Chess forum by Grandmasters

Avo's SLP stream

Many thanks to GMC coach Avetik for an incredible SLP stream yesterday! With a record attendance also!

Maybe there can be a course in the future on creativity… he came up with many unusual, surprising lines!?

Mahalo!

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It was a great stream indeed!

Thanks for nice words Ovi, Tyler - will share this with Av :-)

Scotch Theory, confused on how to play against romanshin variation

Hi! I've been loving the free event and have been making use of it by learning the scotch. However, a really annoying line came up when i was playing some training games which hasn't been addressed in the course :(

what should i do against 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Nb3 Bb4+? 
 

really popular line, thank u guys so much in advance!!!

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What do you think yourself?

There are seven possible moves. In the Lichess database, all have been played. The only one with a less than 50% score is 6. Qd2?? and I hope you would not seriously consider that 😉

(The move 6. Ke2 has an amazing 100% score but that's based on a single game 😁, I don't think giving up castling rights like that can make any sense.)

I think one of the moves is simple and good, and does not allow black to compromise the pawn structure, which is good especially if you plan to castle long and launch a pawn storm on the kingside. But I'm no master.

Play c3

Then you will take the bishop with your knight.

If Black plays like Be7,

Juts continue normal development

Play Bd2 because the position you get are mostly better versions of the main lines 

I recommend  6. c3 Be7  7. f4 d6  8. N1d2 d5  9. Bd3 with e5, Qc2, Nf3, Be3 and 0-0-0 following. In this case white maintains a slight advantage (around +0,35). 

Interactive Lessons

Just like to say, how great the interactive lessons have been the last few days.

I believe I'm on the lower side of the average ratings watching, but the main points have been explained so well that I've really understood the lessons. Cheers

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Thanks 🙏! We are very happy 😊 to hear this. We hope that you keep enjoying them and you learn a lot!!

May the Chessmood Force be with you!

Dear Duane,

Thanks for your kind words and decent attendance. 
It's awesome to see you growth.
 

Good luck!

Its always a joy to be able to attend coach G's streams!

They're informative, deeply analytic, puzzling sometimes, challenging, surprising many times (such as mate ideas), artful and fun. He has a good sense of humor that keeps the lessons memorable.

Thank you GMC Gabuzyan!

Repertoire colliding with others

😱😱😱😱😱

Dear chessmood team I had a lot of doubts because you suggested french with bd3 but still suggested French for black, you suggested nc3 against Sicilian but still offered to play Sicilian as black. I did not understand. Please guide.

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Just watch the courses look for the variations that are played for both and you will understand. This is normal in a complete repertoire. 

Hello Adhyayan, 

In continuation to what Chessmood Odysseus has pointed out, I play Sicilian for both white and black. But the variations are what matters, as I mainly use the closed systems or anti-Sicilian as it's called here for white, but Accelerated Dragon or a mix with Maroczy for black (and a bit of Paulsen, apart from the chessmood repertoire). The English opening can also serve as a reverse Sicilian with a tempo up for white in some occasions.

 If you watch carefully the courses, you will understand that everything is connected in a wider “net”, and your doubts will get eliminated! Cheers!

There is no possibly way that your repertoire can not collide with itself  

Thanks for the free events

also thanks to Gabuzyan for the helpful advice about noticing tactics. It didn't really occur to me that tactics exist in a context and aren't just about angling pieces a certain way. There's a bit of that but also wider stuff going on.

Anyway I enjoyed the blitz workshop and I had fun playing Gabuzyan in 3/0. Thanks for extending these events to Essential members!

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Dear Voran,

Thanks for your kind words!
It's great to know you enjoyed this events :-)

Good Luck!

||nice||

Well said, I really enjoyed these events all week, they were super intuitive and answered so many middle game ideas and I picked up up a nice plan for what I need to study next. I’m half way through fearless warrior (on advice of GM Hovhannes) and already things are becoming clearer. Thank you so much for these streams, if there were more at this time zone I’d subscribe to pro instantly but appreciate it’s early in Armenia for you to do these! 

Elephant Gambit 3... Qe7?! 4... f6 model game

This isn't covered in the course and I've faced it once. Found this model game in Plan Like a Grandmaster which might be worth including in the course as an example of Qe7 being bad.

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Thanks a lot for showing us this game. To be frank David, the move 6...Qf7 is not good at all, other moves like Bf5, Nc6 or f5 come to mind and should be better. That said, you are right, f6 is not covered specifically, but as it happens to all repertoires, we cannot include all the possible moves. 

