Chess forum by Grandmasters

NEW COURSE LAUNCHED: Rook vs Bishop Endgame

You’ll be surprised how tricky Rook vs Bishop endings can be.

Sometimes, your opponent may be down an exchange and a central pawn, yet they still have serious chances to secure a draw if you don't know the right technique. 

In the course with GM Gabuzyan, you'll discover the most important theoretical positions and concepts of this endgame as you'll see:

• The winning technique in Rook + pawn vs Bishop position.
• The danger you should avoid when pressing for a win in Rook + pawn vs Bishop endgame.
• How to evaluate Rook vs Bishop endgame with 2 vs 2 pawns.
• Can the side with the Bishop defend in a 3 vs 3 pawn situation?
• Is Bishop + 2 pawns enough to win against a Rook and much more!

Start watching the course here👇

https://chessmood.com/course/rook-vs-bishop-endgame

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My chess improvement journey: week 4

Hi! This is the end of the first month of my chess journey.
This week wasn't as productive as I had hoped. I had problems with insomnia and so my performances decreased a bit. But that doesn't mean I'm not learning from this!
I've tried hard to fix my tendency to blunder pieces by hanging them, the process is slow but I'm making progress.
From the study side, I can say I'm studying the fork pattern, because it's the one I miss the most. I decided to make the process a little faster, because I feel like I can, so now I'll go through 3 section per day instead of one.
Overall this was a good month. I've built the habit of studying chess daily, and I've learned lot of things and better discovered myself as a player. 
Short recap this week, it's all, see you next week!

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Well done for pressing on when it wasn't easy (but note that there is no harm in taking a rest sometimes!).

I don't know about you but I find that I am much better at spotting forks that help me than I am at spotting potential forks for my opponents - it can be quite annoying when they make a move and you suddenly realise what you missed 😉

What to do about this?

Hi I have been losing many games and have reached my highest losing streak and I have been taking lot's of breaks and have tried playing on my other accounts and have been losing there as well and I took a 3 day break from chess and still I am losing.

Look at the time lines under the losing streak as well.

Thank You!
 

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Well Jickyasu, you should play when only your Mind body and Heart only wants to play or else your Game will not be in tip- top shape and  you will not be focused  instead you can use that time practice. Hope this helps you

Hello,

Try not worrying if you will lose again, just play, or wait until you have the mood to play chess. I think you should just not worry about the result, this doesn't show you are a bad chess player it just show you are in a bad period, everyone has its downs.

Can I buy an unfinished course with ChessMood coins

Hello ChessMood family,

Is there any chance to purchase the 'Calcuman - Calculate Like a SuperHero' course with ChessMood coins before it finishes?

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Hello and Happy New year,

No there is no wa to buy the Calcman course with moodcoins yet as it is unfinished and really new. You can buy some unfininshed courses with moodcoins, as the WhiteMood Model Games one, but it is a lot more completed than the new course about calculation.

Hello and Happy new year🎉🎉🎉

Sadly There is no way you can by Calcman course😢. you can buy courses with moodcoins with the option" Get lifetime access" but in many courses including Calclman have no option like that .

Tactic Ninja Quiz

With hint now is much better but I think it could be improved a little bit more 

ex. Quiz 109 instead of Rd7 Nd7 Qc7+ Ka8 Qc8 Nb8 Qb8# if you play Rd7 Nd7 Qc7+ Ka8 Bd7 it says it's wrong but it's still a forced #

And there are more examples. 

Thank you anyway!

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True, this is also going to win. However, the second line is a mate in 5 moves (with Bxd7), while the preferred move is Qxc8 a mate in 2. I think it's probably better to try to find the fastest mate, because the longer the line goes on, the more likely I am to make some mistake in the calculation or a horrible blunder on the move.

Practically speaking, it's going to be almost impossible to include every possible line. There are some puzzles where there is an alternative line which has a forced mate in a dozen moves (as opposed to the main line which is a direct mate in one or two moves). The number of combinations and lines to include becomes very large.

But, I agree with you on this point: a win is a win!

Happy Chess!

Jeff

Claudio when we solve problems, we look for the fastest way always, all the books on tactics are like this. If you can mate on 5 moves or in 2, you should do it in 2, and as such we made the course (like all chess tactics books)… There is no sense in adding lines of possible moves since it will be a never ending story. We should look always for the best and most forcing moves.😅

Anti Sicilan part 1

How do you recomend white play after 1 e4 c5, 2 Nc3 d6, 3 f4 Nc6, 4 Nf3 Nf6 ?

