Chess forum by Grandmasters

Interresting unbalanced position

Little story here: in my last tournament, 4th round, I got paired with a teenager on the grind, scary pairing. I messed up the opening and ended up in a very bad position. And then, my opponent sacrificed a piece to get three connected passed pawns (on the second and third rank). Seeing that if I accepted the sacrifice it would take me a long time to develop and put my king in safety, I refused the sacrifice and castle instead. Bad move, I should have accepted the sacrifice (as they says in the Spartan Shield course), but I did get a more dynamic position, a safe king and domination on a central open file. The position was still losing, but I somewhat tricked my opponent and ended up winning. 
(for thoses who want to see the game, I'm playing as black here https://lichess.org/study/jm66maw4/lcnEMoDU ; nice SLP)

After the game, I analyzed the game with my sparing partner and we had a big debate on the pros and cons of accepting the sacrifice and about evaluating the resulting position (computer says it's equal. The sacrifice was a mistake and white loose its advantage). The position is very unbalanced, so in practical play, is it easier to play for white or for black?
Yesterday we played the position two time, each playing as white then as black. As black, I ended up succeding in creating a blockade and winning a key pawns, getting a winning position. As white, I pushed one of my pawns to promotion, but she could sacrifice back her material for the pawns and we ended up in a queen endgame with three black pawns against two for white. Drawish, but black is the one pushing for the win. (I should say that I played as black first, so I learned from her mistakes as white). 
Conclusion: I conceded that in practical play, the position was slighly better for black; she conceded that the position was way harder that she expected as black. 

We don't see that often that kind of position, so I wanted to share it with you, hoping you find it interresting. Here's the position:
https://lichess.org/editor?fen=r4k1r%2F4nppp%2F3Qbq2%2F1B2p3%2F4P3%2F2P5%2FPP3PPP%2FR3K2R+w+KQ+-+1+17&variant=standard&color=black

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Hi help

What should we play as black here? 

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French with d5.

Struggling

Hi All,

I have gone through the Tactic Ninja course and the starter opening courses for White and Black. I am currently working on the mating matador course. I managed to get my rating up to 1000 on my own, but not only have I not increased my rating, I have dropped 70 points since doing the ChessMood courses. I'm so confused that I'm making mistakes in the positions, some are just dumb mistakes I admit. There are so many variations that I can't keep track of them all. I seemed to be better when I was just going on intuition and some basic theory. It all makes perfect sense in the course, but my games don't go that way. I could use some encouragement and/or coaching. Steve

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Hi Steve!

First and most important advice: don't give up! what you are experimenting is perfectly normal. Every progress comes with some rating lost at first. It's because you're trying new things, take risks and changing the way you're doing things. You are building new intuitions, theyr are not matures right now, but they will become reliable with time and practice. That is when you will see your rating go up again. 
Even GM Gabuzyan struggled with that part: https://chessmood.com/blog/crossing-the-plateau-and-reaching-3000-on-chess-com
So study your things, practice, make revisions and fix the problems. Thrust the process and the results will come. 

Now for the openings, I have to say I don't play the chessmood openings yet (I intend to learn them at some point) so I can't go in the detail, but the main point will be: you don't have to learn everything quickly. Try to get a general idea of the philosophy of the opening ("I want an open center and get a lot of intiative" / “I want to lock the center, be solid and break on my terms” / “I want to build and opposite side castling attack”, etc…). In the game, try to realize it without relying to much on memorized lines. Look at what your opponents do, it that let you doing what you want or is an obstacle, try to figure out solutions when they pose problems. After a short bunch of games, look at the first moves you had and go back to the course to see what you were supposed to go. It should help you understand better the moves of the courses, because you compare them with you're own experience. Then repeat the process: a few game, then go back learn a bit. Learning openings is an incremental process. If you try to learn everything from the start, you will get overwhelm, so learn bit by bit: a little bit of theory, a little bit of practice. 

Finally, remember that at your level, opening are not the most decisive aspect of your progression. You only need to survive the opening, if you have a slightly worse position, that is not the end of the world: you're opponent will likely blunder a piece, oversee a tactic or mess up the endgame and that is where you will get back. The tactics and other courses will help you there, just remember to practice regularly. 

Good luck!
 

Hello!

From my experience, at your level just work on the Tactic Ninja, Opening principles, and potentially Blunderproof courses.

It is simply not worth it to study anything else. You don't need openings then, just opening principles.

After that, study tactics.

If you blunder a lot, study Blunderproof.

