Chess forum by Grandmasters

Doubt regarding PRO membership

I have doubt regarding PRO membership
Lets say Suppose If I buy PRO membership on 15th of October.
Is it valid till 15th of November (30days) or till 1st November .i.e at the end of the month
Thank you

Replies

Yeah, you're absolutely right, the membership is active for 30 days.
So if it started on Oct. 15, it will be over on Nov. 15 , exactly one month later. 😀

😁Looking forward to having a new member in the PRO family, don't forget to join the live events!!! 😁

Does Blindfold Chess make you better?

Hello!

Recently I saw that lichess.org has the function “Blindfold Chess (invisible pieces)" 😀. 

So my question is: 

Is this function good for chess improvement? 

Replies

yes it will make you better..because if your playing blindfold, you are developing your visualization  and the visualization is very important if you are analyzing position and calculating moves..

What software is best for classical game analysis?

I play my games over the board and need to input my moves into a program for analysis of my game. What software is best for this?

Replies

The most powerful paid software is ChessBase for Windows. (Depending on your needs, it may be overkill.)

Pgn files

Hello,

How can I open the pgn filesthat are provided by the courses.

Many thanks

Replies

Hi,

for example in lichess:

https://lichess.org/paste

On iPad , i use chessstudio, so it s available offline too . Lite version is free and full version is less than 5 $ . 

In GrandMaster's mind

I loved to be in GM Avetik Grigoryan 

mind! good content.

Replies

What opening to do you think I should play?

Hello Chessmood PRO members! I am going to ask you guys a question. Recently, I've been losing a lot of rating(like a 200 points on chess.com), and I have been looking over my openings. Against 1.e4, I really just know 1 opening really good - the Sicilian Najdorf( I know, but I have a good memory), and also I played the French Attack a handful of times, but have a good score (+7, -5, =1 in the French Attack, and +234, -266, =49 in the Sicilian). So, what should I play? I know the Sicilian better by far, but I am not playing very good nowadays, and I have not really had any experience with the French Attack, but the times I try it, it is pretty good. I would like to hear your answer.

Replies

Why not play both?  If you have the time for the required study, it's nice to have two options vs 1.e4.

The Najdorf is a good opening and you have developed some expertise in it so it would be a shame to let that go to waste.  And you're off to a good start with the French so why not see where that leads.

Study partner for KID

I'm a 2000 rated chess.com player and ive been facing a lot of d4 in my otb tournaments and would like to practice KID and is looking for someone who mainly plays d4 and is around 2000 rating on chess com.

Thanks

Replies

Hello

There is already a topic about finding a study partner. Ask there as it is also pinned and it is more likely that you will get an answer. If you can't find it this is the link.

https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/studysparring-partner-1362

Thanks

Modern pirc

I have a problem facing the modern pirc where they play 1.e4g6 2.Nc3Bg7 3.Bc4c5 4.h4h5 5.Qf3Nh6 6.d4 and they just ignore and play castle and get initiative whenever I take on c5. What’s should I play against it?

Replies

I have checked that position with an engine. It's true what you say, black has a pretty high winrate. The engine likes 7.Qg3 the most with the threat of bxh6 bxh6 Qxg6! because the pawn is pinned. If he sees the threat and blocks with e6 d5 and the engine loves your position. Of course these lines are still complicated, so you could learn another line against it, like just playing 2. d4. 

Personally, I just play the Grand Prix attack against any Pircs

How to do submit game

Hi

I played a French game that maybe interesting to share with all of you. This follow the following course principles, activate your bad pieces, make exchanges because of lack of space, make complication to blunder, bring your pieces toward  opponent king and cease inititive

thanks.

Also, can you post images on the forum

Replies

Hi Steve, 

if it’s an online game , juste paste the link of it ! If it s not , you can use lichess and open the analysis board to enter your game ( best is to do it in a study that you can create ) and simply copy the url here . you have the topics :  best game of the month or model game , but you can also just add it here  in your  post . 
You can put image in the forum by using the orange rectangle icon just left on the smile emoji. 

Why am I losing otb tournaments?

