about (that should hopefully prevent psychological pressure from building). And regarding the fear that your brain doesn't work at the time, perhaps something useful would be to create a pattern and sticking to it (for instance, looking for checks, captures and attacks, if you have the time; that way, you'll have the forcing moves covered, which lead to most tactical combinations or checkmates).

Anti-Sicilian Nc6 Question

In the anti-Sicilian course against Nc6 I believe that you missed a strong reply against e4 c5 Nc3 Nc6 Bb5 Nd4 Nf3 a6 Bd3 g6 b4 being just Nc6 back. What would you recommend against this? 

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Dear Paul,

I checked with the engine and after 6…Nc6 7.bxc5 the evaluation is +1.30 which is a huge advantage :-)

Explanation of older puzzles

Hi team Chessmood,

I look your puzzles daily but they are too complicated for my current level. I was able to solve couple but mostly I don't even figure out what should my plan be. When i look it later with the engine is sometimes also just gitting the moves but not the why.

Would it be possible after couple days to publish brief explanation? Kind of when I look this position how to think about it and come with a plan.

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Dear Dan, 

We talked about this topic during the event, if any further questions lmk :-)

Is a mobile app ever coming?

�😞�

I’m rarely in front of my computer but am always with my phone. The website on Safari is fine but it doesn't save progress and I always have to find where I left off

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sicilian confusion in d6 lines

what happens if e4 c5 Nc3 d6 f4 Nc6 Nf3 Nf6 if white goes Bc4 then black has two options Nxe4 and e6. Both of them were not covered. Maybe Nxe4 was covered in the pirc course but e6 was definitely not covered. Can you guys help?

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actually they covered the e6 line but after Nxe4 Bxf7 Kxf7 Avetik tells us that the Nf3 and Nc6 included is bad so what do we do after Nxe4

Feature Request: English Subtitles/Captions for Video Courses

Hello ChessMood team and community,

I would like to suggest a new feature for the platform: the addition of subtitles (captions) to the video courses.

While the video content is excellent, the lack of subtitles can occasionally be a barrier. Although I understand English, there are times when specific words or phrases escape my understanding. Given that ChessMood serves a global audience with a vast number of non-native English speakers, providing subtitles—even strictly in English—would be a significant advancement for the platform's accessibility and overall user experience.

With current technology, generating and implementing automated subtitles is a straightforward process. Here are a few technical options that could facilitate this integration without requiring manual transcription:

OpenAI Whisper: This is a highly accurate, open-source automatic speech recognition (ASR) model. It can be used to batch-process the existing video library to automatically generate .srt or .vtt subtitle files. It is particularly robust in handling various accents and specific terminologies.

Cloud Provider APIs: Services such as AWS Amazon Transcribe or Google Cloud Speech-to-Text can be integrated directly into the video hosting and upload pipeline. These services automatically generate transcriptions that can be served alongside the video stream.

Video Player Native Support: Assuming the platform utilizes a standard HTML5 video player or a commercial wrapper (like Vimeo or JW Player), uploading WebVTT (.vtt) files alongside the video source allows users to natively toggle closed captions on and off via the player's UI.

Implementing automated English captions would require minimal ongoing manual effort while providing a massive benefit to the international user base.

Thank you for considering this enhancement.

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Dear Marcelo,

Thanks for the offer, for being concerned, and offering an idea to make the website better :-)
We are planning to have lot's of updates :-)