After that, just play and analyze your games.

Once you hit 1200, then I recommend you learn the starter openings.

Hope this helps!

You're below 1000 and many people below 1000 blunder a lot. To not overwhelm yourself, first, take a breather, and don't be unhappy since many times when you're doing badly is because you haven't gotten the experience yet. Once you've gotten the experience, your rating will skyrocket. Don't get elo anxiety. I recommend you doing the Blunderproof course first to mitigate any blunders you make, and make sure that you have understood everything in the course. Take your courses slow and steady, don't rush through it and understand deeply what you've learnt.

Good luck and hope you reach your chess goals!

Dear Steve,

Since you are looking for encouragement, here comes a simple advice. Just don't forget the most important think in chess is to enjoy the game. Chessmood gives you the best tools out there to improve your understanding of chess. The rest will come with practice and more practice. My piece of advice?  Fasten your seat belt and enjoy the trip! 

Advise with the French attack

Hi, CM family!

I was analyzing some lines with the french attack and have reached a position that I really don't like with black pieces, and I don't know how we could iimprove our final position. I would really appreciate your ideas.

This line comes in the advance variation against the move 5.c4. According with the blackmood reccomendations:

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bd7 4. Nf3 a6 5. c4 dxc4 6. Bxc4 Bc6 7. Nc3 Nd7 

Now comes the critical move. What if White tries to hit the center with 8. d5?

Here I calculated: 

8... exd5 9. Nxd5 Nb6 (attacking the knight, the bishop and seeking a possible trade of queens). But White can continue with:

10. Bg5 

Here we could go with 10…Be7, Ne7 or Qd7, but in all cases, White response would be

11. Nxb6 (attacking our rook on a8 and ruining our pawn structure on the queen side if we take with the c pawn). It's not very useful to play the intermediate move 11…Qxd1+

since White can capture with the rook 12.Rxd1 (this is one of the advantages of having moved the bishop to g5, that now they can capture our queen with the rook and not the king).

Finally, after taking back the knight 12... cxb6 13. Be3 (attacking our pawn on b6)

You can see the final position of this line in the attached figure. I stopped my evaluation of this line here, but I cannot find how to improve the final position, which to me seems very favourable for white pieces. Their pieces are more active, they can castle short in the next move to activate the rook on h1 and a better pawn structure, with a pawn majority on the king side. (we have pawn majority on the queen side, but our pawns are doubled, so we cannot easily create a passed pawn). Possible contuation for Black?

1. If we take 13…Bxf3 14. gxf3 is not that good, because we give away the bishop pair and our pawn on b7 is very weak after Bd5  

2. If we protect the b6 pawn with 13…Bc5 then it comes 14. Ng5

Thanks for your comments or ideas

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What should i play ?

Following blackmood opening what should i play in this position ?

c4 , Nh6 or a6 ?

a6 seems a bit weird here 

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To me, the move c5 here looks good because you pressure the pawn on d4, and you can then go Nc6, Ne7-f5, and Qb6 and then pressurize white's center. This is like a french defense so follow french defense ideas and plans.

This was mentioned in the course and in the PDF you sent.

Play now Nh6, with a later c5.

fixmood

Hi. I sent my games to fix mood (I played 11 games) and it showed me only 2 games. Do you know why? Is it intentional?

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Look under the filters on the right.  Change the entry for “Left the book” to “Both”. It defaults to only reporting games where you made the first move that wasn't in the book.

This means that out of the 11 games you played, your opponents played something not in the repertoire first in 9 of those game.

Dear Eliya,

I can see Jeff helped you here ( thank you Jeff) 😃

Is your issue resolved?

Undeserved 3 or 4 stars for courses

Seems really unfair to the course creators how some members give 3 sometimes 4  stars for high quality, carefully crafted courses because they can't find a pgn file (thats still there) or have a question about something in the course.

When rating courses, its always a good idea to ask first for clarification BEFORE rating as ratings cannot be taken back or changed.

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Dear Ovi,

Thank you so much for your support and kind words!
They are different people, different opinions (very wrong sometimes)

 

Fun SLP example

My position was absolutely trashed but I saw a vulnerability and went for it. 

https://lichess.org/p44jBdsLyJAp

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Nice trick!

I also always check the opponent's King when trying SLP!

Good luck :-)

27… slp:

https://lichess.org/rfusnY8U/black#54

Nice one!

