Chess forum by Grandmasters

tactic-ninja[Section 2]

https://chessmood.com/course/tactic-ninja/episode/2960/2189

It's possible to play Qd6 and get the same result as Qd3, but the exercise marks it as incorrect. ☹️

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We have over 10,000 quizzes on the website, and we're adding hundreds of new. We try to be as careful as possible, but there is still the human factor… 

Thanks for sharing the link and details with us, much appreciated! 😀

Hi Jose :) Thanks for your help!
Fixed! 

I need help with chess:)

Hello my friends, I am an average chess player (1500) from Egypt, and I need some advice to reach a rating of 2000. I need (a strong opening for white and another for black) and some advice from the masters

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Hi Abdalla,

Have you had a look at the various ChessMood courses?  The main menu is here: https://chessmood.com/courses

In particular, you may wish to look at the Simplified ChessMood Openings section if openings are where you want to focus (these are for Elo levels between 800-1800): https://chessmood.com/courses?scrollTo=#simplified-chessmood-openings-for-800-2000-level  there is also an advanced section (for 1800-2600 Elo) for both white https://chessmood.com/courses?scrollTo=#step-by-step-opening-repertoire-for-white and black  https://chessmood.com/courses?scrollTo=#step-by-step-opening-repertoire-for-black .

Note that the courses are all currently unlocked to celebrate the 6th birthday of ChessMood so … take a look now, for free, to see which courses appeal to you.

Hope that helps.

Everything is explained here:

https://chessmood.com/chess-study-plans

Read carefully, it is full of advice.😀

How to identify?

When can we identify that endgame started from middle game?

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That's a bit generic, but normally it should be when the Queens are our of the board and a few pieces are left. Still there is no clear definition of it. 
Please check the endgame roadmap course for knowing in general terms more about the endgame, it's a very good course where everyone can learn many things, practical things… 😀

Not making progress

Hey,

I have gone through the Tactic ninja course two times and also the Opening principles. I have also studies both black and white basic openings, Blunderproof and Fearless warrior and almost done with spartan shield. 

It seems that regardless of the huge amount of effort im putting in I am hard stuck in the 800 ELO range of rapid in chess.com. 
 

I am throwing everything I have at improving in chess but for some reason I just cant seem to make progress.

Not sure what I can do but its getting really frustrating.

If anyone wants to go through and check my losses, you are welcome. Would love some advice in what I can do differently because I feel lost:

https://www.chess.com/games/archive/nickelito85

PS. Im around 1600 ELO in rapid in lichess, and while I know that lichess rating is kind bloated, it feels like 800-900 in rapid on chess.com is way harder and I dont think the rating conversion table found at https://chessgoals.com/rating-comparison/ is outdated.
According to that one I should be around ~1000 USCF but how can that be if I cant even get over 900 in chess.com??

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First of all, your opening is good, but better get rid of trying scholar's  mate because you will get punnished when you play against better players. (I learned that on harder way)

You said you watched tactic ninja course. Have you tried to solve puzzles on specific themes? You have it on lichess https://lichess.org/training/themes but I don't recommend you to do it without thinking-you have to deeply understand every single position in order to improve your tactics. And important thing: it would be easier for you to learn if you repeat the puzzles you didn't solve on first try

https://lichess.org/training/replay/3/mix

That is about tactics. 

Now about endgame - you haven't mention that you watched this, which is all you have to do with endgame for now - https://chessmood.com/course/engames-you-must-know

Train this on the same way as tactics.

Now, you shouldn't play very long games such as 30 minutes by player if you aren't player that can use that to calculate, rather 20, 15 or 10, but if you like it-go ahead. And important thing-make a document, e.g. Excel, where you will every time you loose write why did you loosed. After enough games, you will see what is the problem, and, hopfully, solve it (GM Avetik recommended to do that for blunders, so if you made it you know what I mean) 

Wish you best luck, and tell me have it helped you!

Hi Niklas,

If it makes you feel any better, I'm in a very similar position when it comes to the advancement of my Elo rating.  But do you know what?  It doesn't matter!  I have faith that if I continue to study and continue to play then eventually the regular wins will happen - and I'm in no rush.

How many games have you played in total?  If it's a relatively small amount then there is plenty of scope for variance within that.  Over a larger sample your results could be very different. 

