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Chess forum by Grandmasters

Moodcoins

Just wondering, can moodcoins buy anything? And, if so, how?

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You can buy lifetime access to courses using moodcoins (or real money). Click on the orange "Get lifetime access" link for each course. The attached screenshot is from the Tactics Ninja course.

NEW ARTICLE: The Myth About Chess Tactics and Solving Chess Puzzles

Hey Champions!

We have this topic in our Blog.
https://chessmood.com/blog/the-myth-about-chess-tactics-and-solving-chess-puzzles
If you have any questions, comments or you just liked it, feel free to share your thoughts here. 

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<3 Very helpful article

I liked this article a lot, it is very insightful. 

Nice, Yeah fb is full of myths but whenever anyone ask me any question about how to improve I guide them learn classics, and basic endgames and tactics daily max an hr. But work on strategy. Thanks coach for wonderful article. I spent 20 to 30 percent of my time on visualization book of Ian!

Nice article. I never used to spend a lot of hours in solving puzzles. Instead I watch the commented classical games course and I am currnetly studying Bishop endgames, in which I was weak. Solving puzzles is 5% of the time I devote in chess, I solve them around 20' daily.

I have fallen for this trap. It's really eye opener.. Need to devote time for strategy, classics and endgame too.And ofcourse opening as per the level requirement.. Thanks for amazing article.. Keep writing more..

Could i skip scotch games?

I ever use scotch games before meet chess mood but uncomfortable and low performance on the games. Should i try again and analysis? I feel uncomfortable and happy about position all the time

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I use the scotch game to reach from 1800 to 2200 elo in lichess so it is not a bad opening ? You need to make sure what happen to your games by analyzing them (lichess.org is always free for unlimited game analysis).A good opening is not enough to take you to a higher rating,you need to improve your middlegame by solving puzzles and study some endgames.Remember that low performances in your games does not always mean that there are problems with your opening ? All the best!

I used to have a similar issue where I would hate playing the Scotch because I would always get bad results, but I just kept studying the material and I got more comfortable with the lines and now the Scotch is one of my favorite openings. In general, I would recommend trying to embrace the learning curve. Good Luck!

Hans Niemann: Cheating

Did Hans Niemann cheat vs Magnus Carlsen? Why does Magnus Carlsen think that Hans Niemann is cheating? If Hans did cheat, how?

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I don't think he cheated vs Magnus. The whole thing seems ridiculous.

?We do not know what happened but I found this thread on reddit that follows the latest developments if somenone is interested. Still maybe it would be better spending your time improving your game rather than reading gossips but nevertheless, here it is> ?

https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/x7igg5/megathread_hans_niemann_allegations/

 

Now with Aronian saying "Hans play a strange move,its a strange game" may spice up the whole situation!

New article: Endgame roadmap: 9 strategies on how to play chess endgames

“I lose almost every equal endgame.” 

“I’ve already read 6 books about endgames, but it doesn’t help much...” said a chess improver to GM Avetik.
 

They wanted to improve their endgame, but something wasn’t working. 
 

In today’s article, you’re going to discover:

?Why they were struggling to improve at endgames.

?Why and how GM Avetik created the endgame compass. 

?How the endgame compass can help you think in endgames.
 

3 weeks after ‘using’ this compass, the chess improver touched their dream rating!?
 

At the same time, as promised, we’ve also added all the sections to our Endgame Roadmap course.
 

And after you read the article and watch the course, you’ll never say, “I don’t know what to do in endgames.”
 

Read the article here?

https://chessmood.com/blog/chess-endgame-strategies
 

And watch the full course here?
https://chessmood.com/course/chess-endgame-roadmap

 

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The Endgame Roadmap sounds pretty much like the course An Endgame Expert by GM Smirnov. I don't want to post a direct link to avoid accusations of promoting other sites but it should be easy enough to find and compare the ideas.

Hi, I am enjoying the course and learning a lot. I have a question. In the section on creating passed pawns you give an ending from one of your games that won a prize. Who was the opponent and in which event?. I would like to look at the complete game if possible. Chessmood has already helped me to improve my play. Thank you

Model Classical Dutch Game

I've not looked at the Chessmood repertoire to see what the move order is in our lines, but just seen this demonstration of the classical Dutch in a Ginger GM speed run (1st game of the video) and it is a great illustration of Black's plan. No doubt something similar could happen from our English repertoire (or even in reverse Grand Prix as well). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xdg7yEUuG0

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All online chess account exposed

I have several chess accounts on several platforms,and sadly all of them are known by my opponents(even though I never use my real name).I am scared that they will make full opening preparation against me and so what should I do?Deleting my accounts or any other ideas?

