Chess forum by Grandmasters

language of the videos .. subtitles?

😀

Hi, 

just a quick question, during the anniversary i was showing the site to some beginners (french speaking) and the question was if it is possible somehow to get subtitles in French or whatever language (some kind of automatic translation application.)? Did anybody try this?  might be useful for many   

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Query about the endgame mastery course

Dear chessmood family,

My question to the grandmaster team of chessmood .-  what level of knowledge does the full endgame mastery course of chessmood  hold in accordance with fide terms . I mean to say if  I complete the full endgame course will that knowledge be enough for a fide 2000 or say 2100 level ? Or something more is required ? 

Thank you .

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Dear Ar Ray,

By now we have theoretical courses only, and in the Endgame Mastery courses, we covered famous theories with some additions. In other words, in many concrete theoretical situations with the right knowledge, it can be possible to play even with a super-strong GMs.

As an example, the Rook Endgames course with all sections, can be good enough for the 2700 level, as they are theoretical and if you know the right moves, it can be irrelevant who is your opponent.

But of course, still playing against, experienced strong players it can be very challenging.

How to stop tilt

I have been on a tilt recently but have been able to stop it, here is what I recommend, I hope this allows you to not experience the rage that I felt when I was on tilt:

1. Focus on one thing to improve on
2. Ask what you like about chess
3. Stop after 2 losses in a row
4. Make sure you are completely focused on the game if you are going to play one

I hope this helps, feel free to add any tips or share your own stories!!!!

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Also, don't get too frustrated with yourself, this may lead to less interest in chess

Black against Jobava 5.f3

I’ve had black against the Jobava London several times lately, and I noticed a trend of white playing an early f2-f3, followed by e2-e4 if appropriate. This doesn’t get much attention in the ChessMood repertoire, so I thought I would share my thoughts and ask for input.

After:

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Qd2 Bg7 5.0-0-0 c6 as recommended in the repertoire 6.f3 doesn’t seem problematic. Black can continue 6… b5 and might already be a bit better, e.g., 7.e4 b4! as in Kazhgaleyev – Rakhmanov, Astana op 2017 (0-1, 56).

But if white does not commit to castling queenside so early, and continues instead 5.f3, the same plan with …c6/…b5 seems premature. E.g., 

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Qd2 Bg7 5.f3 c6 6.e4 and now we have to come up with a plan to react to white’s big center:

6… dxe4 7.fxe4. An engine might be comfortable with black here, but to my human eye it seems like black is one small inaccuracy away from a terrible position. 

6… 0-0 7.e5 Nfd7 8.0-0-0 b5 9.Bh6 white is getting his usual attack and black is too undeveloped to get counterplay on the queenside. E.g., 9… Nb6 10.h4 Nc4 11.Bxc4 bxc4 12.h5 +- with a winning attack.

6… Be6 is the best practical move I have found. White has some space advantage, but it’s not decisive. 7.0-0-0 b5 8.e5 Nfd7 Now white can take his choice of plans while black still needs to untangle his queenside. Seems += at least. White is dictating the course of the game and black's pieces are very passive.

Any thoughts? After 5.f3 should black look for something better than 5… c6? 

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I dropped the recommendation from my repertoire. It came under criticism from multiple people in some lines, particularly against courses published detailing the White side. I also felt far too much was missed from the d4 sidelines course (which a lot of sub2000 opposition play) in perpetual other sections coming soon. In addition the Benko never got the upgrade it needed (still in the works). I currently play 2. c5 here and if Nc3 then d5. This is covered in Dalton Perrine's Chessable course on the Benko and sidelines leading up to it (which although an FM has done a great job).

In the end though if you just play blitz it's probably not so much of an issue particularly if a strong player (see the streams) but OTB against an experienced player (some have been playing the same stuff for 20+ years) it's a problem.

