Chess forum by Grandmasters

Course Progress Reset?

Is there a way to reset/delete my progress on one (or all) courses. Running through a course the second time it is very difficult to keep track of where I am at as all sections are already marked as complete.

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You just select the square and it will unmark it.   Go through again and unmarked it where you stop.

New article: The Rating Obsession: Why It's Ruining Your Progress

You study, you play, you grind… but every time your rating drops, it feels like a punch in the gut. Sound familiar?

The truth is, rating obsession is ruining your progress.

In this eye-opening article, GM Gabuzyan reveals why rating anxiety is one of the biggest roadblocks in chess—and what you need to focus on instead:
https://chessmood.com/blog/the-rating-obsession-ruining-your-progress

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Yes, yes and yes!  This year I took a new vow not to look at my rating.  I am managing it - I play games wherever possible without knowing my opponent's rating before or after the match.  And without looking up my own unless I absolutely have to for some admin purpose.  I will treat myself at the end of the season to see where I am at.  And honestly, I don't even really care exactly what it says because I know I am a stronger player than a year ago from everything I can feel.  

It is very liberating for the goal of each game to be just put your best effort in and learn something from it.  Exactly as you wrote, whatever you are, and whatever you become, that will be visible by the rating reflecting it later.  But you can't get there by looking over your shoulder  - only forwards !

Thank you for this important article!

Great article, GM Gabuzyan, thanks! Yes, almost all of us amateurs have a very unhealthy obsession with our rating. It's the same with golfers, and others too, so it must be part of human nature. 

The deeper issue is fear of loss of status, both in our own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Probably many (most?) of our impediments to improvement at chess are due to fears of one kind or another. 

Thanks for the good advice on how to cope with our fears!

Wow, you must be a mind reader, I am going through the same mind field. Afraid to play so I would not drop. Mistake because then you tilt. OUCH.  Great article hit the spot, strength not numbers. Thank you. Prayer answered, May Jesus bless all you do. You have a great gift

Just the kick up the backside I needed. Few games later new highest rating 👌.  Cheers pal.

Dear Sarah, thanks for kind words :-)

Beginners black opening continuation (e.g. Sicilian Gambit)

Having done the excellent Rise of the Champions, I'm interested in finding out a bit more on the opening gambits. For example the Sicilian Gambit for black; what happens when the opponent doesn't take the gambit? What are the other key ideas?

From what I can tell the next level up course is the full black repertoire with 1.e6. BlackMood openings. Is there any more content looking deeper on the opening gambits from Rise of the Champions?

Many thanks! 

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Caro Kann 5..g6

Hi,

where can I find 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 and now 
5..g6. So far, I only found g6 in connection with Nf6, but in the mentioned move order black has the Nh6 option, additionally. I faced this line as white
in a tournament game yesterday.

Thank you!

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Dear Thomas,

The I didn't find the mentioned sequence either, to be honest that Nh6 idea seems bit unusual, if you can post a position which feels uncomfortable and you don't know what to do, I will try to help :-) 

French Tarrach 3.Nd2

In the short black opening version it says after 3.Nd2 Nc6 4.Ngf3 Nf6, ,,, that there is more to see/study in the main course. But I cannot find the Main course - where do I find it (I only find black playing sicilian, caro-cann and a few more,)?

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Dear Erik, 
After finishing the courses that we are doing now on middlegame and endgame, we will go back to openings, publishing the Main course of the French attack which will be a complete repertoire targeted for advanced players. At the moment, there is only the French Attack course, which is enough to start playing it and get a good feel for it until 2000 rating. 
Of course since it is a practical repertoire the lines are not analyzed deeply in purpose.
If you are an advanced player and are very interested in this line, I would recommend you in the meanwhile the fantastic book by Dmitry Kryakvin The Modern French Volume 1 Tarrasch and Various Lines from 2020 where he also teaches this line with Nd2 and Nc6 and has very good analysis.?

Error in the daily puzzle

The correct solution was rejected on the third move.  The engine took my side.

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Same with the move was Rg3, but it was rejected. And I really tought that was the answer so I looked on the engine and it said that it was right.