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What is your rating? In general, I think you should not be afraid of opponent's preparation if you are below 2000. If you know well your lines from Chessmood, they will not surprise you (: But there are two solutions: 1) You can close your accounts and make a new one (but you should be sure they will not be able to access your games even if you closed your accounts) 2) You can make a new one where you practice your openings and start playing new openings with your others accounts. Like that, they can think you play new openings and prepare against them while you are just tricking them. Avetik also recommends to play 9 games/day with your "main account". So you can use your others accounts to play more games or when you are tired etc.. ?

Have faith in the ChessMood lines. They are GM-prepared over months of time. The chances they can find some exploit in a few hours is quite slim, but this is all depending on your rating. Good Luck!

@Iz a78 How would your opponents know all your accounts? That seems highly unlikely.

Troll them and play 1.c3 with White :D If 1...e5 you play 2.c4 and you got Sicilian with colors reversed and after 1...d5 2. Nf3 c5 3. c4 you're going into Benko Gambit :D

WhiteMood Openings / petroff defense

Dear chess coach, i recently played a correspondence game in the petroff defense 4.Nxf7, which just end up in a draw, but with some luck. do you really advise this gambit (4.Nxf7) for standard game (maybe not correspondence but OTB) under 2000 elo fide ? by the way here was the game 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nxf7 Kxf7 5. d4 c5 6. Bc4+ d5 7. exd5 Bd6 8. O-O cxd4 9. Qxd4 Re8 10. Nc3 Nbd7 11. Nb5 Nb6 12. Bb3 Re4 13. Qd3 Bf5 14. Nxd6+ Qxd6 15. Qf3 Bg6 16. c4 Nxc4 17. Bg5 Ne5 18. Qc3 Kf8 19. Rae1 Nxd5 20. Qa5 Nf6 21. Rxe4 Nxe4 22. Be3 b6 23. Qa4 Nc5 24. Qb4 a5 25. Qf4+ Qf6 26. Bxc5+ bxc5 27. Qe3 Nd3 28. Bc4 Qf5 29. b3 Re8 30. Qd2 Qf4 31. Qxa5 Qd4 32. Qc7 Qe5 33. Qd7 Qe7 34. Qd5 Qf7 35. Qd6+ Qe7 36. Qd5 Qf7 37. Qd6+ 1/2-1/2

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Well against the Petroff, we offer the course from the main repertoire targeted to players from 1800 to GM level. 

https://chessmood.com/course/petroff-defense
That said, the Whitemood openings are a fast road to get a complete, easy to understand and to remember FIRST repertoire and it can be played until 2000 perfectly. I used the Nxf7 many times in rapid, blitz, OTB, against strong oposition. It is also good for beginners to play a pawn down and try to build the attacking attitude needed in chess. Some friends of mine spent all their life playing this Nxf7 and believe me, they are vicious attackers!
That said, you played this game in a correspondence game and in correspondence people can check their engines and it is not the best idea to sacrifice a knight for 2 pawns at the beginning against an engine. Regarding correspondence, we are not fans of correspondence play because the engines do the work instead of the player. 

If you have the time and will to do the required work, by all means use the main line of our main repertoire. 
I hope this helps, by the way what is your elo? ?

Scotch -8.h4

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.e5 Qe7 7.Qe2 Nd5 8.h4 Qb4 9.Nd2 Be7 10.c4 Ba6 11.Qe4 Nb6 12.a3 Qa5 13 Rb1 0-0 14.Bd3 g6 15.b4 Bxb4 16.axb4 Qa2 17.Rb2 Qa1 18.0-0 Rfe8 19.Nb3 Qa3 20.Rb1 Qxb4 21.h5 d5 22.Qg4 Rxe5 23.hxg6 hxg6 24.Bxg6 Qxc4 25.Be4 Kf8 26.Ba3 Ke8 27.Qg8 Kd7 28.Qxf7 Kc8 29.Qf8 1-0 Played in a tournament 90 min 40 moves, 30 min for the rest and 30 sec from start. Offline. Denmark. I was trying out Avetiks idea 8.h4 - today it went well.