Also, do you have the right mix of Study/Play/Fix.  At the beginner level you, and I, should be playing plenty of games to help develop our overall board awareness (which happens whether we win or lose): https://chessmood.com/blog/how-to-get-better-at-chess

As I said, I'm only a beginner myself but I'm happy to look at one of your games and offer my thoughts.

hi Niklas! i had went through some of your games and hope my advice will be helpful. i can and sense how you had be applying the things you had learnt from chessmood in your games and that is great!

Generally for players in the 800-1000 range. i would say that as long as you do not blunder and take advantage of their blunders. you will be winning already.

I was looking through your games, and felt that you tend to rush into attacking ideas and that might often contributes to you blundering. 

hence you might want to 

1. keep your pieces nicely connected and not rush to attack. that's one way to minimize blunders
2. once you are up in material, just focus on exchanging pieces so you can go into end games with advantage
3. in my personal opinion, no need to sacrifice needlessly for advantage. it can be a good sacrifice sometimes, but you will also need to have enough attacking pieces and/or the correct moves to continue the attack. however, you can always take the easier way out of just being alert and wait for opponents to blunder. and then exchange pieces and go into end games.

sincerely hope this will help! 

In chess safety and consistency is just as important as brilliance and creativity.  Probably more important!

To get past 1000 you need to reduce the frequency at which you make unforced mistakes that either give away material, or put your king in big danger.  It's that simple.

Well, the idea is simple but doing it is not so simple!  For most people the way to do it is to spend some time looking at their lost games , finding the most obvious mistakes, and asking themselves “why did I do that?”.

Why did I let my opponent take that bishop for free when I could have simply moved it away or swapped it for their bishop?  What was I thinking when I did that?  How can I adjust my thinking so it won't happen again?

Why did I move that pawn to a square that was attacked twice by my opponent but only defended once my me?  (And yes, pawns matter, particularly central pawns or pawns that protect our king.). What was I thinking when I moved that pawn?  How can I prevent such mistakes happening in future?

Learning from our losses requires a certain amount of contemplation and introspection.  It can be frustrating and annoying to look at your lost games!  But any effort you put into this area will more than repay itself.  In fact, the more annoying a loss was the more effort you should put into it!  Be determined not to make the same mistake again.  Developing this skill will give you a chess super-power that will be useful for the rest of your chess life.

Hey Niklas! 
I checked your profile. 

A few things that I immediately noticed:

1. You don't have any problem from the openings. You're doing great. Don't spend there much time. 
2. You have an issue with simple 1-move blunders. Which isn't often tactical. 
Questions:
Have you watched the BlunderProof course? Do you follow the advice there? 
Which of the advice you don't follow. Clearly something is wrong. Maybe you play when you're tired, or when your mood isn't okay, etc… 

3. Your time management isn't great. And I felt when you get low on time, you pannick. 
Check this out:
https://chessmood.com/event/webinar-time-management 

4. I am in the process of recording a course for 0-1000 players. 
This should help! 

5. Try to participate our live events when Gabu plays vs 1,500 below players. 
This will be super helpful, as you'll see the common mistakes of this level, and how to punish them. 

6. A few questions. 

How long have you been with us? Beside the Tactic Ninja and opening courses, what are the other ones that you've gone through.  
What's your age? 
Any information you can share with me, that might be useful? 

My main account is cursed…

I honestly get waaay harder opponents and get like +6 for a win and -20 for a loss. This is my alt account that I only play when I want to chill or try new stuff:

Hi again everyone!

I just wanted to come back and share that thanks to your help I was able to overcome my losing streak and I’m very pleased with my current performance (and slowly but steadily climbing in rating again).

With your help I was able to realize that the issue had 100% to do with mentality and nothing to do with my actual chess skill.

Here is what I found and did different:

1. Responsibility. Realize that even though I may not like it, the reason I am not making progress is because of myself, not because my account is cursed or that I am unlucky or that my opponents are cheating. 
   Fix: taking an honest (and humbling) look at what is causing me to perform worse than expected
2. Playing Chess nonchalantly. Fix: Treat every game and every opponent with respect! Play it like you had to justify every move in front of the entire chessmood community. When I made this thread I was guilty of thinking that my opponents were so much worse than me that I could just play any move and that should make me win. Every move counts,  one silly blunder can take everything away in a second. Like this one for example 😂: Kolla in detta #schackparti: https://www.chess.com/live/game/101811823461
3. Not enjoying the game of chess! Fix: I didn’t celebrate wins and I got absolutely destroyed by losses. Why? Because again, I felt that I was in the wrong rating range. But I wasn’t. I was in the right rating range for someone who thought that making the right move didn’t matter. I can’t say that I feel good after a loss now either, but the shift I did was to look for an interesting gameplay and to always play the best move on the board, no matter what. When I win I take a moment to appreciate that game and applaud the things I did right.
4. Focus. Like I said, I have 2 very young kids and a good career and everything that comes with it. Playing chess at 2AM or 4AM, or while changing diapers and expecting to progress is simply just nonsense (at least for me). Fix: Find timeslots during the day where you feel sharp, can focus without being disturbed for the duration of the game and allow yourself to immerse fully. 
5. Im on my phone now and apparently I can’t get out of list mode so please excuse the weird layout of this post. In summary I just wanted to express my gratitude to this community and I hope that this thread will ultimately help someone else that is in the same situation. My takeaway here is that it truly doesn’t matter how many hours you put in unless you show up to games where you intend to play your best.
    