PS: You mean the puzzle of 13 March 2025 right?

Hello. I think it's a bug. In fact, the third move is the only one which saves the day and the problem is based on it. They'll fix it. :-)

Same for me lol.

First time using the engine and it confirmed. I just think it's some sort of bug.

Thank you guys! 

It has been fixed!

Yes, I get the same problem. Does not someone in the chessmood team not do the daily puzzles to improve their own game? This way errors would be seen quickly. 

Thank you guys! 
The issue has been solved.

🙃

Today the puzzle is bad again after Nc3 c1=Q d4+ cxd3 e.p. 

Here comes my first point you can play both Kd7+ and Kb7+ and for some reason only Kd7+ is good.

My second point is that after Kd7+ Kb4 Na2+ and Nd5+ wins and only Nd5+ is good.

So please Chessmood team do puzzles that only have one possible solution otherwise some people will get it wrong!

Daily puzzle

Today’s puzzle is broken again - Nf6 works just as well as the solution given.

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Actually it dosent:

After Nf6, Qg1!

Now Re8+ Kg7

Rg8+ Kh6

taking the queen is stalemate.

The best after Qg1 is to play Nh5, and after Qg8, We are back to the original position.

This is a repetition of moves and it still wins, but in terms of puzzle solving, it is considered incorrect.

Hope this helps!

This is a classical example of “why you shouldn't always trust the engine". 🙂

My second game against the sicilian !

🤩

Second game i play against the sicilian with the grand prix attack and i found a brilliant knight sac !
The rest is far from perfect though but still proud and happy to put the chessmood teachings in action.

https://www.chess.com/game/138876879614
 

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GM Avetik visits Northern California! (USA)

Thank you GM Avetik for an enjoyable Sunday! 🙂

Especially GM Avetik and Andre doing squats! 🙂

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That looks like such a fun event! Both of them seem like great guys.

wow

Algeria (it's in North Africa)

ChessMood Black Openings

I'm 77 years old and only took up chess seriously a few years ago. My chosen Black repertoire before joining ChessMood was Caro Kann against e4 & KID against d4 & everything else. I have resisted the preferred ChessMood Black opening repertoire as, at my age, I didn't want to learn yet another opening. However, whilst I've had some success with the Caro I am unhappy with the games I get with the KID. So, reluctantly, I'm going to try to learn the French & Dutch 'Attacks'. Two questions:

1. How easy will these be to learn?
2.  What is the best software to print out the pgns from the course?

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Dear Reg,

Have you already used your 1-1 call option?

What to do against 5...Qc7 in Caro-Kann?

Recently, I faced this 5…Qc7 in a classical OTB match against a 1600 rated Caro-Kann player. I didn't know how to respond, and ended up just winging it with opening principles. I checked the WhiteMood Openings course and it's not covered there. How do we play here?

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https://chessmood.com/course/caro-kann-defence/episode/162

This was in the main course.

Additionaly, in the advanced section, it is called “Dreev Line”:

https://chessmood.com/course/caro-kann-defence/episode/1050

GM Avetik visiting Nothern California (USA)

Thank you GM Avetik for an enjoyable Sunday! 🙂

Especially GM Avetik and Andre doing squats! 🙂

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That's really nice, you met :-) Hope you had a good time!

nice puzzle mate in 2 (seen on youtube a few days ago)

😀

nice puzzle …

saw it on youtube (well unfortunately (not sure if I would have managed) with the solution coming up quickly by Magnus before I could screenshot ..apparently well in under 2 minutes) 

some days ago perhaps you have seen it already.. 

but in case not you might enjoy try to find the solution before watching:

white to mate in 2 ..  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-x3Wzy6pVk)

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It's a nice one Michael! 

Date of creation of the openingcourses

Hello,

where can I See in which year the openingcourses were created and when they werde last updated?

Greetings

Christoph 

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Hello,

as far as I can see, we can only sometimes find out by context.

It's not written explicitly.

I would like to suggest having the creation date. (As well as the latest update date if the course is- hopefully- updated from time to time)

Thanks 

Hey dear friends,

Thanks for the interesting suggestion. The problem I am seeing is that sometimes we might add some variations but don't change the entire course, and it becomes really tricky to make it technically and less confusing. 