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Nice game Erik!?

Next time please post it in one of the following threads accordingly, these are the threads to post our best games so everyone can learn from them and not have hundreds of individual posts.

Thanks!

https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/the-best-games-of-september-2022-and-the-prizes

 

https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/model-games-with-chessmood-openings-1513

recommended opening vs 1.Nf3 (2. g3, 3.Bg2...)

What is the recommended chessmood opening vs 1.Nf3. I understand that it can transpose to many different openings later on, so I guess we start with 1. .. Nf6 and if they continue with g3/Bg2 etc. J.

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I just copycat :)

https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-channel/1-nf3

1...Nf6 or 1...c5 would make the most sense.

I play 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 g6 and I will transpose to a Fianchetto Grunfeld most of the times, but one where White has lost his critical options of cxd5 because I basically go dxc4 whenever I can. Im not sure how consistent that would be for a Benko player though


If speaking about Blackmood we are going to choose the 1…e6 or if about the main repertoire we are choosing c5 setups with different transpositions.

Where are the course PGNs?

I'm an essential - not pro - member. I'd like to download course PGNs, especially the ones for the new Endgames Roadmap course. But I can't seem to find them anywhere. Can someone point me in the right direction?

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Hey, Not all the Chessmood courses have PGN. Usually, they provide PGNs for openings. They give the main lines and you have to complete them once you watched the full course to see if you memorized/understood everything correctly ?.

We provide the course pgns normally when all the course is finished and all the sections have been uploaded, never in between. Although it is true that not all courses have pgns, some have the quizz only. ?

Promotion idea

Why not offer say a few 6 month memberships as prizes to tournaments. In return ask they announce the prize at least once, add on the entry form if not too late and/or on the online entry for prizes / sponsors / prize donations, and ideally will leave a number of flyers with the other upcoming tournament info if you mail them. The prize could be a grading, junior or rated section prize where it's more likely to benefit to an improver. The idea targets would be large national tournaments that don't already have a 'competing' sponsor such as Chessable. For example Hastings: https://hastingschess.com/

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Not a bad idea. It would take some time and involvement in local tourneys though.

The first order of business is survival. Everything else is in essence secondary, if the business is not making a profit and/or the cash burn is an issue against agreed drawing facilities. However, for a niche hobbyist education business like Chess Mood, the input costs are likely to be low and the operating costs not high. So the strategic imperative revolves around how best to grow the revenue without a parallel increase in operating costs ? That leads to two potential business models or at least two marketing strategies. Namely --either focus on growing the customer base through cost effective engagement with the defined target market or segmenting the product offering and charging different prices for different levels of membership ( say Bronze <> Sliver <> Gold ). These are not mutually exclusive. Yet making the primary focus (and workload) on increasing and enhancing the existing product offering at the same price point IMO only works medium term if 1) you already have a very profitable business where customer retention is therefore key 2) all these incremental product benefits you are organising, enable you to develop a more successful promotional campaign and grow the customer base more effectively &/or charge more in the future. Within the promotional mix your idea David seems to have merit and is worth exploring. My son tells me that even some savvy IM's are making six figures ( $$$$$$) per year from Chess on Twitch. Maybe a Twitch profile with some feedback loop to the Chess Mood website is another idea. Or maybe that is just a time sink that deviates from what Chess Mood have as their mission. But it is easy to spend other peoples time for them !! So presumably the CM leadership will be working through how they want to proceed.

Question on Closed Sicilian (Nc3 and g3)

Hi all, I recently played a rapid game with an WFM in the Closed Sicilian: 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.d3 d6 6.h3 e5 7.Nge2 Nge7 8.Be3 Be6 9.Qd2 O-O 10.Bh6 f5 Then I faced a fast kingside attack. White exchanged the dark-squared bishops, castled long and pushed h4-h5-hxg6 and doubled rooks on the h-file. I played Rf7 to defend h7, later White made a mistake and in the end the game was drawn. Here's what I understand from comparing it to the course Sicilian Sidelines (Nc3 g3) No.9 (6.Be3). 1) I should have castled long or just play Kd7. I think my opponent was waiting for me to castle short first before launching the attack. 2) 6...e5 was wrong because White hasn't committed the knight yet and can play Nf3, although Ne2 was played in the game. If White plays f4 and keeps delaying moving the Ng1, Black should play e6 to make f5 hard to achieve. 3) 10...f5 was inaccurate, Qd7 was better not committing the king yet. Is this a fair understanding of what Black should do in such positions? Thanks, Alex

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Hi Alex, 

Not really Kd7, the center is not very closed and the king can be dangered, you did play well with e5, if you check out the course you will see there are very similar positions, I would recommend thinking about Nd4 to attacking on c2 and trying to distract the queen with that threats.

good luck!

