Chess forum by Grandmasters

New article: In Memory of GM Karen Asrian

Today, GM Karen Asrian would have turned 44…

But even during his short life, he managed to leave a profound legacy. 
Not only through his achievements on the chess board but also in the many lives he touched with his character and spirit, including ours. 

You can read today's article devoted to Karen's memory, here:

https://chessmood.com/blog/karen-asrian

Replies

What a beautiful and inspirational article! Thanks very much, GM Avetik, for taking the time to write this wonderful memorial and for sharing it with us. 

I love your vibrant humanity, Avo.

Good teachers are like gold.

I had a 45-year career teaching mathematics at University with some success.

And, to this day, I can look back at the handful of teachers in my life who have had the most impact on me. To a person, they were not only experts in their fields, but also kind generous, and compassionate souls who loved to learn.

My major professor did research on effective teaching and came up with a list I still carry around with me.  Effective Teaching requires:
 

Clarity - in goals as well as presentation,

Variability - change things up from time to time,

Enthusiasm - if you aren’t enthusiastic about your own field, how can you expect that of your students? 

Task Orientation - do something,

Have the students practice the criteria for evaluation - ever have a teacher who made it a secret what was going to be on, for example, the next test?  Ugh.

Thanks, Dr. Evans, I will miss you …

And thanks, Mr. Avetik, for reminding me of my favourite teachers.

Avo listed the first quality he learned from Karen as humility.

Thank you for your continuing articles that emphasize traits such as these!

In a world where power, fame and aggressive behavior is celebrated, its good to remember that millennia old verse : “The meek will inherit the world”.

Great article. Will try to be more humble in my coaching from now on, in memory of Karen!

Thx Avo,

In German (the language really doesn't matter) there is a toast: you drink to each other and say: “To absent friends”!

Avo, he would be very proud of you, you display all the same characteristics and qualities as him and are a great coach.

He taught you well.

Thanks for sharing this

This is beautiful <33

Welp…guess I better stop procrastinating my social interactions then!

Hi Avo your article on GM Karen struck me a lot ; 
Karen is next to you and looks at you
he whispers to you, even if you don't see him……he is always there……..next to you , 
This is what Sant'Agostino  said about death: 
"Death is nothing.
I just switched to the other side: it's like I was hiding in the next room. I'm still me, and you're still you. 
What we were before for each other we still are".

GM Karen 
is and will always be in your heart and nothing and no one will be able to break the bond between you 

Cheers

Riccardo …..an humble chess player  ♟️

Inspirational one Avo sir.. I'm visualising to be a GM

Karen stays forever in his chess games!

What a beautiful article, Avo. Thanks for sharing it!

Nicely said…sincere.  you re lucky to have had him enter your life.  That was what we call a break…and you were clever enough to realize it!  We all need a break, to get ahead.  even better when we learn from it…and can pass it forward.    

Thank you for sharing Avo, great human lesson.

Wow…what an inspiring person and story! My toast to GM Karen Asrian’s memory.

I had never heard of Karen Asrian before that article. Truly an inspiring story. I love to read, and this was definitely worth my time :) 

That is really beautiful. Thank you for writing this. We need many more good people like you both. I‘m glad you found him, and that we have found you. The next time I raise a glass of whisky, I will do so with this in my thoughts. To your good health. Cheers!

Thanks for sharing this. I know you posted this a while ago but it just popped up for me. This was very moving and inspirational. He sounded like an incredible role model for you and I'm sure many others.  I'm sorry for your loss. 

Stuck at 1000 for months

OK, I am getting discouraged here. I am investing at least 2 hours daily in chess, but haven't improved for months now. Stuck at the same rating (chess.com 1000 rapid, 600 blitz) since December. I am quite good at maths, logic, programming, and so on, but I am wondering whether my brain can handle chess at all at this point.

Watched most Rating Booster courses. Learned by heart most of the opening lines for my level, and watched most of the model games. Did 6000+ rated puzzles + lots of puzzle rushes. Most of the time I lose because of some tactic, but I did the Tactics Ninja course twice. For the last 90 days I have like 60% loses. And I try to analyze all my games after each loss.

