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Chess forum by Grandmasters
Memorizing the Openings
There are so many openings, I'd really appreciate some ideas for how to effectively study and memorize them. For instance right now I'm mainly focusing on the Scotch for white and the French for black, both from the starter courses. But there are so many sidelines and variations, I'm not sure when's a good time to move on to the next opening. Perhaps just look at them as they come up in games I play? I've mentioned in previous threads I'm very detail-oriented as well as a perfectionist, so I find it very easy to get lost in the multitude of variations just in a single opening, but that means I'm not learning other openings.
Replies
Just enjoy the videos and let the ideas sink in. You'll learn the key lines as you review your games. Did you get a study plan from ChessMood?
Have you read those articles? https://chessmood.com/blog/the-most-effective-way-to-create-chess-pgn-files https://chessmood.com/blog/how-to-memorize-chess-openings-variations Once your files are ready, you can create your own private course on Chessable and import everything, like that you will be able to use the spaced repetition ?
Accelerated Dragon is nowhere to be found
It looks like that the Accelerated Dragon class has been removed from https://chessmood.com/courses. ChessMood Team, can you please look into this? Thanks!
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?Yes, it looks that there is a strange glitch. We are asking our developers to look into it. Don't worry, the Dragon is still alive! ?
Fortunately, it has been fixed… Long live the Dragon!
Scotch Game: When Black Plays Bb4+
I just played the Scotch Game against a higher-rated opponent, and they played 4...Bc5, then once I played 5. Nb3 as recommended, instead of 5...Bb6 they played 5...Bb4+. I wasn't sure how to respond. The engine says c3 is best but then I can no longer play Nc3. It totally messed up my plans and I'm not sure the best way to respond to this. I wasn't able to find anything in the course discussing this line.
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See https://chessmood.com/forum/pro-channel/scotch-4bc5-5nb3-bb4-1842 , where GM Avetik promised to discuss this line.
Hey, hey!
There are many options.
1 - g3 with Bg2 plan, playing similar as we did against Philidor.
2 - Bf4
3- f4
Yeah, I wanted to record, but when I made a list of advanced variations, I figured out to record all my analyses will make the course around 50 hours! :)
So, there are some rare variations, which for now, I'll leave you to dive deeper yourself.
Just physically impossible to record all the theory… :(
I took a look at this line. I think the simplest good way to play is 6.c3 Be7 7.f4. Then white will have very natural development. The bishop will come to d3, and you'll try to bring the knight from b1 to f3. The position calls for kingside castling of course. I'd try to keep that space advantage, generally avoid swaps, finish development, and eventually look for attacking possibilities with the e & f pawns. I wouldn't spend much time studying this line as you won't encounter it very often.
Practicing
Hi I became a pro member a couple of months ago and have completed a few courses (tactics ninja, white mood, opening principles) and I'm working my way through others (classical games, classical endgame, endgame mastery, happy pieces etc). It's great content and I'm hoping some of it stays in my brain! This takes up quite a bit of time and I think I've been doing this and not playing enough. I would like some advice as to how much to play so that I can assimilate the opening repertoire and improve my overall game. What time controls to play , how much to play (yes, I read the article about no more than 9 games) and how much time to analyse your games. There seems so much to learn - and so little time to do it all!
Replies
I've fallen into the same trap a bit. I've been learning a lot of openings and have been afraid to practice them in a live game since I haven't memorized them perfectly yet. But I've been trying to overcome that and can confirm you memorize it a lot better when you put it into practice. I met with GM Gabuzyan when I signed up as a pro member and he said there is such a thing as too much play, but also too little. He suggested for me 3 good sessions per week, about 6-8 hours, but of course that was personalized to me so you could be different. I try to mix time controls. I like faster games because it's easier to practice openings without taking a lot of time, so I can practice more often. I like longer time controls because it lets me practice thinking more deeply. But with work it's hard to play longer time controls that often. Correspondence has been great for me to practice this without taking too much time.
Hi Norbert,
I believe that if you keep all the discipline you mentioned is a great work. Just chess is a sport that requires patience. Just keep doing the right things as now. Follow up-to recommendations you get from articles and other our sources. Trust to the process and if you do all correctly, soon you might have a growth in your chess career ?
Jobava London (video 'h3 the difference')
GM Hans Niemann on Chessable gives 0-0 after ...Qa5, sacrificing a pawn. So after 9...Nxc3 10.bxc3 Qa5 11.0-0 Qxc3 12.Rb1! [White has temporarily sacrificed a pawn but gained significant time. Black's pieces are really not coordinating. The bishop on c8 cannot move because it must defend b7. The knight on a6 is doing nothing and cannot move because of the f4-bishop. The g7-bishop is hitting concrete on d4 and Black's queen is overextended.] A) 12...c5 13.Qc1! [Black's queen is still in danger and it's unclear how Black will complete development. White will activate their pieces and see how Black responds.] B) 12...a5 13.c4! [The initiative continues as Black struggles to coordinate. This is very easy to play for White from a practical perspective.]