6. Thanks again!
    

Blackmood Opening

After playing e6 as black in response to the white opening of e4, I occasionally get e5 from white, just pushing the pawn.  I know this is not a good move but I have to admit I find it somewhat annoying because it prevents me from going into my normal Blackmood repetoire.  Just wondering what is the strongest move here.  I have been playing d6 and then recapturing with the bishop if they take.  The engine seems to prefer c5.  Thoughts, suggestions?  Thanks!

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After White's aggressive pawn advance with 1. e4 e6 2. e5, Black has several effective ways to punish this overextension and seize the initiative. Firstly, prioritizing normal development is crucial. Moves like d5, Nc6 aid in controlling the center and challenging White's pawn on e5. Secondly, employing pawn breaks such as d5 or f6 can undermine White's central control and open lines for Black's pieces. Thirdly, focusing on piece activity with moves like Be7, and Bb4 indirectly challenges White's center while preparing for potential pawn breaks. Furthermore, Black can opt for queenside expansion through moves like b6 and c5 to create counterplay against White's overextended e5 pawn.

I would still go d5. If they take, bxd6, or if not then just play regular French.

Pretty smart move that e5! You might face such annoying moves as 2. e5, 2. Qe2!?, or even 2. b3!?. Weird moves as such are of course considered worse as they are not mainlines or even close to popular sidelines. 

In this case, I would recommend 2… c5 as you said, with the idea of 3… Nc6, 4… d6 and black has a better position. 

E.g. 1. e4, e6 2. e5!?, c5! 3. Nf3, Nc6 4. c3!?, d6! 5. exd6, Bxd6 with a happy position and as GM Avetik calls it “Happy Pieces"! Your plans here include: Firmly planting a knight on d5 (Nf6-d5), placing your bishop on the long a8-h1 diagonal (after b6-Bb7) and placing a rook on the d-file where it will very much enjoy itself. 

As you said, d6 and Bxd6 after they take (Nf3 is preferably a little better but the same problems for white.) but even after that, you might have to play c5 to restrict white's pawns or force him to create an Isolated Queen's Pawn.

Hope it helps, 

Ashwin C 

Trying to join zoom meeting

Looking for password to join member zoom meeting.

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how to spend MoodCoin?

how to spend MoodCoin?

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On the page of a video, you should find an option in the top right that says "Get lifetime access". If you click on it, there should be several options regarding your payment method, one of which should be using moodcoins. (This is a quote from Peter M. that I am kindly copy and pasting, Thanks Peter!)

You can spend MoodCoins by buying courses or participating in the ChessMood chess events. When you click on the Moodcoin symbol, it will redirect to a page where you can find about Moodcoins.

Daily puzzle , are they easier lately ?

i m solving most of them very quickly lately , are they easier or is it  me who is Improving ? 

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I've actually found some of these quite tricky. Certainly you're probably getting more familiarized with queen fork deflection and stalemate trap themes, as those seem pretty common

Calcman, travel to rome, Smyslov vs spassky

Dear GM Gabu, in the section 11, in your explanation, of the move, after1.. Rxe6,12. fxe6, e5 in the case white had play 13. Rxe5?? then black has a mate in one with 13 … Qf8+! and would not have to play 13… Qg6: right ? 

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It's not in 1, it's 2 as is Qg6.

The problem I have with it (other than to demonstrate strong players also miss stuff) is you have to see the Qg6 idea from the start which isn't so obvious.

Celebrating my first chessmood anniversary

Today i won my first slow tournament otb ( 60 min / mat ) since I joined the chessmood family ! it got 4/4 against an opposition mostly equal to my rating . Thank you to all the team who helped me through this journey , and it s not over ! 

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Wow! That's really nice to hear!