Yesterday I got stalemated. First time against 1.b4, I totally forgot that part of the BlackMood course, but got a promising middlegame and then I completely ruined it. Eventually, when it was almost hopeless, I went for a stalemate and miracously somehow my opponent blundered into it…

https://lichess.org/KeGA0zr5wJ1q

The winning engame I've lost four times and draw one

Thoses are exactly the kind of endgames I always mess up to discover with the computer analysis that's supposed to be completely winning. Exactly why I began to study endgames in the first place. 
I got this position against an opponent and messed up in time scramble. Looked at the computer analisis, saw the winning move and it seemed all clear to me. Obvious! Seemed that obvious and so winning that I tried playing it against the computer full strenght. I often do that to train endgames: I take a position I'm supposed to win easily and play it against the computer, so I could confirm - in infirm a lot of time - that I understand well. Usually it takes a lot of try before getting it. I don't know if it's a good technique to train, but I find it more engaging than just looking at the analisis. 
So yeah, this exact winning endgame, I draw it one time against a human and lost it four time against the computer - wich is perfectly normal. It's +5 for white, white to move. I get how to get a second passed pawn and eventually win an important tempo, but it seems afterward the king and knights are blocking everything and I can't make progress. 
I suppose at this point I might win this endgame against a humain, but I'm still wondering what I'm missing. It seems that the c4 square is the door to progress, but black seems to always be in time to shut the door. Anyway, I will get it at some point. 
https://lichess.org/analysis/8/8/3n1k1p/p1p1pP2/Pp2P3/1P2K2P/3N4/8_w_-_-_0_52?color=white

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Here's me playing it out (first attempt) vs Stockfish on lichess: https://lichess.org/9AxLnzrm#87

(By the way it would have probably been simpler if I just captured on a5 at about move 8.)

It's a fairly simple win because of the pawn structure: the protected passed pawn on f5 gives white a big advantage, and the backwards pawn on c5 is a big weakness for black.

I'm not sure how black “shuts the door” on c4 when you play it out.  Feel free to share some moves.

One thing to think about in this endgame is what would the pawn endgame be like if the knights were swapped off.  It should be clear that the pawn endgame here is generally winning for white.  You might find it useful to play out some variations of the pawn endgame, with the kings starting on various squares.

New podcast with GM Georg Meier: Beyond Chess Success and What Really Matters

Imagine you’re in the top 100. 
You train with Carlsen and Kasparov and get invited to super-GM tournaments🤩

GM Georg Meier was living the dream!😊
Then, he gambited his safe chess career to explore a new path.

Why did he leave? What did he learn from his interactions with the world’s best? 
What traps can you avoid by learning from his journey? And is he happy with where he’s ended up?

GM Meier joins the ChessMood podcast for a conversation. Tune in on ⬇️

YouTube: https://youtu.be/0HSZg3gn0jI?si=dwa2PNzCdrR7XzhU

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Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0uhOPdTNEXy7kU9gCHWEKl

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Excellent perspective Georg puts on life and chess at the highest levels. And how important it is not be limited to living for chess only but broaden life's horizons.

Thank you Avo and Georg!

Rare 5th move for black vs Schlechter opening

Hi all

So I've started playing the Whitemood Schlecter opening vs the French. My understanding is that white's light sq bishop is important and we play against black's (usually bad) light sq bishop.

However I recently had a game that went thus: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Bd3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Ne2 b6 - with black clearly intending 6…Ba6 to try and exchange their bad bishop.

I haven't seen this move covered anywhere and wondered what the best response is for white and what white's plan should be - the engine gives either c4 or 0-0 but I don't see what the idea is afterwards.

Thanks.

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French or Dutch attack ?

What should i play here as black?

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2. f5 we play the Dutch attack here if you are playing the simplified chessmood openings 

Tactic Ninja Puzzle

Section 15, quizz at the end, puzzle nr 3, can not be right, because you get a back rank mate. 

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I checked it. The bishop on f5 protects the c8 square, so you can take back the rook to c8 after Ra8+. That's the other purpose of the first move.

white stonewall setup

how can we play as a black if white played stonewall setup? recommend a chessmood setup  or chessmood opening

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I don't know for the openings courses, but you might find interresting the first game in the 100 strategic masterpieces course, Schlechter vs John: there is interresting principles analized about playing against a stonewall structure. 

