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Chess forum by Grandmasters
French schlecter 'trap'
An interesting trap I fell into, quite likely played for.
After 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Bd3 dxe4 4. Bxe4 Nf6 5. Bf3 c6?! 6. Ne2 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. Nd2 Qc7 9. g3 (there are engine lines of letting h2 go which I don't understand the compensation) Nbd7 - now Nc4 is tempting, but Bg2 is the best here. After 10. Nc4 e5, now Bg2 is still possible, but after 11. Nxd6 Qxd6 12. dxe5 (could still play Bg2) Qxd1 13. Rxd1 Nxe5 14. Bg2 - life starts to get hard with Bg4! (which I saw but too late). 15. Bf1?! (the trap) was wrong where 15. Re1 offers a drawish looking positions and 15. Kd1 Nf3 16. h3 Nxf3+ is perpetual.
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You mean 5.Bf3, right!?
How many daily puzzle
Hello,
I appreciate daily chessmood puzzle. They are always esthetic and challenging. I never miss a daily puzzle. Sometimes, it seems to me that i have already seen a puzzle. Does someone know how many puzzle there are in the database? Is there a cycle, or puzzle compositors have no limit?
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I think that it cycles after you complete a certain number of puzzles.
However, I'm unsure about this.
I've been here since February, and have seen a couple of repeats. I have a really good memory for puzzles, but it's only been 3ish that I remember.
Petrov's Defense
Hi GM Avetik.
In Petrov's Defense course Section 8 - 5. …. Nf6 Video-6 11. …. h6 We srtared with this position.
After the naive 11. …. h6 the line went 11... h6 12. Rxe7 Rxe7 13. Bxf6 gxf6 14. Nd5 Re8 15. Qd2 Bxf3 where everything is logic and we arrived at this second positin.
Here GM Avetik noticed Qxh6 and spoke about it.But he was affraid that Black's king could run to the queenside. He advised us then to go gxf3 where we stiLl have advantage. In reality Qxh6 is a direct easy win and Black's king can not run without losing tons of material leading to a much easy simple win.
Here is the forced line: 16. Qxh6 Bxd5 { The move that GM Avetik was concerned about. } 17. Bh7+ Kh8 18. Bf5+ { The magic move. Blocking the king's path. Engine gives here mate in 14. } 18... Kg8 19. Qh7+ Kf8 20. Qh8+ Ke7 21. Re1+ Be6 22. Rxe6+ Kd7 23. Rxe8+ Kc6 24. Rxd8 { Simply wow! }.
You can have a look to the included gif to see the moves.
Best regards.
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GM Gabuzyan vs PRO members game
Champions here is the game PGN from Nov25th event, where I was playing against combined ChessMood team.
https://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=xpRxga1ACx/TIya0qyhkh6pB/yv9aMpCDnC+nfIu8UpVTVF/MYkvt55ufL8Q+DP6
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Gift chessmood
I have got a gift what is that for
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If you don’t have an active plan yet , you will get access to all the video content of ChessMood for a month .
Chess Anxiety
Hello everyone at ChessMood,
I am rated around 1800 USCF and whenever I play chess otb, I always get very nervous whenever I play against lower-rated opponents. This makes me play much worse than I actually can (I lost to a 1200 when I was 1700 :( ). Meanwhile, I am super super confident against higher-rated opponents which helped me get many upsets back to back (I beat and drew 5-6 2000+ rated opponents at 1650 :)). I thought it was because I was too attached and focused on my rating and I tried to detach myself from this but this didn't work. Does anyone know the reasons behind this anxiety against lower-rated opponents and how I can prevent it?
Thanks for your time
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Hi H.L.!
Did you watch the blunderproof course? If not I'm recommending it to you wholeheartedly.
There is a section on this topic, but basically you need to try to play a game worth remembering, this worked for me in the past… 😀
How to open PGN files?
I installed the PGN files and idk how to open them. I have an old ChessBase 13 but it's too laggy and can't even open PGN files. So I need help
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Hi there,
You could:
- Download a chess program like Arena and load PGNs there, or
- Download a chess review program like SCID, or
- Load it online at Lichess : https://lichess.org/paste
- Load it online at Chess.com : add games in the Analysis section
Does that help or have I misunderstood your question? ;-)
PGN for Classic Games
Can you please add the pgns of the classic games? It literally took me 30 min to find the pgn of just 1 game.
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We reorganized the game collections lately.😅 We will check this out and upload them as soon as possible. Thanks for letting us know!😄
Sicilian 2..Nc6, a6 line
😀
hi all, I just spotted a nice tactic that wasn't shown in the course on Sicilian 2..Nc6 and 4..a6, maybe becuase the tactic was too obvious, but I liked it so thought I would share it. The line in the video by Avetik goes 1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nd4 4 Nf3 a6 5 Bd3 Nc6 6 0-0 g6 7 e5 Bg7 8 Re1 d6 8 exd6 Qxd6 9 Ne4 and then the video finishes with the queen under attack so we get a free tempo. But, the c5 pawn is under attack too so I was thinking that black must have to play something like 9..Qd5 to protect the pawn and escape the knight but now 10 Bc4 looks to be crushing black as 10..Qxc4 11 Nd6+ wins the queen. Anything else and either 11 Nxc5 or Nd6+. I checked lichess and the position 9..Qd5 had come up 56 times but white only spotted 10 Bc4 19 times. Just thought I would mention it.
