Chess forum by Grandmasters

Corresponding squares: tough topic

I feel corresponding squares topic a tough in Pawn endings course ( even thou I am 2000 ELO I do not have good endgame background). When everything is described it is clear, but not when you need to solve by your self. I would love to have more quizzes on this topic in that section.

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And sometimes it would be also good practice if we would have puzzles that were not solved in videos, but the same topic. Just an idea :D

Scotch Game. Need a suggestion

Hello, I am new to Chess Mood (7 yr old). Just started watching White Mood Lessons. I have a question. I was playing a scotch game online and I encountered a line which is similar to Qh4 (YouTube Variation - 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Qh4). The line encountered was : 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nxd4 5. Qxd4 Qh4. I played this 6. Nc3 Nf6 7. Nb5 Qxe4+ 8. Qxe4+ Nxe4 9. Nxc7+ Kd8 10. Nxa8 and game moved on till 44 moves and i won. Can you please suggest best moves how I should have continued from here. Appreciate your help.

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Hi Ved! 

Welcome to the family! 🤩

I doubt that you will find this variation again in your life, we never had it before but it is important to know where you were wrong.

The move Nc3 develops the knight and protects e4. Then Nf6 attacks e4 and when you played Nb5 you removed one defender from e4. This is your mistake, you need to develop the pieces first and then we will attack, I do not know if you already watched the Opening Principles course first if you did not. 

Instead of 7.Nb5 Be2 would develop the Bishop, or Be3 too, also good is g3 and Bg2… But again, think about developing all the pieces before attacking and keep your pieces protected. 😀

I don't understand the question, you are a Rook up for nothing in the line you gave. Also, I never met a 7 year old that communicates like you, only the parents of 7 year olds :D

Wolf on Chess Street Course Shows Evermore Dramatic Improvement In Coaching Technique

Just a note to everyone going through various courses produced by Hovhannes: His level of coaching is becoming better and has in my opinion, achieved master level by now. Concepts like " the hero is the piece that sacrifices itself , go away from the board and trust the result of the game to it's friend" are unearthing a deeper level of understanding of the concepts he is explaining. A recognizable trait of a superb coach is that they can make a difficult concept easy to understand through various means. As well as imprinting it, via various techniques, into the student's mind. His courses are gems and any who spend lots of time learning them should recognize this. PS : Credit for hard work is very important IMO and brings progress almost every time. Cheers and thanks G!

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Dear Ovi,

Thanks for your kind words, I appreciate it a lot.

I hope to keep improving the quality of produced content!

All the best.

Ole, ole!! 
Gabu shows on himself, the importance of CoGro! 

Thanks for all kind words, Ovi! 

Ovi, I absolutely agree, Hovhannes is an amazing coach and continues to improve in both his videos and his streams!

Yeah, I enjoy the structured and very to the point teaching of GM Gabuzyan, also revisiting daily lessons some very good explanations as well 👍

Technical support

Im having trouble dragging my pieces when im doing puzzles. Help please

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Hi Enrique . The problem has been reported on discord also and they are working on it .

How to buy courses using mood coins

I still could not find the option to do it , will be grateful if someone can help me :')

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I want to buy the " Attack Like a viking" course , thats why I am asking this question

Scared of playing games

Hey guys! Recently I have become scared of playing games and feel alot of anxiety whenever I decide to try. There are a couple of reason for this: 1. I feel that I am severely underrated so anything but a win is a huge mistake. 2. I have "holes" in my chess knowledge which makes me play way over my rating level in some situations and way lower in others. The outcome is that I can blunder away games where I am +6 in the opening and -6 during the middle game. 3. Because I dont perform on the level I think that I should, I get anxious and play with very low confidence - which in turn makes me play worse than I should. A self fulfilling prophecy of sorts. 4. Lastly - because I dont feel comfortable playing, i get too little playing time which stalls my progress big time. So with all of this said, has anyone of you battled this kind of thing and how did you overcome it? I want to get to a level where I dont feel so much pressure just playing a few games but its difficult since I care alot about progression. Any ideas?