Currently do not know what to do and learn at this point because all the other available courses are for higher levels. Paid for the PRO version here, but the live streams are quite advanced for me, so I stopped watching them.

I am also paying a WGM trainer once a week for personal lessons…

I just need to know whether this is normal and it is part of the journey, because I am quite competitive in nature and my mood currently is definitely not right and maybe I should just find another hobby…

 

Replies

Hi Ivaylo, 

When I was about 900 chess.com rapid I also struggled with basic tactics and didn't get tremendous results from tactic ninja. Eventually I gained 200-300 points of rating by using anki and working through Chess Tactics for Students (there's a deck you can download for free with a few hundred cards based on the book). If I remember right it probably took something like 50-70 hours of practice before I could quickly solve most of the tactics, but immediately after finishing my rating moved dramatically. 

The problem with tactic ninja is that it teaches you motifs and how to solve tough problems, but it doesn't drill in the pattern recognition you need through constant exposure. Puzzle rush just overexposes you to back rank mates and offers little control over the other themes you're getting.

Hope that helps! 

Dear Ivaylo,

The questions you have are fundamental and individual for each player. If I am not mistaken, you haven't used your 1-1 call opportunity. yet
I would suggest you do that, as in that case we can discuss everything in very deep detail.  For instance for U1000 rated level - it would have been much better to work on the rise of champions course - and many of Rating Booster courses, could be early to start :-)

Please let me know. 

Hey, guys! I just wanted to make a quick update here after 8 months.

I am now 1350 Rapid, which is a huge improvement from where I was last year.

Here is what I did:

- I trained more than 5000 ANKI puzzles
- I did all the fundamental puzzles from the Tactical Ninja course again
- I watched the Silent Strategy course

Thank you very much for the advice! ❤️❤️❤️

Chess book recommendations

At a tournament I played recently, the organisers raffled out a couple of 30 Euro vouchers for the chess store Chess Tigers (chess-tigers.de) to random participants, and I ended up winning one of them. Now I wanted to invest it into one or two books or other items and I've heard Artur Yusupov's “Tigersprung” ("Build Up Your Chess" in English) series is said to be quite good, but nevertheless wanted to ask around for some recommendations. I'm very intrigued to hear from the Grandmaster coaches, since I assume they will know a lot of chess books and they will also know which of them work together well with the courses and repertoires on this site.

Replies

It really demand on your rating but i will recommend Chess Strategy by Johan Hellsten,

Bobby Fischer 60 memorial games 

Vishy Annand World chess champion 

Larry Evans new ideas in chess

modern chess strategy 

Well, I guess I found the Grandmasters' recommendations: https://chessmood.com/recommendations

i recommend dvoretsky's endgame manual (any) edition as it is an essential for endgame improvement 

Courses

🥰🥰🥰

If I just finish a course what should I do next jump to next course or waiting an practicing all information I have learned in the cours  to becom in subconscious mind or what to do please any one answer 

Replies

I, as a 2000 fide rated player , really find it useful to revise and attempt all the things learnt before moving to next course. It really  helps the concept to go deep into the subconscious mind

I currently am jumping between courses and finding it works well e.g if you’re working through anti Sicilian with Nc3 and your opponent plays the Philidor or Stafford gambit, then you could practice which ever one they play, or your working through tactic ninja but you blunder your queen on move three. 
Hope this helps you 

🙃😉

I think that you should take 1 week break and play some games, and then move on to the next course.

I think you should move on to the next course immediately 

An unusual opening choice

I have recently been playing black and facing an opening where after 1.D4-Nf6 white proceeds to play f4 and e3 right away. What would be the recommendation against this system?

Replies

That looks like an attempt to play the reversed stonewall -  but Black doesn't have yet g6 included - you can try to play d5-Bf5-e6-c5.

Studying Endgames

Hi,

I'm around 2100 USCF, what level would it be necessary to start studying the advanced endgame courses? I feel like endgames in my games is mostly just about practical decisions and most of the time the game is decided before the endgame. However a lot of people are telling me that you should study them and it is very important to do so, but I just don't really see the point in dedicating a large amount of time to study theoretical stuff that don't even appear in my games. 