See the position below in lichess.
Avetik, you should add it to your video!
https://lichess.org/analysis#20
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Thanks Paul!
Nice of you to tell us. It is indeed a good observation!😀
Breaking down multiple elements.
Hi guys. I'm looking for advice on how to understand the value multiple elements in this position from Caruana-Xiong for example. Black gives up his “good” Bishop for White's “bad” Bishop, but gets more centre cpntrol and a semi open f file in return. I know that GMs don't have this kind of internal dialog when assessing such decisions, but are there guidelines the rest of us can use to weigh multiple elements in decision making? Thanks!
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Hi Jim,
Did you already watch the course the Wolf of Chess Street?
https://chessmood.com/course/chess-exchanges
👍It will help you a lot in this concrete aspect of the game. Check it out and let me know if it's helping a bit or not… 😀
Question on the big Giveaway
Hello,
In the big giveaway today I got one of the 1700 memberships and I noticed something. It is like having a new account, all the progress I had made is now lost 😢, and this is really important to me because I had collected more than 240k moodcoins (I had won the best game of the month competition once). I was hoping to buy a course with moodcoins some day and I really don't want to start from the beginning again. Can somebody please explain?? Will I get them back automatically after one month? (When the membership I 've been gifted is over).
By the way really thanks for the gift, it means a lot to me.
Thank you very much
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Also just now I noticed it, the posts i had made until now in the forum have been deleted. Hope you will be able to help!
Hello Manolis,
Send This Question via this link
Question on French 3.Nc3
Hi
I recently had a game as black where I had problems with the variation
1.e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 h6 5. Bxf6 Qxf6 6. ed Bb4 7. Bb5+ Bd7 8.Bxd7+ Nxd7 9 dxe6
I don't understand what compensation I have for the pawn. This variation (the second most popular after 7. dxe6 at my level and the most popular at master level) is not mentioned in the blackmood course.
Can someone please explain the ideas in this variation?
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New Article "The Most Powerful Legal Drug"
Mahalo to Avetik for another well written article that can change people's lives.
Here in the United States, there is an incredible amount of division, spite and anger, be it political or idealogical. Too many focus too much energy on complaints, unhappiness with the status quo, etc etc.
If more people would remember to put their focus on being grateful for the positives in their lives, the country as well as the world would become a better place! And their lives would become better still.
As a bonus, grateful people have been documented again and again to live longer, healthier lives.
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How do you calculate?
How do you calculate?
My coach tells me to first create general considerations, then create candidate ideas and then candidate moves. But i get really confused and overwhelmed. Can someone explain how to calculate?
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Hey there I'm Yash I'm rated 1900 in rapid on lichess
First find 4 to 5 candidate or good moves in the position then imagine if you played the first candidate move then find the 4-5 best moves for the opponent then find your next best move and so on and so on then in the end if you think you will get an edge then play it and if you think you will be worse or equal then try the other candidate moves then choose the best one among them and play it do this for every best variation which your opponent can play otherwise you'll miss a tactic
Your coach advice is good, though you can break it down like this:
First, look for the ideas that you want to accomplish.
Second, find the most important of those ideas.
Third, find the moves that best help accomplish those ideas.
The 7Q method course, if you are a Chessmood member, will help a lot with the first two steps.
Chessmood will also be soon releasing a course on Calculation, so that topic will be explored in depth there!
Hope this helps!
1950 on lichess
First, you check if something is under attack or if something is forced.
Then, you look at the moves you like, or want to play to accomplish your goal.
After that, you look if that piece is defending another piece.
lastly, you want to look at the order of your moves while you are calculating, to make sure you are right.
Hopefully that helps😃
What rating are we talking about? If you're 1000, it's very different to 2200.
The calculation process is something that can't easily be answered here. There is the courses on evaluation and planning which are part of it, but much isn't useful to a 1000 player. For now I'll assume that sort of level.
Main elements for that level are:
What did my opponent just do and what's he threatening (if anything) - trying to answer why at this level doesn't help.
What are the checks in the position; analyse each.
What are the captures in the position; analyse each.
If neither checks are captures are fruitful, ask what can we threaten (loose pieces, early developed queen, etc) - tactic ninja will help here to find threating moves.
If nothing obvious if I'm in the opening, can I develop another piece, can I control the centre, can I get my king safe (opening principles course which is useful irrespective of rating, though only new to lower rated players).
If it's the middle game, can I improve . my worst piece, can I move forward, can I attack the king yet (more pieces around than defenders (mating matador helps with patterns here).
The rest you pick up as you go for now.
How do recovery from drop rating
Hi i just peak performance from 1880 last week but now my rating was dropped too fast .
I try calm down analysis after every game.
when i play some move i'm not confident i remember opponent break rule principle also i can't find idea to break opponent .