I level the same criticism against the accelerated dragon course. However from the Black side, Chessmood does pretty good on teaching the sidelines of the Sicilian, modern Maroczy and English. Unfortunately the focus is on the U2000 level which has the Whitemood and Blackmood repertoires, so as much as the ‘in progress’ message has said, honestly I don't see them appearing and the quality of repertoire material elsewhere has significantly improved so I stopped waiting and swapped out what wasn't working or lacked the necessary detail on lines I was facing (or relied too much on opponents not knowing the right thing).

Dear James,
 

The given variation is not covered yet.
We have in our list to re-do some of the opening courses or add some missing variaitons.

I investigated this line and in the given sequence after 5.f3 I recommend c5! F3 move weakens White's dark squares, and hitting them with c5 is the best practical continuation.
 

Blergh. I have absolute horrendous tilt right now.

Please encourage and cheer me up. I'm trying and failing to stop being peed off about my loss of 200 elo in bullet

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Hi there,

You may have inferred as much from my username but … I used to play a lot of poker! Contrary to what many people think, poker is not pure gambling - there is a mathematically correct way to play. The trouble is, that mathematically correct way only works if you apply it consistently in the long run - in the short run it is perfectly possible to lose. And therein lies the problem for many people - they become frustrated with their short-run losses and start to play differently, trying to force a win. This sub-optimal way of playing results in more losses, more frustration, even more sub-optimal play and so on and so on - the infamous tilt.

So, what do the successful poker players do?

They acknowledge that tilt can be a very real issue for many players. Knowing this, they set stop-loss limits - once they have lost a certain amount in any given session, they stop. This breaks the vicious circle indicated above, allowing them to re-set mentally and start afresh in the next session. 

Although I don't play Blitz or Bullet (it's too wild for this poker player!) I do read chess articles that discuss those forms of chess. And those articles often point out that large Elo swings (up to 150-200) are much more common in those forms than they are in ‘normal’ chess games. So, I don't think that your case is exceptional - it's just the way that these forms work sometimes, the added speed pressure forces you to make poorer moves than you might otherwise make.

How do you stop your horrendous tilt? I think you should consider using the poker approach and setting a stop-loss.  Lost 100 Elo points? Fine, call it a day and start afresh tomorrow. Don't chase your losses!

Avo quite often writes about this sort of challenge - like this blog post for example:

https://chessmood.com/blog/5-crucial-steps-to-stop-bad-results-in-chess

Good luck!

A more radical solution to consider is giving up bullet chess entirely. Or at least go a while without it, and see if you can still enjoy chess when exclusively played at longer time controls. 

I did this a year ago, which you can check on my profile https://www.chess.com/member/10jake10/stats/bullet?days=0. I have played exactly one bullet game within the last 14 months, and it was only because a 2600 offered a challenge. I obviously lost haha.

I am not saying this to brag, but to recommend. My bullet habits were making me forget how to calculate properly in longer games. The solution was drastic, but effective. Blitz is certainly fast enough for me, and I like to think I am building slightly better habits when playing at a time control that allows some degree of searching for candidate moves and considering my opponents' responses, at last on occasion.

Nobody is going to look at your profile and think less of you because you are in a slump. It happens to everyone, including the world's best. What matters is that you feel good about you chess. For me, that meant retiring from bullet chess. For you it may mean only playing when you are fully focused and ending a session if you feel your mind slipping. Or maybe something as simple as changing up openings is worth a try. Do whatever makes you feel right, and I wish you the best of luck.

New success story: The Anti-Arrogant ChessMoodian & His Journey to the Top 100 in the World

What does it take to reach the top 100 in chess? 

While many have this "I know" mindset about chess improvement, one of the strongest ChessMoodians, GM SL Narayanan, reached the top 100 through hard work, investments, and an "I want to know" approach. 

Discover: 

- The early sacrifices GM Narayanan made for chess. 

- His open-minded approach to learning. 

- The ChessMood novelty that helped him qualify to the next round at the FIDE World Cup 2023. 

- What helped him finish 3rd in such a strong field at the Qatar Masters 2023 and so much more.