I would try to remember the manouver Nd3 to f4 and then healthy development without complications if this position ever happens again. Also the g4 idea is nice to have it in mind.

Getting games with increment time controls

Hi,

What has been your experience in getting games with increment time controls, which time controls, which servers? To me it looks like almost everybody on Lichess and Chess.com is playing sudden death time controls. Any tips or suggestions?

And as you remember Avetik recommends playing with increments: https://chessmood.com/blog/what-chess-time-control-to-choose

I tried to get a 10+5 game on Chess.com but I don’t know how long I should have waited to get paired; got 15+10 then, which was nice of course. (My chess is so rusty that I wouldn’t feel comfortable at this time playing anything faster than 10+5.)

Does the experience depend on the rating?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have 10+5 arenas… 🤩

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if you are playng blitz, I recommened trying 5+3 (It is also recommended in a chessmood article) and other increment time controls for blitz. For rapid, playing without increment time controls is totally fine.

Nice puzzle

I solved some puzzles on lichess  after watching the tactic ninja course and i found a nice one. 

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https://lichess.org/training/Fopwc

Opening theory

Does anyone know how strong titled players make their own opening theory and what apps they use. It's a topic I've been trying to search online but I can't find any really concrete version explaining how they do so. Is there an article on this site that explains how, bc I've always wanted to publish a chessable course and of course I can't use this sites lines as it's not allowed and I'll have to make my own from scratch 

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Hi there!
Have you read this article?

https://chessmood.com/blog/the-most-effective-way-to-create-chess-pgn-files

Rossolimo with Ae3 (instead of Ag3)

I have recently played a game following the Rossolimo and found me lost without any clue. My opponent played Ae3 instead of Shirov's Ag3 (so I could not follow the ideas in the chessmood course) but after he come back to Bf4 with e5 and Ce4… 

So he used the ideas of Ag3 but playing first Ae3, can you tell me where did I went wrong?

Thanks for any advice!

Here's the game:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. h3 Bg7 6. d3 Nf6 7. Nc3 Nd7 8. Be3 e5 9. Qd2 h6 10. O-O b6 11. Nh2 Nf8 12. a4 a5 13. f4 exf4 14. Bxf4 Ne6 15. Be3 Nd4 16. Rae1 Be6 17. Nf3 Qd6 18. Bf4 Nxf3+ 19. Rxf3 Qd4+ 20. Kh1 O-O-O 21. e5 g5 22. Bg3 Kb7 23. Ne4 Bf8 24. Nd6+ Bxd6 25. exd6 Rhg8 26. c4 

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Johann, thank you for your question!

Our main channel is a space for general discussions and for everyone to share their thoughts and ideas.
For more personalized assistance and to ask questions directly to our Grandmasters, and get answers to your specific queries related to our courses, please write in our PRO channel.

If you're not a PRO Member yet, you can join here: https://chessmood.com/become-a-pro

If you have any other questions or need further assistance, feel free to let us know!

With best wishes,
ChessMood ProfessorX

How to focus on growth and not on result and rating most importantly?

I have read the blog by GM Avetik about focusing on growth rather than results. But still in between games I constantly get the doubt ‘What if I lose?’ , ‘If I lose everyone will laugh at me and I will lose my rating’ and etc. Can you recommend something I should do before game or in between game if these doubts come again?

P.S. I am in a chess otb tournament currently so it will help if you can reply ASAP. AND sadly I am losing rating(I haven't checked it as I always check my rating at the end of tournament) but still there is a thought in my mind that I am losing rating as I lost to two lower rated opponents and drew to two lower rated opponents. Any help about this?

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I hope for an answer!

Hey there,

I will share one tip that helped me overcome this issue.

Once I complained to the coach I was afraid to lose the rating.

And he said - just keep training and become stronger.
Once you are strong enough your rating and level will go up.

The strength isn't chasing the rating - the rating is chasing the strength.

In other words commitment and effort are the key - all other things happening, even losing the games is a part of your growth 😁
 

Making Decision

Recently, I finished two courses, the first one is how to Find a Plan and the second one is Calcman, and right now I'm studying Attack Like Viking

The issue is that I'm confused about how to make a decision  after watching these courses 

Does their any hint or solution for this issue

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It sounds like you're mentally tired and need time to process everything you just learned. That happened to me after watching 7 Questions but now I use these skills in my games all the time.

