Chess forum by Grandmasters

Milestone aren't always epics

So, since the improvers tournament last sundays that let me with a peak rating of 1899 elo rating on chess.com, I have not played rapid chess. Was I intimidated? maybe a little bit, but mostly I was sick and in no condition to play. Today, I was better and just before going to meet my sparring partner, I thought “I have time for one game, let's see if I can get that 1900 before I see her!” (so I can brag about it :P ) 

I did my warmup, went into deep focus for a big battle. My opponent played the Queen's gambit declined. Surely, being more than 1900, he know some theory… I, for myself, have procrastinated studying it because it's not something I encounter very often, so I know what I play is not suppose to be good, but it has been “good enough so far". I stay in my confort zone, expecting to be punished at any moment… and then… my opponent play this weird Bb4 on move 7.

 
Isn't that a blunder? 

isn't that just lose a piece with a simple tactic?

I play my 8th move… 

my opponent loose the mood an resign. 

That's how I got to 1900. 
That's not epic. 
But still worth celebrating. 🥳

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/123108910760?tab=review&move=14

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Absolutely it is worth celebrating.  Well done! 😎

Congratulations!  A very impressive milestone to reach!

Another one. Not bad for a poor lil blunderitis victim

Yes that is also me on one of my collection of lichess usernames

https://lichess.org/EAfAJL5i/black#44

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❤️

Yes, but from my humble experience I see that you cannot develop your gameplay just by playing Bullet, and you cannot play in "tournaments" with it. I see that you should play rapid or classic games to play well and develop, and there is no harm in playing Bullet, but the main thing for you to develop is rapid and classic play.I don't mean to criticize you, but I advise you from my humble experience 

New article: The Day That Changed My Life

A brutally honest story that GM Avetik Grigoryan dared to share.

🟢 How he spent the night before an important game…

🟢 How he lost it in a way he never had before…

🟢 How he hit rock bottom in a foreign land…

🟢 And how that day changed his life forever.

Read the full story here👇
https://chessmood.com/blog/life-changing-day

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“Instead of preparing for the game and getting a good rest, I had spent the night with bottles of whiskey and Asian Cleopatra.”

Worth it, surely?!

Reminds me of George Best: “I spent lot of money on booze, women and fast cars. The rest I just squandered…”

“Be brave, be honest, and always give 100%"

The second three rules my father gave me while i was growing up.  He was a good man.

(Those rules kicked in as i got older.  The first three rules were: wipe, flush, and wash your hands. Go figure :)

"I was representing my country. My family was watching the games live. My friends were rooting for me. And me?
In the pre-final round… On the first board… Instead of preparing for the game and getting a good rest, I had spent the night with bottles of whiskey and Asian Cleopatra." 

I can relate to that feeling, i had important exams this year and instead of preparing and studying i was procrastinating, and i had big expectations from families members, i hope that I'll change somehow.

Wowza Avo. I find it inspiring how you summoned the guts to share that…

I get your feelings. A bit ago, I was sort of slacking off chess, slacking off and procrastinating prep (but in a distracting way, if you get what I mean), but then a bully at school started insulting me and then told me that ‘No matter how hard you try, you’ll always be a weirdo'.

And while it was meant to be an insult, I thought if I was going to be a chess-playing ‘weirdo’, I might as well be good at it, so started trying harder, and now I don't suck at chess as much as I used to!

😔

Yeah, I have never been able to lock in

you really gave me some inspo

Players Wanted for the Chessmood Grand Prix 2025!

Hey Everyone!

If anyone is still looking for a team for the Chessmood Grand Prix 2025, my team still has plenty of spots open! The top 10 players in the team will get a free month of Chessmood membership, so much more realistic chances of winning a prize than joining one of the heavyweight teams :)
 

https://lichess.org/team/chess-lifestyle <-- here is the team link (the passcode is "c3venom")  
https://lichess.org/tournament/CMQ20Feb <-- here is the tournament page for today's event at 20:00 UTC

Excited to get this show on the road, and see you this evening on the ‘Chess Lifestyle’ YouTube channel for some hectic blitz battles xD

Cheers,
Michael
 

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We share the same name, also sure!

Update: I'm recovering.

I'm not fully over the tilt…but I'm back to being able to do complicated annihilations at ass o'clock in the morning lol.

https://lichess.org/lDxWqLQM/black#41

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Nice! Hope you get back into your full A game

That's great to hear, Voran

crushing 1.F4 with black

can you make a course about crushing 1.F4 with black pleaeaeaeaeasse

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Have you already found this video?

https://chessmood.com/course/blackmood-openings/episode/6182

 

Wanted to Write this to say thank you to Chessmood

😀

Thank you Chessmood and all the coaches.  I wanted to write this post to express my gratitude to everyone in the ChessMood Family. I am not a pro member but thank you for keeping your courses for free for 7 days

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Look at this dirty flag.

https://lichess.org/Kqi1o6tf/black

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White  was doing a great job not taking your last pawn :)

Haha, nice flag! Your opponent must have cried after that game 🤣

�🤣🤣🤣�

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

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 :-)