Chess forum by Grandmasters

Caro kann course

I saw people talking about mistakes in the caro kann course which I haven't watched personally. But did the chessmood GMs go ahead and fix the mistake and rectify it even tho I have no idea what the move was I just wouldn't want to add an incorrect move to my Repertoire and I don't really use engine analysis much

Replies

Pomwene, I do not know what are you talking about. 

First you need to be a member to watch the courses, you can be an essential member or a pro member.

You do not need to analyze the courses with an engine, this is not how the courses work. The Caro Kann course is a very good one, that can go very deep, but I do not recall that we had mistakes in it. Of course we are not perfect people and there can be some minor issue but nothing serious. Still you said yourself that you have no idea of what it was. Me neither. 

Of course if you find them please let us know. 💪

Advanced courses for French and Dutch attack?

Hello, hope everyone is doing well! Just wanted to ask, will there be advanced courses for the chessmood openings French attack and Dutch attack (stonewall) in the future? The current coverage of these is far more basic than the in depth accelerated dragon course for example. It would be great if there are plans to create advanced courses for french and Dutch attack! :)

Replies

Yes, according to the email list, there are plans to release them by this year.

Yes, this is the idea as silly cate said. Still the goal of the Whitemood and Blackmood repertoires is to have a good easy to follow repertoire to start. Then yes, we will publish an advanced one since many people just love this concept, but there is more than enough to play it and have fun… The opening is not the decisive factor in a game unless you are 2400 or more, where it is more important…

😀

hy im wating corus and in the simplisifd there missisng one key varioton in french attak where is e4 e6 d4 d5 ed5 ed5 nc3?

my openet played a several an i dont know wha to 

plis ansewer

The best games of May, 2024, and the prizes

Hello ChessMood family, hello champions and future champions! 
Welcome to the "Best games of May, 2024" competition.
Under this post, we invite you to post the best games that you will play this month. 

The Prize fund is 350K MoodCoins which is equal to 350$.  

The 1st prize  - 150K
The 2nd prize - 100K
The 3rd prize-  50K
The 4th prize- 30k
The 5th prize- 20k

Good luck with your games and keep the Right Mood! 
#ChessMood
#Right Mood - Right Move 

P. S.
Here are the winners of April, 2024:

Kiran Vanbrussel
Armandas Ledas
Regis H
Abhiraam Devulapalli
Joseph Zaffarese



 

Replies

https://lichess.org/gPucH8a6/white

nice attacking game in the scotch

 A checkmate on move 17 with the Smith morra with 96 accuracy

A caro kann game with a sacrifice on h7

https://www.chess.com/game/live/108508820991

https://www.chess.com/game/live/108646249773

https://www.chess.com/game/live/108641997679

https://www.chess.com/game/live/108562782741

Another Caro kann with a rook sacrifice on h8

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/108680380821?tab=review

https://www.chess.com/game/live/108677443561

endgame domination https://lichess.org/zeEWysZ6SsVT

Scotch

https://www.chess.com/live/game/108838348125

https://lichess.org/zisVzG5e/white#0

knight sac to bring the king to the centre

in a kind of marocy with Bg2, for getting  a pawn, white jeopardized its king safety and paid the price:

https://lichess.org/game/export/qm7LOCUa?evals=0&clocks=0

Demolition in CM Scotch 

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/108962441309?tab=review

I am with black, playing against Scotch - playing for a win in any circumstances. The opponent was prepared against the variation, because I used to play it with stronger opponents for a draw, but this time I need a win.

Classical game (1h30min + 30sec).

Link: https://lichess.org/study/b4rb4mNm/CrjLamSK

The game was broadcasted in lichess, if you need the link, I can send it upon request with full names and FIDE IDs there. 

Played in woman national championship.

https://lichess.org/study/WJvVIm29/MNWLRB9g

It was must win situation for black and black never played Najdorf before. I think it was a nice game with nice positional exchange sacrifice.

I am with black. Classical game (1h30min + 30sec).

The game was broadcasted in lichess, if you need the link, I can send it upon request with full names and FIDE IDs there. 

Played in woman national championship.

Queen sacrifice with a nice mate to end the game. I just kept gaining tempi until I had all my pieces developped!

https://www.chess.com/live/game/109080636369

Welcome back to the main channel Best Games thread!
Anyway, i played this game and titled it a such. 

