Chess forum by Grandmasters

Vertical battery/annihilation combo. Quite proud of pulling this off in a bullet game

https://www.chess.com/game/live/126774602897

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Sneaky stallion level 2 puz 5

In the mating course.

I cannot understand why the C3 pawn does not capture the knight when it moves to D4 in this puzzle. What am I missing?

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The pawn is pinned by the Black Queen. If pxN, then QxQ

Where is stone wall

I wanted to ask a question next Wednesday I am going to face a 2150 who plays the stonewall attack and I don't know what to against it even though I have a good repertoire against all the main openings and I didn't find anything on chessmood what should I do

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🙂

To prepare for the Stonewall Attack, study its basic principles and watch games of strong players.Practice your own openings and be flexible in your approach.Don't be afraid to castle queenside, break the center, and be patient. You may try to find in chessable and lichess. Just be confident and calm! It will work!

Precisely how to do training puzzles many times

During my 1-1 call I was given the advice to do the training puzzles many time until I can solve them in about five seconds.

I now did in Tactical Ninja under pin after summary Traning Level 1. Only the first easy one within seconds. What exactly to do now? First repeat all these 20 puzzles right away ? Or wait some time so I don't remember the solutions ? Or continue with Training Level 2 and continue in the course ?

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🙂

Repeat the puzzles a few times, then wait a few days and repeat them again. This will help you learn the concepts and remember the solutions. Then, move on to the next level.

1.d4 as black

Hi everyone, 

Just a little question: 

In the black mood openings course, the response to 1.d4 is 1…e6 (Dutch).

Yet, the benko gambit and d4 sidelines courses seem to assume with start with 1…Nf6. 

Is 1…Nf6 covered somewhere that I would have missed?

Kind regards,

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Hi there,

As I understand it, there are a number of variations of the Dutch Defence.  

The one that starts with 1 … e6, as suggested in the BlackMood opening course, is a variation which avoids some of white's potential anti-Dutch lines (that is, making this version of the Dutch a ‘safer’ version for beginners).

Whereas, the one that starts with 1 … Nf6 is a more common Dutch Defence line.  There is a Chess.com guide here: https://www.chess.com/lessons/key-openings/popular-1-d4-openings-1-nf6-dutch-defense

(PS: I'm not familiar with the Benko course so I may be completely wrong!)

Chessmood reccomends the Dutch for below 2000 players.

The Benko is the advanced opening reccomended for over 2000 players.

New article - 10 Must-Read Non-Chess Books Every Chess Player Should Explore

It's great to add to your knowledge of chess. But don't underestimate the power of a great mindset! 

1 impactful mindset book can have a 10x bigger impact on your chess than 10 chess books combined. It can show you: 

- How to perform at your peak?

- Set the right goals and be objective

- How to find motivation to fuel your dreams?

- How to stay focused when you're constantly bombarded with information and so much more. 

Today, we're sharing 10 non-chess books to help you win your chess and life games!

Discover them here: 

https://chessmood.com/blog/best-non-chess-books

And what are your best non-chess reads that have impacted your game? Share them with us under this thread. 

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I am not sure it's in the same category as the books mentioned in the blog post.

Did you read “Chess Improvement - It's all in the mindset” from Barry Hymer and Peter Wells.

Hi Avetik,
Good List!  There's a few on there I haven't read yet so will do so soon.

Did you know we are only 10% human?  Each of us has trillions of microbes living in the gut that produce things like Serotonin for good mood and many many other things.

For the last 3 months my main topic of reading has been about the Gut Microbiome and how it affects our, health and happiness to an amazing extent.  It's absolutely fascinating stuff and after embracing it I have noticed many good things about my health and from a chess point of view one of them is improved mental clarity and less brain fog.  We are touching on the healthcare of the future here. One book that can help sort your microbiome out is Super Gut but there are many others when you dive into the topic.

Super Gut by Dr William Davis is one I think you might be adding to your list one day.

