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Chess forum by Grandmasters

Firefox video display issue on PC monitor

Hi, Really enjoying Black repertoire course but have noticed when I am on home PC Win 10 running Firefox, the videos in each section are offset and out of screen. I can upload an image if you need it. My display resolution is 1920x1080. The problem does not occur when viewing course using firefox on laptop or other PC's such as work PC.

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Thanks Mitch for letting us know. We are sorry for the issues that you are experiencing. Many of us also use Firefox on Win 10 and we are not seeing this problem... Maybe you can try to restart your Firefox in the problem solving mode and check if still happens... If you could check your version and attach a picture, maybe we can help.😀

HI can you send me your browser extension names or screenshot of them?
Or if you can please check the same thing on the private/incognito mod of firefox, I think it can be from extensions or browser settings

The wolf of the street...

Section 13. When I want to go to the next video I get the following message : "Error Unhandled Video Privacy". It's very annoying because I must close the program after each video and restart. This on my computer.

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It's a known issue which is being looked into. You can refresh each time as a workaround. It's a recent issue that's started after thousands of successful video uploads. Your patience is appreciated while the fix is found as the Chessmood team work extremely hard.

Max Lange in Scotch

Hi all, I have a question, Is there a course that covers the Scotch Max Lange or will it be covered in the future?

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No, there is not. We go for the Scotch main lines and there is no plan to do a course on it.

😀

Question by Caro-Kann 5. ... e5!?

What is the right plan after the 5th ... e5!? ?

Yes, take it. But what's next?

Thank you for your ideas.

Replies

We are supposing that you are referring to the exchange variation. If it is, then dxe5, Nxe5. Here is the key move, we propose to play Qe2!, because against IQP is very good to exchange Queens. If Qe7 then Bb5 or if Bd6 then f4... You can check the course for more details...

https://chessmood.com/course/caro-kann-defence/episode/161

Half-Open Courses

Why The Courses Are Not Fully Open?

Replies

They are when you are a Pro member.

French Attack vs exd5 with 4. Cc3

Hello Chess Friends, i have a quick question regarding French Attack vs exd5 (exchange). BlackMood Starter mentions lines beginning with 4. Cf3 but what if White plays 4. Cc3 first ? The point is that if black plays Fd6 the d5 pawn is no more defended. And if Ce7 first, then Fd6 is no more possible. And if Cf6, then f6 is not possible. The question is how to handle the attack setup Cc6/Fd6/Ce7/Fg4 etc if white is starting with Cc3 ? Many thks for your kind advices ! Have a great day..

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Well, if you want keep the setup with Cc6/Fd6/Ce7/Fg4 etc., what about e.g. 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.Bd3 Nge7 7.O-O Bg4 etc., or 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Nf3 Ne7 6.Bd3 Nbc6 7.O-O Bg4 etc. ?

Hi Haik,

Yes, is one of the best options. Check out this thread with the same question: https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/french-exchange-after-5-nc3-3467

Happy improving!😀

Concentration, Positivity and Joy

Hi all - I thought fellow students might be interested in this short story .. which showed me the power of the right mood, right move philosophy! Below is a game which I played last month for my club. I let this one go badly wrong in the opening, and I was close to becoming despondent. My team really needed to win this match and I had been really looking forward to the game, but now I had already messed up. :-( Then I remembered Avetik's words (which I had recorded in my bold/unbold google doc)... Concentration, Positivity and Joy ! I sat up and smiled, like Avo recommended. I walked around the boards, enjoying the fact that my team were playing chess and it was a beautiful thing. I sat up straight and decided I would fight to the end and enjoy maybe, just maybe, creating something I would remember. And it happened ! I found squares for my pieces, and they completed a crushing attack, all thanks to my positive approach and my opponent failing to be accurate enough. I know we cannot win every game, especially when we go wrong, but we can choose to stay in the game and choose to create our chances and choose to enjoy every turn of the battle. The rest is up to caissa ;-) Thank you Avo for your words. Before this I would have fallen into a hole of self hatred and distracting thoughts and just made the situation worse. This way I knew I would enjoy the game, even if it didn't work out in the end. For those that are interested, the game and my annotations are here (Chapter 16 of this study) : https://lichess.org/study/oLUgXvvR/CxAuMNWh#0 Perhaps other people have good examples of games where this mindset helped them stay constructive and deliver a comeback? Onwards and upwards and wishing everyone happy moves! Ben

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Very nice post and game ! Especially in a team competition , you should have been so happy with the turnover ! Thats a great example of a player relaxing after getting an edge in a game which is the reason why we should never give up ! What is the level of you and opponent at that time ? Did you knew each other before this game ? Psychological factors take a greater part in slow OTB compare to online .