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Variation B is 12...Qa5 13.c4 of course
Hello Thomas,
I have checked out the moves you asked for and I can say that white's compensation is not really enough. After 12.Rb1 black has money good moves. I like the idea of Qa5 and if 13.c4 Nc7, overall whites have little activity, but it only compensates absence of the pawn. The reason is that the black king is safe, white doesn't have any concrete plan and big pressure, just a little activity.
Also, this variation is really super-deep and I believe below 2200-2300 online levels will happen super rare. What is your rating ?)
If you are below 2300 I would recommend investing time to learn the principles of the game deeper which we try to share in our opening, middlegame, endgame, and tactical courses.
Good luck!
Website or App to Practice Matting Matador
Hi Sir/All,
Is there any Website/App to practice Matting Matador Patterns. If so please suggest, My son wants to practice but I'm unable to find any site for it.
Thank you,
Premchand
Replies
Hello,
You can try Lichess : https://lichess.org/training/themes
If you scroll, you will see you can practice all the Mates (From Checkmate, Mate in 1, Mate in 2... to Smothered Mate)
It's also possible to do the same with Chesstempo :)
Why not try a book? For example
Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games
Here you will lots of mate in one, two ... Puzzles.
Now you can do the quizz (just in case you did not know):
https://chessmood.com/quiz/mating-matador
?
Black repertoire against 1st move sidelines
Hello ! Maybe not many people care about this but for blitz player being prepared against sidelines is very important to not loose on time or fall for cheap opening tricks, hence I wanted to know if there were something in the work for the black repertoire on how to play/refute what I would call the "1st move sidelines" (ranked here from strongest to worst) : 1. f4 1. b4 1. g4 It would probably not take much time, and especially 1.f4 is more challenging than some openings already covered (stafford, elephant, latvian etc) Have a great day everyone, and keep the nice content going :)
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French Attack (Advance): 8. c3 vs 8. dxc5
Just curious about a position in the French Attack course. Move order: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bd7 4. Nf3 a6 5. Bd3 Bb5 6. O-O Bxd3 7. Qxd3 c5 In this video, it's said that white should keep the pawn chain by playing 8. c3: https://chessmood.com/course/blackmood-openings/episode/3900 The engine seems to think 8. dxc5 is actually a bit better, and there are two master games in the lichess databases in this position that both make that move. Example game: https://lichess.org/BAAtQVSj#14 Just wondering if it's really as bad of a move as said in the video. Hope this question is OK to post here: just trying to learn.
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Hi Brandon,
Yes, it's fine to ask the questions here, however we don't really recommend to ask why this or that engine line is not covered or advised differently. The reason is, we are not machines and our priority is to provide knowledge form practical human perspectives. In other words engine can say it's ok and it will play well in that particular position. Players ( especially below 2000-2200 as this course is for that level)
need to learn practical ideas. This is about the engine part.
Now about capturing. The thing is when white captures pawn chain get's disconnected and diagonal is opened. So black gains an easy ideas how to play using that benefit.
Good luck :-)
Question in the French - BlackMood Opening
Hello all, I am experimenting with the French and am really enjoying it. I did run into a problem in the exchange variation. 1.e4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 exd5 (transposition to the exchange variation) 4.Nc3 This stumped me and is not addressed in the BlackMood course. I played 4...Nc6 and after 5.d4 I could not play Bishop to d6 and get the recommended set-up or else Nxd5 would follow. What should we play in the above line when White plays 4.Nc3? If this is already covered and I missed it in my video review I apologize. Thank you for the help, Leslie
Replies
Hi Leslie I've sure one of teh GM team will assist with answer but I saw this game Avetik played back in 2019. The Idea is rather than Nc6 to play c6, with Bd6 Ne7 then Bf5 with plan of Qd7 and 0-0.. if Bg5 then f6 (similar to our Caro-Kann setups). [White "AndrsPalu"] [Black "Avetik_ChessMood"] [WhiteElo "2458"] [BlackElo "2589"] 1. e4 e6 2. Nc3 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. d4 c6 5. Nf3 Bd6 6. Bd3 Ne7 7. O-O Bf5 8. Re1 Qd7 9. Bg5 f6 10. Bh4 O-O 11. Bg3 Bxg3 12. hxg3 Bxd3 13. Qxd3 Na6 14. a3 Nc7 15. Re2 Rae8 16. Rae1 Ng6 17. Rxe8 Rxe8 18. Rxe8+ Qxe8 19. Qe2 Qxe2 20. Nxe2 Ne6 21. Kf1 Kf7 22. Ke1 Ne7 23. Kd2 g5 24. Kd3 h5 25. c4 dxc4+ 26. Kxc4 Nd5 27. Nd2 Ke7 28. Ne4 f5 29. Nc5 Nxc5 30. dxc5 Ke6 31. Kd4 Kf6 32. b4 Nc7 33. a4 Ne6+ 34. Kc4 Ke5 35. b5 f4 36. gxf4+ Nxf4 37. Ng3 h4 38. Nf1 Nxg2 39. Nh2 Kf5 40. f3 Ne3+ 41. Kd3 Nd5 42. b6 axb6 43. cxb6 Nxb6 44. a5 Nd7 45. Kc4 Kf4 46. Kd4 Kg3 47. Ng4 Kxf3 48. Nh6 h3 49. Nf7 h2 50. Nd6 h1=Q 51. Nxb7 Qd1+ 52. Kc4 Qd5+ 53. Kb4 Qb5+ 54. Kc3 Qxb7 55. Kc4 Qa6+ 56. Kd4 c5+ 57. Kd5 Qxa5 58. Kc4 Qb4+ 59. Kd5 c4 60. Kc6 c3 61. Kxd7 c2 62. Ke6 c1=Q 63. Kf5 Qcf4+ 64. Kg6 Qbd6+ 65. Kh5 Qh4# {Normal} 0-1
Hi Leslie!