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This is covered by GM Avetik in the opening repertoire for White in the course “Anti-Sicilian with 2.Nc3 d6 (Part 1)”, to be precise in section 3 - minor lines, 3. Grigoryan A. - NN (Online Simul Game).

4…Nf6 is not accurate (better is g6/Bg7/Nf6), we play 5.Bb5, threatening Bxc6+, and planning d3/O-O/Qe1, and after 5…Bd7 we continue with 6.e5 … (see video instruction by GM Avetik).

Importance of history of thinkings to blunders

https://lichess.org/bF1j9js6dn7g

I think that it may be productive for a course about blunders and it is important to understand that the history of the thinking in the game can also cause blunders.

In this game I made the stupid blunder of 48…Ka3 instead of promoting my pawn to queen 

I can explain the reason for this blunder that is related to the history of my thinking in the game.

1)I calculated during the game 46…a3 47.Bxb3 Kxb3 with a simple win for black.
2)I calculated during the game 47…a2 48.Kb2 a1=Q+ and I thought I need the knight to help the pawn to promote.

3)When my opponent played 48.Bxb3 I saw that I missed in the calculation the fact that I cannot capture Kxb3  because the king protect b3 and I thought that I lost the knight that I need to promote my pawn so I even did not consider promotion in the next move.

Without the history of my thinking I am sure I could play a1Q and not blunder by Ka3. 

I had 3 seconds increment but they did not help me to think correctly at time trouble.
 

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Hi Uri.  Have you looked at the BlunderProof course?  It's very good.

For this type of situation, where my opponent plays a surprising move that somehow indicates my previous calculation was faulty, I believe it's important to do a quick mental reset.  I would not immediately try to apply logic based on my previous calculation because I already know that calculation was faulty!  So I try to scan the board to reassess the situation, and go from there.

Easier said than done when you're short of time, but chess would be boring if it were too easy :-)

Also, you should join the Discord!

Chess.com - Fair play violations

Hi all,

I've now had two of these messages in the last couple of days.  Am I just unlucky or is this sort of thing widespread?

“We have detected that one or more of your recent opponents has violated our Fair Play Policy. As compensation for potentially unfair rating losses, we adjusted your following ratings:”

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That means that one or more of your opponents has used an engine to make the best moves. This is considered “cheating” and not allowed on any chess site.

Some people consider cheating as a big problem, especially in events with prizes. 

There is a very small amount of players that cheat on chess.com, but luckily it is getting detected. Don’t worry too much about it, it doesn’t happen often. 😅

I also get these messages sometimes, but not very often. You will get more of these messages if you play more (You will play against more opponents, and therefore also more cheaters).

I have had more than two of these messages for daily games

Happened to me a few days ago.

The real kicker?

I BLUNDERED MY QUEEN and this guy still resorted to cheating.

about missing check and captures in the next move

In almost every game that I do not win in blitz at time control of 5+3 there is at least one capture or one check in the next move that I simply miss.

There are other tactical blunders like missing an imprtant threat that is not a capture or check but I think that I can increase my rating from almost 2100 at blitz to 2300 if I am able to prevent only this type of blunder.

Note that by missing I do not mean not evaluating correctly the capture or the check but simply not consideing it and I also do not mean missing some capture or check that is not the next move of me or the next move of the opponent after the move that I play.

I wonder if people can give good suggestions how to prevent only this type of blunders at 5+3 time control(they usually do not happen to me at long time control).

For the record here is one of my games when my opponent lost without this type of blunder.

https://lichess.org/D7rJVvjDrwks

18.Ne2 was the worst possible move and the only move that lose by mate in 2 but at least my opponent did not miss a check or a capture in the next move. 

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How to make the process of learning opening enjoyable and efficient

Dear Chessmood,

As all of us know that as we progress to become stronger players we must learn new opening to get a grasp of new positions and to have a back to surprise your opponent. But the issue which I think I feel is that I do not enjoy learning openings especially the ones which have concrete theory.

So can anyone pls recommend a way to make the opening learning process fun to learn as well as maintaining the efficiency of remembering them.

Thanks in Advance!

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You do not have to learn that many openings. Until you are playing at a very high level, the risk of running into targeted preparations is very low, so you can just learn one opening repertoire for white and one for black, then add stuff to your PGN files as you run into it. 

Hi Pranav,

The process of learning the openings is different at the different levels.
As Neo mentioned it's not needed to dive super deep around U2000 level, as most of the knowledge will never appear on the board.
However at a higher levels the process is by learning the theory - creating PGNs - playing practical games - revising and fixing opening mistakes and again the same circle, unless you feel really comfortable in that lines.