All the best

Adam

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Super-Gut-Four-Week-Reprogram-Microbiome/dp/1399701819/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=1173179829153601&hvadid=73323987886120&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=4960&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-73323898312047%3Aloc-188&hydadcr=3222_2381487&keywords=supergut&qid=1693333669&sr=8-1

Avetik,

At age 60, my biggest goals, other than family, are health and longevity, and in that I'm extremely well read. What I would add is, especially with health, it's important to check your information with major research scientists specialized in the area in question. Google to see if scientists in the area at Harvard, Oxford, etc. agree. It's very easy to terribly misinterpret scientific research and statistical analysis if you don't have the PhD training, and specialization in the area in question. It's far more complex than most people realize.

That said, if you haven't already, I'd look into fasting. There are many potential benefits, but a big one for me, and many people, is that it makes it far easier and more pleasant to stay lean, and I find a boost in productivity. A recent book by a major scientist in this area is, “The Intermittent Fasting Revolution: The Science of Optimizing Health and Enhancing Performance”.

A great book on learning by top cognitive scientists is, “Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning”.

I wish you the very best! 

P.S. Hope your back is fully recovered from your skiing accident; otherwise, I can recommend some things that make my back 100% even in my old age.

Great list of books! Some I have read, others now on my list. Thanks!   

Perhaps we need your 10 must read chess books too!

Hi all, 

just in case I started during my cross country skiing vacation (2 weeks in Austria and the Dolomites) with nice cosy apartments with local small mountain farmers and popular competitions each weekend ..

but well the first week without almost any snow and event canceled. Anyway having a good time and time for reading (so far ⅓ of the limitless book by Jim Kwok)  .. and well less time for learning chess.  So here is my point/comment question.   First I find/found these general methods of learning (and teaching) always very interesting and useful. However, perhaps there is some exaggeration and something more that troubles me about the judgements and the elitism idea.   But this aside.  I read a book several years ago (and started reading it again now in parallel with limitless) 

I can highly recommend it, and well perhaps you have some thoughts about how this influences chess learning curves and so on. As well as “fears” of making certain moves under stress etc etc.   Looking forward to read your thoughts about this. Greeting Michael  

Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious (English Edition) Kindle Edition

English edition by Timothy D. Wilson (Autor) Format: Kindle Edition

See all formats and editions

"Know thyself," a precept as old as Socrates, is still good advice. But is introspection the best path to self-knowledge? What are we trying to discover, anyway? In an eye-opening tour of the unconscious, as contemporary psychological science has redefined it, Timothy D. Wilson introduces us to a hidden mental world of judgments, feelings, and motives that introspection may never show us.

This is not your psychoanalyst's unconscious. The adaptive unconscious that empirical psychology has revealed, and that Wilson describes, is much more than a repository of primitive drives and conflict-ridden memories. It is a set of pervasive, sophisticated mental processes that size up our worlds, set goals, and initiate action, all while we are consciously thinking about        

Hey ChessMood,

I am amazed by this choice of non-chess books and have read a few of them but what chess books would you recommend to have a steady growth for 1900 FIDE rated players like myself?

test

New

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What am I missing in this position?

Hi, new chess player here. I was working on this chess puzzle and when I couldn't figure it out, I checked with an engine and it decided on the move in blue. 
Can someone explain why this is the best next move? I was thinking white could just move the queen down 1 square rather than sacrificing.

Thanks in advance!

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Hello!

This is for several reasons I believe.

First, the engine sees more compensation with 2 pieces for a queen I stead of losing the knight on D2.

Second, (and my calculation may be flawed here), but I believe that Whites queen is close enough to trapped, that White will have to give more material anyway.

The engine is simply trying to minimize it's losses.

Hope this helps!

Dutch Attack - London

Hi. I've just played a dutch vs the London in a rapid game and got into trouble very quickly.

The game went 

1. d4 e6 2. Bf4 f5 3. e3 Nf6 4. Bd3 b6 5. Nf3 Bb7 6. Nbd2 d6 7. c3 Nbd7 8. Qb3 Qe7 9. Bc4 and here I reluctantly played the ugly d5 which blocks my bishop on b7 but stops white playing e4. I think this was a mistake. I was thinking of Nd5 but didn't think the knight best placed there. The computer says e5.               

Should I play e5 here and after exchanges castle queenside then follow up with the usual Ne4 g5 attack?

I would be grateful for any insights which show the plans for black.

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Hi Norbert,

The way your opponent played is quite rare.
I looked at the position and e5 followed by 0-0-0 looks quite interesting.