There are many different setups for White.
All of them I'll cover in the main course.
Here I tried to keep everything simple not complicating your memory :)
While waiting for a revised Benko course
You can watch these two YouTube videos from John Bartholomew. The quality of explanations is on the par with the ChessMood videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EmjP9LDP2c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGZD6xMKq6g Enjoy!
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Starter Black Repertoire
Hi, looking forward to the full Starter Black Repertoire! 1. I see the French section is practically completed, but it seems to me that it is not as comprehensive as the White Repertoire... please could you make sure that you give us even small ideas against "everything", like the Wing Gambit or 2.b3 variations, etc. 2. Same with the Dutch against 1.d4, 1.c4, 1.Nf3 and odd first moves 3. It also makes sense that the Black Repertoire should be bigger than the White one (7 hours) since Black is on the back foot and has to be better prepared against everything White throws at him right? I think having a wide coverage (not necessarily deep) is super important for sub 2000 players. Thanks for these Starter Courses!
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Also, in the Cochrane Gambit section, could you please add 5 minutes or so of explanation when the knight does NOT take the e4 pawn? Since it is really the bulk of the variation and as of now there is very little guidance :( Thanks! 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nxf7 Kf7? 5. d4!
First of all, I consider GM Grigoryan's explanations for openings the BEST that I have seen and these starter courses are no exception! On another note I really would like this BLACK repertoire to have more "Meat", the explanations are great but I think the coverage is minimal in several variations, for example French against KIA, 2.b3, Wing Gambit, etc Same with Dutch against Torre, Colle, Zukertort, London, etc In general I would LOVE to see another 2-3 more hours on French and Dutch and similarly sufficient coverage for the odd first moves, be it with more theory OR instructive tournament games illustrating the variations covered... more guidance. The full "serious" Black repertoire is about 33 hrs... vs 4 or so for the Starter one, I really hope this black repertoire gets Bumped UP!
Webinar: Weak squares in chess
Dear ChessMood family,
We have finished our webinar about an important topic: Weak squares in chess.
Hope you enjoyed it and just in case you can find the slide we covered during the event attached to this post.
Good luck!
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GM Gabuzyan, I was able to make some time today to catch this webinar and wanted to give you feedback on how excellent this lecture was! I am continually impressed with the quality of the training ChessMood provides and the Weak Squares session is a perfect example of this. There were many good learning points and some great examples of how to apply the techniques taught. I am very glad you guys make these available to watch on delay. Thanks for putting this together!
Full version of BlackMood planned?
Hello ChessMood family! Loving the French and Dutch Attacks so far. Especially the Dutch, which is giving me positions that feel like our attacks in the Grand Prix and (to a lesser extent) the Scotch. That's one major benefit of learning with ChessMood, right? A holistic, master-planned approach to improvement that builds in this sort of overlap. Anyway, forgive me if this has been mentioned elsewhere: Does anyone know if the ChessMood team is planning to create full versions of the French/Dutch repertoire at some point?
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I would first like to see the full repertoire completed, which has been neglected for years (e.g., Benko). PS: Why is it no longer possible to use an apostrophe or double quote in the forum?
In the video below, at about the 4:05 mark, Avetik says that in the future there will be a different recommendation "in the main course" for the c4 variation of the exchange French. https://chessmood.com/course/blackmood-openings/episode/3909
Hello everyone,
Yes, Avetik will do a full French and Dutch repertoire for promembers. This has been said in the past and I can confirm it too.