“is a queen better than a rook and a piece?”

https://lichess.org/study/05SGqJZ5/TJOnpJyS

Nice win in the French (white) versus ..c5

My bishops became “monsters”, 

https://www.chess.com/game/daily/653965559

Sicilian sideline , bishop monster on b7: https://lichess.org/M0fQdR2f/black

very strong attack against the caro khan 

https://www.chess.com/live/game/109054793347

nice h file sac attack in petrov https://lichess.org/SpHU0AuHIsyZ

https://lichess.org/C4iv2Xuk/white#83

https://lichess.org/FVJVnfxY/black#32

OTB game that happened after painful losses. GP attack. some fun with the Knight sacrifice and checkmate in the end 

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/pgn/4eHzpppLwg?tab=review

https://lichess.org/Johz0wVG/white#47  online blitz

Best game I've played probably. Definitely the highest rated player I've beaten. Classical Shield Arena in French Attack. Made a couple mistakes in the opening, but my opponent failed to capitalize and I was able to finish with a nice checkmate. https://lichess.org/DKLYvx94/black

https://lichess.org/iHQwg33Q/white#90

Quick demolition in CM Antisicilian in OTB rapid game.

https://lichess.org/crFTlkaM/white#51

Demolishing the Dutch 

https://lichess.org/ogDXNiLw/white#59

A queen sacrifice to finish it off.

Rook sacrifice in CM Antisicilian that wasn't accepted twice ;)

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/109216808075?tab=review

https://www.chess.com/game/live/109252199749

A game with typical CM Caro Kann Results, slow buildup and a final BOOM! regrouped pieces and eventually found the right moment to strike with a sac

https://www.chess.com/game/live/109253484769

Played a good game, nearly perfect except for a few moves. Feels nice to find 10.Nd2! Followed by 11.Ne5!

https://lichess.org/study/xejALumO/of1UtE2Y#1

I played very nice French games recently (as black) in OTB tournament against much stronger players, very proud on this one!

Petrosian64

Good positional win in Exchange CK with Qb6

https://www.chess.com/live/game/109263699269

I tried to follow the plan (knight on d3) but would be curious to know from the IMs/GMs where I can improve as I’m often struggling in this variation and I get it a lot!

https://www.chess.com/game/live/109272644371

French

https://www.chess.com/game/live/109279844753

https://lichess.org/ZGg0TFow?color=black

Nice exchange sac in the accelerated dragon against 2400

https://lichess.org/18n7qbAiLeGx

Miniature in Accelerated Dragon

https://www.chess.com/live/game/109318181351

SLP example here

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/109380595707?tab=review&move=73

My opponent accused me of cheating, after playing this game in Titled Tuesday today. CM Benko :)

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/109465826235?tab=review

https://lichess.org/3HeodOekAlykA 

A game of French Defense

https://www.chess.com/game/live/109529437819

English

3 brilliant moves against the caro kann!!!!!! with a underpromotion checkmate
https://lichess.org/study/05SGqJZ5/tPmvs2rw

I won against a 2430 player on chess.com with a knight sacrfice on f2 !!

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/109612922465?tab=analysis&move=99

a game against the owens defense. the endgame was good

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/109684880197?tab=analysis&move=80

https://lichess.org/tNbNRU6k9ap1

Perfect game in the scotch 

A game against the Owens defense with passive play from black

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/pgn/4yjvKv3jc?tab=review

https://www.chess.com/game/live/109872656421

Philidor defense game 
Opponent played a sideline covered in the course

The real sweet move was I unpinned my king from their bishop with a 0-0-0 CHECK, then that knight that became unpinned was able to take their queen! 
Move 11. Very proud :D

This brutal attack against the Sicilian Dragon was very quick, and the computer only deemed one move to be inaccurate

https://www.chess.com/live/game/110068835783 

https://www.chess.com/live/game/110134345957

Scotch

https://lichess.org/UiLSFiIY first victory of a long series hopefully, playing dutch Attack for the first time!! 😂 

Chess Analysis Board and PGN Editor - Chess.com  Beautiful Game with a very nice sacrifice 😀

https://lichess.org/study/05SGqJZ5/n3c2GEes

greymood dutch + nice discovery

Brutal attack in french exchange

https://www.chess.com/live/game/110205012461

Definitely my best game in May. Chess: pujionobralin vs ThankfulBone - 110119282837 - Chess.com

https://lichess.org/bwXxNi4r/white#91
highest opponent I’ve beaten 

best course  for me is white side caro Kahn 

thanks Avi 

My beautiful game against the king's pawn opening💖😊

♟️♟️😀😀️

https://lichess.org/4gATPDpf#47 I played with full focus and determination and I totally demolished my opponent who was 143 points higher than me! I hope you all will like it! Thank you!!!