Chess Books Reading Partner

Hi guys, I hope you all are wonderful. I am seeking chess training partners to read some books which I mentioned downwards. Interested players can comment or share it with other strong players so I will get serious teammate for study. Thanks. Books list: 1. Improve your Practical Play in the Middlegame by Alexey Dreev 2. Middlegames Dynamic and Subjective Features by M. Euwe & H. Kramer 3. Aagard Strategic Play. 4. Yusupov Series. 5. The Complete Manual of Positional Chess Vol-1&2 by Konstantin Sakaev & Konstantin Landa Note: Books are gonna be complex so I suggest players who are online 2200+ or FIDE 1500 or USCF 1500+ are welcome to join. In short only serious players can join the study with me. All study we can do using three platforms Skype, Google Meet, Zoom. Note: You guys can also suggest any good book too for reading. I do respect my teammate's opinions about books or courses. Thanks for reading my post. I hope to get some serious teammates.

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Maroczy bind

http://view.chessbase.com/cbreader/2022/9/6/Game1776097625.html My computer is giving almost +1 in that line of the ACCELERATED DRAGON . i dont know where i could improve. Let me know if u have an idea. tx guys :)

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Black has an advantage in that position.

Hello Jonathan,

 

I am a bit surprised as playing for a long while that positions I always feel comfortable. As you might know in our courses the goal is to provide practically playable positions, where we explain the middlegame ideas and don't try to depend only on the engines as everyone can do. 

Secondly in the variation, you mentioned you missed the opportunity to transpose to the modern maroczy which is my personal preference. Either way both positions are Maroczy transpositions, and I recommend you to check that courses as well.

 

All the Best.

French Attack --- c4 ?!

Hi All -- As a long time French player I've morphed to the 'French Attack' lines. Most are fine but Bb5 against the knight on c6 can be troublesome in the Exchange Variation. However, a few players have played the Advanced with c4 and I've struggled, so would appreciate some ideas from the group. White seems to have all the play. e4 e6 : d4 d5 : e5 Bd7 : Nf3 a6 : c4 dxc4 : Bxc4 Bc6 : Nc3 Nd7 (?) : d5. Seems e6xd5 is forced then Nxd5 and it is difficult to unwind and develop. Recommendations welcome !!

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It seems like after 8. d5 exd5 9. Nxd5 the absolutely best move for black is 9...b5 according to the engine. White will respond either by retreating (10. Bb3 or 10. Be2), by attacking the queen (10. Bg5), or by attacking the c6 bishop (10. Nd4). Black's response will obviously depend on what white does there, and this has never been played in the lichess database so no idea which is more likely. White could also recapture with the bishop instead of knight, so a possible line would look like: 9. Bxd5 Bxd5 10. Qxd5 Ne7 11. Qc4 Nb6 12. Qe2 If you don't like 6...Bc6, there's always 6...Bb5 which the engine seems to prefer. I'm looking forward to the main French Attack course just for questions like this... there are a lot of unexplored sidelines.

Yep! After 9…b5 you can go, and if 10.Bb3 Nc5. 
The problem of 9…b5 is 10.Bg5 Ne7 11.Nd4!! , which seems cheating. 
Or you play against a Grandmaster. The course is for below 2,000 players. 

Alternative of 7…Nd7 is 7…Ne7, and if you're opponent is a cheater, it's the only time when you'll get problems after 8.Ng5 with some engine style sacrifices :) 

NEW ARTICLE: Connecting the Dots

Hey Champions!
We have this topic in our blog: 

https://chessmood.com/blog/connecting-the-dots 

If you have any questions, comments or you just liked it, feel free to share your thoughts here.

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Good article.

1. To succeed you need something to model, and some way to feedback into the system when the results are those which you didn't want. Lots could be written on this process.