New article - The 6 Lessons I Learned While Building ChessMood

In two days, we celebrate our 6th birthday🤩

From surviving tough days to finding a way to move forward, it’s been a crazy journey.

We’ve made mistakes, but we’ve also learned from them.

In today’s article, GM Avetik shares 6 lessons from our story that you can use in your chess improvement journey 👇
https://chessmood.com/blog/6-key-lessons-from-building-chessmood

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Great article. I LOVE chess Mood. Happy Birthday for Thursday!

Happy Birthday ChessMood! I'm very happy to be learning from the wonderful people who are teaching here. I send you my best wishes for continued success in helping chess learners for many years to come.

Feliz cumpleanos, chessmood!! And congratulations to the chessmood family that make it possible everyday. You're just great.

My very best wishes

Many happy returns for the last 6 years and for the next 6 ! Remember to enjoy the journey ! When are you going to release your book , lessons in life and chess ?

Happy anniversary to you and your team. Your vision and foresight has helped many( myself included). Keep growing!

Happy anniversary to you and your team. Thank a lot for the inspiring lessons.

I will never forget Chessmood anniversary, it's the same day as my wife's!. My two loves in life (my wife and chess) have now something more in common.

Congratulation for 6 years :) I'm only 3 years but still 50% percent time.

I see how chessmood is growing, adding new functionality like video speed 2x, exercises after video an a lot of new articles, videos.

I'm impressed by quality and examples for every chess course and still valid great opening analyses novelties. Sorry I've burned a lot of them :)

Amazing team both GM Avetik and GM Gabuzyan  and whole team in backoffice/background :)

Good luck!

Celebrating Six Years of ChessMood🥳

Hello ChessMood students! 

A week ago, a potential investor looked at the presentation and asked, "I thought you were the founder, but it's written you're a Co-Founder. Who are the others?" I smiled and said, “ChessMood Family.”

From his confused smile and silence, I understood he wanted me to tell more, so I went on: "I founded ChessMood. I’m Daddy. But ChessMood has many other family members. My wife is his Mommy. My teammates and our students are his uncles, aunties, grandpas, and grandmas… And we all raise him together. ChessMood is OUR baby. It is NOT just mine."
 

I meant it. When I was talking to Kevin Roberts, author of my favorite business book “Lovemarks,” he said something profound to me: "If you build a Lovemark and not a standard brand, it shouldn’t belong to you. It should belong to everyone who uses it."

Today, ChessMood family, our baby turns 6! 
I want to thank each and every one of you! 
For every single contribution, for positive and negative feedback, for advice, care, for bringing more people to family, for love! 

ChessMood would be a very different kid without you. 

You all have played your roles in how he has been raised, and all of you will play your roles in how he will grow and who he will become.

Thank you for everything! 
And happy birthday to our baby ChessMood :) 

With best wishes, love and gratitude, 
Avo the ChessMood Daddy :) 

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Thanks so much for the 6 unlocked days! I'm currently not in a position to financially invest in my chess, but someday I will be and chessmood will the first place I turn. Congrats on 6 years!

Hi Avo,

Happy 6th birthday for ChessMood!  

And thank you for the 6 days of access to the ChessMood courses.  

And finally, keep doing what you are doing!  ChessMood is a great online chess family and I'm happy to be a part of it. 

😀

Now in your 7th year! 

Keep up the good worl!

My chess improvement journey: week 7 (!!)

https://www.chess.com/game/live/101840189305

It is with this game and great pride that I announce that I crossed for the first time the 1400 milestone on chess.com rapid, after having touched it for a game in January, 17th.

Not only that, with the second game of my session, I consolidated it winning another game and reaching 1410!

Wow, I feel great! I know there are players here who are over 2000, but for me this is a great result anyway. I'm coming from a streak of 5 victories in a row, and I'm playing great chess, reaching 85 and 95 precision in 2 of those games (not sure the rest, didn't analyze with engine).

This week started great, I've been focusing on studying endgames, as I like them and I threw away too many rook ones:)

I'm keep on practicing tactics and tactical recognition, as well as better creating my thinking system.

I must say I'm very happy. One moth ago I was desperate trying to regain my elo, and blaming on myself for being a bad player. But now, I feel more relaxed and secure about myself, winning games while enjoying the process of learning and playing itself.

I always want to thank everyone who's reading those weekly recaps and supporting me, and in general the whole community and chessmood investors and workers for providing this beautiful place (I'm now taking advantage of the 6th anniversary to watch blunderproof course btw, thank you for unlocking the courses). 