My extremely elegant sacrifice with the rook, he resigned!😍💎https://www.chess.com/live/game/110463074999

An SLP demonstration of creating chaos in a lost position. This game may make you question the definition of king safety.

https://www.chess.com/live/game/110487103831 

https://lichess.org/Jx4pGh9P/black#0

https://lichess.org/GZZPWxfV/black#40

https://www.chess.com/game/live/110583161209

hellojocky's Study • lichess.org

Finqally got the Duth Defense to work!

White-Samrodz-1942, Henry-1772

1. d4 f5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. e3 e6 4. h3 h6 5. c4 b6 6. Nc3 Bb7 7. f3 Bb4 8. Bd3 Bxc3+
9. bxc3 d6 10. Ne2 Nbd7 11. O-O O-O 12. Rc1 Kh8 13. Bb1 g5 14. Bh2 Rg8 15. e4 f4
16. e5 dxe5 17. dxe5 Nxe5 18. Qa4 Qd2 19. Rfe1 Nxf3+ 20. gxf3 Bxf3 21. Qc2 Qe3+
22. Kf1 Bxe2+ 23. Qxe2 Qxh3+ 24. Qg2 Qh4 25. Rxe6 Ng4 26. Bg1 Rae8 27. Rce1 Ne3+
28. R1xe3 fxe3 29. Rxe8 Rxe8 30. Qf3 e2, resigns 0-1

https://lichess.org/Ug46KeSH

https://lichess.org/1JlsJHRz/black

Drawing vs IM!

https://lichess.org/Jx4pGh9P/black#0

Nice exploitation of the e4 weak square, and good endgame conversion. 

https://lichess.org/llXYSWHPKHya

Crushing with the dutch attack 

https://lichess.org/Rd20FvZ3/white#0

Nice scotch attack 

French exchange with some brilliancies

https://www.chess.com/live/game/110846475081

GP mating attack

https://lichess.org/WzpBh7IOtr3Q

positional game using a weak spot on f2 and waiting for the opp to make a mistake and then finding a beautiful tactic

https://lichess.org/1n00mSdaoMaq

https://lichess.org/9F0ARNkJ/white#53 what an slp

Hello champions!

How are you?
Thank you for sharing your games. It was our pleasure to go through them. We found many instructive moments, and it always brings a smile to our faces to see you apply what you've studied. Keep it up!

Now, onto the prizes:

1st Prize: Roy Li. You played a fearless attacking game, right from building the attack to closing it out! The moves 21.Bh6! and 22.Nf6! were simply brilliant sacrifices, and the final finish was perfect! Nicely done!

https://lichess.org/Johz0wVG/white#42

2nd Prize: Mateo Jackson. In this game, the sacrifice with 14.Nd5 was an excellent find! The way you built up your attack with patience, bringing all your pieces, and not hurrying to capture material was fantastic to see! Good job!

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/pgn/3fbKJgz6bQ?tab=analysis&move=50

3rd Prize: Samuel Marsden. You played a very nice game, showing how to take the initiative in opposite-side castling positions and make the best use of it! Right from destroying the Queenside structure to sacrificing an exchanging with Ra2 and attacking with all your pieces, you played well. Good game!

https://lichess.org/ZGg0TFow?color=black

4th Prize: Skipper chess. You know the enemy King is in big trouble when you have 5 pieces, including a Queen and two Rooks, near it. The way you got all your pieces there without playing any risky moves was really cool. Well done!

https://www.chess.com/game/live/109252199749

5th Prize: Marius Cornee. It looked like White was almost going to crash through your queenside defenses, but you sacrificed the Rook with 25…Rg3 at the right time and wrapped up the game in a kill box checkmate. Good job!

https://lichess.org/M0fQdR2f/black
 
In the PGN file attached, you'll find the winning games, plus many instructive model games 😊
 

Congratulations to all of you.

And thanks, everyone, for sharing your games once again!

See you in the next month’s contest. All the best!

4-Knights or Accelerated Dragon Sicilian

I have been playing for about two and a half years now, my rating is bouncing between 1600 and 1800 and collected some experience in all parts of the game. But when it comes to my beloved Sicilian Defense, I have always faced a bit of a dilemma: Shall I go for the Acc. Dragon given by the ChessMood team, or keep my Four Knights Sicilian (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 (…g6 would be the Acc. Dragon) 5.Nc3 and now …e6. This is my move order of reaching the 4-Knights Sicilian.)

