Chess forum by Grandmasters

Share goals, inspire others'

Happy New Year Chessmood family!
Everyone has new goals this year and everyone is ready to achieve it.
But for some of us our goals feel impossible.

So to release pressure I have started this discussion.

Put posts based on 2 things,
1. What's your goals this year, why it feels impossible/how confident you are
2. Comments, advice and cheer ups for other people's goals

I hope this discussion helps many players from the chessmood family☺️

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My goal this year is to reach 1500 rapid on chess.com
looking from the mid 800sit seems a little too far😔

My goal is 1650 USCF this year. Currently, I'm around 1250. I'm absolutely 100% confident I can! 🏆

Best wishes to you Zaheem and Sarah with your goals!!! 

Mine are to

1) actively try to get better at chess by consistently studying/practicing/fixing

2) learn to play the WhiteMood and BlackMood opening repertoires to perfection 😀 

3) consistently avoid 1-2 move blunders in online blitz games

4) train tactics and mating patterns and use them in games.

Ok, 1400 blitz rating on chess.com would be nice too. 🤣

I only do process goals because otherwise I put too much stress on myself.

Biggest goal is just stop tilting so easily and keep making gradual progress.

I read in a recent article that competition helps you get to goals faster because you get the mood that you need to win and that's good as long as you don't stress it
So a chalenge for everyone here the first to reach the goal without stressing out wins and monthly update will be great to share progres
Ready?Set!Goooooo!!!

My goal is to reach 2100 on lichess rapid. I am 1900 now so maybe it is a little bit ambitiuos. But it is always good to be ambitiuos right?😊

New goals are great!
New goal slightly confident because it is to reach 2000 on lichess 30+0

�🤗�

thanks

BlackMood French Exchange

Hi, I am working through the simplified black openings. I am surprised I can see any recommendations for 4.Nc3. When looking at the LiChess database, this is the second most played move after the exchange on d5. 

Is this something that will be added in the future?
What would you recommend?

I have had a look at it. It seems that 4…Nf6 is the best response, but would it mean you would need to abandon the main plan of a King-side attack?

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Dear Michael,

This move is not a real danger,  and during the interactive lessons, we face it very often. Sometimes I play just with 4…c6 and it develops normally. Sometimes, we still try to apply our strategies with 0-0-0 and attacking ideas.  It sometimes interrupts our initial setup ideas, but of we develop similarly our opponent can't also apply the same strategies.

Please let me know if you have any further questions :-)

Preparing for tournaments

How should I prepare for a tournament that I have in about 2 weeks? It is a team tournament, and I am currently at my peak rating. What should I be studying?

Thanks, Sabarish

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Dear Sabarish,

Here are 2 articles that might be helpful https://chessmood.com/blog/the-right-way-to-prepare-for-a-chess-tournament

https://chessmood.com/blog/grandmaster-tips-the-right-way-to-prepare-for-the-chess-game

Good luck!

Sounds when moving pieces

I was just practicing with the training puzzle series in the tactic Ninja course, when I was so happily surprised to hear a sound when moving the pieces!!!!!!

Thank you so much ChessMood teams!!!!

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Happy that you are happy, dear Luc :-) 

For tactic ninja could we have some martial art noises ;)

Unauthorized Screenshots

I might be wrong, but I believe when I submitted a bug in the AI Coach that a screenshot was captured. If I'm not wrong, that is really bad. Unauthorized screenshots violate GDPR and are a security issue.

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New course: In GM Kuljasevic's mind

✅Best-selling author of two chess books
✅Former coach of Finland’s national team
✅Host of a chess show on TV

Please welcome GM Davorin Kuljasevic, who just created his first ChessMood course!🥳

Learn from his chess wisdom as he breaks down his best games:
https://chessmood.com/course/davorin-kuljasevic-best-games

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Great course, but it seems to me that the puzzles are out of order in games, for example, the puzzle from game one is on game 4, and there are many like this. Maybe it is just a bug, but it would be great if this is fixed! Cheers.

Analysis Finding

Have you ever had like a bad game and wanted to resign but listened to coaches and stayed in the fight but unexpectedly win the game?
Well many of us had this type and when we go to game analysis it is too complex and go to chess.com review your free reviews are used.
So we will see the games commented in this discussion and tell the good moves, bad moves, brilliant, blunder etc..