Read his full story here⬇️

https://chessmood.com/success-stories/sl-narayanan

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Well done SL!!!

I wish you more great successes I'm sure you can inspire a lot of young players and also many chessmoodian's, Thank you very much!

Best wishes for 2.700!!

Solution to test I found

Kg4 b3 (Qa8 Qd6+ and d8=Q)

Kf5 b2

Qf6+ Qf6 

Kf6 b1=Q (Kg8 Qd8+ Kh7 Qb8)

d8#

I have a question: why not Qe8 immediately? Qa8+ Kg3 Qb8+ (Qa3+ Kg4 can't see anymore checks) Kg4 same, can't see anymore checks. What do I miss?

I was looking at the puzzle and 1st.thought is Kg2-h3! an exclam. So if it gives an exclam means something like is the only winning move so Kg3/Kf3 are not working. The reason seems to be that on Kg3 there is check on Qb8+ and Kf3 is another Qa8+, beside Qf8+. But with Kh3! you don't see any checks for black. So the plan of SL should be to go near his Queen with the King to support moving out Qd8 from her square and allow a promotion of the d7 pawn. So after Kh3 with the same idea the right square is Kg4, one step nearer his Queen and out of checks because from Kg4 you control h4-g5 squares so the bQueen continues incapable of doing any other thing than stay on d8 and blacks only plan is to push the b pawn and then calculate who promotes first but seeing the result of the game is d7 who does that. I am incapable of calculating all the variations, just some thoughts of the position and it's annotations.

Best regards and congratulations on your now and upcoming successes!

Looks like you found a good recipe for your chess improvement and Chessmood is the perfect ingredient!

Ovi Sacasan

What an amazing and inspiring story. Would be great to get a long video interview with him after he hits 2700! :) Seems like he's mastering the inner game and outer game + being great at his profession as well as being an amazing human being. 

Thanks for the inspiring story!

Best wishes and goodluck  to GM SL Naravanan for reaching his new goal of 2700+.

The best sentence in the whole article for me was: “You have no control over rating. But what you can control is the game and the moves”.

SL NARAYANAN ‘S STORY INSPIRING ME A LOT THANK U SL FOR SHARING THIS

Happy anniversary, Chessmood!

Dear CM family, Happy anniversary!

Just continue like this, with your excellent work promoting chess

Wish you all the best

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😀

same!

Thank you very much 😍

a nice model game

this is a nice game in our repertoire , thanks to this game i win the title of federal master in the arab championship Round 8

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Congratulations Ahmed! Well done :-) 

What if you don't have a strong why?

What if you don't feel like you have a strong why in chess? For example what if you just want to improve, but not exactly sure if your why is good enough to you?

I know the reason why having a strong why is important because it may give motivation to try, and it is important to create one when calm, but what if you have uncertainity in general?

Asking this not for me specifically, but in general as I know it may help others in the chess community.

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You poop your pants, the sky turns neon green and six-winged reptiles invade the planet

Well, you definitely won't be acheiving your best. That is certain. You may become a GM but you won't be certainly hitting your potential.

The reason why you should find out your why in the first place is not only to hit your full potential, but to not look back at your career/experience and go “Wow, what a waste of time.” 

If you can't find a strong why, keep on finding it; however, if it does come at a point where you are giving out more than you can afford, then maybe take a step back, take a break and look for other things that interest you.

Hmm…if you don't have a strong why, make a strong why. It can be silly, but if, let's say, one of your primary motivators is spite, act on spite (i MuSt bE bEtTeR tHaN aLL tHe PeOpLe i HaTe).

You don't need to find motivation. Make motivation. Grow up. (While it helps to have an ‘inbuilt’ strong why ready for you, you don't really need one to be great (but it still helps). You just need to work hard and love the game.