Nc3 sicilian part 4

Hi. what to do after e4 c5 Nc3 a6 f4 e6 g3 and d5?

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Hi Eliya,

We don't want to take on d5 as in that case, we will trade our valuable pawn on e4 with the pawn on e6.
Instead, I believe Bg2 is the right way - and if Black plays 5…d4 than Nce2 followed by d3-Nf3 development.

Rossolimo Question

Hi Chessmood family, 

This is my first time posting but I have a question about the Rossolimo. On move 7 after e4 c5 Nf3 Nc6 Bb5 g6 Bxc6 dxc6 d3 Bg7 h3 Nf6 0-0 c4 what about e5 move? I do not find a reasonable response. 

Thanks

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Yeah that is a playable line for White, Id recommend (especially not to overload on theory) just to continue and try to play the main line with Nd7, e5 etc.

Usability Issue With New Quiz Interface

Recently a new interface has been developed for puzzles. It looks nicer but it has an usability problem. There is no easy way to go to a puzzle in the middle of the set:

On a 50 puzzle set (image below) if I want to go to puzzle 30 I have to press on the right arrow many times. Also if I do just half of the puzzle, when I come back it loads the first puzzle, not where I left off, and I also need to press the right arrow many times to continue where I was. 

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French to Taimanov

The first move after e4 e6 d4 black played c5 and got converted to Taimanov. Do I need to know Taimanov theory or is there anything better to get to closed sicillian?

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Hey there,

After 2…c5 we continue 3.d5!

White gets a quick space advantage and comfortably healthy positions for pieces to develop.
 

Anti-sicilian against 2...d6

In the line with 6…e6 7.d4! move, I played a game recently where black played 7…Nxd4 8.Be3 Qb6!? and I wasn't sure how to logically react to it. I went on to win that game because my opponent made some mistakes, but could someone explain what to do in this situation?

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Hey there,

Can you please post the position or video of the position that you are asking about, so I can provide you with an answer 🙂

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 d6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Bc4 Nc6 6. O-O e6 7. d4 Nxd4 8. Be3 Qb6!?

Stockfish and I think 9. e5 is strongest. If then 9. … Nxf3+ 10. Qxf3 Qxb2? 11. Nb5! is crushing. 

Or if 10. … d5 11.Bb5+ keeps an advantage regardless of how black responds. 

• If 11. … Bd7 12. Bxd7+ followed by 13. Na4.
• If 11. … Kf8 then white must deal with the threat of … d5-d4. But 12. b4! d4 13. bxc5 Qxc5 is well met by the cute 14. Rad1! when black cannot take either piece with the d-pawn because of Rd8+ followed by Re8 checkmate. And if 14. … Qxc3 then 15. Rxd4 is crushing. Black cannot untangle their back rank before white penetrates decisively. For example 15. … Bh6 16. g4! or 15. … Nh6 16. Rfd1 Kg8 17. Rd8+ Bf8 18. Rxf8+! Kxf8 19.f5! winning.

I realize this is mostly engine analysis, but it demonstrates that white's position is still very good, as long as you act with energetic play. Good luck!

James

French after bishop exchange on b5

After 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Fd7 4.Nf3 a6 5.Be2 Bb5 6.Bxb5 axb5,
I see only one model game from that position, the one played by a student…
I get this position fairly often in online games, can you please add more model games starting from it?

Thank you!!!

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Hi Luc, 

We have several games in this position - the best moments from the streams
 

https://chessmood.com/course/blackmood-openings-model-games/episode/5798

Charlick gambit?

Hi everyone!  I tend to feel vulnerable when playing the Dutch and have recently toyed around with the Charlick gambit (1.d4…e5 2.dxe5…e6).  It seems to move the d4 player from theory and leads to open and attacking chances with quick development for black.  What do you all think about this opening?  Any warnings?  I’m 1460 on Lichess.

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Hi Joshua,

To be honest I don't find the Gambit that attractive as Black sacrifices the central pawn, without getting to much in exchange.
It can be playable on your level, but instead would be better to learn more fundamental-healthy openings, as at higher levels the Gambit shouldn't be sound at all :-)

Good luck

Rossolimo Sicilian and Stonewall Dutch

I’ve been working on improving my opening repertoire and I’d like to expand my knowledge of the Rossolimo Sicilian and the Stonewall Dutch.