How to loose: one more way

In your starter course for beginners you do not mention one more way hot to loose: if your mobile rings during the game (or based on tournament - even if it is just found in your pocket). :)

In local tournaments there are no strict rules, but anyway if it rings or beeps you loose. 

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Hey Re Vid,

Thanks for helping :-)
Once, long ago when I was a kid my opponent lost because of that and I was shy to claim a victory haha :-)

Anti-Sicilian with 2.Nc3 a6 (Part 4)

In the line with the N sacrifice with 6…d5, 7.exd5 b4 8. 0-0 Nf6 9.Ne4 Bxd5 is sugested Nf4, but why not 10. Nxf6!? 

It seems stronger (queen cannot take so gxf6, Bxd5 followed by Nf4 and Qf3)

Replies

Hi Johann!

Both are fine continuations for white.

According to the engine, 10.Nxf6 is a bit preferable.

Longer time control simuls?

Hello,

I wonder if it would be possible to run simuls with longer time controls occasionally? If we are to give the GMs a fight, a bit more than 10+5 would be helpful. In addition, more time would give the GM more time to comment on each game, making it even more instructive.

Cheers

Replies

That's a difficult thing to do Harald. We did some tests in the past but we finished having games played for longer than 3 hours and it is too much time. If we do that we must reduce the number of players too. Still, we will talk about it and see if some day we can do something different. 

Thanks for your feedback and suggestion.😀

advance sicilian dragon

e4 c5, 2. Nf3-Nc6, 3. d4-cxd4, 4. Nxc6-?. 5. Qd4 what am i going to do with this?please sir…

Replies

Hi Jay,
Can you please write the correct move order of what you are asking?
And did you already watch the course on the Sicilian Dragon and made your Pgn file? Because I have the feeling that the variations that you asked and this one too are all covered in the course. 😅

Anti-Sicilian part3, 4... Be7

Hi!

I tried looking in the forums for the following variation in the anti-sicilian.

1.e4 c5 2.Knc3 e6 3.f4 d5 4.Knf3 Be7

Now I have to get out with my white bishop, but e2 will lose a tempo and b5 will help him get rid of his bad bishop. What would be the recommendation?

Replies

Hey Anan,

I would go there either 5.Bb5+ and 0-0 or would develop with 5.g3 which is also possible.

Good luck, :-)

Dutch Attack Stonewall Setup Absolutely Overpowered

I started playing this opening today. I just wanted to say this is absolutely overpowered! use the openings guys they are so good. It takes some time to learn them, but once you get them down, you will dominate!

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Yeah and you can even play it for white when you feel like it

Hey Tyler,

It's awesome you like it, brother!
Since you always attend the lessons I am seeing your growth - keep going!

Grand Prix Question

Hi all !

Playing online i got this move order :

e4 c5

Nc3 d6

f4 Nc6

Nf3 Nf6

Here, where should I develop my king bishop ? If I play Bc4 they play e6 and feels like the bishop should not be on c4.

If instead i play 5 Bb5 they may play g6 and it seems the bishop should be on c4 as like in the ‘normal’ move order after 2…d6

Same thing for g3 and Bg2

So, is there any kind of rule to know where the bishop should go when the move order is not the same as the lines explained in the course (I think this move order is not covered)  ?

Many thanks in advance

Replies

Hi Fernando,

4.. Nf6 is inaccurate. It is somewhere in the course but I can't find it right now.

The problem is that black runs in an early e5 by white:

5.Bb5! (we do want to take on c6) Bd7

6.e5! Now we see the sense of the insertion of Bb5 and Bd7- now the Nf6 can't go to d5 anymore.

To your question: I think in general white can play Bc4 after d6 by black. Because then the typical ..d5 idea costs one more tempo

(d6, e6, d5 instead of e6 d5 in one go).

So nothing wrong here with 5.Bc4. But 5.Bb5 has this concrete idea with e5 in mind, which immediately tries

to punish black's inaccurate move order with 4..Nf6?! So in this concrete position it could cause more practical

problems for the opponent.

Practical Endgame

Hello chessmood family,

I have finished the endgame roadmap (It was an excellent course) and now I have the question as to how to work on it further.

Thanks in advance!

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Well you should start to work with the endgames under 2000 course and try to apply what you learned in your games. Happy 😊 studying !

Hi! Also watch the recent events by IM David Shahinyan on Practical Rook Endgames if you haven't. 😀