You may have a why without realizing it. A little bit of introspection might help you with that. After all, you are on a chess improvment platform, so you had some motivation to get there.
I find that sometime the “why” that are given as exemples are good exemples, but do not represent what is realistic for most chess improvers. When our GM Avetik said his why was to set a good exemple for the chessmood community, it was a pretty nice why, but most of us don't own a chess platform we want to feed. 
Still, a lot of us are very passionate about our progress. I've decided that exploring my fascination for chess, even if most of people it sounds useless, was worth it for me. And the more I improve, to stronger my why become, because I realize that my journey has not been only about discovery and understanding chess better, but also about discovering myself. 
I realized that eating healthy was good for my results, it gave my mind more clarity. And so I learned eating more healty, first before and during my tournaments, and then most of the time. 
I realized that the experience of training on a regular basis was making me learn more about discipline than I've ever experienced previously in my life, and I'm now beggining to transfer it to other things. 
I realized that immerging myself in chess for training sessions and for classical games was good for clearing my mind on a regular basis, making my anxiety about the world going wrong more bearable, and that with my diminushed anxiety make me more able to think about what I can do about it. 
I also made new friends along the way. 
And I continue, because I want to know where it goes. 

So the point is: your why can change, it can also expand. It might not be clear at first, but it might be there. It's probably about discovering something that is already here. Before why you want to improve, maybe ask yourself why you like chess, and what is going on when you're improving (or plateauing!). Maybe (probably) you won't find the same answers than me, maybe even you will find out that for you it's not worth it, but well, you will slowly began to know better your why you're doing this - or your why you should not. 

New success story: How a Math Professor Broke the Plateau and Crossed 2000 Rating

Adult Improver Success Story🚀

At 48, married, with two kids, and juggling a full-time job, his schedule was packed.

But that didn’t stop him from achieving his long-forgotten chess goal.

How did he do it? 

Discover his inspiring story👇
https://chessmood.com/success-stories/angelo-sifaleras

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Good job Angelo, Congrats!!! I can confirm at those rare times when i attend webinars you always there with smile and full concentration :))

Well done Angelo fantastic

Hello Angelo, You are amazing! Great stuff! I want to follow in your footsteps! I am a full time accounting professor that returned to chess after 15 years of earning my education (2004 to 2019)  I have joined Chessmood to get my rating over 2000 as well. Thanks for sharing and God bless you and your family. 

Angelo,

What a great story. I hope to follow in your footsteps and would be happy with half the success. I am returning to chess after 20 years, have joined my local chess club and am very focused on reaching 2000 OTB over the next two seasons.

 I too try to attend the interactive sessions but miss more than I would like as they are very valuable

Well done

Tony

Angelo,

Congratulations my friend. I feel I can call you my friend because I always see you on the Chessmood events. Your story is great and I am very happy for you. I also am an adult improver and love the Chessmood content and atmosphere.

Best Wishes

Rick

Congratulations Angelo!

Hi Angelo,

Big congrats on your raise.

Whenever I am able to attend an event, you are there. Always very concentrated. And always so nice 😊

I wish you all the best, in life and in chess.

Many greetings from Germany to Greece,

Thomas 

Hi Angelo what amazing job you have done !!!!
😀

Greetings from Italy 
 

That's fantastic Angelo! 

You are an inspiration to those of us who struggle to improve at all. I find that for every step forward I take a step back - very frustrating. 

Can you tell us what is your favourite time control and how many games you play and analyse in a session? 

Congrats Angelo ! You deserve all your successes as you worked efficiently to get them .  When you will get more free time , I m sure you will do the same OTB ! I wish eventually to visit you as you are the nicest chess player I had the chance to meet online ! ( no offense to the others … ) 

Congrats Angelo! Keep it up. I admire your dedication and ability to find the time to improve your chess skills while also managing a full-time job and a family!

Congrats 👏 👏 

Congratulations! BTW, what maths do you do?

In the so-called French 'Attack', Steinitz variation, is 4. ... Ng8 not simply terrible for Black?!

Dear ChessMood family and fellow champions!