Could anyone with some experience give me some advice? 

Thank you in advance, Marius :D

Replies

TLDR - you're not giving enough information for someone to give definitive advice.

There is nothing particularly wrong with the Four Knights Sicilian so if you're scoring OK with it then it might make sense to stick with it. Perhaps your opening study time could be better spent on another part of your repertoire. I'd look at your win statistics across your entire repertoire to see what needs attention.

And even if you aren't doing well with the Four Knights, it could be more efficient to improve your knowledge of it rather than switch openings.  It's hard to know without seeing your games, the sorts of positions you are getting, and how you're handling them.  Also, do you have some good study material, i.e. a book or a course, on the Four Knights?

And of course, if all your openings are in reasonable shape then it may be better to focus on other parts of your game whether it be tactics, positional play, attacking play, endgame knowledge etc.  Do you feel like you have weaknesses in any of these areas?  If possible, have a stronger player look at your games and get their opinion.

On the other hand, it can be good to learn a new opening (but not too often) because it keeps things fresh and exposes us to new ideas and new types of middlegames.

Course Completion

Hi Chessmood,

I have a query regarding the completion of 2 courses- Defend with Honor and In GM Gabuzyan's Mind.

I have completed the courses, quizzes, tests and I also ensured that there is a ✅ in front of every video and I got a certificate also for the tests.

Still it is not showing a ✅ here in both the courses. 

Please tell what is the issue and what shall I do.

Replies

Have you got a tick in front of the introduction video? This doesnt automatically tick when previewing the course.

Hope this helps.

😅

All is correct in this account. There is no problem at all. All is complete, please check it again.

Help with Saragossa Opening

Hello everyone,

I was playing in a online blitz tournament today and faced this Saragossa opening per the analysis board. I won the game but I have never heard of this opening. Here is the link to the game so you can see the opeing. 

https://lichess.org/S5ZW7RRO/black#1

Can anyone tell me where to find help in Chessmood courses for when I face this opening again? 

Thanks for your help! 

Replies

This is not even an opening. Lichess or chess.com use lots of opening names that chess players do not know in many cases. We have some friends chess players from Saragossa (Spain) and they did not even know that 1.c3 was named after their city… That tells you how popular it is…
Anyways, this is how you deal with unusual moves like this one.
https://chessmood.com/course/blackmood-openings/episode/6183

Modelling Magnus Carlsen!!

Hello chessmood, recently I have been reading the book unlimited power by tony robbins. In that I read that we can model someone to achieve our goal. So I decided to model Magnus but the problem is I dont know how to get an in depth understanding of his chess journey. Is there any book or resource about him and his journey? 

Thanks!!

Replies

Hi Pranav, 
There are not so many books biography style, but you can get some inspiration by the books presented in this article.
Perhaps the best one is this:
How Magnus Carlsen Became the Youngest Chess Grandmaster in the World: The Story and the Games
written by his coach in the early days Simen Agdestein.
Also in the following blog article there are a couple more suggestions:
https://lichess.org/@/Minckwitz/blog/book-review-updated-five-works-on-magnus-carlsen/agsl3Tlo

💪I think that this should be enough to start… Don't you think?😁

How to play faster with accuracy

As GM Gabuzyan suggested in our 1-1 call, I've been playing 10+5 games online since I was not used to even slightly fast time controls.  I'm sometimes losing or drawing won positions because I blunder with less than thirty seconds left on my clock – or in a couple of cases, I have simply lost on time.  These problems seem worse when my opponent plays much more quickly, so I don't have as much of the opponent's time to plan my own moves.  When I analyze my games, I look at the move times as well, and I see that I will take over a minute on some moves that seemed difficult or unclear during the game.  Sometimes that's fine – I sometimes win with less than a minute on my clock when my opponent has left much more time on theirs.  There's no prize for leaving extra time on the clock.  But, sometimes I'm not winning games I think I could win if I did something different with time management.

Do we have resources or tips on playing faster without losing very much accuracy?

Replies

Hi Andrew,

Please check these 2 threads were we talk about time management:

I'm sure that you will find them useful:

https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-channel/time-management

https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-channel/how-to-play-in-time-trouble

In these threads you will find the links to several time focused webinars. Please watch them all and see how it goes!
Happy games!!! 💪

Problem of the day

I don't know why Kf6 is not correct. 

I think it also works.

Thanks!

Replies

It works, i checked with computer. Cf another thread in this forum with the same topic.