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early morning game got some good moves and all of a sudden its rook or queen for knight. i felt so sad i'm a good rook player than a queen with only one rook player. don't know how but i just mated black!
https://lichess.org/QaPtcHgV/white#61
 

win lose then won!
https://lichess.org/WHkJEWg5
 

Book recommendation

Hi chessmood family ,

I am 1600 fide rated player .and searching for a book on calculation and visualisation and pawn structure book to get me up to the 2100 fide level .I have few hours everyday to spend on chess .Kindly suggest me some good books on these topics .

Thank you .

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Hi Ar Ray,

this might be helpful:

https://chessmood.com/recommendations

Chess Structures by Mauricio Flores Rios for pawn structures
and Chess School 2 by Sergey Ivashchenko for tactics are brilliant books in my eyes.

How to use moodcoins to buy courses

Does anybody know?

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Hi!  

I have some Information for you:

1. Go to the Courses page and pick your course
2. Select the option “Or get lifetime access”
3. Select the option “Buy the course”
4. In the right-hand section titled “Choose your payment method” the last option will be MoodCoin.

Remember that $1 = 1,000 MoodCoin.  So, if the course costs $300 that is 300,000 MoodCoin.

Need to earn some more?  Details are here: https://chessmood.com/moodcoin

Grand Prix Anish Giri's Chessable course

Against our Grand Prix Repertoire Anish Giri recommends 8... a6. 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3. f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bc4 Nc6 6.O-O e6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nb5 a6. This move is not in the course and from my own research i've found: 9.Nbxd4 Nxd4 10.Nxd4 Nf6. Here you can either go e5 or f5. What are the plans for white or are there any other moves you can play that i've missed?

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Help for this please.

Advanced repertoire with French attack

Hi there, CM family, Happy new year to all of you!!

I know many people has already asked this same question before, but I really would like to know if we Will need to wait still a lot to have the step-by-step French attack repertoire. I'm wondering if I shall start studying the accelerated dragón or wait for the French attack.

Thanks a lot

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I was wondering the same thing. With the Simplified BlackMood Opening Repertoire based around the Dutch and the French it was a surprise to see that the Advanced Courses are based around the Accelerated Dragon and the Benko Gambit. 

They are working on those advanced courses.

For right now, you can either go further with self-study, or switch to the main rep (Benko and Acc Dragon).

Later you can choose which you like more.

Up to you!

Silent Strategy Bug

Great course! 

I think something is wrong with 

Section 4. Weak Pawn / 14. Active vs Passive pieces / Training / nr 2

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Section 4. Weak Pawn /  23.The right capture / Training / nr 4 & nr 5 are the same.

Chess Coaching Advice

Hello Everyone,

I am a senior in High School with a rapid rating of 1746 (chess.com). I am the President of my High School's chess club, and I typically give chess lessons to the club members. Recently, a teacher at my school asked me to coach her son (a 5th grader rated 578), and I agreed to teach him 1-on-1 for an hour each week.

I have never coached individually like this before, and so I was wondering if anyone had any advice.

Thank you!

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Hi Nick,

I'm very much a student rather than a coach but I remembered seeing this post in the blog and thought it may be helpful:

https://chessmood.com/blog/how-to-inspire-your-chess-student

Hi! Maybe this book could be helpful to you ! 

You can find it in here (scroll down a bit): https://chessmood.com/recommendations

$250 For Whitemood and Blackmood opening courses why?

These are really good courses. I just don't understand why they are $250? I would gladly buy them for around 70 to 80 each. I can even see 100 each maybe. I understand they are good courses and take a lot of hard work and time. It just seems a bit unreasonable at these prices for someone that doesn't want to spend money on a membership to the site and just get the opening courses.

Thanks for your time and answers.

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The amount of time that it takes to produce such a course plus you've got GMs producing it justifies the price (for experience + time costs). Unless you can go in with material ready and just go with very little prep and outtakes you're unlikely to be making your time back.

However, given the market is competitive, IMO it's pricing itself out of the market with such prices. If you can't afford a subscription, you could wait until the next time the courses are open or take it or leave it I'm afraid.

I believe the main reasons is 2 things:
First, you can buy them with mood coins. Currently Id say they have a bit too much value though.
Second, CM wants to encourage memberships instead of people buying the courses.

Endgame for 2000

Should one that is 2000 but never really learned endgame start by endgame under 2000 or directly into the step by step endgame mastery ?

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Should you learn build a base first, or go straight to building a skyscraper.