But the idea is interesting, I might suggest it to our technical team and see what the options are.

New article: 10 Insights from Levon Aronian

A week ago, GM Levon Aronian joined the ChessMood Podcast.
It was an episode packed with wisdom, fascinating stories, and moments that make you stop and reflect.

In the newest article, GM Avetik shares the insights he took away from that powerful conversation—lessons that can challenge how you think, how you grow, and how you live.

Read it here:
https://chessmood.com/blog/levon-aronian-insights

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Спасибо Аво за содержательные и мудрые мысли,которые вы излагаете.Незнаю почему но эти и другие ваши работы правильны не только по своей сути,но и по духу!

Ваши идеи находят глубокий отклик в моём сердце!

that podcast helped me in my life, i love GM Aronian he's a good guy 

Levon Aronian is also a very expert music listener. I wish he could share something more about how loving music did help him develop his wisdom.

Reinventing yourself really resonated with me, with having passion but reinventing how you see a problem, 

Trying to face the truth, or trying to reinvent yourself with chess is something I have been trying to do for a while now before I try learning more, and honestly I have been taking breaks from chess to try and achive that decision. 

Just wondering what others think, is it or does it seem socially acceptable to take breaks from chess? I feel like in competive chess teams, taking breaks looks like slacking which makes me seem hesitant to take them, although I am trying to detach from that and others opinion, but it still makes me question and hesitient if its really worth it even if I think its worth taking breaks beforehand. And even if you take breaks, what do you think the best way to get back in shape with chess skills after they took a turn with the time away from the board? 

Psychological I am trying to change my mood in general to be excited about new experinces or positions to try and improve from.

Looking for Sparring Partner

Hey guys, my name is Prashanth, I'm from Australia, my rating is 1000 I'm looking for a sparring partner, to get to learn new things and improve mhy rating.

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Hi Prashanth - welcome to ChessMood!

You'll have better luck if you put your request in the dedicated thread for sparring partners:

https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/studysparring-partner-1362 

1200 rapid, woohoo!

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😎

Congratulations!  

Well done!  Looks like you found a scary tactic and the opponent has not taken the SLP course!

Fren attack, advance variation: Big downside! Help needed

Hi there, chessmood family

I've been playing the blackmood repertoir (French/Dutch) for some time now and I like it. But lately I found a very strong line for the white pieces against the advance variation that makes me rethink all the lines given in the blackmood repertoire. The idea of the advance variation for black is to trade our bad bishop with Bd7, a6, Bb5. However, white can play c4 and it's very strong. The game would go as follows:

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bd7 4.Nf3 a6 (we follow with our plan of trading bishops, but here it comes) 5.c4

This move is considered in the blackmood repertoire and Avo suggests 5…dxc4 In this way, the pawn is no longer on d5, blocking the big diagonal for our bishop, no we can move Bc6 and suddenly our bad bishop becomes a powerful piece.

However, I found that after 6.Bxc4 white pieces have dynamic advantage. I show the position below after 6.Bxc4.

The dynamic advantage of white pieces is evident: better development (knight and bishop out), ready to castle short and black pieces are very far from castling, white has space advantage and easier development of the pieces. White here has three main ideas: 1) Nf5 atacking the weak pawns on f7 and e6 with possible piece sacrifice on f7 to enter with the queen on f3 or h5; 2) breaking the center with d5 to open up the position with our king in the center of the board; 3) If black pieces castle short, Kh4 to slide the queen through g4.

Here the blackmood reccommendation is 6…Bc6 puting the bishop on the long diagonal, and white can follow with 7.Nc3 to which we would respond with 7…Nd7 with the idea of Nb6 to attack the bishop on c4. Everything until now is on the blackmood repertoir. But the blackmood repertoir does not consider the move:

8.d5

We need to capture or we loose a pawn, so 8…exd5 9.Nxd5

The white knight on d5 is very strong. We need to attack it. 9…Nbe, attacking the knight on d5 and the bishop on c4. we also thread to exchanging the queens eventually. But white can move:

10.Bg5 attacking the queen 10…Be7 11.Nxb6 Qxd1+ 12.Rxd1

The knight on b6 is attacking our rook on a8 and thew two dak square bishops attack each other. we need to take to knight 12…cxb6 13.Be3, attacking the weak doubled pawn on b6.