Now I go take some rests, thank you for reading and see you next week!

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Fantastic! The game to achieve a milestone is scary, but the next is almost more nerve-wracking. Congrats, your work is paying off!

Excellent!  What a great post to read - I'm very happy for you.  Well done 😎

Very good!!! Happy to read this!!!! 

😀Keep it up and may the Chessmood Force be with YOU!💪

How and where should course PGNs be opened

😀

Hi everyone! I have recently been attempting to open some of the PGNs in lichess and it says it cannot paste the full pgn. Where is the best place to open PGNs like the commented classical games and mating matador ones.

Thanks so much

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Hi Zubin, 
There are many ways and many softs but lichess has a limit of games per file.
Please check the following thread for other ways to do it>

https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-channel/pgn-files-3509

😅💪

Dutch Defence Advanced Course

Hi, is there Advanced Course for the Dutch Defence? This is a follow up on the Starter Blackmood openings which I will like to explore further.

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Dear Mark,

Thanks for your interest but we never provide any release date. We take a lot of time in selecting the best examples and this course is going to be very important. We always try to do our best and we expect to publish it this year, but we cannot say the date.

May the Chessmood Force be with You!😁

Looking for a Training Partner

Hello, I have a fide rating of 1700 and I am from India. I am looking for a training partner, with whom I can play training games and also study chess together. Thanks

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I'm willing to bet you'll find more luck in the designated study parter forum, linked below.

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

Hi!
Please post your message in the dedicated thread that we have in order to look fo sparring partners and study companions. 
https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/studysparring-partner-1362

Also check out the previous posts in the thread, maybe you can find a suitable partner.😄
I will delete this post in 2 days, please copy your message and post it in the above thread.😅

Narjdorf sicilian

Can you create a blackwood repository covering the najdorf sicilian because i think that's all what's lacking from the sicilian courses. 

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Chessmood reccomnds the Accelerated Dragn against the open sicilian.

Learn the Sicilian Defense: Accelerated Dragon from a GM (chessmood.com)

So instead of 2… d6, we play 2… Nc6.

Has the 6 day free period started yet?

Hello ChessMood and happy birthday! All the best for this amazing website! 

Has the 6 day free period started yet? I want to look at a new course and hasnt unlocked anything new yet. I dont have an active subscription.

All the best!

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3pm GMT I believe.

Those who are with a partner (e.g. ECF will have a link already).

starter course-whitemood openings

Dear Coach,

The “starter course-whitemood openings” has 22 sections. Its downloadable pdf files contain 20 files (this is right), but its downloadable png file only has 10 chapters (some of the chapters are missing).  I ma afraid that my operation on lichess is not correct. Would you please share the correct png files for both “starter course-whitemood openings” and “starter course-blackmood openings” with me via lichess? My lichess ID is pokemonknight 

thanks a lot,

Tony 

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Tony, I just checked the pgn file and it has 20 openings in it. 20 different games explaining every opening. Please download the file again and check it out with another software just in case.

We do not upload files to lichess or any other site normally. 

Below is attached a picture of the contents of the file for reference.😅

Would you please help recommend a private coach for us?

Dear Coach,

I need your help.

My 7-year-old son John has a USCF rating ~900, and my 9-year-old son Paul has a USCF rating ~1300. We just subscribed chessmood and started to study it and my kids love it. Every day they can spend 1.5-2 hours studying chess. Our target is to help them become a national master (NM, USCF rating>2200) in 4-6 years (4 years for Paul and 6 years for John). Do you think that this goal is feasible?  How to achieve it? Would you please help recommend a private coach for us? I am thinking about 1-hour lesson per week to go through progress, check openings, and analyze games. We prefer coaches who am passionate about coaching chess to kid, familiar with chessmood materials, have detailed, personalized plan for students and track their progress. 

I checked your online study plan for 1000-1500 rated players, which states that practice should occupy ~55% of their chess time. Is solving tactics puzzles considered practice or study? 

thanks a lot

tony 

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Hi Tony,

We will look for one coach for you with this profile and get back to you privately via email (the email of this account). It can take a couple of days, but we already have someone in mind.

😃As for the practice, it should be playing, we would consider solving tactics as study… But what's important is to analyze all the games… and this is part of the practice you could say…  And at same time it's study too… Sometimes it can be complicated to put names to what we do… LOL.-.. 💪

Tony, hi again,

We already sent you a message, please check your inbox or maybe your spam folder if you can not find it… 😅