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I suggest you take online sessions of 9 games of 5|3 blitz or 3-4 games of 15|10. Since you struggle with time-management I recommend 15|10. Don't use trappy openings if you are playing them, play more sophisticated openings like the dragon Sicilian or the French Attack. I suggest you buy the WhiteMood and BlackMood repertoire. Since you blunder often, I suggest you sharpen your tactical sword daily, by doing puzzles, vision trainer, and the Daily Chessmood puzzle. Even better you can purchase the essential or pro membership to have access to all of Chessmood's wonderful courses. If you do buy it, I suggest you watch the WhiteMood and BlackMood openings courses, then tactics ninja and BlunderProof. After you finish watching those courses you can try some middlegame courses. I recommend watch 100 classical attacking games as you can learn a lot. After go around and checkout all the courses and learn. Remember RightMood=RightMove, stay in the present, don't think of past blunders, think over and over: "I've got this", "I do this", "I CAN WIN THE GAME" Take away distractions and take deep breaths, if you want me to be your sparring partner, my chess.com account is bfsl123. 😥 I hope you find this advice useful and I am more than happy to be your sparring partner. When you play games, I will be there to support you. Sincerely, Pengcheng😀

I get scared, too. There is a nice article (actually, LOTS of nice articles) in the blog: "Detachment: Focus on growth and not the result" https://chessmood.com/blog/detachment I particularly like what Avetik's father told him: "Son, just concentrate on becoming a better chess player, and your rating will follow. It will run after you and not allow you to go ahead alone." As far as that goes, this is a very good site. Lots of really clear explanations. You can hardly go wrong with any of the courses. I've sampled a dozen, or so, and am actively working through about 4 of them.

Have you got a second account that you can use when you're not feeling confident? That will help. https://chessmood.com/blog/raise-your-chess-rating-by-cutting-your-losses

Hi Niklas ! One of my best friend has exactly the same problem as you . In his case , he studied chess for years while almost never playing ! His expectations are high but he lacks experience . In club or tournament , we often hear from other players that they are underrated . Whatever your performance , if you play , you will get a rating . Instead of having an idea of what you deserve and being sorry for not obtaining it , I suggest you focus on what you did wrong in your games ( win or loss ) and work to Improve these weaknesses. If you stay objective and work well , in the long term , I bet you will get higher than what you think you worth today ! And having a winning position with +3 and even more is not consider a win till the game is over ! So till you learn how to convert advantage and prevent counterplay, dont be too hard on yourself if the outcome of the game is different that what you think it should be . Chess is the best game to me , even if its more fun while winning , its still the same great game losing too !

Today's puzzle problem

Hello! Today's puzzle was very wierd, asking us to continue it, although basically any move was winning after we won the queen.

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Every single move, that is, except for h4 and c5+

Yeah sometimes puzzles are like that. But its fine!

Tracking your work for motivation

Hi , I got an idea for motivating some of you who could benefit from it . I propose that you post a resume of what you have done in the past week to improve your chess . To keep it short , we cloud simply edit our own post every week to add new information . By putting it down , it will make me check if im following my plan. To read what others do , could be a motivation for doing more or a consolation that you re not the laziest around.. 😉

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I m new , i still have to do the call 1on1 to get my personal plan . So far I have done the blunder course , the opening basic course , the French attack course ( in the blackmood opening ) I have started the scotch course . I started building a pgn repertoire with the openings I looked at . I also started a notebook where I write down some follow up of what I do almost everyday . I m trying to review the ninja course by skipping the easier sections for me ( I do all the quiz and if its easy I skip the video unless the title of any subchapter get s my attention .. I m trying to solve the daily puzzle . I play everyday to try the openings even if I m losing rating pts . I do a quick review after each game with the file attachment and upgrade my pgn if necessary . I do the aimchess daily tactic challenge . it s 10 min max , 3 mistakes , you re out . Compare to chesscom , the level of difficulty raise way more quickly , it s only once a day and you can compare with friends as it s the same puzzles for everyone . you get a ranking for the day and see the top 30 . I know 2 MI from Quebec who does it everyday so its fun to compare with them. Yesterday I did 21 , the day before I tied my personal best which is 25. Over 20 , it s getting challenging for me .

Opening choice

I'm a Lichess rapid 1700 player, so I learned the french attack opening and the Dutch attack, but against 1.e4 I'm really attracted by playing the accelerated dragon with black... Is it still possible for me to learn it?

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I m almost sure yes but maybe you could put more efforts on something else ? In my 1-1 call , GM Avetik told me to focus one opening at the time . But according to my level ( I m 1700 + otb ) and what I told him , he suggested to put more time on middle games strategy and study classic games ( 1 max per day ) . As tactics and endgames are more than ok for my level , he even suggested that I do less of these . I did put way too much time on these important aspect before chessmood neglecting the rest..

Middlegame Roadmap

Hello! I apologize if this is not the correct place to ask this question, but I was curious when the Middlegame Roadmap course is due to be released. Thanks!

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Hi I am also curious to know! Any updates?

I am pretty sure there working on it. Chessmood has a pretty small team and they try their best to provide us with chess knowledge. Be patient, it should come out sooner or later. Thank you and have a great day!

Wanted: Blackmood Sparring Partner

Hello, I'm looking for a French Attack & Dutch Attack sparring partner. I am rated 1625 on chess.com. My name is ChessMetaMorphySis.

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Ok, friend me at bfsl123 chess.com