Thanks!

Replies

At the 2100 USCF level, you can take a look at the advanced endgame courses; don't forget to learn commented Endgame Masterpieces as well ( the 100 games).

One day a week you can make an endgame day - watching some games, and working through one of the courses. 

Acc Dragon Main 8.Bb3 Re8 9.f4

Hi,

after Mainline Acc Dragon 9.f4 i faced in blitz and it feels actually weird.

I played d6 and after Qf3 i decided for Bg4 but came in some trouble (see attached game)

Question now is what would you recommend? Bg4 is possible but engine suggests after Qf2 Nd4 Bd4 b5!?.. Is this a road you would go? Looks very deep.

Thank you

Replies

Dear Fred,

This is indeed very deep, and with the engine I checked a few options - the first one that you have mentioned with Bg4-b5.

As well as on move 10…a5 - both look interesting and complicated.

Chessmood Openings [Comparing Pgns]

Hey Chessmood team,
 

Figuring out which lines to add and which ones to skip is honestly a headache. Plus, I’m never sure if I’ve set up my PGN with all the lines. Is there any chance you could make a simple tool where we compare your PGN and ours, and it just shows us the lines we missed? We can just add the lines we missed reinforcing our knowledge. That would be super helpful. Thanks a lot!

Sincerely, Pawn

Replies

Hey there,

We don’t have at the moment such an existing tool - however best way to improve your pgns is to play games, analyze, and based on that make some improvements or adjustment.

calcuman section 1 puzzle

Here, how we can call it as a perfect example. Because playing with the stockfish, it is showing the other move as shown in the 3rd image? But in the course quiz it is showing as in the 4th image. And this is totally winning for black i think. From my end i think the puzzle solution is not correct. Please look into it and give me the solution, please>>)

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I don’t think it’s wrong as the position is still winning for white as after Kxf3 black can‘t take the queen because of the pin and after Rxg1 Qxh5 white will win 

😜

Thanks Josh! Well done!

E-certificate

�😫😫😫😫🤬🤬🤬🤕🤕🤕�

Why doesn't the picture of the E-certificate come ????

Replies

What e-certificat?

Thanks for reporting this!

Just to clarify, by "E-certificate," do you mean the Course Completion Certificates (for finishing quizzes)?

If yes: We are actually aware of a technical issue affecting the certificate generation right now. Our tech team is already investigating why the images are not appearing on your account.

We will fix it as soon as possible!

New article: Good Thing, Bad Thing... Who Knows?

What if your worst day…was actually your best?

What if the things you thought were setbacks…were the exact moves life needed to make?

New article is out:

Good Thing, Bad Thing… Who Knows?

It starts with Einstein. Ends with Michael Phelps. 

And somewhere in between… maybe you’ll see life differently.
https://chessmood.com/blog/good-bad-who-knows

Replies

😀

I remeber discovering chessmood on a low , this si relatable .

WOW! I used to play b3, g3 or b6, g6 all the time i mastered it. But it was then that the marathon from 400-800 chess.com rapid had some type of a big obstacle in between. A plateau. At 650. For all that time in a row i didnt even lose 1 game that made an impact. Then white and, first loss, still happy. 2nd white, loss, little dull but more excited that i play bigger rated. 3rd white, loss, i decided that i shouldn't play anymore that day. Next day, white loss. I felt so bad after my 5th loss and still i was white. I calmed, did some puzzles and stopped for the day. next day, came and oops pressed 1+0 instead of 10+0. I was white. i didnt want to resign so i played. I wanted to try push e4. but i only had 45 seconds then. he pushed e5. I instinctively played the scotch game for the first time, my current best opening. queen go long castle… check! check! Mate! since then i changed from fianciatto to french and scotch. looking back, those 2 days were the days to give me courage to try e4. or i would be like, lets play it safe, b3.😭🥺☺️'i see now'

Chess is magical because it is a difficult game to learn and also addictive...