Todays (5/28/24) Daily Puzzle: Double Answer

Todays daily puzzle has two answers. Nf6 is considered incorrect but the engine says it is also winning.

Was this a mistake or intentional?

Replies

No! Nf6 is not a right answer :) 
There is a tricky defense with black!

1.Nf6 Qg1 2.Re8 Kg7 3.Rg8 Kh6!! and draw
You have to go Nh5 after 1.Nf6 Qg1 and get the initial position and then go with 1.Ng7!!

Daily puzzle of 29/05/2029

Why 3. Kb7 is wrong ?

3.Kb7 or 3.Kd7 is winning the queen by force

Replies

I agree with you, whatever the king move it is winning (checked with computer). I am surprised I choose the right one!! I had one chance over 4.

I am ICC Fischer

I wont say who I beat online 8-0 in a blitz match, i will only say that it was a top 5 world player in 2001 on the ICC(Internet Chess Club) and the person went to the press saying that bobby fischer had beat him

Replies

Dear Alan,

This is your first post but we have 0 tolerance policy towards silly posts. Our team knows about your experience posting in other sites and how you were banned from them. 

As an example: https://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=13109

We will not allow this to happen here and we will ban you immediately if you don't stop.

Sicilian Dragon Accelerated winning chess opening

Hello

I am building my pgn files with the first one being Sicilian Dragon Accelerated opening as black. Here is a recent game I won on against 2300 player  Memorial day.  Thank you Chessmood family and Coach Gabuzyan for helping me with pgn files. It really makes a difference. 

Replies

I think that you forgot to attack the link to the game if you want to share it with us …

Sorry I forgot to attach the link to the game lol.

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

Nice 👍 🙂 attacking game. You should post your best games in the “games of the month” thread instead of opening a new one though, that would be great 😃.

How to spend mood coins

I have been quite confused on how to spend the mood coins. Becuase ChessMood claims that you can buy courses with mood coins. But I don’t see any way to do it. 

Replies

Hi there,

Try this:

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

Hey there, Chessmood team. Can you please pin this topic, because i noticed that someone asks how to spend moodcoins about once for every 3 week (I also did it once)? It will be really helpfull.

Best regards!

https://chessmood.com/moodcoin

$1 = 1,000 MoodCoin

The windmill concept from Tactic Ninja came in handy

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/110618521699?tab=review

Replies

Great Moves Forums

I know we already have the pinned contest and model games threads for sharing great games, but I wanted to create a forum specifically for sharing amazing combinations. Sometimes I find myself really proud of a specific move, even when the game as a whole was not impressive. If other people are interested, I thought we could post and appreciate great moves here.

I'll start. In this game https://www.chess.com/live/game/109884694063 I played the opening in dubious fashion, but was very happy with the finish.

Post EDITED by Chessmood Odysseus to delete the solution. Check the image and find the move that was played if you can. You can check the move played in the link.😀

Replies

Ok, that could be nice to try, but please do not post the solution in the explanation, let the people come out with the solution, just the link to the game and the image attached. 

I'm assuming that people will view and solve (or not!) the puzzle before reading posts by others.  So …. look away now if you haven't.

Yay, I spotted the Bg1 discovered check move immediately - that's good for me!  On the downside, I then spent a good 3-4 minutes before I spotted why white wouldn't simply g4xh5!! I got there in the end.  Nice moves 😎

I have another position I would like to share. With the black pieces, can you find the most forcing path to equality?

This game got me to the 2100 chesscom rapid milestone, but my opponent actually resigned in an equal position! Here's the game link if you care to investigate: https://www.chess.com/live/game/110490170843 

This one is completely positional: I found it in a 3+2 game but it cost me 40 whole seconds!

https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/110129471707?tab=analysis&move=26 (Blacks 14th move)

ALERT: Hint incoming.

Hint 1: Find the best square for each piece

ALERT: Hint incoming.

Hint 2: The bishop belongs on f5, and the rooks on b8 and b2. Where does the knight belong?

ALERT: Hint incoming.

Hint 3: How do you get the knight to the b4 square?

ALERT: Solution incoming.

Solution and Explanation: The correct move is 14.. Nb8!!

Black does not have much time in this position or so it seems. Clearly, we need to activate and coordinate our pieces. Its not hard to see that the other rook will be developed to b8 and the bishop will be amazing on f5. However the knight seems to be doing nothing. The standard idea f5-Nf6-Ne4 is very time consuming, it will kill our bishop on e6, and give White the e5 square. After a bit of searching, the b4 square seems to be really excellent as the knight will be really active there, threatening to take the a2-pawn and go to the nice c2 square. The question remains how to get there. The maneover Nd7-b8-c6-b4 calls itself. This is the solution.