As for the Benko, it is game on. For a long time it has been in our agenda but now our team is actively working on it. If nothing changes Hovhannes will be the one recording it very soon.
@Peter N: And for the characters that you cannot write: ' " for me it works perfectly… What can I say…
Random Blunders
I am 1800 on chess.com elo. I have been blundering my pieces like a 400 elo for the past few days. I am getting a winning advantage almost every game but then I hang my queen or a simple knight fork and I lose the game. What should i do?
Replies
What's the time control? If it's blitz maybe slow down for a bit. Is your concentration being distracted? Are you doing tactical practice? Now, where are you blundering often? For example you're trying to finish off the opponent and they have some counterplay. You start looking for a way to finish them or deal with their threats focusing on one thing, completely overlooking a simple tactical threat they have.
I would just take a week break from chess. When you play too much and start tilting, this happens. Just play again when you are in the good mood. There is no way to play well when one is tilting, you will lose confidence and all the good work done will be in vane. This is my advice that worked for me in the past. For one week, no chess. Let's see if it works for you too…?
If you want to do something chess related nonetheless, just watch some commented games from the middlegame courses, but try to “reboot” yourself…
Kubbel 1 May
Today's daily puzzle was very good! It had me stumped for quite a while but eventually I had that satisfying aha moment. Definitely one of my favourite puzzles so far.
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I find the puzzles quite challenging on some days and quite easy on others. The difficult problems I find is when there are many promising candidate moves to win but only one that actually works. In the Kubbel problem I l could visualise the solution but struggled with the retreat of the knight - creating the mating net.
Just adding a link to the puzzle for future reference: https://chessmood.com/daily-puzzle/01.05.2022
Thank you!
The best feelings for me, when I started ChessMood were:
* Meeting cool people around all the world
* Being able to provide value and help others
* Seeing the growth of our students
* Working with my great team at ChessMood
* Being a part of this great community, and family, that we've created all together.
And here I'm adding a new one.
* Feeling your support
Thank you, everyone!
* For your encouragement
* For your support
* For your understanding
* For your ideas
* For feedback
* For helping each other
* For the positive emotions, you share
* For being awesome!
I'm very grateful, for where I'm in my life now.
And while I'm the founder of ChessMood, this atmosphere, this community and the ChessMood family has not a single founder. We all are the founders.
Thank you!
#ChessMood Family
Replies
Thank you for your vision Coach! I am so glad I have been along for this amazing ride! I look forward to all the new places your vision will continue to take us over the next few years!
We're honored to have been part of your wonderful idea, Grandmaster... Although we are all thousands of miles apart, we feel at home together at ChessMood!
GM Avetik, Coach, Mentor - you are awesome and your team is amazing, thank you for putting together such a wonderful community!
Kudos to you Coach Avetik, you definitely created something special with Chessmood. PS Since there are so many CM members all over the world, maybe time to add a map showing where pro members are? (for people who feel like sharing this of course!)
THANK YOU!!!!!
The best games of April, 2022, and the prizes
Hello ChessMood family, hello champions and future champions!
Welcome to the "Best games of April, 2022" 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 March, 2022:
Vedant Garg
Akiba Rubinstein
Mogens Nielsen
Yuma Okabe
Lebuta Dampty
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There were some really nice games you all played during the last month.
Here’s the list of winners for the best games of March 2022:
1. The first prize goes to Vedant Garg for the game below where Black nicely maneuvers all their pieces and finishes it off with a Ninja checkmate. https://lichess.org/8gXI2UB1/black
2. The second prize goes to the great Akiba Rubinstein who bags the 2nd prize for this crazy attacking masterpiece. https://lichess.org/nb1fO46v/white#16
3. Mogens Nielsen takes home the 3rd prize for punishing his opponent in the Scotch Game after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 ed 4.Nd4 Nd4 5.Qd4 and ending the game with a nice finish.
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/41262001365?tab=analysis
4. Yuma Okabe takes home the 4th prize for this beautiful attacking game in the Caro-Kann. https://lichess.org/EcUwqs8o/white
5. The 5th prize goes to Lebuta Dampty for orchestrating an assault in the game below against White’s King and capping it off with a nice Rook sacrifice. https://www.chess.com/game/live/40040363195
Congratulations to all of you! And thank you everyone for sharing your games!
Keep the right mood and keep crushing! See you in April month’s contest!