Good article Avo….so glad you have taken the long road to the metaphysical, mindful existence. And the fact that you can weave it into chess discipline. It's certainly very powerful when used and hope that lots of Chessmood students will take advantage of it. 

And a great help in being the best person one can be also!

Thank you and keep the flowing journey continuum!

Thank you for this great article, Avetik!

I once had a “bad” tournament, where I lost games to opponents I'd normally beat. In the moment it felt awful but after analysing my games with a coach I found out that I have problems with positional play which made me work on it more and eventually improve my game a lot (my rating noticed it 😁) . The same was with calculation and WWP. So for me (and probably for most chess players) every bad game or tournament is and opportunity to find “where the leak is” and fix it

By the way, could you please write an article on your chess books recommendations?

Very interesting article - this idea of ‘good thing. bad thing, who knows?’ can be a very comforting thought.

However, I don't think it's the case that the ‘Universe’ is friendly, rather this effect you describe is due to the love of God, who by His divine providence can bring about a greater good through things which may seem bad at the time.

Have a good day all! :) 😀

thank you for spreading SHrikumar Rao's teachings. A lot of people can benefit from them!

Bb4+ line in Scotch

My opponent (OTB league game, both players have ECF ratings around 1900-1950) played the following as black against me:
1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 (thanks for the tip!) e5 3.d4 ed 4.Nxd4 Bb4+ 5.c3 Bc5 6.Be3 Bb6 7.Nf5 d5.

8.Nxg7+ seemed risky especially as my opponent was clearly in preparation. I went for 8.Qxd5 but wasn't particularly happy after 8…Bxf5 9.Qxd8+ Rxd8 10.Bxb6 ab 11.ef Nh6.

It turns out 7…d5 is actually the top computer move in this position. I know we're not supposed to worry about moves just because they are the computer recommendation, but this is early on in one of the main lines and if the move is getting played in league competition at my lowly level, it probably means it should be covered in the course? What to do against it?

Replies

Interesting comment. I believe that you did not play 8.Nxg7+ due that you thought it was specially risky, but it is the best move since Kf8 is the only move. 

I reached this position below several times with an interesting game and from here on, all kind of different moves were played. 

Can you understand how I reached this position (previous moves)? I like having the Black king on f8.

French Attack advanced 1800 to 2600

Hallo everyone, I wonder, if there is no advanced Version of French Attack,

like for the Scotch Game from 1800 to 2600?

Tanks for answers

Ron

Replies

A warning about AI

Listened yesterday to this Podcast from the Guardian, 

while being still sceptical about all the AI ideas for chess,  

well it confirmed my biased ideas with AI, but may be i am just too old 

for such new things. 

Would like to share and know your ideas.   michael  

Is AI making us stupid? – podcast
https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2025/dec/02/is-ai-making-us-stupid-podcast?CMP=share_btn_url
 

Replies

Dear Michael,

In my opinon AI is the future, and on our side as well, we are trying to build a strong AI coach that will be very helpful for our students.
I think with the right use, AI can be a very helpful tool in any area :-) 

As someone who is constantly reading AI claims in their own industry, much of what we see right now is hype often from non-experts and promotors (of AI or companies needing to be seen as being horses in the race). AI has existed for a long time, but aside from 'simple' pattern recognition tasks or very narrow problems that especially can be converted to statistics, AI for the ability to replace experts is a long way off.

Most of the current hype is on LLMs (chatGPT et al), which are glorified Google. They don't reason, they predict likelihood of following tokens based on training data similar to how text completion works, and are very dependent on that training (which can be mediocre). When they are used for professional tasks the output is usually at best an average student. To a non-expert this might look amazing, but to most professionals who are experts the deficiencies are clear. This is whether it's art, writing, summarising or programming. There are some uses such as prototyping, unsticking or an initial orientation when the subject matters is not so familiar as accuracy is less important (but it's a very rough start). Relying on AI though will indeed make us more stupid, not just because of the quality issues, but it's the same analogy as a calculator. If you overuse it you never gain an understanding or mental model yourself. Imagine if you used an engine to solve tactics puzzles for you.