I want to start this post with a positive note, because despite the criticism I am about to deliver, I love ChessMood on the whole! The courses are really well-made and they have helped me improve a great deal. The rating-booster courses have been an absolute highlight, so thanks to the team.

However, I am running into some pretty major issues with aspects of the opening repertoire. In particular, I want to highlight the suggested 4. … Ng8 move in the Steinitz variation of the French as being pretty terrible for Black. 

1. e4, e6
2. d4, d5
3. Nc3, Nf6
4. e5, Ng8?

(Yes, I am giving it a question mark.)

It seems to me that we are relying upon our opponent slipping up by playing 5. f4 … next where we have c5 and Nh6 for a nice playable position. But I don't see many players making this error (I'm an intermediate sort of player at around 1500 rapid rating on chess.com). Simple developing moves like Nf3 and Be3, which help secure the pawn structure, are perfectly natural for White and will give them a significant edge.

Take for example:

5. Nf3, c5 (as per the course)

6. Be3, Ne7 (as per the course, attempting to go after the e3 Bishop)

Here, White has 7. dxc5, and after … Nf4 (clearly Black's best option), White can play 8. Bg4, where … Be7 is almost forced (everything else is worse for Black). In the resulting position we are down a pawn (probably only temporarily, but even so…), we have less space, less development, and we are going to lose our precious dark-squared Bishop. It's just plainly horrible!

By the way, 6. … cxd4 is no better for Black as White can recapture Nxd4 or Qxd4 where they will have three or four pieces developed, whereas our pieces are all still sleeping.

The opening video on this section doesn't really look at this line. It briefly analyses 5. Be3 … from White, but not 5. Nf3 … followed by 6. Be3… 

Of course, I know that they cannot cover everything, but these are absolutely normal moves for White to make that completely debunk this suggested 4. … Ng8 line and I do think it's important to consider your opponent's strongest responses generally.

The problem I have is that I face 3. Nc3 … a lot and I don't much like the mainline 4. … Nfd7 move either, though it is what I am now choosing to go for. 

Has anyone else encountered problems with this 4. … Ng8 stuff and are there any work arounds? I wonder if folks are also choosing Nfd7 instead? Any advice generally on facing 3. Nc3 … in the French?

Thanks everyone! 

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Ng8 is technically dubious, there is a reason nobody plays it. It's still okay at your level though.

If you want something else interesting, Than (after Nc3) Id recommend Bb4, where depending on your style, you can either go for winawer main lines, or play in the style of Petrosian, soon dropping the B to f8, playing B6 and Bb7, Qd7, Na6-a5 or E7 is a common plan, delaying c5 and going 0-0-0.

It is very interesting, and Id recommend you take a look at his games!

Hope this helps!

🙂

I've been playing winawer for a long time before switch to sicilian. If you like attacking and getting aggressive, this is your opening!

how to avoid painful blunders?

&☹️nbsp;

How do avoid painful blunders?

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Howdy Eli se!

This article might be helpful:

https://chessmood.com/blog/stop-blunders-in-chess

Hey there,

On top of the article Sarah provided, you need to watch the Blunderproof course.
However, just by watching it you will not gain much - you need to apply and master the techniques and methods GM Avetik shares in the course.

If you put in good quality work, after a while your Blundering rate should go down, however we can never fully exclude blundering, because even Carlsen time to time blunders :-) 

Blackmood Dutch attack with white playing

Hi, I am regularly getting the first position below. It is black to play. My understanding of the plan is to play Ne4 and then d6, Be7 and then g5, h5 and attack the king. This is here a bad idea as White can capture the Knight on e4 and then play Ne5 followed by Qh5 and win. See second picture. What am I missing in the first position? What is then a better plan?

Thanks !

Regards, 

Julien

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With white playing Ndd2 (In the title of the post :-) )

Dear Julien, 

I believe GM Avetik mentions this in the course as well, that in this structure we can also play with d6-Nbd7-Qe7-0-0-0 ideas and then quickly push on the Kingside.