Online games: Funny queen trap https://www.chess.com/game/live/42752366377 Crazy caro e5 aggro var game https://www.chess.com/game/live/42830941535 Classical OTB games: GP for black, murder on the long diagonal https://www.chess.com/a/2iTq4JY9tZT2S Crazy french game Bd3 https://www.chess.com/a/2d9brh5TtZT2S
[Round "9"] [White "Daksh Jain"] [Black "Ainikkal Shaheen"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B12"] [WhiteElo "1105"] [BlackElo "1315"] [PlyCount "59"] [EventDate "2022.??.??"] [SourceVersionDate "2022.04.01"] 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3 dxe4 4. fxe4 g6 5. Nf3 Bg4 6. Bc4 e6 7. O-O Bg7 8. c3 Ne7 9. h3 Bxf3 10. Qxf3 O-O 11. Bg5 h6 12. Bf6 Nd7 13. Bxg7 Kxg7 14. Na3 Ng8 15. Rf2 b5 16. Bb3 a5 17. Raf1 a4 18. Bc2 Qe7 19. Bb1 b4 20. Nc4 bxc3 21. bxc3 Ngf6 22. e5 Nd5 23. Qd3 Qg5 24. h4 Qg4 25. Bc2 f5 26. exf6+ Rxf6 27. Rxf6 N7xf6 28. Ne5 Qxh4 29. Qxg6+ Kh8 30. Nf7# 1-0 An OTB game I played against an opponent rated 200 points higher than me. This was a classical game, played in Dubai. I was 6/8, and in a must win situation to get a prize. I attacked like crazy and won! (with a beautiful tactic in the end, see the game to find out!) I finished 7th in the tournament (starting rank of mine was 43) and won 500 AED (roughly 130 USD!) I gained 100 points in this tournament. My only loss was against the eventual winner, Dimarucut Francis who is rated 1950
Almost queen trap then checkmate!! https://lichess.org/RLLD1YRZL6DK
Hi Chessmood family! I would like to show my game vs one of my friends. I just really like the rook sacrifice on move 26. I am black. https://lichess.org/YkNqhcMT/black#52 Rxc3+ is also the only winning move.
Accelerated Dragon 18..Bxb3! https://www.chess.com/live/game/43239606937
Hello ChessMood family, my coach suggested me to submit this game on the black side of a Rossolimo for game of the month contest, since i am a good student, here it is xD: https://lichess.org/4TBGgZL2/black
Anti sicilian works again :) https://lichess.org/0Bpe9wQYBGrC
Beating the French Advance with 3...Bd7 and 4...a6. A very late 0-0-0 settles the matter. https://lichess.org/ARFk7jbh/black
Rxa4! and nice checkmate which covered in chessmood course! https://lichess.org/OjmMXfiK/white
Triple pawns and the betrayed rook in 3.Bb5 Grand Prix Sicilian. https://lichess.org/y13O25sS/white#0
https://www.chess.com/live/game/44012122441 White opening was a bit weird I got inspired by the Model attacking games for the finish!
https://lichess.org/k5nyZr0YQQ6R Pasini variation strikes against the Modern.
https://lichess.org/danvePYy/black#0 Played as black and my king spent most of the game vulnerable to white's attacks and I still managed to win.
Scotch, Steinitz Qh4 https://www.chess.com/live/game/44132144671
https://www.chess.com/game/live/44284814349 Winning from the start, ended with a NINJA CHECKMATE!
https://lichess.org/UofL73FZ/black#44 Beating the French Advance with ...Bd7 and ...a6.
Sicilian I forgot 9.f5!! (explained in the course) but won a nice game anyway. https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/43509587341?tab=review
https://lichess.org/oijEjsqo/black#51 Played as black and was losing, and my opponent made a blunder.
Scotch - nice double check Lf7+ https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/44543435247?tab=analysis
Quick https://www.chess.com/game/live/44696413569
Here is a game outside of our repertoire just for fun! Maybe something for the future?
Lovely Game i am black https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/pgn/4VpPSaHCGN
Nice Game https://www.chess.com/game/live/44897364835
Here is a blitz game I won with the 8.h4 Scotch: https://www.chess.com/live/game/45003638081
https://lichess.org/HNL5MGozKE5w
Never Give up! https://www.chess.com/game/live/45070846511
This is a Grand Prix with persistent Kingside attack. The finish is a Queen sac for Matador Mate!
Caro Kann (trapping the knight in Chessmood CK), 16.Qd1 is even better https://www.chess.com/game/live/44891353983 Cute finish https://www.chess.com/game/live/44888415223 https://www.chess.com/game/live/44535644797 Missed c5 but still wins https://www.chess.com/game/live/44524231103 Chessmood French https://www.chess.com/game/live/44476245303
Lost on time against 2133 rated player on lichess but it's a nice scotch game tried to follow CM suggestions. https://lichess.org/4po3wOn4vSa1
Hello champions!
Thank you for sharing all your games! The way you all are grasping the openings, implementing the ideas in the middlegame, fearlessly attacking makes us feel extremely proud! Especially what you do with WhiteMood and new BlackMood opening repertoire is fantastic!