Good luck!

Grand Prix, A6, e6, Nc6 setup.

Hello, recently Ive been facing this variation online and OTB:

1.e4 c5 2. Nc3 e6 3. F4 A6 4. Nf3 Nc6

In this variation or a transpotion.

How do I face this? It seems to me that Black gets a very good position, usually following up with d5.

Thanks is advance!

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It's in the advanced section of the main course. We go for a set-up of g3 Bg2 Nh3

Good question. I think that A4 (after A6) is the only move that gives white a chance to fight for an advantage, except for the line that David Flynn mentions.

How Good Is Daily Chess (on chess.com) for Chess Improvement?

Hi everyone! I am just wondering, how useful is Daily chess on chess.com for chess improvement, and what is the best way to go about using it?

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In general I think you're better off simply playing realtime games online.  You will develop more practical skills that way.  And you will maximise your learning if you analyse your games, initially without an engine and writing down your thoughts and questions, then checking with an engine.

I played a bunch of Daily Chess when I was first getting back into it.  It was useful for doing opening research, and getting inspired about chess again but I don't think it was that helpful for my level of play in normal chess.  But I was moving the pieces around on the analysis board when analysing, keeping notes on every game, and sometimes spending multiple hours on a single position!  If I wanted to prioritise helping my overall game I would have limited my thinking time to say 5 minutes (or 10 at most) per position, and not moved the pieces around at all.  My results would have been a little worse, but it forces you to exercise visualisation and practical  decision making skills.

Accelerated Dragon

In the sicilian accelerated after e4 c5 nf3 nc6 d4 cxd4 nxd4 g6 nc3 bg7 be3 nf6 bc4 0-0 0-0 nxe4 line what if white takes bxf7 the computer shows its equal i dont know how to take advantage

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After 7.Bc4, O-O it is not a good move for White to play 8.O-O?!, as it allows Black to play 8…Nxe4! with easy equality – Black is not better, but isn’t it already a great achievement for Black to fully equalize after only 8 moves?!!

After 9.Bxf7+ a good equalizing line for Black is 9…Rxf7, 10.Nxe4, Bxd4!, 11.Bxd4, d5!=

defence against wrong alternatives in mating matador

https://chessmood.com/quiz/mating-matador#228

I initially went wrong in this puzzle by Qd1+ when my plan was Qd1+ Ka2 Bg3
I thought there is no difference between Bg3 Qxg3 Qd1+ and Qd1+ Ka2 Bg3 but
before claiming another mistake I decided to check with an engine that I do not miss something and  it seems that I missed a good move of white after Qd1+ Ka2 Bg3(probably not saving move but the win for black is clearly not trivial to find and is less convincing)

I feel that for a full credit the solver should also explain why Qd1+ Ka2 Bg3 is worse.

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Dutch attack vs London System

Hello,

There is something I do not understand in one set of dutch attack againts London System: the line with

 
1. d4 e6 2. Bf4 f5 3. e3 Nf6 4. Nf3 b6 5. Be2 Bb7 6. O-O Be7 7. c3 O-O 8. Nbd2

In this position should not we play with black Ke4? If we do that, would not be the knight trapped by the white knight in d3? In this case we do not control anymore the g5 square and it is not possible to push d3.

For white having a knight in d3 , iscthe basic of London system. So I do not understand, this black mood setup against London system. Does anyone have any idea?

Regards

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Correcting your post in bold a bit to what I think you mean:

1. d4 e6 2. Bf4 f5 3. e3 Nf6 4. Nf3 b6 5. Be2 Bb7 6. O-O Be7 7. c3 O-O 8. Nbd2

In this position should not we play with black Ne4? If we do that, would not be the knight taken by the white knight on d2? In this case we do not control anymore the g5 square and it is not possible to push g5.

Well Qd8 and Be7 do line up to cover g5, so that's 2 defenders for two attackers, if white were to play h4 (maybe after g3) we can still add a third defender with Rg8 after playing Kh8.

Online training vs OTB training ?

Objectively speaking, is it better to solve online puzzles  or should I set them up on the board?. I mean, we can save so much time with those “plug and play excercices but I'm curious if there's a serious study related to it 

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I doubt there is a serious study.  I think a mixture is good.  You can do more puzzles online but IMO it's worthwhile solving some harder puzzles on a physical board because it also keeps your 3-dimensional board vision in shape.  Also I find it is easier to be disciplined when solving on a physical board.  Less temptation to just try a move to see if it works.  I will write down my solution and check it against the answer.