As for chess, I'm yet to find any sort of AI that can replicate a coach beyond the basics. Chess.com had a go, and if anything I think their coach will more likely prevent improvement than help it. We can't even replicate a realistic 2000 strength player because to train it there aren't enough games, and even if we could it still would be based on pattern recognition across thousands of players, not on individual knowledge, nor contain faulty logic etc which explains why the player is that strength. Nor can we ask a strong engine to explain its moves or strategy without solely picking out obvious things based on patterns we have to supply or human made heuristics. Unfortunately chess is too complex.

I wish Chessmood luck in providing a decent AI coach, but I'm very sceptical that it will do any better than an amateur quoting principals they read somewhere. The main reasons being that no one knows how to do the appropriate reasoning given an arbitrary position and a list of moves and some patterns, and if you were capable of building (real) AI to explain chess moves, there are a few companies that would have already hired you for millions. You'd probably save money hiring a bunch of 1700s to answer questions. I hope I'm wrong here because I can see the potential.

Permanent Saving Of GM Avetik's Videos On French and Dutch Attacks

Last Week, Avetik had 2 streams in which he went in great depth over the French and Dutch openings.

Can these 2 videos be made permanent somewhere on the CM website? They are of great significance IMO and I imagine a year from now it would be difficult to find in the past streams section.

These videos are so important that I think I'd like to refer to them at least weekly to remember the many lines discussed.

Hope this will be made possible and thank you in advance!

ovi

Replies

Hi Ovi,

Yes, absolutely! These videos are permanently saved on the site.

You can always find past streams by going to the Events page and scrolling down to the "Completed Events" section.

But for quick access, here are the direct links you asked for:

French Attack: https://chessmood.com/event/french-attack-advanced 

Dutch Attack: https://chessmood.com/event/dutch-attack-advanced 

GM Analyzes Games: https://chessmood.com/event/grandmaster-analyzes-your-games  

Enjoy the study!

Questions about French attack(Blackmood)

Sir, I faced this line in french attack and it was very confusing please help me-

it is  - 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 h6 5. Bxf6 Qxf6 6. exd5 Bb4 7. Bc4 *

Replies

Different moves

Looks like for all the puzzles, the engine is showing another move

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Exchange Line Advice

I'm planning on testing the French Attack repertoire, and really appreciate the style of the lines in the course! My one question: it appears that the typical long castle setup isn't doable with the 4. Nc3 move order. Is there still a way to achieve the long castle in that variation? Or is that just the one variation where we are short castling? 

Replies

It depends on the concrete moves of the rival but against 4.Nc3 I like Bb4 and then castling short or long will depend on the rest of the moves. We must be flexible always, but we cannot aim for long castle all the time… Sometimes White has the pawn on c3 and then the attack comes pretty fast, we must be wary of the opponent moves. That said, normally we will castle short against Nc3 if needed.😀

WhiteMood Question in 2...e6 3...f4 Sicilian

What to do against 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.f4 d5 4.Nf3 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Nc6 6.Bb5 Bd7 7.Qe2 Nh6 8.b3 Nf5 9.Bb2, here, when black plays 9…Be7. This isn't mentioned in the course, and it's the most played move, and it looks logical - not taking immediate action - simply developing.

Also, in here - https://chessmood.com/course/sicilian-defence-part-3/episode/803 , around 04:20, GM Avetik suggests Ng5 as a strong move. However, my engine immediately frowns and shows -1 advantage for black! GM Avo's explanation is that after 14…Nf5, we can play 15.d3, but after 13.Qh8 Nh6 14.0-0, black will play 14…d3 immediately!

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Dear In The Mood,

Please if you are a PRO member, which I believe you are, label this question as for the PRO channel. 
Our GMs give priority to our PRO members always, otherwise you may have to wait for the answers of fellow students… Thanks!!! 😅 

matador png

please, as a newby, regarding the use of Matador PNG. download on Lichess?

tank you

Replies

What do you mean with your post. What are you asking for?

😅