Keep up the good work!
Moving on, here’s the list of winners for the best games of April 2022:
1. Mik B takes home the first prize for this fantastic 22-move game in the French Attack. The moves 15…Kd7!, 18…Rxh2!! were simply brilliant! https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/42593965293
2. Michael Larsen takes the second prize. The fearless sacrifice with 19.Bxd5, and the follow-up just shows the power of strong central pawns despite being a piece down.
https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/43509587341?tab=review
3. John Fallon bags the third prize for this nice attacking game in the Sicilian Grand Prix Attack that finished with a beautiful mating pattern! Find the game on the page below. https://chessmood.com/forum/main-channel/the-best-games-of-april-2022-and-the-prizes?page=1
4. The fourth prize goes to Regis H for crushing with the French Attack in just 17-moves! https://www.chess.com/game/live/44012122441
5. The 5th prize goes to Mogens Nielsen for the fine-attacking finish, starting with 21.Rxe6!! https://www.chess.com/analysis/game/live/44543435247?tab=analysis
Congratulations to all of you. And once again champions, thanks for sharing your games!
Till then, keep the right mood, play the right moves and keep crushing!
All the best for the May month’s contest!
Request for Refund
How can a member get a refund of their hard earned money when they don't get any chess related growth from your content even after trying for months?
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What is your elo? And what are the courses you watched? It's impossible not to improve with all the great content here. If you are a beginner, you should use all your time with Tactic Ninja, Mating Matador, Opening Principles, WhiteMood Openings & BlackMood Openings. If you are >1500, the Must-know classical games are just incredible. I'm rated 2200/2300+ online, and I feel so much how the course The Power of the Bishop Pair was an eye-opener. Instead of asking for a refund, you should continue to work with the RIGHT courses for your level, and you should also play lots of games to put everything into practice. Chessmood gives you all the great content, but you are the only one who can make the hard work for you. Please trust the process, I can assure you that your chess will grow, even if it takes time ;)
It's hard to imagine how you could not improve after really studying the material here. I've only been here for about a week but I literally haven't found anything better out there. Can you be more specific about what you've tried and what hasn't worked?
What refund? For that, you would first have to become a Pro-Member rather than a Troll-Member. So please satisfy your tuition requirement first before speaking of refunds. :-D A novel idea of a school refunding tuition because a student is somehow unable or refuses to learn. Hypothetically should that be the case, then simply do not renew your subscription when it expires.
I'd find it unlikely that anyone under 2200 FIDE wouldn't find something useful here. Whether it translates to increased rating is a wider issue as you'd have to play appropriate tournaments and other attributes come into play beyond what you know, rating pools etc.
This is indeed a very good question, capable of generating lots of very good questions.
Since we are all chess players, we should evaluate the situation, and look for answers in the available data.
The right question is the most important thing in chess, what is my opponent trying to do, etc.
In this case, after reading your first message asking for your money back directly, not for help about how to improve, I looked at your profile to see how MANY MONTHS were you struggling to study our courses without any success.
And here comes my first surprise: You created your account this year, on February 16th. That is 2 months and 10 days before your post.
We also have all the login days that you accessed the web and the info on the videos watched since this is all registered. We had to check this to validate your claim.
Now, let me ask you:
Do you really believe that you studied enough in these 2 months in order to improve?
I used for the first time the dashboard to see which videos you watched:
9 sections of Tactics ninja
1 game from Classical attacking games
Half course of the Opening principles
8 videos from the 168 available of the Whitemood opening repertoire.
How do you measure your chess related growth?
In your profile you state that you are 1168 elo, but you need to put the effort and work in order to get better, this is common sense. This elo was before working with the courses, or after?
Which elo did you hope to achieve after these 2 months of struggle?
How do you define “trying for months”? Because it should be related to the hours spent working…
If you had any problem economically and needed the money back, you could have asked nicely. Avetik’s heart is bigger than the moon, he is too kind and I am sure that something may have been worked out.
But I do not think that you acted in good faith as I showed with the data. I may even think that you are trying to discredit our work for unknown reasons. Otherwise, there is no way that anyone would ask a refund in your case.?
Fortunately it is never too late to rectify: ?
I recommend you to work with the courses, finish Tactics ninja, watch Mating matador, finish the Opening Principles courses, then learn a proper repertoire with the Whitemood and Blackmood courses.?
Then tell us if your rating improved or not, otherwise we may have to think about changing our teaching style if after REALLY “trying for months” your rating does not increase.
Happy learning and happy studying my friend! ?