2. I can write a chess program (with a lot of effort) that could as good as me or better knowing rules to find tactics, opening variations, how to play certain endings... As soon as you give it something which isn't a clear case of one of those inputs, at best it can play a random move or based on some heuristic (which is what happened with these kids, not to mention they'll get bored and frustrated). The magic of a plan comes from not knowing fixed rules, but some feeling of having seen something before (which is also how Alpha Zero and the others work). Rules often can take us in the wrong direction, and when the feeling and the rules diverge, calculation or other judgement is needed). Thus studying games of those better than you - just playing your peers is a slow trial and error process. However there is still the missing piece of how to study, which hopefully will be a future article.

3. Finally without a good coach you have the problem about getting good feedback and being directed on the right track. See Why do you Lose post for some ideas there. I'll try to write a follow up to my investigation and how I aim to correct the issues when I get some time. How to learn from your mistakes is a good basis for another article. Analyse your games with / without a computer is pretty vague, but that's often as much detail given..

Great article coach! I especially like the relation your father had with your chess! I took my son to the junior chess club and tournaments locally & nationally and he became a very good strong junior player by playing lots and being very competitive (if he is intelligent too, he gets that from his mother ;-)..edit: He has never read a chess book seriously in his life! He won loads of books for winning his chess competitions & he gave them to me & I haven't read much from them either...ooops. ). He connected his chess dots and that took him where he wanted in chess (he only plays occasionally now, but is a damn fine player still.. reminds me of someone coach!? ;-) . Now all I need to do, is connect my chess dots too and get my chess improvement where I want. I think I am getting closer even if it has been a slow process for me & thanks for all the Chess Mood help! So, Right Mood, Right Move COGRO!! Go Chess Mood let's connect those dots!

Thank you for this very nice article sir. 

Lovely article. Thanks for sharing!

Listening in his interviews and streams I doubt Nakamura studied the classics. I think he didn`t know who was Smyslov. :(

When trained by Kasparov Naka said they diascussed a lot about engine variations. I think Naka best coach is Stockfish.

You were lucky to have a chess fan in your father. Carlsens father saw the burning desire of his little kid and instead of taking him to a chess school he hired one of the few GMs in Norway, Simen Agdstein. The rest we know, Agdstein amazed about the kids talent, his father taking him out of school and buying a van were they could travel across europe searching tournament aqnd opponents.

Nice article. Good thing to realise that I have connected most of the dots. And I think this is the reason why in one year I went from 1700 online to 1950-2000. 

Hey avetik as you told you were like 2000 at the age of 8, when i read this line in wake up from the bed and then face wash and read it again, 2000 at 8 i feel you should be in top 20 atleast and why it would take 10 more years to be GM ? Have you stopped watching classics after age of 8 or you played less tournaments or what the reason for 10 long years from 2000 at age 8 ?

Question on a position of the Attack like a viking course

Hi everyone! In the position below from the section "Expose the weak king", I considered a different order of pawn breaks, with the line going b4 cxb4 d4 exd4 and finally f4. In the video instead, we go f4 right away and only later b4 and d4. It's not clear to me what are the drawbacks of starting with b4, if any. Any input would be much appreciated! Thanks!

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Mistake (Rock 'n' Rolling with Black)

Hello ? Just to let you know that in Rock 'n' Rolling with Black -> 1.Accelerated Dragon -> Game 6 and Game 8 are the same. Sorry for the post but I can't comment in the Mistakes in the Chessmood videos because I am Essential member ^^

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Thanks Akiba?, dully noted and informed the tech team.

I will delete this tread in a couple of days.?

Best way to handle the Grob (1.g4)?

Hello friends, I recently faced the Grob (1.g4), I didn't really have anything prepared so replied with 1...e6 and just tried to play solid opening principles. What ensued was a lot of chaos. My question is what is the best Chessmood answer to 1.g4 and is there a way to keep our same 1...e6 first move and play a familiar Blackmood setup? Thanks for any replies and thoughts. Happy Chess to you! Leslie

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1...d5 is definitely the strongest move and gives black a clear advantage. You're immediately attacking the g4 pawn so already have the initiative and an advantage in the centre. White's idea is to sacrifice g4 and try to get into b7 by playing a quick c4 and Qb3, but it is simply good for black to sacrifice the b7 pawn and focus on quick development.

Dear Leslie,

1.g4 is very unhealthy and choosing central e5 or d5 moves will be the bet choice.
 

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