I'd love to hear any advice, tips, or resources that could help me better understand these openings.

i play the BlackMood and WhiteMood repertoire, and since the classical Dutch and the closed Sicilian are part of it i feel like going deeper in the stonewall and Rossolimo would be useful. especially the stonewall against people that know theory. i also often transpose to the Rossolimo when playing the closed Sicilian

Lastly, if any of the team members see this, I’d be especially grateful for your insights!

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🙂

Great choices!

Both the Rossolimo Sicilian and the Stonewall Dutch are solid openings that can lead to complex and interesting positions. Here are some tips for improving your understanding of these openings:

Rossolimo Sicilian:

   Understand the key ideas: White aims to control the center with e4 and d4, while Black seeks to disrupt this plan with c5 and Nc6.
   Learn the main lines: Study the main theoretical lines, such as the classical line with Nc3, Bc4, and the more aggressive lines with f4 and g3.
   Practice tactical motifs: The Rossolimo can lead to sharp tactical positions, so it's important to practice recognizing and calculating tactical motifs.
   Analyze master games: Studying games played by top-level players can help you understand the nuances of the opening and identify key strategic ideas.

Stonewall Dutch:

   Grasp the positional concepts: The Stonewall is a positional opening, so it's important to understand the positional ideas behind the moves.
   Learn the main lines: Study the main theoretical lines, such as the classical line with e5 and the more aggressive lines with f4 and g4.
   Practice maneuvering: The Stonewall can lead to complex maneuvering positions, so it's important to practice maneuvering your pieces to gain an advantage.
   Analyze master games: Studying games played by top-level players can help you understand the nuances of the opening and identify key strategic ideas.

Resources:

   Chessable: This website offers a variety of courses and training exercises on both the Rossolimo and the Stonewall.
   Chess.com: This website has a large database of games and analysis, which can be helpful for studying both openings.
   Lichess: This website offers a variety of training tools, including puzzles and tactics trainer, which can help you improve your tactical skills.
   Books: There are many excellent books on both the Rossolimo and the Stonewall. Some recommended books include "The Modern Sicilian" by Miles and Nunn and "Silman's Complete Endgame Course" by Jeremy Silman.

Additional tips:

   Play lots of games: The best way to improve your understanding of an opening is to play lots of games.
   Analyze your own games: After playing a game, take some time to analyze your moves and identify any mistakes you made.
   Don't be afraid to experiment: Try different approaches and see what works best for you.

I hope these tips help you improve your understanding of the Rossolimo and the Stonewall. Good luck!
 

look at this deadly annihilation - this was fun

Looks very visually alarming because I have to throw my rook away!

https://lichess.org/zIDUSZK3/white#93

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recaps of the World Chess Championship games

Hi all,
I would like to watch recaps of the World Chess Championship games, but most of these recaps are way over my head, since I am only around 1650 on Lichess Classic. I'm sure there will be plenty of recaps on YouTube, but most of them skip over the opening lines, saying this is all standard, but it's not standard to my as I don't know these openings. I'm really looking for recaps for my level, that start with some basic explanations of the openings used (strong points, weaknesses, typical plans) and comment the game from there on. When I watch these recaps, I want to learn something from them. So I don't mind if these videos are a bit longer, I would actually prefer it that way. If anyone could make suggestions that would be great. But no live coverage, that would take way too much time.

Thanks,

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🙂

Here are some videos that might be helpful:

• Magnus Carlsen's 50 Best Games Ever by ChessBase. These videos are a great way to learn chess concepts quickly and easily.

I hope these videos help you improve your chess game!

😀

They will come in a few days time 

To answer my own question: 
Chess Vibes (on YouTube) makes daily recaps of the 2024 FIDE World Chess Championship games. These recaps are very clearly explained and purposefully aimed at lower rated players. And educational as well. I'm very glad I found them.

A problem with the Alekhine defense course.

Hi everyone, i noticed that in the course “Counter the Alekhine Defense”, in the dxe5 chapter, in particular this episode, https://chessmood.com/course/alekhine-defense/episode/3377 at 06:38 Avo says: after c4, the Knight goes back, we play Knight c3… and so on. But what if Nb4 after c4? This is actually the best move for black and here white has problems with Nc2 or Bc2 threats. What does white do now? 

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