See to be in touch with the board irl is very important mainly because all the imp tournaments are being conducted irl rather than online,so if ur very much used to the online board,playing irl could be a bit difficult specially when ur looking for improvement (game wise or/and rating wise).

On the other hand,doing every single task with a physical board is quite tiring and very much time consuming…doing chess online has a very strong + point that is saves a looooot of time.

so in the end it really depends on various factors such as ur strength,ur flexibility with the board (how much “used to” ur brain is to the board),what are the tasks u feel like should be done online or to have a physical board set up etc etc. It is for u to decide :)

All the Best!

Does playing against weaker opponents harm your chess improvement?

Hi everyone!

Here I would like to ask a question that I have been wondering about for a long time: What effect does playing lots of games against weaker opponents have on your chess improvement (assuming you analyse your games)? Can it help you improve? Is it not harmful but also not beneficial? Is it actively harmful to your chess improvement and can it weaken your chess and make you a worse player? Or is it dependant on your rating/your opponents rating?

In my case, on both chess.com and lichess, my blitz rating is many hundreds of points lower than my rapid rating, because I haven't played much blitz recently (mostly I have been playing rapid), and because I had some bad periods of tilt in the past. I'm rated 1500 chess.com rapid and 1700 chess.com blitz, and 1800 lichess rapid and ~1300 lichess blitz. If I played loads of games against much weaker opponents in blitz to raise my rating to where it should be, what would be the effect on my general chess improvement? (I will analyse my games and practice my openings)

I would really appreciate help and thoughts on this question, especially from chessmood coaches and especially GM Avetik, who is probably my favourite chess player in the world.

One last thing: I am writing this with less than 15 minutes left in 2023, so Happy New Year!  😃

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Perhaps there's a mistake in your post . You said your blitz rating is lower than rapid, then said you're 1500 chess.com rapid and 1700 blitz?  I'll assume you mean 1700 rapid and 1500 blitz.  I think at that level it's normal for blitz to be a bit lower.  According to https://chessgoals.com/rating-comparison/#chesscomotb a 1700 rapid is typically about 1600 blitz, but of course it'll vary between individuals.

In lichess your rating discrepency is bigger so it looks like you have some catching up to do there.

In any case, you should just play some games in “the pool” and you should encounter a variety of different strength opponents.  It won't take long for your rating to get close to its correct level.  Even if you get some easy opponents to start with, I don't think this will hurt your improvement.

I would play a variety of opponents, but try to get more stronger than weaker. After all you're learning from the opponent as well so seeing how stronger players play is important. If you only play weaker opposition you might find that you tend to over-attack because opponents can't stop it, where as a strong player can put up a defence or counter. That said you still need to punish mistakes and that's what weaker opponents are for.

Of course ratings aren't always a great indicator of strength +- a couple of hundred points.

There's always a limit you shouldn't cross and you'll be fine :) Let's look at the positive aspects of it :

1. It increases your confidence (assuming one wins most of his games against lowers).
2. You start trusting your abilities as a good chess player.
3. Your rating increases!
4. Because of all the positive effects you now like chess more and have a positive approach towards it which is very essential!

   BUT THERE IS A CATCH! You shouldn't play tooooo manyyyyy games or you'll never really learn how to face higher rated opponents! Also if you don't keep your thoughts in check, winning too much might result in over-confidence….Not to mention if you cross the limit and play more games than needed it will result in your rating increasing way more than your playing strength….

   [ Let's  be honest,what's the fun in winning easily anyway :P ]

   Conclusion : A limited no. of games against lower rated opponents doesn't hurt and is actually quite essential in chess improvement :)

Query on Effectively improving from Chessmood Middlegame Mastery Courses

How to properly maximize the gains from the course the wolf of the chess street ?I am solving the quizzes but can't apply it in practical games .And how many sections can I watch per day?

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To maximize the gains:-

1. Try to watch one section at a time this way you can grasp the concepts better.
2. After watching each video if you made wrong in finding the move then you can put the same position in chessbase or lichess and check with an engine or training partner or coach which would be better
3.  Then you can after finishing the section you can try writing the things you learned in a word file. The benefits are mentioned here https://chessmood.com/blog/bold-unbold-technique
4. Then after Finishing the course continue with other course but try to keep a remainder after one month to solve "The Test" and see if you can do it properly

   All takes time my friend but this is a good way to maximize the gains. I practical games you will often get position to trades so when checking try to see if you did the right trades.

   Hope this helped!