On my own during the streams, I sometimes postpone exactly 0-0-0 move and play with h6-g5 trying to attack the King.

How to deal with bad days

Hi everyone, today i started play my 9-games session but after 3 games i notice that i was playing really bad: didn't see any tactics, leaving pieces hanging etc… i come from.poker and in theese kind of days my coach always said “stop playing if you are tilting”, is the same in chess? Ho do you do in this kind of situation?

Thanks a lot

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Hi Mattia,

i think your line to poker fits really good. (just in chess there is normaly no money on the line so playing wont hurt you as much)

I think it depends on your goal. (getting better -  reach a new elo high - get playing experience)

Bad days are normal. But in chess in my opinion there is a huge misterious for me i see everyday.

People in general think they are so good as their best performance/elo they ever reached.

For me the most helpful thought was to be honest with my own playing strength.

For example in your case just be honest that your tactics probably are not as good as you think and just try playing the best chess you can. There will be sessions like this but if you are constantly are training you wont miss tactics in your next sessions as easy as this time.

But maybe if your normaly stronger i just remember Avetiks hint dont play when you are not mentally ready. (Because obviously your not playing at your normal playing strength)

Probably some people could write a whole book about this mental topic (as i know in poker are whole books about this as an poker player myself :) )

Dear Mattia,

Indeed it's similar to Poker.
When it feels like a really bad, tough session, it's depressing the good idea is to stop playing at that moment :-)

 

New article: 10 Things to Give Up to Enjoy Chess Fully

Champions, your chess journey will have many moments to celebrate!🏆
But you’ll also face joy-killers. They’re always waiting to drain your love for chess. At every step.

Discover how eliminating these joy-killers can make your journey more enjoyable!😍

https://chessmood.com/blog/things-you-should-give-up-to-enjoy-chess-fully

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Thank you as usual for your precious words

Nice, I just want to confirm from the experience that ChessMood is right about these things.

Nice Article ….Thanks Avo

I have a question. In the article, you say that you should disregard the opinions of other people, unless they’re someone important, like a coach or mentor. But…for children, their parents are often one of their biggest mentors, not only in chess but in other aspects of life. Their opinions and feelings and reactions can be some of the most important things. Most chess advice, I’ve found, forgets about children - which is understandable, to some degree, but I’m yet to find an answer to my question, and I’m hoping you could provide some insight. What if there was a child. Who used to love the game - the logic, the strategy, the fact that there was so much to LEARN - and was good at it. Good enough that they were used to winning regional tournaments, playing and performing decently at national ones, and even sometimes playing for their nation. Good enough that everyone expected them to not just maintain that, but improve, get better and better and better - because surely, a teenager is supposed to be better than their 10 year old self? What if there was a child, who hated being good, because it came with infinite expectations - from, others, from their self. But also from their parents. Until their hatred for the pressure and expectations bled through into their love of the game, until they had more negative experiences with playing chess than positive. Until just the thought of chess brought back feelings of anxiety and stress instead of the wonder that was once there. Now say this person stops playing chess - not completely, but certainly not as they were before. 3 regional level tournaments over the course of a year, occasional periods of playing online chess with months inbetween without even looking at a chessboard. It helps - they have begun to rediscover, to remember, their love for the game. They like playing games with music on, and watching the available episodes of your courses, and reading chess blogs - fun things. Things that still let them play, still let them learn, in ways that are enjoyable, and understandable, and most importantly, unpressured. They wish it could be like it was before, but this is fine; they’re fine. And then they get home from school one day, and their mother informs them they have a tournament in one weeks time. And another, two weeks after that. With more planned for upcoming months. It’s a routine they’re used to - and that’s the problem, because just when they‘re on the verge of loving this game again, all their progress might be reversed. It’s not the tournament itself they dislike. They want to play the tournament, toyed with the idea of signing up for it themselves. But that instinctive, ingrained pressure, the urge to meet expectations and make their parents happy - it’s still there. They would prefer, of course, if they could just block out the opinions and reactions of their parents - but what if they can’t? Is there anything you can think of to prevent them falling back into the pattern that destroyed their love for chess?