Along further inspection with the engine, I find that this is also the best move and idea by a lot!

Sorry for the very long post, but I hope that you learned something from this explanation :)

Opening against e4

Hey everybody,

I don't know what to play against e4. I tried out the Caro Kann but I didn't like it very much. I experimented with the scandinavian and thought that you could easily get a good position as white. I also don't wanna play e5 because it feels like there are endless posibillyties for white. What do you think that I should play? (playing strength: 1600 FIDE classical, 1900 rapid lichess, 1700 rapid chess.com)

Replies

Hi Matteo,

The ChessMood recommendation against 1.e4 is 2.e6 (the French Defence).  You can learn more about it here: https://chessmood.com/course/blackmood-openings

Hope that helps.

Why aren't modern games more studied than classics? + What makes a game "classic"

Basically the title. When you get to study games almost all recommendations refer to learning classics, not something more recent. Why is that? Is it because of style of play? Are they easier to explain? Is it because they have been analyzed more carefully? Or just the passage of time? I believe some newer games when analyzed carefully would make better examples than their older counterpart. 

Also what makes a game “classic”? I don't think some games from late 2000s - 2010s have been considered classic.

(sorry for the overreaction, i'm acting as if these newer games won't be considered as classic some 80 or 100 years later)

Replies

Studying any master game will be beneficial, whether old or new. However, I do think there are some legitimate reasons that classical games are studied more.

First of all, people are more familiar with historical games. Any chess coach is guaranteed to have studied the “classics”, whereas not every player necessarily keeps up with current events. I suppose the older games have proven their worth intellectually.

A more significant reason has to do with style of play over the decades. In the earlier stages of chess history, nearly every game was played with the open 1.e4,e5 and games were often decided by a tactical combination instead of grinding positional endgame. The same is generally true with modern chess beginners! A newcomer to chess may be able to understand Morphy's attacking plans and developing moves easier than Carlsen's slow waiting moves. We often show inexperienced players the classical games for the same reason we tell them to devote lots of time to puzzles: the basic tactical themes are most important at a lower level of play.

I don't know what specifically constitutes a game as a “classic”, but they're certainly worth studying. Then again, so are modern master games. Ultimately, analyzing any game can be productive, whether it's from 10 days ago or 10 decades.

Hi cate and Jake! The main thing is that classical games were played normally with one player being much stronger than other and the plans were not so known as nowadays. Therefore in the game when one mistake was made the master would implement a good plan making it a model game… This plan could be followed by others in the future. Nowadays games are much more difficult to understand because both players know these old plans and the overall level of the strong players of our age is much stronger, therefore it's very difficult to learn from these games. That is why in the classical games, one mistake creates a very good chance to learn from it. Nowadays chess masters would not normally the same kind of mistakes (again normally). 
I believe this is the why we study classical games, or why classical games are more suitable for teaching and learning from…😀

So yes, when we talk about a classical game, we talk about new plans, new strategies and tactics💖, that's because of absence of social media, websites, plateforms… to share knowledge and exchange experiences, we talk about a time where nothing else of self-taught except with a lucky help or coaching.😞

Analysing a classical game express the human's complex capacity🧮 of planing, thinking, and predicting  opponent's moves. So that nowadays, every moves of every opening or tactic is clearly known and explained.

Thats why classical games are more studied that modern one.😉

Caro game

https://lichess.org/hyKarXVxonG0

First time facing this line of the caro….I know my opponent didn't play it well….Is it a popular line?

Replies

Hi Mike

The repertoire gives Bc2 instead of Bb5+, then we play against the isolated d pawn. As a secondary issue black's d5 pawn restricts his light squared bishop so it probably makes sense to not exchange off the bishops. 

Anyhow, well done on such a quick victory! 

Missing PGN(s)?

Hi Chessmood family!

    I couldn't help but notice that there is no PGN file for multiple courses. For example. When I tried to get a PGN on the ‘Countering all the Sicilian Sidelines’ to study it, I couldn't find it. Can someone please explain the situation? Is chessmood updating the files?

Sincerely, Pengcheng

Replies

You have to be PRO member to download files. They are at the last section. Hope this helps!

Hi Pengcheng!

Yes, we are updating some files and we are aware of it. We will upload them one we are finished.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

😅