I was playing in British chess championships 2023 and I came 1st in one of the sections. I won 5.5 out of 6 even though I should have won the drawn game. I played at my very best and gained about 200 points fide. Then when I played my next tournaments I suddenly started losing very badly. And played horrible. I realized I was overthinking it but when I tried to play like I played in my last tournament I started losing badly with blunders and stupid mistakes. Does anyone have the same thing happening to them? I wish to discuss it and try to find the true meaning why I am losing the games without any reason. This is some side note but while I was playing another tournament where I came 2nd, I was playing very strong players. These players were much more better than the section where I came 1st. But still I did pretty well and came second. What really surprised me is that, I was playing a whole new different opening and I still won with the scotch. As avitek said in one of his articles he didn't care about the results and he played with his heart or something like that. I think that's what I did unconsciously, I can't seem to replicate it.

Replies

I guess it must have been one of your first tournaments in order to win 200 FIDE ELO points out of 5,5 games… In this tournament you played at your best. 

In the second one  you played horrible. and we do not know the result.

Then there was another tournament where you played second.

In order to get some help, you should tell us your age, rating, tournaments, post the games, etc. the more data the better, but for what you are writing, you were not in the mood at all in the second tournament and after some defeat you just went down, it happens to all of us. Also you cannot win always… 
In your case though, it looks like you would benefit a lot from a private coach that could have the time to go through your games and work together with you to fix your mistakes. 
 😅

daily-puzzle

Good morning
Interesting problems on 04 and 05 October.
Same idea in inverted formats and they are from 2 different authors.
Keep up the good work and fantastic page.

Replies

💪Thank you for your kind words!!! Trying to do our best!😅

How a Grandmaster thinks after a move in chess?

How a Grandmaster Thinks after a move in chess?in middlegame

Replies

This is very easy Happy Rabbit😀! At the moment, you have 5 GMs in our site explaining their thoughts in the “In a Grandmaster's Mind” series:
You can choose any of them and you will know and learn how they think…

Check it out… 😜

Quick question on Grand Prix opening setup

Hi ChessMood family.  I am just finishing off my PGN file for the Whitemood Grand Prix opening.  I am also looking to include refutations to some less optimal play in these PGNs. In the following line, 1.e4 c5  2. Nc3 d6  3. f4 Nc6  4. Nf3 a6?! ,  I am trying to work out where to put the light square bishop.  Bc4 is available , but it could get kicked, or e6 may come, meaning it is misplaced. Would this be a fair assessment?  I am assuming therefore that we should shift to the g3, Bg2 setup at this point, the plans after which are covered in the course.  I'd be grateful for any advice!

Replies

Yes, as you say g3, Bg2 should be the way the go in this case. 😀

Events calendar

I m a bit confused about when and which event take place as sometimes on the website we see something and it’s changing at the last minute and not always the same on discord . Like now , if if check discord , the stream of racing  from 1500 is still annonce to be held in 1 minute . But I just participated in a simultaneous match that I saw by luck 5 minutes before the start ! Usually i work on Tuesday ,  so I m trying to get the Saturday event as often as possible . 

Replies

Hi Denis,

You can always check the events calendar on the website and we don't make any last minute changes.

However if you experienced any issues, please provide as much information as possible to our client support team through the email.
We will check and let you know.

Thank you!

Hi Denis,

The events that we schedule as Gabu said rarely change, there might have been some change in the past but we usually send an email informing about it. 
That said, the streams for PROmembers are the ones with more educational value and are always posted in the Events page, where you can access directly to the events, but when we stream on Twitch the events are not so serious, more promotional, even Lily participates sometimes 😁😆… 
Still, feel free to send us an email if you had any problem and we'll check this out.😀

Owen's defense

Do we have a CM recommendation against Owen's defense, after 1. e4 b6?

Replies

Last time this was brought up, I believe the course is still a WIP. Hopefully Coach Avetik & Friends can finally wade through the billions of simultaneous tasks on hand and present to us a wonderful way to answer 1.e4 b6. 

Hi Yair, 

Right now there is no concrete course against this and here is why. It's a super sideline. Black in the opening gives away a center and goes for passive setup. White can go with d4 - Bd3 and if there is further pressure on the e4 pawn with Bb7 and Kf6 play Qe2. Because of a health center and space white is much better in this line. 

We may add some lines here, but for now, just follow this recommendation. Use the center and get a great space!

777 Tactics Elo level in Tactic Ninja Course

I would like to know the rating level for 777 Tactics in the Tactic Ninja course.

I reached number 30 and they are relatively very easy for me.

Do they become harder? or the level stays the same?

Replies

Does it matter?  Just do them all.  If they are all easy you'll finish fast with few mistakes.  Good practice anyway.