I don't know any chess learning platform which gives best bang for your buck so to speak than Chessmood. I mean monthly subscription cost the same like one training session with decent player on chess.com for example. Just recently I asked one GM how much he asks for training and it was 60eur/h, so come on. And I'm not speaking how much other chess videos, courses cost. I think it's clear that awesome GMs and team at chessmood care deeply about teaching, quality and chess improvement than about money. And though I too might be struggling at times, but there's no better learning platform for me atm and I can only blame myself if I'm lazy or not commited 100% at times ? There are so many awesome courses here, so my deepest respect for Avetik, Gabuzyan and chessmood team! Keep up the good work! ?
Just recalled Jim Rohn's quote. “You can't hire someone else to do your push-ups for you.”
When you subscribe to a GYM, no one promises you'll get muscles. There is work you should do yourself, and the GYM provides the instruments.
To see such a post is very painful to me.
And for this, I blame all the websites that promise quick results and market their products with beautiful words written by marketers, who have no idea about chess. “Become a Grandmaster in 1 year or “the only 10-min training you need to have in 1 day.”
And I also just recalled Michael Jordan's commercial. “Maybe I led you to believe…”
https://youtu.be/9zSVu76AX3I
FIDE Rapid Chess Tournament Improvement Guidance.
Hi, Yesterday. I played in my first FIDE rated Rapid chess tournament which was 10 minutes plus 5 second increment. I am requesting for inputs from chess improvers who have gone through this phase. My score was 3.5 with 3 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses. Tournament performance of 1029. I don't have official FIDE rating and am 35 years old. 1. Non-chess tricks: Chess academies have taught kids distraction tricks to win in losing positions. On a board next to me a kid claimed illegal move when he was losing. The arbiter rule in favor of his adult opponent and gave him 30 seconds extra. I overheard the kid speaking to his friend outside and mentioning the adult hadn't pressed pause on his chess clock and his time had gone down from 2 minutes 56 seconds to 18 seconds. I asked the adult and he said as we play online chess a lot more than OTB, clock thing doesn't strike us. Another kid starting saying bishop, bishop, bishop on every move when the kid was losing in front of an adult. Have you faced any such situations in your games & how do you prepare for these? 2.e4 or c4/d4 : I played e4 as white 3 times and lost all 3. While two time I played the London system and got 1.5 time. The draw was my mistake as I stalemated my opponent in a winning position. The kids are honest and told us that their chess academies teach them traps against e4 as many people play e4. I work full time and have limited time to work on chess, shall I focus on d4 or c4 to have better chances & ROI in the game? 3. Transition from online to OTB: I found it difficult to play on an actual chessboard as I don't have that experience. We don't have a chess club culture in the city so OTB is nearly impossible outside of tournaments. Have you guys tried any method that has helped you to transition from online to OTB at home. 4. Positional Chess : I had fought hard against two FIDE rated players who were rated 1299 and 1316 respectively. One of them played a magnificent tactic and I resigned. When I congratulated him on his tactical mastery, he said that I didn't give him any free chances in the game and he had to improve his position to finally get a good tactic. The other guy said I had cramped his position and he was finding it tough to get his pieces active but one of my pawn move gave him a square to fight for & then he was able to break through and win. Many masters have said that at lower levels positional chess is tough to understand and implement. However, these guys were doing it. Shall I invest time on positional chess at my rating? 5. Casual or Rated chess on chess.com and Lichess: I saw a 1196 FIDE rated kid destroy a 2000 Lichess rated person (poor guy played e4 and lost due to a trap). People with 1400 FIDE had 2200 Lichess rating. So, is it advisable to play casual games online with no stress of rating or online rating is also important for chess growth? 6. Study plan for Rapid chess : I spoke to the organizers on future tournaments. One of them said that due to covid uncertainty, most organizers want the tournament to planned and completed in one day. Other one said that over the weekend participation is higher as kids are accompanied mostly by both parents & working adults participate too. Also, the sales of food and chess material is much higher. So, there will be more rapid tournaments in the city rather than 5 days classical chess events. Do you have suggestions on a study plan specific to rapid tournaments. 7. Tactic Study: Many masters say that 5 puzzles per day is best for long term retention of a pattern and the same puzzles should be done three times a day. While others say that 50 puzzles per day should be something that you should be doing. What's the method that is right one to follow at around 800-1000 level.. Theses challenges were faced by many adults who participated in FIDE OTB tournament for the first time and we shared these observations during the free time between the rounds. All of us understand that we won't be GMs. However, we would like to compete with ourselves to get more wins/points/lesser blunder and improved ratings in future tournaments. Any suggestion from players who have gone through this phase and have improved by overcoming these barriers will be highly appreciated. Thanks!