Ole, ole, oleeee!!!!! 
Thanks for sharing this, amigo! 

Idea about a course

I have an idea for a course that i believe would be a great source of fast improvement for beginner and intermediate players. This course would be organized like Tactic Ninja and Mating Matador: each section has it's theme and practical exercizes about it. The themes would be practical situation that often occours in a chess game. Examples for beginners could be: - the weakness of b2/b7 (or g2/g7) pawns after the bishop stop defending them: how to exploit it, and when it's better not to take the pawn and give the opponent an open line - the fianchetto bishop staring at the rook on the opposite corner - the bishop on g4-g5/b4-b5 pinning the knight to the king/queen For intermediate players there might be typical piece manouvers, piece sacrifices or piece coordination patterns or pawn play patterns that i have no idea but the ChessMood teachers knows for sure and if they occours with a significant frequency it might be useful to train to recognize them.

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I think these sorts of things if I understand you already get taught, but as part of other things. Taking a b-pawn is a question about is it poisoned - can you get your piece trapped (fair number of queen traps), do you lose too much time for it, what other comp do you get. Not sure it's so easy to teach that specific thing in a course. Same for the pin of the knight, should it be pushed away (does that weaken the king or allow a sacrifice), is the knight worth more than the pinning bishop or not, so many factors. You can use programs like Chessbase to search for certain piece placements, but I kind of think for below 1800 at least aside from the simple ideas of tempos and king safety, such specifics probably will do more harm than good.

Smart chess board

Champions, hello! 
Do you have any of these chess boards? 

https://playchessup.com/ 
https://squareoffnow.com/ 

I'm thinking of buying a gift for a friend. Not sure which one is better. 
Any thoughts? 

 

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I'd say the square-off chessboard is better. However it is ultimately your choice. I personally like the square-off board, (don't forget the pieces😀). Whatever decision you make Coach Avetik, I wish you good luck with your present. Sincerely, Pengcheng

I suggest getting the DGT Centaur: https://dgtcentaur.com Or DGT Pegasus for online play: https://digitalgametechnology.com/products/home-use-e-boards/dgt-pegasus Either one of them with their respective carrying bags for easy storage and transportation :)

Thanks a lot! 
Decided to go with Square Off :) 

Hi, I had the square off foldable and was very disappointment with it and returned it after a few weeks. During online games, it would not recognize piece that I had moved and I lost many games moving peice back and forth from original and desired position trying to get board to recognize new position. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. The flow of the game gets destroyed and in some cases time runs out if we are at end of game. It does not have absolute piece position detection either. I have been awaiting chessone development in hopes of an electronic board that actually works. On an aside, loving your approach to teaching openings. The amount of variations, how you explain things and the length of videos really makes it easy to absorb and remember the idea's and lines. My coach recommended the site (I can message you privately- you know him) and I am very satisfied with the content. Just wanted to let you know. -Mitch

This question took me on a journey into smart chess boards in YouTube. If budget is not an issue, the best atm is Chessnut Pro. https://www.chessnutech.com/products/pre-order-for-chessnut-pro

SLP in Open Tupinamba

Hi. As some of you know I am having a hard time OTB in the Barcelona Open Tupinamba. After winning for 1st.time in rd.6 Wenesday 3, that's few hours ago I had the most tragicomic OTB in my life. I blunder the exchange in a hand slip, because I wanted to play Rf-d8 followed by Nf-d7 just to kick out his unpleasent Ne5. And when I was going to play the move I found that I was holding the Nf6 instead of the Rf8. So Nh5 was forced and this cost me the exchange. I say I am going to play some more moves because resigning now would be a miniature. and then I had an idea looking at the position. I calculate a little and so that my idea was a complete bluff but he didn't looked as a tactician but positional senior so I bluffed, and bluffed and bluffed and at the end he went for it missing the repetition checks that gav e me the draw. He expected Qg3+ and he covered with the greedy Be4 to Bg2 but the saving check was not on g3 but on e3 checking through the diagonal and his greedy Be4 couldn't cover anything. If he played something simple like Qd2 I could resign but he didn't. If somebody interested you can go over the game in this link: https://lichess.org/study/uoPmDEhv