Best OTB tournament for me , 2/45 u1800

i participated in the ACO world senior chess championship in crete ( Greece) and I got second place in the group D ( 1800-1600) . It took place in a all included 5* resort from 1-10 oct 2024 . There were 3 GM available for free analysis after each games ( Daniel King , Zigurd Lanka and Spyridon Skembris ) . We had 4 lectures , 3 blitz tournaments and 1 simul as sides activities . 
I regrouped my games in a lichess study if any of you are interested to take a look at it . Few comments were added in French , I did not checked with engine most of them . I got lucky in some games as i blundered occasionally and got away with it some times but also scrapped some winning games too ! Being leader  in the last rounds , i tried to manage stress but it was not easy and sleep got disturbed … it was a very nice trip ! 
https://lichess.org/study/RYrWM5Bv/0ZKJper6

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Congratulations Denis.  That is excellent! 😎

I'll be sure to take a look at your Lichess study.

Congratulations! Got any interesting stories from the tournament? Did you get your games analyzed by the GMs? I want to hear more about this amazing lifetime experience, if you're willing to share more.

Castling into a queen & rook skewer was the best move!

Hey all,

Just doing a post-game review and this made me laugh.

I'm white and it's my move.  My pieces are developed and my king is a little exposed so I figure now is a good time to castle.  I opted to castle queenside because I wanted a rook on the semi-open d-file.

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/122652865819?tab=analysis&move=17

Did you spot what I failed to see?  After I castle, my opponent can (and did!) move his bishop to g4 and skewer my queen and rook!!

I was annoyed with myself for not seeing this but consoled myself with the fact that I was planning a fork move that I had seen - Nf5 would hit black's queen on e7 and defend the g7 square for my queen if black decided to castle.  

Well, the Chess Gods must have been smiling on me because black did castle!

What made me laugh was that in the game analysis my castling ‘error’ was actually considered to be the best move!  Chess is a funny game 😆

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Being completely winning despite giving up a full piece with check is insane. And the computer says no mistakes. You should definitely submit this in the game of the month form. Very well played!

Oh man, I looked at the computer analysis and they are some crazy crazy lines there!
I probably wouldn't have castled long because of the skewer and because I'm human, but seeing position and knowing it's the best move, it make some sense to me, thoses things happens when you have such a huge development advantage over your opponent. After castling and loosing the exchange because of the skewer, you have all your pieces developped, while your opponent stil has the entire queenside still undevelopped. The computer want to explode the center quickly to capitalize on the development advantage and is willing to sacrifice the exchange to do it as quickly as possible, not letting the opponent time to castle or develop. That's the power of quick development. Well played!

Chessmoods coach usernamnes from different chess sites!

Can we make a base with chessmood users in test games with chessmood openings? 

Otherwise, for a start, it might be enough with different usernames that our trainers have? Then we can use https://www.openingtree.com/

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Dear Erik,

I am little bit unsure about your request - can you please clarify, so I can provide a convenient answer?

Thank you :-)

coach

Hi. what do I need to do to get one of your coaches to coach me?

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Hi Eliya,

Please send a message to our client support team [email protected]

and they will provide you the information 🙂

Alapin Bc4/Nf3 without d4 variation

Hi All,

played today a game in our league.

I felt very good preped and had good confidence.

But here in the game after i played fast Be6 my opponent took some time and i had the chance to think, what actually happens after Re1 or even Ng5. In the game opponent took Be6 and it lead to known territory from video course.

But what would be the suggestion after mentioned Re1 or Ng5? I funnily asked Stockfish on depth 40 about Ng5 but his variation actually looses in the end for black if im not wrong. xD

Thank you for your help!

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Dear Fred,

I checked the position and have 2 suggestions.
Instead of 11…h6 I like more Rd8 move - as next moves of white like f4 - are bit unusual.

As well if you are playing on very high levels, and need super engine Prep - instead of Be6 you can try Bf5 move - which leads to complicated engine lines with equality.

 

Rossolimo Doubt

https://lichess.org/O3Y9Pezr/black#11

. This game was Exchange Rossolimo with 4.Bxc6 dxc6 and here my opponent confused me with 5.Re1. I realised that if I go Nf6-Nd7-Nf8 manuever, he will quickly play e5-e6 and then crush my pawn structure so I was feeling a bit annoyed and then I played Bg7-.e5 and then manuevered by knight via Nh6-f6-Nf7-0-0 and then launched an attack with f5. My opponent gained an advantage in the opening and it was a bit uncomfortable to make a lot of pawn moves, though I somehow generated counterplay. Can you suggest a remedy to this line. Thank yu

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Hey AK Chess,

After 5.Re1 e5 - followed by Qe7 and developing the Knight to f6 - should be the best way in my opinion.