I’m sorry that this is so long and maudlin and rambling, and for the third person - some distancing felt necessary, as I’m not particularly fond of the person described. . If you have read to the end of this then I already have immense respect (and apologies) for you, but if there is anything, any insights or advice you could provide, that would be treasured beyond words. And even if not, thank you for reading this, and for making your courses and this blog. Like I said, they are one of the things that helped me regain this tentative love for chess. Whether or not I lose it again, I will forever be grateful for that.

New article: 36 Lessons I Took from Chess to My Life

GM Avetik put together 36 lessons he took from chess to his life. And you can probably guess how old he just turned! 😄

Hopefully, these insights inspire you both on and off the board 👇
https://chessmood.com/blog/life-lessons-from-chess

Which lesson resonates with you the most? Or do you have your own life lesson from chess? Share them here.

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Thanks Gm Avetik for your inspirational articles.

Just to let you know never played 

any OTB or online games with someone.  

My current elo will certainly will 

not be over  zeto.

I sometimes I watch YouTube chess videos,  and that's all 

my chess life is.  

I am turning 60 next year. 

But thanks for your inspirational 

letters 

Amazing words Avo , I'm completely agree with you ; 
playing and study Chess saved me from a bad period of depression due to my work ;
 

Happy Bithday Avo 

Happy Birthday and thank you for all of the work that you do to help us improve!

I'm not sure about number 30 in the list: “Trust your intuition - Sometimes, your gut knows what your brain doesn’t.”

To me, that sounds like an excuse to not play a move that your head tells you to play because your heart says that the resulting positions “look scary" - even if your calculations suggest the move is OK. 

Lately I've been making a conscious effort to listen to my head over my heart in these situations, even at the risk of losing.

So…. 

Number 22 is my favourite right now: “Don’t be afraid of calculated risks - The biggest rewards often come with some uncertainty.”
 

🤔

all well said and happy birthday 

(well difficult to add another 33 thoughts with just 33 years older, but working on that   

Happy birthday.

Very good insights on chess and life in general. The insight that resonates most with me is number 7: Surround yourself with good mentors. I'm an older player (well past 60) and I recognize the value in learning from someone with more knowledge of a subject. For chess players I would definitely suggest one-on-one coaches (if affordable) and/or chess teams/clubs.

Nice article!

Happy Birthday!

Congratulations Avo and thank you for the philosophy behind chess and life!

I like your last lesson, it's the journey not the destination.  I am 71, and will never be more than a putzer.  But I am taking your ChessMood course, because learning IS the goal.  I am only half way through your training ninja, and I find your educational videos FANTASTIC.

Happy Birthday to you sir,

I was about to Quit playing Chess but ur Article gave me New Hope That make u my Jedi Master.

I taught for close to fifty years and I always told my students: “the process of life is the purpose of life,” so I like number 36.
 

Although, I still fall back on: “Please pause the video and think.” (especially, as I have mentioned somewhere else around here, when i’m talking to my wife :)

Thank you :) and Happy Birthday GM Avo  27.01 :)

Happy birthday Avo!

Nice to meet you, because I mainly agree with you, although I first played life, and now I'm trying life lessons in chess :))

And it's really interesting because I also really improve my life experience with chess. I'll probably never become a chess grandmaster,

but I certainly want to be a grandmaster in not being afraid of losing. Thank you for your encouraging courses and posts.

• Happy birthday.

•• Most of them are great but the first one is very strong ( know your why).

••• I want to teach with you chess when my rating in fide exceeds 3000 in standard and blitz and rapid I am 1848 in blitz and 1748 in rapid and standard ok deal ? Tell chess mood?

and also you are very great coach you and Botivinik and me when I become +3000 at fide and +3500 online 

💐Happy Birthday Avo! 🎂

Congratulations Avo for having so well summarized in 36 concepts how chess can perfectly inspire us in real life as well.. 