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GG! This is the illustration of why it's important to keep fighting 👊! Good luck with the remaining games 👍 PS: I would recommend making another account / hiding your real name as your lichess account violated the TOS. This could go against you when opponents are preparing against you for a game and discover that.

Accelerated Dragon: exchange

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 Is this covered someqhere? (white will move Qd4)

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Yes, it's covered extensively.

It is in "Rock 'n' Rolling with Black" -> Accelerated Dragon -> games 1 and 2. In both games however white did not continue with 6.Qd4.

Rossolimo Knight Sacrifice Line has a refutation according to my analysis and Stockfish 13

This Ba3 move looks very dangerous.

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Without knowing anything about the line or about engine evaluation, i can see that we get the pawn on e5 and have a massive pawn center with 3 extra pawns for the given piece..

Looks for me like a big fight for one point for both sides

Hello Sidhart,

First of all my biggest recommendation, in such a deep line not to go for engine moves. At the level you are playing now this can never be used I think, I would recommend spending time and effort on more necessary training. Like typical games, structure and learning simple common theory.

In addition from a human perspective, I would prefer playing as black after capturing on e5 with a massive center and nice practical chances.

Was looking at this myself. The comment 'even if the engine says about equal' made me question it, as the engine was displaying about +1 (not equal at all). The key line seems to be Ba3 Re8 Bd6 with Bxe5 Bxe5 Rxe5 to follow. I agree the 'oh it's so simple' plan is to blockade and try to wither the pawns down, but it doesn't seem so simple as that if you try it. I'm not entirely convinced I'm going to be okay vs a 2000 long play in it, but the computer evaluation of +1 I think is over optimistic and the other engines scores in the screenshot might be more reasonable. A few moves playing White against the engine I can get it to +2 (not entirely blindfold to the analysis but mostly my moves), even then I'm not convinced with a 2000 on either side this is so simple, and like any winning position, you can't see the problems where 'obvious' moves suddenly reduce the engine score to nearer 0. In that case Black would be winning (given the already optimistic score). Certainly given it's got 'simple' strategic themes for both sides it's a good one to play out with a partner (something I might do). All I want to know here (not more theory) is whether I'm going to be getting a much harder time than my opponent, which I think is far more important than any engine score. Blitz I don't think it'll matters, but long play with 20 minutes thought on a couple of critical junctures can White find a winning plan?

question about comparing different moves with an engine

i am using a bot on chess.com and it says Nxd4 -2.14, exd4 -1.89, and a5 -1.52. What does all of this mean ?

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Those are number of pawns advantage. Negative means advantage to Black. It says nothing about how a human would cope in the position, not is it an absolute value of truth.

Platform / website for interactive lesson?

Perhaps I missed that ... I would like to know on which platform / website the interactive lessons are played (so I can probably challenge a GM :-) Best Regards, Kurt

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In the events page you can find all the details. This is the next lesson: https://chessmood.com/event/games-of-chessmood-champions-9 This is the next simul: https://chessmood.com/event/simul-game-grandmaster-vs-pro-members-05-13 Check it out and be ready to fight!!!😀

Lookign for sparring partner to play 10+5 or 15+10 on chess.com

Hello everyone. I'm Yogesh from Mumbai,India I have OTB classical rating of 1295 and chess.com 1700+. Looking for sparring partner to practice and learn chessmood courses together. preferably indian time.

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Hi Babudi, Please post your message in the following thread and check out other possible sparring partners like you> https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/studysparring-partner-1362

NEW ARTICLE: When to Change Your Opening Repertoire

Hey Champions!

We have this topic in our Blog:
https://chessmood.com/blog/change-opening-repertoire

If you have any questions, comments or you just liked it, feel free to share your thoughts here. 

Replies

Thank you sir. Very nice article

Wow!! That was a fantastic article sensei. 