As I believe CM says in the study plan, take the u2000 test first.

If everything is easy, go to advanced.

If not, then watch u2000 course first.

What is the difference between deflection and distraction?

In the tactics ninja class, this sentence was said about deflection:  "deflection occurs when a piece is forced away from an important duty that it's performing."

When I review the distraction section of the same course, it seems like distraction is doing the same thing.  For example 7.2 of the same course has an example of a knight defending a bishop and the solution was to attack the knight with a pawn.  So, it seems like the knight is being forced away from the important duty of protecting the bishop.

Does anyone have a way of distinguishing the two tactics?

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I just found that this was already answered here:  https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/deflection-vs-distraction

Happy birthday, GM Avetik!

Thank you for bringing fun to our chess games, and helping us improve!

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Rare Opening lines Preparation in general.

Hey I know there is a blog on preparation against an opponent that you know you are going to play against. But what about preparation in general, not a specific opponent? Does anyone know if there is a free resource on how to learn it?

For example, like learning how to prepare a very rare opening but having to use databases or engines to prepare, I know those exists, but how exactly preparing with these free resources in general in case if the lines are so rare enough that there is not a video or chessable courses on it. Only hypothetical, but I feel it is important to learn.

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Too much problem regarding chess visualisation

Dear chessmood community, 

I am good at tactics and mating patterns but when it comes to visualisation I could not even imagine a board or even I would say not one row of the empty chess board .Although when there is a position on the board I can visualise it very little  for 2 moves .I am curious why I can't visualise a empty chess board.i get confused with the squares and the diagonals and it's very problematic for me .I am rated 2200+ rated online on lichess but I am messing up easy winning positions due to this problem.I could almost never visualise more than two moves in a position.Kindly suggest some tips to improve this skill .it's very much required to level up your chess level .I can easily feel that .

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Dear Ar Ray,

Visualizing is a skill that you need to improve through practice - and do it constantly. As more you train it - as better it should become. In the Calclman course I have a section dedicated to visualization - here is the link https://chessmood.com/course/calculation/episode/7223

Just practice, practice, and practice again! It demands time to improve.

Dear friend,

Start from very first steps - just remember the board squares - try to visualize the board blindfolded with remembering which square is dark which is light - just picture a single piece moving around - and in this way advance step by step. It requires constant practice to become better at doing this 🙂

Diagnosing why I'm playing well

The title may be a bit strange. Usually, players want to know why they're playing poorly. I'll try to explain.

I've had two stretches of time in the past few months where I won many more games than I lost, and my Lichess blitz rating increased considerably. I don't want to focus too much on the rating itself because, in the most recent stretch (going from 1040 to 1280 in under a month), that's partly a function of playing more Lichess arena tournaments with much higher-rated opponents. When I lose, I barely lose points, but the few times I win, I win a lot of points. And, I find I learn a lot from analyzing these games regardless of the result.

But, that's not the only way I'm gaining rating points.  In these stretches, I'm winning a lot more than I'm losing against players near my rating.

So, what's the problem?

At some point, the streak ends, and I start losing.  A lot.  And I believe I've crossed that threshold now.  Chessmood has many articles that mention “tilt,” and they all contain solid advice.  But I don't see many articles about the opposite – what happens in a winning streak?  GM Gabuzyan describes a time like that in https://chessmood.com/blog/gabuzyan-3100-top-ten.  Mood matters!   But, while anyone's psychological state may contribute to how they play, the chess moves still happen on the board.  Any GM could be having a lousy day yet handily beat me if we played a blitz game.

So, I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing differently when I'm playing well for a period of time so that I can make sure to keep doing those things.  Ultimately, I'm playing because I want to play, not to chase a rating.  I can have a lot of fun playing even if I'm losing – especially if the games are interesting, if I keep a game against a higher-rated opponent competitive, etc.  But why not win if I can, right?

Any advice here?

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Dear Andrew,

Since you are training and putting effort into chess it is reasonable to see growth :-)

Beating strong opponents is the key to big growth how to become 1300 with only wearing 1100-rated players?

I would recommend that you understand which conditions you play so well. You may be well rested, in a good mood, at a specific time during the day, or after a specific action. It's a great idea to understand what is your personal best playing time during the day and try to follow that!

And as well you have the right attitude! Following the growth and not focusing on the rating is the right thing to do! That allows us to throw away the negative emotions and focus on the game!