Replies
Congrats on getting through your first rapid tournament! My thoughts to your questions below: 1. As you improve, and get to play stronger opposition, this sort of thing should be much less common. Unless it's really bad, I'd say the best thing to do is just concentrate harder and continue to focus on playing good moves. If they're resorting to these tactics they probably have a bad position, so enjoy your good position and make the most of it. 2. If you want to maximise the value of your ChessMood subscription then you'll base your repertoire around 1.e4. Playing something solid like the London is of course possible, and has some advantages, but it also has its limitations. This is a personal choice - you could just do what you're most comfortable with. Of course improvement tends to come fastest when you get out of your comfort zone. 3. I learnt OTB, so this is less of an issue for me. Having said that, I am online a lot so will sometimes set up a difficult puzzle on a real board and stare at it for a while so I'm used to looking at a real board. 4. I'd say focus on the basics like development, central control, piece activity, and king safety. But also start thinking about more advanced stuff. There are lots of tips in the CM opening videos and streams about how to play the typical middlegames that result from ChessMood openings. 5. Play rated games online but don't stress about day to day rating fluctuation. Long term trends will show whether you're improving or not. If you're very tired, or there are a lot of distractions, then playing unrated makes sense. 6. The study plan for Rapid Chess is much like the study plan for any other type of chess. The great thing is that you can more easily play online at the exact same time control you'll use in the tournament. So be sure to take advantage of that. 7. Tactics Study. I don't think there is anything special about doing exactly 5 puzzles/day, and repeating puzzles 3 times/day does not seem like a good use of time. Here's my general tactics advice : - Solve some tactics every single day. It could be a certain number of puzzles, or it could be spending a certain amount of time solving puzzles. The key thing is to make it a habit, and do it every day. - Solving puzzles grouped by theme is a good way to learn or reenforce tactical patterns which is what is needed at your level. - Some amount of repetition is useful to further reenforce what you've learnt. If you're working through a tactics puzzle book, then at some point you should repeat the book. Or you could repeat each chapter as you go. There's something called the Woodpecker Method that takes this further, but I don't think it's necessary. Good luck!
1) Call the arbiter/parents. Watch & work with Chessmood courses and maybe you will discover tricks we use against kids ? 2) WhiteMood & BlackMood openings are designed for players U2000 who are busy/should also work on tactics/middlegame/endgame. Watch the courses, do your file, play the lines, improve your file, play the lines, improve your file etc. There are nice articles about how to make you own file. 3) If you have a chessboard at home, you can play longer games online and put the moves on your board. You can also use it when you are working with chess books. 4) I'm sorry but no one is playing positional chess at your level. As mentioned in the other post, you should focus on tactics with Mating Matador/Tactic Ninja for now. 5) Lots of players didn't play for a while with the pandemic, that's why they improved their online rating but not the OTB one as it was difficult to play tournaments. You should play online games rated, put in practice everything you learn here. The rating is here to help you to have an idea of your progress. There is no reason to be scared of it. Btw, the only important rating is the classical rating for OTB chess. If you want to maximize your chances, read the article Golden Method to Increase Online Rating ? 6) Study plan is the same. Work on the courses designed for you, plays lots of games. If you improve at classical chess, you will improve at rapid chess too ;) 7) It just depends on the time you can dedicate to chess. Patterns should be learned, repeated, again & again until you know them. So there is no reason to use 20 years to learn them by doing 5/day if you can do 50 or more/day. Sorry for the English but I wrote everything quickly ?
Lots of questions here and great to see lots of answers as well. There are always those the few who try to use other means or technicalities to win games. If someone is being distracting ask nicely to be quiet or with a polite shush, if it persists call the arbiter. I think it is reasonable to stop the clock if it is very distracting or the arbiter is not nearby or you have low time, as distractions are an infringement of the rules. Usually arbiters are good at handling this before it becomes an issue, but in large junior tournaments of if you're the last to finish with lots of people starting to talk it can be hard work It's also worth asking the arbiters for advice how to handle such situations. Whatever the best way, it's worth building some resilience to distractions in your training for example. In chess there is so much you can study, it's having the right plan to study the most useful things first. Pro-members get a session with a GM so it's worth bringing up those questions if you've not had it yet. Keep it simple. I would suggest starting with e4 as the chess is usually more attacking which helps you build tactics and attack which are skills to work on early. Positional chess is something to study above 1500, but for now try to play healthy chess (active pieces, safe king, good pawn structure...). A course on playing healthy chess (which could be tailored to all levels) would be useful to have here. It's worth recording moves (in games that are 15 mins or longer) and going through the game after with the opponent and/or a stronger player. As well as identifying mistakes for both sides and improvements, it can highlight areas for appropriate study as patterns emerge. If there are no physical clubs, try to find one online, there is also a lot of support for junior chess usually. Asking arbiters or tournament organisers for example may be able to provide some options.
Chessmood Puzzles ...Super Help
The Chessmood Puzzle collection has helped me (last month) more than any chess.com/Li puzzles over the last year. Great Job Avetik, G and team!?