Interesting. I was playing e4 for 15 years until a coach told me to switch for d4...life changing.

Well I agree with your article coach. I love cm repo and I am getting good results also but I am still learn one new opening as white as 2 new openings as black against d4 and e4. The new openings suits my playing style also. I am very positional and working on positional more to the next level with my teammates so all my teammates thinks I do well in quiet positions than wild ones. So, I decided to add these 3 openings. But I do focus on plans and playing them well.

Few years ago I decided to revisit what I thought were my best games. And I noticed the majority I was playing black. How strange, I didn´t had the sense that I was doing so bad as white. Then I ask myself, why?

And I recall I am a gambiteer and with white I tried to play fast and attack, while with black I played sound openings like the Najdorf or the Volga gambit. Now I decided to change the latter and play the Modern Benoni. Let see how it goes.

Thanks GM Avetik for another great artocle.

Thanks for interesting & insightful post.

Thank you sir! I had this issue but because of Chessmood - not. I was learning the najdorf when I was beginner. I am now rated 1194 and I have lot of time to work on chess. I am a 10 year old kid. Sir, is learning najdorf good for me. And my style is attacking but I still like endgames. Also, I have doubt if I should learn the King's Indian Defence for Black. I definitely like the ChessMood Openings and I have good results with them.

After seeing this article, I decide to play 1.c4 as white is a tournament game, and I beat a player (2100) that I'd been struggling to beat for months!  Great article!

I have avoided e4 openings for years, b/ there is a lot of theory to study. I mainly played d4 and c4. So, when I want to enlarge my repertoire with e4, there is a lot of work to do - how many hours will it take to build up a 2000 repertoire (in hours)?

Against Colle setup

Is it covered how to play against Colle setup? If we start with Benko setup (d4 Nf6), but then 2.Nf3 follows. Is it 2... c5? I assume Colle player would play 4.e3 Are there model games?

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The recommendation of the Chessmood-team is to play 2...g6, often transposing into some variations we play anyway (e.g. some Benko- or Maroczy lines)

NEW: ChessBase Magazine #213

Hello ChessMood ! Just a quick note because I just saw that in the latest ChessBase Magazine there is an article about a variation of the French Attack that you discuss in the "Starter Course - BlackMood Openings". https://en.chessbase.com/post/new-chessbase-magazine-213 "French Gambit a la Carlsen: Sergey Grigoriants examines 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 h6!?" There is even a screenshot showing the beginning of the article. I didn't buy it, but this variant may become famous... a la Carlsen! :))

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Why did my chess skill suddenly drop?

I was playing chess normally. And yesterday, I suddenly started playing terribly. I went to sleep thinking it was just a coincidence or being tired. But today when I started playing, I noticed I play just as terribly as yesterday if not even worse. Does this happen often? What can I do about it?

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https://chessmood.com/blog/risks-of-playing-chess-when-you-dont-want Maybe this is the problem?

NEW ARTICLE: A Secret Weapon for Handling Tough Positions and Bad Moods

Hey Champions!

We have this topic in our Blog.
https://chessmood.com/blog/a-secret-weapon-for-handling-tough-positions-and-bad-moods
If you have any questions, comments or you just liked it, feel free to share your thoughts here. 

Replies

Thanks 

Awesome!

That's a very nice story, thank you for that!

wow .. thanks

Well I have a story also. It goes like this: When I was playing against one of my friends (Alexander Soll) rated 1,800 I was in a bad position but then I remember your story about how if you smile and straiten your back it would improve your mood and therefor improve your chess game. So I tried it out and .... It worked my situation improved drastically even though I was low on time. I still managed to find the right move to escape a check so I wouldn't lose time. This saved me the game. Thanks again for the advice Best of Wishes Mikeythehuggable

And after a few years we saw a GM named Kazbek Primbetov......😱

I am very grateful for your articles and your course content. I myself am coming to ChessMood because of a good friend who had many amazing things to say about your approach to teaching and developing a positive mindset! Recently I had a very frustrating moment in my chess life and realized I needed something different. The moment I saw Avetik and watched the opening course, I knew that ChessMood was the way to go if I truly wanted to improve myself AND my chess. Thank you so much for all you do.

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