My rating was equal before i learn many course from chessmood TT
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Often after learning new things, your rating will drop down. Don’t worry about this.
Let me tell you a little story. 😁
For a long time I was stuck on 1100. When I started learning on chessmood, my rating dropped from 1100 to 1000 chess.com rapid. I wanted to give up immediately, but I decided to stuck to my plan. And just 2 months later, I reached 1650.
If you learn new things, you will make mistakes. And the nice thing is , these mistakes are opportunities to learn. So see this rating drop as a opportunity to analyze your games and fix your mistakes! 😃
Sometimes you are in a bad mood as well. GM Avetik has written some amazing blogs about how to handle this, and I would recommend you to read them if you have some time (especially the first one):
https://chessmood.com/blog/5-crucial-steps-to-stop-bad-results-in-chess Also it seems to me that you may be tilting a lot. This is the first thing you need to avoid! This is our motto in Chessmood because it does not matter how good you are, if you are not in the mood it's useless to play chess…
https://chessmood.com/blog/mistakes-are-not-failures
I never lost 9 games in a row. If I lose 3, max 4 I just stop playing since clearly I'm not in the mood for playing!
You clearly were not in the best mood, not even in a good mood.
Also it is a way to enjoy life, not to make you feel bad! So stop tilting first at all!
Please read Noel's article https://nextlevelchess.blog/no-more-tilt/ and also Avetik article on the Golden Method https://chessmood.com/blog/golden-method-to-increase-rating-in-chess💪 , not only read the posts, make them yours! Apply them if you want to feel better and play better… 😊
Due to underrated kids my FIDE dropped to 1800 and is gradually recovering. I've beaten FMs in the past and am dangerous to 2100s. Rating means little.
Am I improving, how is my current form, is a far more useful to question.
Why no pgn and homework for alekhine def opening?
There's no starter pgn to download for the alekhine def course. can one be added?
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😀I think that Avetik wanted to add something more, but we will check this out. Thanks for your post!😀
pattern recognition in OTB
Yesterday, I played in OTB and it turned out, that I did not see a simple tactic. When I would face this tactic in training I would easily solve that without even thinking, but in OTB I stopped calculation too fast because I did not recognize the changes after an exchange.
Does this sound familiar? How can I solve this issue?
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I can add the position if this will help to understand what I mean.
If I do too much chess on screen and neglect to play with pieces , it seem to affect me . I took the advice of Peter from discord and put some positions on a board occasionally and it helped me .
Ku rt, we don't know your level, nothing about you. Age, rating, number of hours that you play, that you train…
It is very difficult to tell you how can you solve this issue by telling us that you missed a simple tactic.
Everyone blunders, even Carlsen. 😅
Do you regularly (every day) solve tactics? Do you play OTB often? There are many things at work here…
In this exact question, you need to work more in calculation, and get used to not stop the variation so soon. This is the biggest mistake in calculation and GMs also fail in this. No need to worry about it, forgive yourself, learn the lesson, and move on.
The next game, try to calculate a bit longer and check all the options carefully. This is the only solution to this issue. 💪
Psst! there is a tactic in this position! Now will you see it? The question is what were you thinking about instead? Being single-tracked into strategic ideas is a common way to miss tactics. Were there any clues (indicators of danger/resources) that suggested spending some time looking for the tactic was worth it? What about the thinking process: checks, captures, threats?
PGN file for Classical Games
Hello, I just have a quick question about the Classical Games course,
On the 100 Classical Games course, I thought there was a PGN file where you could download the games onto ChessBase. Does anyone know what happened to this?
Thanks
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We reorganized the game collections lately.😅 We will check this out. Thanks for letting us know!😄
Daily lessons with a Grandmaster
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Thank you coach, for this series. It's wonderful and it takes just 1/2 hour to learn something important.
Wonderful series of instructional content!
Coach Avetik, it would be great if after a day or two you could somewhere provide the solutions to the daily tasks for us to think about at the end of each daily lesson
Great stuff. Short and sweet. And easy to do first thing in the morning or during lunch break.
Hi Avo,
congratulations on your crystal clear masterpiece in #1.
Just beautiful.
Gracias GM Avetik y staff de chessmood
my chess rating on chess.com has grown about 35 points in 3 months and continues to rise! I'm already going to reach 1200 firm rating and I have defeated opponents rated 1250 or higher. This is the pace of the game that I find most in line with me: 5+5. I play at a reasonable level, I can analyze later and I play more games per day = more learning! How I did it: reading and putting into practice a few excellent emails from GMAvetik: I warm up with 3 exercises of normal difficulty, I started always playing 1.e4 (much more fun, aggressive and instructive), and I try to play 3 or more games in a row (the last few, I'm at my peak of warm-up and concentration). I'm also slowly putting together the COGROW lists. Congratulations on the material and the good vibes!! Best regards, Federico (fehb at chess.com/lichess)
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Muchas gracias amigo!
That's always good to hear! Keep on working! You can do it! Looking forward for the next update… Maybe after 100 points more? 😁