The evaluation of stockfish is +1.0 but besides this, I would not feel confident playing with black pieces here.

It would be great if some strong player could share his/her thought with this line. I'm really afraid of playing the French attack and reach this positions, which I think is basically forced if white pieces play the move 5.c4 

Thank you very much in advance for your thoughts

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f6

According to my engine, Black should be fine after 9...b5 (9...b5 is +0.3 while 9...Ne7 is already +0.6.). Here is a sample:

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bd7 4. Nf3 a6 5. c4 dxc4 6. Bxc4 Bc6 7. Nc3 Nd7 8. d5 exd5 9. Nxd5 b5 10. Bg5 (10. Bb3 Nc5 11. Nf4 Qxd1+ 12. Bxd1) 10... Ne7 11. Nb4 Bb7 12. Bd5 Bxd5 13. Nxd5 Nc5

That's an engine line and it requires some work, but at least it seems White only has a very tiny advantage that can be neutralized with perfect play.

In any case, I would recommend not to forget that the WhiteMood/BlackMood repertoires are supposed to be starters. The point is to provide beginner/intermediate players below 1800/2000 with easy setups/ideas they can learn easily and spam against not well-prepared players, so you can dedicate 70/80% of your time to watching/studying, tactics/calculation, middlegame and endgame courses to get a good understanding of the game and develop the skills that matters to be good at chess. 

Once you developed a good understanding and chess skills, the plan is to upgrade to the main recommendations (Accelerated Dragon) and the full 1. e4 repertoire which will require lots of time to be mastered, but can be used against much stronger oppositions. 

So depending on your current level, you should decide between 1) not taking opening study too seriously as your opponents will rarely go for those critical lines, and even if they do, that's not necessarily what will decide the game as they'll still be prone to make lots of mistakes in the middlegame/endgame 2) taking opening study more seriously because you start to face strong and well-prepared players on a daily basis and want to neutralize their preparation/pose more problems (the Accelerated Dragon lines are full of tricks and deep moves that can pose problems to the opponent if they aren't well prepared.)

I agree with “The Squirrel", that 9…b5! should give black a playable position. I just wanted to add on a funny almost-forced line on the tenth move, which is:

10. Nd4!?

Entering some complications, but it shouldn't be too much of a danger to black.

 Bb7 11. e6!

black has to be quite precise here

 bxc4! 12. Qh5!? g6 13. exd7+ Kxd7! 14. Qh3+ f5 

my engine says that even 14…Ke8!? is okay for black, but up to here is all forced.

15. Nc3 Bd6 <>

with some kind of dynamic equality in a very unclear position - black has the two bishops, but his king is weaker than white's and his pawn structure on the queenside is demolished. But black should bring his king to safety on either side before white gets his pieces out and brings both rooks to the central files to fry black's king.

Thoughts on my tactics?

I'm white. I couldn't quite get a knight annihilation lined up, let go of it and tried something else before the crap hit the fan though. Quite proud of this one.

Adrenalectomy vs jjroman18201: Philidor Defense • lichess.org

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A Mindblowing Defence

I've had a lot of interesting moments in my games lately. I've been playing really sharp chess, and wild things have occurred. So today I played a bullet game and after analyzing it with the engine, I found this:

Study: https://lichess.org/study/zNkAqpm2/bp6SrWR9 (Chapter 4)

The position is also attached as a screenshot below the text. Black to play and win, you can treat this as an impossible calculation excercise if you want!

(Yes ofc I saw this all in the game, my opponent was just too scared to go for this line 😅)

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I gave it a go.  I cannot believe I blundered Mate-in-25 like that!

Well beyond my skill to figure this out in a bullet game.  Or any other time control, lol.

Crazy that Black needs to be incredibly accurate to get an advantage despite already being a rook up. Thanks for sharing!