I just wish you could now write a book with 36 detailed chapters… and how it relates to your own experience… 

Thank you for sharing these ideas, 

All the best, 

Lionel

Happy belated birthday!

Happy birthday

Happy belated birthday!

Real 

I played 2 times against Gm Bassem in real in rated games in Egyptian leagues I play unusual openings in site called playchess.com or it is called chessbase.com and there is international master called Turhan from Turkey who is the most person played on that site in the world more than 500000 games I have one unusual and my inventions of the unusual openings in 1+0 bullet games many times I win him although my strategy and positional play and thinking at chess was very bad and I won a grandmaster at 1+0 bullet at lichess.org at that unusual openings of my invention and in real at blitz I won Fm from Egypt and Fm from Sudan in 2 tournaments at blitz 3+2 and when I was 1927 at blitz  one tournament I got 5 from 5 from the first 5 round at blitz by some other unusuals from my invention.

And I finished Mba at marketing from some days by 3.25 from 4 GPA and I passed the comprehensive exam and finished engineering at 2009 and I made a real chess academy at Egypt at 2015 and i want to have one month premium then year premium then lifetime premium and learn and teach many people from my site and I am lucky to know you and after or before that I do 2 stuff become Gm by rating 3000 at real and 3500 at rapid and blitz and bullet at chess com and lichess and be from your site team and also I am lucky cause I got gift from Gm Bassem and from chessmood when I became 2025 at bullet at chesscom

Happy (Belated) Birthday, “Avo” ! TY for sharing your beautiful mind and insights about chess and Life with all of us. May Our Gracious and Merciful Lord bless you in all your endeavors and guide you along your path, with many more Happy Birthdays to come, according to His Plan for your Life. Amen.

a french problem

At first I used to play 1. b3 or 1. g3 and 1. … b6 or 1. … g6 then fianciatto the 2 bishops everyone kept saying it was bad but I couldn't believe it because my win rate increased rapidly after shifting from a4 or h4 and a5 or h5. I saw a few courses they said that my wins would stop when I reached about 500 on chess.com couldn't believe those words I made it till 670-720 range with those. then my coach suggested my to touch the e and d pawns before I fianciatto my bishops. white good I didn't know it till I joined chessmood but I played the scotch game well. black was the problem every time I put e5 responding to e4 and d5 to d4 I lost. so the only one I knew was a YouTube gambit with 1. d4 e5. but winning was low. it was here I discovered French attack. well thanks to the upper hand on black I've moved past 800 now about 881. 
Problem is higher rated players who I play with knows French more and more I can't keep up with them playing French. And they start playing against me today I got lucky but white is starting to feel the French problem as well.
If anybody can please help me play against French, how to play it better and maybe another strong opening with black.
Please help 🙏🙏🥺🥺🙏🙏

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I found out I came second place in a correspondence tournament!

Quite proud of this - I'm much more a speed chess person but it turns out I can actually calculate!

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You should be proud.  Congratulations!

well thats just amazing

Scotch Nf6 variation a5 sub-variation

Hey, 

In the a5 variation of 4. Nf6 of scotch, the white pawns seems to be too much advanced and the king is stuck in the middle which I do not find safe for white to play. Black losses a piece there for 2 pawns but the open king is a strong compensation. 

Is there any alternate line there?

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Tbh, IMO while the rest of the course is very good, if you're over 2000 (i.e. start to see this more often), the course needs a lot of work/updating in the Mieses. Personally I would supplement with Chessable's Mayhem in the Scotch for ideas and Ris' Killer Scotch if you just want more focus on lines (although lines date).

Oh, and king in the centre and an advancing a pawn are part of this in some lines but you need to know what you can and can't get away with.

Any grandmaster reading this, what are your views/opinions on this line?

@David Sh.

@David Sh. – could you please post a short reply to my question in “The best games of January”? THANKS!

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Dear Didi,

Please check “The best games of January” thread.